Interview: Daniel Byrne (Puppets Magic Studio)

It may not be animation, but we here at AFA love and admire the art of puppetry. Having grown up with the genius of Jim Henson and The Muppets, they have long held a place in our hearts. We love to see new generations carry the tradition on. So, we jumped at the chance to talk to Daniel Byrne of Puppet Magic Studio, a UK-based company producing new puppets for film and television. Among other things, they created the puppets for last year's Apple holiday advert A Critter Carol (no, it wasn't CG!). We spoke with Daniel about the process of making puppets, his inspirations, puppetry versus AI and more.

AFA : How did you get into puppetry? 

Daniel Byrne: I’ve been fascinated by puppetry since I was a child. I was especially captivated by the puppets on television, particularly programmes like Sesame Street, and found myself wondering how they moved and came to life on screen. More than any other form of entertainment, puppets made me curious about how they were made. Even as a child, I understood that someone had created them, and that process fascinated me.

That curiosity led me to start making my own puppets through play from a young age. Through years of trial and error, I taught myself how to design and build them. By my teenage years, I was taking on commissioned projects, with each one helping me refine my skills and develop my craft.

How did Puppets Magic get started?

Puppet Magic grew organically. I began using the Puppet Magic name while I was at college and art school, and over time it became associated with the puppets I was creating. I decided to pursue a formal Fine Art training, studying sculpture and painting. After graduating from Goldsmiths with a BA in Fine Art, I decided to formally establish Puppet Magic Studio. In the early days we were lucky enough to get some really interesting jobs and this allows us to slowly grow the business into what it is today.

How do you develop a new puppet?

There are many different approaches to developing a new puppet, and each has its own advantages. Sometimes a client comes to us with a fully realised concept, complete with a 3D render that's ready to build. Other times, we're brought in much earlier and asked to develop a character from a loose idea or brief.

Typically, the process begins with 2D sketches as we explore different shapes, proportions, and styles to find a design that best captures the character. After several rounds of refinement, we move into the build stage, which often starts by sculpting the form in foam. Foam is a lightweight material that's widely used in puppetry because it offers the flexibility needed for expressive movement, particularly in hand-and-rod puppets.

Once the structure is complete, we experiment with different materials and fabrics to find the right finish for the character before fabrication begins. We often leave the facial features, especially the eyes, until the very end of the process. As with any character design, even subtle changes to the size or position of the eyes can dramatically alter a puppet's expression and personality, so it's important to get them just right.

What’s the story behind the Apple “Critter Carol’ advert?

This was an absolute joy to work on. We created eight handcrafted woodland puppets, sculpted from foam and finished with synthetic furs. The brief was for the characters to feel as though they genuinely belonged in the forest, so we weathered and distressed them to give them a lived-in, authentic quality. It was also important that they retained the charm of being handmade, so we embraced subtle imperfections and asymmetry.

The finished film was shot entirely on the iPhone 17 Pro, and the response to the campaign has been fantastic. In particular, audiences have celebrated its use of practical, handcrafted effects at a time when so much visual content is created using AI-generated imagery.

Our team was honoured to receive a British Arrows Award in the Craft category for our work on the project, and we're delighted that the commercial has also been nominated for Outstanding Commercial at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards.

What influences your puppets?

I try to stay open-minded when it comes to inspiration - it can come from almost anywhere. The work of Jim Henson and the Muppets will always be a huge influence, but I'm equally fascinated by older traditions of puppetry, particularly hand-carved marionettes. There's something beautiful about their craftsmanship, joints and movement that continues to inspire the way I think about puppet design.

Beyond puppetry itself, I'm influenced by popular culture, including music, fashion and illustration. Sometimes those influences are conscious, and other times they find their way into a design without me even realising it. It's especially important to consider these references when creating characters for a specific audience.

For example, when we designed a pair of puppets for a Marmite television commercial aimed at Gen Z audiences, we incorporated small but meaningful details into the characters, such as a simple line-drawn heart tattoo and contemporary jewellery. These subtle design choices helped the puppets feel more relatable and authentic to the audience they were created for.

What are the favourite puppets you’ve worked on?

That's a really difficult question because we've worked on so many unique projects, and each has been rewarding for different reasons. One that stands out, though, is a collection of fashion puppets we created for the pre-loved fashion platform Vestiaire Collective.

For that project, we built five life-sized puppets entirely from recycled clothing and fashion fabrics to celebrate sustainability in fashion. These weren't the materials traditionally used in puppet making - working with fabrics such as denim, corduroy and knitwear presented a completely different set of challenges. It pushed us to think creatively about how to construct the puppets while making the most of the character and texture of each material.

The finished film featured the puppets taking to the catwalk in their own fashion show. What I love most about the project is that the materials became part of each character's identity. Rather than disguising the fabrics, we celebrated them, giving the puppets a distinctive look and a tactile quality.

How do you feel about the relationship between animation and puppetry?

I think animation and puppetry are closely connected because they both involve bringing something inanimate to life through performance. Whether it’s moving a puppet by hand or animating a character frame by frame, the aim is the same: to create the illusion of life and make the audience believe in the character.

A great example is Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, who explored animation techniques in the 1960s and experimented with mixed-media work, including stop motion and animation. This work shows how the boundaries between puppetry and animation can overlap and inspire each other.

While puppetry brings a physical and tactile quality through hands-on performance, animation allows for endless creative possibilities. However, both rely on the same key elements: expression, movement, and storytelling. Many of the skills involved in puppetry, such as understanding character movement and performance, naturally translate into animation. Both are forms of storytelling that depend on creativity, imagination, and human expression.

Do you think audiences particularly appreciate the handmade nature of physical puppets in the age of CGI and AI? Do you think they can tell the difference?

I think audiences still really appreciate the handmade quality of physical puppets, especially now that CGI and AI are so common in films and TV. There’s something about seeing a real object being performed that feels more genuine and gives characters a unique personality. Even if people can’t always tell exactly why something feels different, they often notice when a puppet has a real physical presence compared to a fully digital character. For me, that human craftsmanship is part of what makes puppetry so special, and it creates a connection that technology doesn’t always capture.

What do physical puppets offer that digital and AI can’t? What are the advantages?

I think that it’s down to that real, tangible presence puppets can offer. They exist in the same space as the actors, which can make interactions feel more natural and believable. Puppets also showcase the skill and creativity of the people bringing them to life, from the makers to the performers, giving each character a unique personality. Their small imperfections and handmade details can make them feel more authentic and emotionally engaging. While CGI and AI are great for creating things that would be impossible in real life, physical puppets have a warmth and charm that comes from being real objects performed by real people, and I think that’s something audiences continue to connect with.

What are the challenges physical puppetry creates?

Puppetry comes with certain challenges because puppets rely on performers to bring them to life. One of the main things to consider is the physical limitations of the puppet itself, which often requires performers and creators to think creatively and find inventive solutions.

For example, if you want a puppet to walk, it may require three or four puppeteers working together, with each person controlling a different part of the body. The puppeteers may then need to be removed during post-production. More complex actions, such as a dancing, require careful planning and creative problem-solving to make them work convincingly.

Because of these limitations, puppetry often relies on abstraction - finding imaginative ways to achieve what is possible while still staying true to the story and script. In animation or CGI, characters can be made to do almost anything, which can be both an advantage and a challenge. I think the physical restrictions of puppetry encourage creators to think differently and come up with more inventive solutions. These limitations can often lead to more interesting results than if everything were easily achievable.

What project(s) are you working on next?

We’ve been working on a short film and a commercial project which are both really different, among others – none have been released just yet so we can’t talk much about them. We’re also trying to make time for our own projects – it’s important to keep the spark alive by experimenting without the pressure of a deadline. We can’t wait to put more puppets out into the world!

To learn more visit www.puppetsmagic.co.uk or check out our interview with Furry Puppet Studio.