Creating Puppetry

Does anyone here have any experience with making your own puppet?
I'm talking about a big, foam carved, stick animated puppet, not just a little hand puppet.
Anyone with experience in animatronics would also be very helpful, since the two often go hand in hand.

I'm very interested in obtaining the information on how to create one, and would appreciate any help.

Hm, well I've seen people stack blocks of foam and just carve the body parts out.
I'm not sure, past that. I guess it depends on whether you're making a human or animal shape?

By stick puppet, you mean that there will be rods attached, to move the body parts, right? I'd keep it simple then, unless you have multiple hands, or a friend who can manipulate the rods with you.

I'd like to hear about the animatronics as well, since I just love that sort of thing!


Edit:
Found this, where the artist uses an existing foam head. Not a bad idea!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zciMEEmBXlk

I also found this site, though I haven't gone through it yet -
http://www.sagecraft.com/puppetry/building/index.html