Blinking eyes and moving eyebrows

[fishbone]

hey,all you pro builders, i need a sure fire way to make eyes blink &eyebrows ,i need to know what materials i need to go out & get,home depo shopping list ,how to construct the mech. in side the head of foam,please pro's only or ppl w/ exp.no geusses.remote control eyes too if you know :crazy: please!!!????

[Buck-Beaver]

Take a look at Mike Brose's Figure Making Can Be Fun (http://puppetsnprops.homestead.com/funstuff.html) website. Under "Fun Stuff" he has a tutorial on making moving eyes and eyebrows for Ventriloquist Dummies. The same techniques can be adapted for puppets.

A good place to look for more information would be Chris Hillman's Animatronics Links Page (http://members.aol.com/C40179/index.html).

[fishbone]

buck,your the beaver,do you have a method you could share?manual or remote control? i won't use it for evil :halo:

[BorkBork]

Here are 2 helpful pics of moving eyebrows.

Please note that the pics are NOT made by me, just 2 pics i found over at the old forum way back.

http://muppets.zapto.org//images/eyemech/animal_eye_mech.jpg

http://muppets.zapto.org//images/eyemech/siggler1.jpg


I hope it helps you a bit.

[Puppetplanet]

Oh my goodness! Thats so cool! I'm not sure I'm ready for that stage yet, but I would love to give it a try! :excited:

[Torarin]

just if anyone wanted to know how the muppet performers really operate those eye mechanic muppets, couse I tried one once. The "trigger" is actually a handle like the one you might have on top of a spade. And it's not "hanging" from the top of the head like on many designs, it's laid straight down, coming from the nose, with the handle pointing towards the back head. So when you put your hand in it, the handle is on top of the mouthplate, and you put your fingers on top of the handle. To move the eyelids, eyebrows or whatever, you pull the handle back towards the back of the head with your fingers, so that instead of pointing straight pointing at the nose part of the puppet, your fingers are bent, pointing down at the mouth plate. This works well, couse you are able to move the both the mouth and eyes at once.

[Buck-Beaver]

Many performers prefer blink/eye movement to be controlled by a cable control that is not actually inside the puppet's head but rather built in to an arm rod or hangs below the puppet's body. I've often found mechanisms inside a puppet's head to be cumbersome unless they are really well made. More often than not they don't get used a lot by the puppeteer because they end up being too much trouble.

[Puppetplanet]

More often than not they don't get used a lot by the puppeteer because they end up being too much trouble.

Buck, what do you think of the ability to control the blinking eye movement in the method shown in photos and diagrams shared by BorkBork? It looks rather easy to manipulate with the finger glove thingy built in under the head, don't you think?

-Michele

[fishbone]

that helps alot,man.... i love you guys,not bad for a bunch of nerf wranglers. :)

[fishbone]

did anyone ever own the animal puppet from fp,inside it had a blinking mech.when i was a kid i never really thougth about it,but that was really clever,i wonder if that's how it really worked.

[Torarin]

did anyone ever own the animal puppet from fp,inside it had a blinking mech.when i was a kid i never really thougth about it,but that was really clever,i wonder if that's how it really worked.
I do, but it's really not good enough. It's just a plate rigged on top of the mouthplate, and you push down to move the eyelids. Unfortunatly that makes them impossible to move if you have his mouth open.

[Fozzie Bear]

Here are 2 helpful pics of moving eyebrows.

Please note that the pics are NOT made by me, just 2 pics i found over at the old forum way back.

http://muppets.zapto.org//images/eyemech/animal_eye_mech.jpg

http://muppets.zapto.org//images/eyemech/siggler1.jpg


I hope it helps you a bit.


I do believe that Terry Angus drew those up, and THANK YOU For posting those!! I've been looking for 'em!!

Foz

[Buck-Beaver]

Buck, what do you think of the ability to control the blinking eye movement in the method shown in photos and diagrams shared by BorkBork? It looks rather easy to manipulate with the finger glove thingy built in under the head, don't you think?lol, I actually hate that method, but it's really a matter of personal preference.

There's a puppet I am using for my project "Bear Town" that was built (by someone else) with exactly this type of mechanism and it's very annoying because you really have to stop working the mouth in order to pull the control correctly. You can actually see this on some TV shows - if the eyes/eyelids only move when the puppet's mouth is not moving chances are it has this type of mechanism in it's head.

These types of controls can be OK if they are properly fitted to the puppeteer's hand. If the control has to be inside the head I'd recommend designing a "trigger" along the lines of what Torarin described above.

[fishbone]

hmmm,maybe like cousin skeeter

[fishbone]

whats that plastic shell over the skull of the puppet,any one....any one.. :o

[Puppetplanet]

Plastic! ha ha ha ha ha..... ahem..... sorry. :o

[fishbone]

freak... :D

[Fozzie Bear]

freak...

you called?

oh.

[fishbone]

i said freak,...not dork... just fool'n dumbass :grouchy:

[Puppetplanet]

awww, that wasn't very nice.

[fishbone]

i just wanted to see if i could get away w/it....yup, i did :eek:

[fishbone]

well,after bending the stupid wire most of the night,&walking to the 99 cent store for pingpong balls only to find three in a pakadge along with 2 paddles & only taking the balls,i think i might have my self a blinkg blue monster,i gotta fix the trigger a bit,but other than that,he was origanly(dude,it's super late)built to blow bubbles out of his trunk &a balloon from his head(i went to sav-on &i saw a bubble gun,aannnnnd i was drinking...it sounded like a good idea at the time)but it was apain so,he's human arm (only one arm is human)i'm gunna use him for moral lesson shows. :zany: or maybe i'll just use him for evil

[Puppetplanet]

lol, ANYWAY, how did the eyes turn out? Do they blink easily? Can ya post a couple pics? :excited:

[fishbone]

are you a girl puppet or a boy puppet?i did it really half *****...i just followed pix bork found but w/ out the plastic skull,& glued it to the top of the head to keep it in place,i have to split his head open so i can fix the trigger,& besides i have no way to connect the cam to the puter...or i would,but it's really easy ... :cry: :cry:

[Puppetplanet]

I'm a GIRL thank you very much! lol

[fishbone]

hmm ...that explains the pink & purple..huh,girls...hey have you sold any puppets

[puppets_etc]

I'm a GIRL thank you very much! lol
:p
You tell 'im Michele! Just because the AVATAR is male, does not make the POSTER male. Anywho.....sorry, could resist adding my two cents. :o

Deb :flirt:

[Puppetplanet]

EXCUSE ME! I'll have you know that pink and purple are NOT just female colors! Besides.......... they were my favorite since I was 8. :flirt:


Yes, I sell puppets on Ebay, sometimes it goes well and sometimes I wanna scream at people who wanna be so cheap when it took a lot of effor to make them. But, I gotta put them somewhere because I keep coming up with new characters and no space in my house to keep them all! :cry:

The gallery page on my site as some pics of the characters I've made. I'll be adding an about me page soon....... maybe that'll be a clue as to my gender? :confused:

-Michele

[fishbone]

aww schucks mam i'm just hores'n around..although hores play only leads to tears,yeah,i need to sell some too,i'm trying to come up w/ theme..like cowboy ducks or something,so if they buy one,they'll need the others,or how much does your site cost& have you sold more on the bay or more from your site? how does the payment process work on ebay? :(

[Puppetplanet]

We are totally off topic here! lol, I'll tell you about the site stuff and ebay when I reply to your e-mail in a bit so that we don't dominate this thread, okay? ;)

-Michele

[fishbone]

o.k. fine!!! :cool: