Makes me wonder... What about developing hand shaped armatures?
I wondered that myself. Kermit's head is basically a mitten with either Jim or Steve's hand inside doing the expressions.
Check out what I found. You can get them on Amazon or in an art supply store. Artists use these wooden hands to make sure they get the proportions right. Like you said, can't something like this be invented for photo shoots? It wouldn't take much to have the photo people say "Hey, Steve. We gotta do a picture of Kermit thinking and looking up. How would that look with just your hand?" Steve could position his arm and hand where they should go, then the photo people would fix the fake arm to match, then put a real Kermit puppet on it. If Steve's not there, then at least study footage, photos, etc.
The posers from the Muppet Show days didn't look too shabby, but I think that's because they used the actual puppets for at least some shots. The Muppet Movie one of Kermit in the director's chair, plus the one of Kermit with his arms folded (a popular pose from the late 70's--see Kermit's mantlepiece in "
Polliwog Ways") didn't look too bad. Obviously Jim was there back then and if something looked off, he would've went "wait a minute, let's fix this here."
I agree, the Photoshopped Muppets just don't look right when just thrown together as a collage. All the Muppets need to be in the same shot together in order to make it believable. Otherwise, it just doesn't look right. When a collage is made, lighting is different from different photos, plus sizes can be off, too. A prime example of this is the Cookie/Herry pictures parodied in
your drawing.
Obviously, Louis Mitchell at SW puts in a lot of effort with the poser photography and Big Bird or Elmo or whoever don't turn out looking strange. Is it because of certain lighting they use at SW? Do they just care more about how the characters should look in still photos?
If Disney reads this thread, well, here's my suggestion. It wouldn't hurt to ask Steve or Louis for their imput. Heck, even Frank might have a few words to say. Even though he's retired from Muppeteering, the guy knows the characters and how they should look. Get Michael Frith's imput, don't ignore Don's Magic Triangle, find photos or film of Jim or Steve performing. There's so much hard work that goes into these characters. The photos help advertise them. They should be done with care, not sloppiness.
The Muppets are making a comeback, yes, but fer crying out loud, don't screw up the publicity photos. The same goes for merchandise, which is a whole other kettle of fleece. Fisher Price got it right with their
plush Kermit in 1978. Rowlf looks even better! Years later...
this came out. Blechh.
Convincing John