Moving Muppet Faces

[gfarkwort]

Posps eyes move.....they lift up a little

 

[BEAR]

How silly of me! I failed to mention Hoots. His eyes open and shut all the time.

 

[rtgentry]

what exactly do elmos eyes do?

 

[BEAR]

what exactly do elmos eyes do?

They just sort of tilt, skewing his face for certain expressions such as if he is thinking to himself or if he gets knocked out or something.

 

[MuppetfraggleEX]

What about Pepe, he opens and closes his eyes right?

 

[BEAR]

What about Pepe, he opens and closes his eyes right?

I can't remember. Rizzo probably does too, huh?

 

[MrsPepper]

No, I don't think Pepe or Rizzo blink.

Er, the Muppet Newsman does this thing where he scrunches up his nose.

 

[wes]

Some of these puppets may have no mechinisms, it may just be the way they puppeteer moves his hand

Example: Kermit (No mechinism)

Big Bird (blinking Mechinism)

Any one knows how these mechinism work, any drawings?

 

[SesameKermie]

eye mechs and such

I know there were several drawings of things like that on the forum. While it's not muppets try searching for Figuremaking can be Fun. It is aimed at making Ventriloquism mechs, but the operation is similar. I also think Puppet Planet had a dissection of an old Fisher Price 'Animal' puppet that shows how the blink works.

As far as Beaker goes, I believe they built different Beakers for each possible eye movement/feature. There's only so much space in the puppet's 'skull' for these mechanisms to work and still have room for the hand or other controls.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I don't claim any specific knowledge of exactly how each Muppet is built beyond what's been revealed here and in various books and videos over the years, but I do think there's probably few mechs in the Muppets than most people think and not that many of the Muppets have moving eyes or other special rigging (although I think they will build special Beakers and whatnot sometimes for a specific effect). A lot of it is created by the clever manipulation of the puppet by the puppeteers.

Frank Oz has commented in many interviews over the years that people usually think his character's eyes move when in reality they don't, he's just able to create the illusion that they do.