Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Eye acting
Toad had extraordinary eyes, made by a maker of genuine glass eyes. We had intended to
have removable eyes, swapping large or small pupils according to his mood, but in the end we
had one pair of standard marmalade-coloured eyes, with beautiful mechanical hand-adjusted
upper and lower lids, a gift to the animator. Too often, closing lids are luxuries the budget can
ill af ord. Some puppets have painted eyes that you pull out and replace with half-closed or
fully closed versions. This gives limited expression, but Toad's eyes were able to close as quickly
or as slowly as the animator wanted, and, even more of a luxury, they were independent of
each other. He was capable of closing them slowly as if peering, helping some of his more
devious moments, and he was capable of opening them in a single frame, aiding his more
melodramatic moments. Moving from the closed eye to the vast expanse of open eye was
quite shocking, but very Toad! These eyes provided such versatility.
Rigoletto's one eye working overtime.
Only the Rigoletto puppets have matched Toad for such potential. Keeping Toad's eyes in
focus was enormously hard. With such a tiny iris in such large orbs one millimetre to the side
and these eyes lost their focus and the face was dead. Of course that could be used to Toad's
advantage … many scenes had Toad being lectured to by Badger, and you could act Toad
trying to keep interest but then making a point of his eyes losing focus, as his mind wandered
and he literally had a glassy eyed stare. This also enabled him to throw his eyes up with a look
of disdain that only needed a tiny move of the head complementing this to work. The same
gesture with a character with merely painted eyes would have needed a much larger l ick of
the head to register and might have ruined the gesture and timing. In addition,
since Toad's irises were so small, they were capable of a lot of movement within the
eye itself. He could slyly follow a character for a long time before needing to turn
his head. Disney's Pinocchio uses the same trick of having unfocused staring eyes
to suggest his lifelessness, which suddenly becomes very active and focused eyes
when he is transformed into a breathing boy. A simple, cheap trick, but a vital one.
 
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