Modification Eye mover

Unoas come with an optional eye mech, which allows the eyes to move from side to side. I never installed it. I've also seen a yosd sculpt (mango?) that has a lever in the back of the head that lets you move the eyes. Other than those, I haven't seen mech or tools to move the eyes from the outside. The e vac pen sounds cool, how would you work with the sticky tac?

 

The pen reminds me of a contact lens plunger. Not sure if it would work with eye putty/tac but they do still sell those plungers at pharmacies.

 

i don’t want to sound discouraging but eye mechanisms are really tricky to make, and even harder to make work well. this is not to say that you shouldn’t try, but if you do, take your time in planning and don’t get frustrated with yourself. i have personally only made one for a doll (workshop thread) but have worked extensively with eye mechs on puppets. that said, i recommend widening your search results to include ‘puppet eye mechanism’ because it might provide some more varied inspiration to draw from.

about existing mechanisms, the ones i have seen available for purchase (pretty much limited to the ones mentioned already) are either very flimsy, have a limited range of motion, or are completely unusable. the mech on unoas are really fun to play with, but only go side to side and have a fixed focal length. same with the dollsbe sculpts with eye mechs.

you have also brought up a very good point about the tools used to actually move the eyes. again, there is no perfect answer. in stop motion eyes are most often moved by stabbing the eye with a sharp xacto knife praying it doesn’t gouge a chunk out. i personally have tried stick erasers, silicone bits on a dowel, and the dream fitter stick. honestly none of those tools could touch the xacto in effectiveness.

i’m sorry that i couldn’t provide a more comprehensive guide, or even a single trick that will *chef’s kiss* work perfectly every time, but such a thing simply doesn’t exist. yet.

 

i hate to break it to you but stop motion puppets normally top out at 17 inches, and have proportions closer to fashion dolls than standard msds. i have also personally worked on eye mechanisms (including animatronics) in puppets that are very small. so don't discount that as potential inspiration before you have checked! also, i say 'perfect' to really emphasize that there is no one ideal way to go about moving eyes, all of the current methods (that i am familiar with) are in some way flawed. i just want to inspire you to think through what you want out of your mechanism, and try to identify potential failures before committing to a plan.

about your design, it is a good start, but i think you might run into some issues with moving the eye with your suction tool. if the foam and hemisphere combo is pushing the eye against the resin, and holding it tightly enough that it won't move freely, a suction tool would likely only serve to draw the eye tighter against it's eye well. maybe adding a small piece of compressible foam against the back of the eye well? that way the eye will have somewhere to go, and can release itself from the tension of your cup to make it more mobile. if that makes sense?

 

I have seen someone who, instead of eye putty, fills the dolls head with melamine sponge/magic eraser. This presses the eyes to the eye hole, but is soft enough to be compressed. The eye is then adjusted from the outside with their finger.

 

I have tried to make an insert inside the head with the blue/white silicone mold paste. It works perfectly to hold the eyes and they are moveable when I try moving them with the whole thing outside the head. But when inside the head, they're isn't much grip on the eye (small eye opening) and I can't move it anymore. those little lens plunger look good although I'm afraid it's too big for eye opening (and it's a SD doll...), I may try the vacuum pen, didn't know about these, thanks !

 

If it's the movement i think it is, I think I've seen some people try it with blu tack, aluminum foil and air dry clay.
What they did was make the eye into a perfect sphere using air dry clay, sit it in a bowl made with aluminum foil (sometimes cushioned with a bit of cotton), then stick in the doll head using blu tack. They then used a toothpick with a bit of blu tak to move the eye from the opening. If you're still interested, i'll try to find a video demonstration.