Eye focus is the discipline of controlling exactly where a puppet appears to be looking, and it is the single skill that most separates a puppet that seems alive from one that seems held.
Why it dominates everything
An audience follows a character’s gaze automatically and involuntarily. Where the puppet looks, they look. A puppet with a clear, committed focus directs attention and reads as thinking. A puppet whose eyes drift reads as an object, no matter how good the lip syncLip sync is matching a puppet's mouth movement to speech so ... More is.
The mechanics
Puppet eyes don’t move, so focus is achieved by aiming the whole head. The reference point is the puppet’s nose line — the direction the nose points is the direction the eyes appear to look. Learn to feel where the nose is aiming without watching it, because you will be looking at a monitorThe monitor is the screen a puppeteer watches while performi... or the floor.
Finding the audience
Focus slightly above the front row’s eyeline in a theatre, and directly at the lens on camera. A puppet focused too low appears to be inspecting the floor and instantly loses the room.
The shift is the acting
The moment a puppet turns to look at something — the reaction, the double-take, the slow realisation — is where character actually lives. A puppet that hears a noise and turns its head before it speaks has just performed. Held focus is a listening character. A snap of focus is a reaction. A slow drift is a thought.
The rehearsal test
Perform to a mirror, or record and play back. You will see immediately where the puppet lost focus, and it is almost always during your own lines, when concentration goes to the voice.