# I are making suit and you are help



## HipsterCoyote (Sep 24, 2012)

So, 

I paint traditionally, I sculpt pretty well and I do detail work on tiny damn dolls whose owners need super realistic eyelashes and eyebrows and blushing done to put them in/out of the Uncanny Valley for maximum desu.

I also really like to make money :V 

So I am seeing what happens when I make a fursuit head.  Of a stiff-eared canine in no specific particular since wolves and coyotes and foxes are all the rage.  If it's unaceptaburu and I can't sell it then I'll just, ... Make it... Into a coyote and put some 3D glasses on it and a trucker cap that says "Fe" on the front.  Voila, it's Chad the Hipster Coyote and I'll go prance around in ballcrushing skinny jeans and knockoff Toms from Skechers, everybody loses.  \o/  This is a great plan. 


I edited out the eyes that I did because they are no longer a factor in zee suit so now I guess this is just the first post in THE SAGA.  

ENTER THE SAGA.

Scroll down for updates: balaclava foam head, eye questions.


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## Batty Krueger (Sep 24, 2012)

They seem a bit big.


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## HipsterCoyote (Sep 24, 2012)

Yeah, I don't know man D: I've looked through the tutorials and the LJ stuff, if there is a measurement then I ... Have not ran into it, but they do seem a little big.  Even when my size-4-ring midget hands are accounted for in the equation.   Some of the eyes I've seen are "holy shit D:" and other eyes I've seen are like, uh, maybe an inch and a half wide?  Eye decay, man.


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## Ozriel (Sep 24, 2012)

Paint tryas. The little circular ones are decent for fursuit eyes.


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## HipsterCoyote (Sep 25, 2012)

Thanks for the tip.  I found these paint trays, and I see the stuff about resin casting and bouncey ball eyes.  I went looking for bouncey ball eyes because I hate resin casting (been there, God no).  Regardless, I tried seeing what would happen if I set the eyes deeper because with my pattern I still have to make a brow ridge and if I just bury the eye deeper into it, I might actually be able to fit the eye without it looking disproportionate.  The iris of this painted eye is the size of a tiny paint tray this time.  The lid is temporary just to show what surface I intend to expose. 






Maybe this is better?  It has a following effect because of how deep set it is, and I actually sort of like it   So if it fits I think I will use this.


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## HipsterCoyote (Oct 9, 2012)

Okay, I'm double posting but, with ... Relevant information and I want some people to look at this.  I kind of wish I had posted in the other Costume and Apparel forum where all the cool kids are posting their WIPs :<.  

So, onto things. 

I went with making a balaclava-style (I used a T-shirt) head with foam for form.    I read at creation of he'tah and atpaw (I think that is spelled right)  that you can fuck up like a boss at the joinery if you use plastic  canvas without good planning and this potentially causes the interior to fall apart.  Then you  will have a top of the head only held together by the fur/balaclava and  no structure.  So I used rug underlay because it is stretchy and yields, so I feel like if I use a more elastic material and not a more brittle material, then it will stand up to future stress better at the joinery due to the overall structure giving some stretch and slack.

So following are two pictures of the head with space saved for bouncey ball eyes.  The foamie ears are just temporary structures to see if my end-goal for their size is proportionate with the head.













  I wrongfully treated the furniture foam much more like clay than  furniture foam, so you see all these little bits and pieces glued on to  influence the shape.  It is sound, however.  The drawback is that with all these little pieces it is hard to me to tell if this is symmetrical, so, I taped it while it was in progress to see the form free of weird ... fly-away foam shapes. 













And today I decided I really don't want to do bouncey ball eyes.  I am going to make a pair regardless because I have access to  vinyl cutter and vinyl printer at work. and am curious of how it will look.  If I can make printed eye-backings which are very mechanically precise, then I might actually have a really nice pair of bouncey ball eyes, you know? 

But I also really don't want to do resin eyes.  It feels to me like I'm going to have to inevitably deal with resin, because I want to achieve a level of detail like this.  If I don't settle for less, then I will get there eventually, even if I do have to start over. 

So, I took apart the right eye's foam socket that I had to house the bouncey ball eye (to me it seems like the brow ridge was too pronounced and would hide the eye too much anyway, is this the case?) and I set the eye I previously decided was too large within the space to see what it'd look like. Right now it's pinned in place, and only the right eye.  




I actually am going to KEEP the pink foamie in the eye's structure  because it so happens that the pink casts a color into the eye overall  and in person gives it a nice, natural looking tint.  Of course, for the  presentation of the eye I am going to cover it, and I want it to look roughly like this: 







Is the tear duct vision setup too large so that it throws off the proportions of the eye, or anything like that?   Also, can I use a dark brown color instead of black, or a gradient, over a tearduct eye and still expect it to suitably hide the eye?  

Here is a less so closeup so you can see it in the context of the rest of the head.  Again, since I'm not sure if this looks proportionate/right I only did it to the right eye and it's only pinned in place in case this is unacceptable.  My main fear is that the eyes might be too far apart.














As a final note, the jaw is hilariously uneven because it's not actually fixed into place yet and is more of a test of the mechanism than a finished product; all I've done with it so far is attach it with the interest of making sure it is seated on the band so that it opens and closes with the mouth.   So right now you can use it as a freakish handpuppet by just bouncing it around to make it talk.


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## Dokid (Oct 9, 2012)

What I suggest for the tear duct is make it the same color as the fur around it. don't make it black because it might just end up wall eyed.


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## HipsterCoyote (Oct 9, 2012)

Okay, thanks for the heads up.

I opened up the eye a little bit and messed with the right cheek after you told me to ...Do that, hurrr. 

















Is the eye too deep? 

Also, this is the uh, intended end result en profile.


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