construction:heads:eyes

Eyes

Human

human.jpg

Use your own human eyes, typically with makeup. Generally not effective with larger head designs.

Taxidermy

taxidermy.jpg

Use taxidermy eyes, and design the suit to view out of a different location, such as the “tear ducts”.

Opaque Plastic and Foam

plastic-foam3.jpg

From: TopFox
Shawn and I usually use white plastic bowls for the eyes. Gives a shiny look and are somewhat curved for proper shape. Pupil can be plain old screen gotten anyplace. Just remember, you must use some form of black masking behind the screen. Black panty hose works fine. Otherwise folks will be able to see 'you' inside the head.

From: Yippee
What I've done for eyes typically involves pieces of curved plastic. Sterilite makes a set of 4 plastic bowls that are soft, softer than tupperware, and they can be cut with scissors, if you're careful enough. I'd seen these sold at like Target in a set of 4 stacked bowls with lids. To make sure they're the right ones, you should be able to push in the side of one pretty easily. They're white and have the right curvature. There's a section taken out and covered from behind with black pantyhose so I can see.

I'd also seen people use similar plastic products but the pieces were flat. A way you could likely test such a plastic in a store is to try bending it with your finger. The right plastic will bend fairly easily and return to shape.

Example of bowls used in eyes, found at Target - http://www.sterilite.com/Category.html?Section=Kitchenware&ProductCategory=71

(Maintainer's note: The above bowls are stock number 747 with blue covers. There is also stock number 752 with white covers. Both are the same thing.)

From: LatinVixen
As for eyes there are many ways to make them but I recomend yippee's idea of the plastic bowls they work great. I have another way of doing them and they are pretty easy too. I bought some plastic at home depot, the kind they use to cover lights in class rooms, the long lights on the ceiling. It is a white plastic that can be cut with scisors as well and it comes in like 5 feet and its way cheap, so you can do eyes gallore. As for the pupil I use mesh, this type of white fabric mesh I found and hancock fabrics, it has lil holes and no one can see inside but great to see out of. I paint it black so it looks like a pupil and add the sun spot. I really dont know what the name of that mesh stuff is, but its bendable and usually with the bridal stuff ;). Also you can use metalic canvas found at michaels, bendable too and small holes so u can see out of and paint on it and it doesnt look bad at all, I used that on my wolf costume.

Clear Plastic (Lucite, etc)

eyes_lucite_sq.jpg

If you can find plastic lens blanks, try using those with automotive tinting or colored tapes. You may be able to get them from eye doctors or surplus stores.

Mesh

mesh-paint.jpg

Techniques: Normal painted mesh, or mesh with a printed mylar surface.

“Hi! I'm making a mascot-style head,” he says snipping away at the object
looking suspeciously like a rabbit head sans ears, “and I was wondering
about eyes. I have some ideas of my own, but I wanted to hear from the
rest of the list. What material would be good for the whites of the
mascot's eyes? What screen-like material would be good for the pupils
(so that my player can see out the eye-holes with reasonable clarity)?”

I have (_very_ experimentally) tried 24-count needlepoint canvas. Painted black on the inside, I could see thru it moderately well as long as it was fairly close to my face.

From: Tippus Tailus
Never use a metal grille for the viewports of a fursuit head. Under flash photography, a picture may be recorded which inadvertantly reveals the fursuiter inside. This is vastly ineffective. A plastic grille is an improvement. However, for best results, use synthetic filter foam. It is available in black and is *diffuse*. Unfortunately, being a sparse material it is hard to cut into sheets thinner than 1/2 inch. At this thickness, the sheeting reduces light by about 50%. Thicker sheeting means less light, which could be a problem indoors.

From: David Cooke
I'd have to disagree about metal mesh eyes - I've had success using 40 mesh copper (that's a copper wire mesh with 40 threads per inch). This is finer than many open fabrics, and is still opaque enough (from outside) when spray painted to allow you to look through the whole of the eye rather than just the pupil. I begin by making a frame of 2.5mm solid copper wire, then soft solder the mesh to it. I use a teaspoon to work the mesh into a 3D form. It's then cleaned (detergent, flash, then meths), and given a couple of coats of white car body primer. Then I airbrush the design on with liquitex acrylics and finish with a couple of coats of clearcoat. I'll write up on my web pages and add a link shortly.

Ornaments

domes.jpg

From: Steve Swope

Thanks for the suggestions on how to tint glass and still have it remain
transparent… One thing I'm wondering though is what I could use if I
wanted to make a costume with something like beady round mouse eyes (or
specifically… beady round opossum eyes). I'd need to start out with
something spherical, hollow, and transparent… Any suggestions?

Go to your favorite craft supply store and get some of those hollow clear ornament shells that are intended to have cutesy little holiday things put inside them and then be hung on trees. They are also available in egg-like shapes. When I was building the Ultraman and Baltan for Winnipeg, I used a round set for the Baltan's eyes, and sections of an egg-shaped set for Ultraman's. (Of course, I was painting them to be translucent and backlighting them, but I could have left them clear had I wanted to).

As for coloring, Rit dye will stain the plastic. You have to be careful, though– If you leave it in a hot dye bath for too long, the plastic will warp. I haven't tried a cold dye bath.

The best part about these is that they are fairly inexpensive; you can easily afford to get several sets and experiment with tinting, painting, and other coloration tactics. You might want to get several sets of the smallest size (and therefore cheapest) globes, do a run of various dyes, paints, etc., then do a properly sized set “for real” once you've found an effect you like.

Cloth

Chiffon and pantyhose if used right can be used to see out, but others can't see in. It's breathable.

From: Nora
Just throwing in my two-cents worth on eyes. We did Tabbe and Fatima's eyes so we could see through them. They were pieces of buckram (a millinery supply) colored with permanent markers. I did the drawing of the eyes including highlights and multicolored irises since I have more of an art background. Also I blacked the inside of the buckram to reduce glare. The eyes were sewn to the wire armature of the heads from the inside. They're very easy to see through and others can't see in. Works very well for comic or cartoon type characters.

Examples

Graphical examples of eyes

Perro's tutorial on simple eye construction - http://perromutt.com/simple_eye_construction.htm

Example of recessed eyes - http://www.purplewolf.org/eyes.html

Various methods of eyes by Growly - http://homepage.mac.com/growly/fursuiteyes.html

Other Discussion

From: Dondi Meerkat

What do you consider the best thing to use for eyes? I have a couple

I make my own eyes, and they look great, almost taxidermist quality.

I sculpt the shape of the eye out of plastilina and I make sure to include a bulge to create the cornea. I then make a negative of the eye in ultracal 30, when dry I remove the plastilina and brush in a thin layer of clear casting resin (and catalyst), and allow it to harden, once dry, i paint in the pupil (in my case in feline shape) and then paint in the desired eye colours in translucent acrylics. once they are dry I fill in the rest of the mold with resin and allow it to harden, when done I pop out the eye and wash it with dishsoap and polish it with future floor wax, this is important as I have not found any other brand makes my eye look like it has cataracts, finally I use oil (castors, olive, baby) to bring the eye to life.

Anti-Fog methods/materials
1. rub a bar of ivory soap on lenses then buff til clear
2. or use white unscented candle as above
3. or can use a windshield product called Raine-X
4. or SCUBA divers anti-fogging products
5. or anti-fogging products for glasses

All tried and true methods tested by a raccoon friend Daren Bost.

You can head to Walmart and look for window tinting in the automotive department. Get the charcoal grey color, 35%. It comes in strips.

If you want to have your eyes light up when someone shines a light on them or uses flash photography, use reflective tape for the 'whites' of the eyes.

Splatter screen, regular screen door mesh, and 7 mesh plastic canvas if used alone will let others see 'you' behind the head's eyes if someone uses flash photography. Use something like black pantyhose behind it to keep that from happening.

Other design ideas
- backlit eyes
- clip-on sunglasses
- reflective tape
- oversize sunglasses

/home/furryfursuit/faq/data/pages/construction/heads/eyes.txt · Last modified: 2011/08/11 12:01 (external edit)

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