Ideas for making home made custom eyeballs.
Ideas for making home made custom eyeballs.
1.First design/paint irises in adobe photoshop or similar image editing program using .5 in. x .5 in. image size layout set at 300 resolution. (try not to create anything super saturated as it wont look as natural.)
2 Then create a print sheet and print them out on hd sticker paper. (You should be able to print many many copies on just one sheet of paper.)
3. Cut them out using scissors and a half inch hole punch tool and set aside.
4a. Locating optimal sticker placement area: Grab two wooden 1” balls and locate the “side” that appears to have the widest surface areas. (this is important as in later steps of securing sticker paper, this side will be the easiest side to obtain a wrinkled free appearance/bond.)
4b. Creating a holding/working tool for the eyeball: Place clear push pins in the exact opposite side (bottom) of the side you found to have the greatest amount of surface area. These will allow you to hold the eyeballs or secure them in a location in order to work on them individually.
4c. Creating Sclera color: Paint 1 inch wood ball white (or desired color) and secure in a location and let them dry.
5. Applying vein glue: Paint on a small amount of [clear drying] glue on the back and sides of painted wooden ball. Do not place glue on the top area as it will hinder the iris sticker placement process.(Use a very small amount of warm water to thin it and smooth it out as you’ll be immediately applying red yarn fibers in your desired placement locations!)
6. APPLYING 3D VEINS: With tweezers; pull a very small amount of the red fibers off of a strand of red yarn and place onto the sides and back of wooden ball using a small paint brush. (Try not to create a heavy build up of overlapping fibers as this will begin to look unnatural/diseased, as well as create issues during the clear coating process. If you want very specific locations for veins use a well sharpened red colored pencil and place them that way.)
7. Peeling Iris Sticker: Once dry use a utility knife blade/razor and carefully peal the printed iris stickers away from the backing. (Go slow and be gentle and patient as to avoid injuries and scratching the printed iris! Take your time. If the initial pealing attempt point you start at doesn’t give simply rotate the iris and try a new start point.) Sometimes you might have to cut a new iris out of the printed page. Don’t worry you’ll have plenty of chances to get it right!
8. Creating a low friction pressing surface: Grab a notebook and a blank sheet of printer photo paper or sticker paper. Place the photo paper on top of the notepad with the glossy surface facing upward. (You’ll be using this to secure the iris sticker onto the painted wooden ball. The “glossy” surface allows for less abrasive friction on the printed iris stickers during flattening/securing. The notepad allows for some of the downward pressure on the iris to be slightly absorbed which also limits the amount of surface friction the iris will take.)
9a. Securing IRIS to Ball part 1: Place the iris stickers onto the top of the painted wooden ball centering the pupil as best you can. Press down firmly only on the pupil in order to create an initial stick point. Once the sticker is in place pick up the eye ball and place it iris down on top of the photo paper that’s on top of the notepad.
9b.Securing IRIS to Ball part 2: Now press down semi-firmly while slightly rocking the eye from left to right in order to secure more of the iris sticker onto the wooden ball. Rotate the eyeball in a steady clockwise/counter clockwise hoola-hoop fashion in order to “chain flatten the whole iris to the wooden ball. The goal here is to work from an initial contact point and secure the entire iris with as view wrinkles as possible. If you just start flattening the iris in just any direction you are likely to end up with wrinkled/raised spots on the iris when it’s secured. Again be patient it might take a view tries to get this step right with practice!
9c. Tip: depending on the severity and location of wrinkles sometimes you can use a rubber tipped sculpting tool to smooth out the wrinkles during the next step.
10. Preliminary sealing: Cover the entire iris with the clear drying glue about and about 6/16th of an inch high. Then using a paintbrush and a small amount of water smooth out and distribute the glue over the entire eyeball (including iris) in order to create a uniform surface. Allow the glue layer to dry and repeat this step ONLY one more time. (This step is necessary to hide/blend the iris sticker’s cut edge line with the sclera white paint layer as well as seal the ink of the iris sticker.)
11a: Remove eyeballs from the push pins.
11b. Creating a reusable sealant redistributing reservoir container: Take 2 plastic soufflé/sauce cups and add a very small finishing nail to the very center of each cup by poking it through the bottom so that the nail spike is coming up through the bottom. (This will be used to secure the eyeballs on as well as repeatedly pour the clear resin back and forth over the eyeballs in order to create the outer sealant layers.)
11c. Secure eyeballs onto nails: Firmly (and very carefully) place the eyeballs onto the nails using the same holes the push pins were in. (Use a twisting motion while pushing to get a good secure seating of the nail into the eyeball’s pin hole.)
12. Sealing the eyeballs with (easy cast resin) (creating the clear coat): Pour a tablespoon of the clear resin liquid in a trash-able paper mouthwash cup and a tablespoon of the amber liquid in the same cup and mix together for 1 minute with a wooden popcicle stir stick. Allow to set for about 10 minutes and stir again. Pour half the liquid over each of the eyeballs. Depending on how runny the liquid is you will need to pour/transfer the liquid back and forth over the eyeballs creating a uniform smooth covering until the clear coat becomes slow as molasses.
12b.After the clear coat seems to no longer be running down into the cups take a drinking straw and gently blow on each eyeball surface in order to pop any noticeable bubbles that might be present.
12c. Repeat step 12b at least once more in order to build up the clear coat layer thickness to a natural position. (More coats = more glossy affect.)Sometimes a 3rd coat may be required depending on how thick you made your 3d veins as they might be sticking up out of the clear coat layer.
12d. Allow to dry and the remove the eyeballs from the nails. Depending on how many coats you added there may be a build up at the point of contact area where the nail goes into the eyeball. If so, very carefully use a utility knife to cut the eyeball free and twist the eyeball off of the nail. To remove the humped area use a small piece of 400 grit sand paper or other sanding tool.
13. (Alternatively you can also make half round eyes and even make molds of the wooden balls you find to have that perfect surface for attaching the stickers to as well as plastic replicas. But that’s a different ball game!)
The finished pieces should look something like these!
Supplies:
Wooden half balls:
https://caseyswood.com/shoppingcart/zen ... th=159_158
Wooden full round balls:
https://caseyswood.com/shoppingcart/zen ... categories
Blue [mold making] platinum silicone rubber and white casting plastic.
https://rawmaterialsuppliers.com/product/rtv-22/
https://rawmaterialsuppliers.com/produc ... t-70d-90s/
Red Yarn:
https://www.amazon.com/Lion-Brand-Yarn- ... yarn&psc=1
Clear drying Glue:
https://www.amazon.com/Aleenes-Clear-Ge ... y+glue+gel
HD inkjet Sticker paper:
https://www.amazon.com/LD-Glossy-Inkjet ... cker+paper
half inch hole punch:
https://www.amazon.com/EK-Tools-Circle- ... hole+punch
Rubber tipped silicone sculpting shapers:
https://www.amazon.com/Colorful-Profess ... ulpt+tools
Clear epoxy resin coating:
https://www.amazon.com/Clear-Casting-Ep ... cast+resin
- grimreefer24601
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Re: Ideas for making home made cusom eyeballs.
Re: Ideas for making home made cusom eyeballs.
Re: Ideas for making home made cusom eyeballs.
I love MF's idea! Those are great! However, I think they're geared more towards lessening the hassle of switching out whole eyes and saving wear on the faces? Where as this idea is about making full round and half round eyes with "easy to obtain" items. (Easy and cheaply) :p
@ coolumbia
You're welcome and Thanks a bunch for the feedback
Re: Ideas for making home made cusom eyeballs.
The best route to go is by using groups and layers to create the image. It takes allot longer but the end results are worth the extra patience.
Again try not to create color combinations that are overly vibrant as they wont look natural when printed out and incorporated into your eyeballs. Its best to do a test layout to see what they will look like and adjust accordingly if you feel the color saturation levels are to much. This way you save yourself allot of trial and error up front.
Re: Ideas for making home made cusom eyeballs.
BLANK TEMPLATE:
SEE THIS THREAD FOR IDEAS ON HOW YOU CAN USE THIS TEMPLATE WITH MICROSOFT PAINT:
https://www.dollforum.com/forum/viewtop ... =7&t=95467
Katty Perry Template:
Re: Ideas for making home made cusom eyeballs.
A Jolie:
O. Wilde:
H. Duff:
T. Palmer:
N. Kidman:
Rihanna:
- avante
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Re: Ideas for making home made cusom eyeballs.
I'm wondering a bit tho (I am not that familiar Photoshop) but as I understand you'll use the reference image to 'select the colors in paint' ; the 6 round area's: those are the color you'll use.
And then...well the irises below are made in Photoshop right?
Is that (the coloring I mean) like sort of automatic; or can you change the colors to the ones you got from paint easily?
And than afterwards, can you like make small adjustments to the color tones still?
This all seems really nice; I think it's a great post and contribution, thank you, good to see you are keeping busy!
My doll experience : WM 158D tales & pics: viewtopic.php?f=215&t=85063&start=465
Re: Ideas for making home made cusom eyeballs.
Thanks a bunch Avante Correct on the colors. Just sample the Iris areas: Do one color thats the darkest (usually the outer ring) then middle shade color and one highlight color (usually the lightest color that sticks out visually). Then the area around the iris (if its noticeable different) do the same thing. The reason for the template is so you can paint can your samples with the paint can tool and keep track of your palette.(when we see beautiful eyes we think the colors are vibrant and bold but most of the time you'll find that its the combination of earthy tones put together and by that I mean dulled down) You would just sample with your eyedropper tool as you switch colors in order to paint with the paint brush tool. If you want a wider palate just save the template file with a new name and sample some more colors and keep both files open while you work. Or you could just make small circles on the bottom of the template (on top of the gradient area at bottom) with the shape tool.avante wrote:Zippy, my man, these pictures where you have the reference photo of Angelina Jolie and Katty Perry...and just now even more: goddamn love the green brown of Rihanna, but honestly most of them look f*cking awesome, like really man, nice job!!
I'm wondering a bit tho (I am not that familiar Photoshop) but as I understand you'll use the reference image to 'select the colors in paint' ; the 6 round area's: those are the color you'll use.
And then...well the irises below are made in Photoshop right?
Is that (the coloring I mean) like sort of automatic; or can you change the colors to the ones you got from paint easily?
And than afterwards, can you like make small adjustments to the color tones still?
This all seems really nice; I think it's a great post and contribution, thank you, good to see you are keeping busy!
Yep the bottom irises are done in photoshop. Thats what I use primarily.
* Keep in mind that the above pictures are in full blown up size on your screen so when printed the bottom irises will only be half inch diameter unless you resize them.
And youre welcome and thanks for lookin!
Re: Ideas for making home made cusom eyeballs.
If you make a set to put in your doll. Make sure to go heavy on the 3d veins just outside the iris.In such cases its best to do the vein work after the iris sticker is pressed onto the surface. And perhaps use a red sharpie to blend the edge of the iris with the veins by tracing the iris edge. Otherwise it will just look like vibrant red yellow eyes.(similar to the example pic below) The veins are what gives the fierce look.
Also try to match the sclera color to the one on the template. Small details is what makes the eyes as they are.
Re: Ideas for making home made cusom eyeballs.
And then...well the irises below are made in Photoshop right?
Is that (the coloring I mean) like sort of automatic; or can you change the colors to the ones you got from paint easily?
And than afterwards, can you like make small adjustments to the color tones still? [quote]
As far as the after edit ability of color it is possible to partly edit the colors simply by using hue saturation tool under the image section on the window tool bar .However if you only wanted to edit portions of the colors you will need to do some copy and pasting and erasing in order to keep what you want. That or specifically design the eye in layers with that in mind. That's why I made the wide ranged template so I could have that option available to me. You can edit individual strand grains and pretty much any portion of the eye you want easily. It took a long time to make it but it was worth it when it comes to the possibilities im able to create now. :p
Jolie Edit using image > hue/saturation tool: Just dragging the slider changes the colors automatically.(First use the square selection tool to select the white box areas. Otherwise you'll edit the whole template.)
You can also change the level of saturation and the lightness of the eyes in the same tool.
Re: Ideas for making home made cusom eyeballs.
If you print these out for use with MF style eyeballs or your own style etc. and find the image isn't matching up to the lenses or they are to big or small for your tastes just resize them by creating 2 new files in which the dimensions are set to the desired size. (What ever size Cabochons you're using). Then individually select the white boxed areas and copy the iris and paste it into one of the new boxes. Then resize the iris to fit the box. (Make sure to hold down the shift key on the keyboard as you drag the corners of the image to resize them. This locks the ratio/proportions of the image as its scaled.) Then save the file as a .jpg file type after you're done.
Make sure your dimensions are of equal height and width because the white box areas are 1/2 in x 1/2 inch dimension. Example: 12 mm x 12mm, 1.2 cm x 1.2 cm, etc.
Re: Ideas for making home made cusom eyeballs.
Also If you are making your own master template. Make sure to include a tiny alignment mark on the outer part of the iris. This helps you transfer your intended alignment to the eyes. a miss placed pupil can make the difference between a doll looking at you or a bug eyed stare the dot will help with that.