Best Of

I hope you'll have a look at this odd experiment from an amateur.

I've made two simple animatronic masks in the past, both for classes I was taking. One was at a small special fx shop in Manhattan, and the other at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I no longer have access to the materials and equipment I used back then. (Some of which are poisonous chemicals I probably wouldn't be allowed to have in my apartment anyway.) So I'm always looking for cheap and easily available substitutes.

A few years ago I was watching a video in which a fursuiter was being interviewed for a local TV newscast. He was showing off his home-made costume, which was pretty impressive. It had the typical hollow mascot head, and as he showed the interior, I could see, squinting at the low-resolution video, that it was supported by some kind of metal framework. I thought, "this is homemade? Who can do metalwork at home?" Then the guy humblebrags, "So as you can see, I made this out of paper clips..."

Brilliant!

So I bought a box of paper clips. Don't laugh! It seemed the perfect cheap substitute for a fiberglass shell or vacu-formed plastic. The metal is easily pliable, but holds its shape when you are done shaping it.

I conceived of a face-hugging metal framework, upon which a mask could be built. My jaw would be uncovered, so the character could talk. I wanted to put the eyes near the sides of the head, to achieve an alien/animal look. And, I wanted the eyes to blink. I came up with a clever mechanism for this.



I taped strips of paper to the eyelids so that it's easier to see them move in the video. The eyes blink when I scrunch up my nose. There are no motors or batteries; just a couple of rubber bands. The eyelids are not connected to each other, so each one can wink independently.

Details to follow.