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Wolfbird β 3D Eyes Tutorial
Published: 2008-05-22 02:53:15 +0000 UTC; Views: 27201; Favourites: 415; Downloads: 343
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Description
For those who are frustrated on the construction of 3D eyes (aka follow me eyes) for fursuit heads. Simple tutorial that requires materials you already have, written so people can try it first with cheap (free?) materials before cutting up more expensive ones.It's easy to find images of people's suit head with this sort of eyes, but there don't seem to be any good tutorials online. I found a youtube one, but it was 5 minutes of some chick yelling at her dogs and putting the camera on the floor while she cut things out. It was really annoying to watch, to say the least.
Here are the basics, I'm sure you're already familiar with the general idea of constructing eyes, if not there are plenty of resources available online. Apply knowledge from general eye construction with this tutorial (and of course, use materials that are more durable than the ones I used) and you should have a set of durable, spiffy eyes in no time!
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Comments: 50
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Computer paper? umm this might be a pretty dumb Q. but is computer paper clear?
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use whatever you want, really-- posterboard, cardboard, etc. This is just to show you how the mechanics of eyes work so you can practice before you cut up the real materials.
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GreenLightAdopts maybe this tutorial helps?
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Yeah! it should work! I'll try it out
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Okie! Yay I'm actually being useful lmao XD
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That's a cool idea! I want to make this. Thank you so much 4 the tutorial
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Um read the tutorial and the description
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This isn't a tutorial on how to make the eyes themselves, this is an effect tutorial.
Most people use plastic with holes cut out or buckram to see out of.
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oh crap it works anyway I used this as a tutorial and just cut a small hole in the pupil and put black mesh there and they still move
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i honestly dont recommened the toilet paper one because the lines on the roll will always be visible
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nice tutorial! I've made the pledge that I will make three furuits before the summer, and i think this'll help a lot. thanks!
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Oh, thank you for making this! I've been trying to find a good eye tutorial forever!
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Oh goodness this is soo helpful!
I'm putting together my first fursuit of my fursona(a Ethiopian Wolf) and am looking for a cheep, but durable way to make one.
Now that I've got the eye method out of the way, I have to find a place for cheep fur, and try to find a way to construct a head without all this foam!
This is the most expensive, and difficult thing to shape ever!
But may I ask you, when you do the body of your fursuit, do you just use one strip of fur, and put something like cheep fleece under it, or just wear under armor when your suiting?
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@ body construction: You can do all three quite well, actually. If you have scratchy-backed fur you will want to put a thin sheer/smooth fabric as a backing, but this might get complicated (you can't wash it apart, you have to trace and cut more patterns). Go for the undersuit thing; you can wash that separately (much like pants and underwear, you shouldn't re-wear undies but you can re-wear pants a few times). I have not yet backed anything that I've sewn, but I mostly use fleece anyway and that's nice and soft and washes well.
Don't be discouraged about the cost of shaping the head. Assuming you own a ball of strong string and a pair of scissors, the only other things you really need for the foam understructure is a chunk of cushion foam (free from salvage or $2 at Wal-Mart) and some plastic mesh. I've heard others crap all over plastic mesh (you can also buy this at Wal-Mart for 3/$1 and you need perhaps 6) as it "deforms easily", but I never found this to be true. I do all sorts of horrible things to my mesh-based heads and they're still fine. I have an all-foam head too but those are harder to work with for beginners because you need to support it (they flop over otherwise... plastic mesh stands up by itself which is nice). I've covered my heads with el cheapo fabric from the discount bins, and looking at them you'd never guess I made them with the sort of money that kids spend on candy
Good luck!
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hey is a balaclava base a good way to start? I am gonna be making my first fursuit as well and i have the foam balaclava and mannequin head
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Any way is a good way to start, assuming you do the research first. Balaclava/foam is nice because you don't require special tools though; you can probably make the entire thing with supplies purchased from Walmart.Β
Just uh, don't use plastic mesh. Fursuiting has moved on since that method was invented a decade or whatever ago.
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Alright sounds good I just saw some youtubers make tutorials and they make the fursuit head starting with the plastic meshΒ
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I bet they didn't mention that plastic mesh gets really brittle after a while and falls apart? It's not any easier or cheaper than foam, just avoid it!
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I'm trying to do this myself at the moment lol Is it the shape of the paper around the eyes that help too? that lemon kinda shape? and how far back they are placed inside the head I would imagine...
I'm doing the eyes in my fursuit at the moment I haven't put the paper/foam around the eye hole yet, I just have the eye shapes, buckram etc ready, right now the eyes aren't following me :< is this simply because they don't have the paper around the eye?
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Sorry for the long AFK, I've abandonned DA for FurAffinity.
I don't know how big your eyes are, but it may have to do with your eyes not being deep enough in proportion to surface area.
This fox [link] has small eyes (about as big as human eyes) and are only about 1 cm deep. They track nicely though. Some of my other heads have larger eyes that are also 1 cm deep, but they generally do not track as well as the fox's.
Hope it helps :3
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Thank you very much for that it did help!! ^__^ they are working fine now lol
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Awesome. Thanks for making this helpful tutorial. The only thing that bugs me is what to use to see through the pupils of the eyes. I've tried sunglasses and plastic canvas...but I don't know if it would work with my first foam fursuit head, FireRocket. Any suggestions?
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Sorry for the long AFK, I've abandonned DA for FurAffinity.
I stay away from sunglasses. They're hard to cut properly without the proper tools and just fog up all the time. Plastic mesh looks bad (normally), but has the advantage of being easy to see out of.
Myself, I normally use sheer dark fabric. If you are NOT using hot glue and are not concerned about durability, go ahead and try some nylon stockings (but they melt easily and rip if you're mean to them). If you live near a fabric store, hold thin black fabric up to your eyes until you find one you like. Personally, I've always found that light colors like white do not work as well for visibility, as they tend to obscure things more.
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Cool. :3 Thanks for the advice Wolfbird! ^^
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So THAT'S how they work! Thank-you so much for explaining this! I'm only new to this whole fursuit thing and I was wondering what follow-me-eyes were and how they work. I'll be sure to use this when making my first fur suit. Thank-you!
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Picutres please :3
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I'll be sure to send you some when I've made my suit
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what is exactly computer paper? 
nice tutorial, i never tought it could be that easy
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The stuff you put in your printer. You can use anything, really.
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ahh, so that means any printable paper can do?
what a relief! i was expecting something incredible hard to find/expensive :3
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You making your own suit head or something? I wouldn't use anything soluble (that breaks down when wet) in a final head-- I normally use fun foam coz you can abuse it and it generally survives alright
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how did you guess? i'm actually pulling together my first mask attempt! saw some tutorials and i decided to do one, but i haven't really started, only bought the materials. I find foam rather difficult to manipulate so i bought felt, not thin felt but a rather "fat" one <3 i hope it will last a lot since i'm not planning on doing many fursuits (i have little space on my house for more than one)
You think you can guide me?
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Of course. Not sure what you mean by the felt though; myself, I've only seen the standard kind. In my experience some felt doesn't really like water or rough handling, but it also has a lot to do with the quality of said felt-- some items can take a beating, others start falling apart if you pull on it too much, etc.
If you have any further questions along the way, lemme know.
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yes, materials are very important, even if they are a little bit expensive, if you want your mask turning out right you'll need to invest on it
The real problem i have now is i don't know what kind of mask should i do... i mean when buying the materials i tought of doing a wolf..but now i feel i should do something else since thye are so overused...
arrgggh i can't think of how i want my fursona to be TT_TT
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If you get work in progress pictures later, I'd love to see them :3
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yesh please! i'd really like someone to rate the mask :3
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this is brilliant, this year im trying to pull off a stunt that will invo,lve me making no less than 5 cat fursuits, so naturally im going to try and make them on the cheap.
i dont have a clue and am diving into this at the deep end, methinks this will help alot
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Honestly, they're really not that complicated once you just dive right in. I'm still learning and by no means a veteran, but I'm happy with the stuff I churn out.
Might I suggest initially working with polar fleece. It's much cheaper than fur (around here, at least) and would probably look pretty nice for big cats, seeing as they have short fur anyway. Its fuzzy, stretchy in all 4 ways, and comes in infinite colors. Stretchy is good for first suits as if you make something a little too tight it's not such a big deal, compared to a too-tight unstretchy fake fur suit. The only complaint I have about fleece is the seams... they show. But careful planning (ie, trying to only sew different colors together) will pretty much eliminate noticeable seams.
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This is really cool. I've always wondered how they make things like that ever since I watched Scooby Doo.
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