![]() First I traced the dark circle you see in the picture. This is a tedious step and I will admit to you right now I messed up several eyes before I got it right. ![]() Since I chose to work with plastic, I decided to heat the plastic just enough to be pliable. I wanted my iris to be concave to cause light to play on it like a real iris. The iris is either flat or even concave, not convex and when light plays through your eye I feel it makes a difference. Well this is all well and fine if you wish to go that route but I feel that it doesn't give a look of realism. Many of the how to articles I read made use of irises printed on a laser printer. I trimmed one of the paint brushes down to about 8 or 10 bristles to use for detail work using my knife. I sharpened the end of one of the paint brushes to help with a later step something to make a stand to hold your eye while you turn it into a masterpiece a container for water to use for thinning paint and one for washing out brushes some time to do a search for and study images of irises of people's eyes (or whatever critter your trying to make it look like) a large piece of paper or a disposable plate to mix paint on Candles or some other source of controlled heat At least 400 grit sand paper, fine sand paper is usually 250 grit and won't work, the higher the number the better finish the sand paper leaves. A cutting board or a sturdy surface which can be cut on without worrying about damage An exacto knife or something similarly as sharp If you have problems finding any of them in your local area/country you can probably get them off the net but that will add to the cost of your eyes. These are the items for the eyes themselves. Deep red yarn (I got this at a local second hand shop for $0.50) 18 millimeter Plastic "googly" eyes (got a pack of them from same craft shop for $1.49) Crystal clear craft glue (I found this at a local craft shop for $3.49) Unwaxed dental floss (This I had, but again you could pick some up at a dollar store) Cheap hobby paint brushes (found at same Dollar store) Cheap acrylic paint (This I found at one of the local Dollar Stores for, you guessed it a dollar.) One bottle of "high dollar" ($3.98) White, high solids acrylic nail polish often used for blending and filling. Black (if they don't have a flat black you'll have to scrape off the shine) Semi opaque pearlescent with a slight yellow tint (the brand I got calls it melon) Cheap acrylic nail polish (got this at same supply store for $0.99 a bottle) 1 inch or 25 mm "Bolo" style hair bows (I found mine at a local beauty supply store for a dollar a pack) If I get some more of the bases and some more acrylic paint, I could drive that cost down even further since I have enough of everything else to make another 20 pairs or so.Īlthough I tried several different routes these are the items which I used which turned out working best for the least money. If I did the math correctly it has currently cost about 10 dollars a pair for the eyes and I still have enough supplies to make 4 more pairs without paying any more. What follows is the path which led me to what I feel was a satisfactory end result, especially considering the cash outlay. So, I decided to do the searching for all of us and bring special effect eyes within reach of the poor college student, the underemployed budding indy filmmaker, the person who is sick of their next door neighbor always having cooler (is that a word?) Halloween decorations. I got to thinking, if I'm in this situation then there are probably a lot of other people who might be too. Or maybe if your charging a hundred bucks for your set of molds to make acrylic eyes then yeah maybe. OMG! I suppose if you make 80K+ a year then $45 to make a set of eyes may seem cheap. I got online and looked for a really cheap way to make my own special effect eyes. ![]() Okay, now the problem My budget is severely limited. If the eyes don't look real that's pretty much it. One motivation for this is that I want to get into animatronics. One of the items that I always wanted to make was the super realistic eyeballs you see in horror films. My dream job would be a special effects engineer. I've always been really into special effects.
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