Awalon
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Easter eggdrops
🕑 Added 2021-04-08 10:25:54 +0000 UTCHappy easter folks! Alright, realtalk on plans y'all. Let me know if I've missed something, yeah? Ideas and suggestions welcome, 'cause we're in the deep end of latex mask RnD here :)
After finishing the white kit, I can conclude...
- the suit manufacturing method works well enough
- the basic suit design is ok
- i'm mediocre at painting
- ...and most importantly, the mask is turning into the weak link, both literally and figuratively
The white suit's about 1.5mm thick all over, so plenty of exercise while wearing it. That has a massively detrimental effect on the mask - not only does the glue get wonky from all the sweat, but the forceful movement needed to e.g. turn my head puts the thin foam of the mask at risk of tearing.
I've got some ideas to get around this, first and foremost designing away the need for glue in the mask. Tensioned sections and in-mouth anchoring should in theory allow for most of the movement range around the mouth to be replicated without glue. In addition, it'd let me seal the foam piece fully from both sides - better sweat resistance overall. This would have the obvious downside of channeling sweat across the face, but we can try to solve that later.
The eyes present a different challenge. The most common glitch is for the nose-bridge to loosen, which lets the eyeholes float a few millimetres outwards from where they should be. First instinct is to add a nose-clip like most other mask-makers, but in my experience that still results in stretched/distorted eyeholes. I'm thinking it might be possible to do a full glasses-style clip that anchors the mask all the way around the eyes - probably uncomfortable to start with, but should be possible to get it to a reasonable level. Another option would be to go all-in on some more fantasy'ish designs with lenses on the mask, but that's just sidestepping a problem I'll have to solve sooner or later anyway.
Assuming the eyes get solved via internal rigid structural support, that leaves the eyebrows/forehead movement. Unfortunately quite tricky - there's very limited possibility to mechanically anchor any movement there, tensioned or not, and any friction-based solution will get obliterated by sweat after five minutes. The only thing that breaks up the flat surface are the eyebrows themselves, so my only real idea is to figure out a way to clip onto them. Difficulty factor through the roof due to the thickness requirements too - that particular area needs to be as thin as possible. But, it's either that, or requiring everyone who wants eyebrow-movement to sort out symmetrical eyebrow-piercings which'd look slightly silly... although if I truly run out of other ideas, I might do it.
I'm going to postpone the natural+blue suit a bit and try to focus on mask improvements in Q2. Luckily it meshes extremely well with the hood production automation I've been building. It's not 100% automating away all the work, but it'll get rid of the manual dipping which is both time-consuming and introduces defects. That'll let me produce a whole slew of high-quality pieces I can experiment with, and if the experiments work well it's an immediate addition to the store.
Once this is sorted (end of Q2? Mid Q3? Hard to judge with experimental RnD), I'm thinking painting will be the next focus area. I can practice a bit while trying to solve the mechanical issues, but by definition of the word I can only fully focus on one thing :)
Any obvious things I've missed? Thoughts, ideas, ...?
Comments
Avalon I
that'd be backtracking a bit - hits all the old issues like visual differences, sourcing/manufacturing issues and so on. Plus, I'm allergic to the 'choker look' :p Technically doable though, but easy to just chop a suit into that configuration later without any special prep
J M
First off - excellent shot and angle. Love the look! What about just having a bodysuit and a separate face mask with different material? As for the seam it's nothing a choker can't fix :)
