Enhancing Robot/Camera Eyes.

DanBKing

Dan the Man
After making a decision to super-detail a model of a robot, I was not too pleased with the printed eyes of the robot. I wanted to give them depth, for a more pleasing 3D effect.

The robot subject in question was the 2X scale WALL-E model available here: http://www.paper-replika.com/index....4:wall-e-&catid=28:disney-movie&Itemid=206072

I wanted to replicate the rings and tubes of the lens and focal carriers within the eye. On the model the maximum eye opening is 12mm in diameter.
Within the opening is the outer ring which holds the lens, this has a 10mm outer diameter and is 1mm thick. Within this is the center ring which is 1.5mm thick and the inner diameter is 4mm.

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I decided to use a cone shape as the eye socket. So, to get the correct cutting profile for the cone, I needed 3 measurements: The large opening diameter, the small opening diameter and the depth of the cone.
In this case the large opening is 12mm, the small opening is 6mm and the depth is 10 mm.
Using this handy web-based calculator: http://www.i-logic.com/conecalc.htm I calculated the outer and inner ring diameter and the segment angle needed to cut the flat shape that will form the cone. These are my results:

Flat Pattern Dimensions
Large Radius 20.8806
Small Radius 10.4403
Segment Angle 103.4452

Using a compass cutter I cut the smaller and larger circles from thick (300gsm), matt black card.
Accuracy to 4 decimal places is obviously not required here, and I cut mine to 20.5mm, 10.5mm.
The segment angle should be as accurate as possible though and I used 103.5°
Once cut out, I used my trusty bottle stopper as a mandrel to form the cone...

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Next up, I made the outer ring by winding 2mm wide strips of 120gsm paper around a 9mm dowel until the thickness of the ring was around 1 mm.

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Next up the inner ring, which is more of a thick walled tube as it is 6mm long. So, as before I used 6mm wide strips of paper and built up the tube to a wall thickness of 1.5mm.
As I slid the tube off the dowel the wraps moved ever so slightly, but the effect ended up looking more realistic as the tube walls angles inwards at the end of the tube. Also in this pic you can see the cone made up and glued using a strip of paper on the back of the join. The large ring I coloured a dark grey with a marker.

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The outer walls of the small tube were coloured dark grey and the sloped walls at the end of the tube was coloured blue. The tube was glued to the bottom of the cone and the large ring was glued to the top of the cone as shown here...

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(The reasoning behind the blue colour, is a little artistic license I added to the model. The model is a gift for my very special lady and she always said WALL-E would like nicer with blue eyes..:rolleyes:)

I liked the effect, but something was still missing...... And then I had an idea. The coloured heads of map pins are about 4mm in diameter.........

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So, I used a black headed pin and by cutting off most of the pin and gluing the head into the top of the tube, this is the effect you get! ......

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By changing the length of the inner tube, and the colour of the pin head, you can create WALL-E or Terminator type eyes.... :twisted:

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In the case of the WALL-E model, the eyes are behind a glass cover. I used clear plastic film glued to the back of the eye opening, followed by the eye assembly itself. Please note, that the following photos show a test build of the eye as the lens is very scratched and marked. It will be perfectly clear in the alpha build, which you can follow here: http://www.zealot.com/forum/showthread.php?p=971558#post971558

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If you have any questions or ideas, please feel free to post them or PM me if you prefer.!!


:wave:
 

Revell-Fan

Co-Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
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DAN, THIS IS GORGEOUS! Great enhancement! I'll be following your example. Thank you for sharing!
 
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