Eye designs

Been making some eye designs and they're quite fun to do, although not sure how they'll translate to actual resin eyes. I don't think the starry eyes will work well but I'd like to try them anyway. Feedback welcome!

Those are so cute! I really love the dark blue and the pink starry eyes! And the Miku eyes are adorable. (I see you scary Miku! xD) 

ohh i hope u try to make them into real eyes i wana see how they look!

These are cute! I really like the multi color starry eye. I'd buy that.

Thank you guys! I haven't made resin eyes before so if anyone has any tips I'd appreciate it! Actually been putting it off for a while now cus I'm nervous lol.

 

Oh yea! the bottom eyes were inspired by older Vocaloid Nendoriod faces

 

Those are very nice! I really like the starry eyes (especially the blue one) and the snowy eyes. I hope you'll post pictures if you make them! I always wanted to try making my own (a starry type, even), but the tutorials I found only covered how to make the actual eyes. I have no idea how the printing process works so they come out the right size on the paper though. Maybe that's just supposed to be common knowledge or something.

Oh yes printing- I have printed these out a while ago pretty much winged it which wasted paper and ink, I wrote a "walkthrough" for anyone maybe not familiar with how resolution/digital images work hopefully it'll be helpful and not just some insane rambling LOL

So to begin les fire up your art program of choice (I used clip studio paint but there's GIMP and FireAlpaca which are free) and create a blank 2480x3508 sized canvas that is 300 DPI (pixel density) which is the standard print resolution for A4 paper.

If you already have eyes to print:

- Open your image as a new file on the program and check the image's resolution and DPI as these may need to be changed, Search for a resolution calculator and input pixel to mm (milimeters) for a better idea how big it'll print. If you're like me and still not sure how that'll translate to paper it might be worth measuring your own doll's eyes. If the file is not in line with the scale you're after use the resolution converter to calculate the desired size, then with the art program change the images resolution to the correct size. You may also want to change the image colour format to CMYK if that hasn't been done yet for better print colours.

- once it's at the correct DPI and size import it to your A4 canvas it'll be very small so you'll have room for heaps of eyes! it might be worth having a few in different sizes if you're still not confident how it'll turn out. Once you're happy with the layout it's time to print...unfortunately my printer hates me so I don't have advice for this part, just check off every high quality setting and it should be fine!

Starting from scratch:

- For a easier time with scaling your drawing I reckon it's better to figure out what size you want the iris to roughly be before starting, you only really need to measure the height of the iris as the width never surpasses the height (unless they're a goat) but I'll be including the width just because it'll be easier for examples later. Typically iris height of 18mm to 20mm for 20mm or 22mm doll eyes seem safe but for better grasp on the scale I'd also suggest measuring doll eyes you already own and decide from there.

- Now that you have the measurements in millimeters (mm) we'll translate them to pixels. You can find websites that'll do this, For an example on how this works let's say the size of iris I want is 18mmx14mm so inputting that it will translate to 213x165 pixels 300DPI on a digital canvas. Whatever resolution it's translated to is gonna be quite small and difficult to work with but we can increase the resolution with ratios! Back to my example the ratio of this 213x165 resolution is 1:1.29 so I could up the resolution to 2000x2580 (I personally wouldn't go any higher than this) without the scale being out of whack.
PixelCalculator shows the ratio after calculating so you can up the res there and create a new canvas using those numbers, Otherwise any half decent drawing program will let you change an image's resolution on an image anytime while keeping to the ratio so if you'd like to make a canvas the original size and up the resolution through there that'll work too, just make sure it's 300DPI!

- One last thing to mention before you start drawing! if your drawing program has the option maybe change the colour format to CMYK which is the format printers use for colour, if your program doesn't have this option there are websites that can change RGB to CMYK just be aware that CMYK is more saturated and usually loses some shading depth compared to RGB.

- Okay no more boring stuff time to draw! Obviously you will have to size down your completed drawing to the original pixel resolution so keep in mind the iris may be pixelated when finished but it won't really be noticeable after printing. As mentioned above drawing programs have options to change the image's resolution anytime so that's a good way to check if any details will be lost during the process. I'd suggest to make the iris occupy the entire canvas touching the border for maximum size accuracy otherwise the empty space may throw off your measurements- of course you don't have to follow the ratio exactly if you want a wider or longer iris but any adjustments will be more noticeable when down scaled.

- Once your drawing is complete and scaled back down to the correct size let's import it to your A4 canvas! it should be quite small and may be a bit blurry up close but as stated it won't be that bad when printed. Once you're happy with the layout save your image and print! Sadly my printer only works when it feels like it so I don't have much advice on how to get it to obey, just check every high quality box and make sure the numbers add up (DPI etc) and the colour format matches. You should have iris ready now yay!!!

 

Below are the eyes I printed from trial and error, you can see they're very saturated as I didn't fix the colour format to CMYK oops

Thank you so much! That's a really detailed explanation of the process. I'm going to have to give it a try. I also never knew that the measurement referred to the vertical height of the iris; I always thought it was the diameter of the resin eyeball haha.

37 minutes ago, Skorpion9x said:

I also never knew that the measurement referred to the vertical height of the iris; I always thought it was the diameter of the resin eyeball haha.

It does refer to the diameter of the eyeball. OP just also measured the iris in millimeters.

Oh I see. Thank you for the clarification.

Very cool project and I think your eye designs will work well!

For the eyes themselves you have a couple of different options you could try, from what I've seen other anime eye makers do.

• Put your printed designs on TOP of a white eye dome base, and coat with clear UV resistant resin. This creates less glassy glare, and puts the design right against the eyewell in the doll's face.
• OR
• Put your printed designed UNDER a clear glass/resin dome to make a more glassy "follow-me" eye effect. 

3 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

It does refer to the diameter of the eyeball. OP just also measured the iris in millimeters.

Good distinction here, yes! 
(I'm an eye maker for context here lol)

You'll want measurements of the total eye size (I use digital calipers for this), as well as what your Iris size will be. Some people ask for larger overall eye sizes, but smaller irises, depending on their doll needs.

6 hours ago, Beansproutmomo said:

Good distinction here, yes! 
(I'm an eye maker for context here lol)

You'll want measurements of the total eye size (I use digital calipers for this), as well as what your Iris size will be. Some people ask for larger overall eye sizes, but smaller irises, depending on their doll needs.

Haha they don’t really talk about this in the JP doll community, so I didn’t become aware of it until I started shopping on Taobao, where they list the iris size relative to the eyeball (for SD eyes anyway).

Do you know if there are generally standard sizes for the iris, or is it arbitrary/up to each individual maker?

10 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

It does refer to the diameter of the eyeball. OP just also measured the iris in millimeters.

Oh yeah sorry I should've specified that thanks for the clarification!

 

7 hours ago, Beansproutmomo said:

Very cool project and I think your eye designs will work well!

For the eyes themselves you have a couple of different options you could try, from what I've seen other anime eye makers do.

• Put your printed designs on TOP of a white eye dome base, and coat with clear UV resistant resin. This creates less glassy glare, and puts the design right against the eyewell in the doll's face.
• OR
• Put your printed designed UNDER a clear glass/resin dome to make a more glassy "follow-me" eye effect. 

Gonna try the latter option! I was going to follow jadepixeldoll's guide so in the hemisphere mold it'll be clear resin > eye print > clear resin > white resin base. It's been awhile since I used resin and the first time using a mold hopefully I don't botch it too bad or like burn my hair off with a blowtorch (that almost happened once)

18 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

Haha they don’t really talk about this in the JP doll community, so I didn’t become aware of it until I started shopping on Taobao, where they list the iris size relative to the eyeball (for SD eyes anyway).

Do you know if there are generally standard sizes for the iris, or is it arbitrary/up to each individual maker?

Ooh they don't? Interesting! 😮 
I am not sure on standards, but I usually just go by whatever mold types I can purchase for making the bases. I have several from Cubeco and some just generic eye molds, and they tend to come in a 'small' and 'large' iris size. (sometimes you will see them listed as "C" for small. IE: 12mm-c = 12mm small iris)Seems to be kind of up to the maker on that? Some stores offer a big range of irises, and I think those folks do like the 3D printed bases so they can make them whatever size is needed.
That's for like regular round eyes though, I suppose. For the Anime eyes, that's a whole other ballgame since you can make those without standard eye molds. 

I did recently pick up some of these anime eye molds that are like inset eyes, not a round cabochon if that makes sense? lol
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808042241776.html
They have round, egg, and square shapes and many sizes per mold.

I'll link some of my fave taobao shops here for y'all too, just in case!

(Taobao links viewed through ParcelUp, as I find that site easier to view. You can grab the direct TB link off these pages though.)

Some anime eye insert molds from Cubeco. They also have lots of great pupil and base options in this shop. 
https://parcelup.com/shop/item.php?id=738365420216&cfc=27e5920ef2324eea532c6a1eee170661#5266549942403

This seller has many neat eye molds! I have some of their handle molds for the backs of eyes, and it really helps you position them in the doll head.
https://parcelup.com/shop/item.php?id=606764471328&cfc=27e5920ef2324eea532c6a1eee170661#4478837354440

 

16 hours ago, most-Kasane-Teto-fan said:

Gonna try the latter option! I was going to follow jadepixeldoll's guide so in the hemisphere mold it'll be clear resin > eye print > clear resin > white resin base. It's been awhile since I used resin and the first time using a mold hopefully I don't botch it too bad or like burn my hair off with a blowtorch (that almost happened once)

Perfect, yes sounds like a great plan! 
LOL on the blowtorch, yes be careful! 😆 I prefer a heat gun these days, bc it can be a slower heat to build up and is less fire. lol
I also recommend keeping a little handy spritz bottle of isop. alcohol to pre-spray your molds with, before adding resin. I found it helped reduce some bubbles if the mold was a little wet and less static-y. 🤗 You can also spritz the filled mold with alcohol to pop any surface bubbles without heat.

For topcoats, I love to use uv gel nail topcoats that are specifically "Tempered". This will make sure the eyes are yellowing, staining, and scratch resistant! A nice thing for something that gets handled a lot and can sometimes sit directly on faceup materials. I coat all of my eyes in a tempered topcoat now, and I can definitely tell a difference.

@Beansproutmomo thank you, that was very helpful!

Awesome! You are so welcome, happy to share any info I can!