DIY Eyes

After seeing some people making DIY Eyes, I decided to give it a go. While i wait for my DIY eyes order to arrive, i went ahead to make some eyes in Inkscape. Which eye should i make when my order arrives?

(The wait is killing me)

Eyes by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

Ooohh I really like them all but I really like the blue and green ones from the second set type

I like the blue ones at the bottom.

The blue ones at the bottom look the best to me, quite unique--I love the fade from dark to light! The 1st red ones are looking pretty cool too, I feel like a girl with those in would end up a little devilish looking.

Personally I like the ones with the dark pupils--the style types in the middle. Not sure on which color I like though.

 

Are you going to just glue the prints to the lenses, or are you going to sparkle them up a bit first?

I made a green and red version of the last set of eyes. I'm still waiting for my order to arrive, hoping it will be today.

 

Not sure about gluing the prints to the lenses, what type of clear adhesive do you recommend?

I might try spraying a clear coat on the printout and attach it to the lenses before the paint drys. Dunno if the ink will smudge, gotta try it out.

As for sparkle, i got some metallic printable paper. I will do a test printout on a pearl color sheet and see if i like it.

I used Gem Tack on my girls' eyes. It takes forever to dry (24+ hours), but when it does dry it dries crystal clear and is quite tough. The slow drying is kind of nice, actually, because it gives you plenty of time to adjust things or wipe off excess glue.

 

As for spraying a sealer, I'd recommend it. Probably more than one coat for good measure; I had sprayed a coat on Nanoha's eyes take 1, but the ink on the print still ran. The final eyes had like six coats of sealer on them because I was utterly paranoid after that. I think it's better to go with gloss than matte for the eyes, especially if you end up going with the pearl, because some of the matte ones can kill anything sparkly.

Still waiting for my DIY eyes

 

I bought a DDH-06 Eye Hole Closed almost fortnight ago and only decided to try and open up the eyes. Fearing that i will mess up during the process, I think i did a good job of it

DDH-06 Closed Eyes by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

 

Now back to the eyes, i did a quick test fitting to see how they looked and which ones to make.

I'm liking my ver.3 eyes at the moment.

 

Ver.1 Eyes

Green Eye Test Ver.1 by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

Blue Eye Test Ver.1 by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

Red Eye Test Ver.1 by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

 

Ver.2 Eyes

Green Eye Test Ver.2 by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

Blue Eye Test Ver.2 by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

Red Eye Test Ver.2 by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

 

Ver.3 Eyes

Green Eye Test Ver.3 by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

Blue Eye Test Ver.3 by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

Red Eye Test Ver.3 by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

I think these eyes look great!!! I love the style of the last ones the most, but they are all very nice!!!

 

Good job on opening the eyes as well!! I have only opened the eyes on one Obitsu head and I am working on opening the eyes of 2 VMF50 heads. It's kinda fun butcan be nerve wracking. ~__^

I like a lot the first model of red eyes. I don't know too much about DIY eyes, where did you purchase them from? I hope them to arrive soon. I'm tempted to design my own eyes too .

DDH06 head is very nice, I wan't to get one!

I really like the look of the first two green and blue eyes in the head. I also like the last two sets of blue and red style. The green isn't as nice on that last style to me tho, not sure why. I'm not a fan of the dark pupils either altho I normally like that look.

 

I think a faceup is needed so I can choose better....

 

( or just because I want to see this girl closer to finished )

 

 

 

Billy

I should be getting my eyes tomorrow

 

I wasn't too fond of the first 2 set of eyes and i made a couple of changes to the 3rd set. Also i made them into a 2 tone color scheme.

 

This is what they look like now.

 

IMGP6539 by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

Oooh, those red-and-yellow ones are gorgeous! I'm usually ambivalent toward red eyes, but those ones make me think of flames.

Those are really cool eyes. I agree with poof, the red and yellow ones look awesome, they remind me of Shana's. I also like the blue and green ones (the ones at the top) too!

Ooh, I really like the two-tone eyes! That was my favorite design from the original set, too. Looking forward to see how they turn out

I finally got around to making the eyes. In the process i wasted 2 sets of eyes

I basically had trouble gluing the printouts to the lenses. I tried white craft glue. It seemed ok at first, but as to dried (takes forever) air pockets showed up. Also the lenses are concave which also made it difficult to glue. I decided to sand the lenses flat using the following grit sandpaper. 240 > 600 > 1200 > 2000. Then finished off with "fine" then "finish" polishing compounds. Since it was hard gripping on the lens while sanding i got some masking tape and looped it, sticky side facing out and stuck it to the outer side of the lens. It made a big difference, no more losing grip then accidentally sanding my fingers.

 

Instead of using white glue, I tried using Mr Color Clear Gloss paint as the adhesive. I already sprayed a clear coat on the printout using this paint. I got a brush and dolloped the paint on the print out and got the lens and placed it on the eye, then pressing down hard to remove any air bubbles and adjusting it to the correct position. This is the most tricky part as the air bubbles can be very stubborn

 

If i messed up i had to peel off the printout, and clean off the lens. Sanding and then re-polishing the lens, then try again.

 

Here's Alicia demoing the eyes:

22mm

Custom Eyes 22mm by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

 

Custom Eyes 22mm by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

 

24mm

Custom Eyes 24mm by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

 

Custom Eyes 24mm by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

Wow those turned out really nice. Good job

They look really nice! I think all of your hard work and dedication paid off!

Just... wow....

 

She is absolutely gorgeous! Those 24mm ones are just stunning on her. The two tone colors are perfectly suited for her. Excellent job my friend!

 

Now who will get those awesome fire colored eyes?

 

 

Billy

Those came out very nice

Is it essential to glue the prints to the lens? I just popped mine in and they stayed ok, just curious if it looks better when attached.

I was thinking of not gluing the printouts to the lens, then i found out when looking at an angle the lens becomes reflective. Also gluing the lens makes the printouts more vivid.

 

Left: No adhesive

Right: With adhesive

 

90~ degree angle

90~ degree angle by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

 

45~ degree angle

45~ degree angle by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

 

15~ degree angle

15~ degree angle by XOHimitsuOX, on Flickr

Ahhh! I have this same issue with the eyes in Mamimi! At certain angles, her eye color just disappears! I'm glad you shared this with us, now maybe I can redo her eyes to make them so they don't do this. Thank you!

 

 

Billy

Yeah, I ran into this with Agatha's eyes too. Just some weird refractive property of that plastic, I think.

 

I have also run into the glue bubbles issues. I've gotten the best results by letting the lens/iris dry on its own, *completely*, before assembling the eyes. Still takes forever, but then it dries properly; if you assemble it too soon you end up with a murky mess. Agatha and Nanoha's current eyes I did let dry prior to assembly, and while there are some glue bubbles, you can't tell unless you're literally nose-to-nose with them and at just the right angle.

Can i ask here, where did you bought this blank eyes? ^^

Ahah! Thanks so much for the comparison photos! That's exactly the issue I saw with my DIY Eyes. If gluing them fixes the refraction problem, that makes them much more appealing

 

Anouc- they're sold here: http://pupapa.com/shop/index.php?cPath=27_71

Not sure if there's another place to buy them in bulk, but Pupapa has cheap shipping (at least for USA)