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Suit Making Discussion


Summercat
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I'd love to be able to cast resin heads, but I don't have the funds for it.

Hopefully soon I'll be working on a foam half-head for a costume this Halloween. This will be my first time working with foam though, so I'm a bit nervous. Plus, it's more of a hood than a full head, so I'm not sure how that would change things... I guess I'll find out once I start working on it.

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Casting a resin head isn't too expensive, but it ain't cheap. between the cost of materials and completing a head without faults is a trial in itself. You cab buy the resin sample kits for 20 bucks, the silicone for 25, and he clay will vary. It's a good starter kit to try your hand at it.

If you are really serious about it, you'd want to buy the stuff in "bulk".

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I'll look into sample kits, then. Any brands or suppliers you recommend? So far I only know of Smooth-On and ReynoldsAM. There's a local place I've yet to check, too.
I've only cast one thing in resin before (a mask, but not an animal mask), and that was with help from a teacher. Would it be better to practice with a smaller piece, first?
I'm wondering if I could split the cost of the materials with a friend of mine, if I do buy in bulk. I would like to get into resin casting in general, for props and other costume pieces as well as fursuit heads.

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I see almost everyone getting or making a suit in that style of highschool mascot. There are toon version, realistic versions, versions where the mouth moves and the eyes follow you, but what about a version that is more like the show Face Off?

Seriously I want my first suit to be a form fitting body suit, but my face is purely prosthetic. I have had this idea for years, and roughly know how to pull it off, but there are a lot of other details I would need to work out, like my ears.

Also, what about tails? Considering my sona does have a tail body pillows would be ashamed of, what do people normally settle for when it comes to length? Do you think it would be hard to set up a rig for tails with invisible thread? <---For adjustments so you could have the long tail, but you could have it lifted off the ground if done right.

Sorry for so many questions, but I really want to make my suit one day, and I never got to ask those who are really experienced at it.

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I want to make my own resin heads so very badly.  I'm no stranger to sculpting, but large scale casting is something I've not had the time or means to do.  That is something I need to rectify so I can start making not only resin heads, but also custom Halloween masks and prosthetics.

Though for my character, I have my work cut out for me for just a partial.  I can sew fleece and cotton easily, but I want to use spandex because my sona's a fish, and even the matte spandex will still look like fish skin.

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5 hours ago, Zeke said:

I am looking to making digitigrade legs for my personal suit. Anyone have any tips to share?

Im hella inexperienced, but I wanna toss some things I saw. My friend's suit had inflatable pieces stuffed into the leg portions of his suit to fill up the legs more to give it that 'digitgrade' feel. I don't know about the specifics, but thats about all I got to offer. Maybe it'll give you some leads.

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4 hours ago, Toshabi said:

Im hella inexperienced, but I wanna toss some things I saw. My friend's suit had inflatable pieces stuffed into the leg portions of his suit to fill up the legs more to give it that 'digitgrade' feel. I don't know about the specifics, but thats about all I got to offer. Maybe it'll give you some leads.

I found a couple of things on pintrest that look appealing as well. 
http://www.komickrazi.com/tut3.php

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25 minutes ago, Zeke said:

I found a couple of things on pintrest that look appealing as well. 
http://www.komickrazi.com/tut3.php

I'm a little curious how the heating would be for that as opposed to the removable padding, but then again, there's no denying the consistency and style factor in it. I might need to reference that for when I do suit #2. 

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19 hours ago, Toshabi said:

I'm a little curious how the heating would be for that as opposed to the removable padding, but then again, there's no denying the consistency and style factor in it. I might need to reference that for when I do suit #2. 

Depends. I've worn/have a digigrade suit and it isn't that bad. Since I am working on just legs/pants, I expect it to be a bit cooler than having a whole suit on.

 

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Aye, I hear you.

 

Also, question for anyone: I'm looking into materials for furring a suit. Now, for animals that are furbased, fauxfur is the way to go, however, what about fursuits for scalie creatures like dragons and crocs? I kind of like the way the below suit came out, however, I'm not sure if that would look good for a Croconaw suit. I heard some things about buying electric razors/trimmers and cutting down fauxfur till you get a somewhat stubble look with the fur and I've heard suggestions about using fleece (though, that kinda looks a little cheap). I'm wondering what the preferred material for scalie characters is, specifically ones that would be easy to air brush.

 

dragon_fursuit_by_radywolf-d3a7i6r.jpg

 

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So fleece it is, though, I've been hearing some "Take heed" warnings about fleece in regards to how its placed on. Something about making sure the fleece is completely stretched out or something before applying it on. Do you know of any good tutorials? I know Henrieke's was referenced, however all the images of the guide are expired.

 

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19 hours ago, Toshabi said:

So fleece it is, though, I've been hearing some "Take heed" warnings about fleece in regards to how its placed on. Something about making sure the fleece is completely stretched out or something before applying it on. Do you know of any good tutorials? I know Henrieke's was referenced, however all the images of the guide are expired.

 

The foam work has to be smooth in order to place it well without any visible lumps. If you are using colored foam, you'll have to pre-line it to prevent the green or blue from showing through after going it, which means you'll have to line it with a white fleece.

And seams. Gotta be wary of the of seams. if your jaw is moveable, you can get away with it, but you still have to be cautious.

With scales, if you want to do the grunt-work, you can use puffer paint to create scaling effect for the head to help hide MOST of the seams. Sadly, there isn't any known tutorial for fleece. 


EDIT: There are suit makers who've used anti-pill fleece for their suits
https://www.facebook.com/fleecerot/photos

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Thats a lot of intel. Aight, I'm going to probably spend this whole week smoothing and applying some finishing touches before I get the ball rolling. I made the jaw moveable and pretty damn sensitive. I'll post up some WIPs later this week. Thanks for the help!

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2 minutes ago, Toshabi said:

Thats a lot of intel. Aight, I'm going to probably spend this whole week smoothing and applying some finishing touches before I get the ball rolling. I made the jaw moveable and pretty damn sensitive. I'll post up some WIPs later this week. Thanks for the help!

No prob, and good luck!

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Okay, I've got a silly question. How do you make your ears stand up? The next step for my fursuit head is to attach the ears, and I'm trying to find a method that works for me. There's foam inside them, and I was planning to just sew them to the head so eac attachment looks like this at the base -> (). I'd imagine that they might sag over time, or maybe tilt at angles I don't want. Should I run a piece of wire up there or something? If so, what kind?

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On 5/25/2016 at 11:54 PM, Xaende said:

Okay, I've got a silly question. How do you make your ears stand up? The next step for my fursuit head is to attach the ears, and I'm trying to find a method that works for me. There's foam inside them, and I was planning to just sew them to the head so eac attachment looks like this at the base -> (). I'd imagine that they might sag over time, or maybe tilt at angles I don't want. Should I run a piece of wire up there or something? If so, what kind?

The cheap route would be to use bent and cut coat hangers to give them their core shape or w/e, I know some people also will use them to do the same thing for tails.

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On 5/28/2016 at 4:15 AM, LadyRadarEars said:

The cheap route would be to use bent and cut coat hangers to give them their core shape or w/e, I know some people also will use them to do the same thing for tails.

Never use coat hangers.
The cheapest route is plastic mesh and funfoam/buckram. A second is just plain 'ol upholstery foam with a 1 inch gauge. The third option reserved for resin is worbla. 

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On 5/28/2016 at 4:15 AM, LadyRadarEars said:

The cheap route would be to use bent and cut coat hangers to give them their core shape or w/e, I know some people also will use them to do the same thing for tails.

I'd consider it, but all my coat hangers are plastic.

On 5/30/2016 at 0:42 AM, Rukh Whitefang said:

Please don't do wires, they can detach if you take a spill or just come undone at random and skewer you. Heard of that happening to someone who wired their jaw so it would hinge. Wire broke loose and stabbed them through the cheek.

Yeah, that doesn't sound fun.

On 5/30/2016 at 1:32 AM, Zeke said:

Never use coat hangers.
The cheapest route is plastic mesh and funfoam/buckram. A second is just plain 'ol upholstery foam with a 1 inch gauge. The third option reserved for resin is worbla. 

My foam is only 1/2", but I'm using a resin head base. Worbla looks awesome, but like it might have too steep a learning curve for this. Plastic mesh sounds the most promising.

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People like to tug and mess with ears so be careful with plastic mesh as it is fragile. Honestly, I use pure foam. I have a ten year old head and nooo sagging fro am its pure foam ears. Just layer your foam a tad and it should hold up just fine. Plus, suits do tend to need upkeep and repair anyways even if they do sag. Ino (Telephone's owner) has even mentioned that her suit has cost her a ton in keeping it so pristine. 

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