Custom ODST helmet made for charity auction

I don't know how many of you here would be interested in seeing this, but it's rare that I have anything I feel comfortable showing at the RPF... well, here goes!

A few months ago machinima producer Laird MacLean (Halo Unyielding, Paid in Blood, RvB CanWest) contacted me about donating something for his upcoming auction to benefit Child's Play, the game industry charity that provides games, toys and entertainment to kids in hospitals around the world. After some discussion about the details, I offered to make him a one-of-a-kind ODST helmet for his auction, and to jam-pack it with as many extras as I could muster. I finished this helmet last week, and shot a commercial to show off the helmet for the auction and to demonstrate the custom paint and new feature that I came up with for it: a changing transparency visor effect.



YouTube video: Child's Play Charity ODST Helmet - demonstration commercial


I thought of how to change the visible transparency of the dark tinted visors with backlighting a few months back, but didn't have an opportunity to test it out until Laird approached me to make something for the auction. I was thinking of the two way mirrors that they have in funhouses and museums that look like a mirror from the front but when backlit show something hiding behind the mirror. It's a really simple lighting trick, but I've never seen it widely used in costume helmets.

The effect is really simple. I wired led lights inside the brim of the helmet, it's truly no different that the type of LED wiring that everyone installs into their Master Chief helmets, wiring tutorial here:http://www.instructables.com/id/LEDs-for-Beginners/. I left the ends of the LED's flexible, so that I could aim and reposition them inside the helmet to evenly light the face, and to not shine directly into the eyes.

Anyhow here's a look at the LED's inside the helmet:






Lights Off.


Lights On!


The auction for this helmet begins sometime today if all goes well. I'm very much hoping that it raises some good money for Child's Play. I'll drop by and post updated links here if anyone is interested.

In the meantime if you'd like to see more photos you can look through my photobucket galleries here: http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e90/ScaryMonkey75/Laird Auction ODST Helmet/Finished Helmet PICS/

http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e90/ScaryMonkey75/Laird Auction ODST Helmet/


What do you guys think?


-Sean

Sorry for the excessive watermarks.. I've had to take these measures to keep my pics from showing up on fraudulent auctions.

wow thats cool, paint job is great, do the lights shine in your eyes at all?

Great work! I'm in love with the LED's in the helmet.

On a side note. Laird is the man. A friend and I made some Halo flags for his last auction and they went for way more than we thought they would. This will raise a pretty penny for Child's play for sure!

This looks great! I hope it raises a lot for Child's Play!

awesome helmet. great cause! im sure it will raise tons of cash. everything looks so clean. the visor effect is awesome! not to mention the vent system!

Thanks for the comments guys! And thanks for the mention over @ Facebook! Awesome!

The organizer of the auction is still feverishly trying to get everything cataloged and hosted at the auction site, I'm anticipating it to go live any minute today. I'll absolutely keep you updated when he has a link to view and bid.

@ Chuck: The LED's don't shine in your eyes, in fact they mostly will cast shadows over the rim of the eyesocket depending on the position of your head in the helmet. The LED's are positionable so that you can aim them any way that you like. You can see that I adjusted them between shooting the stills of the helmet on a mannequin and the video of me wearing it.

Thanks again!

Holy smokes. THAT IS SICK! And I've never even played Halo.

Hey Sean, absolutely love the helmet. Do you have any WIP pictures? And how did you go abt doing all the silver weathering?

Sadly I didn't do a very good job of documenting the initial build of the helmet as it was a rushed project from D*con '09, but I have done an excellent job putting out every tidbit of information I can offer since. I do have a few images of the build process online here, but what will really help is the instruction manual that I made for how to finish the helmets. That has step-by-step photos of the 'battle-worn' paint process I use on all my ODST stuff. It's available as a download here: http://rapidshare.com/files/321499572/ODST_Helmet_Kit_Instructions.doc

Also don't forget the galleries at my photobucket listed above in the first post. The second one has process photos of making this helmet.

Hope thats helpful!

that looks awesome! the pic with the mannequin head looks really cool. Love the effect.

That is nothing short of a work of art! WOW!!!

obiwan2 said:

That is nothing short of a work of art! WOW!!!

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seriously... probably the best ODST helmet I have seen.

That's amazing work. I love the way the LEDs cast those ghostly shadows over the eye sockets and cheekbones, very menacing!

Great job. I hope it fetches a good price.

great job ya did on my pdo file glad its going to a charity.

Many, many thanks to you Rundown for making that great file available to everyone! When we all contribute our expertise to this community there truly is no limit to what we can do together.

Awesome work! You've rcreated a masterpiece for a great cause. Thumbs Up! :thumbsup


ATM
ShackMan

Sean Bradley said:

Many, many thanks to you Rundown for making that great file available to everyone! When we all contribute our expertise to this community there truly is no limit to what we can do together.

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Whe all do our part and its very nice from you to give it away to charity like that =)

What a beautiful helmet, and for a good cause to boot. :thumbsup

awesome job

Props to Rundown for the Great File aswell. Easy to build etc, all around great work on that.:thumbsup

That helm looks just fantastic! And the visor lighting trick is pure awesome.:love

Also, you just got mentioned on Penny Arcade's main page. :love