re: Jurassic Park Velociraptor Build Thread; Target Date --> Halloween 2013
Taking a break... gonna actually go power-walk for an hour or so. My brain is fried.
But I took a photo to help me check how things are gonna turn out proportion-wise (and perhaps help me with the pants / legs later on tonight), so I thought I'd post those here.
But first, here are some photos of the finished feet that I took two days ago:
And here's one where I threw on my T-shirt with the arm material, threw on the body (including the screw-on tail) and the head... just a few minutes ago:
NOTE: There are foam sheets in the stomach area that are just hanging, uncarved and unglued at this point. So that's NOT how that area is going to look, in the end.
This morning, I finished piecing together the hands and gluing them, so those will be ready for material to be applied later on tonight. My goal was to be able to hold a beer with one of the hands. I don't think that's quite possible, but I will certainly be able to hold a beer with TWO raptor hands! <grin!>
I did use red paint to bloody-up the teeth and mouth area a bit, to help disguise where I had accidentally hit the teeth with the pink flesh-tone paint.
I spent way too much time adjusting the helmet straps and the whole thing still doesn't seem quite right. I can see this is going to be a huge pain to my neck and back, so I anticipate only being able to wear this thing (without standing completely upright) in spurts.
I do anticipate shortening the base of the tail tomorrow. I'm just going to cut a good 4-6 inches off of that exposed PVC and put on a new adapter. So far, the screw-on adapter seems to be working okay. Thankfully, on Saturday, I will be outdoors. So as long as I'm conscious of where my tail is, I think I'll be alright. My wife says my tail-tip was dragging a bit so I will probably take a heat gun to that PVC joint so as to angle the tail upwards a bit more.
And I had two "oh crap" moments now that I'll have to figure out. :
1) I know there's that one video of the Fursuit maker whose Tiger of the Wind character has a jaw that is connected to her own mouth by what I had THOUGHT was a piece of elastic. So, I had purchased some elastic to use both there, and then also at the sides of the back of the mouth, to help keep the jaw closed. However, as I picked the elastic I had bought up and started thinking about how to attach it, it suddenly occurred to me that I don't think this is going to work. If I glue one end to the foam head and one end to a strap on my chin, when I flex my chin, the elastic itself will stretch. I think what's needed for that chin attachment is something that WON'T stretch. Not sure what I really need for the sides of the mouth. Any thoughts ??
2) I had told myself that on Saturday morning, I could whip out my Arduino, go manage and prep my sound files and just program it so that when I pressed a button, it would play a random sound of 1-2 seconds in length. And I'd time this with the opening of my raptor's mouth. But of course, this was a "gravy item", something that was completely on the back-burner for Saturday. I seriously hadn't thought this through: I haven't even rigged up a button / switch to my Arduino yet! And I hadn't figured out how I'd be activating this button with my chin yet! So, unless a small miracle occurs, I doubt I'll be rigged for sound in time for 2 PM Saturday. <sigh>
Tonight will be focused on covering the hands with cloth and building the legs / pants.
I know one might ask: Why are you wasting time taking 30 minutes to post here when you've got all this left to do? To that I say, it helps me think through problems and actually lowers my stress a little. Gotta go walk now, catch you all later.
And THANKS FOR YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT !!
-= Dave =-