Ahsoka Tano - Revisting my Daughter's Costume

[WebChief]

I've been talking about this for well over a year and with the approach of Celebration 5 coming this summer, I decided I needed to revisit this.

Back in 2008, I had made an Ahsoka costume for my daughter to wear in a local Halloween parade with our group in the 501st New England Garrison. It looked pretty good but the headpiece lacked the depth I wanted and was just too heavy for her to wear. It was made with Crayola air dry clay over a chicken wire frame and finished off with latex caulking. She enjoyed portraying the character but didn't like wearing the headpiece because it was so uncomfortable. After being prodded several times to sculpt one and mold it in latex or memory foam, I've finally decided to pick the project back up again.

First stab at the costume in 2008:

My first attempt back at it was this past fall using pink foam for the base of the headpiece. For a few weeks, I thought about just carving it out of the foam itself but it just lacked the correct feel and shape. Foam alone was just too stiff. It needs to be softer.

Since that was an utter and complete failure I decided to start sculpting a base out of clay that I'd eventually pull latex or Dragon Skin casts of. I'm MUCH happier with the dimensions of this version and how it's coming out.

Here's a look at the first night's rough:

Here's where it stands now:

Here's a 360 degree view of the sculp that I put up on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNoY-osrE08

 

[duck]

It's looking pretty good so far. I'm liking the basic shape... once you are happy with that, I'm sure the smoothing will come. I'd make the top of the horns much more pointed, though. The topography of Tano's head remind me of wind swept sand dunes, with 3 crisp beveled planes (center, side and back) meeting in one sharp point.

 

[WebChief]

See, I'm not so sure about points though. If anything, I was actually thinking they were too tall. Depending upon the picture you look at, they kind of change it.

I'm definitely far from done here so I'm sure I'll step away and change everything a few hundred times more. hahaha

 

[WookieeGunner]

Don't know if this helps, but here is a pic of the voice actress standing next to an Ahsoka. The caption leads me to believe it is an official LFL one. Or you might check with TK-409, I believe there was an official Ahsoka at the White House with him. Might be able to find a few pics to get a feel for how LFL is portraying a non-CGI version.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_N2VEoIDh4...vj00/s400/AHSOKA+TANO+AND+ASHLEY+ECKSTEIN.jpg

 

[WebChief]

Thanks for the pic, I've seen her in person actually though. She was wearing an official LFL Ahsoka costume. I actually met her the Friday morning before the White House gig when we were both in a group on the Today Show on NBC for their Halloween episode. I was in clonetrooper armor. We talked back in the green room and I got a great look at the headpiece. It was constructed out of a memory foam type material.

I'm the clone on the left:

 

[WookieeGunner]

If it was a memory foam material, then it is probably poured from a self-skinning foam like Smooth On's Foam-It:

http://www.smooth-on.com/Rigid-and-Flexible/c10/index.html

or Monster Maker's Foam Latex:

http://www.monstermakers.com/product/the-monster-makers-foam-latex-system.html

 

[duck]

See, I'm not so sure about points though. If anything, I was actually thinking they were too tall. Depending upon the picture you look at, they kind of change it.

I guess I wasn't clear, I was simply referring to the shape, not size. Your horn tops are round beady things, I'm suggesting they go into crisp points. I very much agree they are to large and tall in size. I think they should be significantly lower, closer to the surface. Something like this:

 

[WebChief]

Ahhhh... gotcha Duck. Thanks!

 

[duck]

I'd also move the points back a bit like this:

 

[Evil Benius]

Looking forward to seeing your 2.0 complete. The original costume you made your daughter is what I actually used to convince iycis to get started on her own.

 

[Jinyo]

Wow, nice work on your daughter's costume!
I think I met you at Dragon*Con '08. I was there with my girlfriend, who was wearing her Ahsoka costume. It was still a little rough, as we had spent the first two nights of the con still making the headpiece.
Good luck on your new headpiece, I look forward to seeing it when you're done!

 

[WebChief]

Duck: Thanks again for all your advice! I appreciate the help!

Evil Benius: Thank you. I'm hoping to get the first cast done by the time you and Iycis come up in Feb.

Jinyo: Thank you. Nope, I wasn't at DCon in '08. I went in '06, '07 and '09.

I made some major changes to the sculpt last night.

- scooped out a bowl shape into the top of the head
- shortened and pointed the "horns"
- added the widow's peak
- evened out the top of the back tenticle a bit

 

[WebChief]

Front triangles added.

 

[AlHazred]

Looking sharp!

 

[Darth Mule]

Looks good so far. The one concern I have is that the base of your headpiece may end up being too narrow. Those foam heads are kinda cartoony and alien-like in that respect. It narrows dramatically toward the chin. It looks like that's what this one does, but it could be a trick of the camera angle.

Your Akul Teeth look great! And your daughter makes a great Ahsoka.

 

[WebChief]

Thanks guys!

The foam head IS pretty small, it's roughly 22 inches around the brow BUT my daughter has a fairly small face so I'm comfortable with it fitting.

 

[Danakin]

This is shaping up really well, can't wait to see more!

 

[duck]

Looks good so far. The one concern I have is that the base of your headpiece may end up being too narrow. Those foam heads are kinda cartoony and alien-like in that respect. It narrows dramatically toward the chin. It looks like that's what this one does, but it could be a trick of the camera angle.

Your Akul Teeth look great! And your daughter makes a great Ahsoka.

That may be a bit of my fault. I kind of encouraged Bob to err on the side of narrow since the thing will be cast out of Dragon Skin and filled with styrofoam beads and/or polyfil of some sort. My reasoning was it would be better tho have the tentacles hug the face and since the would be very flexible, any reasonable sized head could fit in it. I figured we've seen too many Ahsoka/Shaak ti/what have you type head pieces that hang way far away from the sides of the head, causing all sorts of issues with exposing the ears and hair and stuff.

Bob agreed and time will tell if my advice was really, really dumb!

 

[Goldenrod]

The only thing i can see right off is the widows peak is slightly off center.
Hold your sculpt in front of a mirror and you'll see what i mean.
Other than that its looks great!

 

[WebChief]

I'm still agreeing with you Mark. Dragon skin is soft and the tendrils will push away from the face a bit (plus... this foam head is slightly bigger than my daughter's head already). I'm thinking it should be fine.

Goldenrod: Thanks. I had noticed that unfortunately. Should be a fairly easy fix though.

Thanks for all the comments guys!