Movable Mask?

[LadyMegatron]

Hey all! I'm once again diving into my next Transformer. But this time I want to add something different to my design, and have the face of the character so I can at least speak. I'd love to be able to show expression as well, since the character has so many, but I'm not pushing my luck. Just to be able to get the jaw to move with me, I'd be happy. Has anyone done this before? I'm not sure where to begin, I've googled stuff and nothing really looks right. I've thought about the latex makeup effects, but never done anything like that before so I need some guidance. I'd like the thing I go with to be something I can re-use many times and not have to re-apply every time I want to get into costume (spirit glue or something like that is understandable, but not full makeup or paint, takes too much time.)
Keep in mind it's a robot, with weird angles and such, not just my own facial contours, and I have to cover my eyes with lenses so it will be a couple inches from my forehead at least to allow for that.

 

[Grave]

you can try gluing spandex over foam pieces for the jaw. that way it will look like one piece but move freely. any other emotion and you will probably have to paint your face or get into animatronics...

 

[torsoboy]

I'd love to see a human face integrated into a Transformers head. I'm not sure how far you're wanting to go, but a full face prosthetic would probably be one of the better options: you could get that nice chiseled TF face style, but you could retain full use of your mouth. The prosthetic might limit what expressions you could do, though, but i suppose that all depend on how it's sculpted in terms of how much of your face is shown versus the TF's face. Food for thought!

 

[Gigatron]

Well, I can think of two possible solutions;

1) create the lower jaw as a seperate, full foam appliance. Use spirit gum to attach it to your own jaw, so that when you speak, it moves with you. You may need to make exaggerated mouth movements though, to make the jaw show any appreciable movement.

2) create a hinged lower jaw that can be controlled via cable, that is run down the inside of the costume, to your hand. As you talk, manipulate the cable to open and close the jaw. Problems may arise from having to concentrate on speaking and moving the cable, at the same time.

-Fred

 

[LadyMegatron]

I'd love to see a human face integrated into a Transformers head.

Done it. Several times. Just never one quite like this and where I can retain my own voice and be able to speak in it. Masks for my TFs are easy enough. Making them move however, not so much.

My son and I as (my namesake) Lady Megatron (aka Meg or Megara) and Frenzy-

And my son ("Prince Starscream" as his namesake) Prince Starscream-

I made the masks myself. They are based off of plain eye masks I formed foam and material to until I got the right shapes for them and then pulled the mask out and shaped it to our own individual faces for a good fit and placement of the robotic features. Matt (my son) has such a baby face in Starscream you can barely see his lines and the squared cheeks and such. He was just 9 then. Big difference from Starscream to Frenzy. Frenzy looks much more robotic.

In the ones we did last year for us, we didn't have to worry about making them move. Bee was a fixed in position faceplate, Soundwave's got a mouthplate not an actual face, and for Wheelie we were able to leave a piece of the design out and paint in Matt's face the same color so his mouth was free and he could talk.




How would I go about making a full face prosthetic? What would I need to use to do that? Same for foam. What kind? I have a bunch of different materials and foams here.

 

[RumbleBee]

WOW...just WOW! I would think latex pieces or somewhere in that vicinity would be the way to go - ALTHOUGH please note I am merely a novice and have experimented to best of my ability to average results which i scrapped out of frustration- what I found was you kind of go for maybe 3 different expressions- the solemn robot concentration look, the smile laughter etc one and maybe a grimace of sorts (be your character a decepticon etc) the methoda I used were nothing I'd want to share with such talented people as the replica prop forum, but despite my thus far indaquate execution, I think therein lies the solution but I think, I know there are much better and advanced people that could help you better than I but good luck and keep up the great work!

 

[LadyMegatron]

:$ Aw. Thanks for the compliment Rumblebee! (and Kiddo said he loves your name too by the way. LOL!)


I'm currently looking into some possibilities, might be starting it with a type of foam clay I have and molding it from that. Have to see how it goes.


Here's the 'mask' I'm attempting. It's much harder than I've ever done before, and making it move will be a pain but will be totally worth it if I can do it. I love her expressions and her fangs, and really want those to show.

 

[crabra comander]

That Starscream is awesome! Good luck...

 

[Sonjou]

Maybe a mask that you can attach under your chin something like a harness that the mouth piece attaches to, with transformers you can have lines on the face and it doesn't look out of place. I haven't ever made anything like this but just throwing an idea out there.

here is a quick image.

 

[LadyMegatron]

Commander- ??? Jetstream? You mean Starscream? I'm guessing you meant Starscream. And thank you! It was my first robot build!


Sonjou, OMG! I can't thank you enough for that!!!!!

 

[crabra comander]

Ugh...Starscream, sorry...

 

[LadyMegatron]

It's okay. And thank you! I'm hoping my Airachnid (the one I posted reference above of that I'm building right now) will turn out decent. I'm excited!

 

[9Gs]

I'm curious to see what you come up with for this project! Best of luck, looking forward to seeing progress!

 

[LadyMegatron]

Well, I began work on the costume the movable mask is meant for, and have gotten pretty far into the costume itself as well. I don't want to post the whole progress here, as she will have her own thread, but I did want to show some of the progress of the mask/helmet since it is related to this post.
This is the helmet as it was drying outside when I was finishing up the sculpting of it-

I'll be opening and posting the rest of her in her own thread soon as I can get caught up!