Building The Puppet - Eyes & Mouth sets

July 02, 2019

Building The Puppet - Eyes & Mouth sets

The puppet will have subtle facial expressions such as blinking, smiling and confused. Thus, since the face has only eyes and a mouth, the puppet will need different sets for different expressions.

Eyes and mouth models

I decided to use 3D printing to create my different sets. At first, I thought this would be an easy task, just like model and then print, however it needed more than that. I had to know the exact measurements of my models in millimetres, which took me quite a few tries to get right. I also had to know to how use a software called Cura that works as a medium between modelling applications ( I used Maya) and the 3D printer. In addition, the 3D printer itself has a few options that I had to set such as printing speed and the material used.

The models I designed are:

Eyes: Open, half closed, closed.
Mouth: Neutral, smiley, surprised.

First, I used Maya to create my models. Then I used the software Cura to ensure they are in the right size and ready to be sent to the printer.

Example of mouth set models

It takes the 3D printer around 5 minutes to print a single model, so every time I printed a set of 3, I had to wait around 15 minutes.

3D printer printing a set of mouth models

A few times, the printer did not quite print the models as expected due to the very small size of the models I believe. Therefore, I had to reprint them with minor tweaks.

Defected printed models

I tested the very first printed models on the puppet to endure they are on the right size, and need no modification.

Testing models on the puppet

Once I was happy with the models, printed other ones in the same measurements and printing details. Then I used a file to smoothen them a get rid of the extra printed bits.