palpatine mask or Should we say "Paulpatine"?
So you probably noticed that I have a few Star Wars related projects on the go, well maybe I like Star Wars.
Yeah OK, i do. I was a bit too young when the first movie came out and I've been trying to make up for it ever since. I wouldn't say I'm obsessed but I have managed to some how "fall" into joining the 501st Legion and that's a complete hobby on its own, but completely worth it. One of the other members, lets call him "Paul" (because that's his name) noticed the Salacious B Crumb sculpt I posted on a group page and asked, "Hey, question for you, do you sculpt face prosthetics? Say like for the Emperor to be custom fit to my face?" My reply was, "I haven't in a long time but yes I have done that. It's funny that you have asked because I have a something similar planed for myself. (Not the Emperor)" And that's how the beginnings of Paulpatine began.. |
To get myself familiar with Emperor Palpatine I did a quick Google Image search, fired up zBrush and started studying. I find it worth doing this way first makes the process in sculpting with clay faster later on because some of the exploring has already taken place.
The next step was to meet up with Paul and take a cast of his face. Traditionally this would of been done with messy plaster, maybe alginate and well who needs to do that now a days when we have cool toys we can use.
A few months previous I built myself a 3D Scanner using a Microsoft Kinect, a camera holder and an old FPV monitor. This was paired with Skanect software. Paul came over to my place and within 15 minutes we had a scan of his head. |
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I then brought the scan into some free software called Meshmixer, checked the scale and chopped him up into smaller pieces for 3D printing.
His head would of fitted on my 3D printer but would of taken around 34 hours to print, I prefer to several smaller prints of a few evenings. It worked out to be 6 pieces in all.
His head would of fitted on my 3D printer but would of taken around 34 hours to print, I prefer to several smaller prints of a few evenings. It worked out to be 6 pieces in all.
Once glued together I asked Paul to pop over so I could check the size before I started sculpting, as you can see it worked. Very pleased with the results I could move onto the real fun stuff.
I'm doing this in the evenings after work at my day job, here are the results after the first few hours.
One more evening later. True prosthetics would involve lots of gluing and the pieces would need recasting and making. I'm planning on treating this more like a mask so Paul can get more use out of it. If all goes well it should pull on and off like a balaclava but with ears poking through the Emperors hood will hid the rest.
ON GOING PROJECT - MORE DOCUMENTATION TO COME - PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER
UNTIL THEN HERE ARE SOME WORK IN PROGRESS PICTURES
UNTIL THEN HERE ARE SOME WORK IN PROGRESS PICTURES