Matrices.net

Diagrams

Often I try to help people out by drawing up quick diagrams to better explain how I do things. I decided it might be beneficial if I make some of these diagrams (as badly illustrated as they may be) available publicly so they may help more folks out. I'll try to describe a little about what's going on in the diagram, and maybe it'll inspire you to try out new techniques and innovations with your costume items!

A diagram to help someone who was trying to do a plastic canvas/balaclava hybrid mask. Where they combined the two techniques to get the balaclava's fit, but the plastic canvas's mechanical properties for a moving jaw. The plastic jaw mount squares would be sandwiched between the balaclava and the foam, and possibly glued/sewn into place. Of course, all placements would be variable to whatever worked best for the mask.

By popular demand: 3-D eyes that do not use plastic "domes" to construct. These eyes are recessed, and they are an optical illusion to the viewers that the costume is "looking" at you no matter what angle you are viewing at. Use plastic, fun foam, or any material you think will work good for this project (use your best judgment).

Yes! The ears really do move! Here's a hopefully self-explanatory diagram of how I made the ears "perk up" on my Matrices mask.

This was drawn for a question in fursuit where the person wanted to make a dragon mask with ear fins that folded up. This was my diagram that went with my suggestion:

Make the top "fin" of the ear be hollow, so a string can go through it, weight the bottom fin with a slight weight so the ears will fall open when you release the string. Affix a string through the boning to the bottom weighted fin, and then run a track inside the mask, down the wearer's sleeve, and so.. when you pull down the ears fold up. and when you release the string they open (due to the weights)

Think of how vertical blinds work, you pull the string down, and the blinds open, and there's strings going through each blind to keep them together, and then there's the large weighted blind at the bottom so when you release the string they close (or in the sake of the ear's terminology, they "open")

Delrin rod is an industrial (special order) plastic rod that can be bent with a heat gun. It works well as an armature for a large tail and its reasonably bouncy, so makes for a really fun tail to wear. This diagram describes how I made a base for a tail, here's the original description that went with it:

I started at one end heating the rod 2-inches from the end, I bent it at a right angle "down", then heated it two inches from that bend and bent it at a right angle "up". Then I measured how wide my belt was (about another 2 inches) and bent it "horizontal" .. the horizontal segment I left about 4 inches long, and the next bend was "down" then from there another belt-width segment, and finally a two inch segment until the base was in a square. I zip tied it with a small zip tie at the top and bottom of the first 2-inch segment where it butted up against the main tail part. Then I heated up my base and bent it so the tail was set out at an angle away from the body, after that cooled, I zip tied it at the top, closest to the base, and ran a larger zip tie through that over the top of the 4-inch segment, so I could run my belt through it. From there, I continued heating along the length of my tail so my tail was as curvy as I wanted.

This is a diagram that I made on how to do a "whipstitch" a quick and simple method of hand-sewing. It was originally for a handout on sewing tails which I handed out at Conifur Northwest 2004. Hopefully its self-explanatory.