Movable Eye Mechanism - YouTube Video

Hey everyone! It's been 3 years since I've made a YouTube video - but I've finally made another one!
This is for Dollfie Dream eye movement! Let me know what you think!!

 

 

Really informative video! I'm glad you showed your process, what went wrong and how you fixed it.

There's quite a lot of different eye movers out there and its interesting seeing the different constructions. The one I have installed in Mel (the doll in my avatar) is like a much more primitive version of this one in that it uses springs and runners, but it was basically just two springs, runners and two half balls (which you can either glue or blutac the eyes to the backs of) in a baggy with some blutac (purchased from Idoll) that I had to arrange myself (ie the springs just attach straight to the blutac wad instead of the more sophisticated base that you glue in). With the half-balls on the backs of the eyes, the eyes become more like actual balls, and roll around inside the runner installed beneath them while being held against the socket with the springs. I still don't think I have it in as clean as it could be because the sample head at I-Doll people could play with had much smoother movement. But I also use the Dream Fitter Stick with it and it works decently enough.

This one does look a good deal better and I might try to get it one day, so it's very useful to know all the disclaimers and tips because its absolutely the kind of thing I'd mess up on the first try as well. Although I'm still really interested in another one I've seen that lets you install two sets of eyes in the mechanism, one on either side of a spinning thing, and so to change the dolls eyes you just spin it all the way. Unfortunately I can't remember who makes that one but I remember someone here posting a video from twitter a while back.

great job on the video and great job figuring out a method of positioning/installation that works well! this kind of mechanic can be really annoying to deal with but your solution was well thought out!

@Monty the sphere and spring method is really similar to one of the common eye mechanisms in stop motion head mechanics! it’s cool to see that similar conclusions are being made in different applications. 

Very interesting video, thanks.

It would be great if something similar was standard for heads. I'm struggle with the Obitsu50 smaller heads, there' no space for anything in there...

On 11/5/2019 at 5:02 AM, Monty said:

Really informative video! I'm glad you showed your process, what went wrong and how you fixed it.

There's quite a lot of different eye movers out there and its interesting seeing the different constructions. The one I have installed in Mel (the doll in my avatar) is like a much more primitive version of this one in that it uses springs and runners, but it was basically just two springs, runners and two half balls (which you can either glue or blutac the eyes to the backs of) in a baggy with some blutac (purchased from Idoll) that I had to arrange myself (ie the springs just attach straight to the blutac wad instead of the more sophisticated base that you glue in). With the half-balls on the backs of the eyes, the eyes become more like actual balls, and roll around inside the runner installed beneath them while being held against the socket with the springs. I still don't think I have it in as clean as it could be because the sample head at I-Doll people could play with had much smoother movement. But I also use the Dream Fitter Stick with it and it works decently enough.

This one does look a good deal better and I might try to get it one day, so it's very useful to know all the disclaimers and tips because its absolutely the kind of thing I'd mess up on the first try as well. Although I'm still really interested in another one I've seen that lets you install two sets of eyes in the mechanism, one on either side of a spinning thing, and so to change the dolls eyes you just spin it all the way. Unfortunately I can't remember who makes that one but I remember someone here posting a video from twitter a while back.

Thank you for such a good response/feedback! I really appreciate your feedback! I'd be very interested to see what you have, I'll go check out Idoll shortly!
Glad the video (and all my errors) helps! I've always found problem solving videos much more useful so I try to keep mine similar.  

22 hours ago, c4tbus said:

great job on the video and great job figuring out a method of positioning/installation that works well! this kind of mechanic can be really annoying to deal with but your solution was well thought out!

@Monty the sphere and spring method is really similar to one of the common eye mechanisms in stop motion head mechanics! it’s cool to see that similar conclusions are being made in different applications. 

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

17 hours ago, Testament said:

Very interesting video, thanks.

It would be great if something similar was standard for heads. I'm struggle with the Obitsu50 smaller heads, there' no space for anything in there...

I agree! Hopefully with 3D printers being so common now it might happen!

@sdrcow Oh sorry I was unclear, IDoll is the name of the convention I got it at. The maker is Tsurara Koubou.　http://turarakoubou.cart.fc2.com/

Personally I think they're a little overpriced, but since I was there in person I decided to buy it and give it a try.

I'm not at home atm so cant take a pic of inside Mel's head but here is some pics of how it looks inside from twitter, these people installed it better than me.

Basically the springs and the plastic whatevers theyre attached to are coming out of a wad of blutac and holding those half-balls in place that are attached (via glue of more bluetac) to the back of the eyes. Its hard to see here, but there are four plastic rings/runners as well - two blutac'd to the top springs and two seated directly under the eye holes to sit the eyeballs in. 
I think I might try to reinstall mine because the way I have it, for whatever reason one eye moves really nice and smooth and the other I really have to push with the dream fitter stick a lot more and its not as smooth. Compared to the kit you've shown here though there is a bit more 'drag' when the eye moves. (at least it looks that way in the video)

Edited November 6, 2019 by Monty

On 11/6/2019 at 5:00 PM, Monty said:

@sdrcow Oh sorry I was unclear, IDoll is the name of the convention I got it at. The maker is Tsurara Koubou.　http://turarakoubou.cart.fc2.com/

Personally I think they're a little overpriced, but since I was there in person I decided to buy it and give it a try.

I'm not at home atm so cant take a pic of inside Mel's head but here is some pics of how it looks inside from twitter, these people installed it better than me.

Basically the springs and the plastic whatevers theyre attached to are coming out of a wad of blutac and holding those half-balls in place that are attached (via glue of more bluetac) to the back of the eyes. Its hard to see here, but there are four plastic rings/runners as well - two blutac'd to the top springs and two seated directly under the eye holes to sit the eyeballs in. 
I think I might try to reinstall mine because the way I have it, for whatever reason one eye moves really nice and smooth and the other I really have to push with the dream fitter stick a lot more and its not as smooth. Compared to the kit you've shown here though there is a bit more 'drag' when the eye moves. (at least it looks that way in the video)

Ooo how interesting! Thank you for sharing! Yeah that looks complicated but hey if it works it works!! THat's a good idea using the spring as an actual piece to hold the half-balls tho!! 

Oh yeah, I definitely need this at some point. Agatha and Viktor in particular could benefit from it. I don't think Fate and Nanoha can ever use one, though, because their big 24mm peepers bonk into each other inside their heads. 

This was one project I was looking to work on for my 3D printer but sadly I'm still looking to improve the dd2 DY body maybe one day I'll go draft a design for something similar. 

That's spoopy. But why not just have magnetic- oh wait nm.