The Home Depot carpet tube is an excellent idea! I might look at the fishing pole tube if they are on sale. I may also try to contact the people I got the bow from.

Let us see your face and ears ISV Venture Star. The Reelmagic are very good. They even have the veins painted on the ears, but my ear lobe sticks out of the bottom and I have to putty it to make it look right. I'm cutting back the face prosethitic to see my eyes more

I'm going to make an effort into getting some ears, I think...

Sarah, if you go to facebook and look in my Seattle meetup album, you'll find a photo of part of the garden. I took this as we were coming out of the Space Needle. This should give you an idea as to what the garden is like.

Why not try making some silicone ears with a hollow in it so you can slip them over your own ears? ;)

I wish I could go to Comic Con in San Diego this weekend 7/21-7/24. There's supposed to be 120,00 people there. I wonder how many Na'vi will be there?

I'd love to join but I won't be able to come up with the money to go to the exhibit with ya.

You've got a year. Start saving.

- Mikko

I'm not all that great at making things, unfortunately, and with something like silicone, I wouldn't even know where to start...

Well, first you'll need a good amount of silly.


... And a cone.


- Mikko

:P
Just look at a few tutorials and buy some silicone and clay (for mold making) Then just find an online craft site.

Na'vi ears are higher than human ears. It's best to pin the real ears back and hide them under wig hair/sheets of latex and put the prosthetic ears further up.

Hmmm good point..If you do it that way though 9/10 times it's easy to tell that the ears are fake because they are way too thick...
I wonder if anyone came up with a thinner version..

Well, I'm going to be trying to make my own sometime soon. Using advice and notes given to me by my go-to person for all this stuff, a prosthetics supervisor who worked on the Academy Award winning makeup on LOTR...

I'm stupid. What does LOTR stand for? Lord of the Rings? I bought some Reelmagik ears. My lobes stick out of the bottom. I'm going to have some made bigger. Did you ever see the Reelmagik FEMALE face prosethic? I don't think you use one. Everyone complains that they can't see my eyes. You and Sarah I think just paint your faces. Reelmagik has a female Avatar. It looks much better. I going over to my make guy this weekend and cut my old male back so the eyes look better. If that doesn't work I'll get the female.

Are you going to try to make ears and nose? I'm going to have my tail cut down too. It gets stepped on a lot. I see that you have the same tail, right? What is the link to the video with you in the house. I saw it once with your tail on. Also I think it has that girl who did that long video dancing

Yep, Lord of the Rings.

My first attempt (November 2010) had no prosthetic and I was wearing the standard Reelmagick ears.

Second attempt (April 2011) had a (pretty unsuccessful) home-made facial prosthetic. Same ears as before.

Third attempt (November 2011) will have a new improved home-made facial-prosthetic and home-made ears (both composed of silicone).

This is true, but deciding whether or not the individual wants to put ears over his ears or higher up is a matter of opinion. With costumes, aesthetics must also be taken into account. Although having the ears higher up would be "more true to form," if I tried to hide my ears under my wig, it'd create a bulge.

More importantly, even though these are the proportions of the Na'vi, I have the proportions of a human, and so does every person onlooking. Viewers would sense the mismatch and on a subconscious level think "something's not right." Above all the Na'vi are beautiful, and to achieve the most beautiful costume you need to embrace your limits and incorporate human beauty as well. This is also why I don't wear a face prosthetic. I'm sure it can be done well, I personally just don't think it's worth it.

I'm also on a shoestring budget and this stuff costs money :P, the above rant may just be my justification for not buying it.

How did that silicon work out for you? I asked my guy and he said it was heavier than the foam, but it fit better. He said the foam breathed better and could be reused more. Can you get more than on wear out of your prosethics? Do you have any pictures of your new stuff?

I absolutely agree with Sarah that everyone should find a version of the costume they are happy with. Everything from a single dab of blue paint to crazy stuff like animatronic tails is fine if it is worn by someone who enjoys it and embraces the Na'vi spirit :)


Edit: Am just recording some short vids of prosthetics, both the (not very good) version I wore in April and a more recent iteration. Will put them on youtube shortly.

You just use the fangs that come in the coffin box, right? I used them for a Vampire and just CA them on. You use what adhesive again? You have nice teeth. That helps!

Your stripes look good too. The wider stripes are correct. Mine aren't wide enough and need to be more symmetrical.

I'm fine tuning the costume, and my body. Both are always a work in progress.

I work my butt off. I'm willing to spend the money. But money doesn't a good costume. Sarah makes beautiful stuff, and Venture Star has the body, and is innovating his prosethtics. It takes many avenues to tweak it and get it right.

I wish I had Sarah's nice teeth. I have nasty tea stained wonky teeth. Yes, I am British. The old stereotype is true in my case. :(

I would kill for an animatronic ears and tail!! I'm getting together a 72" English Long Bow with a 7 LED blacklight flashlight head. It's about 1.25 inches wide and it's output is 390 UV. It has a large beam. I'm testing it out with some blacklight paint. It'll look great in the dark to show the fluorescent dots of the Na'vi. The dots will be blacklight, or glow in the dark paint. It will need at least two heads, and maybe as much as four.

Let me know when you put than on YouTube. I want to see them.

I agree the spirit of costume is the important part. From Jane, RDA, Avatar, or Na'vi. It's fun! Did you ever notice beside the nose, and fingers the color and stripes are slightly different on the Avatar and Na'vi?

Thank you, but don't feel so bad, It takes years of suffering through braces to get teeth like this, was it worth it? it's hard to say, my parents had to chose between braces and tuition, now I take out student loans. Braces totally sucked, pointy metal things in my mouth for years. I look forward to the prosthetic videos. I might try and make my own sometime in the future.

Stripes are different for each individual, like a fingerprint.

First one shown (rough, badly fitting) is the one I wore at the Brisbane Supanova event in April 2011, second version is an incomplete transitional iteration. It's unpainted and the eye-holes have not been cut out. Finalized version to be worn in November 2011.

I'm just going to use premade prosthetics for ears, I think, over my normal ones - my actual ears are fairly flat on my head, but I still don't know what I'm going to do for hair, so having ears there will complicate it, in addition to more difficulty - I am really not that good at all this :P
As for face prosthetic, will probably avoid that myself, even if it does make me look a little less Na'vi - I can just be an avatar who turned Na'vi then :P

I've recently been thinking that I might just let my grow out and then use tips for my ears. For those of you who saw me in Seattle, I promise I will not be a curly haired Na'vi. :P My hair actually becomes straight the longer it gets. Then I could make a queue out of yarn and attach it to the back of my neck with spirit gum. :war:

Why can't my hair grow faster?

- Mikko ... 100% natural all the way.

At least you've already got enough for a ponytail. :)

Well, it was just getting long and scraggly (well overdue for a haircut) ... in December 2009. And then for some reason I lost interest in getting it cut. ;)

Braided the first time (and every day since) Dec 19, 2010. On year anniversary for me. :)

- Mikko

Silicon right? That lasts longer, has a better fit that foam latex that I have. Can't use silicon for the ears. No support.

Looks good. What do you use to apply it?

Let me get this straight.


1. Face covered with what and then a plaster mold made.

2. Put silicon on mold.

What kind of silicon do you use?

After looking harder at the video the second one LOOKS GREAT!!

Thanks. :) The first one shown (the one I wore in April) I was not happy with. So many things wrong with it. But I learnt a lot in the process of making it.

First I made a mould of my face with dental alginate and plaster bandages for support. Into this mould I poured Ultracal gypsum cement to produce a 'positive' of my face. On top of that I sculpted a clay model of a Na'vi face. I then 'painted' this (including the bits without clay) with a thin layer of platsil silicone to act as a barrier. On top of this I lumped more cement so that I could have a 'negative' mould of the Na'vi face.

Once I had pried the two moulds apart and cleaned out the clay and silicone barrier, I was ready to make a mask. I poured into the 'negative' Na'vi face some blue tinted platsil silicone and inserted the 'positive' of my real face. Once the silicone had cured the two moulds were pulled apart to produce a custom Na'vi prosthetic for my face. :)

Also consider going to a beauty supply store, like Sally's, buying a few packets of the long synthetic hair (its MUCH cheaper than real hair) braiding that and using it as a queue, that's what I use now and it looks much more realistic than my old yarn queue. Just food for thought.

It's nice to have something so fun to motivate you to start getting in shape than this. I have started working out and eating right and hoping to reach my goal by next year to be able to go as my infamous blonde, IMVU avatar as you see to the left here AS my avatar. LOL

Hey Sarah, I know we exchanged a couple of comments in regards to this idea and I thought I would stick with the dark queue and tuft on the tail since most of my hair underneath is dark anyways. What do ya think? Also, need some feed back, I was thinking about going just regular or going with the look of the Eastern Sea Ikran leader with all the red war paint, blonde of course. Input would be great on that. ;):) Thanks Sarah for all your help and kind words ma tsmuke.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net..._1806925_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net..._3756935_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net..._6827963_n.jpg

Wow you're good! I'm impressed. Well done.

Did you learn this by trial and error? Did you learn this by the internet? Did the guy from LOTR show you? I've seen the guy who does me in some parts of this process, but not start to finish.

What did you put over your face so that the first mold wouldn't stick to it? I have a dentist friend that has alginate and he makes other things with it besides teeth

Hmmm... I hadn't thought of that. That actually does sound a lot better than yarn. I'll go see what I can find around here.

Quick questions: what kind of brushes do you use to apply your paint? How long do you let the base coat sit before you add the stripes?

Irayo for all the help!:awesome:

Dark would work, but as I illustrate in this image, the hair from the queue come from the top of the head, not underneath. You could just make yours come from underneath I suppose, so the abrupt change from dark to blonde wouldn't be so abrupt, but it's really up to you. You need to enjoy your costume and other people's opinions come secondary. I was just sort of personally excited for a blonde Na'vi with all the other bits being blonde too.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JAKEgVeRYw.../NDVD_1402.jpg

As for the make up, it'd definitely be cool with the red makeup, but a problem I foresee is that we're already achieving the blue skin with makeup, so it might not make sense as "war paint" if the rest of the body is also covered in paint. I haven't tried it, so I really have no idea, just something I was thinking about.

Obviously if you tried to put red paint over blue paint it would mix and smear, so you'd just put red paint on those areas. Alternatively you could pay for expensive blue alcohol based makeup (doesn't run with water), and paint red with water-based make up over it. I'm not really sure though, you'd do well with more opinions and hands on experimentation.

I do the base with a two inch wide brush, something kind of like this:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NpRums9acc...aint_Brush.jpg
That takes about an hourish. By the time I'm done with the base, the part I started with, normally the legs, are dry. So I use some cheapo brushes for the stripes. With my paint, it's fairly evident if a patch of paint is dry yet, if it's not I wait until I put stripes over it.

The brushes I use for the stripes I buy in an inexpensive set, something kind of like this: Amazon.com: 30 Fine Art Paint Brushes for Acrylic, Oil, Watercolors: Arts, Crafts & Sewing
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

I mostly use the ones meant for acrylic, with the orange bristles on the left, and I use different sizes for the different stripes. I paint my entire base by hand and all the stripes except the back, which Moco Loco does. The entire process takes about 4 hours for me, but your mileage may very.

My hair is similar to yours, I think, judging by photos. I did the same for a queue last time and it worked very well :)

Brilliant :)

Mine is still too curly to braid, even when long - it doesn't separate evenly at first, then gets tangled when it is braided :(

misstammie - go for the paint :)

As for the queue - the real Na'vi have it from near the top, but it is lower for the avatars, which suits me fine as I guess that I will be an avatar who became Na'vi, since I won't be using a face prosthetic.

For brushes, I just got a few fairly normal ones, then a small one with fine bristles for markings.

Yes, yes and yes. Although I'm pleased to say I didn't ask for her help in the actual process itself, just her knowledge. I came into her shop every so often to buy the necessary materials (she has retired from WETA and runs a sculpting supply store) and in the process asked lots of questions. She's given me some very useful hand-written notes.

I didn't find the cured alginate to be too difficult to remove, it just gradually eased away. Applying it on the other hand was very tricky. It involved lying on the floor with my eyes shut and a swimming cap over my hair trying to ensure that all the parts of my face I needed for the sculpt were fully covered.