Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

[Xenon54]

haha, you must be camping my blogs if you know what I updated a few hours ago! Thanks for the compliments though, and also thanks for your help with the electronics side of things. I'm hoping I can get everything to look as crisp and precise as the portal gun too. I think I'll be sending the PCBs out for production later this week, just want to check them over one more time.
Man, that's the big question isn't it? I think that's the main reason people don't make Guy's helmet.

To be perfectly honest, its still mostly a theory on my part based on the vac-forming molds I've seen others make. I'm planning on casting a helmet in resin, then cutting the visor out of that helmet. I'll make a support for this section which will turn it into a mold for the vac-former. More or less, I'll be copying this rig: http://www.tk560.com/vactable4.html. Also, I'm planning on forming PETG plastic instead of acrylic (again, just a theory.) Should be interesting to see how it turns out.

My friend suggested using some plexiglass and a heat gun on top of a cut-out section of the visor, which is probably what we will end up doing. It sounds simpler too lol, I just wasnt sure if it would turn out as well as the vacuum-form method.

 

[mkshane81]

 

[yccars]

I hate you. I am now really into Daft Punk because of this thread. Haha.

 

[fjordman587]

Daft Punk would approve whole-heartedly.
When you finish, maybe you should send them some pics.
Fjordman587

 

[DerKraken]

I hate you. I am now really into Daft Punk because of this thread. Haha.

haha, for some reason I find myself listening to "Discovery" on repeat every time I work on this thing. I think the repetitive tracks help with the monotony of sanding over and over and over again.

I'm not sure I'm going to do a full sculpt again after this... all I can see are the flaws in it and its driving me crazy! Gold plating... must be perfect... gold plating... must be perfect....

 

[yccars]

It looks extremely accurate. I saw the back of it in Kanye West's Stronger video, in which they made an appearance, and I really think yours is very accurate to it. And that's the first view of the helmet from the back I've ever seen, so no one will notice if it isn't

My personal favorite now is Robot Rock. I also had a very tiny nightmare from the Technologic video.

 

[BFDesigns]

It looks extremely accurate. I saw the back of it in Kanye West's Stronger video, in which they made an appearance, and I really think yours is very accurate to it. And that's the first view of the helmet from the back I've ever seen, so no one will notice if it isn't ' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />



My personal favorite now is Robot Rock. I also had a very tiny nightmare from the Technologic video.

Gee I wonder why

 

[Livebyhonor]

I only vaguely know of the game your working from but that is a fantastic job so far man.

 

[iizahsum]

I only vaguely know of the game your working from but that is a fantastic job so far man.

It's not a game, it's a band.

 

[yccars]

Okay, I know there havent been any updates on here...maybe because Kraken hasn't had time or whatever...



But I happened to be thinking about this and check out the Kanye video again...the back of guy's helmet is sort of corrugated. That smooth part on the back near the top should have rounded ridges maybe a quarter inch wide, 3/8" tall, andspaced at something like 1.5" At least that's what I saw during the video.





[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jzSh_MLNcY[/media]

 

[DerKraken]

Okay, I know there havent been any updates on here...maybe because Kraken hasn't had time or whatever...



But I happened to be thinking about this and check out the Kanye video again...the back of guy's helmet is sort of corrugated. That smooth part on the back near the top should have rounded ridges maybe a quarter inch wide, 3/8" tall, andspaced at something like 1.5" At least that's what I saw during the video.

Actually I've been in the middle of moving into a new house. My workshop got all packed up and currently my garage is packed floor-to-ceiling with all the crap that needs to be unpacked and put inside. I haven't worked on ANY projects in nearly 2 weeks and is driving me nuts!



As for the texture on the back of the helmet, can you try grabbing a screenshot of that? I watched the video and I'm not 100% sure I know what you're talking about. Shots of the back of Guy's helmet are rare, but I do have a lot of research imagery I've been working with. One of the cleanest shots I've seen is this one:

Are you referring to the wiring that runs down the back side of the helmet?

 

[Drakku]

I assume you haven't seen the Make Love video?



Click here and jump to about 2:20 in.

Actually, the majority of the video shows them walking from the rear. So there you go. Haha.



Also a scene from Electroma. Good refs. In fact, you should really watch it if you haven't.



The back of his helmet is a bunch of multicolored wires. So it'll be easy to do (I think), no worries!



Keep up the excellent work.

 

[DerKraken]

huh, I didn't know they used that footage for a video as well. Its the same as from their movie Electroma



This is the last part of that movie, and there are some good shots of the helmet around the 3:00 mark. Thats where I've been getting my references before, but with how many different permutations of this helmet there are, I can never be certain that I've caught all the changes.



Most people think there are only 2 versions: Discovery and Human After All eras, which coincide with DP's albums. Thing is, the more I look into these things, the more subtle variations can be found from one version to the next. I think there are 2 Human After All variations, because at some point the visor of Guy's helmet has a more pronounced bulge at the top, and is less spherical (I can assume this was to make it more comfortable/fit better/something like that) I modeled my drawings after the Electroma variants - which I believe are yet again slightly different - most notably the clear bubble that covers the back of Guy's helmet wires when he pulls off all the silicone goo.



The more I research, the more complicated it gets. BAH!

 

[Drakku]

Yeah, haha, looking now, it's probably a fan video. I always just assumed it was legit.



Looking through Electroma, there are variances even between scenes..

These're earlier in the film than the one where he's trying to off himself at the end, notice how fewer wires there are than later?



I personally vote fill in the void with wires, toonnns and tooons of wiresss, then after that I'm at a loss. It looks to me that they're just laid out in there, not necessarily protected by anything. But that'll be up to you in the end. I think if you got them glued into place, it'd be fine. You could even do them before you do the final mold of the helmet, actually, and rely on painting whenever you're done?

 

[chipscolaman]

Maybe using special hard wires , lots of them to fill, and resining the top ones to get hard, maybe re-paint them.



Man I friggin love this build man. Such an AWESOME helmet



Oh yeah but the wires would be hard to mold...



anyway this helmet is hard to duplicate^^



LEDs, Gold plating, Wires... man

 

[yccars]

This one is actually Guy, and not a fan-made.

You could just put a plate where the wires go (inset an inch or so)for molding purposes, and then wire your final.



But regardless of variations through time, there are wires there and yours is definitely Guy, all the way. I promise no one but us is doing this kind of research, so don't sweat it. I'm using a weta odst helmet in a Romeo build and no one outside of the 405th will know.

 

[chipscolaman]

This is one of my, if not THE ONE, favourite builds on the 405th. I have seen awesome helmets on the 405th. Really good ones, which can't be done better.

but this helmet is just so cool, I wanna scream if i see it.

I would scrap EVERYTHING I have and start this build if i had the skillz^^

 

[DerKraken]

You could just put a plate where the wires go (inset an inch or so)for molding purposes, and then wire your final.



But regardless of variations through time, there are wires there and yours is definitely Guy, all the way. I promise no one but us is doing this kind of research, so don't sweat it. I'm using a weta odst helmet in a Romeo build and no one outside of the 405th will know.

Yeah, the plate is likely what I'll be doing. If I molded the wires and painted them, I don't think I'd end up with the correct texture.



The little inconsistencies are really driving me nuts though. I know nobody else will see them without a side-by-side comparison, but it still gets at me a bit. I much prefer making things from video games. Trying to copy something that exists in real life is a solid pain in the ass, especially since Daft Punk (a)don't do many photoshoots and (b)change their damn design so much!



That being said, I love the profile view of the helmet right now:

...but I'm having issues with the head-on and rear 3/4 views. The "chin" part is far too thick (tall) and I've had to add a lot of material to compensate for the angle being incorrect at the front (it should be parallel with the visor. Before, it curved in toward the neck) Also, from the rear, the helmet looks very narrow. This could be because of the camera I'm using (crappy cell phone pic) or the fact that the built up areas go a lot deeper than they will once I cut the mold down. I'm thinking once the wire plate is added and I trim things a bit, it will look more correct.

The chin also seems to protrude more than I'd like, but I can't tell if thats just because its bright white right now and sticking out in the picture.

 

[yccars]

In light of the picture from my earlier post:

The part in the red square needs to be cut out (I'm sure you know this and are leaving it there for molding purposes, but I just wanted to make sure it didn't slip your mind) and the green line, which is the thickness of your helmet's walls, needs to be shortened (and thus the walls thinned).



You might want to thin them all the way around (maybe not on the entire helmet, because I'm sure you built it to match your head)so that it looks more sheet-metal-ish like Guy's.

If you make one of these costumes ^^ I will throw together a Thomas build and we can hijack a plane and make a music video like Toxic, but with more robot vocals and less snakes/bathroom sex.

 

[DerKraken]

In light of the picture from my earlier post:

The part in the red square needs to be cut out (I'm sure you know this and are leaving it there for molding purposes, but I just wanted to make sure it didn't slip your mind) and the green line, which is the thickness of your helmet's walls, needs to be shortened (and thus the walls thinned).



You might want to thin them all the way around (maybe not on the entire helmet, because I'm sure you built it to match your head)so that it looks more sheet-metal-ish like Guy's.

I'm there with ya. The areas at the bottom only exist to make the mold, and they'll be trimmed out of the final version. Additionally, the top "bowl" shape will be different as well and make the walls of the side of the helmet thinner when its added in. Instead of shaving these from top down, I'll be trimming them from the inside.



Quick pass with photoshop to show what I'm talking about: