Hey, prop maker here. Platinum silicones are notoriously finicky, so it could be a few different things! It looks like your first round of casting, you used Oomoo 25 for the mold, which is a tin cure silicone, and you're using Ecoflex (I think?) for the face, which is a platinum silicone. Tin cure silicones (especially freshly cast tin cure molds) can inhibit the cure of platinum silicones. If I were a betting man, I'd guess that was your culprit. Especially since it looks like you switched to Mold Star and Ecoflex (both platinums) for round 2. Love your content! Your work has inspired me to pursue an associates in Mechatronics, and I'm really loving it!
a sexy silicone-skin face isn't far off... the whole tech stack of learning to work with silicone is a fun bit of trial and error ... but i am looking forward to more-realistic skins with more movement points... complete with mouth cavity.
few tips: only upper eyelids move when you blink. not lower part.. and upper lip moves very slightly when we talk also only movable part of the head is the lower Jawbone, in your model both upper and lower teeth move.. it's a small detail but gives a lot of believability!. you might want the more cartoonish effects or dramatical expressions but these tips will help you anyways. i'm an artist and i've studied these details when animating it helped me a lot.
I was a friend of Will's in school once upon a time and though we drifted apart he was always such a kind and insanely talented dude. So happy to see how well he's doing. Knew you'd go far, Will, but holy shit if this doesn't blow even my expectations out of the water. What a sci-fi-inventor-level badass you've become. From the bottom of my heart - well done man. So proud of you. - Callum
What I recommend is to watch some vintage special effects makeup design in which the cheek for instance, is thicker and glued on to a thinner eye socket part using latex. I think though ultimately you are going to wind up using some kind of mesh embedded into a two-sided silicone mold and that mesh will be some kind of fishing wire or flexible underwire. This mesh would prevent tearing and also give you the ability to attach your structures to the mesh.
Awesome work!!! It's great that you are sharing this project with the community open source. It promotes growth in this sector of robotics for everyone's benefit. It would be awesome to see this grow into separate collaborative departments specializing in specific areas of synthetic senses, like sight, olfactory, taste, and such. I'd love to eventually hear a robot complain about something smelling foul or simply awful! Lol
Im not usually a person that gets creped out with robot stuff. this is the first time in a log time that the uncanny valley hit me. and thats a compliment the stretching surface is amazing. i think once you move the magnets to the underside of the face it will look amazing
Smooth-On Ecoflex are platinum-cure, also called polyaddition. This polymerization reaction is often inhibited by the presence of sulfur or tin. Since you used MoldStar 15 - which is also platinum-cure and not tin-cure - your blue silicon is most likely not the problem. However, depending on the clay you used, it's highly probable that it's what ended up inhibiting your silicon polymerization. Some non-drying modeling clays are sulfur based, others are sulfur-free (and often clearly labeled as such). Had the same problem once using food-grade silicon and the clay was the culprit. Once removed, it worked without issues. It also looks like that you're using Smooth-On's Universal Mold Release, which they don't recommend using on silicone rubbers. According to the EcoFlex product page, Ease Release 200 would be a better choice. Also, sidenote, but I don't think you need to use the MoldStar at all if you print your mold "negatives" directly. It might be a bit more fiddly to go in there and smooth the layer lines, but you'd be able to directly cast the EcoFlex and most likely won't even need mold release. I'm sure you already thought about that though.
If I may suggest a different method of connecting the skin, perhaps using a "power mesh" with the silicone skin might be more advantageous in durability and fidelity while being easier to graft onto the mechanics. A power mesh is essentially a 4 way stretch material like spandex that is basically impregnated into the silicone skin. It's used in the mask and haunt industry to help performers give more exaggerated expressions. There's a pretty good explanation in Adam Savege's Tested titled "How Lifelike FX Creature Masks are Made". We share the same dream of making all of this more accessible to everyone so I hope the suggestion helps. As a teacher I dream of a day where every school can have this as an after school club.
Maybe you could put the magnets that are at the outside of the mouth area to the inside of the mouth? Meaning the skin would wrap around the lips and then be fixed inside the mouth.
Have you considered using a flexible resin printed face. You could start by trying a face that is printed by a 3d printing service company. If that works you could then consider acquiring a resin printer. Alternatively print the flexible skin with an FDM printer and try surface finishes to remove the layer lines.
What really stood out for me was how when the robots eyes move anywhere, it blinks. Obviously this is how we look around quickly with a blink but I've never seen that on any other robot design. Amazing work!
I think as far as items I'd purchase, once the new head design is done, probably finished eyes designed to fit decent cameras. I would say the cast face silicone too, but I think I want that custom.
Man, this is insane Genius. I have never seen such a master piece in electrinics and mechanics all made by one individual. My sincere Respekt from Germany, i will follow your Ride from now on, lets see where this is going and what opportunities Mrs. Future has in her collection for you. I Wish you to get everything that of you have ever dreamed of. Really, this is a great work and you make it Open and accessible as well. You are my Super Hero for the rest of this year 2024. 💛💙❤💙💛
The eye movements and blinking are incredible. Especially during 11:20 when all the magnets get attached, it's like out of a sci-fi movie. What a time to be alive.
If you ever get really good with silicon or find a way to have them professionally made, look into how noctua does their anti-vibration mounts - they're little pull tabs that you can pull (or push) through a hole, locking it in place. They're called NA-SAVP3, you can google that to get an idea. This will greatly simplify the mechanism, but I figure it'd only work if you have absolute control over the mold.
Great-looking machine! Can’t wait for the next video! The silicone skin looks awesome! I think having the magnets inside the skin is a great idea, but maybe you could use TPU to hold the magnets? If you make the print porous (like 10% infill) and then cast the silicone inside, it could strengthen that section and stop the silicone from pulling away over time. Just a thought-keep it up!
Amazing work! The eay it blinks is very realistic, although people blink really fast. I think its probably quite hard to make a robot blink as quick as a human does.
Excellent effort! Great inspiration to those that have never done anything like this. The open details of your process of failure and success is brave.
Lovely how the tearing of the silicone around the mouth also add some tones of body horror melting flesh. Kind of appropriate given how much you struggled with silicone not curing.
Mould release: use petroleum jelly; heat it gently until it melts, then use a silicone brush to apply. Never had any issues with silicone curing or releasing using this technique. Will absolutely support you on Patreon when I'm able to; fantastic work.
My god man. I just started 3D printing and will eventually look to make a robot, albeit not by my design and the first one I find is you. Crazy mad skills. Subscribed.
It’s been amazing following you since you started, and I really value that you aim to maintain the quality of your work going forward. You are a standout will
11:53 you could cast them with a backing with holes for the magnets, put in the magnets in, and cast again with another backing of the mold. So a 2 part mold, with 2 2nd parts, if that makes sense.
To make your designs more modular, consider adopting a controller / peripheral model and linking the units together using QWIIC (I2C) and power supply cables. For each peripheral (eyes, face, hands, etc.), design a circuit board with uniquely addressed I2C PWM, GPIO, drivers, and sensor components and the necessary mounting fixtures for installation. To assemble your robot connect all of the peripherals to a common “brain board” and power supply. That way only need one microcontroller (or SoC) to drive everything and you can swap the brains and peripherals for different units incrementally as your design evolves.
I am amazed at the skill that you have, as well as the knowledge of animatronic head design to be able to create this marvel. The tongue movement put it over the edge for me for visual speech cues. Kudos, sir.
Silicon application is always tedious, I usually give a quick spash dabbing to the surfaces for a thin coat then just pour a really high thin strip on one point, helps a ton with the bubbles. Stellar work as always you're an inspiration to this community
I love it. Fantastic job. Can't wait to see more. What I have done in the past with the magnets is to place another magnet, in the negative mold, attracting the one that is in the positive mold to keep it in place. This keeps them from getting attracted to the ones near to it or from moving around, In this case, I would put down some silicone, where the magnets would be, and allow it to cure, so the magnetic attraction doesn't squish all the silicone out. I'd finish by pouring the rest of the silicone concealing and suspending all the magnets in. The mold would have the negative space designed below the surface with the proper gap for attractive forces. They can be glued in place, in the original mold, so the process can be repeatable for multiple skin productions. There's still a need for great attention to the polarity, but once glued into the negative mold, you don't have to worry about them again.
This is awesome!! Well done. If its helpful you can lay a 2 way stretch mesh in the back of the silicon to avoid tearing. It will help in its long term durability. To adhere, you can use the same silicon as an adhesive as it will stick to itself. Looking forward to seeing more.
Clays can contain sulfates and that will case a chemical reaction, hindering the cure of the silicone so if you fine the sulfate free clay that is most likely the issue the other thing might be the mold release application technique. Spay lightly and use a brush to smear the release around evenly and let fully dry before putting the molds together. Hope that helps Amazing work!
Hi Will, I worked over your Snapfit Eye mechanism, it was good but I struggled a lot with 3d parts, because multiple time parts got break down while I was trying to assemble them. Thanks Again!!
I think the lips should be made like the opening of a drawstring bag, with 2 drawstrings that could pucker, and the corners of the mouth could be pulled by 2 other strings for smile and frown. The top and bottom lip should be like fingers that curl around the teeth. So basically its like 2 lip curl fingers holding a double drawstring, that is connected to pulleys in the cheek bones and jaw. I don't think plastic arms in the cheeks is a great design, I think more of the actuation could be done with string cables, maybe sewn into a fabric layer below the silicone.
How about setting up your silicone for spray application. Then, you spray it into a single mold surface of the face. You spray continuing layers until you have the desired thickness of skin.
First time on your channel, and I must say- your motivations of making cool things and allowing everyone to access them align with mine so well! Although I do different projects (for me more open source automation and art), i look up to people like you and I’m sure everyone else here does too. Thanks for inspiring me I’ll defo be a returning viewer :)
thats so freaking goooood , nice job and i dont want to put you down but you will never make something better than the real deal maybe you can mimic it but never better
welldone mate, great efforts, looking forward for next stage, one advice though " try to cast face by creating 2 3D printed shells, with a hallow negative in between, that way u save a ton of silicone, and demolding is much easier. finish the 3d printed faces with a layer of expoxy that will give smoother surfaces and maybe some sanding before applying epoxy as a surface finish.
Hi. just found your channel. cool project. I have worked on something similar to this and had some of the same problems with the silicone ripping or not gripping the servos. the solution I came up with was to imbed fabric pockets into the silicon. I also tried valcro which does work and makes it easy to attach but the problem with that is if your movement is too much then they just pop off the valcro. so in short. 1. I suggest the idea of imbedding fabric pockets for the servos to integrate with (or as you've said just imbed the connection points themselves) 2. there is a stuff called Polydimethylsiloxane which I haven't used myself, but I know many robotics companies are using it for it's supposed ability to stretch and conform without ripping.
If you need help with silicone casting, I have extensive experience with it. Some tips: 1) sulfur inhibits the curing of most platinum cure silicones. Many clays, as well as 3d printer resin have sulfur in them and will ruin your casting. 2) too much mold release will ruin your designs, but you still need some. You're only trying to create the most thin single layer of release, nothing more. If you want to collaborate on anything silicone related gimme a holler!
Hi Will! You are making a lot of progress on this design and it is great to see it coming together! It is gratifying to see your success continuing and growing. I often see other makers referencing your designs and the old saying, "imitation is the most sincere flattery, " comes to mind. I too have used many of your designs and have had great success with them. But, for my needs, I almost always need to modify these builds. You see, for my clients the "uncanny valley," is not a scary place, but rather a goal. I manufacture halloween animatronics, and if the face "creeps out," the guest then we have accomplished a major goal. To this end, an eye mechanism that uses 32mm eyes that are spaced at 75 mm, doesn't work for me when real eyes are closer to 24 mm in diameter and typically spaced at about 60 mm. Fortunately, I have been able to use your concepts to come up with designs that fit my needs. I'm sorry to see that you are struggling with cure inhibition. You are likely correct that the problem is the release that you are using. Platinum silicone is very picky when it comes to curing. Another maker has had a large degree of success by using a silicone adhesive to attach his movement pads to the silicone skin. Of course, this makes for a pretty much permanent attachment to the skin but after all, once the skin is in place, I don't see a need for removal. But as always, keep up the good work and thanks for all you great content!
Hey bud, I'm working in movie industry and use silicone quite a lot, use wax mold relese, does not affect any silicone i've used so far and it is great for releasing. It is liquid, so you just need to brush it over the mold. I always use it when making 2 part moulds, or using poliurethane castings in some cases. Love your channel, love your work, I am fascinated wth animatronics, but I never really have spare time to dig into it..
really nice. I've always wanted to do something similar, but never got the motivation (story of my life). You could try building magnets into the mold, and cast around the attachment panels in a single pour.
This is arguably the coolest DIY 3D Printing/animatronic/robotics/science-based (or any other descriptors you want to use) instructional video on the internet. We're totally blown away sir! So many different high-level modalities demonstrated here. You're definitely a Renaissance man of the modern era. Leonardo da Vinci would be impressed 👌 Kudos to you and thank you for making this open-source 👏
That is some amazing stuff. I’d image that casting the panels in place would be a great option. You could also add string/threads to the panels to cast in place that way it’s not so obvious that the servo is pulling on a specific place but it feels more like a muscle is moving that entire portion of the face
Kytzune here, I eagerly await your next updates and wish you the best on your endeavors! This is amazing stuff and needs higher visibility. Animatronics is just the tip of the engineering iceberg and you have absolutely helped make the technology leap ahead with your efforts. I'm still astounded by the quality of work you have achieved considering your limited access to resources. Keep it up!
Mount magnets in your mold core print to hold your panels in place. Then stretch a power-mesh over the core, attach mesh to panels and then cast your ecoflex. Will make a more resilient skin and will embed your magnets into the skin. Also, you can get away with printing your negative if you want to save $ on silicone.
Sulphur in some clays is known for inhibiting silicone cure. Platinum cure, the softer and more expensive 'skin safe' silicone that is usually translucent is particularly sensitive to cure inhibition. Contact with tin cure silicone (usually opaque with a coloured catalyst) will also inhibit platinum cure silicone.
For Moldrelease, use babypowder. Just brush it on the molds. This works like a charme and is cheap. :) I am doing this for making 2 part molds for dicemaking and stuff like this. Great Video as always! I love how it turned out!
NOICE!!! i've been thinking and working toward this project, with (the face coming first) but i would NOT be using the industry-standard lever system like you did... here's the trick, the 'skull plate' has holes for tiny cables in nylon tubes that can yank on various points of the face where the tiny cable is tied off on a small piece of mesh to distribute the anchor point's load on the silicone (and not tear it) i suck in CAD and can only conceptualize the process... that's what's holding me back but you don't seem to be stymied.
Oooh! Mate! Buy non-magnetic tweezers!!! They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and they have springloaded ones that will keep a grip on the magnets. They've changed my life for putting magnets into custom BLDC motors.
That's a great Idea in certain projects. I have done magnetite, mixed in or just in the region of interest. Getting the ratios right might require some trial and error.
I think you could forgo the magnets entirely. Basically, replace the magnets with threads and screws, and use a fixture to embed small panels into the skin, to give yourself hard points to attach the skin to the mechanism. --------------- For more detail: First: On the skeleton/mechanism, replace the magnets with threads/threaded inserts/helicoils. Second: Design thin panels with thru holes that can be bolted into these threads on the mechanism. These panels will be embedded in the silicone, to give you hard points to bolt the skin to the mechanism. These panels should have thru-holes that match up with the threaded holes of the mechanism, and a countersink so the screw doesn’t stick out into the skin. Also add some larger holes for the silicone to seep into and adhere the panels in place, so you don’t have the stretching on the panel attachments you saw with the current iteration. (See Bonus Note [1] at the end) Third: Design the mold. You already have the outer mold, but you need to make a new inner mold, which will hold the panels in place while you’re casting the skin. This means that inner mold needs threads or helicoils that correspond with those in the skeleton-mechanism. Assuming you’re willing to use slush casting, the inner mold will be pretty simple to make, as it’s just a fixture that locates those threads in space. Just extrude a 3-7mm diameter cylinder an inch or so from those helicoils, towards the center of the mold. Then connect all those standoffs you just made with a sphere or spheroid. That locates the helicoils in space, and leaves enough room for slush casting. (See Bonus Notes [2] at the end if you want a shaped inner skin surface) the inner mold holds the panels, and the standoffs keep the panels in the middle of the so it gets fully encapsulated. Fourth: Screw the panels onto the inner mold. For bonus points, put a small o-ring between the panels and the inner mold, and under the head of each screw, so the silicone can’t seep into the screw holes while you’re casting. Fifth: Pour the silicone in your outer mold and fully cover the surface. Insert the inner mold to apply the panels, and add more silicone to cover the panels entirely [3]. Sixth: Once the silicone has cured, remove the outer mold, and use a razor to cut through the silicone around each screw head. Leave some of the silicone attached, so there’s a flap that can cover and hide each screw head [4]. If you cut the flaps at an angle, like a cone, pyramid, or trough, they should self-register when you close them, and will hopefully be almost invisible! Finally: Remove the screws from the panels, and remove the skin from the inner mold. Do whatever cleanup is necessary to get rid of flashing and or vent flues. I recommend flush cutters. At this point you should have a single-piece skin with embedded mounting panels, and you can install it on the face! No magnets, hopefully no silicone ripping, and no superglue to deal with. --------------- Bonus notes: [1] There are other geometries that you can add on the borders of the panels to improve adhesion between the silicone and the panels (e.g., t-slots and zipper-shapes). But with how thin the panels will need to be, the geometries may be too small, so the silicone may rip too easily, or may not even flow into it completely without voids [2] If you want a shaped inner surface on your skin, the inner mold will be your old inner mold, but adding the same helicoils I described for the slush casting inner mold. But the threaded standoffs will be much shorter - a couple millimeters instead of a couple inches. The goal is to get the panels embedded in the skin, rather than sticking out of the inner skin. You may need to add some vent holes through the mold, to allow air to escape around the panels, instead of making voids. I’d recommend either channels or vent holes that partially overlap with the borders and adhesion holes in the panels. [3] If molding is giving you trouble, especially with a shaped inner surface, you may need to manually syringe some silicone in between the panels and the inner mold before installing the molds together and putting in more silicone. Alternatively, a two-stage cast may work better. You could mount the panels to a low-detail OUTER mold, and cover them with silicone before applying the inner mold to make the inner surface of the skin. Then, do a second stage where you fill the proper outer mold with silicone, and insert the inner mold with the partially completed skin. That procedure would probably take some experimentation. I’d probably just go with slush casting. [4] If you don’t want to cut with a razor, you may be able to do some 3d Printing shenanigans. If you make a vertical plane or circle geometry the thickness of one printed wall (often .2 or .4 mm), it’ll print as a single wall! You can use this in a couple way. You could make, functionally, a cookie cutter that you can use to make identical flaps over each screw. Alternatively, you could use this method to make thin walls on the PANEL when you print it, which will cast the flap into the silicone. After curing, the single wall is thin and fragile enough that you can use pliers to remove it from the rest of the panel. If you do it this way, you may want to put a little mold release on the printed wall, and fill the area inside the wall with syringed silicone, to ensure it doesn’t just become an air bubble.
does it need to be magnets that you embed into the silicone? would you be able to get away with pegs instead? That way you could have holes drilled into the back side of the mold; insert the pegs, and then do the silicone cast in one shot, as the pegs would be at the correct depth and alignment already. The pegs would have a larger 'head' area, and could even have holes in the plate to let silicone through them, increasing the surface area they pull against for durability.
Brilliant. I have been following artifical muscle development to do the same for a long while. Te testing silicone molds. I find gelatin an excellent test substance. Its translucent and you can quickly measure thicknesses with a needle. Plus you just remelt it to try again :)
I've been thinkung about this for a bit, mosty in relation to stylised characters like the tf2 spy this is really impressive and honestly probably a lifesaver
Will , I'm using Smoothon Mold Star 30 and Ecoflex 00-10 for skin. And you Must use mold release Mann Ease Release 200 spray the mold and Allow to Dry.
11:26 it's the most though-out construction I've seen on this matter, as I have seen thousands of vids online of my 22 years on the internet! These days, the more advanced stuff is actually AI sex dolls...yeap...lol...!
Being able to have plug-and-play CB and a pre-packaged set of screws and servos could be a huge game changer. Ive been wanting to make puppets, animatronics, and animatronic puppets of various character designs of mine. Big issue is they are very stylized, or not human. Like aliens with 1 to 3 eyes. I dont have a problem troubleshooting this and printing out prefab STL parts with my printer, and modifying them to fit with my designs. But I struggle to figure out where to even start with servos, circuit boards, and connecting them all up. Having a base kit to work from would be great. For your robotic character, I would have went for large chunky screws to attach the skin. That would let you get more defined wrinkles and stretched proportions without risk of the magnets popping off. It would also really lend to the aesthetic I think. For a more realistic skin, you may also consider two layers of silicone. One molded to be veiny, lumpy, and with deep-set wrinkles. And a thinner, skin layer, with a subtle skin texture thats firmly adhered ontop of the "flesh" cast. You could also consider cable-driven servos to mimic strands of muscle. Have those attached directly during molding the flesh-layer, or afterwards in setting up the face. And they can pull face groups in more convincing ways.
This is AMAZING.... without the skin it kinda looks like Predator :P with those 6 free floating mouth tentacles :P It looks sooooo good man. I recreated your eye system once, and it's probably the coolest toy i own till this day.
Hey, prop maker here. Platinum silicones are notoriously finicky, so it could be a few different things! It looks like your first round of casting, you used Oomoo 25 for the mold, which is a tin cure silicone, and you're using Ecoflex (I think?) for the face, which is a platinum silicone. Tin cure silicones (especially freshly cast tin cure molds) can inhibit the cure of platinum silicones. If I were a betting man, I'd guess that was your culprit. Especially since it looks like you switched to Mold Star and Ecoflex (both platinums) for round 2.
Love your content! Your work has inspired me to pursue an associates in Mechatronics, and I'm really loving it!
This
Nerds!! lol ❤
This'd be my bet.
There are other ch's that say this too. Also applies to 3D resin molds, I think Tin cure silicone works better.
Also the clay
Holy shit this is almost not uncanny, wow.
a sexy silicone-skin face isn't far off... the whole tech stack of learning to work with silicone is a fun bit of trial and error ... but i am looking forward to more-realistic skins with more movement points... complete with mouth cavity.
I csn see the hospital reports now lmao@petemoss3160
Wow, this was exactly my thought, it's getting slightly across the uncanny valley
Didn’t anticipate seeing you in the wild for some reason lmao
@Azyreth 😄
few tips: only upper eyelids move when you blink. not lower part.. and upper lip moves very slightly when we talk also only movable part of the head is the lower Jawbone, in your model both upper and lower teeth move.. it's a small detail but gives a lot of believability!. you might want the more cartoonish effects or dramatical expressions but these tips will help you anyways. i'm an artist and i've studied these details when animating it helped me a lot.
the upper jaw isn't moving, the lower jaw is just making the whole head pivot on the table.
Maybe he took those things into consideration in trying to make it not be uncanny?
The lower lid does move a tiny bit.
The upper jaw isn't moving, those upper servos are for the cheek/lip muscles. Only the lower jaw moves freely.
Also needs strong eyebrow action and mid-brow scrunch 😸 is a great start though
I was a friend of Will's in school once upon a time and though we drifted apart he was always such a kind and insanely talented dude. So happy to see how well he's doing.
Knew you'd go far, Will, but holy shit if this doesn't blow even my expectations out of the water. What a sci-fi-inventor-level badass you've become. From the bottom of my heart - well done man. So proud of you.
- Callum
What I recommend is to watch some vintage special effects makeup design in which the cheek for instance, is thicker and glued on to a thinner eye socket part using latex. I think though ultimately you are going to wind up using some kind of mesh embedded into a two-sided silicone mold and that mesh will be some kind of fishing wire or flexible underwire. This mesh would prevent tearing and also give you the ability to attach your structures to the mesh.
Awesome - I posted a very similar comment.. Your explanation is a lot more concise than mine..
kreaturekid did this for some of their silicone puppets, used a mesh to glue silicone together and to non silicone parts
You could cast bits of iron into the silicone in 2 phase pour instead of panels. Powder might be enough for magnets to pull on.
What about slippage.
I was thinking he could just mold little plugs on the inside of the face that press fit into the 3D printed parts like grommets.
Awesome work!!! It's great that you are sharing this project with the community open source. It promotes growth in this sector of robotics for everyone's benefit. It would be awesome to see this grow into separate collaborative departments specializing in specific areas of synthetic senses, like sight, olfactory, taste, and such. I'd love to eventually hear a robot complain about something smelling foul or simply awful! Lol
Im not usually a person that gets creped out with robot stuff. this is the first time in a log time that the uncanny valley hit me. and thats a compliment the stretching surface is amazing. i think once you move the magnets to the underside of the face it will look amazing
Mmm... crepes.
same. especially when it looks like it's screaming
The eyes on this are amazing. Great work!
You can definitely see the look of existential terror in it's eyes, good job, keep going!
Smooth-On Ecoflex are platinum-cure, also called polyaddition. This polymerization reaction is often inhibited by the presence of sulfur or tin. Since you used MoldStar 15 - which is also platinum-cure and not tin-cure - your blue silicon is most likely not the problem. However, depending on the clay you used, it's highly probable that it's what ended up inhibiting your silicon polymerization. Some non-drying modeling clays are sulfur based, others are sulfur-free (and often clearly labeled as such). Had the same problem once using food-grade silicon and the clay was the culprit. Once removed, it worked without issues.
It also looks like that you're using Smooth-On's Universal Mold Release, which they don't recommend using on silicone rubbers. According to the EcoFlex product page, Ease Release 200 would be a better choice.
Also, sidenote, but I don't think you need to use the MoldStar at all if you print your mold "negatives" directly. It might be a bit more fiddly to go in there and smooth the layer lines, but you'd be able to directly cast the EcoFlex and most likely won't even need mold release. I'm sure you already thought about that though.
Agreed 100%. I hope he sees your comment
Thank you for making them open source
he open source that gyat
If I may suggest a different method of connecting the skin, perhaps using a "power mesh" with the silicone skin might be more advantageous in durability and fidelity while being easier to graft onto the mechanics.
A power mesh is essentially a 4 way stretch material like spandex that is basically impregnated into the silicone skin. It's used in the mask and haunt industry to help performers give more exaggerated expressions.
There's a pretty good explanation in Adam Savege's Tested titled "How Lifelike FX Creature Masks are Made".
We share the same dream of making all of this more accessible to everyone so I hope the suggestion helps. As a teacher I dream of a day where every school can have this as an after school club.
Maybe you could put the magnets that are at the outside of the mouth area to the inside of the mouth? Meaning the skin would wrap around the lips and then be fixed inside the mouth.
That might look very ghoulish...
i am still an amateur working with silicone even after working 7 years with it - it is a lot of hit and miss when it works - it is magic
Have you considered using a flexible resin printed face.
You could start by trying a face that is printed by a 3d printing service company. If that works you could then consider acquiring a resin printer. Alternatively print the flexible skin with an FDM printer and try surface finishes to remove the layer lines.
i can never understand why people think this stuff is creepy, i fund it really cool and fascinat..... 0:41 oh nevermind i get it now
What really stood out for me was how when the robots eyes move anywhere, it blinks. Obviously this is how we look around quickly with a blink but I've never seen that on any other robot design. Amazing work!
I think as far as items I'd purchase, once the new head design is done, probably finished eyes designed to fit decent cameras.
I would say the cast face silicone too, but I think I want that custom.
Bro your level of mechatronics is ... another level, i am so amazed of your work good job
Man, this is insane Genius. I have never seen such a master piece in electrinics and mechanics all made by one individual. My sincere Respekt from Germany, i will follow your Ride from now on, lets see where this is going and what opportunities Mrs. Future has in her collection for you. I Wish you to get everything that of you have ever dreamed of.
Really, this is a great work and you make it Open and accessible as well.
You are my Super Hero for the rest of this year 2024.
💛💙❤💙💛
4:42 “moisturise me!”
The result of your work is really impressive!
The eye movements and blinking are incredible. Especially during 11:20 when all the magnets get attached, it's like out of a sci-fi movie. What a time to be alive.
If you ever get really good with silicon or find a way to have them professionally made, look into how noctua does their anti-vibration mounts - they're little pull tabs that you can pull (or push) through a hole, locking it in place.
They're called NA-SAVP3, you can google that to get an idea. This will greatly simplify the mechanism, but I figure it'd only work if you have absolute control over the mold.
Great-looking machine! Can’t wait for the next video! The silicone skin looks awesome! I think having the magnets inside the skin is a great idea, but maybe you could use TPU to hold the magnets? If you make the print porous (like 10% infill) and then cast the silicone inside, it could strengthen that section and stop the silicone from pulling away over time. Just a thought-keep it up!
Amazing work!
The eay it blinks is very realistic, although people blink really fast. I think its probably quite hard to make a robot blink as quick as a human does.
That's amazing!!! Always blown away by your work
I don't know how You're not more famous this stuff is very cool and impressive.
If you design the panels to house the magnets that would improve assembly.
Excellent effort! Great inspiration to those that have never done anything like this. The open details of your process of failure and success is brave.
Lovely how the tearing of the silicone around the mouth also add some tones of body horror melting flesh.
Kind of appropriate given how much you struggled with silicone not curing.
Mould release: use petroleum jelly; heat it gently until it melts, then use a silicone brush to apply. Never had any issues with silicone curing or releasing using this technique.
Will absolutely support you on Patreon when I'm able to; fantastic work.
My god man. I just started 3D printing and will eventually look to make a robot, albeit not by my design and the first one I find is you. Crazy mad skills. Subscribed.
Genius work and open source, are you an angel sir ?
You know you got it right because it is creepy as heck to look at. You're right in the uncanny valley.
It’s been amazing following you since you started, and I really value that you aim to maintain the quality of your work going forward. You are a standout will
You are awesome man! I love how you make it so accessible! You are the best!!!! The plug and play board sounds awesome!
11:53 you could cast them with a backing with holes for the magnets, put in the magnets in, and cast again with another backing of the mold. So a 2 part mold, with 2 2nd parts, if that makes sense.
To make your designs more modular, consider adopting a controller / peripheral model and linking the units together using QWIIC (I2C) and power supply cables. For each peripheral (eyes, face, hands, etc.), design a circuit board with uniquely addressed I2C PWM, GPIO, drivers, and sensor components and the necessary mounting fixtures for installation. To assemble your robot connect all of the peripherals to a common “brain board” and power supply. That way only need one microcontroller (or SoC) to drive everything and you can swap the brains and peripherals for different units incrementally as your design evolves.
I am amazed at the skill that you have, as well as the knowledge of animatronic head design to be able to create this marvel. The tongue movement put it over the edge for me for visual speech cues. Kudos, sir.
Silicon application is always tedious, I usually give a quick spash dabbing to the surfaces for a thin coat then just pour a really high thin strip on one point, helps a ton with the bubbles. Stellar work as always you're an inspiration to this community
I love it. Fantastic job. Can't wait to see more. What I have done in the past with the magnets is to place another magnet, in the negative mold, attracting the one that is in the positive mold to keep it in place. This keeps them from getting attracted to the ones near to it or from moving around, In this case, I would put down some silicone, where the magnets would be, and allow it to cure, so the magnetic attraction doesn't squish all the silicone out. I'd finish by pouring the rest of the silicone concealing and suspending all the magnets in. The mold would have the negative space designed below the surface with the proper gap for attractive forces. They can be glued in place, in the original mold, so the process can be repeatable for multiple skin productions. There's still a need for great attention to the polarity, but once glued into the negative mold, you don't have to worry about them again.
Tks for sharing your knowledge and projects.
This is awesome!! Well done. If its helpful you can lay a 2 way stretch mesh in the back of the silicon to avoid tearing. It will help in its long term durability. To adhere, you can use the same silicon as an adhesive as it will stick to itself. Looking forward to seeing more.
Clays can contain sulfates and that will case a chemical reaction, hindering the cure of the silicone so if you fine the sulfate free clay that is most likely the issue the other thing might be the mold release application technique. Spay lightly and use a brush to smear the release around evenly and let fully dry before putting the molds together. Hope that helps Amazing work!
Hi Will, I worked over your Snapfit Eye mechanism, it was good but I struggled a lot with 3d parts, because multiple time parts got break down while I was trying to assemble them.
Thanks Again!!
Make an alternate version to look like an Elite from Halo
WORT WORT WORT!!!
I think the lips should be made like the opening of a drawstring bag, with 2 drawstrings that could pucker, and the corners of the mouth could be pulled by 2 other strings for smile and frown. The top and bottom lip should be like fingers that curl around the teeth. So basically its like 2 lip curl fingers holding a double drawstring, that is connected to pulleys in the cheek bones and jaw. I don't think plastic arms in the cheeks is a great design, I think more of the actuation could be done with string cables, maybe sewn into a fabric layer below the silicone.
This is really well done. idk how its uncanny, it already looks leagues better than the stuff ive seen.
Mind-blowing, very glad i found this channel! Open source 👍
can you swap the mouth module?
Been watching your channel for 6 years Look forward to see how this continues
The eye movement speed and the natural fast blinking are the standout features here.
Make sure you install red LEDs in the eyes so we can tell when it turns evil.
5:35 "eeeeeee Gary what's in this jellyfish jam"
How about setting up your silicone for spray application. Then, you spray it into a single mold surface of the face. You spray continuing layers until you have the desired thickness of skin.
Wowwwwww....😲
You got a subscriber from India 🇮🇳
First time on your channel, and I must say- your motivations of making cool things and allowing everyone to access them align with mine so well! Although I do different projects (for me more open source automation and art), i look up to people like you and I’m sure everyone else here does too. Thanks for inspiring me I’ll defo be a returning viewer :)
thats so freaking goooood , nice job and i dont want to put you down but you will never make something better than the real deal maybe you can mimic it but never better
welldone mate, great efforts, looking forward for next stage, one advice though " try to cast face by creating 2 3D printed shells, with a hallow negative in between, that way u save a ton of silicone, and demolding is much easier. finish the 3d printed faces with a layer of expoxy that will give smoother surfaces and maybe some sanding before applying epoxy as a surface finish.
So, so cool man. You do awesome things for people.
This is actually cursed, but I really love it.
Hi. just found your channel. cool project. I have worked on something similar to this and had some of the same problems with the silicone ripping or not gripping the servos. the solution I came up with was to imbed fabric pockets into the silicon. I also tried valcro which does work and makes it easy to attach but the problem with that is if your movement is too much then they just pop off the valcro.
so in short.
1. I suggest the idea of imbedding fabric pockets for the servos to integrate with (or as you've said just imbed the connection points themselves)
2. there is a stuff called Polydimethylsiloxane which I haven't used myself, but I know many robotics companies are using it for it's supposed ability to stretch and conform without ripping.
Amazing and unsettling in equal measure. ✌️
If you need help with silicone casting, I have extensive experience with it. Some tips:
1) sulfur inhibits the curing of most platinum cure silicones. Many clays, as well as 3d printer resin have sulfur in them and will ruin your casting.
2) too much mold release will ruin your designs, but you still need some. You're only trying to create the most thin single layer of release, nothing more.
If you want to collaborate on anything silicone related gimme a holler!
Dude this is the coolest thing I've ever seen
Excellent. Would love to see small cameras in both irises plugged in to an object recognition model or depth perception model
You could embed 3dprinted mount points within the silicon skin much like over molded metal parts rather than fighting magnets or doing multipoars
Hi Will! You are making a lot of progress on this design and it is great to see it coming together! It is gratifying to see your success continuing and growing. I often see other makers referencing your designs and the old saying, "imitation is the most sincere flattery, " comes to mind. I too have used many of your designs and have had great success with them. But, for my needs, I almost always need to modify these builds. You see, for my clients the "uncanny valley," is not a scary place, but rather a goal. I manufacture halloween animatronics, and if the face "creeps out," the guest then we have accomplished a major goal. To this end, an eye mechanism that uses 32mm eyes that are spaced at 75 mm, doesn't work for me when real eyes are closer to 24 mm in diameter and typically spaced at about 60 mm. Fortunately, I have been able to use your concepts to come up with designs that fit my needs. I'm sorry to see that you are struggling with cure inhibition. You are likely correct that the problem is the release that you are using. Platinum silicone is very picky when it comes to curing. Another maker has had a large degree of success by using a silicone adhesive to attach his movement pads to the silicone skin. Of course, this makes for a pretty much permanent attachment to the skin but after all, once the skin is in place, I don't see a need for removal. But as always, keep up the good work and thanks for all you great content!
Hey bud, I'm working in movie industry and use silicone quite a lot, use wax mold relese, does not affect any silicone i've used so far and it is great for releasing. It is liquid, so you just need to brush it over the mold. I always use it when making 2 part moulds, or using poliurethane castings in some cases.
Love your channel, love your work, I am fascinated wth animatronics, but I never really have spare time to dig into it..
really nice. I've always wanted to do something similar, but never got the motivation (story of my life). You could try building magnets into the mold, and cast around the attachment panels in a single pour.
This is arguably the coolest DIY 3D Printing/animatronic/robotics/science-based (or any other descriptors you want to use) instructional video on the internet. We're totally blown away sir! So many different high-level modalities demonstrated here. You're definitely a Renaissance man of the modern era. Leonardo da Vinci would be impressed 👌
Kudos to you and thank you for making this open-source 👏
That is some amazing stuff. I’d image that casting the panels in place would be a great option. You could also add string/threads to the panels to cast in place that way it’s not so obvious that the servo is pulling on a specific place but it feels more like a muscle is moving that entire portion of the face
Kytzune here, I eagerly await your next updates and wish you the best on your endeavors! This is amazing stuff and needs higher visibility. Animatronics is just the tip of the engineering iceberg and you have absolutely helped make the technology leap ahead with your efforts. I'm still astounded by the quality of work you have achieved considering your limited access to resources. Keep it up!
This was absolutely wild! that face is creepy and awesome all at once!
Mount magnets in your mold core print to hold your panels in place. Then stretch a power-mesh over the core, attach mesh to panels and then cast your ecoflex. Will make a more resilient skin and will embed your magnets into the skin. Also, you can get away with printing your negative if you want to save $ on silicone.
add a wig, beard and eyebrows, to those magnetic fasteners?! I love your work!!
Sulphur in some clays is known for inhibiting silicone cure. Platinum cure, the softer and more expensive 'skin safe' silicone that is usually translucent is particularly sensitive to cure inhibition. Contact with tin cure silicone (usually opaque with a coloured catalyst) will also inhibit platinum cure silicone.
For Moldrelease, use babypowder. Just brush it on the molds. This works like a charme and is cheap. :) I am doing this for making 2 part molds for dicemaking and stuff like this. Great Video as always! I love how it turned out!
NOICE!!! i've been thinking and working toward this project, with (the face coming first) but i would NOT be using the industry-standard lever system like you did... here's the trick, the 'skull plate' has holes for tiny cables in nylon tubes that can yank on various points of the face where the tiny cable is tied off on a small piece of mesh to distribute the anchor point's load on the silicone (and not tear it)
i suck in CAD and can only conceptualize the process... that's what's holding me back but you don't seem to be stymied.
This is so cool, thank you for sharing it
Oooh! Mate! Buy non-magnetic tweezers!!! They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and they have springloaded ones that will keep a grip on the magnets. They've changed my life for putting magnets into custom BLDC motors.
Dude niceee!! I’ve been going down more or less the same path. Been wanting to build an animatronic since watching “Movie Magic” as a kid.
God damn probably the best animatronic head I've seen, it's not uncanny anymore
You should make thin grooves in the silicone and or thinner contours to accommodate the movements of the skin
Is there any way to embed iron powder (or something else magnetic) into the silicone face to make it magnetic? Instead of the panels
That's a great Idea in certain projects. I have done magnetite, mixed in or just in the region of interest. Getting the ratios right might require some trial and error.
I think you could forgo the magnets entirely.
Basically, replace the magnets with threads and screws, and use a fixture to embed small panels into the skin, to give yourself hard points to attach the skin to the mechanism.
---------------
For more detail:
First: On the skeleton/mechanism, replace the magnets with threads/threaded inserts/helicoils.
Second: Design thin panels with thru holes that can be bolted into these threads on the mechanism. These panels will be embedded in the silicone, to give you hard points to bolt the skin to the mechanism. These panels should have thru-holes that match up with the threaded holes of the mechanism, and a countersink so the screw doesn’t stick out into the skin. Also add some larger holes for the silicone to seep into and adhere the panels in place, so you don’t have the stretching on the panel attachments you saw with the current iteration. (See Bonus Note [1] at the end)
Third: Design the mold. You already have the outer mold, but you need to make a new inner mold, which will hold the panels in place while you’re casting the skin. This means that inner mold needs threads or helicoils that correspond with those in the skeleton-mechanism.
Assuming you’re willing to use slush casting, the inner mold will be pretty simple to make, as it’s just a fixture that locates those threads in space. Just extrude a 3-7mm diameter cylinder an inch or so from those helicoils, towards the center of the mold. Then connect all those standoffs you just made with a sphere or spheroid. That locates the helicoils in space, and leaves enough room for slush casting. (See Bonus Notes [2] at the end if you want a shaped inner skin surface)
the inner mold holds the panels, and the standoffs keep the panels in the middle of the so it gets fully encapsulated.
Fourth: Screw the panels onto the inner mold. For bonus points, put a small o-ring between the panels and the inner mold, and under the head of each screw, so the silicone can’t seep into the screw holes while you’re casting.
Fifth: Pour the silicone in your outer mold and fully cover the surface. Insert the inner mold to apply the panels, and add more silicone to cover the panels entirely [3].
Sixth: Once the silicone has cured, remove the outer mold, and use a razor to cut through the silicone around each screw head. Leave some of the silicone attached, so there’s a flap that can cover and hide each screw head [4].
If you cut the flaps at an angle, like a cone, pyramid, or trough, they should self-register when you close them, and will hopefully be almost invisible!
Finally: Remove the screws from the panels, and remove the skin from the inner mold.
Do whatever cleanup is necessary to get rid of flashing and or vent flues. I recommend flush cutters.
At this point you should have a single-piece skin with embedded mounting panels, and you can install it on the face! No magnets, hopefully no silicone ripping, and no superglue to deal with.
---------------
Bonus notes:
[1] There are other geometries that you can add on the borders of the panels to improve adhesion between the silicone and the panels (e.g., t-slots and zipper-shapes). But with how thin the panels will need to be, the geometries may be too small, so the silicone may rip too easily, or may not even flow into it completely without voids
[2] If you want a shaped inner surface on your skin, the inner mold will be your old inner mold, but adding the same helicoils I described for the slush casting inner mold. But the threaded standoffs will be much shorter - a couple millimeters instead of a couple inches. The goal is to get the panels embedded in the skin, rather than sticking out of the inner skin.
You may need to add some vent holes through the mold, to allow air to escape around the panels, instead of making voids. I’d recommend either channels or vent holes that partially overlap with the borders and adhesion holes in the panels.
[3] If molding is giving you trouble, especially with a shaped inner surface, you may need to manually syringe some silicone in between the panels and the inner mold before installing the molds together and putting in more silicone.
Alternatively, a two-stage cast may work better. You could mount the panels to a low-detail OUTER mold, and cover them with silicone before applying the inner mold to make the inner surface of the skin. Then, do a second stage where you fill the proper outer mold with silicone, and insert the inner mold with the partially completed skin.
That procedure would probably take some experimentation. I’d probably just go with slush casting.
[4] If you don’t want to cut with a razor, you may be able to do some 3d Printing shenanigans. If you make a vertical plane or circle geometry the thickness of one printed wall (often .2 or .4 mm), it’ll print as a single wall!
You can use this in a couple way. You could make, functionally, a cookie cutter that you can use to make identical flaps over each screw.
Alternatively, you could use this method to make thin walls on the PANEL when you print it, which will cast the flap into the silicone. After curing, the single wall is thin and fragile enough that you can use pliers to remove it from the rest of the panel. If you do it this way, you may want to put a little mold release on the printed wall, and fill the area inside the wall with syringed silicone, to ensure it doesn’t just become an air bubble.
does it need to be magnets that you embed into the silicone? would you be able to get away with pegs instead? That way you could have holes drilled into the back side of the mold; insert the pegs, and then do the silicone cast in one shot, as the pegs would be at the correct depth and alignment already.
The pegs would have a larger 'head' area, and could even have holes in the plate to let silicone through them, increasing the surface area they pull against for durability.
Brilliant. I have been following artifical muscle development to do the same for a long while.
Te testing silicone molds. I find gelatin an excellent test substance. Its translucent and you can quickly measure thicknesses with a needle.
Plus you just remelt it to try again :)
I've been thinkung about this for a bit, mosty in relation to stylised characters like the tf2 spy
this is really impressive and honestly probably a lifesaver
Absolutely amazing!
Dude, 2 layers of silicon skin (perhaps even thin) and then anchoring the 2nd layer to the first layer with magnets as well?
Will , I'm using Smoothon Mold Star 30 and Ecoflex 00-10 for skin. And you Must use mold release Mann Ease Release 200 spray the mold and Allow to Dry.
11:26 it's the most though-out construction I've seen on this matter, as I have seen thousands of vids online of my 22 years on the internet! These days, the more advanced stuff is actually AI sex dolls...yeap...lol...!
Being able to have plug-and-play CB and a pre-packaged set of screws and servos could be a huge game changer.
Ive been wanting to make puppets, animatronics, and animatronic puppets of various character designs of mine. Big issue is they are very stylized, or not human. Like aliens with 1 to 3 eyes.
I dont have a problem troubleshooting this and printing out prefab STL parts with my printer, and modifying them to fit with my designs. But I struggle to figure out where to even start with servos, circuit boards, and connecting them all up. Having a base kit to work from would be great.
For your robotic character, I would have went for large chunky screws to attach the skin. That would let you get more defined wrinkles and stretched proportions without risk of the magnets popping off. It would also really lend to the aesthetic I think.
For a more realistic skin, you may also consider two layers of silicone. One molded to be veiny, lumpy, and with deep-set wrinkles. And a thinner, skin layer, with a subtle skin texture thats firmly adhered ontop of the "flesh" cast.
You could also consider cable-driven servos to mimic strands of muscle. Have those attached directly during molding the flesh-layer, or afterwards in setting up the face. And they can pull face groups in more convincing ways.
When will you post this project on your website? Can’t wait to make it🦾
This is AMAZING.... without the skin it kinda looks like Predator :P with those 6 free floating mouth tentacles :P
It looks sooooo good man. I recreated your eye system once, and it's probably the coolest toy i own till this day.
Something like this would be so much more fun than these current speech boxes, Amazon and Google sell.
I mean with the Amazon Echo atleast it would probably be possible to sync the two together, several animatronic projects for it already exist