What is best to make Rorschach's mask form?

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TheLefty

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May 21, 2008
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I'm planning on being Rorschach for Halloween (I need to dress for the half time show since I'm in the school band. Trombone if any one cares. My plan is to roll the mask up when we play like he does when he was eating at Owlman's house.) but I can't figure out what to make the mask out of. I was thinking maybe just a simple cloth like cotton but I've been watching behind the scenes videos on youtube and it looks like spandex or something along those lines.
 

Ryokugax

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Sep 9, 2009
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TeragRunner said:
I'm planning on being Rorschach for Halloween (I need to dress for the half time show since I'm in the school band. Trombone if any one cares. My plan is to roll the mask up when we play like he does when he was eating at Owlman's house.) but I can't figure out what to make the mask out of. I was thinking maybe just a simple cloth like cotton but I've been watching behind the scenes videos on youtube and it looks like spandex or something along those lines.
Take a black stocking mask, bleach it white, use black material you can get from a craft shop to fill in the holes, look online for a rorschach inkblot test and work the black eyeholes and mouth-hole into that design using black dye painted back on.
 

Amnestic

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Aug 22, 2008
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I'd say a generic venetian mask as the base with Wonderflex on top to create a proper shape.

Might wanna take your question over to the Cosplay.com forums, they've probably got some tips and tricks.
 
Sep 5, 2009
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All I can tell you is not to use permanent marker to make the black part of the mask. A friend of mine did that last Halloween and alternated between being high and nearly asphyxiating himself all day.
 

Ultrajoe

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Apr 24, 2008
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If anyone can work out how to make the moving mask, and it doesn't involve Voodoo or superscience, I will write an epic viking tale dedicated to you.
 

SmartIdiot

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Feb 10, 2009
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Ultrajoe said:
If anyone can work out how to make the moving mask, and it doesn't involve Voodoo or superscience, I will write an epic viking tale dedicated to you.
How about this... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/The-BEST-Rorschach-Mask-With-Moving-Inkblots-Effect_W0QQitemZ120469498064QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0c8aa8d0&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177

It's a start at least.
 

oppp7

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Ultrajoe said:
If anyone can work out how to make the moving mask, and it doesn't involve Voodoo or superscience, I will write an epic viking tale dedicated to you.
Hm... I'm not sure about symmetry, but you could put a black sheet behind a clear sheet, and have a white liquid between them (both have to be water proof).
 

bluepilot

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I would say buy some strechy cloth, sew it up at the back so it will strecth over your head

Cut two holes for your eyes. Make the areas around these cuts black. When you wear the mask put on black eyeliner around the eyes so you can still see but not loose the effect

To colour black, I suggest indian ink
 

Labyrinth

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Ultrajoe said:
If anyone can work out how to make the moving mask, and it doesn't involve Voodoo or superscience, I will write an epic viking tale dedicated to you.
Actually, you could do it with say.. Well, you know those lava lamps? They're a mixture of water and usually a glycerol-like chemical with globs of wax which have a density very close to water, depending on their heat. Strategically placed mini-elements could theoretically make it work but you'd need a damn good insulant on both the inside and the out so you could properly programme it to be a mirror image, unaffected by ambient temperature changes.

You'd also need a degree in physics and chemical engineering, possibly a decade of experience in electronics and to believe in The Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Edit: Using inks that change colour with different temperatures and specifically designed mini-elements would work too, and be a whole lot easier.
 

RufusMcLaser

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I did this last year (pics are to be found in this thread from Halloween of 08 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.75579?page=2]) and had some success using two white nylon stockings. I cut an eye-slit in one, painted an appropriate pattern on the other using fabric paint and an enlargement of a suitable panel from the comic for guidance. I put the cut stocking on over my head, then put the painted stocking on over top.
One stocking was too transparent, two would've been too opaque, but one over the other with an eyeslit worked well. I could see well enough to navigate, use a computer, read, etc- but I wouldn't try driving in it. If you're short on time and money it's a decent method.
 

fix-the-spade

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Ultrajoe said:
If anyone can work out how to make the moving mask, and it doesn't involve Voodoo or superscience, I will write an epic viking tale dedicated to you.
You can buy heat sensitive (thermochromic) dyes, no idea where you'd get it in Aus but here most decent art stores will have some or be able to order it. It's flippin' expensive stuff.
You'd want a dye that goes on clear(ish) and gets darker when hot, it wouldn't work quite the same as it does in the movie, but the effect would still be cool.

The alternative would be to make a mask from a Polymer LCD screen, if you've got a few thousand quid spare, breathing might be hard too.
 

Strategia

za Rodina, tovarishchii
Mar 21, 2008
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A sheet of cotton (so you can breathe) with a generous dollop of pure liquid awesome for the inkblot, and a pinch of mind-screw to make it move.
 

CD-R

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Mar 1, 2009
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SmartIdiot said:
Ultrajoe said:
If anyone can work out how to make the moving mask, and it doesn't involve Voodoo or superscience, I will write an epic viking tale dedicated to you.
How about this... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/The-BEST-Rorschach-Mask-With-Moving-Inkblots-Effect_W0QQitemZ120469498064QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0c8aa8d0&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177

It's a start at least.
This guy actually seems legit.
 

heyheysg

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Jul 13, 2009
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First get a degree in physics, work for the government and persuade your dad to give up his job as a watchmaker.

Then one day accidentally get caught in a machine that will take you apart at a molecular level

This is the hard part, now focus your mind to reforming your body part by part.

You have now powers of omnipresence, use that power to design a dress for a fashion show, one of the items would include moving splotches on a dress.

Abandon that design and throw it away. Now pick it up and cut a section of it.

Ta Dah! Rorschachs's Mask!
 

thenumberthirteen

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Dec 19, 2007
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Easier Idea. Go as The Question [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_(comics)] he's the guy Rorschach was based on, and his mask could be make using skin coloured stockings. Ok he's not as cool, but he's more obscure, and easier to make a costume out of.
 

Labyrinth

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Oct 14, 2007
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Hokay. Here goes. Fair warning, this is theoretical, untried, untested and as yet unmade, even in prototype.

1. Make a mould of your face. Plasticine works, liquid latex of many layers probably works, if you support it with plaster strips. Either way you're going to wind up spending time with drinking straws up your nose for the sake of air.

2. Mix up some plaster of Paris or something similar to make a cast of this. You'll need to support the mould during this. A trough of sand with the mould settled into it will work so long as it's strong enough not to cave in.

3. While that's setting (give it two days or so, it'll be quite thick) make your Rorschach inkblot pattern. I suggest using ink-blots which will all overlap at critical points such as over the eyes, mouth and nostrils. Print out a bunch of the images (more than 4 or five will be annoying as HELL) and trace them onto overhead sheets or transparent sheet protectors, putting lines of the colour as hatching over the internal area. Don't bother with the really fiddly bits such as small holes. They'll just get too annoying.

4. Overlay these sheets and place a blank one on top. Onto this you're going to trace all the various sections of the others where they overlap, and where they don't. If an area is occupied by blots 1 and 2, but untouched by the others, that's one section and so on. Eventually you'll have it looking like a puzzle. Now you need to label sections which have different combinations of ink blots, such as all the sections with only ink-blots 1 and 2. Or just 1. Or 1 and 4, etc. Mark all the areas with each combination the same.

5. As you have a pattern, it's time to go back to the cast face. Cover it first with a sealant such as liquid latex, leaving holes to breathe through and eye slits for sight. These can be covered with black gauze so they're permeable but invisible.. relatively. A layer of insulant comes next. Cotton works, if you use several layers of fabric. Polyester padding does too but be careful because you don't want anything which is adverse to temperatures around the 40 C mark.

6. You'll need some material like what they make the heating strips across car rear windows out of. Not a clue what you'd use but hey, this is theoretical. Cut pieces of this material to fit the face and according to your earlier pattern for the Rorschach blots and wire it up according to the code of what you need for each blot. Parallel circuits are your friend. Attach the wiring to the mask along with the pieces of resistor and seal it, with a battery pack and mini-computer/switch board to be held in the pocket. If you're really cool you'll make a glove out of that.

7. Dye a batch of stretchy fabric with heat-reactive ink which goes black at say, 40 C and then attach it over the mask. With fabric you don't need to worry about the holes for breathing though you will for the eye holes, so just secure it around the outside and let the gauze show instead.

8. The back of the mask would work as a continuation of the fabric. Just sew it on and attach an elastic strap to either side of the mask, then another from the top to join them in the middle. This goes under the fabric back.

Voila! Should work. Maybe. Wouldn't weigh to much if you did it right, and infinitely more difficult than what that guy makes with just fabric.

[sub]To be fair, I once designed an armoured suit which instead of actual armour had harnesses and food packs for live kittens on the basis that no-one would ever attack you if you had two dozen tiny, mewing cats strapped to your body... so this may just be another crazy idea.[/sub]
 

Monocle Man

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Apr 14, 2009
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Labyrinth said:
-snip-

6. You'll need some material like what they make the heating strips across car rear windows out of. Not a clue what you'd use but hey, this is theoretical. Cut pieces of this material to fit the face and according to your earlier pattern for the Rorschach blots and wire it up according to the code of what you need for each blot. Parallel circuits are your friend. Attach the wiring to the mask along with the pieces of resistor and seal it, with a battery pack and mini-computer/switch board to be held in the pocket. If you're really cool you'll make a glove out of that.

7. Dye a batch of stretchy fabric with heat-reactive ink which goes black at say, 40 C and then attach it over the mask. With fabric you don't need to worry about the holes for breathing though you will for the eye holes, so just secure it around the outside and let the gauze show instead.

8. The back of the mask would work as a continuation of the fabric. Just sew it on and attach an elastic strap to either side of the mask, then another from the top to join them in the middle. This goes under the fabric back.

Voila! Should work. Maybe. Wouldn't weigh to much if you did it right, and infinitely more difficult than what that guy makes with just fabric.
That's a pretty cool idea. I'm assuming you use the "heating strips" to heat up the direct area of the desired patterns.

You'd have to be a bit careful about "some material like...", though. Else sweating from your performance won't be your only heat related concern.
Some electric and electronics knowledge would be a necessity.
Most important:
Power = voltage²/resistance
^ To be fried or not to be fried

Also if I remember some of my more distant lessons, you probably want to put a heat sensor in there so it will stop heating once it hits 43°C and starts heating again when it's at 39°C else it might get a good deal hotter when you keep it on.
That would require a bit programming, though. Can't give much more details than that. I've only programmed a single piece of electronics with the software that came with it in school.
Later this year/beginning next year I should get a microprocessor for me to "tinker" with, though.



Finally, when you're in a school band and performing, is there a spotlight on you? Because the added heat from the spotlight might screw the patterns up.