Do note that there will be some IRL progress photos show below.Uuuh... this post ended up being way longer than I expected it was going to be... Hope my rambling is able to be decoded.

Since this project will be taking a little longer than I imagined and there was some interest in it. I might as well make a post about it. I'll be updating it every or every other day as long as there has been some solid progress. The deadline is when EF starts, so I've been already putting unhealthy amounts of hours into this on top of the occasional render/animation. xDI'll take a few week long breaks too every now and then to work on animation and modelling projects, like the upcoming League of Monsterphiles Volume. Need to edit a monster for that too that I'll release here once done. Haven't decided who yet though.Update notifications will be turned off so that there won't be any unnecessary spam for those who're not interested in this project.For those who are, feel free to take a peek here every now and then. You're also welcome to use this a guide for any projects of your own and to message me either here, or on discord (dewith_) incase you have any questions that aren't explained here. I'll have to warn you though that most of the methods used here are ones I came up with on the spot. There are definitely better ways of doing things.

Fursuit creation is something I've considered doing on the side as I love making stuff utilizing modelling, 3d printing and textiles. But I definitely need some more practice before I take any commissions. And once/if I do, I'll most likely start small with a robotic partial/head or two before I even think about full suits. So something like Wi's partial:

Photos taken by MrZorronatorIf you're looking into getting a robotic suit for an OC of yours, hit me up on discord and I'll be in touch if I ever open coms of this type. You patrons will have priority to these slots.

Anyways, here's a "quick" explanation of how everything is made and how the eyes work.

Find progress updates a bit further down

Do note that this model is not going to be released, this is meant to be used more as a guide for your own projects.I began by modelling all the objects I needed to print in blender, using a realistic human model scaled roughly to my size as a base. Beginning with the essential stuff like the head and back plates housing the battery and brains of Wi. And later on, the rest of the plates needed for the full suit

If you plan on adding electronics such as fans to your suit, you can usually find ready .obj files of them on the internet. Bambu lab for example has most, if not all the electronics they sell as models on their webstore. This way you can easily see what fan fits your head/suit best and also makes modelling the mounts a breeze.

Fans like these are pretty much necessary if you have a visor in your suit as otherwise you won't be able to see anything once it fogs up due to sweating/breathing. Alternatively, if you have glasses or want a prebuilt option, you can always opt for an Anti fog unit like this one.

For the screens, I went for a more unconventional approach. I used actual OLED displays and a Raspberry pi 4 with custom vibe coded software to switch between pre-rendered eye animations. This gives me the option to do a lot of fancy stuff with the eyes. It's not something I recommend other to for a few reasons. mainly the amount of power they need drains most power banks quite fast and the micro HDMI connections on the Pi are extremely prone to interference by the slightest of bumps. Not to mention the hell that is managing all the cables.If you still want to go the HDMI display route, be sure to use OLED displays. LCD ones will have a very obvious backlight that'll ruin the look of your visor. They also tend to have terrible viewing angles at these smaller scales.

Here's a pic with all the main components of my suit. The shoulder plate holds the Pi while the head houses the displays and fans. The visor it a separate piece that can be taken of during maintenance or to cool down. It clips on and holds in place without any other way of securing it being necessary due to a small lip that runs around the frame.It's Powered by an Anker Prime 200W power bank, which gives me ~6 hours of juice to power two OLEDs, the pi, two fans and some LEDs in the horns. My plan is to add another slightly less powerful bank to power one of the displays and lights as I've had some issues with voltage drops causing the displays to power off.

A much better, less convoluted approach would be using either static eyes powered by rgb strips, shining through a light diffuser, with the shape of the eye cut out/3d printed with a material that doesn't allow the backlight to pass through it. It should be possible to model things so that you can change expressions on the fly. Blinking, if wanted, can then be achieved by driving the strips, or a small motor/actuator with an Arduino for example. This way you could house all the electronics in the head and not have to deal with the hassle of multiple cables running from your head to your back.I've not tested this way of doing things yet, but It's the approach I have in mind for Tekla's suit.

Due to the odd shape of Wi's visor, I wasn't able to vacuum form it. Instead, I had to print a frame with slots, in which I could then fit pieces of clear 2mm thick PETG sheets. I bent those to shape by heating them with a heat gun over a 3d printed mold. I recommend printing the mold out of PC to keep it from deforming by accident while forming the sheet into shape.

Once the sheets had been formed, glued in place with epoxy, the seams smoothed out and the non clear parts painted black. you can give it a visor look by lining it with car headlight film. I used a H35 Medium UPPF one, but other slightly darkened ones should do the trick too.

3D printing the plates and other parts.

All the plates and most of the electronic housing parts where 3d printed using PETG with the following settings: .4mm nozzle, .2mm layer height, 2 wall loops and 8% gyroid infill. You should be fine with using a bigger nozzle and .28mm high layers to save printing time, but that will increase the amount of time you'll spend post processing the parts if you don't plan on lining them with something.The plates where then lined with white or black D500 Cordura to give them a pleasant look on camera. I used Bison kit transparent contact glue and a heat gun to do this.

I also utilized resin printing on some of the smaller, more detailed objects. Like the arrow things on my new thigh plates and horns.

How are the plates being held in place?

Using a series of 40mm wide stretchy straps looped through mounts on the plates. The mounts then have a cushions printed out of TPU so that they don't poke me uncomfortably.

I used 8mm wide buttons with counter pieces to keep them at the correct height, making detaching them for transport easy.

Progress updates on the full suit starts here!

To do list:

Finish printing and lining all the plates, come up with a way to line the horns as well.

Glue, add LEDs and wire the horns.

Add LEDs and wire the thigh plates. See how long they stay powered with a 5000/10000 mAh power bank.

Order new, more reliable HDMI cables for the head's displays.

Glue the new head together and confirm the new jaw hinge works.

Add electronics to the new head.

Finish the third iteration visor.

Make own hand-paws instead of the Raptor's den template ones. Should have a more comfortable plating solution and be phone/touchscreen friendly.

Make a pocket in the backpiece for an amplifier speaker and second power bank.

Test that I measured my shoe's space reservation correctly in the legs.

Finish modelling the digitigrade legs and print the bottom part out of TPU.

Remake the fursuit's suitcase's padding to fit everything in there... somehow.

Maw with teeth (if there's time in between projects and before EF starts)

Full suit features to keep in mind for the template.

Plot out seam locations and what textiles to use where.

Make and Uv unwrap guide meshes in blender to get rough template shapes and measurements. (No clue if this works, but would be cool if it did. xD)

Instead of a zipper in the back, use Velcro so that I can suit up without help.

hidden strap channels in the suit for the plate's attachment points.

Water bladder pocket in the back of the suit

Additional random stuff I might or might not make given time constraints.

A card with my socials/shitposting folded into a simple small letter to make handing out stickers easier while in suit.

Card/sticker holder that’s friendly with paws on. (Would be cool to get this working like one of those hidden assassin daggers that can retract.)

I ordered some fancy carabiners that I need to find a use for xD

Wi keychain :D

Small figurine of Wi I could hide around for ppl to find and keep... or throw in a blender. I don't judge what you decide to do with the small fuckers.

Code side

Add dynamic expressions (rng to change expressions)

New expressions with dynamics in mind

I'll strikethrough these points once they're complete

15th of June, beginning of updates

Red Parts are not modelled to completionWhite parts are modelled, but not yet printedYellow parts are printed, but not yet lined with textiles or glued togetherGreen parts are lined/glued and considered ready.

Most of today was spent lining the side torso and upper arm plates. I also spraypainted the metallic parts a silver color.

[Update 1] 18th of June

Red Parts are not modelled to completionWhite parts are modelled, but not yet printedYellow parts are printed, but not yet lined with textiles or glued togetherGreen parts are lined/glued and considered ready.

-Finished lining the last two bicep plates, -Glued the main helmet parts together, meaning I can start transferring and rewiring the electronics to it. -Molded, cut out and glued the clear PETG sheets to the visor. Still need to smooth out the seams and give it one more coat of paint before I can lay the headlight film onto it .-Glued the arrows onto the light up thigh plates. Still need to print the blue display screen diffuser before I can get to adding the LED strips and other electronics to them.-The pouches that I ordered for my suit have arrived. Still need to think about their placement and how I'll mount them to the suit.

I'm using masking tape to keep the clear PETG sheets protected from scratches all the way until I'm ready to apply the headlight film. Also helps with keeping the epoxy I used to glue them in place from leaking over the sheets.