Fall is here which means that the spookiest month, October, is right around the corner. With Halloween being one of my favourite holidays I decided it was time to make a new decoration for it. I had a few ideas about what to make but eventually decided on a cute little ghost because I realized I could make it cute and creepy at the same time! Which is always fun. I remembered an old optical illusion that would allow me to make a face or pair of eyes follow you across a room and immediately thought “ghost!”
It’s actually a very simple trick. All you have to do is make a concave surface and place an image on that surface. Because it’s concave, although you may move and rotate the surface you can still see most of the image, giving the impression that the surface is shifting to face you. Make that image an eye and it looks like it’s watching you instead!
After some initial tests in blender, I found that making the pupils pop out helped eliminate some of the distortion that naturally happens and greatly added to the effect. After that, I went through four versions of the model to get things just right. The first version was just my usual rough copy that I make to get the idea out of my head and onto my computer. The second was the usual clean up but after I made a prototype I decided that it was too small and looked like a used tissue. With the third version, I fixed up the shape and made some improvements to its arms. The fourth and final version made some refinements to the geometry to simplify it in some places and give it some more shape and texture in others.
In the end, I am very happy with the model as I believe it accomplishes its goal of being creepy and cute very well. That’s because from the moment that you finish putting together the eyes - it is watching you. Each prototype felt like it was watching me as I put it together, just like it will watch you if you decide to build one. And if you build as many as I have now your house will be filled with small little ghosts, silently watching you whenever you do anything or go anywhere. Always watching…
As always, thanks for reading and happy crafting!
The Papercraftsman