14 October 2024
Sure Ascendice is already pretty cool, but we've heard your voices and are trying to make it even better! So, we'd like to share some updates about what we are up to and get your feedback.
Here is an update on the state of the next batch of Ascendice Eye Dice designs. We’ve been working on a bunch of changes to improve the look of the eye dice.
1) Resin Pouring
The first change is a double resin pouring process. I wanted to have some more detailed, coloured artwork for the eyes this time, and with the Purple Dragon Eye Ascendice, it was purple tinted resin surrounding the whole core. Which meant that the eye print got heavily obscured by the resin colour and the colour and detail got a bit washed out.
This time we’re pouring the coloured resin first and then a second layout of clear resin only over the eye area so that it’s totally clear to see the eye through. Below is an example of a very badly aligned eye, but you can see the resin split here. The deep red on the bottom and the clear on top. It works super well for being able to see the print through. It’s crystal clear. But I don’t have a photo looking directly at the eye so you’ll have to trust me.
2) Printing
The next important thing is the eye print itself. This has been complicated. We’re using a process called UV printing which uses UV sensitive ink and sets it with a UV lamp after each layer. It’s printed on the black plastic shell so it also needs a layer of white printed underneath to make the colour visible. We’re also printing on a sphere which leads to some issues and complications. We print on a hemisphere with the iris in the centre. The centre of the iris is very close to the print heads but all of the edges bear away from it which means the edges of the iris are actually pretty far away from the print head, so the accuracy drops a lot and leads to some blurring. Here is a video of the process:
What makes this worse is that most of the artwork is dark, printed on a white under layer. So when the white blurs and the dark cover blurs, they don’t match and you get a kind of white halo around the edge (as seen below).
This is also exacerbated by the need to extremely precisely position the hemisphere for print. If the hemisphere is off position by even a fraction of a millimetre, not only does it mean that the print is off centre, but because it’s printed on a curved surface it also gets warped extremely noticeably. All that is to say, the printing part is also complicated.
I’ve visited 3 UV printing factories and the 2nd was the best. We’ve started making a mould to hold the shells in place so the print will be aligned perfectly. This was pretty expensive (about $700), but I wanted to do this now so we can test the artwork and see what actually looks best in the final state.
Which gets me onto the artwork itself…
3) Artwork
I’ve been putting together a load of artwork (about 50 irises) which we will test and see which style translates best to a black, curved surface under the resin.
Here are the designs so far:
I’m unsure what the final themes for the eyes will be. I’m leaning towards elemental eyes, fire, ice/water, and earth/life, but I also really like some of the other less clearly defined styles.
That’s it for now. Open to feedback, ideas, and thoughts.
~ Hale 🧙🏻♂️
