Laser Designs

Recently, I have been doing a lot of volunteer work, and as part of my contract with them, I have access to use their industrial laser cutters and vacuum formers if I would like. So, I have been designing small pieces for jewelry (that I will post up shortly- need to get pictures!) but have wanted to try my hand at larger pieces.

This eve, I had a bit of time (my brain hurts from emails!) on my hands, and I've started vectoring a few ideas for quick props that I would like to try as soon as my acrylic sheets come in.

Currently, I am debating between creating Yuna's Summoner Staff from Final Fantasy X, and Rikku's thief blades from Final Fantasy X-2. Depending on how those go, I would also like to try my hand at laser cut keyblades!

I thought I would post up my WIP mockups in from Illustrator (which have to be converted over to an obscure vector file, tweaked, and cut out, but still!) for reference, especially if anyone else is planning on making these in the future. I'll probably do a tutorial as well, providing my template for those who want to make them out of wood/plastic/foam/whatever, since I know access to laser cutters is not readily available ^^;

But, for now, here are my working designs:

Rikku's Thief Knives from FFX2 - these are going to undergo some major revisions in the near future to work with the materials to get the blade shape more accurate, but the base is there, especially for the handles! (yay geometry - see, it is useful!)


Yuna's default summoner staff topper. I know there are plenty of them out there, but none in vector formats that are clean enough to work off of (and symmetrical!)

And one special one that is giving me nightmares, but I really, really want to do this one: Yuna's Nirvana Staff

The Nirvana staff is just a very rough WIP, but I thought it would help to show my process. The darker areas will be actually deep engraved out of the plastic, while the white/lighter in the feathers will be left alone. There is a lot more detail to add, and so far, it is looking to be three layers thick, not including the green gems (which will need to be cast gems, not plain round pieces of plexiglass).

That staff is dependent on how difficult the other few are to create, but I'll be sure to post WIP pictures of any of these being made for those who are curious! So, here is step 1: design!