Eye Of Agamotto
Social Networking App to Connect and Chat
Intro
Friendi is a social networking app designed to revolutionize the way people connect and chat with friends, family, and acquaintances. Friendi was developed to provide users with a user-friendly platform that promotes meaningful connections and facilitates communication. This case study explores the journey of creating Friendi, highlighting the challenges faced, the approach taken to address them, and the results achieved.
Concept Origin
This was my second-ever cosplay project. Once again, I saw a complex mechanical device that is both physically impossible and canonically powered by magic, and thought, “Yeah, I should build that.”
Why am I like this? Who knows.
In the movie (spoilers ahead), _Doctor Strange_ is a mystical wizard superhero who becomes powerful through a combination of studying hard, reality warping, and being Benedict Cumberbatch. One of his signature tools is the Eye of Agamotto a chunky, gold pendant that houses one of the Marvel universe's über-powerful infinity stones.
Naturally, I wanted to make it. Even if the actual prop was clearly CGI and very much not something you could build in the real world... minor detail.
Design & Development
Most of my reference material came directly from the movie. There are a few good shots of the pendant in motion, but overall it behaves in ways that don’t translate well to real-world mechanisms. So I had to make some decisions and break the motion down into something plausible.
I recreated the visual effect with two main components. First, two outer rings that rotate in opposite directions. Second, a central eye that opens and closes with a short delay to give it a little drama. I used a single servo motor as the power source, then routed the motion through a series of gears to drive both systems.
The servo I chose ended up dictating the minimum size of the prop. Because of that, the final version ended up being about twice the size of the movie version. That did make printing and assembly easier, so I leaned into it. The model was designed from the start to be 3D printed, so I spent time making sure tolerances were friendly and nothing required heroic print settings.
Prototype & Build
In classic Nerd-Sniped fashion (read: excess ADHD and unearned confidence in a brand-new skill), I originally planned to cast the parts and sell full kits. That plan lasted right up until I realized how annoying it would be to cast accurate gears at scale at which point I quietly walked that idea back.
I went with a standard 360-degree servo for the drivetrain. That kept the cost reasonable but also meant I was pushing the limits of what the motor could handle. Most of the build effort went into minimizing friction because the mechanism was already right on the edge of what the servo could handle. To make it work reliably, I had to **overvolt the servo slightly** to squeeze a little extra "oomph" from the gearbox.
Final Result
Originally, the plan was to sell thousands of full kits, become internet famous, and go full-time building nerdy artifacts for the masses. Spoiler: that didn't happen
I ended up selling just the mechanical pins and some partial parts kits for a little while, which was fun, but not quite the full-package experience I had imagined.
At the con, most people were moving too fast to notice a small prop with a quiet mechanical motion. But every now and then, someone would stop, ask about it, and I’d trigger the movement. Watching their eyes widen and their brain pause for a beat was always worth it. That little moment of surprise is the whole reason I love building things like this.
This project felt finished for maybe two weeks before someone else on the internet posted their version of the Eye of Agamotto, and theirs was objectively better.
Honestly, it was great. I learned a lot from their design and ended up using what I learned from mine to make a second version. Even better, I got to know the people behind that other build, and we’ve been friends ever since.
Who says internet friends need to stay on the internet?
