This Animatronic Eye of Agamotto Was 3D-Printed in Amazing Detail

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Eye of Agamotto is a powerful and mystical item that contains the Time Stone — one of the six Infinity Stones that Thanos collected for his gauntlet. The Eye of Agamotto resides within an amulet worn by Doctor Strange. The comic books featured many different variations of the Eye of Agamotto, but the way it was depicted in the MCU movies was particularly iconic. Instagrammer ezbsvs has brought that design to life using high-quality 3D printing and animatronics.

The amulet, as shown in the modern MCU movies, contains the Eye of Agamotto locked within a small chamber and surrounded by complex spinning mechanisms. Amazingly, ezbsvs was able to recreate that intricate movement, with a design featuring concentric rings each turning in opposite directions and then opening the “eyelid” to expose the Eye of Agamotto. That required brilliant engineering work to design the mechanisms and gears in Autodesk Fusion 360 CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software.

After designing those parts, ezbsvs sent them off to Shapeways to be 3D-printed using the MultiJet printing process, which is ideal for parts with a lot of fine details. That was necessary to ensure that the gears meshed smoothly. The rings are spun by six 700:1 plastic gearmotors, and the eyelid is opened and closed with a 1000:1 metal gearmotor. All of those are powered through Pololu motor drivers, and controlled by an Arduino Nano. The Arduino also controls the LEDs inside of the actual eye. With the addition of a masterful paint job, the amulet and Eye of Agamotto look as good as what Doctor Strange wears in the movies.