Another one in the can, well done ladies and gentlemen, yes yes. My last project page for the semester is up here, and within lies a mess of pictures and lots of words. Whaddaya want for nothin’? Thanks everybody for the awesome work and support!
The torso/backpack/vest is more or less complete. Not knowing how to attach it, I just sacrificed an old costume vest I had and built it directly into the back. The gears can turn, but I haven’t figured out a way to motorize them yet. I envision this thing having motorized gears and some lights, probably a red glow from within with light coming out the smoke stack and some glowing gems on the control panel. Adding a vented firebox that lights up on the side with the smokestack is another good idea I think, but that may have to wait. I can’t decide what to do with this now! I could keep working on it, or I could stop and try to use it in a video like I had intended all along. I’m running out of time though, either way.
This is the piece being worn by a couple pillows.
I need to shape this place up a bit. And make more posts. How bout some pictures?
So I’ve had the notion to fabricate a bunch of the props for this next project from styrofoam after watching MAKE’s 5 minute foam factory tutorial. However, I did not have a model train controller to use for the power source, and don’t have the space in my apartment to build the mounted, platform-like cutter in the tutorial. So I went and bought a curling iron from saver’s and some metal rod and went to work building a hot-wire jigsaw.
After connecting some guitar string for the blade and plugging the iron directly into the AC outlet, I discovered I was working with too much power: the wire exploded into hot sparks. Twice. So I did some more research, went and bought some proper nichrome foam cutter wire and a spare 9V dc adapter, also from Savers. After hacking the cords together and putting the new wire on, success!
Now the light on the iron doesn’t light up, but it still gets hot enough to cut foam pretty easily, even on low. On high it can cut slowly through denser stuff, like regular styrene based plastics and clear plastics. Now to make some stuff.
Decided to get cracking on a mask prop for my final project. I tried designing it first, but was getting frustrated with that approach and so I just decided to make it.
Gearman Mask, early stage
Gearman mask, early stage with fabric shawl
Gearman mask, cranium complete
At this point I have to go back to the drawing board. The Gearman is supposed to be a steampunk inspired automaton, and I don’t know how to ornament the mask in order to achieve this effect. I want to add cheek pieces, but I don’t know if they will be large flat panels, or just a bit of scrollwork or ornamentation with fabric underneath to cover my face. The mask is very tight and a little uncomfortable to get on, but I can breathe and see out of it, though the line of sight is very reduced.
I frikkin’ bled this one out. I wound up with something presentable in the end, but it was a hard journey to get there. The materials resisting me, or me being a drained, uninspired idiot? YOU DECIDE
On another note, I think I have decided what to do for my final project. I want to get started right away because A) it’s ambitious, and B) if I make headway on it I’ll be too committed to back out when I decide it was a stupid, stupid idea and I hate it.
A quick and dirty little video done with my home DV camcorder, so it’s a little fuzzy. The music is all off of my cheesy Yamaha keyboard and edited in Garage Band. The video was edited in Final Cut. Tada!
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Project 1 is already coming down the pipe here, folks. I have an idea that came in two parts: one, I was thinking about how a repeated action during the day can turn into an obsession in a dream, and two, how doing something immediately before falling asleep affects your state of consciousness if you are disrupted during sleep. The latter is based on something that happened last night, and I think will work nicely for the basic narrative of this short video project. More laterzzzzzzzzzzz
Looks who’s back, back again. It appears as though I will be involved in more ACTLab chicanery, this time in the form of Dream and Delirium. Fancy! I missed Tuesday’s class because my class schedule was still in flux, plus I had to work, but I dropped in on Weird Science today to check things out. Weird Science looks awesome, I may need to pop in to bother them more throughout the semester. I hope D&D is as good. I mean all we did was smack a ball around and play silly games, but dammit that needs to happen more in grad school.