christmas on infinite earths

Dream and Delirium is done!

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 02:04:07 +0000

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!

Gearman Rising

admin — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:19:19 +0000

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.

Damn this website is super ugly

admin — Wed, 06 May 2009 06:02:04 +0000

I need to shape this place up a bit. And make more posts. How bout some pictures?

One project begets another

admin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:31:16 +0000

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.

Working on Project 2

admin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:53:50 +0000

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.

woof, Project 1 done

admin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:13:15 +0000

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.

Make-a-thon video project: Wake Up Waltz

admin — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:39:38 +0000

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!

Sleepy-Waltz – Donovan Gentry

Will I dream

admin — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:52:04 +0000

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

I still function

admin — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 07:02:26 +0000

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.

It tolls for thee

admin — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:00:15 +0000

Project 3 is a wrap, as is Extreme Freestyle Hacking. My presentation went very well considering I banged on the instrument pretty randomly. I think I got points for sheer scale, as D.W. horrible Hugborg was about the only thing the towered over it. After the presentations were over I played it some more and got some really nice little melodies out of it by doing some kinda complex patterns, until I fell out of the zone and messed up.

Here’s me trying once again to play the one song I really wanted to play for class. I still can’t seem to get that last part. Happy Holidays everyone!