Project List

Okay. I've reached a good place with classes back in session (even though none of my classes are explicitly covering Martin Heidegger ;_;). I'm not studying, but then again, I never really do. So I've put together a project list that I'm going to will myself to stick to.

Here they are, in order:




FFX - The Fahrenheit

I've had this laid out, printed, and ready to build for over a month now, and I just keep putting it off for other things. I've been wanting to build this even longer, so it's about time I finally got started.




FFVII - Cloud Strife

Ninjatoes is working on his Kingdom Hearts incarnation of Cloud, and I'm planning to have a version of the oldschool field model ready for his release date (that is to say, even if I finish early, I'm going to save the release for his date). I've been thinking about doing something special with this build, but I don't know if anyone would be interested. I looked into some desktop recording programs and ordered a webcam, so I'm now able to document the entire build process, from the original extraction from the game data to a fully built model. I can make a short series out of it for a YouTube channel. If you're interested in seeing something like that, leave a comment.




FFVII - Zack Fair

Similarly, Chamoo is working on the Crisis Core edition of Zack, so I'd like to have the field model ready for that release as well. It's my understanding that her model is proving to be somewhat difficult, so I may put off this build, as I can probably spare some time. All the same, I'm going to save the release for her date, unless she decides to scrap the project, or I finish everything else on the list first.


The FFVII Party:



Barret

Figure I should just go ahead and finish the rest of the party. I'll start with Barret, and work my way through the rest, in the following order:



Red XIII



Tifa



Yuffie



and Vincent.
Haven't decided on a pose for him yet. They're both pretty awesome, but I'm not gonna bother with doing both like I did Sephiroth.




FFXII - Balthier

After finishing the FFVII party, I think I'll be ready for another Lady Luck sized project. Balthier's been a long time in the making, and it's well past time I just sat down and forced myself to finish it without getting distracted.




Chrono Cross - Fargo

After Balthier, I'll get back into some Chrono Cross models, starting with Fargo and continuing as follows:



Serge



Lynx



and Glenn.
Haven't even started work on any of these yet, so the grey faces aren't indicative of anything, I just had the .OBJs handy for screenshots.


At this point we're getting into builds months away, so these next few may be subject to change, but I'd like to just sit down and get them completed.




FFVII - Tiny Bronco

This one's already in Pepakura, but the unfolding process is going to take particularly long. I may decide to go back and simplify the model more, but like I said, this is pretty far off, so I'll just have to cross that bridge when I come to it.




FFXI - Goblin Pack

This will be an absolutely massive project, as I'd need to testbuild lots of different body components and possibly poses. Like others, this has been a long time in the making, but I think I'm just going to have to force myself to get it done without distractions.


After that, I'm thinking of a few more themed packs, but those will be getting into the range of summertime, so nothing's set in stone. A few ideas I'd like to look into are:

Chocobo Pack
(from as many games as I can get my hands on)

The Turks
(including Rufus and Vincent's Turk incarnation)

Shinra Company
(the remaining notables of Shinra, including Hojo, Scarlett, President Shinra, and Palmer)




I ordered a messenger bag (as cliche as I think they are) to at least make some attempt at carrying all my books around this semester, so I'll be working on more sprites to stick on it in the meantime. I've also kind of...rediscovered my own love of playing videogames, so I'll take time out whenever I feel I need a break. If you feel like yelling at me to get back to work ingame, my PSN ID is Kaizo107.

That should give you some idea of what you'll be seeing here in the coming months.

So again, if you'd like to see the entire process of a model's creation, from extracting the original data to the finished release, leave a comment, and I'll look into recording the process with the Cloud model.



As always, comments, requests, and full-frontal nudity are welcome.

Sprite Stitchery

I know I said I'd try Setzer first, but the 8-bit sprites have such a lower color count, I figured it would be best to try the easiest possible option first. Considering it was my first attempt at cross-stitch, I'd like to think it isn't half bad, but obviously I'm biased.

I chopped out the sprite and stitched it on to my belt, then went over the remaining white with brown and black sharpies. I do have some black cross-stitch fabric and some waste canvas for stitching directly on to other articles, but like I said this was my first attempt, so I didn't want to waste anything fancy. And I certainly didn't want to just let it sit on some stretch of white uselessness...not when it turned out so nice.

So if you live here in Denton, tag the guy wandering around campus with the black mage on his belt to win a prize!
(Don't...don't actually touch me, that'd just be weird...)

Anyhow, there's a lovely little freeware program called Stitch Color that I used to go about this. It takes inputs from many different image types, then converts them to DMC colors (the official cross stitch rainbow, I guess you could say, each with a reference number so you can run out to your local fabric store and buy the ones you need), and charts it out nice and large.

I would encourage anyone nerdy enough to put videogame sprites on their clothing to give it a try. Just be warned, it takes real manliness to bust out the sewing kit. You better be up to the task.
-_-




And now for something completely different (if you don't want to listen to me rant, stop reading now or skip to the bottom for the condensed version).

I started the sprite last night while watching the film adaptation of the Golden Compass. I originally heard about the books as a result of the film's release, but I never actually saw the movie before looking into the original version. As I've mentioned recently, the books had a rather heavy impact on me, and as such I feel it is my responsibility to put a message out, to everyone within the sound of my voice, about this movie:

Chris Weitz is a mutilator and a destroyer of quality!

I haven't seen any of his other works, so apologies if anyone happens to be a fan, but I can say that, as someone who read (well technically listened to) the books in their original splendor, that that movie was the most, rushed through, watered down, censored piece of refuse I have ever willed myself to witness.

And the worst part is it wasn't 100% wrong! They nailed the steampunk-esque environment, and they had a nearly perfect cast. Scoresby was a little older that I'd imagined him, but that inexplicable cowboy from the end of the Big Lebowski fit the role perfectly. Daniel Craig? Nicole Kidman? Abso-freakin'-lutely. Some of the kids might've been...well...better, but it's hard to nitpick with child actors. For the most part they performed admirably. As much as I love Sir Ian McKellen (after embodying both Gandalf and Magneto, what nerd couldn't?), I actually think he was an odd choice for Iorek. Though, I don't think I would've had nearly as much issue if he'd been given the lines he was supposed to have.

Defeated in single combat, my backside...He's Iorek for Jeebus' sake. He was exiled for being too badass.

The whole thing was an exercise in purging all subtext and just forcing the characters through immediate twists and turns, aiming only to hit the high points of the story, and never explain why.

"Okay, I'm running away from Mrs. Coulter now. Oh look some guys, let's not explain why they're after me. Blamo, there's some Gyptians. Okay, now we're on a boat. Oh look at me, I can read the Alethiometer without even thinking twice about it. No no, don't tell me who my kickass father is now, let's save that till the end so we can have some effing Darth Vader nonsense, where I get to be Luke and say 'you can't be my mother, it's not true, it's impossible!' Oh look, now the movie's over and we didn't actually reach the end of the condemned story. Boy, the part of Lyra sure was fun."


HAAAARGH! >_< style="font-style: italic;">incredible series based on the atrocities carried out in that God damn movie.

Sigh...

That is all.






Grargh, even the soundtrack was rubbish! >_<

Kid

Kid
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4VD6N0C0
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?33wzzynom5c

The short version of everything I have to say about this build is: I'm not entirely satisfied with the finished product, but it's given me too much trouble to consider scrapping it again. It also isn't a particularly easy build. As a great robot once said, "this ain't gonna be no cake-walk in the tea-park." The hair is...quite the rough customer, but it could have turned out much worse. My biggest gripe is with the pose. It's too vague and the right arm is just...dumb. I'm not sure. I'll probably feel better about it when I haven't been awake all night, and am not coming down off a caffeine high.




Anyway, spring semester starts tomorrow, so I'll be taking the Fahrenheit more casually. If my previous comments didn't indicate, my sleeping habits have become utterly befuddled, and I'm currently in the process of an auto-rectification, by means of sleep deprivation and caffeination. Tomorrow's the inauguration. A new president for this nation.

Okay, now I'm just getting loopy.

I'll be attempting to put together a long-term project list soon. I'll try to get it posted once it comes into being.

In the meantime, enjoy your papercraftulation.

Revisions Necessary

Took several days off to play LittleBigPlanet and listen to the His Dark Materials trilogy on audio book (what can I say, I just have a hard time forcing myself to crack open a book), both of which I sorely enjoyed. I think the passive entertainment did me some good as a change of pace.

The interesting thing is how similar I find the characters of Kid and Lyra (you know, the whole scrappy blond tomboy with an uncertain, but absolutely critical destiny). I know and accept why Will and Lyra had to part ways at the end (that whole, 'build the Republic where you are,' sobering you up to remind you that, it may have been a fictional fantasy, but it had a real message, and real messages don't have fairy-tale endings), but all the same, it still left a bitter taste in my mouth, and I had a hard time getting back this build as a result. Kind of an odd emotional response from paper toys, but whatever.

I was prepared to play this build lazily. The layout was effectively "done" for quite some time, but I knew I could make it much easier. I avoided making the revisions because it would mean losing the majority of the layout, which would just drag the whole process out even longer. While the progress so far is decent looking enough, it's occurred to me that this is one of those models that will bring in new readers, and will probably be built by more people than my stage-fright inclined disposition would like to admit to.

To make a long story (one which you've probably read the majority of at this point {apologies on that account}) short, I've started making the revisions. Classes start on Tuesday, so I'll try to get it done and released before then, then take the Fahrenheit build more casually while I get back into the swing of a regular schedule.

I've also put up a dedicated page for my ridiculous little "Bonus Questions," which you can find if you'll look slightly to the left, but that's more or less unrelated. Expect the release in the next few days.

Aerith

Aerith
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QQWKYK92
http://www.mediafire.com/?ttgmz1kztxh

Sorry for dragging my feet on this one. I printed her out and started cutting on the first page before I realized I didn't really care that much about seeing this one done. So I ended up finding lots of distractions and excuses. Took care of some housekeeping (literally), and generally addressed the stuff one should during a break from school.




Kid's up next, and while I know plenty of people are looking forward to this one, I think I'm going to take a break for a few days, so I don't do the same thing I did with Aerith, and sit around with a half-finished model on my desk.

Periodically I remember that I actually enjoy playing video games, so you'll likely find me playing LittleBigPlanet (which I'm supposed to get via UPS later today) for the next few days. My PSN ID is Kaizo107 if anyone would care to join me.


On an all-encompassingly unrelated note: I'd like to issue a challenge to anyone who actually reads all the useless crap I say after the first few lines of text, wherein I link to the release in question. If you can answer this correctly, I'll have to think up some kind of prize.

Can anyone tell me what is odd / interesting / worthy-of-note in the first track of the Disgaea 2 Arranged soundtrack?

The challenge will remain open until someone answers it correctly, if ever. In fact, I doubt so highly that anyone will have any idea what I'm talking about that I'll give you a big hint: it's right at the beginning of the track. Why do this, you might ask? For fun. I'm just curious if anyone else has the same kind of bizarre, useless knowledge of, or interest in the same things I do.


Requests always welcome, blah blah blah, contact any time, yadda yadda yadda,

You know the drill.

Mojo

Mojo
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WYY0Z585
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?rymk1tdznjm

Was aiming for Mojo's world map idle animation with the pose. Build was surprisingly fast and easy. Could've knocked it out in a day if I was concentrating.




I forgot to mention with the moogle release: This model can probably be scaled down considerably and still be buildable. Thanks to Lyrin for reminding me to bring it up.

I don't plan to rebuild the moogle any smaller to test it, but if anyone would like to, shoot me an email or instant message and I'll get you set up with what you need. I ask that you have a camera of some kind to take a picture of the finished product if you'd like to testbuild for me. A crappy cell phone camera is sufficient. The model should build precisely the same way, just a little more difficult in some of the smaller folds (feet, hand-nubs, and maybe in the wings).

Happy New Moogle

FFXI Moogle
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4P56UBF5
http://www.mediafire.com/?n2m24n3mkmy

Not gonna lie, this build was pretty phoned-in. But rest assured, my finished model looks like crap because I got lazy, not because the design is flawed.
Anyhow, I did a custom texture, the release contains the standard Moogle and Nomad Moogle.

So it's 2009. Woo! etc...
I guess I've been at this for about six months now. The funny part is I've posted a Moogle layout three times now. I guess the third time really is the charm, because the first two incarnations were absolute waste.

I'm working on rearranging my shelves, playing with some stencils and stuff. I'll probably have lots of crap to post on DeviantArt later tonight, but nothing release-related. I've got some errands to get done tomorrow, so I won't jump right into the next release, but I'll probably do some smaller items next. Probably Mojo, Aerith, and Kid, in that order. After that, I'll need several days to work on the Fahrenheit.

Check back often, etc.