Still not a release

(I've made some edits since the original post, you may want to consider scrolling down)
(The edits keep on coming, scroll down)

Sorry for the continual posting of stuff that isn't what you actually frequent this blog for.

It's about 4 AM and I just finished a paper on Rousseau's Second Discourse, so I'm trying to siphon off the excess "writing" energy. Anyway...

Fezco went and signed up on Blogger, so you've got a new site to keep track of if you're as into this Final Fantasy nonsense as anyone who checks this blog regularly must be. He doesn't have any models or anything up yet, but I'm highly amused with the back-and-forth we've got going in the comments of his first few posts. Worth having a read if you're bored.

http://fezcocrafts.blogspot.com/

(Also listed in the sidebar as the less awesome of two proposed names, the alternate being a subject of much dispute.)

I also wanted to ask if anyone would like to help me make a banner. I realize this is something I probably should've thought about addressing, oh I dunno, ten months ago? (I'm really going to have to do something cool for my one-year anniversary...) I'm not very good with the Photo-shops, so I never got around to tackling the issue. If you are good with the Photo-shops, and want to help me out, I'd be happy to provide finished photos and screenshots of PDOs and whatnot from whichever angles you need to make them look less lame.

If you're interested, there are many ways in which you might go about contacting me. Surprise me.





Oh yeah, and I got Balthier a gun about 20 minutes after making that edit. Still not sure about his pose though...



EDIT:



Got, I think, all the work done on Balthier I'm going to get done. I even managed to give him that trademark smirk. I would've liked to make the pose a little more complex, but my skills just aren't there yet.



I'm doing the initial unfold to match the scale I build my Fran model (that is, omg hueg!!1), which is comparable to the Lady Luck model. However, the FFXII models are really efficient. They rely more on texture shading and whatnot to give the effect of more detail than they actually have. Basically this means I'm also going to scale it down to match the original scale of Steph's Fran.

Call it pretentious, but I'm also going to do a new layout of Steph's Fran, as per my general method of horizontal bands. I may build her a second time at the original scale for the sake of instructions, so you have a pair. Might try to find her a bow as well.

On a sentimental note: It's kind of sad how blasé models I literally squealed over when I first realized there was a chance I could build them, have become. Now it's just "oh yeah, look it's ready to go." You know I thought The Fahrenheit would be my ascension to glory? Finally on par with my heroes. Or at least an attempt to be like them. Making an airship like Urashiman, how cool is that? (Not to say I'm doing anywhere near the work they all do) But what did it boil down to? I made all the edits and completed the layout in 2-3 hours, tops. The build? A weekend, just going about it in the same way I always do. Boring. There were people who were ready to declare me a god, should I ever complete Balthier. All the work I put into him when I didn't know what I was doing, it all seemed so...epic. But now, it's just drag and drop some textures, move some vertices, unfold, bands, blah blah blah.

I guess the truth is, even a job you choose to work for free...it's still work.

Anyway, that's all for now.



By the way, you see my Sketchup template? That's what I do when I get the option to customize something, I make it purple and busy. I wonder if that says something...


EDIT AGAIN:



Those of you who frequent /po/ may have already seen this: My first excursion outside of Square's domain? We'll find out. I've got a lot of other stuff on my plate on the moment.


EDIT SOME MORE:

And the plate keeps getting bigger...



Bane of my existence, I swear...



Maybe a Banora White will cheer me up...Gift of the Goddess, they say...

Consider it a taste of things to come...

(!!!)

Horizons, etc.

I'm starting to get into that end-of-the-semester crunch, so there may not be any new releases for a while. Just thought I'd give you a head's up on where a few things stand.

I've started the most basic of edits to Tifa, Yuffie, and Vincent. I may have to reconsider their poses, as a few of them are just a little too hard to build cleanly. The Goblin Pack continues...I haven't heard much from my testbuilders, but preliminary reports indicate everything is going as planned. I need to do some weapon layouts, but all in good time.

Here's the interesting news:

If you follow the chatter in the Shoutbox, you may have noticed that Fezco, who is going to be starting his own blog pretty soon, with his first planned release being LeBlanc from FFX-2, discovered some more models using an alternative extraction method. Namely, the Celsius.

Short version: ridiculous detailed, but I simply must build it. Here are some images to illustrate the madness:

Ideally, I'd like to build it at the same scale as the Fahrenheit. However, the Fahrenheit was acutally pretty simple (believe it or not) by comparison. So at the same scale, you get pages that look like this on the Celsius. I'm not sure if you can see them or not, but there's a line of parts so tiny they basically look like little grey specks.

It's going to need a lot of editing...

If I scale it up to make it a little more buildable, you get something like this. That's as large as it can reasonably be, before you start having to break parts down in ways that are just silly. It's going to be pretty big one way or another, but the question is whether or not it should be massive. There are still tiny little parts, but it spans a ridiculous number of pages.

This thing's really going to take some effort.

Also: I figured out how to change the color scheme in Sketchup.

Purple, purple everywhere, but not a drop to...uh...what?

Anyway, I'm not sure when the next release will be, so stay tuned.

EDIT:



Got my hands on 3DS Max 2010 recently, motivated me to see where I left off with Balthier last. Fun part is, I've learned enough about Sketchup since then to know how to pose him and fix the textures without the need for 3DS. Anyway, he needs some texture fixes and a little more work on the pose. I also want to see if I can't find a model of a gun from XII, put that in his right hand.



This also looks fun.

Also: I am a sad, strange little man. Why would anyone know these things?


And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go buy a ticket to Lab Band Madness for Tuesday night.

Compilation Update

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LF54H8FZ

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ylihu0hlifd
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qet2mjuzzkm

Updated the Final Fantasy Papercraft compilation. In case you're unfamiliar: this is an archive of everyone else's Final Fantasy models. Updated version now includes the FFIX party by Chamoo232, the FFVII models of Okaci, Ninjatoes' Kingdom Hearts Cloud, and a few other items.

Stands

Put together a few stands, made a new directory in the Mediafire folder.

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=9a3870cea0d9926fd5a101cf914073b4ac6bae7dd045e0e4


The "small" stands are of the 7-pointed variety. The problem is, to make stands of that shape large enough to fit models with footprints like Cait Sith, they have to be so large as to be unbuildable. Or at least illogical. Anyway, the small stands will fit the regular sized FFVII models. The "large" stands are much simpler; just textured boxes. The nameplates will fit on any stand. I've uploaded more nameplates than I've already finished models for, but they'll all get done eventually...I think.

The stands are all hollow. That is to say, they have no bottom face. This makes them easier to build (especially at the necessary scale), but just as strong if you make them with cardstock. So as always, I advise using cardstock for the stands.

Mostly, making new stands is just a matter of browsing the game textures and picking things that look interesting. Imagination? I guess you could say...
I'll continually update the folder, so check it regularly if you like. I'll also work on making stands for other models.


My recommendations for good combinations:
(models with their appropriate plates)


Highwind stand, Cid model

Bloody Shinra Tower stand, "Jenova's Head" Sephiroth model

Train Tracks stand, Barret model

Temple of the Ancients stand, Aerith model

Battle Arena stand, Zack model (maybe Shinra Tower?)


You get the idea...mix'n'match as you please.



Oh, and remember to set your print settings to Landscape when printing out the nameplates.