They see me rollin'

A "Faux Photoshop" assignment...create something that wouldn't normally be in a scenario with photoshop(make it look as convincing as possible.) Not sure whether to keep the spokes from the original photo or not. Will edit depending on how Jeremy critiques the assignment.

Used this image:

Skateboard Deck - Roughs

these are rough because the main concern was coming up with ideas and the layout rather than trying to put a ton of detailing into each one(a mistake I made from the last assignment that drained me of precious energy because it wasn't necessary...) Also, each drawing is about the size of a business card.


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1: Each square would have one of the 3 ghouls(plus another) as they continued like a pattern. i.e.: 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4, etc. The backgrounds would all be mixed up. It's a pop-art Andy Warhol approach. The figures might be kept black and white so it doesn't clash so much, but it stil hasn't been decided yet.

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2: the idea was to put a vampire(dracula?) the werewolf, and a mummy together displaying gang signs relevant to each ghoul. The werewolf with the "westside" symbol(or maybe two W's formed by each hand as they cross his chest), vampire with the butterfly hand gesture(reference: Napoleon Dynamite), and a mummy forming the letter "M." The vampire was the ghoul I thought of 1st and then it developed into using other entities(which is why he's the front.) The background was going to be a dark purple, with the figures in black/grey/white(half-toned technique you would see in manga.)

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3: a traffic light, except the "box" of the traffic light is a grey color instead of the traditional black. I saw a pic of a novelty one somewhere, don't remember...each circle would represent the stages of a samurai killing an opponent. The top red = encounter with the the enemy or attack stange, the middle orange/yellow/whatever = anticipating and preparing to attack or in the middle of charging at opponent, green= killing the opponent.


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4: Remember that famous "Saturday Night Fever" image of John Travolta doing that disco stance? It's a zombie doing the same picturesque pose with the quote "staying alive" underneath it.


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5: very conceptual- a Chinese/Japanese dragon made up of many paper planes, as you drift further from the head(which is at the bottom of the design) toward the tail you can see the individual planes trailing and drifting apart into the individual pieces. The color scheme was going to be borrowed from this: (navigate to the 3rd image with the right arrow key) http://www.davidmascha.com/main.html. The dragon would be white with thin black outlines.
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Final image: turned this into a snowboard. it's a city of modernized igloos(skyscrapers, office buildings, etc.) with an igloo cannon shooting a penguin that's wearing an aviator hat, goggles, and a scarf. Random, I know. lol.


tried putting a lot of effort into each idea so that I wouldn't have "1 good rough and 5 whatevers," as that has been lectured about by the instructor while talking about professional practices and crappy portfolios out in the real world.

Vinyl Toy Update(Still kind-of crappy roughs, not the final)

Went back to Isaac's earlier today to see how the 1st mold came out. His roommate was talking in his sleep at random moments blurting out "cash or check?" mumbling, and then snoring. Also, his phone kept ringing off the hook. It was pretty amusing.

The dixie cup was easy to remove because we applied release spray(a very important step)
Here you can see Isaac slicing 2/3 of the way through the mold:

What the current mold looks like:
Then we mixed together this concoction made up of two liquids(equal parts) in a dixie cup. This particular mold used very little "plastic forming goo" (only filled 2 cups about a quarter of an inch deep each.) After mixing it for 30 seconds or until it was too hot and my hand was going to fall off(whichever came first) it was poured very slowly into the mold(which was being held together by a dixie cup so it wouldn't split open while casting) so air bubbles wouldn't form in the end product. Of course, this was done after we generously sprayed the inside of the mold with release spray. Once the mold was filled evenly to the top, it turned from translucent to opaque in less than a minute(see video below.)


After letting it settle for about 5 minutes, the molde was split and the cast removed(it was really warm and covered in bits of clay):
We experimented with differenct colors, and lined the interior of the mold with gold powder to make a "super intense" gold vinyl figure:
Here are some "action shots" of the figures. You'll see in the close ups that there are lots of bumps/very rough, but this is only 1st mold to get the general form of the figure. From there it will be sanded down, refined to make a polished piece, and re-molded(to make the final cast.) Then painted! I'm pretty stoked about how these came out(being my 1st attempt at making a toy) It's pretty exciting because Isaac is also still trying to master this because he started not too long ago, so it's learning experience for us both.
DRAMATIC MACRO SHOT:
The army of figures(the ones in the front are Isaac's casts of Woodstock from Peanuts)Again, these are not the final product(but it's getting there!) I'm excited for the painting process(we're not sure what paint to use, but I guess we'll find out lol.)

Next week(Friday) we're going to head to the school's Industrial Design building so Isaac can print a sword he modeled way back when. Apparently at the facility they can do 3D prints/casts of your 3D models produced in Maya for dirt cheap(a fraction of the cost a lot of companies out in the 'real world' charge.) Maybe we'll be lucky and see Adam Savage(he teaches at the Academy part-time, but I think that's at another building.) Maybe. Also going to try and re-mold a refined version/maybe paint

Vinyl Toy Moldmaking?

I went to my friend Isaac's dorm yesterday to learn how to make designer toys/vinyl figures similar to what KidRobot and Super7(a handful among MANY companies out there) produce. Look them up, they're awesome. Here's a link. If you google 'Vinyl Toy' you'll see what I'm talking about as well.

Isaac is a fellow animation student, and is way good(and supa fast) at 3D modeling. He's trying to apply for graduation already! :O also he interned for G4 back in the day(he's around my age and already had his A.A. degree in his teens. RIDICULOUS.)

For those of you not familiar with what vinyl toys are: They're basically plastic limited edition(some more so than others) figures that are hand-painted(either individually or reproduced from an original painted by the artist) and sold as collectibles. They can come in various colors, clear, or glow-in-the-dark. Some are easily purchasable, some are more sought after. They are not produced in huge quantities like what you would find at a toy store, and are of much higher quality. They are works of art that are more affordable to the common person(unless you buy something that's only been produced 50 times; then it could be upwards of $500 but that's an exception to the rule.) I don't about you, but I can't afford an oil painting. Maybe I could do one, but I don't know how to use oil-based paints so never mind, lulz.

Main collectors of these figurines are adults, because they are meant for show.

He's been working on producing a replica of those tags from Digimon(don't be judgin' it's cool.) Here's his set-up:

His bed is the bottom half of a bunk bed turned upside-down with a piece of wood covering the top to make a workstation. He sleeps underneath it like a fort(or a coffin, which some people have commented) because it's uncomfortable to be that close to your roommate. Also, it makes for a much more economical workspace, lol.

These are some pics(sorry for the blur) of the clay prototype I sculpted yesterday:
Right now it looks about as glamorous as a dropped pie, but work with me it's still in the beginning stages. Oh and this clay is awesome because it never dries. Also even more awesome because Isaac took it from the school, lol:



I didn't realize how difficult it would be trying to sculpt on a small scale(esp. cleaning it up x_x) to give you an idea of how big it is - if I were to sell it to someone it would have a handwritten warning label stating that it was a choking hazard for children 4 and under.

It was gonna be Earl Jay at first, but then I decided to go with a figure similar to Isaac's chibi figures:


Then it turned into an astronaut. Now I'm not too sure o_O...but it's ok, since it'll be blank it could really be painted into anything.

Right now it's among these choices:

1. a funky astronaut thing
2. Ironman
3. Mech Spiderman


This is the rubber mold that takes 8 hours to settle. After that(which is going to be later today when I go back to Isaac's dorm) we're going to take it apart and fill it with a substance that takes 60 seconds to harden from an opaque liquid to white plastic. From there, I think he said we could sand down the plastic(?) model to clean it up more and make the 'final' mold(smooth surface) for use with the final product. Going to pay him in 2L Pepsi bottles.


*SURPRISE UDPATE LATER TONIGHT OR MAYBE TOMORROW*

Stuck

I have to come up with 6 skateboard deck design roughs for my Illustrative Digital Imaging class by Monday. DANG.

Something

from a while back(beginning of '08?.) It's an attempt at copying a Michelangelo master drawing. Did touch ups over winter break since turning it in.



Taking a photo of it taped onto the window gave a neat textured effect to the paper. I was thinking about adding a sneaker to his foot, lol.

Assignments this semester in no chronological order Pt. 1

This was a recent coloring assignment for my VFX 1 class - we were given an option of 2 line drawings the instructor(Jeremy Saliba) did of 'Walt' and 'The Dude' from The Big Lebowski:

and the original:



Something screwed up the alignment of the line drawing with the coloring, as after I had cleaned it up it didn't save(found out when I got home....) I'll clean it up again in the next few days.

While experimenting with light, had it like this:



...need to add more values on the face after cleaning up the lines again, will repost soon.

Do-over

I lost the flash drive with all my website data, so from now on visitors to www.susatron.com will be redirected to this blogspot account(until the day I redo the site - in which case I'll still post new work on this blog, but it will be an extension of the domain.) Since I'll be doing assignments every week, expect this to definitely be updated regularly.