Making Megaman

A friend of mine recently had a Marvel vs Capcom party.  I dibbed Megaman and thus commited myself to quite a challenge.  I decided if I was going to put a costume together, I couldn't halfass it with cardboard and duct tape.  So I set forth to aim for quality while also winging it from start to finish.  Here's how it went down.

Starting out, I decided that the helmet was the most important piece of the Megaman pie, with the buster coming in a close second.  I knew a paper machet or foam one would not cut it, so I decided to invest a little money in a European style motorcycle helm.  The GLX satisfied the retro Megaman look the best and getting it in white would be perfect for a spraypaint job.

Removing the visor and taping off the padding, dark blue went first.

While the helmet dried, I turned my attention to the Buster.  Again, if I could find a ready made piece of construction for cheap, I was going to go with it.  Wandering around a Big 5, I knew the second I saw this giant travel mug that it would make a great megabuster.  At 12.99$, there were no excuses available.

I started by sawing off the handle with a jigsaw.  I put a nail through the side of the mug and through the bottom of the handle, then gluegunned the top.  Later I would come to wish I had waited for this part, but anxiousness and lack of planning tied me up a bit.

Took a quick photo once the glue dried.  The grip is ergonomic and very comfy!

I then stopped by a local electronics store and got some LED strips for lighting fx.  I bought some 9Volts, a switch, and some wire.

Used a strip of brass from my metals and jewelry days at SCAD to carefully lock the red LEDs into a circle.

I have a small box of random findings leftover from assemble-able furniture projects.  This metal L strip seemed like it would be good for housing the trigger inside the buster.  I just needed to use my jewelry saw to widen the hole a bit.

Fit the trigger in there and it was solid.

Then the soldering experiment began.  I had never soldered wire before, and it was fun and surprisingly easy.

I also bought a big siren light of some sort and centered that between the LEDs

This is where putting the handle in first came back to bite me.  Getting the LEDS in and soldering was more difficult than it needed to be because of this. 

Having bought some foam from Joanne-Fabrics, I cut out a donut piece and sawed out the whole center of the mug's unscrewable top. 

This way I could attach batteries and fix stuff, then screw the buster back together with ease.

Progress made.

Taking a break and going back to the helm, it was time to do the blue striping.  Taping everything off very carefully, I applied the light blue.

And it came out decent!

This was the moment I decided that to be a noncreepy Megaman cosplayer.... I would need to shave.

Now, with a day left before the party, I had a little time for some gravy, so I set out to attach some yellow LEDs to the side of the buster.

I decided against foam because it would not protect the LEDs if they got bumped, so I used some small pine pieces and with the jigsaw and jewelers saw, hollowed out two pieces to house the lights.

Once attached, I covered the lights in foam and paper towels to prep for spraypainting.

Once the paint dried, I tested the LEDs and everything was working reliably!

This was a short videotest to document the progress with my first lighting project.

I did the boots last minute and feel they are the weakest part of the costume, so I will skip to the supergravy.  E Tanks for the party.  I quickly made the graphics in photoshop.  I went gameboy style and opted not to kill my printer with all blue sheets.

Bought a 12 pack of steel kettle and wrapped them with double sided tape!

And now for some pics that were taken at the party.  Hope you enjoyed this process post for my Megaman Cosplay!

Ten in 10: 3 - "Oh No She Didn't!"

10 in Ten: 2 - Samurai

Preferably watched in HD. I render my shit in 1080P Heyooo.



Knocked out shot 2 just in time. Had my good friend in Chicago Adam do some excellent Samurai Vocals. He went above and beyond what I expected and turned out samples super fast. Here are some fun stills as well.

Ten in Ten. What I've been working on.

Go watch this in HD. I got a 1080P Version on youtube that does the details alot more justice.

The first of ten shots, none of which will be related to each other. The goal is for each shot to be better than anything currently on my demo reel. This one was fully finished composited with a BG, the next might just be the rough animation, who knows.

I've also been taking an advanced life drawing class, will try to get some scans up at some point. At least there's an update here.

Deep Sea Sub

Busted out some more concept. Think I'm getting somewhere. Can I manage to capture a quality that professional daily concept artists achieve and still work in animation? My goal is to get to the point where if I crouch real low I can jump up and scratch that ceiling with my index finger. Dropped a process image bellow too in case anyone wants to take a gander at how I'm doing this stuff and has suggestions for improvement.

And yeah, at 16 bits I had some banding in the background, but opted to keep it since this ship is so deep in the ocean and who knows what things look like down there.

Boink

Cross posted from my deviant art, if I'm using the term correctly. I love sci fi and i fell in love with vegas. Why not mix them? I'm starting to think about the possibility of doing a film thats perhaps... more goofy and fun, while still pushing my skills to their limits and maxing out production quality. I already did a film about a lone female warrior struggling to survive a harsh environment, perhaps I can come back to it later. I guess I'm mulling things. I like what I have so far for my sci fi film and where my Eva designs have gone, but something about the film as it stands feels like it will be very laborious, whereas when I picture a sci fi film that takes place on a space elevator and casino as it rises up into the cosmos I am flush with ideas that would mix good character development with quirky plot possibilities and stunning visuals that are also fun to do. I was intensely passionate about finishing Klare two years ago, if I'm going to put the time and tears into another 5-10 minute film, I have to be just as passionate about doing it or the project will crush me as I pressure myself never to leave any project unfinished. Decisions decisions.

Would YOU like to see a film that takes place in this casino elevator to the stars?

Eva Sketches

I'm still movin! Man do I hate animatics. I just want to animate and paint bgs! But its all for nothing if the film doesn't flow right or make any sense, so I must press on, get this animatic done, and show it to some trusted people to figure out what confuses them, what can be better, what can be more interesting, involving, and pump the emotion. If I can make you care about this character in 10 minutes, I will feel I have accomplished what all artists set out to do: Make you give a crap.