First off, apologies for the posts this week (or more specifically the lack thereof). Work is heating up and I'm beginning to pull 12+ hour days just to make deadlines. That said, I'll have some very fun pieces to show off this weekend. I'm also trying my best to correct this with some fun new stuff for next week. Also, for all of those kind folks that contacted me about my RapidWeaver theme Tabletop, I'm not ignoring you! I do have an updated version for release later today which should correct a few of the stumbles of version 1. Sincere thanks for your kind notes...
Fortune Small Business has a
recent article highlighting Character, a studio
helmed by David Altschul in Portland, Oregon.
The studio is only six people strong, and relatively
fresh since their birth in 2002, but yet I
can’t imagine many people who aren’t
familiar with their work. Character specializes in
creating brand mascots ( or “critters” )
that help directly impact sales. Their work can be
seen in the swagger of Tony the Tiger, or in the
charm of the Pillsbury Doughboy. All told
they’ve worked on nearly all of the memorable
corporate creations worth your time. And they take in
over $2 million in annual revenue.
What I found most compelling about Character’s
interview was the great secrets they let slip out of
the bag. Below you’ll find an abridged catalog
of their wisdom as siphoned by Fortune. I'm really
taking the ball and running with what they said, so
take this as half article and half high-school
philosophy:
1) “[People]
connect emotionally with characters
whose struggles are familiar to
them, not with characters who superficially
look or act like them.”
2) Most characters which aim to tell a story
are emotion-based characters. All
emotion-based characters have flaws grounded in
desires. (Example: Lucky is crazy for Lucky Charms
cereal to the point of obsession and
self-humiliation. The Pillsbury Doughboy loves to
serve even when it is hard due to his size and
environment. Simba desires to become a great king of
the jungle like his father before him.)
3) Emotion-based characters are more commonly
anthromorphic. These critters tend to wear
clothing, have a human “attitude”, and
adopt certain human-like mannerisms (ex. stuttering).
This similarity to humans ends at their motivations.
An emotion-based character’s motivations and
goals should be in line with those of their
species/culture.
4) If you have a character that doesn't
aim to tell a story but instead acts as a "mascot",
you have a mystery based character. These
critters are highlighted by a distinct lack of
information outside of their appearance. Viewer
interest is now driven by NOT knowing a
character’s desires and flaws. If the
character is compelling enough they will work to find
or create a back story. Good examples are the creepy
Pringles dismembered head or the Pepperidge Farm
Goldfish.
5) Mystery based characters' only voice is
their visual appeal. They need to emote
uniqueness and ask viewer participation through how
they are displayed. The benefit of this style of
character is that they don't need to be close
to humans visually. A disembodied floating
head or a pack of gravity-defying cheese crackers
will do.
6)
Critters that don’t fall into either of these
categories tend to be bland and uninteresting
which don’t engage viewer attention.
These characters imply false intentions as their
motivations seem confused. These “fake”
characters are commonly referred to as cartoon-ish,
while emotion-based characters rarely have this
dilemma because they are seen as human. Mystery-based
characters don't fall into either the cartoon or real
categories because their lack of context
allows them to bend to a viewers needs.
-Josh
Today I made my very own toy, and below you'll find
how you can do it too for only $25 US and
some free time. Now the fun thing here is
that the only limit is your imagination. Relax, have
fun, and be patient. Those beautiful McFarlane toys
weren't built in a day so try not to rush it. That
said, I rushed the hell out of mine and it
still turned out fairly well.
Why would anyone do this?
I'm the kind of geek with more toys than pencils. And I have a lot of pencils. But haven't you ever wanted to make your own ultimate action figure playset? You know, the one where Batman is finishing off Wolverine in Castle Greyskull. You can start an illegal eBay empire of ceramic thing-a-ma-jigs today.
And when creating your very own comic book or animated characters creating 3d models can be helpful as well. In my case, I molded the main character of my next book "Welcome to Pixelton". The book now stands at well over 100 pages, and with multiple drawings on every page I've gotten very familiar with the form and weight Kirby needs to bring to the page. But when sculpting him I found that I had to ask myself new questions that go largely unanswered on a 2d surface.
- How do Kirby's eyes form against his head?
- Are his tiny legs even possible to hold his massive noggin?
- How deep are the edges of items such as his helmet and shirt?
While these sound like minor questions, they're answers go a huge way in adding consistency to the character. Plus, it was fun to see him come to life!
Be a Good Little Consumer
Everything you'll need can be found at any decent Arts and Crafts store. You'll have enough supplies for a few toys, unless you build some sort of giant unholy toy monster. And if you do I really want to see this thing. Anywho:
- Sculpey clay - 1lb. box - $9.99
- Ceramic Paints - $1.29 per small bottle
- Cheap Assorted Brush Set - $9.99
- Sand Paper - $1.99
Choose Your Adventure
Now for the fun part! Open your box of Sculpey and begin molding away. Give up any doubting thoughts about your skill as a sculptor. This is a fun project meant to test your mind and creativity. Even if you made a pet rock toy it would be worth the time and effort.
What you're aiming to do is to build the separate shapes used in your toy individually. These include parts like arms, legs, as well as important details like clothing or hair. This helps for a number of reasons, the biggest of which is to form the proper area without accidently messing up the others. As you build try and think about adding little details (such as clothing folds) to make your figure seem more realistic. Once you are complete you will have a mishmash of individual pieces that need to be combined. You may also find it easier to press the pieces you make against a table before applying so they have an outwardly smooth appearance.
Combining Sculpey segments is easy. By pressing the areas together and smoothing out their joints the clay will bond. This works well will large or small appendages.
As you combine you'll begin to see why we made these elements by themselves. When forming your character it is far too easy to accidently mash an arm or leg. Try and find a place to hold the toy where fixes are not as time consuming.
Whew! We're all complete. It took me about 3 hours to get to this point but I had fun. I now have an action figure that is mine alone. Mua-ha-ha!
Baked
The baking process is easy. Toss your sculpture into an oven until nicely brown-ish. The Sculpey box says to wait 15 minutes for each 1/4 of an inch, but my figure was different widths across each limb. I simply checked on him until he looked battle hardened and everything was ready for the next step. After baking and a short time for cooling you have the chance to sand down any rough spots you may have left behind. It takes a few minutes but will change the way your piece looks drastically.
Paint Shop Pro
The only step left is to apply some ceramic paint. A little trial and error, a couple of touch-ups, and a renegade magic marker and we have a complete action figure toy. Not too bad for my first try!
-Josh
