Update On Deckard Gun and Miscellaneous Things

 As no one reads this but me, I might as well use this as a reminder for things I need to do and to bitch about. My digital diary, if you will.

First up: The Deckard Gun I'm building (to which I've become fondly calling the "Unicorn")
LOTS of cosmetic and technical work to be done:

• The bolt casing shape needs to be refined again. The size of the 'dip' where the sides began to sink inward was larger than I had thought. I've slapped some more Apoxie Sculpt on there and leveled it the best I could so it's prepped for further sanding.
• Innerds still need to be made. I got one of the triggers sculpted and ready to be refined and tested with some compression springs I picked up from the hardware store. 
• Innerds can't really get all too far, as I have yet to determine the actual thickness of the gun. With some new reference material I've found and scaled recently, the aforementioned shouldn't be that big of a problem.
• Magwell and magazine need to be refined and not as pointed. More work.
• The handle/gripframe is about 15-20 degrees off of where it should be when it meets with the gun frame. That needs a-fixin'.
• I haven't even begun to think how the hell am I gonna make those serial numbers and such on the gun. Engraving stamps was one idea and one that I'll end up putting to use, but the STEYER logo is still an issue I have to work out.

Believe me, there is much, much, much, much more work to be done (I've not yet even thought of how to approach the simple electronics of the thing) but I don't think there's enough room for that post.
I will say this, though, this thing is a great way to spend the weekends when there is light out. You see, in order to keep me from losing all of my sanity, I've regulated myself to just work on this thing on the weekends and focus on other things throughout the week. The next being the biggest thing I focus on.

Next year's Spillm submission.
I've vowed to the two time winner at this year's festival that I'd make sure he won't win the next one.
To his face.
That is something that I have to ensure.
The shame is, however, that I'm not only teaching myself the basic fundamentals of the programs I'm using now, but I'm also applying what I know of animation to practice. Having scant experience working with animation before (unless stickmen flipbooks count), it is an arduous, laborious, and extremely tedious task having to switch between doing it and how to do it, if that makes sense. Especially when I'm going over things that I think need some retooling that I think I can just do, but end up fucking it up anyway.
In any normal case when this shit happens to me, I usually just start over again from square one or give up. The only thing that stops me is this idea that I have of winning, going up on stage, claiming my award, and pulling this gag where I bring up the previous winner to present me with a second award that I made just for the occasion. Rubbing salt into the wounds, as it were.

Besides technical shit, the more I work on the simple stuff (tweening and key frames and that sort), the more my mind wanders on how to make this better. Better backgrounds would be the first thing. Since day one of starting this, I've had in mind of having shifting weather within this 5 minute-or-less feature. It sounds simple enough, I mean, who honestly thinks about something as simple as the sun coming out from behind the clouds? But animation wise, that means I have to have two sets for backdrops for each shot they're in but they have to be affected by the light and the parting clouds. As well as the things on top of the backgrounds being affected by the shadows. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. I know it will be worth the trouble if I can pull it off, but I think of that line from Alice In Wonderland every time I begin to think about it, "...whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain is worth getting up and picking daisies..."



Ah, well, I'll probably end up doing it anyway. I usually do.


Oh! And P.S. - Some more fan builds coming.
A friend recently introduced me to this game called Snatcher and it's successor, Policenauts (which I'm working through, at the 'office') and they're really playing up my Blade Runner fantasies. So, after not-a -lot-of-thinking, I've added Random Hajile's modded shotgun/raygun to my build list, as well as Gillion Seed's desert eagle raygun thing.

Other things I'm thinking about constructing are some original designs from sketches/concept work of robots and character costume pieces I drew up for my short (I'll update this post with pics, if and when I get around to it) if it ever gets big enough to incorporate them. Hell, I'll probably end up throwing them in there for good measure, any way.

And just because I know you're gonna read this, I'm giving serious thought to building Old Bruce Wayne's Bat-tle Helmet from the Batman vs Terminator short.