SgtSaint
Well-Known Member
- Member DIN
- S027
I'm going to PM ya about that. <wink>
Yep - I give that advice probably 10 times a week on one platform or another.
Halo The TV Series Master Chief full build
- Thread starter Nimitz
- Start date
Nimitz
Member
Even though the weather turned bitter cold today - high was only 58 deg , it was above the 50 deg threshold so I could do some more painting ...
The boots, forearm, bicep and shoulder cap armor is now done with the pre shading pass. Tomorrow I can do a final coat for the calf and thigh armor and depending on how much black I still have left I can do at least one full coverage coat on the remaining pieces - COD, chest and helmet. Then one final pass on them in 48 hrs and I'll be ready for the real work ...
So here's my overall cunning plan to recreate a screen accurate MC look with the understanding that set lighting and camera work make a big difference in what 'the paint scheme actually looks like ... remember the helmet and body are different. The helmet should read cooler and darker and the body warmer broader
Helmet:
1. Pre shading with flat black - in work
2. Main green core tone
3. Olive correction pass
4. Micro modulation to add subtle depth
5. Edge wear pass
6. Chip reveals
7. Grime layer
8. Matte clear
Body:
.5 Pre shading - in work
1. Main green
2. Panel depth boosting
3. Subtle highlight pass
4. Edge wear pass
5. Weather rebalancing
6. Subtle dirt layer
7. Matte clear
I'll provide the exact colors and mix ratios and what gets applied where as I get into the actual painting passes ...
The boots, forearm, bicep and shoulder cap armor is now done with the pre shading pass. Tomorrow I can do a final coat for the calf and thigh armor and depending on how much black I still have left I can do at least one full coverage coat on the remaining pieces - COD, chest and helmet. Then one final pass on them in 48 hrs and I'll be ready for the real work ...
So here's my overall cunning plan to recreate a screen accurate MC look with the understanding that set lighting and camera work make a big difference in what 'the paint scheme actually looks like ... remember the helmet and body are different. The helmet should read cooler and darker and the body warmer broader
Helmet:
1. Pre shading with flat black - in work
2. Main green core tone
3. Olive correction pass
4. Micro modulation to add subtle depth
5. Edge wear pass
6. Chip reveals
7. Grime layer
8. Matte clear
Body:
.5 Pre shading - in work
1. Main green
2. Panel depth boosting
3. Subtle highlight pass
4. Edge wear pass
5. Weather rebalancing
6. Subtle dirt layer
7. Matte clear
I'll provide the exact colors and mix ratios and what gets applied where as I get into the actual painting passes ...
Nimitz
Member
And the typical harsh convention lighting is like nothing used on any shows... the average convention-goer has no idea about what the interaction of set lighting and costume color do to achieve what they see on screen. They see something and go "... oooh I like that color" and then when they see you at a convention in the same costume and it doesn't match what they saw on their tv or at the movies, no amount of explanation matters, in their mind you didn't get it 'right' ....
That may or may not matter to you but for me since I'm not looking to get a job in the special effects dept I only care that 'it looks like it does when I watch the show' ... YMMV
Nimitz
Member
And just to continue to beat this dead horse ... here's another example form my personal experience...
While building Dalek Nim I eventually got to the point where I needed to figure out the paint scheme. In the 'painting' sub forum of Project Dalek' there was a 12 page thread 'debating' color. 12 pages! About half way through it a guy in the UK who had built the same style Dalek as me (so his paint scheme was very revenant ) posted that at a recent Con a BBC Dr Who prop dept guy came up to him, looked at his Dalek and said "You really nailed the color!" At that point I stopped reading the thread and simply got the color codes for the automobile paint he used and never looked back ...
While building Dalek Nim I eventually got to the point where I needed to figure out the paint scheme. In the 'painting' sub forum of Project Dalek' there was a 12 page thread 'debating' color. 12 pages! About half way through it a guy in the UK who had built the same style Dalek as me (so his paint scheme was very revenant ) posted that at a recent Con a BBC Dr Who prop dept guy came up to him, looked at his Dalek and said "You really nailed the color!" At that point I stopped reading the thread and simply got the color codes for the automobile paint he used and never looked back ...
Nimitz
Member
Just got notified that I'm a finalist for the Orlando MegaCon Masters of Cosplay Contest ... now the pressure is actually on to finish. Toward that end I finished the paint step 1 which means all the armor has been pre shaded. In 2 days once everything has cured it will be time to break out the airbrush and start the initial base olive color ...
Last edited:
Nimitz
Member
Well, I've decided to take a quick (?) 2 day detour ....
After finally getting the COD to fit , the final size of the butt plate (does this make my butt look big ? ... lol) always bothered me, it looked well, big ... so I left it but was always annoyed with it
Well last night I was rewatching some episodes to look for details on weathering and wear of the armor when I saw a shot of the MC standing from behind and it was obvious teh butt plate is reasonably small as you can see quite a bit of the undersuit pants.
That was enough for me and I couldn't stand it anymore and it finally dawned on me that instead of just scaling it universally to 120% to make everything fit, if I left the z axis alone which is what increases its size, and just scaled x and y, left and right and forward and back I could probably make it fit around my waist but keep the actual butt plate small, like on the show ..
Duh.
Besides, since I spent millions of hrs learning how to sew those ribbed pants I want to show off as much of that as possible - vanity for sure ... .
So last night I got back into the s/w and after a bunch of testing slices on my duck tape dummy I came up with dimensions that fit my waist with the undersuit on and located the sides of the hip panels so that the hip connector boxes were in the correct position. Of course it was now just slightly too big for my print bed so I had to slice it in half which is not really a big deal.
The first half printed last night (10 hrs) and the 2nd is printing now. Next will be to scale the side plates to fit and the hip boxes. The COD is already printed and primed at 100% which I'm hoping will fit since I'm not changing any z direction dimensions.
Long story short I also needed to touch the black pre shading on one calf armor piece, one hand plate and most importantly the helmet which I also did which now gives me 2 more days of cure time before I can do the first airbrush layer. That should should be close to enough time to get the new COC sanded primed and pre shaded ...
Of course I can't do much else in teh shop now since everything is set for painting with the armor ladies out in sequence with pieces hanging everywhere ... lol
I'll use the next 2 days to hopefully solve my sword electronics issue as well
Only 20 days left so it's definitely crunch time ... no more back tracking for sure
After finally getting the COD to fit , the final size of the butt plate (does this make my butt look big ? ... lol) always bothered me, it looked well, big ... so I left it but was always annoyed with it
Well last night I was rewatching some episodes to look for details on weathering and wear of the armor when I saw a shot of the MC standing from behind and it was obvious teh butt plate is reasonably small as you can see quite a bit of the undersuit pants.
That was enough for me and I couldn't stand it anymore and it finally dawned on me that instead of just scaling it universally to 120% to make everything fit, if I left the z axis alone which is what increases its size, and just scaled x and y, left and right and forward and back I could probably make it fit around my waist but keep the actual butt plate small, like on the show ..
Duh.
Besides, since I spent millions of hrs learning how to sew those ribbed pants I want to show off as much of that as possible - vanity for sure ... .
So last night I got back into the s/w and after a bunch of testing slices on my duck tape dummy I came up with dimensions that fit my waist with the undersuit on and located the sides of the hip panels so that the hip connector boxes were in the correct position. Of course it was now just slightly too big for my print bed so I had to slice it in half which is not really a big deal.
The first half printed last night (10 hrs) and the 2nd is printing now. Next will be to scale the side plates to fit and the hip boxes. The COD is already printed and primed at 100% which I'm hoping will fit since I'm not changing any z direction dimensions.
Long story short I also needed to touch the black pre shading on one calf armor piece, one hand plate and most importantly the helmet which I also did which now gives me 2 more days of cure time before I can do the first airbrush layer. That should should be close to enough time to get the new COC sanded primed and pre shaded ...
Of course I can't do much else in teh shop now since everything is set for painting with the armor ladies out in sequence with pieces hanging everywhere ... lol
I'll use the next 2 days to hopefully solve my sword electronics issue as well
Only 20 days left so it's definitely crunch time ... no more back tracking for sure
