Kiina's Kitchen

 Guess what's cooking at Kiina's Kitchen? :P 

Splurge photo shoot, couldn't pass away the chance to use Asian snacks as temporary artisan breads for Bionicle.

Kiina's Kitchen, catchy name I think, now I'm thinking of a Bionicle cooking show with Kiina as the cook and host. >_< 

Heck, I might just make mini Kiina Kitchen comics where she has guest cooks and makes yummy, yet odd food.

 The images left and right above are the basic scenes without the funny title.

 displaying the breads in a basket was a nice touch, but I also decided to show them side by side on the table like they had just been baked.

 I mean, how fun is it to use Asian snacks as bread for small figurines, and then eat them after the photo shoot is done. :) I will note the snacks stick to you while you're working, and whatever you do, make sure to keep them dry; they stick really bad if they're evenly slightly moist.

Above and below close ups just show how yummy the snacks are. I figured the sesame one is like a seed covered flat bread that puffs when baked, and the big crackled one could be like a sweet sour dough with spices, then there's the odd glazed one that's oval and looks like a very wet bread, caramelized with a type of honey glaze on its outer crust.

I even did a poster to display my favorite pics and tell what's being cooked at Kiina's Kitchen today. :D Posters make sharing so much easier. ^.~

Mini MOC Comics- TOF editions

 I've been planning it forever, and now that I have them, I love them. Mini MOC comics; that's right, comics for your MOCs. This Travels of Frona set came out a tad bigger than expected, but they still work.

As you know, Travels of Frona is an actual fan comic I assembled, and now my characters can have the comic on their book shelves. 

You can now read the comics in PDF format too. Travels of Frona book 1 and Travels of Frona book 2

Of course who else would be holding these books besides Frona herself. Seems like a fun poster for a book convention. :P

 For those who would like to try it, here are the mini comic print outs. Now your MOCs can have a few books made by me. :)

I hope to try this again for different comics at some point, but first things first, check out the video flip through below where I also show how I made these little graphic novels.

Smug Bug Photos

 I had fun making a line of Gorast pictures for LoL chapter 9 "Smug Bug". 

My goal was to try and get a menacing feel to match the scene of Gorast watching from the trees. I assembled the panel to display the different shots, each containing a different feel.

 The first image (above left) is the one which will be the main image for LoL chapter 9 seeing it has the menacing look I'm going for. Second one makes me feel like she's squinting at something.

Third (right) is one of my favorites in the collection, just seems so natural and life like.

And the fourth image (left) is the final image which just makes me laugh because she seems to be relaxing or falling, and the angle of her head makes her seem so much less creepy in that one.

There were some tricks involved in making the scenes look right. I took the photos in one of our house plants after placing a black foam board behind it to cover up the wall and make editing easier. Later in PSE I removed the black from the background and replaced it with a jungle image to fill in the gaps and serve as an illusion of forest. Levels and contrast greatly helped in getting the feel I wanted, though in some ways I imagined the scene to be a tad darker.

Here's an extra joke panel which is like a blooper if LoL were a tv show. 

When  I showed my sister the photo panel she said the way I set it up made her think of this comical strand of dialogue based of the figurines body language. 

This inspired me to take her exact words to what she said she heard while looking at the pictures, and apply them to make a comic strip.

Venimbus Glamor Shots

 Okay, here's a nice set of images that are like a Life of Lewa specialty. 

This is Venimbus, one of the main figures in LoL, all pretty in her royal jungle garb with traditional feather helmet tuft, leaf jewelry, and scythe adorned with hallucinogenic string pollen.

Okay, so one day I do plan on making a regular MOC panel to show Venimbus's basic form and figure, but glamor shots never hurt, and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to use a freshly snipped leaf from our household taro plant as a backdrop and inspiration to these photos.

I love the whole jungle theme, and taro is obviously tropical, that's a given. They're really big too, so getting a nice shot with a small figurine is fairly simple.

I can see it now, these pictures being in a small scrapbook or journal which Lewa keeps and looks at often, completely infatuated by the glamorous Venimbus. :P

MOC Space Station Prop- video overview

  Here's my newest video reviewing the MOC Space Station Prop. I include extra details that weren't shown in the main post and hope you have fun watching.
WARNING: I had to record hand cam style, if you have problems with motion sickness, sit back from the screen. I suffered from motion sickness by sitting too close to the screen while watching my video clips, hence resulting in me almost barfing. O_O Just FYI.

Legendarykiller117 Hi banner

No, it's not official, I decided to do this YT banner more as a thank you note. Legendarykiller117 Hi during the craze of my Bionicle YT banner making really wanted one, and I closed the banner making craze beforehand. He still asked multiple times, and then I decided, oh why not. He left some pretty nice comments of encouragement on my work and now it's Christmas time (the season anyway) so I went ahead and made this YT banner for his channel.

The picture is from his profile images on G+ and I chose color schemes and brush themes that seemed to match this character. Yeah I just winged things, but it seems pretty cool I think.

MOC Space Station Prop

 Okay, it's taken me time, but here it is. An MOC prop that serves as a space station, but can also be a backdrop for hospital or lab scenes. 

The panel above shows the basic set up of my two sided prop, one side has padded texture, the other has mostly smooth paper, and the cupboards plus wire overhang addition can be moved and placed anywhere. The door really opens and closes, and the cupboards can have shelves and objects added to them.

 The Space Station Visitors is the full collection of scenes to show how figurines fit in to the prop. There are many options. The door was made to fit Bionicle figurines specifically, but with creative angles, GI Joe and other figurines/dolls can fit. I made this set solely for photography and story telling (hope to share a video of the set and its options soon).

 Above and below, main scenes of the space station side one and two. Side one above, side two below.

Process: It's incredible what the station is made of. all of it is based off of the center piece (a chocolate heart container from a Hershy's peanut butter heart candy). This center piece inspired an entire prop. The rest was made from part of a heavy duty cardboard box, which I then painted with white gesso, cut holes for my light spots and heart centerpiece, reinforced all rough edges with duck tape, glued on plastic packaging strips for LED light covers in the wall, taped and glued on scrapbook paper and covered the parts of the set with duck tape, or packaging materials, used plastic packaging for windows on the door and cupboards, wire overhang is made of twist ties and plastic string from packing. The cupboards are made from DVD mailing boxes covered with duck tape and are closed with brads and framing hooks, hung with wire on hooks made from paper clips.

Material: Heavy duty cardboard box, bubble wrap mailing package, plastic package twine and strips, inner cushioning from chocolate boxes, chocolate heart container, plastic packaging, scrapbook paper, white and silver duck tape, paperclips, wire, brads, DVD mailing boxes, framing mounts, and zip ties.

 Main scene side one above. Tahu and Galu chat, and Hahli just arrives.

Main scene side two below. The explorer sneaks through the ship and cautiously observes a set of cupboards, the alien creeper peeking at him through the door window.

A final special behind the scenes image is the creeper looking through the door, but with dark effects, so you feel like you're hiding in a dark room and this thing is looking for you.

The only battle scene so far is of the explorer having a stare down with the alien peeker.