Happy New Year! (part 2)

Time for some vacation photos! I went to Charleston to visit family for Christmas, then went to Universal Studios. That was... something. It was unseasonably hot and miserably crowded. Do not go the week after Christmas if you value your sanity. When we actually got on the rides, though, they were AWESOME.


First up: My knitting project for the trip. Since the Black Widow socks are on temporary hold while I work out the chart and colorwork thing, I picked a new, simpler project for the  trip: this lovely Polaris shawl by Susanna IC. I'm using Blue Heron yarn and no beads.

Casting on while riding the Light Rail to the airport:

Progress achieved by the Dallas/Fort Worth layover:

My grandmother in Charleston, looking slightly confused as to why I'm handing her a bunch of sparkly purple spaghetti:

Progress a week later, at the Charleston airport for the return trip:

And progress from today- I have six more rows of the Polaris lace to finish, then a bunch of short rows, then eight rows of lace for the upper edge:

And now for some highlights from Universal Studios:

Our first stop was Diagon Alley. And I do mean our first stop in the park- we meant to be there at 7am when it opened, but I was dumb the night before and wrapped my foot too tightly in a way that wound up being extremely painful and necessitated an immediate hunt for an ankle brace (a couple of years back I strained my peroneal tendon and didn't realize it. It's never healed quite right.)

The Leaky Cauldron! Super yummy food!

Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes:

The dragon atop Gringotts. It breathes fire on occasion, though I never got a pic :( 

My aunt inside the Gringott's lobby. The thing with all of the Universal Studios attractions is that literally EVERYTHING has an enormous queue area- and by enormous I mean that if you straightened them out, the queues for some of the major attractions (like Gringotts) are probably the better part of half a mile. There's a huge area outside the ride building that may or may not be in the shade, and then there's a huge winding area inside the ride building with air conditioning (thank the gods) and cool things like videos introducing you to the rides or animatronics and scenery that do the same thing. Some of the lines could be up to THREE HOURS LONG while we were there, meaning you could be standing outside (you may or may not be in the shade. In Orlando.) for about two hours before standing for another hour inside before you ever get on the ride. This proved to be the biggest issue of our trip- standing in line for hours on end. I brought books and puzzles most days, which helped, but standing in line for that long proved to be extremely painful.

But anyway- Gringotts! When you get to the lobby, you are greeted by a bunch of really awesome goblins!

Pictured below: My aunt. Not a goblin.

This guy sits at the back of the lobby and helps introduce the ride. He was really hard to hear over everyone talking though...

One of the 'shops' in Diagon Alley (there's only a handful of actual shops, but it looks like there's a lot more than there are because the outside has dummy windows and displays) was a yarn store! And in the window there was a set of self-knitting needles that actually work along by themselves!

Awesome mermaid fountain/statue:

We got to see Celestina Warbuck perform! She was totally awesome and had a backup team called the Sirens. Very glamorous, and the music was a lot of fun!

Some stuff from the Mummy's Revenge ride queue. This ride was fun because rather than being based on the movie, the story was based around the idea of crazy mummy curse stuff happening while the movie is being filmed, so it's all set up like soundstages and there's props everywhere.

The sarcophagus:

Wardrobe department:

A chest with cool hieroglyphs:

Near the loading area is this HUGE statue of Anubis hanging above the lower levels- you start below this thing, then take the stairs up until you're level with him. Holy crap, he was amazing.

Mom and David at the Men in Black ride. We loved this so much we rode it like four times (due to the magic that is the single rider line. Life Hack for Universal Studios: If you don't have a small child to keep a leash on, USE THE SINGLE RIDER LINES. We were on some rides where the main line could be 45 minutes or more and the single rider line was about five minutes. 

 My personal highlight- JURASSIC PARK!!

The entrance to the Jurassic Park area is right next to Hogwarts- at certain points in the line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, you hear the Harry Potter music playing on one side of you and the Jurassic Park music playing on the other. Kinda trippy. I hope they do some updates to the JP area now that the new movies are coming out- it's showing it's age a tad. But I still loved it. <3

Hogwarts! (inside and out):

The queue takes you from the greenhouses outside, up through the dungeons, then up through the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Dumbledore's office, and the Gryffindor common room. It's really really cool, just very dark.

Out in Hogsmeade, the tailor's has Hermione's Yule Ball dress and a CAT MADE OF A MEASURING TAPE!!

 BUCKBEAK!! I picked up a plushie one. <3

Awesome sign at the entrance to Hogsmeade:

 The Hogwarts Express and station:

And on the other side: Platform 9 3/4

Bumblebee from Transformers doing photos with guests. Sis went and got a photo with him because he's her favorite:

 Hogwarts castle at sunset, from the bridge to Jurassic Park:

 

At this point I kinda stopped taking pics, except for one very special area:

The Discovery Center is based off the original Visitor's Center. I may have gotten teary-eyed. May have. There are no witnesses. (I totally did. My sister saw me.)

Inside are the skeletons from the main lobby:

Inside, you can check out the incubators:

And we got there just in time to witness something very special:

The hatching of a baby velociraptor! ("You breed raptors??")

Some nifty dinosaur displays:

Upstairs, you get an up-close and personal view of the T-rex skeleton: 

And then we went to the Three Broomsticks for dinner. Sis and I had fun with a turkey leg: 

No one ever told me these things taste like bacon- but wow, are they salty.

Overall... aside from the heat and the crowds and the pain from walking and standing in lines for hours, Universal Studios was pretty cool. Next time, I will go in mid-January after kids are back in school...

Happy New Year! (part 1)

Time to play a bit of catch-up.

November 1 marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month for me. Trying to write 50,000 words in a month on top of homework and actual work (because of course, at the tail end you run smack into the holiday season and insanity month for retail jobs) is a bit of a challenge. I'm also still working on a borrowed laptop, which is interfering with my ability to scan things. And then came finals and a very busy vacation. And then a few days of just 'sleep and recover' time. Time for a bit of catching up (at long last).

Renders from Materials and Lighting!

Mad science lab and an office space I had to model.

A musical storyboard from Conceptual Storytelling. Music is 'Rabbit's Song' by SJ Tucker, used with permission. Because Sooj is an awesome and wonderful sweetheart who is very supportive of people doing fanworks based on her music. <3

Photos from Figure Sculpture:

Female in-class sculpt:

There was a male model for a second in-class sculpt but I seem to have not taken photos. Whoops. Same for the final created creature sculpt. Clearly I was slacking in the photo-taking department this quarter. *facepalm* But here's an in-progress pic of the creature: 

This was a really cool assignment- we drew three traits out of paper bags and had to design and sculpt a creature based on whatever we drew. One trait determined the environment it dwells in (I drew Air), one determined its primary sense (hearing) and one determined its personality (cunning/sneaky). This fine creature is based on ocelots, cheetahs, bats, and pterodactyls. The final sculpt sits on a mossy branch and actually came out pretty cool.

And now here's some videos from Advanced 2D Animation:

Assignment: Fabric flapping in the breeze/resting still:

Assignment: Elemental special effect:

Assignment: Animated character performing an action of your choosing:

That's everything of interest from school last quarter. Next post will be vacation photos!

Ready to take over Midgard!

My Loki cosplay is done! At least, as done as it's gonna get for Halloween! (I might make a helmet at some point.

Wow this was crazy and actually kinda fun. Pretty much everything is Goodwill finds except for the boots and one of the belts.

Layers are as follows:

Under layer:

- Long-sleeved green shirt. Parts of the sleeves and the collar of a gold sweater are added on for the vambraces and the pectoral piece.

- Tights. Heavy-duty black tights with the silver plates painted on (which sadly you can't see in this shot). These were painted while I was wearing the tights to prevent stretching issues.

- Boots. Good insoles are a must.

Middle Layer:

- Tunic. This was where I took the most liberty- this is a black waistcoat-style vest with a textured black skirt sewn to the bottom. The fabric of the skirt actually looks a bit like Celtic or Nordic knotwork, which was why I grabbed it even though it's like two or three sizes too small. It originally had a front panel edged by two zippers- removing one of the zippers was easy enough to open up the skirt and give it that slit sort of thing. Another important reason for the heavy duty tights- since the skirt doesn't go all the way around, it's open clear up to my hip.

Top Layer:

- Coat. This was a weird long vest/robe thing I found. It was a bit big, so I took in the sides to make the lines flow better. Then I slit and lined a hole in the back for the cross-chest belt, then painted the lapels and gold detailing.

Armor:

- Vambraces: these were stitched right onto the sleeves of the shirt. I will probably do proper ones at some point, this will do for Halloween. 

- Chest and shoulder piece- I accidentally stumbled upon a gold pleather placemat at Goodwill. A bit of sewing and trimming later, and ta-da! Easy armor. These got slid right onto the belt that loops over my chest and shoulder. 

Scepter:

I used to make boffers when I was with the SCA. It's amazing what you can do with foam, pipe, and duct tape. The base of the scepter is actually a Grim Reaper scythe prop- again from Goodwill (and I had a hilarious time toting it all around downtown Seattle on my way home XD) with the blade taken off the pole and rotated 90 degrees to stick straight out rather than to the side and hot-glued in place. I used mat board (which I had lying around because I'm an artist) to block out the general silhouette of the blade and the shaft of the scepter, then layered on craft foam. Silver and gold duct tape hold the entire thing together. The Mind Stone is actually crumpled aluminum foil wadded up as tight as it will go and then burnished by rubbing it with a spoon, then painted with iridescent blue and white acrylic paint. Simple and effective!

Not seen:

-Belt purse: This costume had no pockets, so I made a simple envelope-folded belt purse from a black pleather placemat. I have more of these placemats that may get added to the armor on the coat.

Actually a lot of fun in spite of the swearing and only took a couple of weeks to put together once I had all my bits and pieces.

My roommates think we need to hang the scepter up on the wall like a trophy. I like this idea.

Some dark elves

Found a really cool post musing on the biology of Tolkein elves and what they would need to, say, identify hair color at a distance of five leagues. The poster suggested some cool ideas and I decided to run with them.

Svartelf with big shiny peregrine-falcon eyes and twitchy ears <3

And Alberich, half svartelf and half human, with a few fun details and studies. Twitchy ears for him too, and very large pupils.

Just some fun doodles.

Light me!

One of my classes this quarter is Materials and Lighting.  First assignment: three point lighting.

Pretty simple stuff, but I'm pleased with it. I'm back doing battle with my old enemy Maya for this class. So far, I'm winning.

Amethyst

I will fight for the world I was made in, the Earth is everything I've ever known!

Okay I really love Steven Universe. It's bright and colorful and clever and funny and will about murder you with feelings. You will get emotional about silly space rocks, I promise you. 

Here's Amethyst. She's loud and obnoxious and funny and self-doubting and enthusiastic and stubborn and kinda crazy and all around wonderful. Her preferred method of dealing with a threat is 'throw me at it!'.

She's is needlefelted, stands about four or five inches tall and made all out of wool except for a bit of glitter fiber on her gem. I finally got my needlefelting stuff again and this project has been itching at me for a few days.

She is a cutie patootie and I am not entirely sure one of my roommates won't try to steal her.

That's okay. I know Amethyst isn't any of their favorite Gems. (Mine is Pearl, incidentally). And I have a lot more wool. 

Posting on a Wednesday

Forgot to take pics of the drawings I did in class today before I went to Dad's so I could pick up clay and stuff. Will do that tomorrow.

In the meantime, how about something completely different?

Half of my roommates are cosplayers. And incidentally, Halloween is coming up. I've assembled most of the bits I need for a Loki costume. Still need to figure out horns and maybe a scepter/spear. Not entirely sure about that latter part, but I feel like I'll want a prop when I wear this.

Costume consists of the following:

- Long-sleeved green shirt

- Black leggings

- Black waistcoat

- Black skirt with cool knotwork design woven in and double-zippered panel on front (one zipper removed)

- Black boots

- Black robe

- Gold sweater (which is hard to see on the beige carpet, sorry.)

All of these were Goodwill finds except the boots (Target, not bought for this cosplay but the cosplay was conceived as a result of it) and the overcoat (TJ Maxx). 

The skirt has had one of the zippers removed, as I said. It's actually too small for me by like three inches, but it works fine since the skirt of Loki's tunic is open/sort of wraparound anyway. It's going to be stitched to the bottom of the waistcoat to make a sort of... overdress kinda thing? that I can button up the front for easy donning and removal. The points of the waistcoat are going to be turned up as well so it's a straight seam all the way around.

If I have time, I'll get one of the roommates to help me take in the sides of the robe so it isn't so huge and shapeless. Paint will be applied for detail work.

The gold sweater is going to be cut up for details as well- the horizontally-ribbed neckline is going to become that weird pectoral thing on the tunic, and the sleeves will be converted to bracers.

The whole thing is hopefully going to be fairly soft and comfortable and not so hot I will be unable to wear it.