Category: Costume

Sat 14th
by Kimliatach

A days break in the relentless heat allowed for some garden work, path packing, cement laying, wedding and mulching. Our two hens are free ranging and thanks largely to the sheer quantity of mulch for them to scratch, not being too destructive of our garden.

Some good costume progress, straps are now on all but one of the arm and shin pieces. Doing a spot of hand sewing in front of the television this evening as the sewing machine is still in the shop for servicing.


More detail available on instagram

Sewing Frustrations & Swimming Successes
by Kimliatach

L swam independently for the first time on our morning swim today. Admittedly he has trouble keeping his head above water, but he can move through water in the direction he wants to go and he and we are over the moon. This marks four days of extraordinary progress, on Saturday he would barely blow bubbles and submerge his face all while clinging for dear life. Today we did underwater high fives and he propelled himself 2 meters through the water without touching bottom. F is also becoming much more water confident, though he is still taking some convincing not to drink the pool.

Project wise I spent the day wrestling with N’s family sewing machine, which is doubtless older than me and still going strong. Though in this case the area it shows most strength in is tangled bobbins and de-threading needles.


In addition tothe parts of the tabard shown above I have affixed fabric glue points to each end of eight strips of elastic. I have dealt with so many knots that I am going to investigate having the machine serviced or replaced as I cannot continue to work with it as it is.

I’ve also made time for a small and long overdue spot of calligraphy practise.

Last nights video editing turned into an exercise in following After Effects tutorials for title animations. Unsatisfactory results, so now for a spot of painting before bed.

ABZÛ
by Kimliatach

Creative

Caught up on Ctrl-Paint videos. I have a lot of exercise to do if I want to get as good as I want to be.

Drew, cut and pinned the first fabric elements for the Sir Vader costume. The tabard is now ready for sewing. Wasted a bunch of time looking for patterns online before just making my own. Still fiddling with the cloak pattern. Prepped the elastic and velcro strapping for all foam segments for stitching. Encountered tensioning problems with the sewing machine and had to put it on hold pending tech support.

Daily

Continuing tidying the house and yard. Doing daily pool visits building the boys water confidence. L looks like he might be swimming by the end of the week.

Began looking at my planning, seems I don’t have one of the key tools required so I’ll chase that up over coming days.

Play

I don’t game very much anymore. I love to, but I don’t often allow it the time. I indulge in a little when L is keen to play with me, today we squeezed in a little time with BUD. In the past year I have only really played The Witcher 3, which as I am nowhere near complete, so that will keep my occasional gaming fixes covered for some time to come. I’m saving a review of that until I have at least completed the main storyline which still seems a way off. Suffice to say it is good, easily the most mature and well written game I have ever played. As a result of all of this I only bought one thing in the Steam winter sale:

ABZÛ  which I purchased for myself and a cousin at the $5 price point entirely on the basis of the studio’s previous game ‘Journey‘.

I know I covered some of this a little over a week ago but I hadn’t yet finished the game then and wasn’t in review mode, if you missed it the linked post includes a playthrough video of Journey.

ABZÛ is a lovely thing, but less of a game and more of a interactive cinematic experience. There is no failure mode and there really is no challenge, the path is linear, the storytelling is minimal but my oh my is it beautiful, at times breathtaking.

Alas it is never as moving or sublime as the studio’s previous masterpiece Journey which thanks to its innovative use of multiplayer, meditative narrative form and stunning beauty I would buy for PC in a heartbeat and play again. I will return to ABZÛ again to show off the schooling simulations and sense of scale they have achieved but I doubt I will ever again play right through it as I have repeatedly in the case of Journey.

 

 

Melting
by Kimliatach

So hot here today.

Spent the day sweating in the shade. I did make good progress on the foam armour project and a got a tiny bit of fencing work completed when the mercury finally dropped after seven.

Almost all core foam pieces are now cut and only detailing and strapping remains prior to painting. Parts of the sword shield and scabard are waiting for a trip to clark rubber. Still waiting on the return of the family sewing machine to begin the cloak and tabard. Next progress video is in for editing.

Giving myself the evening off.

 

Sir Vader Pt.3
by Kimliatach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xQDPn4QU1s

Some YTube side sound editing is still processing, so if there is no music yet don’t be alarmed. Video of gauntlet, shins and codpiece are likely a week or so away.

Started planning to rename my ytube channel to something other than just my real name and grabbed ‘Liatach’ because I really don’t have any other name that is as genuinely unique. Thinking I may even try my hand at a video intro animation. Nothing to cheesy mind 15 seconds maximum I think. Lens flares are cool right?

A family bbq and episode 8 of Westworld have left me at 11pm so I’m calling it a night here.

 

A Weekend
by Kimliatach

Creative

Painting again tonight. Currently working on sketch cards, that is, draft copies that demonstrate layout and vision for the evolution and terrain cards. As I’ve been really struggling to produce finished pieces to a standard that I am happy with. Partially lack of practise, partially distraction. There remains quite a few unsketched cards so I am working my way back in by finishing little things.

Last night a deep and meaningful with family took precedence over posting. A little work on L’s costume, a spot of fencing and gardening have eaten up the weekend. We have three new garden beds laid and not a moment to soon as our next crop of seedlings are desperate for planting. We are also looking forward to the return of our hens from the farm. Which is waiting only on the completion of the new dividing fence.

The foam armour is coming together and I have another progress video almost ready for publishing. My editing process is rapidly becoming more streamlined.


Spent the morning rocking out to this rad remix.

Product Envy

I would dearly love to be able to justify the purchase of one of these, but it honestly wouldn’t last long in my house.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/machinationstudio/codename-colossus-mki-cyclops-electronic-walking-m?ref=category

As talked about here:

 

Foam Armour Pt.2
by Kimliatach

A couple of exhausting days with kindergartens and year one’s later and I’ve had to take some early nights. Managed to sort through a significant portion of my travel photos selecting a set for printing. I have also just finished editing 3+ hours of video down to 6 minutes which is included below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z0QTKTjaws&feature=youtu.be

Swapping to painting for the rest of the evening now.

 

Mon 14th
by Kimliatach

Creative

Completed L’s helmet Sir Vader knight helmet, began the chestplate and gorget. Build video to come.

Printing out a to do list of projects itemised for display above my computer.

Potato quality pics grabbed from footage, just for this.

sir-vader-helmsir-vader-helm-side

 

Books

At work today I these lovely illustrated and encyclopaedicly annotated editions of classic works. They are hard to search for thanks to the generic nature of the edition ‘The Whole Story’ but so far I have found:

Treasure Island, White Fang, Huckleberry Finn, Around the world in 80 Days, Call of the Wild & Jungle book.

They are really very well put together. My father read Treasure Island to me as a child but a lot went straight over my head. With these pictures, diagrams, lithographs and paintings it would have made more sense. I’m thinking I will grab them second hand for my class bookshelf and to read to the boys when they get older.

 

The Whole Story: "Treasure Island" (Classics in Context): Stevenson, Robert Louis The Whole Story: "Jungle Book" (Classics in Context): Kipling, Rudyard

 

Politic

The aftermath continues. I read this piece on surviving autocracies and this funny collection of ObamaBiden memes.

A choice few:

 

These memes are saving my sanity #obamabiden #saveme

A photo posted by Whit (@konbanwhit) on


Enough it is Westworld night.

 

 

Sir Vader Build Video 01
by Kimliatach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKm3B-5DT8w

Still trying to figure out how to add a second piece of music within the Youtube interface.