Tandy leather factory was having an early morning sale the day after Xmas,
So to break up the learning with doing something that I'm (very slightly) more familiar with, I laid out some armor since i needed to figure out how much I'd need to buy. tossed a tshirt over the doublet and laid it out with a sharpie (put a layer of press seal over it first, so i don't accidently mark it up)
after laying it out, I began making a mock up out of craft foam.
A friend of mine managed to snag a black edition figure of Ezio off Ebay (*shakesfist* ), so will be get plenty of photos next time i see him. this'l be set aside as i get to work on the left bracer and finishing the tunic :)
Been pretty quiet on this blog, but rest assured, things *have* been happening
Did a lot of work on the tunic,
And on AC2's midnight release, thought it would be fun to bring my gear along..
...buuuut wound up hating it with a passion. The fabrics all wrong, and the lacy trim, ugh...
So I started over, choosing a different fabric this time, and being extra careful with the stitching.. I know very little about sewing, but did what i could to correct mistakes the second time around (ie., uneven stitching ) . Also dyed fabric for the first time, thought it turned out a bit lighter than i had expected after i dried it :)
magic, fairy dust, and a loooot of needle stabbings in the hands later, here's what I got: (AC1 parts used as placeholders til the AC2 counterparts are completed...
While at a day convention, I worked a little more on the belt sculpt, not a massive difference, but refined the left "hook" more. It has a much closer curve to the design, though I need to make sure they sit at the right height, so the plate on the top doesn't sit too high and make the thing look weird.
Also noticed that a couple refs of the cape have it terminating a lil differently in the front (its a lil higher up in some refs). Since it looks so big on the side view, I'm thinking of nipping a a lil off the front edge to help reduce its mass. the back looks right though. I'll also be changing the top edge of the cape :)
pauldron clips are coming along slowly, I have a press mold of the clip, and am finishing a press mold of the engravings, so i'll press one out, and be able to press in the engravings without having to fear messing the whole thing up (in which case i'll just try again.)
Attempt to cord up the rings turned out reasonably well, though I'll have to try again, because they came out a little too long.
I don't know if the entire cape assembly will be done by D*con, because I still need to nail out a commish, but whatever state its in, I'll most likely wear anyways. Because i wanna run aroond with a cape on my gear.
As mentioned in the last journal, works been a good bit underway on this project.
I've pretty much decided that instead of Here's whats going on so far!
Reference gathering!
First off (of course, I googled around and found a bunch images of Ezio (usually his "jazzhands" pose though) , as well as the E3 trailer, developer diaries, Game Informer magazine, and whatever else I could scrounge up. Some of them are in the links list to the left.
Gametrailers.com had some quicktime movies that I could screencap, so i capped just about anything that could be of use :)
A bunch of places i regularly check are on the linklist to the left.
Its been a challenge to basically figure out and piece everything together with guaranteed accuracy, since new images are trickling out bit by bit, and theres a ton of new upgrades, weapons, and things that Ezio can change out n game (i saw 3 different bracers in the dev diary alone), and of course, even with a single design, Ubisoft never keeps things 100% consistent (ie. the belt, XD)
Planning!
Because planning is really important, I've gone and brainstormed (a LOT), done sketches, and stared at refs so much I'm surprised they haven't been burned into mah retinas. . Usually by the time I get physically started on a part, I'll have already spent the same amount of time (if not more) drawing up plans and/or building it in my mind than it actually does to make it. It helps reduce the amount of errors when actually constructing it, which is a really really GOOD thing when it comes to leather or other expensive materials.
With Ubi's constant variations, I'll try to work out any kinks then (ie the posts on the belt bluckles face a direction that won't hold the belt on), and get to take advantage of the differences to "pick n' choose" from variants that I like the most (and sneak in personal touches if I feel like it) :)
Despite the resources out there that some have made or done, this project will still be done strictly based on Official references, as others will have a tendency to put their own personal touches into their work, and it just won't be the same as my visions for it. Ubisoft already gives us more than enough leeway to add them personal bits!