ianboldsworth

Stupid Box Day

Added 2022-01-14 11:00:05 +0000 UTC

Hello there

Do you ever start something with the very best intentions and then get whisked away?

I don't mean like procrastination, because it's very much not been that, I just got sidetracked with something that I thought wouldn't take very long, and it stole me from my Thursday.

I'd started with the intention of doing some Rocky Robot animation stuff, and then I was gonna do some content logging for here. There's been a handful of new patrons (hi), and I really want that pinned contents page all up to date properly. It's also a relatively easy thing to do (albeit really time consuming and mind-numbing), but - as I say - I want to do it.

So I started working on some of the animation stuff. I don't remember if I told you or not, but I've been doing a redesign of, everybody's least favourite character, Chip, to see if I can make him a bit more agreeable.

Silliness aside, the puppet responsiveness has been playing up a bit in the animation I've done recently, particularly his hands and eyes. So I am essentially starting from scratch with him. The hands issue is that they look wrong when they are up in the air or whatever, like they're back to front, which is an issue I don't have with Rocky.

I used Rocky's hands as a template (the shape of them) and got them a bit better. The second picture is a bit that ends up being very important in Episode 2, and I wanted to have it drawn into an alternate hand rather than messing about using the "magnet" feature on the software. It works far better to just draw it in, rather than trying to get a computer puppet to carry a separate object.

Believe it or not, that's as far as I got today. You can see in the hands on the left hand pic that I've basically made them symmetrical so they work in any direction.

The fatal mistake I made was noticing my Etsy compliment slips on the table beside me, and thinking I really needed to make a box for them. I've been looking for a box they would fit in, but they're an awkward size, so I'd settled on making it myself.

I am not a carpenter. I wasn't good at woodwork at school. I don't like maths.

These are the three facts that meant it was stupid of me, and was never going to turn out how I imagined it. The other problem is, I am presently all enthused about the Cricut cutting machine (paid promotion still not offered from them), so I had stencils in mind for a box too. Was never going to end well.

Yet there I was, pushing the animation to one side, whilst I drew up dimensions on some MDF...

I know it looks like I am in control of what I am doing...

At this point I shall mention that Rob Rouse is presently building a house on his patreon. I'm trying to make a little box for my table...

Even at this point I was still proper confident. I took ages doing the jigsaw cutting, getting the line absolutely straight because I know exact measurements are important in carpentry and furniture building (is it furniture? Fittings maybe?)

Look at all those pieces all paint-primed and ready to go. They will surely just all fit together and this will be the best box there has ever been made?

Well.

First off, it is REALLY hard to glue wood together when you only have one pair of hands (and are taking pictures too). Second off, you have to know which bit of wood will overlap the other one when you cut them, or they simply won't fit together.

All very professional, got my clamps on it and everything. Again, I know it looks like it's working. Which is why I took the liberty of circling that bit in red that shows that it doesn't fit at all.

Undeterred though, and despite the fact it was pitch black and freezing outside now, I went back to the garage and jigsawed off the offending protrusion.

Sanded it down again, mourned the earlier waste of the limited primer that I have, and back up to the art room...

I clamped on some trims to try and disguise the sins, and sanded them round. I was using a sander in the kitchen at this stage because it was -2 outside.

Look, I know it's not a disaster but it was really dragging me down at this point. I just wanted it finished and really regretted even starting it, given how much I had to do that was actually important.

I wanted to do my stencils though, so I gave it another prime (including making the interior all black), and set up the stencils.

I drew that logo myself the other night (traced it), and decided to make it a Star Wars-y box, as it was in grey like the Death Star. Feel free to translate that Aurebesh writing for your homework.

The stencil was an attempt I made from acetate, and was a real fiddly tough job to push all the pieces out. The Cricut only really scored it tbh, so it was a bit of forcing it from the acetate and I got a couple of breakages along the way. They should still be re-usable though...

In many ways this was your fault. It was pitch black because I'd brought the light back inside, and you can't have the torch on your phone when you're taking a picture (no clue why), so when the flash went off I could see I was over-spraying. I knew it was going to run, because the acetate isn't flat to the surface (no adhesive on it), and it's rubbish.

The Imperial Emblem actually came out well, until I picked off the centre piece of the stencil and it landed upside down next to it.

I don't mind stuff looking rough or weathered but I'm not happy with it at all. I can fix some of it, but I'm not doing it tonight. That is the story of how I made my first box from scratch.

Imagine if you saw that in a shop...actually, I bet there's shops in Camden or wherever that would bare-faced ask you for two hundred notes for it...

Here's me returning from the garage after the paint had run: