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I recently made these figures for a Trek game I ran. They're basically just the player characters so they're quite specific. They may be of some use to someone, though =)
They're intended to be printed at 150dpi (that's what res the JPG is set to) which means they'll print at about 25mm.
I'm planning on doing a series of do-it-yourself minis featuring all uniforms from all periods and a variety of permutations of races and skin colours and hair styles etc... Until then, enjoy these:
Scarecrow
ooooooh beautiful! Did you draw'em yourself?
Just a thought, but how about some 'blanks'? Basically, some black and white 'outlined' characters (of any given era) that can be filled via Photoshop, Paint Pro, MS Paint, or other graphics programs...not to take away from your creativity:).
Oh, one more; how about a Noah's Arking of sorts (Vulcans: 1 male, one female, Caitians: 1 male, 1 female, and so on). Or maybe a 'group shot' of a given alien culture (Vulcans, both male and female as Security, Science, Command, and so on...and then Andorians...and then...)
Sorry if this sound daunting, but your work is really good so far (and as Decipher seems to have a problem with 'getting the lead out' as it were:D)
Cheers, guys! Yeah, they are all drawn by me.
As I mentioned, what I want to do is supply a series of bodies with all the various uniforms and different colours and in a variety of skin colours. Then a series of heads of various races with various styles and skin colours. The idea being that you could mix and match and construct you're own minis for any period and any race.
I'm not sure how far I'll break it down yet. Wether to just have bodies with optional heads or wether to have a complete breakdown with bodies in underwear then seperate uniforms and bald heads with hairstyles and facial features seperate too. It depends on how much of a workload I'm able to take on and how much I feel people are able to edit it at their end. I want the minis to be useable by everyone but if it requires advanced knowledge of Photoshop it'll be a bit limiting.
What I may do is have the DIY kit but also provide a broad range of premade figures aswell.
Whatever I do, it'll only be Starfleet personnel for now but I'd love to do some Klingons aswell =)
So many ideas, so litttle time =)
[EDIT] Actually, what I may do is a Star Trek version of this:
http://www.over-the-moon.org/dollz/dollmaker/make.html
Crow
Thanks, Scarecrow, they look cool.
Way cool :)
I'm eager to see DS9-era minis :) It's sure the easiest thing would be a DIY kit with faces and uniforms. I'm unsure as to how this could be done though.
Yeah, I think I'm going to try and do it like the Doll Maker I linked to above. I'll need to do reverse-sides aswell which'll be more work but it's doable I think. It'll also allow people to make little on-line avatars to for PBeMs etc aswell..
Crow
Wow!!! That looks really fantastic. Are you planning on doing this for ENT-Era as well?
Absolutely! =) All eras really. If I can make the DIY thing work it won't be anywhere near as much work as doing individual figures.
Crow
Hi Crow
Saw these first on the brabatini yahoo group a couple of days ago.
Excellent work, and I'd love to see the mix and match idea you're talking about come to fruition. You could corner the market as promised cardboard heroes from Task Force Games for GURPS Prime Directive have never materialised, and there's no sign of anything similar from Decipher either.
I've been messing around with the idea for ages as I just don't get time to paint miniatures and it's virtually impossible to find Trek like miniatures to represent Starfleet types, let alone Klingons, Romulans etc.
If there's anything I can do to help you with this, let me know.
Regards
Renny
Thanks Crow, these look great! Please keep us up to date. I'd be very interested in the finished product. :)
I remember seeing software for something like this a few years ago. Gobs of web-pages devoted to it and all. I'll have to try & track it down again. (Hey, anything to help make doing character pics easier... Trek or otherwise!)
(five minutes of googling later...) KiSS dolls.
http://otakuworld.com/index.html?/kiss/0kiss.html
Actually, I hadn't thought of that. A portrait maker along the same lines would be probably more useful than the figure maker. Maybe I'll look into that once I've done the minis. The males are well under way.
Crow
Hi Crow
Last thing I want to do is stop you from pushing on with the miniatures, especially as i'm super keen to get hold of them, but I wonder if you might be able to outline the process you go through to get to the finished article.
I've tried, in the past, to make my own by scanning in images from other sources and so on but because yours are 'handmade' they're that much more interesting, and also offer the potential to personalise the miniatures to reflect your own player characters.
Regards
Renny
Okay, sure.
What I've done so far is roughly draw out a human shape with the proportions I want for the figures. I've exagerrated certain elements, using pretty much the same proportions as Games Workshop do for their figures - ie: slightly bigger hands, feet and heads compared to the rest of the body. Miniatures because of their size generally benefit from slightly exagerrated features and quite simply, I like the style =)
When I'm happy I scan it in.
...
I drop the contrast so it's quite greyed out and then on a new layer, I ink over the top of the basic proportions.
I used to do this with a pencil and a biro and then scan in but I'm trying the inking in photoshop this time.
...
On a third layer, I ink the uniform so that it fits exactly over the body and then remove the parts that are included in the body.
I then repeat this process for each uniform type on a new, seperate layer. Eventually each uniform will be repeated on several layers so that different duty colours can be applied.
As you can see these are quite rough and need tidying. They are also much bigger than they will be in the final mini-maker.
I'll detail the next stage when I get round to it - probably tomorrow.
Scarecrow
Crow
Loving it !! Thanks for taking the time to explain the process.
Regards
Renny
Once the uniform is inked, I create a new file and fill it with white. Then I paste the uniform outline on to a new layer on top and set it to 'multiply'
Now I paint on the bottom, 'white' layer under the outline. I've attached the TOS command uniform as an example. I can easily then paste a new white layer under the outline and paint the same image in blue and then again in red - which I have done this lunch time. The male TOS uniforms are done, as are the male bodies.
These are , as you can see, going to be quite cartoony - like the first ones I posted at the start of this thread, really. As I mentioned before, I quite like the cartoony proportions of a lot of lead miniatures and also, the more graphic nature of the images works better with the DIY idea. Also, to paint each element as a realistic image would ammount to a mountain of work, the likes of which I don't dare contemplate!!! :)
Crow
With all the body parts done seperately, you can select your skin colour, the uniform you want and then make the head to suit. For example, the image I've attached shows what I've got so far.
I select the blue skinned body from the bodies selection. Then I select the TOS command uniform and drag it over the top. VOILA! One blue-skinned TOS-era male ready to have either a Bolian or Andorian head dragged on to it (or maybe a Benzite!!). From there, a variety of hairstyles and facial hair will be available.
Anyway, enough gassing. I have uniforms to colour =)
Oh - the image I've attached is 165 pixels high. This will print out at 28mm at 150dpi. This is the size I intend to do the figures in the DIY figure maker. It's a nice size. A good compromise. It prints out quite cleanly and also allows for a much wider variety of choices on screen.
Crow
Right, well all of the male uniforms are done plus colour variations. Not bad for a single evening's work. :)
I've attached a sample showing one sample from each.
There are actually two different versions of the TMP uniform. I've shown the Admiral's. The standard grey and tan are slightly different. I've only done the two-piece for now. I may add the one-piece at a later date.
Next is to get some heads and hairstyles together and write up a test run of the DIY figure-maker.
Crow
Can’t wait to see more, guessing females would be next.
Scarecrow, don’t sell yourself short; this ‘Star Trek: The NEW Animated Series’ style of yours is really good…can’t wait to things like Caitians, Edoian (the animated kind), and the like…and then, there are the threat species (Romulans, Cardasians, and Borg…oh my).
Say, have you ever though of putting this stuff on a host site, or on someone else’s site? You could build a library of image building paraphernalia (body shapes, facial component, hairstyles, and so on)…come to think of it; OH DON M. AND DOUG B.!!! We’ve got a live one here that could do wonders in the resources for the main site (you know, the 'TrekRPG' one:))
Scarecrow
You're absolutely blowing me away with this stuff.
I love the style of your artwork and the possibilities seem endless.
I can't wait to start playing with the diy stuff.
Thanks again for all your hard work.
Regards
Renny
Cheers, guys. Your support is much appreciated.
Modem, that's actually entirely my intention. My plan is to get a basic starter page up which will allow you to make male and female versions of all the more popular humanoid races in Starfleet. This will allow people to create and customise basic humanoid miniatures from all periods, several races and a variety of skin colours.
After that I intend to just keep adding hairstyles, beard styles, heads, uniforms (some of the more obscure ones like dress uniforms and cadet duty uniforms etc) and maybe even civilian clothing. Either when I think of them or if someone requests it and I think it's general enough to add.
I'd like to do some more action orientd poses and have optional accessories like phasers and tricorders too.
After that I'll do Klingon, Ferengi, Borg etc etc. However, they might not be DIY as they all tend to be similar enough that they don't really require customising.
However my enthusiasm tends to work a lot faster than my hands so I'm focussing on getting a core male and female set finished first and then build on it from there.
And yes, as you said Modem, females are next.
I'm hoping to have a useable test version of the DIY kit working and online in a few days - maybe just with males. I'd appreciate it if you guys'd have a play around with it when it's ready and give me some feedback.
Regards
Crow
I just discovered this thread.
Man that is tremendous stuff!
Bravo and keep it coming ;)
Funky stuff scarcrow...
Nice job so far and looking forward to the finished article...
I have been really inpressed with this thread and I can not wait to see the final result.
Character cut outs are such a cool idea in the absence of minatures (personally I prefer paper minis anyway).
Now - for some cut out outlines for shuttles/runabouts etc to the same scale. Plus other stuff. Just for style's sake.
Well, something I'd love to tackle is paper miniatures of the various bridges. Shuttles would be an excellent ideas aswell, though.
hmmmmmm...
miniatures first! Focus, Crow!!
Crow
http://members.lycos.nl/ninjatoes/index.html
and
http://www.ipd.uka.de/~haensgen/trek/stmodels.html
Resizing will be probably required, and possibly downloading a reading program for the file type, but it's start:)...
Oh, you might want this for bridges:
http://www.science-fiction-forum.de/...eln/panels.htm
The sites in German, but the panels are English...
Modem,
Cheers! I'd not seen the first one before. Luverly! mmmmm...
Also, the LCARS site may be useful. I usually just make 'em myself though.
Crow