cylonchaney

How about a "D"?

I'm curious what people will think of my Bishop that I hacked together in Gimp using a bunch of AI generated images of Lance Henriksen. It still took some work but I don't have the art skills to make anything close to this good on my own. BTW, anyone is welcome to use this for a custom if they want.

If you're curious, I used this tool https://aicreate.com/prompt-generator-for-text-to-image/ to help generate something to pass to the AI. So I typed in, "lance henriksen face aliens in pop art style monochrome very low detail"

It spits out something like, "Pop art monochrome portrait of Lance Henriksen as Bishop from Aliens franchise, with minimalistic details, flat background, and sharp edges. A tribute to the iconic android character, reminiscent of Lichtenstein's style. Trending on Artstation, highly stylized, perfect for minimalist décor; 4k resolution, black and white, unique artistic twist." which I then submit to the AI and get some sample images back. The above was then modified from one of the images. I also got some interesting images back by typing "comic book style" and "coloring book style" instead of "pop art". Looking at what comes back, I'm wondering if some of you might recommend specific artist styles to request to get a nice simple image suitable for a minimate decal.

Now that I think of it the above was cropped from a single image. I was playing with taking different bits from different faces but this did come from one. I took out the nose and other bits I didn't want and added color to his eyes.

Hey Folks,

Just wondering if anyone younger and / or smarter than me has been able to get AI to assist in custom creation. I managed a Ferro face on my own. But I wanted to see if I could get AI to generate a Lance Henrikson face in Minimate style that I could use to make a clean Bishop. I wasn't successful  at my goal but saw some really cool images of Lance Henrikson toys that never existed. I would love a Minimate customizing AI where I could just say I want a clean Bishop or a Ferro or a Thunderlips ... etc. and it gives me back something suitable to make stickers from. Seems like not that far away. Then if DST would sell custom colored blank body parts, you could make a Minimate of anyone.

Anyhow, if anyone has had any success in this direction, or even failures, I'd love to hear about them

Cheers everyone!

O

Thanks guys!

I"m not the sharpest tool in the shed sometimes. You might see in a post above that I designed a flight helmet in anticipation of making a Ferro custom to fly the dropship i'm making. I've reworked it a couple of times. It just dawned on me that we did get the co-pilot / weapons officer, Spunkmeyer. He's almost exactly the same as the Ferro control art. If you're lazy, it's basically a face swap. If you want to better match the control art, flesh tone fore arms and a little paint to make the upper arms short sleeves. Even the same badges are in the same place. Sigh. Good thing I like designing stuff for the fun of it.

PS Does anyone else think the Spunkmeyer face looks like Adam Corollla?

X

H

I can't wait to see the entries! These are always good.

The mini APC is up on thingiverse.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6088712

The final version:

Hmm I wonder what could be next?

Thanks folks!

I guess you could say I've started on the dropship speaking in the most technical sense. You really have to use your imagination at this point. LOL

Below you can see why I've been so concerned about keeping it small.  This is what it looks like when the cargo hold is just bigger than the APC. It would only work this way if lowered on a level platform. If there's a ramp, the hold needs to be a fair bit bigger.  I hope I can make it work without making the dropship too big.

I'm currently printing version 4 which will be the release version if I like how it comes out. If not, it will be version 3 that I printed yesterday. But the mini-APC is pretty much done.

49 minutes ago, Trekker 42 said:

https://www.ign.com/articles/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-tmnt-minimates-technodrome-deluxe-box-set

Ahhhh here it is.

You know, I've got more than enough Ninja Turtles and was pretty much done with this line some time ago. But I would buy this set just for that Rocksteady. They're all improvements in my eyes except the actual turtle. I wish we had gotten sculpted heads for them. Anyway, well done DST!

I thought this one was going to be easily finished. But I'm just too darned picky. I'll just fix this one more thing. Oh and this one more thing. Oh and this one more thing. Oh, if I just do this last thing it will finally be finished. Oh and ...

The other challenge with tweaking the mini APC is that the bulk of it is the main body piece. It' a 6ish hour print. I'm trying to take a little more time than usual between prototypes to fix more things because of this. I think I'll manage to beat the Vipers where number 7 was the uploaded version. I've only printed 3 APCs so far. 

Also, because I'm trying to keep it as small as possible, the changes are small. I assume many people wouldn't notice much difference between the latest one on the left and the previous version on the right. But there are at least 10 changes there. LOL

I feel like I'm close though. I'm using Lee Adama as my real world test fit these days. Between his belt and pointy hair, he ends up being rather tall for a standard mate.

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

On 6/11/2023 at 4:11 PM, elhonez said:

I like the way you made these photos. It looks like a promo shot for an upcoming line.

Well, once again I'm going to have to make it just a little bigger because only bald mates fit in. There are some other things I will fix but here is my first prototype of a mini-APC. The wheels spin. Not very well but we'll get there. The guns rotate and the top one can be stowed at the back. Seats two.

The downside is I need to make it bigger. The floor and the walls between the cockpit and wheels are too thin for my liking and the passengers don't have enough headroom for a helmet or hairpiece. I'm going to try to make the top gun a fair bit bigger as well. It's a little over half the length of the DST one. That will make a huge difference in being able to print a drop ship. My feeling is I'll only need one more round to be done with this.

This is pretty much how I intend it to look except the roof should not be recessed like that.

For those unfamiliar, on the left is my mini APC and on the right is the DST factory one for Minimates.

12 minutes ago, Onyx_6 said:

When I dig out my printers, I promise to print one of your models!

You may have few to choose from by then the way I'm going. LOL

My wheel mount is a success. Didn't think of it when designing but it's basically the same design as a Lego propeller mount. Anyhow, it works. So tomorrow I'll make my first attempt to print a mini-APC.

3 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

Unfortunately my local Origami club has now folded.

I seem to remember you being quite torn up about it at the time.

Tomorrow I will carve out and print the wheel mount and the inner bit of the wheel to see how good of a fit I have and see if it needs more work. If all is good I might be ready to upload. Then I can work on something to carry it.

Nice work!

30 minutes ago, elhonez said:

Ha, I was hoping not to have to reveal it. My ASCII-esque aspirations were thwarted by forced line breaks, so I was going to pivot to the following chimeric emoji abomination:

    😜

🦾 ⏹️🦾

🦿🦿

 

Wanted to see the ASCII version. LOL

If you do this again, chop up a blank minimate in a photoshop like program.

Can we see what the hanged man would have looked like if bhm wasn't so smart? And get to work you. LOL

4 hours ago, Onyx_6 said:

I would love a printable dropship - at either your scale or one scaled to go with the official DST released APC.

I really spent some time thinking about it. For me, one of the things I like about minimates is they are small and so I can display a fair bit of my collection even though I'm in a one bedroom apartment. But there are limits. Smaller vehicles fit in better with the existing minimate vehicles. They take up less space and are quicker to print.

I don't know if you saw but I printed six Vipers before I was satisfied to post my files online. Can you imagine how much time and plastic it would take to do 6 full-size drop ships? I think I've made a good compromise here and a mini-APC fits with the line. DST's dropship would have been a troop carrier only. Mine hopefully will at least carry a small APC. If I should get rich enough to have more space, maybe I'll try for the full size. It would be cool for sure.

Regardless, it's fun for me and I hope someone prints some of my stuff one of these days. Like any art form, I guess I'm developing a bit of a style. I feel like I need to de-squish my Buck Rogers ship a little and this was more appealing to work on. Anyhow, it's coming along.

So it looks like it will hold 2 and be around the size of the Viper which is basically the same size as the DST factory Viper Mark V. I'm hoping I can squeeze it down a tiny bit more. Either way, it looks to me like it should be possible to build a drop ship to carry it. It might not even be bigger than the 3 man Raider. I'm so psyched for that idea!

Boxy things are much easier to model. I'm already to the point where the hubcaps are a separate piece and the wheels will hopefully pop on with a bit of a click, stay on, and spin. I'm not sure about a roof hinge. My laziness at this point is pushing me towards a friction fit. the gun mount rails should give enough grip to pull it out. Lots of detailing to go yet but I'm feeling good.

24 minutes ago, thereasonsy said:

I wish we still had these photos. 

Not sure what those photos linked to. Are these some of them?

https://www.ironcowprod.com/dc-supplemental-unreleased-concepts/