Minimate Labs

Arcade Gamer Doom

January 7, 2012

Posted this on Twitter a while ago and recently realized it never made it here.

Doom seems to be a Donkey Kong kind of guy. Although I'd imagine his personal arcade would have a few more machines.

MAX Pilot Turnaround

October 31, 2011

Another day, another Minimate turnaround. This is the MAX Pilot from the Stealth Jet Animation that I posted previously.

I never was real happy with his hair so I didn't include it here. This model was completed before the World War Hulk project where I got much better at creating Minimate hair (see Dr. Strange, Mr. Fantastic.). If I use this pilot again I'll give him a much better 'do'.

World War Hulk Cover

October 23, 2011

The Minimate Multiverse Cover Contest made its return this year and I decided to take a stab at it and create a 3D entry using Blender. After some difficulty deciding on which cover to replicate, I settled on World War Hulk #4. It had five new Minimates that I hadn't yet converted to 3D models along with a few opportunites for special effects.

This is a fairly image heavy post that shows each step that I took to recreate the cover.
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"Top Gun" Animation

October 3, 2011

Remember way back during Comic-Con when I said I'd have a new computer generated animation ready to show? Well, I didn't think it was going to take two months to finish. When I got back I saw a few things I wanted to change, a couple scenes I wanted to add... and the Comic Cover Contest at the Multiverse didn't help matters. Nevertheless it's now "done", not perfect mind you, just done.

Using the the Stealth Jet and Pilot from the Mobile Action Xtreme line, I've created a short with lots of swooshing noises and a recognizable (perhaps?) anthem.
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Spider-Man Turnarounds

July 15, 2011

Well unfortunately, I didn't get the large rendering project done before Comic-Con like I had planned. As penance, I threw together a couple new turnarounds using existing Minimate models, both Spider-Man. The first is the basic Spidey from the Day-O Dancing Animation.

The second is 'tron-ified' Spider-Man from this post.

I'll have a work-in-progress version of the long teased 'large rendering project' at Comic-Con. If you're in the San Diego area and interested in seeing it, just ask. It should be easy to pick me out from the other 130,000 con-goers, right?

Cyclops Turnaround

July 4, 2011

The 'large' Minimate animation project I'm working on is taking longer than I originally estimated. So in the meantime I'm posting another turnaround from a completed project. This one is Cyclops from a short video I posted several months ago.

There will probably be one more of these before the large project is complete. (Hopefully before SDCC.) On the plus side, I'm getting better with LMMS by creating the short sound tracks behind the turnarounds. Now if I could only get some talent...

Dr. Doom Turnaround

June 22, 2011

Here's another Minimate 3D model, the inscrutable Victor von Doom. This was a very straightforward build. The belt/skirt and holster were easy to put together. The hood and the cape took more effort but still came out nice. It really mimics the look of the plastic Minimate cape.

This would have been posted a couple days ago, but I didn't realize I had forgotten something until after I uploaded the complete video to youtube. I overlooked the clasp on the cape. It existed, I just didn't import it from the other project before rendering the turnaround. I don't know how I missed something so obvious.

Doombot Turnaround

June 10, 2011

As I complete new Blender projects I'm slowly building a library of models (Minimate and otherwise) that I'll be able to use in the future. Here's one, the Doombot.

I had actually finished this model before he was released in Wave 37, so it doesn't quite match the 'official' figure. There weren't many promotional images that showed a good view either so I tried using some refernce images from the comics. It ended up close, but not exact. Totally missed the chestcap. Oh well.