Khorne Cares Not

Blood for teh blood god et cetera et cetera! I spent a lot of time mucking around, editing videos in Blender instead of finishing this model off.  I recommend watching a few tutorials first if you're going to use it.  In fact the learning curve is pretty horrific when you're a complete noob.  Just figuring out how to export the video was perplexing.  I also completely missed the difference between a soft cut (K) and a hard cut (shift-K) in the tool and got myself into a terrible mess.  Fortunately the internet community is very good about teaching you.

I found a cool soundtrack on the creative commons.  Its a merry little tune by JVNL called 'Demon' which seemed appropriate.  I couldn't be bothered learning how to splice audio in Blender so I added some chainsaw effects with Audacity.  The finished result is a bit rough around the edges but I'm rather proud of it.

My potato PC takes around 15 mintues to render a 2 minute video which means that most of my mistakes were compounded by having to wait a quarter of an hour before discovering that it looked awful and needed editing.  This became quite frustrating and so the length of the video was shortened.  But I slowly got the hang of it and can now cut and splice video, add a soundtrack, as well as doing timelapse, text titles and cross fade. I think I've levelled up from 'Initiate' to 'Novice'.  Not bad for someone who never reads instructions (until it goes catastrophically wrong, that is).  Instructions are like spoilers anyway.  They give away the ending and who knows where your chaotic, half-arsed journey would have taken you otherwise?

I thought it was worth mentioning the blood effects.  It was a bit experimental but I'm mostly happy with how it turned out.  UHU glue is wonderfully sticky and icky but it's too plastic and doesn't keep its shape.  I tried adding human hair to simulate rivulets of blood streaking off the chain blades.  But  was too straight and you can't sculpt UHU.  Not really.  You just have to stretch it and dribble it and hope it looks alright.  I uhmmed and ahhed for a bit and then gave up.  Later, I was brushing my fat, ginger cat, Ronald because it's coming into summer and he is shedding bright orange fur all over the furntiture.  The little bastard does it deliberately.  I wondered what cat fur dipped in Blood for the Blood God would look like.  It seemed legit, so I tried it out (I removed it from the cat first. In a humane manner.)  You can get some weird, streaking patterns with it which I really liked but cutting all the excess hair away was a nightmare (not to mention pretty gross).  So by the time I'd stuck it to the model, it didn't look quite as organic.

Also, Blood for the Blood God technical paint sprayed on with an old toothbrush (touched up with a detail brush) is really good. But it seemed fairly dull when it dried out sometimes.  I wanted my kill to look fresh.  I spotted a bottle of red lacquer in a hobby shop and thought I'd give it a coat over the top.  That turned out well and really adds a gloss shine.  I wanted it to look bestial and obscene.  I have no idea how a chainsaw functions in reality but the opposing movement of the chains is designed to literally rip you apart if this daemon engine decides to kiss you.

So there you have it.  Sawberus unleashed! It will probably take me another six months to complete the next Armiger and I'm going back to the UK for Christmas so not much hobbying expected in the next month.

Lastly, I added a banner to my blog.  I've been using the simple text banner for nearly 9 years now.  "Hell, it's about time." as Tychus Findlay once said.  Actually, I commissioned my son to do it for me. He's studying film and animation and I've been paying for his education up until recently (student loan time!), so I'm glad to see some return on my investment.  I'm very pleased with his work and even paid him for it. (He casually informed me that it was super easy to do and even I could have figured it out. Smart-arse.)