So I woke up today pretty excited about this project again. Just couldn't get my brain to shut off last night so instead of sleeping I ended up coming up with a little poem to go with the character and it gave me an idea for a little film short to do with it. I've always wanted to start doing film type stuff but just haven't had a good starting point so I'm going to give it a shot. I've pushed myself this far why not go farther right? Fingers crossed~

Got the character pieces painted today. With all the paint mixing done it's pretty fun again haha. I always hated fighting paints. Like painting but I'm terrible at mixing consistently and wasting paint...

That looks really great - love the colours!

Nice job. I too like the color  choice.

Thanks! I tried to take as much from the background as I could without him blending in. I don't want him to be a character on a canvas but to feel like he actually belongs in the painting.

Blah. Had a death in the family so I've been out of town the past week and a half. Had to drop what I was doing and drive ten hours turned thirteen due to construction. Needless to say it's been an exhausting trip.

Personal matters aside, I managed to play with the magnets before I left. I did end up having to get bigger stronger magnets. The overall movement isn't smooth but it has a nice look to it. Makes it feel like when he moves it's creaking to life of sorts. The downside is since the magnets had to be bigger he is going to stick off the canvas a little but overall it seems like it will have a nice end result.

With the tests done I need to get the character's joints attached and magnets put on. Then I'm going to make a basic card stock copy of the character to use as the control on the back to take the guess work out of operating. I still would like to attempt my little film short idea with him that way you guys can see how the movements turned out. Despite my age I am not very tech savvy so fingers crossed in that department haha~!

Blah. Had a death in the family so I've been out of town the past week and a half. Had to drop what I was doing and drive ten hours turned thirteen due to construction. Needless to say it's been an exhausting trip.

Sorry to hear - my condolences to you and your family.

Personal matters aside, I managed to play with the magnets before I left. I did end up having to get bigger stronger magnets. The overall movement isn't smooth but it has a nice look to it. Makes it feel like when he moves it's creaking to life of sorts. The downside is since the magnets had to be bigger he is going to stick off the canvas a little but overall it seems like it will have a nice end result.

With the tests done I need to get the character's joints attached and magnets put on. Then I'm going to make a basic card stock copy of the character to use as the control on the back to take the guess work out of operating. I still would like to attempt my little film short idea with him that way you guys can see how the movements turned out. Despite my age I am not very tech savvy so fingers crossed in that department haha~!

The reverse-copy for control on the back is a great idea. I'm really looking forward to seeing your results.

I agree with Na on the reverse side copy... brilliant idea!

Not gonna lie I kept putting off doing the joints. It was tedious and yet took no time at all so I had no reason to hate it and that frustrated me haha. Luckily I missed two episodes of the Creature Shop Challenge Show so yesterday I got to watch three episodes in a row that I didn't see so that remotivated me to suck it up and finish.

Overall I am pleased. I plan on doing at least a video so you guys can see how the movements turned out. I'm still trying to master the controls. He is a little tricky but I can tell its going to be easy once I play with it a bit.

I have an entire copy of him but opted for just the magnetized pieces to keep the clutter on the back down. If the other pieces become necessary I can add them but from what playing around I did it's pretty easy to coordinate him with just whats there. I originally had his body piece on there but it was too bulky to move smoothly so I opted for a single magnet at the seat of his pants. Works much better.

He can move a lot smoother than I expected. I'm going to add a handle/grip to each control piece to allow better control in the movement. Trying to just move it from the card stock as is causes a bit of sloppiness. Grip the magnets directly and it is smooth so the grip directly on the magnet area should make things easier.

Looks really good! How did you make the joints?

I think a grip would be a good idea too. An easy way to do it is get a large wooden bead and glue it to the card. I've done something similar when I needed quick-and-dirty grips.