Please allow me to elaborate. Ever since Dragon*Con, some really amazing things have happened to spark my passion for my replica prop building hobby. I met some really incredible people in the field, namely Harrison Krix of Volpin Props. He’s a really fantastic guy and amazing prop maker from Atlanta Georgia. If you’ve hear of me, you’ve probably heard of him. I met him at Dragon*Con and when I told him that I was considering making my prop crafting hobby into a career he said something along the lines of “dude, do it.” Boom, that easy.

Another huge inspiration for me has been the Frogpants network of podcasts. I have been a huge fan of Scott Johnson and his amazing group of podcasting friends for the better part of the last 4 years. He has been building up this network of shows for nearly a decade. A year ago he started a 4 times weekly morning show called the Morning Stream. A few months back, I approached Scott about me doing a fitness segment on the show. He agreed that it was a good idea and ever since then, I join them on Tuesday mornings to share and talk about fitness!

Being a part of that large, nurturing and creative community has been hugely inspirational to my pursuit of my prop building passion. The feedback and support that I get from the community has been nothing short of amazing. Thanks guys. Frogpants represent! =D

My friends and family (especially my amazing wife Brittany) have probably been the biggest influence of all. I’m a part of a local group of costuming friends here in Seattle. We did a big group costume project for this year’s Steam Con that went over a storm. They’ve kept me on my game and very busy!

Soooo, yes, I’ve been busy. Mostly in my garage making replica props. My latest accomplishment is a replica of the N7 Eagle pistol from the upcoming video game Mass Effect 3. I built it for the Child’s Play Charity auction dinner back in December and it took in a cool $500 for the children. Since then I’ve been getting a steady flow of prop commission requests in my inbox that I’m trying to stay on top of. It is keeping me busier and happier than ever!

That’s all for now folks. I’ll try to get back to you more frequently than every 4 months. Until then, if you need me, I’ll be in my shop!

I thought I knew costumes. I didn’t. The sheer number of costumes at the con was mind blowing. Add to that the quality of said costumes and I was picking up pieces of my brain from off of the walls. At one point I was part of a 25 person Dragon Age group in a huge parade! Every night for 3 days we were in a gigantic hotel atrium both posing in costume and gawking at the other incredible costumes that were flooding the place. I was able to squeeze off a handful of photos of myself. Check them out here if you’d like to see what I’m talking about.

I also got to meet a whole bunch of amazing people, including but not limited to: Felicia Day, Tom Merritt, Veronica Belmont, Brian Brushwood, Justin R Young, Harrisson & Emily Krix of VolpinProps, Obsidian, and many, many more. Britt and I were even featured in an impromptu costume contest on the NSFW video podcast.

Finally, I was able to catch up to the wonderful and talented Harrison and Emily Krix (volpinprops.net) for a quick photo shoot in their AMAZING Daft Punk and Soul Caliber costumes. You can see the whole set here.

]]> http://punishedpixels.com/2011/09/07/dragoncon-2011-wrap-up/feed/ 0 http://punishedpixels.com/2011/09/06/pax-2011-roundup/ http://punishedpixels.com/2011/09/06/pax-2011-roundup/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:56:34 +0000 admin http://punishedpixels.com/?p=1268 Continue reading →]]> A week and a half ago was the Penny Arcade Expo here in Seattle. This has become a costuming staple for my crew and me. Last year we went as the characters from Star Craft 2 and the previous year we we team blue from Team Fortress 2.

This year’s show trumped all previous attempts at a gaming convention by a long shot. There were so many amazing video games being demoed at PAX that my head nearly exploded! I got to play or watch people play a few that stood out: Guild Wars 2, Batman Arkham City, Firefall, Wildstar Online, and many, many more.

The real kicker for me was the costuming (of course). PAX is still in it’s fledgling stages of being a serious costuming convention, but there were a handful of really amazing costumes at the show. Also, at a Dragon Age 2 panel, the Bioware folks pulled us costumers out of the line, had us sit up front, and acknowledged us during the panel! Awesome!

I took a bunch of photos too. A couple of my favorites are below and you can go to my flickr photostream to see the rest.

NY Trip
Back in my home town of Oswego, NY, we have a little thing we like to call Harborfest. It is an annual event that celebrates the Oswego harbor with festivals, music, drink and merriment. I hadn’t been to Harborfest in a couple of years, so I took some time off of work to fly home, see my friends and family, and enjoy the wonderful summer weather of upstate New York.

I spent much the weekend sailing (and winning) in the Sail Oswego regatta with my dad, brother and brother’s fiance. Being on the open water again was a real treat (so was winning). The rest of my time was spent eating pizza, getting caught up with old friends and family, drinking beer, watching amazing fireworks, and drinking more beer. Words cannot express the joy and nostalgia that this trip brought to me. Living so far away from home is tough, but returning to see all of those wonderful people so happy to have me back is a splendid thing indeed.

PAX Prime
After my trip I had to get started on my costume project for PAX Prime. Last year my costuming buddies and I did a pretty sharp set of characters from StarCraft II, so this year I had to do something special, for sure. My posse wasn’t feeling the group costumes this year, so I settled on Hawke from Dragon Age 2. The character is customizable in-game, but I already look a lot like the character from the cinematic intro, so I went with that. I spent a couple of solid weeks building armor, tailoring the clothing, and assembling them into a usable costume. I ended up scrambling to get it all done (and I didn’t get the weapon made) before PAX, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Also, my amazing wife Brittany made a Chell costume with associated Wheatley prop.

Dragon*Con
The weekend directly after PAX is Dragon*Con this year! My wife and I decided that we NEEDED to go this year. We’ll be packing up our costumes and flying out to Atlanta shortly. I am unbelievably stoked to meet so many of the folks out there!

The Universe
Finally, I wanted to touch on what I’ve been watching. The History Channel has a show called The Universe that is really dorky and awesome. Yaaay science! If you want an unique perspective on how amazing the universe is, queue this show up on your Netflix streaming post-haste!

That just about does it. I have some photos from PAX that I’ll try and get posted soon. I’ll also have plenty of shots from Dragon*Con in the coming week, so stay tuned!

Northwest Trek, WA - July 10th 2011