Monday, March 30, 2015

DIY Macro Ringlight - Test shots on my dolls!


Oooh!!! This worked out sooo much better than I thought it would!

 I made a ringlight out of some spare parts I had lying around, and it works so beautifully with my dolls T-T They do look a bit dusty, haven't had much time to play with them lately :( Clover (Iplehouse KID Lonnie) needs a bit more attention, her hair is so dishevelled hehehe

My favourite girl, Ginger (Unoa Lusis), she looks like a corpse here but I still love how all the details of her face up show up here.

And of course, who can forget Kizuna (Danny Choo Smartdoll) :)

Link to the free tutorial and some test shots on smaller items here:

http://snowfern-clover.blogspot.sg/2015/03/diy-ring-light-for-macro-photography.html

Direct link to Instructable with free PDF tutorial download here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-LED-Ring-Light-for-MiniaturesMacro-Photography/

I just want to add that I am so so happy to have had my very first Instructable featured today in the "Tech" section of Instructables! Go me!


If you have found my tutorial useful, please vote for my Instructable as I have entered it into a "Tools Contest", if you are on a mobile phone, the vote button is on the top left, otherwise, it is on the top right of the page!



Remember to share with me pictures of your ring light too, if you have made one from this tutorial!


Link to the free tutorial and some test shots on smaller items here:

http://snowfern-clover.blogspot.sg/2015/03/diy-ring-light-for-macro-photography.html

Direct link to Instructable with free PDF tutorial download here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-LED-Ring-Light-for-MiniaturesMacro-Photography/


Friday, March 20, 2015

1:3 SD sized photography props


Yikes! This blog has been severely neglected, I didn't even post about Kizuna Yumeno, my very first SD-sized doll :O Nor the long-promised SGDC2014 event report....gomen~! She was a birthday cum anniversary gift from the fiance :D

I have been kept busy with pain management, wedding preparations, and even some renovation talks (will be moving out after my wedding)...whatever little useful time I had left was devoted to fulfilling the final custom request accepted in 2014. I hope to finish that by June before things go into full swing, but ack, need to earn some $ to tide me over, so I wanted to list some more 1:3 items and hopefully get some sales.... -_-"

Being in a lot of pain most of the day means I'm miserable a lot of the time, means I need to find ways to keep happy, and making stuff for my dolls keeps me happy. So I make stuff.

Better, cheaper, and faster than therapy.

There's not a lot of progress photos, but here are a few that I found on my phone (couldn't keep it in and had to share progress with the bf, so pleased with myself for figuring stuff out HAHAHAHA)

With 1:3 scale, things are....woah. really large. especially when I'm used to 1:12 and smaller. I had to find ways to reduce the weight of the props as well. I will list materials I used and where I got them at the end of the post, as most of you know I don't tend to nurture my social media very well, sorry :( Hurts to sit at the computer and my fat fingers make it difficult to type on my teeny smart phone. 

As always, I didn't draw up any plans, just measured the IKEA shelf that was supposed to be Kizuna's home so it would fit. I want to also make it light and portable so I can move it to my window for photoshoots.

IIRC it's about 70cm height vs 40cm wide. All I knew was, I wanted a window. The window is a sliding window cos, I like stuff that works in mini too :D :D :D  CAN YOU IMAGINE!! A PIE COOLING ON THE WINDOW SILL!!!! It all started with this idea, and I just made everything around the 2 pieces of glass which were 5" x 7" photo frame glass that I had lying around. Not sure why I even had them at home, but ey, whatever works!!! (oh ey, I think might have been left over from a project I made for the fiance...hrm.)

*stares off dreamily in a painkiller haze*

Ah anyway. This was a test shot to see how well she stood against the window, or if I needed to add more width/height.

Tara~~!!! I initially wanted a smoother finish for the upper half, but screwed up the last piece of PVC foam board and had -just enough- 2cm wide wooden strips....I think it all worked out great :D :D :D 

Please excuse the really messy background. I took this shot to show off the chair to Asuka, she didn't even notice the chair and thought I was bragging about the knitted top XD which yeah, I did, about 3 mths ago!!!

I first discovered http://ana-white.com/ a few years back when I was randomly surfing late at night for prop ideas pre-event (forget which one) on my phone, but never quite found the time to work on scaling down the plans. The site is chock full of relatively easy plans which I find easily adapted into miniature, especially 1:3 or 1:4! Was tempted to use inkscape to scale it down to fit whatever random wooden strips I had stashed away, but the site uses imperial measurements, so I gave up on doing all the crazy math and just re-drew everything on graph paper, the old fashioned way. Works better with my doll anyway.

It's about 12cm wide. I think. *squints at photos*
(painkillers really fuzz up my memory worse than it already was)
All I know was, I needed it much taller than the plans specified, as Kizuna is a very leggy woman kekeke. I think the legs were about 19cm, all I know is the seat had to be about 20cm off the ground so she can sit with proper posture (HAHA) since her legs can't be tucked in at angles less than 90 degrees.


The table was just a few pieces of leftover wood strips put together to make a foldable table. The tabletop was not attached so I can switch it out for other tabletops, and I prefer the foldable legs so I can make it lower or higher depending on what I required for photoshoots. A tad flimsy, but it works :D

Tabletop was an old whiteboard thingy. Warped, so I reinforced and flattened it with wood strips too.

Then just after I dug out some old props, it started to rain and my photos turned out quite grey. bah. good excuse to go lie down after the 4 days of working on these few props.

Overall, pretty pleased with how they turned out. The black wall behind her is a leftover shelf board from her IKEA shelf abode XD I proped everything against my window for this test shoot, I RIKES. Maybe I'll build her a kitchen sink, cabinets....worktop.....oven....AUGHHHH NEED MORE MATERIAL TIME AND AUGHHHHHHH I WANNA PLAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Materials used:
Window glass: IKEA RIBBA photo frame glass 5"x 7"
Wooden strips for everything: Various widths from Daiso (Singapore)
Table Top: Portable Whiteboard from Popular Bookstore (Singapore)
Chair plans: Heavily adapted from http://ana-white.com/2010/10/squared2-chair
Wood Glue, Acrylic Paint, PVC Foam Board (Art Friend), Foam Glue, Pins (to reinforce joints), Lego (as Mitre/Square), Fine grit sandpaper, Filler (for chair joints, not necessary but a nice finishing touch, you can probably use wood putty or similar)

Model: Kizuna Yumeno, Smartdoll by Danny Choo
Wig + Jeans: Default
Knitted top: Made by me, pattern adapted from http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/blush-2
Hairband + Coffee Mug + Donuts: Made by me
Macbook: Gift from Cousin, pocket mirror
Ceramic Plate: Random purchase ages ago, forgot where