- Update June 5th 2015:
You can now preorder round two of the RAW and PAINTED version of Minotaua-Girl from FIGUYA:
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Our Figurine is Your Figurine!
- Update January 5th 2015:
THANKS A LOT TO EVERYONE WHO FUNDED US AND MADE THIS PROJECT A SUCCESS!!! WE ARE BEYOND WORDS!! <3
Anne posted a first video of our painted prototype and the RAW version on Instagram and Facebook. :)
(FB seems to mess with the video quality a bit, we will experiment with better ways to get videos accross to you in the next days. Click on the image to play video. You can find more videos within our "updates" section. :) )
- Update December 4th 2014:
We received our first photo of the cast. This is what her final version looks like. Two of these casts are already on their way to our studio. :)
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- Update November 30th 2014:
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*You don't have to buy a figurine to purchase any of the extra items.
About the Figurine:
Trevor
Hennington (Lukavi) is a skilled 3D artist, and I am Anne Pogoda
(DarkTownArt). I do painting, design and concept art, and we both love
figurines, so we created this special project and worked on it together
over the past year.
We
have already produced one version of Minotaura-Girl for ourselves, just
to see how well she is working out, and now we are ready to share her
with you.
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The idea behind this is to ship our beauties to
everyone who is interested in:
- Having a beautiful female figurine
in their collection, one that features a slightly different body-type.
- A figurine that can used used as a reference model for future art, and
one that’s perfect for anyone interested in painting a custom figurine
themselves.
- I have also been finding a lack of dark skinned models for reference when I wanted to create my art in the past, so I am quite convinced that "Mino" will be useful to everyone who is seeking out proper reference on dark skinned females aswell.
Hand-Painted Figurines Just For You
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*Please note that the decals on this base are part of the prototype. The shipped figurine will have the base that you can see on the first image.
What is special about Mino is that,
not only will you receive the figurine, she will also be hand-painted.
If you want, you may also order a RAW version and paint it yourself. She will be 25cm tall (9,8 inches) with a circle base and cast in resin.
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Your painted figurine will receive the
same careful treatment as our prototype. Her skin will receive a basic coloring (warm
brown) at first. At this stage, each figurine will be checked for
production errors, which is when I usually pull out the sanding paper
and adjust things quickly. The next step will be spraying some shadow
onto her skin, so it feels like she is interacting with her clothes and
the surrounding lighting just nicely.
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Her jewelry will be hand-painted
with a tiny brush. Same goes for her hair and her eyes. The golden
jewelry will get some hand-painted highlights as well, and her hair will
be darker towards the bangs so it won’t be too dominant whilst framing
her face.
Don't Like Black? Have It Blue, Or White, Or Pink!
We have custom versions available within our Perks section.
Those
are limited and a little more expensive since we will have to buy
colors just for those. The custom variants can usually be purchased in
two different versions.
- Version 1 will offer you the choice of the color of her skin and her jewelry as a whole, as well as her hair and eye color.
- Version
2 that also comes with a custom illustration offers you (besides everything already mentioned above) to treat each
piece of jewelry individually. Same goes for each strand of hair and
each individual eye.
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Please check this little "map" and add the shipping price to each Perk that you wish to order.
Example 1: Perk 5 (Raw) to Germany 90€ + 10€ = 100€ pledged in total.
Example 2: Perk 2 (Pillow) 19€ + to Europe 15€ = 37,50€ total.![]()
Example 3, combining Perks: We found out that combining Perks is a pain in the a** so we are offering the option to have us unlock combined Perks for you upon request. (Like the mug + bag Perk for example.)
Other Goodies
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* Note that the mug shown above represents an early prototype
For those who wish to support us without having to buy a
figurine right away, we have created some additional perks. Part of the money that you invest for each extra will be used to produce the extra itself, and the other part of the money will support our figurine-project.
You don't have to buy a figurine to get any of the extras. Our extras are made in Germany. :)
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Here Are Photographs Of Some Prototypes Of Our Extras:
Bag Size: 280 X 400 X 100 mm
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Pillow size: 800 X 400 mm
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Pillow size: 400 X 400 mm
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Custom Illustrations
The custom versions can also be
upgraded to go with custom illustrations. Those are also limited since I (Anne)
want to have enough time to focus on each one individually. You can
check out the Perks section to find out more.
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Are There Stretch Goals?
Yes!
Now
that you ask, I would love to make some additional goodies available! I
am thinking of a 5,000 € milestone that unlocks another extra goodie,
and that goodie would be T-Shirts.
Should we reach 10K there also
will be at least one new illustration unlocked to go with the new
goodies, too.
Other
than that, the entire year has already pretty much been spent on all
the other things I wanted to do (beer krug, huh! So German, wow. XD), so
I would really love to use any funding that comes in beyond the 10,000
stretch goal to start working on Mino's sister Nymphia and having some
time to go deeper into the story of the two (and also prepare a calendar
for 2016.)
Exceeding the 10k point also means that we can release Mino's sister
earlier, (because we have the money to afford the prototyping then).
Sometime in the second quarter of 2015.
Shipping & Warehousing
To make sure that your figurines reach you safely, we have partnered with Figuya.com
who specialize in figurines. All figurines will be stored at their
warehouse, checked for production errors, packed properly (especially
when ordering extras that come with your figurine), and then sent
directly to you.
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Please check this little "map" and add the shipping price to each Perk that you wish to order.
Example 1: Perk 5 (Raw) to Germany 90€ + 10€ = 100€ pledged in total.
Example 2: Perk 2 (Pillow) 19€ + to Europe 15€ = 37,50€ total.
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Example 3, combining Perks: We found out that combining Perks is a pain in the a** so we are offering the option to have us unlock combined Perks for you upon request. (Like the mug + bag Perk for example.)
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The Figurine - A Little Making Of
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Trevor
and I work in a business (gaming, film and TV) that limits us when it
comes to designing female characters. A lot of things that one would
call normal on a woman get rejected by art directors because they are
perceived to be not athletic enough, healthy, or simply too fat.
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The
body we were imagining was one that was more curvy, but still pleasing,
and one that, ideally, could also be used by an artist as a female body
reference.
After
playing around with her we decided that she would be hip-heavy. We also
experimented with her breast size and decided to tone it down so we
could make the balance between her hips, ribcage and breasts more
interesting.
We wanted a strong, happy and independent girl, so getting the body right and making it look elegant was very important to us.
About The Minotaurus Theme
I
loved the idea that she could be living in a forsaken labyrinth. The
hooves, I liked not so much. They seemed to lack a certain balance and
elegance. So I thought of a different animal, and came up with a lion.
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Next,
I had to figure out her head and her hair. This had to be simplified so
it would still look good once printed. At the same time, I didn’t want
her hair to lose too much detail, and her face needed to be paintable
without her bangs getting in the way.
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The
idea of using her as a model for drawing or painting made me come to
the conclusion that the very first edition of Mino would be a standing
pose.
I experimented with designing a bra for her, but it bothered me to
have her breasts covered since the golden chain or the neckpiece would
end up being too much.
So
the breasts would only be covered with small golden plates to have an
all-time reference of their shape without making the design of the
jewelry around the upper body appear too crowded.
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Who We Are
Trevor
Hennington (Lukavi) has a deep background in 3D modeling and Zbrush
scultping. He has worked on games such as Ghostbusters, Blade &
Soul, Aion, and Smite. Trevor is currently working as character artist
at Hirez Studios.
Anne
Pogoda (DarktownArt) is an illustrator, concept artist and designer.
She has been a part of UFA Fremantle Media's (UFA GmBH UFA Lab) think
tank that was working with partners such as Crytek, RTL Group and UFA
Brand Communications. Anne is currently working with CGSociety/
Ballistic Publishing.
Figuya is our Berlin based partner for warehousing and shipping your goodies to you. They specialize in figurines.
If you have missed out on the campaign or are looking for further Minotaura-Girl merchandise, they are the right ones to ask.
David Satzinger is working for Frictional Games on games such as Amnesia A Machine for Pigs or SOMA. He designed the new DarkTownArt logo and is our consultant when it comes to everything that needs an expert eye when it comes to typography and graphic design.
Annes assisstants Peter and Jessi. Those are two dedicated artists who work with Anne at DarkTownArt. When a lot of people order figurines, they will assist her with the painting.
Object Plot is our Berlin based partner when it comes to the special "made in Germany" editions that are 30 cm tall. They produced our custom prototype, too.
Desmoda is our USA based partner who will be creating the 25cm resin cast figurines. They are experienced when it comes to 3D printed figurines and have already been partnering up with other crowdfunded projects of that kind.
Risks And Challenges
1. German winter:
Painting
the figurines will take place around February 2015. Some steps require
us to open a window from time to time. If temperatures drop too low this
could become an issue since neither us nor the figurines (or colors)
like it being too cold. So if we get that kind of "winter is coming"
winter, it may delay us a little when it comes to making the painted
versions of the figurines.
2. German bureaucracy:
We
are aware that our fellow countrymen like things to be a certain way.
So we checked back once, twice, thrice (you get the idea) with every
party involved to make sure there are no glitches when it comes to taxes
and whatnot. However, it could happen, for whatever reason, that the
border authorities may ask about our project or even demand extra taxes
(bleh). That may delay the project for a few weeks, depending on how
long it takes them to work through their papers.
Is It Tax Deductable?
This question will probably be most
interesting for the freelance artists who want to purchase Mino as a
reference for future anatomy drawings. The good news is that everything
that goes out with Figuya comes with a proper invoice, so all you need
to do is hand that invoice to your tax agent. They will know what to do.
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-- Special thanks, hugs and love go to Cary Caffrey --