Lord of the Rings - TTT - Uruk Hai

armothe · Post by **armothe** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 12:59 am

Thanks for all the kind comments on my previous design.

Here is my rendition of the Uruk-Hai @ the battle of Helms Deep:

Download 300dpi printable file here:
http://www.armothe.com/toys/lego/minifi ... s_deep.jpg

-A

Sir Terrance · Post by **Sir Terrance** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 1:04 am

Just so you know, your link is broken. You will want to fix that, cause if it is anything like your Gil-Gilad, it will be awesome!

Red Bean · Post by **Red Bean** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 1:07 am

Hi Armothe,

I was going to reply to the Gil-Galad thread but this just came on so I'll write here instead.

What can I say? They's simply drop-dead gorgeous!! The way you use your colours and how the shading and everything just blend in is simply beautiful and beyond word! I've been a fan of your Roman and medieval figs for a long time but if I had known you were going to tackle lotr as well, I probably wouldn't have started mine and would've been happy to sit back and just wait for yours to come out.

Btw, any pics of a figure itself? I'd be interested to see the effect of your designs on an actual fig to see how your amazing usage of gradient colours could blend in and match a lego torso or head. But thanks for showing them in the first place.

R. B.
visit my website: http://www.redbeanstudio.net

Sir Terrance · Post by **Sir Terrance** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 1:09 am

Very cool! I would like to see what they look like on a fig.

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 1:12 am

Ooooo, more chain mail at last! Very nice. I take it you are using a gradient fill to do the shading?

armothe · Post by **armothe** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 2:27 am

ST: Link does seem to work....its a really large file so it may take awhile.

Thanks again for the kind comments. I do plan on putting these on a minifig and taking a few pics.
However, I am waiting until I have enough designs to fill up an entire sheet of sticker paper (otherwise Id' be wasting costly paper). So it will probably be awhile. I've already printed on regular paper (laser printer) and the colors seem to match up well so we will soon see. I figured there might be some eager beavers out there who would like to d/l my designs in the meantime.

I currently draw all my designs from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. I just recently figured out shading and was impressed by the effects. There was some concern on how the details would print out, but turns out they print out very well on my laser printer.

The goal is to showcase the minifigs/designs on a website, allowing free downloads (the files you've seen so far) and then selling the actual printed materials (laser) for a small cost.

I'll be rolling a few more out here soon.

-A

Dan_BL · Post by **Dan_BL** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:04 am

Very impressive! Is there a particular way to print them so they're the correct size for a minifig?

Also, is that a ship behind the hand of Sauroman on the flag?

I'm not a fan of LoTR myself, but these could definately add some beauty to my town anyway-who ever said that JRR Tolkein came up with orcs?

Great job!

armothe · Post by **armothe** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:08 am

Dan_BL wrote: Very impressive! Is there a particular way to print them so they're the correct size for a minifig?

Right-click the link, "save target as", print file. Should be the right size.

Dan_BL wrote:
Also, is that a ship behind the hand of Sauroman on the flag?

Nope, just a stain/discoloration in the fabric.

-A

Red Bean · Post by **Red Bean** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:37 am

Hi Kyle,

...and then selling the actual printed materials (laser) for a small cost.

Just thought I'd chime in to say something here. I think it's a great idea, and service, first of all, if you'd be willing to market these awsome designs. But on this aspect, perhaps you may want to consider toning down the shading a little bit so that they're not so elaborate and therefore matches the style of Lego better. Make no mistakes, these designs are masterpieces of art in themselves, but when designing torsos and stuffs it's sometimes easy to get carried away and forget what makes Lego unique in the first place, which, in my opinion, is their simplicity. The Harry Potter and Starwars lines, in this aspect, might offer some good examples to see how Lego actually renders and captures a real person, and clothes, into minifig form:

And which is why, on this regard, I much prefer your Roman and medieval figures to the new lotr ones. But then of course, who's to say I'm right? Maybe other people can chime in here and discuss about their opinion on the general 'style' of a minifig? Actually, this might be a start of a good debate. The design of sets have certainly been talked about before, let's talk about the design of minifigs this time!!

R. B.
visit my website: www.redbeanstudio.net

Sir Terrance · Post by **Sir Terrance** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:42 am

armothe wrote:ST: Link does seem to work....its a really large file so it may take awhile.

It said 'Page cannot be displayed' before and the picture wasn't showing up, but now it is!

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 5:01 am

armothe wrote:I figured there might be some eager beavers out there who would like to d/l my designs in the meantime.

There's always a sucker....

...oh, dang, I fell for it!

I used a colored pencil to reduce the white edges (Prismacolor warm gray 50%). This is with the full extension.

And without the extension. Getting precise folds with photo paper is a pain.

The Blue Knight · Post by **The Blue Knight** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 5:39 am

Ditto my Gil-Galad comment. I don't have photoshop, so those of you who do and produce this kind of stuff are OK in my book. Got any links to the Roman stuff RB alluded to?

TTK, that guy looks good. Now all we need is an orc helmet...B-man? RB?

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 6:12 am

Red Bean wrote: But on this aspect, perhaps you may want to consider toning down the shading a little bit so that they're not so elaborate and therefore matches the style of Lego better. Make no mistakes, these designs are masterpieces of art in themselves, but when designing torsos and stuffs it's sometimes easy to get carried away and forget what makes Lego unique in the first place, which, in my opinion, is their simplicity. The Harry Potter and Starwars lines, in this aspect, might offer some good examples to see how Lego actually renders and captures a real person, and clothes, into minifig form:

(snipping examples - and, those particular ones weren't good arguments in your favor, anyway)

It's a matter of taste. However, you can render something to death, it can even look good on your computer screen, but once printed out on a teeny-tiny minifig it loses its punch. Most of the stickers using gradient fills (that smooth, perfectly even color change) suffer from one thing: poor contrast. All the detail is lost in the small scale as one form doesn't seperate from another and everything blurs together (and it gets worse on cheap paper).

This particular set is better than most at it, though they could use a little stronger darks. But I understand some will find that they don't blend in well with standard minifigs.

Maybe other people can chime in here and discuss about their opinion on the general 'style' of a minifig? Actually, this might be a start of a good debate. The design of sets have certainly been talked about before, let's talk about the design of minifigs this time!!

There's my two coppers in the well.

Red Bean · Post by **Red Bean** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 6:44 am

Hi Armothe,

The following information comes from Jared 'Kaminoan' Burks of fbtb.net:

If you goto a fabric store and ask for No-sow material, they will show you a whitish material that when you iron it onto a cotton fabric will disappear into the material and stiffen the material and keep it from fraying. You can then cut the cape pattern out of the fabric. This No-sow comes in grades from very stiff to not so stiff so talk to the ladies in the store and seek their advice.

Just thought you might be interested in it with regard to the possibility of selling Gil-Galad's capes as well. Don't know if you'd be able to get designs printed onto them though, but for every castle fans' sake I hope you find a way to do it.

As for Armothe's awsome Roman/medieval stuffs I referred to, check out his Brickshelf gallery at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=4454
But a word of warning to the Blue Knight, don't you dare compete with me about being the first customer of those Roman stuffs, I've been waiting and wishing for them to come out since the first time I stumbled onto his gallery.

And sorry Armothe for answering the question for you. I hope you don't mind.

R. B.
visit my website: www.redbeanstudio.net

The Blue Knight · Post by **The Blue Knight** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 8:51 am

Thanks for the link Red Bean, and not to worry , no competetion, but I MUST BE FIRST!

Very high quality Armothe. Do you plan to make these designs (and others?) available to the community gratis as Sava has done? I would be willing to pay a fair price and stand behind RB in line (but just behind) as well. Do you have any other Roman designs especially. I just finished printing out the red ninja segmented torsos from Sava's article. It's the closest thing to a lorica sigmentata I've seen. Love the senator's sticker. I'm not to big on using the "brick" leg. But this, and Red Bean's robes, are certainly tempting.[/i]