SDCC - Sketchbot On Display @ ToyQube Booth #4837

Just back at the hotel and am already overwhelmed. San Diego Comic Con is HUGE! It's like 3 times the size of NYCC. (Incidentally, I was here a year ago for Siggraph, and that's a huge convention in itself) The big news (for me) is that Keith Poon from ToyQube had some extra space available and allowed me to put Sketchbot in his display case. I share a shelf with Hans "APW Gallery" Yim. Be sure to swing by booth #4837 to check out all the amazing work on view.

I got to talk extensively with Brian Flynn from Super-7, Matt Doughty from Onell Design, Shawn (Shawnimals) Smith, Kirby and Whitney from Rotofugi (I learned that my Sketchbot custom Plushform sold the other day!), and George, Ayleen and Matt from Toy Break. Sketchbot is being well received thus far.

Be sure to check out my exclusive SDCC Flickr set throughout the run of the convention for as many pictures that I can comfortably post each night before crashing. ;)

I'd also like to give a shout out to the following blogs that posted Sketchbot news items yesterday:

Jeremy Brautman from ToyCyte had nice things to say about my first design, as well as Brian Szabelski from Tomopop and a nice mini-interview I did with Andy from ToysREvil. I'll be meeting up with Jack from VinylPulse.com on Thursday.

SDCC - Preview Day

Arrived in San Diego last night. Refreshing to be out of the current heat-wave the East Coast was experiencing. Though, I am WIPED OUT! The past 5 days have been jam-packed finishing the prototypes and all the other ancillary material that I needed to bring out with me. Here's a picture of the four new SDCC Edition buttons, along with three faves from the NYCC run.


Spent the morning inserting the pins in 300+ buttons, then assembling 165 goodie packets for free swag giveaways. I know that's a paltry number for the amount of people expected at the convention, however, I've got an extra 200 buttons left and another 1,000 stickers on their way, so if you see me on the convention floor, hit me up for some Sketchbot stuff.



I'm heading over to the convention center in a few hours to pick up my badge and attend "Preview Night." I'll post anything interesting either later tonight or first thing in the morning.

Sketchbot Prototype Sculpt, COMPLETED!

*whew* What a weekend. In the midst of a 5-day heat wave here in NYC, not ideal conditions for spray painting up on the roof. Spraying out the window with fans on high, then letting the pieces dry in the air conditioned interior. (This stuff won't cure in high humidity) There was simply no way I was going to be able to hand paint the eye and logo to my satisfaction, so I came up with the idea to print out to scale on inkjet sticker labels. The diameter of my button hole punch matched perfectly with the pupil of the eye. I ended up cutting out by hand the circle of the logo and the "SB" designation for the pencil. I still have to finish painting the second sculpt, but here's what I'm bringing out to San Diego! I'm currently trying to locate some display space - if anyone has a small amount available in their booth, drop me a line.

A few additional views up on Flickr.

Sketchbot Prototype Sculpt, Phase 4, Part V

Alright, second mold completed. Five positives pulled yesterday afternoon. Pencil mold completed. Two positives pulled. I was meticulous with my use of Plexiglas to ensure a level mold, yet I had a slight problem with apparently not using enough Easy Release 200 to separate the mold halves. An X-Acto knife was needed to aid with the separation of the mold, and I inadvertently sliced into the sole region of the right foot. Every positive has a small gap in the bottom of the foot and requires a Magic Sculpt patch and sanding to level off.

Whilst machining away late into the night, I decided to grind down the rivets and see what they would look like with a flat head as opposed to a round one. I can go either way - the rounded version has a playful quality, but is also very prominent. I dunno, at this point the sculpt has taken on a life of its own, veering way off model from my original graphic. I feel the pencil is too tall by about 3/4". Like I've been telling myself throughout, this is merely the first prototype. It's the "Mark I" version of Sketchbot. I need to get this painted up and in presentable form for San Diego Comic Con next week and see what kind of reactions people have to this in person.

More documentation up on Flickr.

Sketchbot Prototype Sculpt, Phase 4, Part IV cont.

In-between 2 days of iPhone madness last Thursday and Friday I was able to get a slight amount of work done. The weekend was spent with lots of patching and sanding, and yesterday I cranked out the cartoon pencil sculpt. Today, the second mold will be constructed (and a first one for the pencil) and I'm hoping to pull a workable positive to start painting tomorrow. All this before heading out to see Ricky Gervais's later tonight!

P.S. I REALLY need a dedicated work space... *sigh*

Sketchbot Prototype Sculpt, Phase 4, Part IV

Magic Sculpt is the bomb! This stuff hardens like a rock and sands very nicely. Spent about 6 hours today sanding and detailing. Drilled out the holes for the rivets, which will be filled with ball bearings just past the half-way point. My best friends today were a set of three tiny jeweler's files. Looks like I'll need another pass of Magic Sculpt for tonight, try to finish up tomorrow and start the next mold. A few more comparison pictures up on Flickr.

Sketchbot Prototype Sculpt, Phase 4, Part III

Success! Ok, after the 2nd attempt, but still, I'm much happier that I got a workable positive out of my problematic first mold. A few mental notes: use larger pour holes and keep in mind the 3 minute pot life next time. I can now machine this version and further refine without worrying about all that chipping and instability from my fragile Sculpey original. Also, the next mold will be created with firm acrylic walls and be better leveled for a tighter seal.

EDIT - I forgot to mention that after consultation, I built up the front side of the mold with additional silicon material. This allowed me to move forward and get a workable positive!

Sketchbot Prototype Sculpt, Phase 4, Part II

I poured the 2nd half of the mold this afternoon, and after 4 1/2 hours of letting it cure it appears that it's still squishy in parts. As I feared, the top half is way too thin around the eye opening to hold a proper shape. You can even see the mold creased a bit and I've got an awkward line running through the upper front portion. Grrrr. Additionally, I think the foam core ended up being too flimsy for this size of a mold. I might have to start from scratch here. I just want to get this molded, because that Sculpey is already cracking and chipping in areas. Not a happy camper at the moment. Stay tuned...

Sketchbot Prototype Sculpt - Phase 4

So, I'm upstate and have lugged all the materials with me to create the mold and pull some positives. The only problem is, I underestimated how much OOMOO 25 was needed for the mold! I ended up using two kits just for one side of the mold. I'll now have to wait until getting back to the city on Monday and visiting The Compleat Sculptor for more Smooth-On materials to finish the mold.

It's clear that I'll have to further machine the first resin pull, as the Sculpey is just too fragile at this point to continue working on, especially drilling holes for inserting ball-bearings as rivets. Additionally, I filled in the right hand so as to avoid a concave surface in the mold (I didn't want to undertake too complex of a mold my first time out). This will allow me to drill out a more accurate surface for holding the accessories.

As usual, more pictures up here on Flickr.

Sketchbot Prototype Sculpt, Phase 3

Alright, finally getting to the sanding and smoothing stages. I've been doing quite a bit of tiny corrections, then re-baking, sanding, and repeat. There's still that minor crack in the bent arm that just wont take the filler - grrr. During the last bake I decided to do a Photoshop colour mock-up to visualize the final paint. I'm going to try and finish the detail work tonight so I can make a mold tomorrow. Then I'll pull a few resin positives over the holiday weekend. A few more pics up on Flickr.