Michelle Sleeper Creates 'Gaming, Comics, and Pop Culture Based Props'

Video Michelle Sleeper Creates 'Gaming, Comics, and Pop Culture Based Props' 35

Posted by Roblimo on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @06:16PM from the add-one-part-3-d-printing-to-three-parts-imagination-and-you're-good-to-go dept.

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If you go to a sci-fi or gaming convention you'll see people in exotic "character" costumes, often holding exotic props, with some of the most popular being futuristic firearm mockups of one sort or another. Who makes all these cool fannish items? A whole bunch of artists and artisans, including Michelle Sleeper (who says she got tired of jokes about her name many years ago). She's not only one of these artisans, but is also a committed 3-D printer user, since 3-D printing is how she forms a high percentage of her props (with the word "props" being used here in the theatrical rather than the nautical sense). To keep up with what Michelle is making, you should check her blog. One of her most interesting posts, titled Atlanta Mini Maker Faire: On missing deadlines, failure, and triage, is about preparing for the event where Timothy Lord met and interviewed Michelle.

Even if gamer gatherings and SF conventions aren't your thing, the interview (along with the links above) gives a nice glimpse into the life of an independent artisan who uses technology to create a lot of her art. (Alternate Video Link)

Tim: Michelle, we are here at Maker Faire 2014 outside of Atlanta. And you have some really cool props. I am especially interested not just in these helmets which are 3D printed and then cast but is something that is similar, which is this weapon. Can you explain a little bit about the process that it took to bring it down to look like it is metal and explain why it is not?

Michelle: Sure. This is the gravity gun from Half Life 2. The base of this was originally 3D printed on a ZCorp printer which prints in like a plaster material. After a few weeks of refining that, it was molded in silicone. This is a cast resin copy out of that mold. Cast resin when it comes out of the mold, looks a bit like this helmet where it is plain, it is flat color. And the front half of the gravity gun is made mostly out of laser cut acrylic. So to get it like to this finish there is a lot of weathering. When you are building most props you want them to tend to look uniform. So you do a uniform paint job to get the metal looking like it is identical. However, in the process of building this gun I got the impression that the designer was given a design sheet that said imagine two machines two unrelated machines duct taped together. So what I decided to do was instead of paint them together, I broke them down separately and painted them individually. So they have a similar but totally different paint job. And what I did was the original the primary coat was like a real bright finish silver coat over which I did kind of random coats light coats of light and dark metallics to give this sort of like of bare metal look here. On top of that, I did a blackwash and black acrylic where you put black acrylic paint and then wipe off the excess of it. So you get paint into the deep recesses like right here. So it looks like dirt and grime that is built up over who knows how long from this gun sitting on the floor. And then the rust here, this is just a real basic rust effect, where you do a base stippling of dark colors like dark purple, and then you do lighter and lighter layers or oranges browns and yellows. And it produces this awesome rust effect that you see here.

Tim: So it looks like it is metal, almost like it weighs about 60 lbs., how much does it actually weigh?

Michelle: It actually weighs only about 15, about 10 actually, I guess, I haven’t actually sat it on a scale. It didn’t pick up some weight, because I don’t know if you can pick it up, but I do have lights in it. It is a little washed out because of the sun. Yeah, the gravity gun. So the gravity gun is normally orange. But those of you familiar with the game know it turns blue towards the end of the game. So I had to do both colors with it.

Tim: Oh that is a slick effect. Verygood.Now the paint job and the making itself, how much of that is self-taught, how much is trial and error, how much did you get from other people showing you?

Michelle: Well, most self-teaching is trial and error. I have been making stuff like this for probably ten or fifteen years. And a lot of it you learn doing it yourself. There is a whole community of prop builders and other artists in Atlanta and I try to connect with as many people as I can and share information and share technique.

Tim: You work out of a maker space?

Michelle: Correct. I work out of a hackerspace called Freeside Atlanta, in downtown Atlanta. Which is a 6000 sq. ft. facility of all of the space and tools you could need. And there are about 60 members of Freeside, and we come together the community to share resources and knowledge and we make community projects which there was one on display here last year at Maker Faire, and then connect with other artists, other prop builders that are at Freeside and come together.

Tim: It is a pretty big group.

Michelle: There are about 60 members at Freeside now I want to say.

Tim: And how many of those are into prop building?

Michelle: I only know of two specifically, I am sorry, three specifically, myself and two others. I know some people have kind of dabbled in it, and I know that ever since I became a member about a year and a half ago, there has been kind of a budding interest, so I am going to be teaching classes there, and I would like to do as a big group like cast and build.

Tim: Let me ask one more question. Where does this gun now that you have spent some time on it, where does it go?

Michelle: There is a display shelf that I have at Freeside where I keep a lot of my projects. I need to do a couple of repairs. This was made about two years ago, and it has seen a lot of mileage. But I am going to do some repairs and have this on display at this space.

Tim: And if somebody is in in the Atlanta area, they could come by to an Open house.

Michelle: Exactly. Every other Tuesday of the month, we have an open house at Freeside where the space is open to the public and anyone who wants to come visit totally can.

Tim: And go in there with CDs and films.

Michelle: Exactly. I hope so.

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