shameless begging part 3: New version!

For those who've seen it before, this is way better, I promise! 

Please visit figure thread for more details: Yae thread (where video inserted)

Awesome video, TG. I really like the way you did the interposing from real film sequences to the figure. If I had one thing I would love to see you do with this fantastic figure is to add real hair, so you could have the loose strands, and the somewhat unkempt look that the actress had — that would put this so over the top, it would be near impossible to tell the figure wasn’t a real person. With your attention to detail, I’m sure you could pull that off without exception. Otherwise, it’s a truly remarkable figure, and a great video. Beautifully done.

Stryker2011 wrote:Awesome video, TG. I really like the way you did the interposing from real film sequences to the figure. If I had one thing I would love to see you do with this fantastic figure is to add real hair, so you could have the loose strands, and the somewhat unkempt look that the actress had — that would put this so over the top, it would be near impossible to tell the figure wasn’t a real person. With your attention to detail, I’m sure you could pull that off without exception. Otherwise, it’s a truly remarkable figure, and a great video. Beautifully done.

Thanks again Stryker! A real labor of love to be sure.

About the hair, I think that might be just a bridge too far for me. While I will happily spend hours cutting and styling factory-made doll hair (and usually do unless it's a short do covered in a helmet), I've never done the lambswool rehairing that many have done. It would be a learning experience and I'd have to practice on several heads, then buy a spare butterfly warrior head at $50-60. And I think a pulled back hairstyle with a ponytail would be tricky given the defined hairline. In fact, that's why I chose this headsculpt, aside from liking her pretty cool expression, it was because I thought the hairsculpt was almost perfect.

Then there's the issue of pursuing ultimate realism and accuracy. While I wanted to do my best to make several items as close to accurate as possible (that's why I redid the tunic, and tried my best to get the Blakeslee box and leather sleeve right), this figure is definitely not a perfectly scale representation of Haruka Ayase as Yae. If I had a perfect (or even reasonably good) headsculpt of the actress, I would consider it, but this one is really not anything like her, so I don't see the point of making the hair exactly the same because it may not even look right. Plus, there are so many details that would need to be redone or built from scratch to be accurate: gone would be my lovely sakura belt and I would have to figure out how to paint or print the exact pattern she had, and the leg armor would need to be completely rebuilt. Let's not even talk about the pants, which are a pale imitation of what she wears. I'd have to find the right fabric somehow and just sew it from scratch myself. The Spencer sling would need to be rebuilt to match her style, and I would need to spruce up and detail up the stock carbine since it's not that sharp. Even the gloves I just built would need to be rebuilt--only the index and middle finger are half fingered, the pinky and ring fingers are fully covered. All told, probably months of work. And after all that, if I felt the figure worthy of a rehair, and provided I could find an accurate Haruka sculpt (probably through commission), I might then commit to such a project. I just don't see that happening.

I remember people encouraging me to do the same with my Eowyn, and I never did it. Although I'm very proud of the cuirass and all the clothing/weapon details I made, that headsculpt was just not close enough to Miranda Otto for me to want to do that. Anyway, I display her with her helmet on and her hair tucked into her cloak so what would be the point! 

I think this is what I mean when I say I feel I'm a lazy modeler... I do work really hard to get many details as perfect as I can, but ultimately when I reach "good enough" I stop. The bar does keep moving with time and each new project though...

Anyway, I'm really happy you like the video.

I agree with everything Stryker wrote. The "morphing" from source footage to your figure is particularly cool, and highlights your attention to detail, both in recreating the outfit and in recreating the same pose. And that is not always as easy as it seems. I don't know how well it would end up looking, but Stryker's idea about some loose hair stranding makes sense. Then again, one day you might come across an even closer-looking head sculpt for this amazing custom figure.

GubernatorFan wrote:I agree with everything Stryker wrote. The "morphing" from source footage to your figure is particularly cool, and highlights your attention to detail, both in recreating the outfit and in recreating the same pose. And that is not always as easy as it seems. I don't know how well it would end up looking, but Stryker's idea about some loose hair stranding makes sense. Then again, one day you might come across an even closer-looking head sculpt for this amazing custom figure.

Thanks Guv! Yes, if I ever find a Haruka Ayase sculpt, I might take on the challenge! But first, the pants, the belt, the greaves....