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Hey all.
After hours and hours of work (edit: many people asked, so it was about 80-100 hours), I just finished my stone sculpture of an Ultralisk today, and I posted about it in an SC2 art-related thread on the forum. I felt mightily flattered when it didn't take more than a minute for the first positive comment, and from an admin at that, recommending I write a blog about it to give it more exposure.
Well, what to write?
First of all, here are the preview images again, plus a link to the big picture and alternative views. Oh, and the mandatory link to my main web presence on deviantArt. Please leave comments there if you have an account.
I hope some of you might have a little moment of "I want that!!!111" after seeing the pic, so I'll just include instructions how to make one. I don't want to sell it, and you probably wouldn't want to afford it at the price I'd realistically have to charge, considering the time that went into it. I usually give my stuff away as presents, but this one I'll keep.
Edit: Again, many people want to know how much this "would be". Well, consider this. It took me in the ballpark of 100 hours to make. If I did this (semi-)professionally, I should probably pay taxes. I absolutely do not work for less than 8€ after taxes, which hypothetically puts this thing somewhere around $2000+. If - again, hypthetically - I made another one I would probably be a bit faster, but nowhere near twice as fast, so it could never go below $1000.
So. On to the DIY version. Don't be afraid if you never did something like this before - you can do this. You're probably playing Starcraft, so you have a) some basic finger dexterity and b) a decent spatial intuition, because that is what many computer games are about in general. By the way: the _average_ youth today will have spent around 10000 hours of playing video games when they turn 20, which is practically the same amount of time that you have to spend in high school, total. Also, if you spend 10k hours doing something, you're bound to be very good at it (link). Apart from that, I began sculpting one day just by saying "Gee, I wonder if I can make a sculpture of my hand, chopped from wood". So I went into the basement and made one. It's certainly no masterpiece, but that was with no tutoring or preparation whatsoever, done in a couple of hours with the first best tools my father had lying around.
Planning: So suppose you want to make a sculpture of some SC2 unit you like, but you don't really know how and stuff. I'll further assume you want to make one from stone, because come on, it's fricking STONE and it's COOL and EPIC and it might even outlast you after your DEATH!!! Cue Brawndo commercial. Besides, soap stone is a nice entry stone that's so soft you can scrape it with your fingernail (or more practically, normal woodworking equipment or generic metal tools).
Soap stone comes in many colors and is actually quite cheap (about $2.50/kg). You can find a local outlet or internet store with google. I chose a greenish black for my ultralisk, because greenish black is awesome ( link to my preferred dealer in germany). Note that the polished stone will have a WAY different color from the raw stone. If you're there in the shop, they usually have a bucket of water with a sponge to put some on the stone, and the color it shows then is more faithful to the finished one. Once you have it at home, do a color test on a small fragment you can chop off with a hammer or something. A color test involves making a simple shape and polishing the flat surfaces to as high a gloss as you will want on your actual sculpture later on. Takes about 30 minutes, tops. Alternatively, make a smaller sculpture that is somewhat less effort to make. I made a little SC2 plaque to give to my 2v2 partner as a present.
Now you know what you want to make, and what stone you want to use. The next step is some preparatory mousework before you pick up the tools, shouldn't take more than one or two hours in the safe comfort of your desk chair. Open up the SC2 map editor and place the unit you want to make. Leave the rest of the map empty, makes it easier to get rid of later. Shoot screenshots from as many directions as you like (I usually take no more than eight, plus a top view). Trim them in paint.net or some other graphics software you have. Arrange the pictures in inkscape (or again, something else, but I prefer freeware) and put a grid of thin lines over them, such as here. Print them out and put them in a clear protective sheath to prevent the dust and grit from making them illegible later on.
Now you're set to start working - if you have the tools ready. For the different tools, I will refer to the different steps in my step by step documentation of the ultralisk here. Here's a preview:
Note: Do not saw or chisel in clean indoor areas. Go outside or use a workshop or garage. If possible, wear a cheap disposable face mask to prevent some dust from getting into your lungs. FP2 is enough, FP3 is better. If you don't, don't complain about the sticky dry snot that will come out of your nose.
Sawing The first tool you will use (and a LOT) is a saw. Soap stones are soft enough to be sawed with regular old wood saws without dulling the blades any more than wood would. Do yourself a favor and use a sharp one. Replacement blades are cheap, and there are some that even give you an indication of the maximum hardness of stuff you can cut with them (see Moh's scale - soap stone is a one, alabaster a two to three and marbles are usually in the three to four range, also known as imho "tough as shit if you use manual tools").
The saw is important because it lets you get rid of lots of material for minimal work invested. It's way less effort to grind the width of the saw blade in stone to dust that to break it down using a chisel. Even though the latter can feel very satisfying, trust me on that one. You use it to saw the raw stone into the rough shape you want, if possible with a flat base to stand on while you work and to stand on when finished. I would invest the effort to flatten the other sides as well, because
- it gives you a better idea of the size of the stone (and the maximum possible size of your sculpture - I realized I would have to slightly shorten the blades of my ultra at that stage because I hadn't gotten the proportions quite right when sawing the stone)
- you can draw on the sides with crayons to track the outline and what you have to take away versus what has to stay on.
The sawing steps are noted as such in my step by step documentation.
Make sure to always draw and redraw the front, side and top view outlines of your sculpture onto the stone after you take something away. By making sure that everything within the boundary stays on the sculpture, you can't accidentally remove something you need later on. This technique is used in all stages of sculpting. If you're not sure how much you should take away, compare to your preparatory printout and redraw on the stone using a ruler to get the distances right to within a millimeter. If in doubt, take away too little rather than too much. Keep in mind that you'll lose up to 1-2 mm in the sanding stage, so don't cut to tightly.
Chiseling I use chisels and a mallet such as these. You quickly get used to how they feel and handle when making the color test (see above) or some small geometric or other shapes from spare stone pieces. Grab the chisel in the middle, with the smaller fingers guiding the tip for precision and the strong fingers holding it steady where you hit it. Somewhat like this gentleman:
If you want to make a hollow, don't make the mistake of hitting straight into it, because the stone becomes brittle and will break in a sort of conic shape in front of where you hit. Rather, hit the stone at an inclination:
The first instance when you can use the technique is when you have made some cuts with the saw but physically can't get to the last surface you would need to cut away, since there's parts of the sculpture in the way. The area that can break away under your chisel is limited by the saw cuts you have already made, so you can't destroy much. I cleared the area between the legs of my ultralisk that way (you can't saw parallel to the underside of the belly, since you would have to go through the legs). Put something under your sculpture to distribute the blow, thick old cloth or (gosu) a sturdy leather or linen pillow filled with sand (cf. my workshop photo above). If you don't, basically the same force that you exert on the chisel will act on the underside of your sculpture, scratching or breaking parts there.
After you have completed the basic shape using a combination of saw and chisel, you switch over to the actual sculpting part. This is characterized by rounding off edges that will be round later on and slowly chipping away stuff to get ever closer to the final shape. Don't finish up one part completely and then do the next, this is bad for a number of reasons:
- you lose track of whether the proportions are still right and all parts fit together seamlessly
- you will need to turn the piece around at some point and it might then lie on fragile almost finished parts while you clobber away at the other side
I propose instead giving the whole piece repeated "passes" of increasing detail. Once all the heavy clobbering is done, you can go into finer detail without fearing you might inadvertently crush it.
I can also heartily recommend filing stuff away with implements like these. It's less error prone than chiseling and more precise, if a bit slower. You can use standard wood files.
Sanding and polishing: Get standard wood sanding paper in grits 80 through at least 800, always roughly doubling the grit (80, 160, 320, ...). A single sheet of each should be enough in most cases. I recommend going for waterproof sanding paper and wet sanding. It's faster, cleaner and less of a dusty mess. You can actually do it in the living room if you have a suitable plate or something to catch stray spills (cf. the "sanding 120" row of the documentation). Make sure to very diligently erase all scratch marks of the previous polishing step, otherwise the final product will still have these marks. Check my ultralisk's hind legs, there's some (gray, ugly) corners I couldn't get to properly.
Once you're done with 800 (better 1600) grit polishing, you can get a suitable wax to seal the pores of the stone and thus deepen the color substantially. It's the effect you get in dry vs. wet stone, the water also temporarily seals the pores. The people in your local stone shop can tell you what to use.
And there you are. Total cost is about $200 tops if you have to buy all the tools (and those are reusable). If you have generic workshop equipment available, you'll probably just need the stone and possibly the sanding paper. Let's be generous and call it $20 for a totally unique and cool stone sculpture you made yourself.
I'm grateful for any feedback on this tutorial. If you decide to make something yourself, please share your results.
edit: some more pics added
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That is so cool. Feel flattered. Do more. Kick ass. Be a boss. 5/5
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Amazing....need one for paper weight
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Spotlighted. Wouldn't mind seeing more pictures here!
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wow, thats amazing man, Nazgul is right!
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You sir, are a sick nerd baller. And talented to boot!
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Hey you made a blog :D
It looks awesome, little hard to tell from the pictures, though, how large is it? Can't imagine it's gigantic but I'm just curious, is all!
edit: yay front page! :D
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Wow awesome work! Next you should make a sick hydra like in the kerrigan cutscene!
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Wow this is amazing. Seriously. I'd even pay a decent amount of money for something like that
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What are the odds that iNcontroL will want this?
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gtfo! that's super cool!
Just imagine 300 years from now when the archaeologists excavate the remnants of the 21st century and find your Ultralisk. Who knows what interesting conjectures they'll make concerning our worship of demon lords...
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That is amazing like some professional stone sculpture you'd buy in a store or online. Great job keep up the good work. =)
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oh man that looks awesome! ^^
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On October 25 2011 05:10 straycat wrote: gtfo! that's super cool!
Just imagine 300 years from now when the archaeologists excavate the remnants of the 21st century and find your Ultralisk. Who knows what interesting conjectures they'll make concerning our worship of demon lords...
LOL
Like digging up artifacts from Vesuvius, some poor researcher will dig up some strange shrine to a peculiar four-legged tusked cow-like beast, maybe they will try and ressurect one from an elephant carcass or something like the wooly mammoth!
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Concerning size (it's given on the dA big image page), it's about 19 cm long x 15 cm high x 11 cm wide. Bit less than 2 kg of stone remaining of the original stone lump of 8 kg or so.
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United Kingdom31255 Posts
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Looks amazing! Great job!! most have taken awhile!
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Amazing work. I'm stunned!
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Katowice25012 Posts
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Awesome man. I carved a cat out of stone once -- it took me ages and wasn't even close to as impressive as this.
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Wow, that's amazing!!! Great job! :D
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made me a fan awsome work man
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Great work, and good idea providing a tutorial at the same time!
I'd pay a lot to get one as well done as this one ^^
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Oh wow that is insane, I was in ceramics for a couple semesters in college, and that was hard work. My teacher talked to me about how much harder it is to be a stone sculptor, kudos to you man.
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That looks fucking amazing, I wouldn't mind buying that at all O_O
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That looks amazing... You are very talented, my friend!
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On October 25 2011 04:32 DanielHetberg wrote:Also, if you spend 10k hours doing something, you're bound to be very good at it ( link). This is really cool and all but that theory is such a crock. There are thousands of people on teamliquid that have spent that much time playing SC and only a handful are pros.
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Wow thats the coolest sc2 art I've ever seen.
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amazing, i wish i can do that instead of programming lol
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Wow, this looks awesome! Don't drop it ^^;;
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So how much time did you put into this? it looks awesome btw, id love to make a dragoon or reaver like that
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This is insane work, if you want to sell it / make me something for a price, PM me! :D
Excellent excellent work.
On October 25 2011 05:35 Probe1 wrote:Show nested quote +On October 25 2011 04:32 DanielHetberg wrote:Also, if you spend 10k hours doing something, you're bound to be very good at it ( link). This is really cool and all but that theory is such a crock. There are thousands of people on teamliquid that have spent that much time playing SC and only a handful are pros.
You are GOOD at it, note the operative word.
I spent shit loads of time at high school, got GOOD grades. not "pro" grades, but good ones.
I spend shit loads of time playing games, im good at games, not "pro" but good.
Dude, people are good at what they put their minds to. "good" comes on different levels, put your mum on SC2 and see if she's even remotely good. You'll understand then.
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thats amazing!! You need to make more units!
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Didn't know Michelangelo played Starcraft.
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admirable. I would probably buy this sculpture if it was for sale.
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Absolutely amazing. o___o
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Totally amazing. DEFINITELY going to do this once I get some free time. I might actually take this up as a hobby if it is as easy and fun as you say it is, I love creating things.
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This is a super cool thread
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Unbelievable work, absolutely continue what you're doing now and you will make lots of money...
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Telling you how bloody amazing this is is worth my 1000th post, nice work!
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Amazing! Well done
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This is quite impressive! Like much of the carving of the Sphinx in Egypt, just more nerd baller style.
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On October 25 2011 05:42 Capped wrote:+ Show Spoiler +This is insane work, if you want to sell it / make me something for a price, PM me! :D Excellent excellent work. On October 25 2011 05:35 Probe1 wrote:Show nested quote +On October 25 2011 04:32 DanielHetberg wrote:Also, if you spend 10k hours doing something, you're bound to be very good at it ( link). This is really cool and all but that theory is such a crock. There are thousands of people on teamliquid that have spent that much time playing SC and only a handful are pros. You are GOOD at it, note the operative word. I spent shit loads of time at high school, got GOOD grades. not "pro" grades, but good ones. I spend shit loads of time playing games, im good at games, not "pro" but good. Dude, people are good at what they put their minds to. "good" comes on different levels, put your mum on SC2 and see if she's even remotely good. You'll understand then. I'm not walking into someones blog and starting an argument but let this note my contention with your points.
Still all and all this IS an awesome sculpture
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OMFG!! That is freakin awesome!!
I bet people would pay ca$h money for those, man. I want one!
That is soo cool, great work.
Art rules. hahaha
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Wow, that's amazing. Well done!
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This is so kickass! I did some woodcarving back in highschool when I was involved in BoyScouts and I really enjoyed it so stone carving looks like a really fun project to me.
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That´s awesome. You should do a dark templ- oh wait.
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On October 25 2011 06:02 vol_ wrote: Telling you how bloody amazing this is is worth my 1000th post, nice work! Much appreciated!
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I signed in just to give you 5 stars.
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Italy420 Posts
very nice to see this daniel , i ve been sculpting with wood when i was a kid if i ever get back to it, i will do off your example
very nice sculpture and fitting abstraction of the detail.
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So good. Love the full work in progress pic from all angles.
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yo thats pretty cool... like that looks like legitimate sculpture that could be sold in stores... awesome work
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That is crazy, I don't understand how people can do things like that. I have trouble just making simple pictures. Mad props to you.
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that just awesome wow. Great job and amazing post !! :D
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On October 25 2011 06:31 kilergrunt wrote: That is crazy, I don't understand how people can do things like that. I have trouble just making simple pictures. Mad props to you. By the way - I can't draw or paint for crap, and I always had a C or D in arts at school.
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Just phenomenal. I love it when i get to log on tl and see amazing artwork So many talented people on tl
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This is amazing! I want i want!
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Dude this is so sick hahaha I wish I had the patience and wasn't such a chobo so I could make this -__-;;
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That is an awesome Ultralisk! How big is it?
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This is really cool, sounds like a lot of fun as well! =)
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Wow, it looks awesome. Are you planing to do any other models ?
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Amazing work! You should consider taking a picture with another object beside it like a dollar bill for perspective. Also quality instructional and blog, well written. 5/5
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Wow that's a pretty comprehensive guide. And the ultra is beautiful :O I'm so jelly.
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This is seriously amazing
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If I wasn't a protoss hell bent in slaughtering every single zerg in the galaxy, I'd be in love with this piece
Awesome job man, a tribute to what patience and passion can do!
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Awesome-o, but I think u should make the tusks sharper. U know, to make it look a little more fierce.
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Cool stuff. Wouldn't this be hard to go a unit like the sentry?
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Did this take you more or less than 55 seconds to make?
Seriously though, awesome job. I wish I had that type of skill to create rather than destroy with my hands.
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OMG! So awesome, great work and great guide.
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That's pretty awesome, a dark templar made of glass next? ^^
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On October 25 2011 05:10 straycat wrote: gtfo! that's super cool!
Just imagine 300 years from now when the archaeologists excavate the remnants of the 21st century and find your Ultralisk. Who knows what interesting conjectures they'll make concerning our worship of demon lords...
On the contrary. This superior piece of stone art suggest, that about 2.5 million years ago, people where already playing some RTS strategy games bulls toke the role of ultralisks in modern games.
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This is awesome! Being able to make beautiful sculptures like this is just amazing! Love the ultralisk, and if you feel like doing more, I think a zerg unit is still the best way to go.
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Thats simply amazing that you carved that.
You should design a whole starcraft chess set, because that Ultralisk could be one badass 'castle' piece
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How much would you charge if I wanted to buy one? Amazing work btw!
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That... is insanely good.
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Amazing work, you got talent!
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this is really cool, thanks for sharing
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wow it looks amazing, must be really hard to work with stones, a minimal error and your efforts may be lost.
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you should put the ultra on auction for charity im sure a lot of money could be raised by that little thing :3
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O_O wow, great job on the sculpture and the blog. Both are well done in their own ways!
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damn dude that looks awesome.
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Would appreciate an image next to a dollar or something to give a sense of scale.
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You put some serious love into that thing. I suggest you keep it as a reminder that hard work is it's own reward!
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I want a stone ultralisk .
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soon as i saw it, i said to myself I WANT IT! lol great job man
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I want that so bad. Make a battlecruiser next!
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Must have...... seriously I want to purchase one. I do not give a single flippin flyin friggin little fuck what it costs. I want one.
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Wow that is some impressive work. Love the tutorial too! Amazing.
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I wish I had done something this productive with my time.
Awesome work to say the least;
Great detail too!
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Amazing, that looks really good.
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So sweet! Makes my immortal papercraft I'm working on seem insignificant.
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On October 25 2011 05:07 aimless wrote: What are the odds that iNcontroL will want this?
WHO WOULDN'T WANT THIS! it's bad ass
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This is one of the most amazing things I've seen!
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Amazing work! :O Very cool!
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I almost want to extract starcraft models now, then throw them in the 3d printer here.
But that is very cool, very well done. If i was rich, I would totally pay 1,000 for one of those, maybe.
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Baltimore, USA22222 Posts
Simply amazing, great job!
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It better be one of those HoTS ultralisks that can burrow charge and not the lame WoL Ultralisks that do nothing but die.
Well done bro. Your sculpture is so awesome I'm using my 4000th post to tell you how awesome it is and how awesome you are.
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Man, I feel bad knowing that even if I followed the tutorial, my ultra will look like a sheep or possible a cow. This is so awesome.
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NeverGG
United Kingdom5399 Posts
I used to do ceramics/sculpture back in school, and found it really difficult to make anything worth looking at. You have insane skills :D
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This is frigging amazing. I also love the SC2 badge, so cool, all nice and polished.
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That looks great, cool :D :D
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Wow, great job. I have tried sculpting sandstone in art at school and its uber hard, and my end result was crap. Your work, however, is really well detailed and amazing and then some :D
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Boss hog, man! Incredible tutorial as well Thanks for sharing
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Wow... The patience.. I can't fathom how it is to have such patience.
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Holy, that looks so cool.
I would absolutely buy one of those ^^
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congrads for opening your talents in this way..
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5/5 man! That's some really excellent work!
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Nothing says "I care about you" like an Ultralisk hug.
Very nice work.
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Would LOVE to see an SC1 reaver!
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that is kool. man that thing could sell for big bucks
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O_o Now THAT is damn cool...
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amazing work! Hope to see you do some more work :D 10/10
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Love this! I usually paint things, my aunt was explaining how she does sandstone sculpture when I visited last, I might have to try, given this excellent inspiration :D
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Excellent work. Too bad I don't like the ultralisk model but I can appreciate the work put into this. If I ever were to pick up a hobby in handcraft, painting or whatever it will definately be sculpting.
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seeing the first picture makes me think about a one-of-a-king sculpture made by some company after one specific order from a sc2fan with more money than he can spend
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This is the best thing. THE best thing.
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Dude so legit....now I want a baneling paperweight or something. Love the DIY guide!
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That is freaking awesome. I'm really glad that Naz convinced you to make a blog otherwise I would have never seen this amazing work.
Truly impressive.
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This is really sweet, and definitely post some more pics!
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WOW! That is unbelievable! Great work. I would love to try and make that but my lack of any artistic skills would end up with me having a couple extra paper weights.
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On October 25 2011 11:12 Stipulation wrote:So sweet! Makes my immortal papercraft I'm working on seem insignificant.
no bro yours is sick too
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very neat, thanks for sharing.
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United States369 Posts
Oh maaan, this is so badass. Thanks for sharing!
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Massive props. You've got some serious skill there =D That Ultra looks like a frickin baller.
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This is pretty bad ass man. I wonder how heavy it feels. Probably just like a real ultralisk.
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On October 25 2011 11:12 Stipulation wrote:So sweet! Makes my immortal papercraft I'm working on seem insignificant. The advantage of paper is that you can easily paint it. In the end, it will look closer to the original, and thus maybe more "real".
Making something of stone adds an artificial quality to it. We're used to it from seeing stone monuments, but think about it. No color variation, definitely no movement, very heavy. Kind of abstract.
Oh, and by the way - your work in progress looks excellent so far!
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this is the coolest thing ever. 4.98 stars? absolutely unacceptable. can anyone figure out how many 5/5's we would need to make it 4.995+ avg? or would it not round up to 5stars??
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Epic Epicness
So pro Props to you dude
Now kill it with a stone void ray!
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
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Goddamn, that's one sexy Ultralisk.
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Wow this is amazing!
Haha if you were that kid and sculpted something so good AND know about TL I would be very proud/impressed.
But this is really good lol, 3D is quite different from 2D art but both can look so hard =O
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:O
So cool! Adding to the ever growing list of things I want to try out eventually.
I wonder if the OP realizes he could be selling these things for good money.
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Gorgeous! The amount of time you spent working on this really shows.
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Pretty frigging good.
One of those would look nice on my mantle with all my ivory/stone elephants.
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Damn so much more respect for Michelangelo and scupltures. I heard that he just stood there for days or weeks just looking at the slab of marble before he even started anything.
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Simply amazing work!! You should do something for protoss and terran aswell !! :D
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awesome work
even a tutorial for making one
its quite a brilliant idea though
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If I could make such an amazing thing I would pass it down my generations as a "symbol of my time." Amazing man.
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Dear lord that's amazing.
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very very very awesome work. really impressed.
I wonder if maybe it could ever be painted. can soapstone like rock be painted?
Not that it doesn't already look amazing. Would be cool to see it painted and done up really well. would be a very cool model and personally I would not mind urchasing a terran or protoss figure like that.
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I don't actually know if it can be painted, but i would guess it can be if you don't polish it to a high gloss.
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I a million years, people will digg out this sculpture and they will wonder, what kinda animals lived on earth in the 21st century :D :D
Very, very nice!
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Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeahh! Awesome sculpture dude! Very well done ))))
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Do you know of a place that sells soapstone that also ships to the United States because I checked your preferred dealer and they do not seam to
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Your are a boss -.-
I kinda suck with my self made arcade stick
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Really incredible. I like how you write like it's no big deal. I got some spatial awareness perhaps... but don't hand me a rock and ask for an ultralisk because it's not gonna happen!
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This is simply amazing, how much you selling for?
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Wow. This is incredible. You're very talented.
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wow great work! wish i had the skills to do that!
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That is really amazing work man!!! With that kind of work you could make that your job! Keep working at it because you by far have one of the most intrecate peice of art ive seen
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this is.... who would have time to... so amazing but... guargagh..
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OMFG!!!! This is by far the most epic stone sculpture i've ever seen :D GJ
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amazing work, thanks for sharing
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WTF. AMAZING.
And out of all zerg units you made the ultralisk. Badass.
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