Topic: Castlevania: The Adventure papercraft diorama

[JR]

Holy crap...those are excellent.

I just recently put together some Ninja Gaiden and Contra ones that I downloaded online, but the complexity of yours kind of blows those two out of the water.

[Patraw]

Thanks again for the comments, gang!

@Lashen:  The other day I actually was thinking that this would be a good medium to replace my original Angel Mummy, but I don't know if I'll ever do it or not.

[Lashen]

The Angel Mummy deserves more love, and probably a project that would result in something less fragile.

[darkmanx_429]

How long does this take you?

P.S. You should go in business doing these...

P.P.S. Do a Double Dragon The Revenge one next!

[Patraw]

@darkmanx_429:  So far, it's taken me two-three days to make each of these dioramae, depending on their complexity.  I can't legally go into business making these, without first obtaining a licensing agreement, as that'd be copyright infringement for which I could be sued.  I'm only doing Gameboy games right now, but I have considered doing Double Dragon 2 for that system, which is actually a modified Kunio Kun game.

-----------------------------

My newest B&W Gameboy papercraft diorama project is from a shmup, the third, Moai-infested stage from Konami's 1990 Nemesis (a.k.a., Gradius):



Here's a brief look at the construction process for this piece:



Original reference screenshot (sprite layer disabled for clarity).



This is the sheet of game assets I put together and printed out.  I fudged things a little bit by sticking a faded-out SNES Gradius III stage 3 stone background in there, because, it is a rather plain-looking stage.  I made the front/back of the Moai heads by editing the side view sprites, and likewise the top/bottom view of the Proteus 911 (which, for some reason, is what the Vic Viper is called in this game).



This is a shot of all the components that I made on the first day of work, the base, two of the Moai heads and the Proteus 911 starship. The Moai are a bit too blocky for my tastes, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time designing, and assembling, more complex geometry for them, so, it'll have to do.



Here's a closer look at the tiny Proteus 911 (a.k.a., Vic Viper). Rather than a flat 2-Dimensional sprite, as I did with the previous Christopher Belmont and Mega Man figures in their respective dioramas, I decided to make the starship 3-Dimensional (actually, it's more of a 2.5D affair, but close enough).



Here's a test shot on the background. The faded SNES rock graphics didn't print out well at all, so that was a wasted effort on my part (maybe I should have made them a bit darker, but I didn't want that design element too noticeable, as they technically don't belong there in the first place). I kind of like the idea of the ship flying out of the diorama, towards the viewer, but, for the sake of accuracy, I went with the expected side view in the final version.

Here's the finished product:






Materials:
Cardboard, game graphics printed out on white paper, white lined notebook paper, white glue, newsprint, tissue paper, permanent marker, a brown paper grocery bag, and a wire twist tie (mount for floating elements only).

Dimensions:
9.1 cm (3.6") x 8.2 cm (3.2") [widest point x highest point]

Time:
Two days: June 10 and 12, 2014.

[darkmanx_429]

Very awesome dude. Do you have a website for these, if not you should for your work.

Might I suggest Contra for you next one?

[Shiroi Koumori]

I love how you made Vic Viper 3D!
You keep getting better at these things. Good job!

[crisis]

good job, splendid! i also created some cv papercraft a few years ago, mainly scenes from cv1 symphony & order of ecclesia. ive been meaning to do more but i've been lazy & ink is expensive lol

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Although I LOVE the Moai papercraft, it needs Rings, man! Those open mouths aren't shooting pretty rings?
Great job.

[Inccubus]

Damn these are nice. You should consider making these and selling them on Etsy.
They would look great in a nice plexiglass case with an LED light.

[Patraw]

Thanks again for the feedback, everyone!

@Inccubus:  Yeah, some diorama makers put their works inside light boxes which looks neat-o.  You can also just cut a hole in the top of your box to let light in, which is the old-fashioned way.  I like to keep my dioramae "open", rather than in a box, unless the setting is actually a closed room.

I don't have an Etsy account, and like I said previously, it'd be copyright infringement to sell these without obtaining a licensing agreement from the games' respective copyright holders.

@Jorge D. Fuentes:  Yeah, the Cheerio rings would look cool (I did print eight of them out on the sheet in case I wanted to use them), but I was afraid it would get too "busy", and the more wires/mounts you add, the more it harms the illusion of a "real" environment.  Some people stick a transparent glass/plastic veneer on the fronts of their dioramae, and glue the projectiles onto the back side of that, to make them "float" without any visible attachment points, but glass/plastic also tends to reflect your light source, which can make photography tricky.  And, if I did that, the projectiles would be floating out in front of the Moai, not lined up with their mouths, which, while it would look okay from the front, would look weird from an angle.  I considered thin, transparent plastic mounts too (that's what I generally use on my 3-D sculptures when I want something to float, but the surface of those would still reflect light, although it'd be less of an issue than with a big sheet of the stuff.

@crisis:  I think I may have seen your papercraft pieces; I know I've seen a number of Castlevania ones over the years.  Ink is indeed expensive, that's why I'm taking the miser route and sticking to B&W!  (I can make ten B&W dioramae for the cost of one color one.)

@darkmanx_429:  Yes, I have a web site (I've had it for about 14-15 years now actually).  Here's the link for my Master Figure Index:  http://www.angelfire.com/ult/ace/figure_index.html

I have been thinking of doing something from Operation C (probably the first or third level if I did one), but I still haven't decided on my next project yet.

[Inccubus]

I don't have an Etsy account, and like I said previously, it'd be copyright infringement to sell these without obtaining a licensing agreement from the games' respective copyright holders.

Actually, no it wouldn't. Go on Etsy and look up any popular video game franchise and you will find tons of hand made merchandise that people are selling. All that sort of stuff counts as art work which is protected under copyright law via provisions for reasonable fan works. It's no different than a painter selling a portrait of Mario.

[Patraw]

Yes, you will find a great many people selling artwork depicting copyrighted video game characters on Etsy, and elsewhere, but, I would argue that it is not legal unless you have permission and/or a licensing agreement from the copyright holder.  That's why copyright law exists, so people can't steal your intellectual property and profit from it without your consent/knowledge (which is exactly what those individuals are doing).  The chances of a small-time operator/artist getting sued or issued a cease-and-desist order are small, as companies tend to go after the big fish instead, but it's still wrong, even if the company doesn't take you to task over it.  Konami would be well within their rights to sue me for selling Castlevania fan art of any kind, especially ones that use actual assets from the game(s).  Likewise, using the example you gave, Nintendo would be well within their rights to sue you for selling a painting of Mario.

It's a somewhat gray issue, but here's what Wikipedia has to say on the subject:

The legal status of derivative fan made art in America may be tricky due to the vagaries of the United States Copyright Act. Generally, the right to reproduce and display pieces of artwork is controlled by the original author or artist under 17 U.S.C. § 106. Fan art using settings and characters from a previously created work could be considered a derivative work, which would place control of the copyright with the owner of that original work. Display and distribution of fan art that would be considered a derivative work would be unlawful.
 
However, American copyright law allows for the production, display and distribution of derivative works if they fall under a fair use exemption, 17 U.S.C. § 107. A court would look at all relevant facts and circumstances to determine whether a particular use qualifies as fair use; a multi-pronged rubric for this decision involves evaluating the amount and substantiality of the original appropriated, the transformative nature of the derivative work, whether the derivative work was done for educational or noncommercial use, and the economic effect that the derivative work imposes on the copyright holder's ability to make and exploit their own derivative works. None of these factors is alone dispositive.
 
American courts also typically grant broad protection to parody, and some fan art may fall into this category. This has not explicitly been adjudicated with respect to fan art, however. Moreover, while parody is typically afforded protection under § 107, a court must engage in a fact-intensive, case-specific inquiry for each work.

[Patraw]

I decided on the first level of Operation C for my next project.  I also considered level 3 (jungle) and level 5 (technological with facehuggers in tanks).



Here's the sheet I put together.  The blue is just there to help me with layout, it was still printed out in black and white.



Here are the two sniper towers/platforms.  The legs are set between colored pencils so that they'll dry more-or-less straight (warpage is a always a problem with wet glue and cardboard/paper):



Here's the front walkway, the two sniper towers, and a couple of the rotted steel frame columns.  I had originally planned to cut out all the little spaces in those columns (which is why I edited out all the interior shadows from the game graphics, because mine would have had real ones), but it became immediately clear to me that it would take literally hours to do that, and they would likely be so fragile that they'd tear apart in my hands, so, I've settled for solid constructs for the time being.  That said, I'm thinking about making some new ones, from scratch, out of latticed thin strips of paper/cardboard, but, that'd probably be pretty labor-intensive too, so, I don't know if I'll do it or not.



Here they are mocked up on the background (nothing is permanently attached yet):





I'll probably work on the crane head/hook next and then mess around with the rotted steel columns some more before assembling the base/background and then doing the figures.

I'm probably going to have fudge some things, because the forced perspective in the game won't really work in 3-dimensions, at least not without looking weird.  For example, the bridge's surface is angled upwards in the screenshot (I made mine level, like it would be if you were really there), and the water horizon (i.e., the background) would never be all the way up to the top of the skyline in real life.  I may be wrong, but I believe the lower legs/struts of the background structures are supposed to be reflections in the water, although it's difficult to tell for sure with gray-scale graphics.  It could just be foggy/misty down there too, which is probably the approach I'm going to take to conceal the lower struts/legs (I plan on putting a low screen/hedge layer down in front, between them and the bridge).

[Inccubus]

Yes, you will find a great many people selling artwork... ~edited for space~
 ...however. Moreover, while parody is typically afforded protection under § 107, a court must engage in a fact-intensive, case-specific inquiry for each work.[/i]

Yeah, I know all that. I've even made edits to that wikipedia page myself.
There are many factors to consider, not the least of which is that on the off chance that a copyright holder would issue a C&D to a person making a few craft items amounting to a few hundred dollars of revenue the courts would likely throw it out immediately and reprimand the copyright holder for wasting the court's time.
I would argue the morality of derivative works and the illegitimacy of the very concept of intellectual property, but that is a whole other discussion.


Regardless, your work is awesome. Keep having fun with it.