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Total matches for "final fantasy": 121
Luxie
Luxie's part of a grand tradition, stretching back to ancient times: once a child has reached the age when they want to go off adventuring, a grandparent figure will make them a plush chocobo to go with them, protecting them from harm and keeping them company until they return. They're very good listeners, these chocobos, lending an ear in exchange for head scritches and hugs. This one in particular has chosen Luxie as their name, and would love to accompany an adventurer of any age!
Look, I legitimately did something simple. ...Simpler. No wire, okay?! But really, I wanted something simple and straight-forward and succeeded even though I gave in and did more for the tail than I was intending, but it all worked out and became one piece eventually. I wanted to revisit some old styles while applying techniques I'd learned over time, and a sitting chocobo seemed like the best way to do that. Plus I got a discount on the yarn and the polyfil, so bonus.
Congrats to sheikun07, and thanks to everyone for raising $1,842 for this chocobo!
Me and My Kingdom of Three
Made as the development cycle of Final Fantasy XV winds to an end, but conceptualized long before, this is something I made for me. Four crystals inside one ring, surrounded by a total of 13 skulls, on a band 13 beads wide, color splashed between black and silver. I'm very, very happy with it, and it means a lot to me.
That said, wow was getting the Swarovski crystals spanned between sides of the ring a "challenge". But I did it! Another dumb idea that worked! Ridiculously. Like making the ring an open centerpiece. I'd tinkered with the pattern for the beaded skull for a while, trying to get it as small as possible but still retain the feel I was going for. ...Admittedly the sizing was luck and a shot in the dark, and the arrangement of two magnetic clasps with another little silver skull inbetween was an alteration to the original thought. It would have wound up too long to be comfortable with my original concept, but this way it's just right, with just enough slack to slide and move comfortably. It's also got a little weight to it, as the ring itself is surprisingly heavy stainless steel with some really solid magnetic clasps and a decently heavy small skull bead as a counter-balance. It actually feels quite good on, and rather matches my... aesthetic. (As does most Insomnian fashion, I must admit.)
Sable
Have you been wanting to keep a chocobo of your very own, but they're just too big? Have you ever wanted to cuddle your chocobo indoors? Have you wanted the companionship of a big feather friend in a smaller friend-shaped package? Drake Chocobo Ranch has the solution for you - miniaturized house chocobos! Loyal, soft, and bred to smell like cedar! (Mostly. Within reason.)
I have to admit... she was kind of an accident. I'd meant to do a regular Play Art Kai-scaled chocobo! And then I just... made the feet too big. And thought, "Well surely putting the claws on will take some length off the toes." ...And it did. ...And it did not matter that much. I spent a good couple of hours considering starting over with smaller feet, but then I just sort of. Didn't. And here we are. I needed this, long story short. Even if the work took way, way longer than I could have imagined, and challenged me much more than I was prepared for. No sob stories here, folks; it's been A Year, and it's my most sincere hope that Sable will make people happy and do a lot of good. And before anyone asks, no never again. (A fabric one, maybe, someday. But not soon.)
The skeleton/armature is comprised of several wound heavy gauge steel wires and occasional flexible plastic rods. The armature itself was covered in felt to make the structure lighter, with the crocheted acrylic yarn more or less being built up around the structure and stuffed with polyfil as I went. Her beak and claws are made of epoxy clay, the beads on her tail are hemalyke, and her folding wing structure is composed mainly of plastic-coated wood, wire and steel. Her collar was an old bracelet of mine, but the tag was etched by EngraverSteve on Etsy. Her eyes are dichroic cabochons made by WillowGlass on Etsy.
Side notes: in Episode Duscae (the first FFXV demo), occasional encounters with black chocobos made them appear to have "sparkly eyes", I believe in part due to some light/reflection error. (Then again it might have been intentional, and that would make me happy.) So yes, I based the design more or less on the FFXV art book's "ancient black chocobo" concept art, with my own little touches. Her feet and legs are poseable, as well as her neck, and all of her tail feathers are wire with either soft or solid heavy gauge wire cores. Her jaw is hinged, the top of her crest is wired, and of course her wings either hang a bit loosely folded at her sides or opened; but due to the nature of the heavy yarn and the stability of the smaller materials needed, her wings can't stay in place when they're raised. That's why I'm including a very simple "wing support bar" that enables the wings to raise at her sides and stay supported. It must be said that her legs are made from a very solid but lightly "springy" wire, and getting her to stand just right may take a few little toe and leg adjustments. The tail itself is designed for better weight distribution, but sometimes she tilts a little. let her stand next to a friend when possible, okay?
All told, Sable wound up about 25 inches tall to the top of her head, and 17 inches from her chest to the very start of her tail. 28 inches long, including the tail. Her full extended wingspan is 27 inches, and she's about 16 inches wide with folded wings at her side. She also weighs in at roughly 6 pounds, so I'm pretty sure any effort made in lightening her frame is definitely looking like a good decision now.
This girl was auctioned at Desert Bus for Hope 2018 for an enormously generous $2,641.94 from ekimekim.
Heart of Dawn
The heart and soul of a world cast in darkness, it beats with the essence of light; and indeed, perhaps, hope. That will be up to the one who will wield the light within.
Ever just have a dumb idea and then you stumble into bits and pieces of exactly the right things to accidentally make it much better than you ever imagined it could be? Yeah, this was weird. I'd played with the idea of making a tiny representation of the crystal from Final Fantasy XV, but I'd wanted to get to learning how to make an artificial druzy/geode first. I was a little surprised to come across the perfect, real geode for the project without meaning to, and it all... snowballed. As things will.
Once I had the geode in hand, I wanted to sculpt around the outside to more resemble the crystal in the game itself. Thanks in large part to this Tumblr post (and later to Episode Ignis), I'd made certain... observations about the crystal itself. It looked blown open, for one, exploded. And where it's pierced to secure it in place, it appears to be leaking or bleeding. That combined with the "tendrils" underneath made it both beautiful and unsettling, some odd mix of organic things, and obviously I kind of love some of that horrifying stuff, so I had to run with it. I'm also pretty proud of managing to make it look like stone. The wire emerging from the sculpture itself is iron (later coated in protective enamel), because that gave me the sturdiness I needed in such a relatively "thin" gauge of wire. While the stone plus all the outside sculpt itself added quite a bit of weight, underneath the molded epoxy is a wire harness to make sure everything is fully and completely secure. The fact that the chain is a very heavy gauge steel (along with the clasp) helps too.
Then it came time to work out the interior. I'd toyed with the idea that maybe I could make it glow pink or purple, but didn't really hold much faith in being able to do so because of how difficult and expensive it is to get those colors... but I stumbled across a place that sold very small quantities and I went for it. Boy am I glad I did. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO PHOTOGRAPH CORRECTLY, but with the aid of a few seconds of blacklight, the resulting glow is astonishingly bright in vibrant pink, fading out to purple, then blue. It does charge in full sun, as well, but won't glow quite as brightly afterward and be more purple than achingly neon pink. There's a range of color and glow possibilities and I love them all, is what I'm saying. So once I had the glow color down, it was a simple matter of layering blue and purple iridescent pigment to finish the rest of the interior while still showing off the actual natural crystal. No matter the lighting, it is awesome, shiny, and glowy. Success, level up.
...The result is also a little painful. You can tell what experience Final Fantasy XV fans had with the game by their reaction to this. Though I should hope the bulk of the reaction is somewhere on the spectrum of "Ooohh shiny!"/"Ooohh glowy!" I'm really happy to share the pain and passion in this manner. Clearly
This is, and is meant to be, a one of a kind piece. I will never do anything quite like this again. Which is... probably a blessing, though one of these days I might get back to playing with making artificial druzies. Just not anytime too soon, and certainly not this large.
(Sold.)
Cecil the Dancing Paladin
My girlfriend's been "a little into speedrunning" of late, and so a tiny shiny Cecil from FFIV seems like just the accessory for that, doesn't it? Also I still think it looks like he's dancing, hence the title.
It's always a bit of a trip; even working from the sprites to make a pattern, it's impossible to see what I've actually made until I take a step back and see it from a slight distance.
OP Material Necklace
The commission started as a simple request: all the FFVII materia on one necklace. So I asked if all the materia meant all the materia, black, white, and Huge Materia included, and... result!
This was a fantastic project with a lot of communication and encouragement, and an overall great experience. I've also been made aware that the receiver of the gift was very appreciative, which is always a joy. Handmade geeky bling for Christmas, y'know?
As for the materia themselves, the small ones are my usual uber-glowy acrylic beads in the usual spiral wire wrap, but I wanted to do a little something different with the Huge Materia. Not just make them bigger, clearly, but give them all a little sparkle. I kind of liked keeping everything "rounded", so I used larger jade beads, dye, and so many coatings of iridescent pigments to give them a different look. Plus I both really liked the idea of the "caged" wire wrap for them, thanks in part to in-game "Huge Materia container" field model, and just the fact that the beads were a bit heavier and needed some extra security for long-term hold.
I also decided to do the spacer beads myself. They're black epoxy, hand-formed and then hand-drilled because it ain't FFVII unless it's super extra. Plus I just wanted to see if I could do it, and behold.
Double-Side Beadwoven FFXV Moogle Plush
Square-Enix's FFXV Moogle fan art contest was the absolute best excuse to finally get on with a project I'd been debating for a long while, anyway: a little beadwoven "sprite" version of the FFXV Moogle. All off-loom weaving, nothing but beads and thread, and... a bunch of hours. Finished within two weeks, so beyond that, what meaning does time really have anyway.
I started with a picture of the official key chain, available at the Square Enix Cafe, and based a very basic pixel version around that. Brightening up the colors and adding more shiny elements, because I am me, I was very happy with how the "standard Moogle side" came out.
But. In the game, the Moogle is definitely a little different. Being that I am who I am, I decided to rework the pattern slightly, selecting off-white beads and trying to translate the stripes and patterns to itty bitty pixel sprite form. Ultimately I also added a little bit of thread detail as well, just because I enjoyed that element of the original design.
Then I was further myself, deciding that yes, I needed to make this a double-sided piece of beadwork, because I've never joined two sides with this complicated a shape before. How'd it go? I really, honestly, do not want to talk about it and no I don't want to replicate this anytime soon... but I did it. Success. A lot of work and time and cursing and I'm taking a few days off after, but it worked!
I kind of love how it all turned out, not going to downplay that. On one side, brightly-colored "traditional" Moogle, and on the other side is the made-with-love patchwork FFXV Moogle. I'd have gotten around to it no matter what, but if I can reflect even a little bit of the love and devotion FFXV inspired in me by submitting it to a fanart contest? I am totally happy to be spurred into starting, finishing, and submitting this as my entry.
I even attempted to record a quick little video to better see the way the light moves across the beads, and how flexible the finished piece is. Which... is not anywhere near the best video in the world, but hey, it's a thing.
(Full disclosure: I never had the heart to use one in battle. Yeah, I know. I just... how dare I.)
(For Sale)
Chocobo Chicks 2.0
As is usually the case with these sorts of things, I'd been meaning to try my hand at PAK-scale FFXV chocobo chicks. I finally decided, why not get a group of them together to give to the English chocobro voice actors and director just before EXPcon 2017 because I am not always altogether that intelligent when it comes to planning for time or effort?
I played with various types of similar-weight yarn, getting the basic body shape down. Then I promised myself that I would attempt some form of simplicity. I... mostly succeeded there, though each remains a multi-day process. The details aren't too extreme, even though they each took a great deal of time because I insisted on wired legs, feet and wings, as well as tail feathers and little bitty head crests. Making the wings a little smaller than they technically "ought to be" was a purposeful choice, because I was determining how large the wings should be, holding them up to the very plump bodies and... I mean, can you blame me? Adorable fluff-ness won. Their eyes are all artificial pearls, and I attempted to incorporate a little bit of their character's hair styles into the crests. Which was about as difficult as it sounds.
In presenting the chocobo chicks to each VA, I insisted that they pick the names themselves. I could not be happier with the results. The yellow chick was named "Orinthall" by Robbie Daymond, Prompto's VA. A good and fine name for a battle bird. The blue chick was named "Orin" by Ray Chase, Noctis' VA, which was entirely too smooth but appreciated. The purple chick was named "Purple Verve" by Adam Croasdell, Ignis' VA, after asking for an additional day to come up with a name. I remain pleased. The green chick was named "Ray" by Chris Parson, Gladiolus' VA, which will continue to make me laugh. The black chick was named "Henlay" by Keythe Farley, the English voice director, having taken up until the last signing to choose. I spotted the chick on his table at that point and was hopefully able to make words goodly at that point because hg;afljghfjdg.