Uploads from Catsy [CC], tagged portal

Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:02:29 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

If you've been watching the comments on my last photo (the Catspaw Customs home page teaser) you know that everyone in my house has been pretty sick for the last week with a nasty flu bug. I'm back on my feet now and back on track with getting the business ready to go live, and thank you all for your patience and kind words.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share something unrelated but fun. I had to do something to fill the time and days of Netflix streaming starts to corrode the brain, so I played games. And I discovered that Valve, being the wonderful people that they are, had just released their long-awaited WYSIWYG puzzle creator for Portal 2.

Oh, baby.

So yeah, that's what I've been doing for the past few days while I get back on my feet and try to stop being a plague carrier. :) This thing is SO MUCH FUN. It works a bit like a cross between Google Sketchup and the house-building tools in The Sims. You still have to have or develop an eye and mind for creating good puzzles, and you're a little limited in what kinds of testing elements and level geometry you can use, but this really opens the door for people who don't have the time or inclination to overcome the steep learning curve of a professional level editor like Hammer.

The image here is a screen shot of something astonishing that happened yesterday--briefly, for a period of about five minutes and due to a quirk in Valve's popularity algorithm, one of my maps was the #1 popular map on the Steam Workshop. Out of over 46,000 on all of Steam. NICE.

It was a sheer fluke that probably resulted from a bunch of people happening to play and rate it at the same time, but I won't turn down the traffic. :)

So anyway, if any of you Portal 2 players want to take a look at what I've created, here's a link to my Workshop page: steamcommunity.com/id/amezuki/myworkshopfiles?appid=620

The map that got the traffic bump was Third Floor Escape, which was ironic considering it was really just a technical exercise made in response to someone who challenged mappers to create a puzzle in only a 3x3x3 playable area. Personally, I think my current best map is Tractor Driver, while my most challenging is Overwatch Alpha.

I won't have as much time to play with this now that I'm doing better and have a huge backlog of work to catch up on, but I'd like to continue mapping as the inspiration strikes.

Have any of you been creating maps in PeTI you'd like to share? Or even favorite maps that you think we should all play? If so, link them in the comments.

(BTW, as a kindness please don't spam me with Steam friend requests. I only add people I know in real life. Sorry.)

GLaDOS head breakdown

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:59:12 -0800

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

People have been asking for a breakdown of GLaDOS since I first posted her. While I'm not prepared to disassemble her yet, I had to replace the LED wire recently so I took the opportunity to take this shot. I've removed the 1x2 plates that normally connect to the stud hole in the white 3L half-liftarms so that she'll lie flat and you can see the underlying structure.

The only thing that may not be obvious from this is where the wire goes. There is a hole drilled through the center of a 2x3 plate and 1x2 jumper plate, and the wire goes through that hole and the black 1x1 round brick to the right of it. The bulb of the LED sits behind the pearl gold 1x1 round plate, to which the black Technic connector between the two white half-liftarms attaches.

Aperture Laboratories company car

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 13:53:41 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

No, not really, but that was what I was going for. Honestly, the sole reason why I looked for a white Prius rather than some other color was so that I could do this. I think it came out fantastic. All it would need is a glowing red robotic eye in the center of the hood, and it'd be a Turret car.

I may be a huge geek, but I don't think I'm that far gone. Maybe if I had a lot more disposable income. :)

Aperture Decals from the Valve Store.

"No hard feelings."

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Sun, 15 May 2011 11:40:42 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

Chell gets a little tired of thinking with portals once in a while.

Image for a review of the production Minigun on the BAF.

Turret Breakdown

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Thu, 05 May 2011 10:56:43 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

Some folks have asked for instructions on how to make the Aperture Science Sentry Turret. This is about as close as you're going to get--and it's all you should really need; every part is shown.

Chell, ASHPD and Turret

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Thu, 05 May 2011 09:09:17 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

More or less final versions of all of the above. I'm likely to continue improving Chell's paint job over time--at least, until I find a satisfactory set of waterslide decals for her torso and the Aperture logos--but she's good enough to use for making scenes, as are the Portal Gun and Sentry Turret.

Thanks to MooseBot and LDM for the suggestions on the Turret's front legs. I was happy enough with the claws, but the screwdrivers look a bit better. The Turret is still just a bit bigger than it should be, but it's acceptable at the level of abstraction necessary for minifig scale.

Non-Lego or modified parts: Brickarms monopod and bayonet on the Turret. The ASHPD is made from a Brickarms bazooka and MG42 ammo drum, two Lego motorcycle helmets, trans-clear and trans-blue acrylic rods, a paper clip, and some black craft wire. Chell is of course painted, and the springs on her long-fall boots are strips of styrene stock.

Portal Turrets (v2)

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Tue, 03 May 2011 19:54:57 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

So my first attempt at a minifig scale turret here had a few issues. It was a bit too big, had a few lacking areas, and looked like it ought to be one of the fat turrets.

These are still a bit too big, but I think they're a significant improvement, and about as good as I'm likely to get them at minifig scale.

Are you still there?

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Mon, 02 May 2011 22:42:14 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

This sort of grew out of a study on test chamber materials. From this I have learned two important facts:
1. I need more 2x2 tiles.
2. Turrets are really tough to make in minifig scale.

I added the targeting laser in post, of course. I might try the laser pointer trick another time.

Portal Gun and Chell

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 20:57:13 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

I'm satisfied with the Portal Gun--it's finished.

I'm fairly happy with Chell, but I need to touch up the paint in a few places, and I definitely need to give her a protective matte coating when I'm done.

Portal Gun and Chell

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 20:49:54 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

I'm satisfied with the Portal Gun--it's finished.

I'm fairly happy with Chell, but I think I need to touch up the paint in a few places, and I definitely need to give her a protective matte coating when I'm done.

The length of trans rod in the ASHPD is interchangeable, so that it can be either orange or blue as needed.

Portal Gun and Chell

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 20:38:41 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

I'm satisfied with the Portal Gun--it's finished.

I'm fairly happy with Chell, but I think I need to touch up the paint in a few places, and I definitely need to give her a protective matte coating when I'm done.

No, the insert in the Portal Gun isn't red--it's orange. I think it's the blue background that's making it look that way at the tip.

GLaDOS (with better eye color)

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:34:45 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

Oh, it's you. It's been a long time. How have you been? I've been really busy being constructed of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. You know, after you murdered me?

Fortunately the Aperture Science Emergency Recreational Building Element Reconstruction Initiative has provided me with a new body. Consequently, testing can recommence immediately.

For Science.

You monster.

----

As a number of people pointed out, the color of her eye in the previous photos was not quite right. It isn't really as red as it looked in those photos--I used a 1x1 solid orange round--but it still wasn't correct. I finally figured out how to get it right: I changed the round to pearl gold.

Some people had also requested a profile shot. This is harder to do than you might think because of the support structures I built for her, but hopefully this will help.

Speaking of the support structures, I tried something different this time to eliminate the shadows from them: I turned her upside down and took the shot that way, then rotated it in post. This worked quite well, I think.

The "eye" is illuminated by a single Lifelites LED connected to an eLite Basic above her support disc. Since she's supposed to be such a mess of wires and hoses anyway, I decided not to hide the cable by running it through her body, instead letting it just be part of the model.

GLaDOS

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 11:28:39 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

GLaDOS

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 11:28:59 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

GLaDOS

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 11:28:31 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

GLaDOS

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 11:28:52 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

GLaDOS WIP

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 22:11:38 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

Still not completely happy with it. I'm not going for 100% accuracy, but there's a few places I think it could be improved.

Win? Fail?

Welcome Redditors! This is only a work in progress picture. You can see the finished model here.

Lego Portal color test

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:55:45 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

This is a screen shot from Portal 2 Test Chamber 14, one of the "dilapidated" test chambers where GLaDOS has cleaned up a bit, but everything is still cracked, dingy and falling apart. The lighting in this chamber is poor, so keep that in mind when evaluating the original colors.

For the Lego color swatches, I used the official Lego RGB values.

As you can see, the dimmer light and dirtier surfaces of the dilapidated test chambers make light bluish grey a close match for portal surfaces, while dark bley is about as close as you're going to get to the metal NPS without going to black--which would be far too dark.

In cleaner, newer test chambers the portal surfaces are much whiter and I tend to think white looks better overall, in addition to expanding the availability and cost-effectiveness of parts a bit. But I'm still mulling it over, especially since the pure, "illuminated" white of the test chamber signage needs to stand out.

Additionally, if you assume the squares are 2x2 tiles and the dots on the wall are 1x1 studs, then you'll get a feel for the scale we're working with, and the 4x8 tiled effect with seams that I've been trying to replicate with the portal surface walls.

Not a Lie

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:39:01 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

Birthday cake for Jess, my other half.

Yes, you can actually buy these. They are not cheap.

I'm Making a Note Here: Huge Success

nobody@flickr.com (Catsy [CC]) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:25:49 -0700

Catsy [CC] posted a photo:

I wasn't expecting this. I really should know better by now: people love their Lego, and Lego adaptations of [insert pop culture icon here] are like geek catnip. It happened last year when I did the Mass Effect Citadel, and whenever I manage to finish the Ringworld (still in progress! not abandoned!) it's likely to happen again.

But damn.

So far GLaDOS has been picked up by Brothers Brick, Kotaku, Rock Paper Shotgun, G4TV, Joystiq, Machinima, and an absolutely astonishing number of other places. And earlier I learned that the Kotaku article had actually been syndicated on the Portal 2 news feed that displays in the Steam sidebar when you're looking at the Games Library entry for Portal 2. It's scrolled off now, but I think at this point my life may actually be complete.

I average between one to two thousand total page views on my photostream per day, about half that when I haven't posted anything in a while. Yesterday I had 71,510. As of this writing it is currently 8:53 PM by Flickr time (GMT), and there have been 122,761 total page views across my photostream today. This is a simply astonishing amount of traffic, so I feel obliged to redirect some of it to my friends.

If you are coming here from elsewhere because you love seeing Portal in Lego, you should definitely check out Legohaulic's ATLAS and P-Body and LDM's Turrets. I haven't tried building either subject matter because they've already done it perfectly.

Arkov is a huge Valve fan and has been building Lego based on Valve games for a long time, including an amazing Dog that you may have seen before.

I'm pretty sure all of those creations have been featured on The Brothers Brick at some point, which is arguably the first place you should go if you want to start your morning by looking at awesome Lego builds.

Finally, those of you who've been doing backflips over the WIP Portal Gun (excuse me, ASHPD) that I'm working on should know that it's a modification based around parts of several accessories from BrickArms, a supplier of high-quality aftermarket minifig-compatible weapon accessories designed by Will Chapman.

I will be keeping the GLaDOS model intact, and she will be on display at Brickcon 2011 in Seattle this October.

Thank you to everyone who has linked to, commented on, faved, or otherwise shown your appreciation for my work. And thank you, of course, to Valve--who created GLaDOS and these excellent games--and to their concept artist Jeremy Bennet, on whose work the Portal 2 version of her was based.