Bailey’s Project: Day 2

Day two is underway!

We’ve made some great progress in all areas. Brian’s been hard at work welding up the grill.  It looks incredible and will really make this sign feel authentic.IMG_3266

I’ve been programming the face and ribbons and working out the depth of the overall sign. In Enroute I’ve programmed the basic shape of the ribbon with the text – once I’ve cut it out of Precision Board HDU Brian will do some hand sculpting to remove the “machine cut” look.

134

135

137

Published with permission from KDF Custom Graphics. Source.

Disney’s Frozen Project – Times Square Disney Store

Who wouldn’t love working on a Disney project?  This was a fun project with characters, castles and great Disney graphics. We just completed our work, delivered to our client they added their magic and it looks fantastic! If you are  in Times Square NYC this holiday season check it out.

We started out by vectorizing the clients sketch of a giant snow arch and castle with the “Frozen” logo carved into it. In Enroute Pro we gave the outline shape and texture and designed the accurate dimensions to fit on the store fixtures.293294Now this arch is about 16′ Wide so we cant cut it all at once.  I’ll break up the file and start cutting the pieces.

So to keep the weight down we chose to make the arch out of blue insulation foam.  We started by gluing 4′x8′ sheets of 2″ foam together.  Our arch will end up 8″ thick. Once glued we are ready to cut.

IMG_3072

IMG_3076

Once the panels are cut – we cut out a channel on the back to set the PVC piping wich will hold the pieces together. The PVC is set in place and the safety cables are installed and crimped.

IMG_3114

The adhesive is applied and the sides are assembled.

IMG_3121

IMG_3122

Now we’re ready to tackle the bases! These need to be large solid pieces of foam so we cut them in discs that will sit on top of each other then Brian will come in with a sawzall to rough sculpt it. Here you can see Eddie assembling the discs and gluing in place.

IMG_3108

IMG_3100

We’ll finish up the other base and start sculpting. Brian got out the sawzall for the rough cuts then the belt sander for the second go around.

IMG_3135

Mark and Kevin doing some finishing sanding.

IMG_3154

Here’s Brian and Greg with their homemade sanding tool – Great for taking away a lot of foam fast.

IMG_3143

Ready for Bondo and Paint!

IMG_3149

While the arch is off to the paint shop we’re busy printing away and building some other cool features for the install.

Here is an 8′ Marquee Gift Tag.

IMG_3170

A GIANT painters pallete.

IMG_3164

Lots of wrapping paper….

IMG_3161

Some cool Mickey Ears….

IMG_3162

and a bunch of other cool stuff.

IMG_3145

And here is the transformation (with the help of our clients amazing design and installation skills)

BEFORE:

IMG_3040

AFTER:

IMG_1246

IMG_1289

IMG_1288

IMG_1287

IMG_1286

IMG_1283

IMG_1280

IMG_1279

IMG_1277

IMG_1274

IMG_1269

IMG_1268

IMG_1264

IMG_1262

IMG_1257

IMG_1255

IMG_1260

IMG_1248

Published with permission from KDF Custom Graphics. Source.

Texture and Gadgets

We’ve been busy but have still found some time to work a little every day on our Mechanical Fish project. While Brian is working the mechanics of the tank I’ve been adding fun little elements to the design and creating some cool textures and “mechanical” parts.

Here is the control panel – We’ll be adding switched and a panic button soon. But it gives you an idea. Working lamp? What kind of sign is this!!!!!

ControlPanel

So Brian has set our mechanical fish in the tank. we have some cool propellers on the back and the LED’s are lighting up the cabin and the button eye. No small task as this fish is submersed in water.  Next step is to install the pistons to open the door!

FishInTank

I had to get KDF somewhere on this sign! We didn’t want it too obvious so in a fun way we’ve placed it on the top of the periscope box.

Top

We’ve finished the back of the box, all out of 15lb Precision Board HDU.  The face was cut out of 30lb.

Box

The front took a lot more time. All 30lb Precision Board HDU then I used Magic Sculpt for the organic material in the corners.

Front

More to come….

Published with permission from KDF Custom Graphics. Source.

Completed KDF Studio Sign

Our special custom studio sign project is all done!  we have our new sign and dragon mascot (no name yet though). This was a fun one.  Everyone loves it, but I think it’s giving Mark nightmares.  Now all of our after hours attention will be focused on the mechanical fish project

Excerpt from:
Completed KDF Studio Sign

Stone Wall Plaque

So our friend and client Julian came in last week with an interesting project. He was looking for a creative way to present a plaque to a colleague as a gift using their logo as the artwork. So we came up with the idea of doing a carved “stone” look.

View article:
Stone Wall Plaque