The latest news to come from the interwebs, Moé Passion blog owner, punynari (who has a lot of money), has gotten GoodSmile Company to create a nendoroid of his mascot, Sakura-Chan!
I guess if you’ve read my Mirai Nendoroid post, you’ll know that this isn’t real. ^^
It’s something that I did for punynari, and I had a lot of fun doing it.
A couple of years ago, I participated in a mascot contest run by Moé Passion blog owner, punynari. The task was to create an illustration featuring his mascot and guardian angel Sakura-Chan. Punynari claims he has no artistic talent, and assembled the unique attributes and characteristics of his mascot using a program.
I found his design quite compelling, especially the backstory he wrote for her. I believe that art doesn’t require one to know how to draw, but more how effective one is able to express their ideas in whatever medium is available to them. In that, I found punynari very creative and talented. The uniqueness of Sakura-chan spurred me to draw this for his contest:
He’s been using this illustration as his avatar ever since. You may have seen her around! 🙂
A couple of weeks ago, I was just chatting with him on twitter, and he made an interesting request. He really liked what I did with the Mirai Nendoroid, and really wanted a nendoroid version of his mascot. He knew that this wasn’t really possible for him, so the next best thing would be to photoshop one together.
It wasn’t easy, but I did have a lot of fun doing it. I had originally thought I could create the majority of Sakura-chan using existing nendoroid parts, but after sifting through all the nendoroid photos I could, I discovered that there wasn’t a whole lot I could utilize, especially for the pose that I had in mind.
In the end, I was only able to use a face, a hand, one twin tail, and part of a dress. Everything else had to be created from scratch (IE, painting). The hardest thing to do of course is trying to get the painted parts looking like real photo parts.
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH6rX6spY_o[/pro-player]
Watch the youtube video to see how I created this!
What got me pumped about Sakura-chan was punynari really put thought and care into creating her. She’s a guardian angel, protector of sailors at sea. This is heartwarming and inspiring, because punynari is enlisted in the Navy. He’s gone through a lot, and traveled a lot, and in a way, Sakura-chan guards and protects him, helping him through the tough times.
Moé Passion isn’t just about anime, figure collecting, and traveling. It’s about punynari’s travels. It’s his diary, and your eyes into the life of a naval officer seeing the world, with Japanese and anime culture in his mind. If you haven’t yet, go check out his blog. His Anime Pilgrimages are particularly interesting.
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testing the new caches.
I saw your youtube video and just how much work was involved in making my dream come true. Thank you for taking up this challenging project. 😀
In the end, the photos came out so good that they fooled my brothers into thinking that a Sakura-chan nendoroid was actually an official product. You are very good at what you do, that’s for sure. (:
Thank you Punynari for giving me the honor to do this project for you. 😀
I’m happy to hear that your brothers wereready to click the Buy button! 🙂
Hello…I’m really jealous of your fantastic talent! May I ask where the background music for the Sakura-chan video came from?
Watching this gave me some new insight as to how much is involved in creating beautiful things!
Harold
Hi! The music is from Katamari Damacy. I can’t remember what the actual track name is, but you should listen to it all anyway. It’s very good music.
I’m glad that my video was educational and entertaining for you. Hope to see you again soon!
Incredible work radiant!
Moe passion should be delighted, i know i would!
Its great to see you putting so much effort for others, very thoughtful =)
btw out of topic, AFA this year?
Hi Fabrice! 😀
Thanks for the complement!
It’s still up in the air whether I’ll be able to go to AFA this year. I certainly want to go. I miss my Singapore friends, and hanging out with comrades like you. 🙂
Well ill be crossing my fingers!
As for me, I havent yet decided what i am going to do during that time, so its also not confirmed if ill be going altough chances are high. anyway it will be wonderful to see each other again and catch up more!
Once again, awesome artwork!!!
Is this someone called as the incredible power of Photoshop??? ><
thanks!
Yes. lol!
When i seen you tweet this at first i actually thought it was real its crazy how you managed to do these but pull them off so well too, Epic as always c:
Thanks! I can’t say I’m fully there yet. But I’m glad I had the opportunity to do this, as it’s good practice judging light and shadow. Though I should probably practice more painting from scratch to see how I do. ^_^
Awesome work man :). I also just recently read the backstory to the character design and it’s most touching!
I agree. I was really moved and inspired by punynari’s story and Sakura-chan’s backstory.
Your Photoshop skills never fail to amaze me. Sakura looks cute in her sailor uniform, and it sounds like she’s the perfect mascot for Punynari. Now you’ve got me thinking about my mascot after a year of putting off finalizing the design.
Thanks, Nopy! If you need a mascot design, I can most definitely help you come up with one. Though I believe Ruri actually makes a very fitting mascot for your blog anyway. 🙂
I love it when you make these, really shows that you know your nendos.
lol thanks Miette-chan. I wasn’t aware of this until I looked through my youtube videos, but the last time I did a figure photoshop was the Mirai Nendoroid, which was several months ago! (half a year maybe?) That’s been quite a while! I guess I’m too lazy to come up with new photoshop ideas. ^^;
her sailor outfit so cute~!
iknowrite?! hahaha
the mirai one got me for real. but like it probably would’ve been more convincing if you post this first before the youtube video, lol.
lol! Well, that’s how it is, I guess! ^^
Hey that is pretty good! I had to look a few times before I realized it was just a drawing!
just a drawing??? D:
This reminds me that I really wish I knew how to sculpt and paint properly. Wouldn’t mind making some custom Nendoroids (particularly some Gurren Lagann ones. I’m still angry Yoko’s the only one that got a Nendo)
This image came out very well. For the first few seconds I thought it was legit, but then I noticed the outfit was painted!
Oh yes! Custom nendoroids are so awesome! If my skills were in sculpting rather than photoshop, then I would not mind making some customs.
Yeah, at first glance, it’s sort of realistic looking, but I definitely need to improve for it to look more realistic. 🙂