Mystique Costume with liquid latex

I fulfilled my dream, I was Mystique from X-men!… I know, I take Halloween WAY too seriously.

I already have red hair, so that was the easy part. The hard part was painting my body with liquid latex! I’ve outlined some thoughts on applying liquid latex, so keep scrolling on down!

MystiqueForHalloween_10-31-2009_08_crop — My Mystique costume

MystiqueForHalloween_10-31-2009_05_crop

Reference photos:

I researched a bunch of Mystique images and I opted to follow the face and hair of the movie version.

Reference_mystique-1 — Reference for Mystique face

And I followed the clothes and body of the comic book version.

Reference_mystique-2 — Reference image for Mystique’s clothes

Purchasing Liquid Latex:

This was my first time buying liquid latex. I purchased liquid latex from www.liquidlatex.com and this was my order:

32 oz. Blue liquid latex – Since I only painted half my body, there was at least half the jar left over.
2 oz. Blue sparkle – I’d highly recommend mixing this in to the latex (rather than applying on top) for your last coat or two. It gave the latex a really luminous sheen.
4 oz. Body Wash – Highly recommend this too! At the end of the night, it instantly helped remove the latex that was caught in my hairline and in my arm hair.
4 oz. Shine Spray – Must have! The website FAQs are absolutely correct. Rubbing on the shine spray as the last coat removed all the tackiness from the latex. Without it, the latex sticks to itself.

Liquid latex application tips:

Allow a lot of time! It took me a around 5 hours. That includes application and drying time.
Consider a layer of white latex. Since the latex is translucent, your skin color will show through if you don’t put on enough coats. In my case, I had to apply 5-6 layers of latex before it stopped looking blue/green. I think a layer of white latex would help tone down your skin color and only require 3-4 coats of blue.
2nd coat of liquid latex and it still looks greenish
Armpits are tricky. Once you do your armpits, you can’t put your arms down until you’ve applied the Shine Spray. The latex will stick to itself and will start ripping once you lift your arms. I don’t know how to improve that aspect.
Wow, it’s stinky. It’s especially hard to apply around your nose and eyes because the ammonia fumes are really harsh. If you’re allergic, it will not be fun for you.
A bit of a stranglehold. The latex will shrink and feel like wearing a tight rubber glove. It was a little alarming when the latex on my neck tightened. If you don’t like wearing chokers, you will not enjoy the feeling of latex on your neck.
Comes off fast…for the most part. As long as it’s not in your hair, the latex peels off really quickly. I had some stuck in my hairline, but rubbing on the Body Wash helped rinse it out quickly.

The Mystique Face

To make the scales on my face I cut out pieces of blue craft foam and stuck them onto my face with liquid latex. Then I painted over the scales with liquid latex.

MystiqueForHalloween_10-31-2009_16 — To create the scaly face, I glued blue craft foam on, then painted over with latex.

Closeup of Mystique face — The finished product!

June 17, 2009

My post-Big (D)esign Conference to-do list

I recently attended the Big (D)esign Conference in Dallas and could not say enough good things about it! I took pages and pages of notes on web design usability and user behaviour and thoroughly challenged by brain to delve deeper into user experience and interactions. I’d expected to come away with a long list of design websites to look up…but instead I came away with quite a long reading list of books relating to human psychology.

Here are some of the books mentioned by some of the conference speakers (I’ve linked the titles to the books on Amazon):

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

What Makes Them Click by Susan M. Weinschenk

Designing Web Interfaces by Bill Scott

About Face by Alan Cooper

Mind Hacks by Tom Stafford & Matt Webb

What is Strategy? by Michael Porter

Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen
Phew! That’s quite the summer reading list!

#bigD09

June 17, 2009

Hooray for a green online printing option!

I just found a promising option for sustainable printing: www.greenerprinter.com! I received their package of samples and it all looked great.
Aside from a nice website 🙂 here are some of the features that caught my eye:

Use soy and vegetable-based inks
Gloss, matte, and uncoated papers have a high percentage of recycled content.
100% wind-powered thru Renewable Energy Credits (how cool is that!)

Let me know if you’ve printed with them! I can hardly wait!

www.greenerprinter.com

May 18, 2009

Free screen sharing with acrobat.com, it works great!

As a designer, there are times when it’s just plain easier to show instead of tell.

Adobe’s ConnectNow screen sharing is a really easy to use resource…and it’s FREE! I learned about it in an Adobe webinar about Creative Suite 4. You can have up to 3 meeting members and there’s plenty of functionality. ConnectNow is handy because it uses the Flash plugin to run. Since most users have the a Flash plugin installed, there shouldn’t be any problems to get going quickly.

To get started:

Set up an account and you’ll have your own personal “meeting room” link ex: https://connectnow.acrobat.com/yourmeetingroom.
To start a meeting, go to www.acrobat.com and login. (If you have CS4, you can launch right out of Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.)
Send the link to your participants. They just create a user name and enter your “meeting room.”
Enjoy your meeting!

There are lots of “pods” within for your use in the meeting, including:

chat
whiteboard – good for brainstorming, participants can write on it too!
webcam
audio conferencing

There are also a lot of other great file sharing resources on acrobat.com. Check it out when you have a chance!

This is a screenshot of what the participant will see during the meeting. — This is a screenshot of the participant's interface. The large center area will disply the moderator's screen.

April 15, 2009

CRM Email Marketing Add-ons..from a designer’s eyes

There are a lot of email marketing tools out there, so be sure you have your list of requirements ready before you try to research.

In this case, I was looking for a third-party add-on for Microsoft Dynamic CRM 4.0 so we could send HTML emails (remember, I’m thinking from a designer perspective)

My email marketing criteria:

Fully interated with CRM (so it “looks” like it’s part of the CRM)
WYSIWYG editor and template builder (Think of it like the text formatting toolbar in you email, like Hotmail or Gmail)
Image/asset library (A place to view and store your images)

If you’re in a similar situation as myself, here are some of my finds:

Exact Target
www.exacttarget.com

YES Integrates fully with CRM
YES WYSIWYG editor & template builder
YES image/asset library

c360
www.c360.com

YES Integrates fully with CRM
NO WYSIWYG editor & template builder BUT you can upload your own HTML templates, so if you have a web designer to create templates, then this could work for you.
YES image/asset library

Eloqua
www.eloqua.com

pricing structure is geared towards companies with large marketing lists, so it didn’t turn out to be the best solution for us.
YES Integrates fully with CRM
YES WYSIWYG editor & template builder
YES image/asset library

Vtrenz
www.vtrenz.com

pricing structure is geared towards companies with large marketing lists, so it didn’t turn out to be the best solution for us.
YES Integrates fully with CRM
YES WYSIWYG editor & template builder
YES image/asset library

I’m sure there are more out there, feel free to add a comment if you think I’ve missed something.

March 2, 2009

Website Prototypes

I was recently introduced to some website prototyping software: Axure and Protoshare. The main difference is that Axure has to be installed and Protoshare is web-based. If you need some first-hand feedback on both, I’d recommend talking to the owner of ten24web.com, David Crouch, he’s tried both of them (but currently uses Axure). He was a big help to me! Thanks David!

I chose the trial of Protoshare because it is web-based. As a designer, the advantage of using this software is that you can lay out the site architecture and navigation before getting caught up in design, CSS, or HTML prototypes. But, you can add in your design and CSS later to give a pretty accurate prototype of the site before going into development. So far I’m really enjoying this because I don’t create hundreds of Photoshop layers to show variations, nor do I waste my time setting up an HTML page to show modest interactivity.

Protoshare
PROS:
– web-based, access anywhere
– clients can login to view and interact with prototype, section for adding comments
– easy drag and drop functionality for layout
– can apply CSS id and class tags to give accurate styling
– easy site-map creation

CONS:
– a little bit buggy, but their Support is very quick to respond 🙂

Links:

www.protoshare.com

www.axure.com

February 10, 2009

Camtasia vs. Captivate, my two cents

I’ve been dealing with the same software quandary as others creating e-learning: work with Adobe Captivate or Camtasia? And it really comes down to, what are you trying to create? Both products offer different resources, so try to become familiar with what they offer and go from there.

I recently worked on a company orientation project that involved Powerpoint slides and screencast training of software. At the time, I had to make a hasty decision about which software to use for the project. I chose Camtasia for the trial, and successfully completed my project.

Once my 30-day trial with Camtasia was up and I prepared to purchase the software, I realized I should give Captivate a trial. I’ve been playing with the trial of Captivate and reading various forums, but I’m going to stick with Camtasia (see below for links).

A quick list of the elements that swayed me to Camtasia:

– zoom-and-pan effect in screen recordings
– Powerpoint add-on to record the screen
– timeline editor (instead of slides like Captivate)
– multiple options for file formats (MOV, AVI, MP4)
– price – approx. $300

Here are some resources I’ve found helpful in making my decision to stick with Camtasia for my purposes.

– An extremely thorough comparison of Captivate and Camtasia by Michael Hanley

-Summary of presentation on Captivate and Camtasia – be sure to read the comments at the end of the blog, lots of good feedback there.
– Good example to demonstrate the zoom-and-pan effect in Camtasia

February 6, 2009

Online printing, so many options

I’ve used a lot of online printers over the past 7 years and these are some of my favorites. The main deciding factors come down to price and turnaround, but the functionality of the site is becoming an influencing factor as I frequent these sites. I’ve organized them by preference so far, and I’ll certainly update it as I change my mind…

UPDATED 12/17/2014

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies, and I recommend them because I want to help people quickly find quality printing that fits their turnaround and budget, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them.

1. PrintPlace.com

I use Print Place a lot because their online ordering system has a lot of options. You can easily adjust different factors, like turnaround or quantity, to see how it will change the final cost. I also like that they offer will-call pickup at their facility in Arlington, TX. I’ve often used them for last minute printing of business cards and booklets and they’ve always come through with great quality printing.

2. Gotprint.com

I’ve used GotPrint since about 2008 and have had great experiences with every product I have ordered. The quality is good, they have great prices, but they are not always the most practical when I’m in a rush because their turnaround times can be a bit long.

3. OvernightPrints.com

Overnight Prints also has great prices and nice quality. They also have a really nice upload tool that creates a 3D mockup that rotates so you can ensure that your postcard/business card flips correctly (Trust me, this is an awesome tool. I accidentally printed postcards where the back side was upside down and this tool will help prevent that).

4. 48hourprint.com

They are what their name says! If you’re in a rush, check them out, they’ve always made good on their name when I’ve worked with them. However, the last time I used them, the online checkout slightly awkward because you needed to fill out your billing info before you could see the final price. Personally I don’t like handing over my billing info before I know my final costs.