"Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts" Inspired Prop Gun
This gun was a project for a props class taught by Marty Aikens. I was prompted to create a gun based on a certain time period, so I chose fantasy post-apocalyptic. I drew a lot of my inspiration from the animated series, "Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts" as well as the game "Tomb Raider." The end result is a handheld gun made of foam and Epoxy, that both glows and makes noise when it shoots.
Research and Rendering
I wanted to challenge myself to not only create a beautiful prop gun inspired by the art style and color work of "Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts," but also to incorporate lights and sound into the prop. My professor offered me a small switch-operated soundbite recorder that would play my sound effect when a button is pushed. I wanted to find a way to have the switch be activated by pulling the gun's trigger. I also decided during my research process to include a clear capsule in the gun where the bullets would have sat on the original revolver, and I wanted to fill the capsule with blue lights to sell the fantastical nature of this prop. I imagine it would shoot little beams of light if it were in the world of Kipo. I took heavy inspiration from the weapons and backgrounds in "Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts," especially when it came to the angular style and bright color palette. I really like this cartoon because it is able to capture a post-apocalyptic environment without using an abundance of muted colors and greys. Since I had never seen a gun used in the show, I decided to look at the other weapons in the show as inspiration, as well as video game weapons. I ended up really liking a particular gun from the "Tomb Raider" games, so I added it to my research. The project itself was to modify an existing gun prop. I chose a small hand revolver prop to work from, and drew directly over an image of it to create my rendering.
Base Gun and Progress Shots
The gun base I started with was a water gun from my company's props stock. I then cut out the cylinder and replaced it with a piece of a whiskey shot bottle filled with battery-powered LEDs for that magical floating bullet look. I also rigged up my sound system at this stage. It is just a simple sound recorder/speaker my professor recommended. I recorded the sound directly from a YouTube video. I then bulked the piece with foam and covered it with Epoxy and air dry clay before sanding and painting. The last step of my process was aging the gun and giving it that post-apocalyptic, overgrown feel that the Kipo animators do so well. I went for blood on the gun to not only nod to it being aged, but also to show its function. I wanted the back of the barrel to have a knife-like point that could in theory be used for stabbing or crushing things. The sculpting process was a bit new to me, as it was my first time working with 2 part Epoxy. I really liked the effect and strength of the Epoxy, but it was quite heavy, so I tried to bulk up the gun with air dry clay underneath the Epoxy. This was a mistake on my part, as it made sanding very difficult. The air dry clay had a tendency to crumble and fall apart easily, while the Epoxy took much longer to sand due to being a harder material. The result was a somewhat lumpy and bulky prop. I didn't mind the imperfections for this particular project though, because I knew I could cover the unsightly spots with moss. I went with a purple as the main color of the gun, since "Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts" tends to use a lot of warm purples, greens, and blues in its color palette. I figured a warm toned purple would fit right in. For the rest of the gun, I went with a metallic silver because I wanted to avoid using black for this project. I also added some bandages on the gun to add a level of comedy to it, as a nod to my source material and to the fantasy direction I wanted the gun to take. From here I was able to just sponge on my dirt and grime and add the moss.
Final Shots
More than anything, this project was a learning process. I learned by making this gun that air dry clay is not my friend if I want to make durable, lightweight props. The easy sculpting and sanding was not worth the long dry time, cracking, crumbling, and breaking I had to fight with during the sanding stages. Overall, though, I am incredibly proud of this project and love the way it turned out.
