Friday, November 13, 2009

Snail Mail

All the joys of classic mail in one handy, portable mailbox!

Snail Mail fits in with other 'communication' themed items I've been making over the past few months. I've been enjoying myself so much combining this concept with vintage influences to create cute, tongue-in-cheek items. On this new backpack you'll find: mailbox, blinking snail, packages, duct tape, stamps, note, letters, fountain pen, ink pot, cables and more! Making Snail Mail was challenging, but I really pushed myself in terms of sculpting and lighting. Hopefully it shows :)

Sales poster!


Both sides of the mailbox. I hadn't put anything truly personal on my creations up until this point, but I couldn't help myself with this backpack. So I added some 'vandalism', which you can see on the side with the package. I ignored a certain someone who thought it didn't really fit :P


Blinking snail, holding a stamp with my store logo on it. I'll probably release this little guy separately and in more colors very soon. I actually have a couple of ideas for him, not sure which ones to go forward with yet.


The package on the left side of the mailbox. I think the shadowing looks especially good here. This backpack is the first project where I used shadows so extensively. I didn't feel comfortable doing it in the past because shadows can turn out messy if not done right. (And lighting has definitely been a learning process for me.) In the end it meant a lot of extra rendering, but it does make a huge difference in my opinion.


For the stamp on this package I scanned a drawing I did as a kid. At first I'd planned to use creative commons pics off of Flickr. Then I decided to play it safe instead, so all the stamps are images I made myself.


Part of the fountain pen, and an ink pot. The whole cable mechanism looks great I think. The shadowing is more subtle here perhaps, but it does give it that extra something to make it look more real. I need to find another project to use these locks in, because I don't feel like parting with them yet.


The front package, a note and an opened envelope. You can just about see the backside of my Benny the Bear on the stamp :P


Closeup of the fountain pen and the stamps on the right side of the mailbox. The pen certainly deserved to be on another creation, after I made it for my Mobile Phone. The texture for the pen point was probably the one I spent the most time on, ever. Two of the stamp pics are of me, the middle one of my good friend Dave Weir :)


Letter dropping in the letter slot. Random combinations get made from a total of 5 stamp and 5 envelope designs. Letters drop every 30 seconds to 3 minutes. All the names and addresses are made up of course, though I did look up actual towns and ZIP codes. For the stamps I again used pics by me, which can all be found on my Flickr as well.


And finally, the lock on the other side. It seems to catch the light even better here. There's actually another lock at the bottom of the mailbox, but you'd really have to cam under to see that one.


There we are :)

Snail Mail is mod/copy and priced at L$450. I was mindful of prim size limits again and made sure this backpack can go very, very small. Should be fine for all child avatars. I hope you'll enjoy your purchase. This item is truly one of a kind <3


4 comments:

Chance Greatrex said...

wow! that looks amazing!

Anya Yalin said...

Thank you, Chance :)
Was a lot of work, but really worth it in the end.

▓▒░ TORLEY ░▒▓ said...

MAGNITUDES of dorbleness. Gonna tumble and tweet this. :)

Anya Yalin said...

Thanks, Torley :D
Really glad you like it.