Team Liquid Doubleshot - Hell, it's about time! (ORDERS / PAYMENT)

[itlnstln]

SUPLISE!

Actually nothing surprises me with Signature Plastics.
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[Wihl]

Well it's the eye, nose and mouth that simply do not work. I don't think they can ever be made to work unless SP suddenly gets new equipment. Can't get into my mail atm to retrieve the picture, will get it up in a sec. Looks like crap though.

I think that we will have to go without the eye, nose and mouth if we want this to happen.

Here is a preview until I get the picture up:

[iWuzHere]

[Wihl]

I sense a disturbance in the injection mold, as if dozens of geeks all cried out at once.

[mbc]

Well it's the eye, nose and mouth that simply do not work. I don't think they can ever be made to work unless SP suddenly gets new equipment. Can't get into my mail atm to retrieve the picture, will get it up in a sec. Looks like crap though.

I think that we will have to go without the eye, nose and mouth if we want this to happen.

Here is a preview until I get the picture up:

Show Image

It's time they invest a lot in their equipment to keep us happy and ordering stuff

[Wihl]

The only real solution I can see working is the following, here it is without eyes, mouth or nose: http://imgur.com/6ssHu
While the above would leave Mr Pony both blind and mute we would get an acceptable doubleshot.

Now here is what I recieved from SP. From this we've learned two things. First of all we now know what the TL horse will look like if it ever goes on crack. Second, we've learned that Signature Plastics are horrible at taking macro photos.
"Attached is a preliminary photo of the first test of the legend" - Melissa
http://i.imgur.com/wUryl.jpg

The colors are still dark blue / light blue. It's just the test mold thats black and white.

The regular Starcraft Protoss doubleshot is also quite pointy but the finished key for that looked a lot better. Sent them an email asking if that's really the best they can come up with for that design. Regardless, I think (I like repeating myself \o/) that the nose, mouth and eye is a no-go.

(If we do go without the stuff I mentioned above I'll refund anyone that wants to pull out of the group buy)

[Wihl]

Gee, in my porn biz I'm usually trying to make them appear skinnier, not fatter.
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(Attachment Link) 26030[/ATTACH]

I recommend you get into fetish porn ripster with dem fatties, I'm sure the profit margin is higher and it might be easier to capture a healthy market share in that nische. There's also the big gaping hole that needs filling now that both John Thompsons GGG studios and Max Hardcore have shut down.

[iWuzHere]

dat test mold horse looks like it is tripping serious balls

[demik]

yeah that test mold looks bad.

if you decide to go without eyes and mouth, you can still keep me in the group buy.

[cirE]

Now here is what I recieved from SP. From this we've learned two things. First of all we now know what the TL horse will look like if it ever goes on crack. Second, we've learned that Signature Plastics are horrible at taking macro photos.
"Attached is a preliminary photo of the first test of the legend" - Melissa
http://i.imgur.com/wUryl.jpg

Wha-What happened to the jaw?!

[Wihl]

I was in contact with Melissa who basically said figured I'd say it wasn't acceptable. She was gonna check and see if any improvements could be made.

[Zoop]

haha thats pretty funny, it looks like if the horse died and only the skeleton head was left

[Wihl]

Apparently part of my brain is american.

In other news, got the design without eye/mouth/nose OK'ed by Teamliquid. So I feel like that's a good alternative.

edit: going to bed so I wont be able to answer any PMs or questions for about 12 hours.

edit2: Just got a reply just now:

While the dimensions you have given me are within the requirements I have stated, what happens when the artwork goes to the machine is the CNC cutter traces along the outside edge (or even an edge slightly inside the outside edge) - creating a slightly larger image than what has been drawn (your image plus 1/2 of the cutter width that is tracing your image). The requirements that I have given are to allow enough room for the tool path of the cutter and still leave enough space for the plastic to flow through an area - this doesn't always mean that what we end up molding will be exactly like a computer generated picture - hence the limitations of 2-shot molding.

The smallest size cutter that we have is a 0.010" cutter - in practice: On the 'mane' of the horse, the black areas on the keycap are most likely the size you drew them at, plus 0.005" on either size (in essence it is 0.010" bigger than what you have drawn). We can off-set a tool path to work inside an image and account for the size of the cutter, however in small areas, we might be sacrificing detail. The mouth for example, we can off-set the tool path on the lower jaw to make this black area larger, however it will make the inside of the mouth less detailed and smaller. Does this make sense?

I will send the modified image to the CNC machine - we are however several days behind in production and I don't foresee this happening until sometime next week. I will let you know when I have a picture for you.

Thank you for your patience!

[Ragnorock]

I think if you made some adjustments to the original image to compensate for the cutter it would look much better, to the point where it would look good enough to keep the eyes and mouth. The mouthless eyeless one looks decent I suppose, but I would prefer a modified original one... I'm in either way, don't worry about refunding my money.

[Wihl]

If they can do it smaller it might end up looking ok but I'm not holding my breath. We'll see what happens.

[Wihl]

I think if you made some adjustments to the original image to compensate for the cutter it would look much better, to the point where it would look good enough to keep the eyes and mouth. The mouthless eyeless one looks decent I suppose, but I would prefer a modified original one... I'm in either way, don't worry about refunding my money.

I'll see what they'll come up with when they modify their CNC settings.

[simplexity]

I'm still in either with or without nose/eye

[mbc]

looks like the tl horse evil twin

Edit:
btw wouldnt it be easier for them to do it this way:
[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 26062[/ATTACH]
so the thinner parts would be done in the second shot....
edit2: hm.. the open mouth prob wouldn't work

[peda]

i am still confident that they can improve on it and we will get a good end-result.

[aggiejy]

IMO, even a slight improvement may be good enough... you have to keep in mind how small this will actually be on the key.  Looking at a blown up picture doesn't look pretty, but the actual size will be something small like this:

[simplexity]

That makes it actually look decent, just some small improvements and I would be more than happy ^^;;

[Ragnorock]

Yeah I mean, it looks pretty good to me as it is, more sinister if anything and imo that makes it more badass.

[bananaboy2]

O_O

[cirE]

In other news, got the design without eye/mouth/nose OK'ed by Teamliquid. So I feel like that's a good alternative.

Well yeah, because then it ceases to be the Team Liquid logo...

Yeah I mean, it looks pretty good to me as it is, more sinister if anything and imo that makes it more badass.

I don't think so. I'll always look at the key and view it as messed up. No thank you.

I really hope they can do a better job...

[Wihl]

Well yeah, because then it ceases to be the Team Liquid logo...

Well I've been in contact with them from the start, they've been fine with all the different versions. Lets wait til they send me the next test.

[iWuzHere]

How long till the next test?

[Wihl]

How long till the next test?

Sometime this week is as specfic as I've got.

[iWuzHere]

Sometime this week is as specfic as I've got.

is it next week yet?

[Wihl]

is it next week yet?

Tried to get in contact with them yesterday but never got a reply. Tried again today but.. they don't seem to work on friday. What kind of a company doesn't work on fridays -_-'

[jpm804]

Tried to get in contact with them yesterday but never got a reply. Tried again today but.. they don't seem to work on friday. What kind of a company doesn't work on fridays -_-'

Its actually still thursday here in the states if you are talking about SP..

[Ragnorock]

^^^ This. It is currently 1:52PM over here in the Pacific time zone. ^.^

Methinks they haven't responded because there is nothing to report yet.

[dreamingftw]

Getting anxious about these orders. Hope they turn out alright because I'm looking forward to the keys.

[Wihl]

Nothing yet, hoping I'll get the results next week.

[Khenra]

Is it at all possible to still get in on this? I would really like one of those keys (or 3, actually). I know the OP says it is closed, but since the caps haven't been made yet...

[Wihl]

Is it at all possible to still get in on this? I would really like one of those keys (or 3, actually). I know the OP says it is closed, but since the caps haven't been made yet...

 I'll probably have a few extra once the dust settles that I'll send out.

[skyride]

I'm definitely interested in buying 2 if you have a few extra.

[Khenra]

Is it at all possible to still get in on this? I would really like one of those keys (or 3, actually). I know the OP says it is closed, but since the caps haven't been made yet...

Great! Be sure to let me know, I'll definitely take a few of them off your hands. Might buy more and hand them out at a local Barcraft evening. I'll be following this thread closely

[Wihl]

Got a reply saying they haven't had time to make the second test yet because they're several days behind in production. Sorry for the delay, not much I can do.

btw, once every thing is done with this group buy I'd appreciate it people could give me som feedback (Feedback Score link below the name). I'd appreciate both positive and negative points as long as it's constructive

[Ragnorock]

No worrys man, you're getting nothing but positive feedback from me. SP is just busy. That's all. I talked to Melissa yesterday and she said she's doing 40 orders a day right now lol.

[Wraul]

I'll probably have a few extra once the dust settles that I'll send out.

That's great to hear. I caught this thread a little to late. I will definitely take 2-3 keys if you get some leftovers.

[fluxrez]

also willing to grab 2 of these.  I won't get my hopes up though

[bananaboy2]

Any news?

[Ragnorock]

Last I heard from Melissa it was going to be about a week, but when I asked her about it she said she'd talk to her production staff about it and get it going. That was 3 days ago.

Either way, once it starts production their lead time is about a month at the moment, so expect them around Thanksgiving.

[Wihl]

Still waiting to hear back from SP. So slow

[kingqway]

If only I saw this thread sooner

[Clydae]

I hope there is a second round for this D:

[BiNiaRiS]

Why don't we switch the colors and do a dye sub so it looks perfect.

Sent from my EVO

[hashbaz]

Why don't we switch the colors and do a dye sub so it looks perfect.

Ooh that's not a bad idea.

[Ragnorock]

Why would you even need to change the colors? At the price he charged per keycap, that's certainly possible...

[Wihl]

We'll see when the next test gets back if it's good enough. If we come to the conclusion that it is impossible to do a good looking doubleshot version I'll gladly look into alternatives.