Turret-tan by xCarmle was quite good, just far too immature for the story *I* had in mind (Youtube video with the link taken down… is it a curse or what? no idea if the model is still available anywhere). In fact, after sifting out blatantly newcomer’ish attempts at modeling, WIPs that looked promising on pictures but never got released (or possibly were deleted before I ever had a chance), and stuff I plainly didn’t like, there were exactly two (*) Turret models worth attention: the one by The-Mystery-Raccoon (unfortunately, she moved to a new dA account since then, and all her previous works got winked out of existence, so I can’t give you a link to the original model), and another by UxieBunny (the account is still there, but the model page is no longer available either). There are lots of Chell models for every taste, and quite a few of decent GLaDOS versions… Turrets, though, are somewhat less numerous. It’s not that Portal franchise is overlooked by MMD makers. While I know about processes and tools involved in models’ creation, and with a right amount of diligence probably would be able to assemble something that doesn’t crumble in 10 seconds… my imagination doesn’t work in a way that allows to *visualize* a model that doesn’t exist yet. I needed a Portal Turret model… and making one myself wasn’t an option. I couldn’t just select between Rin and Teto based on which girl I like more, or replace Neru for IA because of a better TDA rendition available. Of course, since it was not just a random music video, but a *story*, I was naturally limited in my choice of models. In fact, if I don’t waste too much time, I might finish it yet before Christmas. I knew it was a story I *wanted* to tell, I knew that I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t, and, fortunately, I felt that unlike some *other* ideas for videos that I had, ideas that would require animation skills far higher than I’ll ever be able to muster, this one could be quite doable and even rather easy. In particular, there are more than a few songs that make me think “Hey, *that* would make a nice Chell/GLaDOS/Wheatley/whatever video, it fits just well!”Īnd so, there was one day that I was listening to the playlist of favorites in my phone, and the “Bang Bang” from Kill Bill got summoned by the random numbers generator, and the line “he was black, and I was white” sounded in its own turn… and suddenly it occurred to me that it might be about these two turrets… and the song went on, and pieces of the picture kept clicking flawlessly one next to another… and to the moment it was over, the whole story was in my head, from the beginning to the end - the story of two souls living in an enclosed microcosm of Aperture Science, where nothing beyond this tiny universe ever exists to its inhabitants the story of an unexpected friendship in a place where friendly voice usually means death and where caring is not a part of any test protocol the story of a weird bonding between those whose only intended purpose was to aim and kill… the story with a sad ending, because, in Aperture, that’s the only approved kind. In a vast pool of things that regularly invoke unexpected associations, untimely reminiscences, and inappropriate cultural references in my head on every possible occasions and without, Portal universe has a place of honor. Songs from the game periodically surface in my playlist, my dA page is full of related stuff, and it’s quite often for me to respond to things people say with rather GLaDOS-like intonations and manner of speech (fortunately, my close ones don’t mind). In fact, it was looking for Portal videos that became the very reason I got acquainted with MMD in the first place (that’s a story of its own), and eventually tried my own hand in it (domo sumimasen, Miku-san, but I’m here not because of *you*). Well, in case it isn’t obvious, I’m a Portal junkie. Final parts of the video are modeled after that part of the game. Those that fail the evaluation are sent to the incinerator. This video, essentially, is just one of those “shippings”, a classical boy-meets-girl story… only that… this is Aperture.ĭuring the course of Portal 2 game, we eventually visit the “ turret factory” area, where turrets are manufactured, assembled, tested in a gunfire range, and then scanned against a reference model. In game, they’re just minor adversaries (well, the regular ones are the defective ones are more of a comic relief), but thanks to their distinct personalities, fans dig them: make pictures and videos with them, humanize them (well, for any MMDer that’s not something new can anybody say “Kantai Collection”?), cosplay them… and occasionally ship them. This time, main characters are Aperture Science Sentry Turrets: a regular one (white) and a defective one (black). What did I just see, who are these people, and why should I care? (Oh, all right, and how was it made, too)Īs practically everything I do in MMD, it’s a Portal based story.
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