This week, I sit down with a customizer who’s gotten a lot of publicity lately, Liquidisk!
His responses are short and sweet, but tell you everything you need to know. Enjoy!
CTV: Are there any tools that you couldn’t live without?
Liquidisk: Pencil, x-acto, loop tools.
CTV: What inspired you to get into customizing?
Liquidisk: I’ve always liked to make things even as a kid. I would generally make accessories for my characters but I rarely modified them so much that they can’t be returned to their original state. So I turned to building things from scratch. This allowed me more freedom to do things that I wanted to, without the restrictions of existing structures.
CTV: Have you ever customized for family/friends? What do they think of your hobby?
Liquidisk: My wife is very supportive of my sculpting.
CTV: What would you say your specialty is?
Liquidisk: I sculpt more than I kitbash, and I tend to focus on creating something different or innovative with each project. I also design and sculpt my own articulation/joint systems/mechanisms.
CTV: How do you choose which character to make?
Liquidisk: When I see something interesting about that character or that concept. It can be a sculpting challenge or an engineering one, etc. For example, I once designed a movie Batmobile with self-contained shield (or cocoon). The challenge I set out for myself is to make a completely functional shield that folds into the Batmobile itself and not have the shield be a removable thing. The design worked, but I wasn’t interested in sculpting the Batmobile itself–just the mechanism to make the shield work. After I’ve finished sculpting the functional shield, I considered the project done. Or sometimes, there would be people saying that a certain idea isn’t workable, that it’s an impossible task. So I’ll try to think of ways to make that idea workable. Not to prove it to anybody else, but as a mental exercise and a personal challenge. I may not always sculpt it afterwards even if I find solutions for that problem. Sometimes it’s enough for me to know that I found solutions for it.
CTV: What is your favorite custom (that you’ve done)?
Liquidisk: For now that would be the female body I sculpted.
CTV: Where did you learn how to paint?
Liquidisk: I actually illustrate and paint. Painting is one of the things I did early on. So it was just a matter of applying that skill set to another, in this case sculpting.
CTV: How do you decide which parts to use?
Liquidisk: I rarely kitbash. I’m more inclined to sculpt the whole thing myself. The most enjoyable thing for me is to invent something new to fit a particular purpose I had in mind.
CTV: How do you decide how much to charge for a commission?
Liquidisk: Depends on how much time/effort the project would take.
CTV: What is the craziest commission you ever received?
Liquidisk: Nothing really crazy, just obscure stuff.
CTV: Do you listen to music while you customize?
Liquidisk: Sometimes. I’m more likely to watch TV while sculpting. Either a movie, or a TV series that I didn’t have time for previously.
CTV: Do you have any kooky customizing habits?
Liquidisk: Not really. Although I don’t own a dremel, and I have to do all the sanding by hand.
CTV: Do you have any art backgrounds that enable you to customize more efficiently?
Liquidisk: I’m self-taught in painting and sculpting, but I do have a degree in Fine Arts.
CTV: Your new female body sculpt is wonderful, a true testament to your sculpting abilities. Where did you learn to sculpt?
Liquidisk: I believe we bring everything we learned into all that we do. People tend to be surprised when they find out that I took up Theoretical and Applied Physics. Their first reaction is to always tell me how totally disparate those two disciplines are–an imagined science vs art–and I’d always reply that they’re only disparate if you want them to be. Intuition does not conflict with the scientific method. They complement each other. The same way with the female sculpt. I didn’t agree that we have to choose between sculpt and articulation, so I sought to have them complement each other.
CTV: What do you like most about customizing? What do you like least?
Liquidisk: I love almost everything about it. The conceptualization, the designing, the sculpting and the painting. Casting is the most tedious part. For me, casting is just work that takes time away from doing the more fun things.
CTV: What type of process do you go through as you customize?
Liquidisk: I generally work out a particular design in my head, turning the design around till all the parts work. I then put it to paper as a blueprint. Sculpting is putting physicality into that concept.
CTV: What does your workspace look like?
Liquidisk: The whole table is filled with all the references, tools, materials, and everything else I need.
CTV: Is there one thing about your own style of customizing you’d like to change?
Liquidisk: Not exactly style, but I can certainly use more space. It’d be great to actually work in a larger workspace.
CTV: Do you consider yourself "one of the greats?"
Liquidisk: That’s not really for me to say. I tend to do my own thing, and have my own goals and purposes for doing them. There are certain sets of challenges I put for myself, and I’m only too happy to meet them. So the work I do are personal challenges.
CTV: Do you own any one else’s customs?
Liquidisk: Not yet.
CTV: Do you keep your own customs?
Liquidisk: Yes.
CTV: You are noted for being able to make beautiful customs from scratch. How do you do it?
Liquidisk: I start with a certain idea. I keep working on that idea till I reach a point where I’m satisfied with it. I sculpt it in my head, I work out the engineering, I mentally test materials and methods to physically create that idea. The next thing would be to bring it to physical reality. I’d draw a blueprint or turnaround, and from that blueprint I’ll sculpt that original idea. I would then keep working on it till I’m satisfied with it.
CTV: Who is your favorite customizer?
Liquidisk: There are a lot. Zombihamma is a pro. The work he does is gorgeous. Doubledealer doesn’t just customize, he customizes with style. Pabs’ figurative sculpt has that casual strength that I love. Glorbes reinvents everything beautifully. Robokillah pushes the boundaries of painting.
CTV: What was the first custom you ever made? Do you have pics?
Liquidisk: That was a very long time ago–over two decades. One of the earlier ones would be a fully transformable Optimus Prime made of paper. No pics, though.
CTV: Do you have an ultimate goal in regards to your customizing?
Liquidisk: To push things as far as they can go.
CTV: Do you have any words for customizers just starting out?
Liquidisk: We all have different reasons for being in this hobby, but I think we all do it because we love it. Keep it fun, keep it interesting. In the end, that’s all that really matters.
Liquidisk’s custom gallery: http://www.thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10658
Discuss this interview: http://www.thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39349