Many of you figured it out from our Facebook teaser, but the cat is now officially out of the bag. We’re working with the talented Rob Reger to bring you Emily the Strange MAQETs! That’s right: it’s the same Emily you love, but now as new collectible, customizable PlastinTM figurines! This will be a truly unique opportunity to co-create and collaborate with Rob on your very own personal Emily. An official press release is forthcoming, but we’re so excited, we couldn’t help but shout it out! Happy Valentine’s Day indeed
Our friend Dirty Donny is opening Vantastic Voyage, a solo show of 1970s science fiction-inspired paintings on February 25th at Copro Gallery in Santa Monica. Wish we could be there! The new work will also feature 10 hand-painted metal flake 20-sided gaming dice. More on those in the future…but for now, we continue with February’s “I Heart ___” theme with this Dirty Donny Dankeschoen, wearing a real metal flake helmet painted by Dirty Donny!
Sometimes simple and clean is the best design. (Sorry, dreaded SF Danke!)
Sergey Safonov customized this Dankeschoen bear by Shin + Nao with one of his original Valentine’s tattoo designs.
You can do the same thing with our new festive stamps. We are guaranteeing all MAQETs made and ordered by tomorrow, Thursday afternoon (with domestic overnight shipping) will be received by Valentine’s Day. Create your own now!
There’s still time to make and send original 3D Valentines with MAQET’s Character Designer. We asked our artists to design arty, hearty graphics for you to “stamp” or “brush” onto MAQETs.
This is just a selection of the stamps designed for MAQET by Shin + Nao, Yosiell and upcoming MAQET artist, Sergey Safonov. Each character has different graphics available. Combine the festive “clip-art” with our T-shirt Bear tutorial for a truly personal Valentine!
We here at MAQET are cat people. We also like dogs. And birds. We’re big fans of animals in general.
But there’s a special place in our hearts for cats. Cats of all kinds. Left to right:
Typographic cats.
Vector cats.
Real cats.
Katz Deli.
Cat memes.
Cat-5 cables.
(We also have a sense of humor.)
All you need is a cat and our tutorial, and you can make an awesome MAQET Valentine’s Day T-shirt bear. There’s no better way to tell your cat how much you love him/her. (Although we highly recommend a can of wet food in conjunction with the gift of a MAQET…)
Find out how to make your own MAQET Valentine T-shirt bears here!
It’s not too late to give your sweetheart a unique keepsake that really comes from the heart. In just a few quick steps, you can make your own personalized Valentine bear with a T-shirt that answers the question: Who or what do YOU love? Order by February 9th with overnight delivery or by February 6th with priority shipping to get your original MAQET (small $22 | large $42) by February 14th! (Dates apply to domestic shipping only.) MAQETs are vibrant, full-color collectibles, made of Plastin®, a porcelain-like material with a smooth, shiny finish. We bet your Valentine’s ex never gave a gift this cool!
There are two ways to customize your MAQET Valentine bear:
Use our free, online digital drawing and painting tools.
We wrote this tutorial with our Valentine’s Day T-shirt bears in mind, but it holds true for other holidays and regular old days alike. You can find all DIY MAQET characters in the Create Your Own area. Below is a brief tutorial for making your own special 3D Valentine. Of course, it doesn’t have to be February 14th to tell that special someone you love them!
The Character Designer will open. (For simplicity, we’ll use green in this tutorial.)
Click the paintbrush icon to open the online tools palette and begin customizing your MAQET.
You will see a variety of drawing and painting tools on a palette on your left hand side.
Click on a graphic from the palette to select it. You’ll notice that the cursor changes to a stamper icon. In the example above, we’ve chose the “His-n-Hers” stamp.
Mouse over to the position on the template where you wish to place the stamp. If you hover over the spot without clicking, the stamper will display a preview of the stamp you chose.
Color is set to black by default, so if you’re using the black T-shirt template, you may need to change the color of the stamp in order to see it. To do this, just click within the rainbow on the palette and you’ll notice your color choice immediately indicated in the circle below.
If the stamp is too big or too small, you can change its size by dragging the triangle underneath the size adjuster from 1 (smallest) to 10 (largest).
When you’re ready, click your mouse to stamp the template. To use the stamper as a paintbrush, click and drag.
Experiment with the tools and have fun! You can always click the Undo button to erase your last step.
We wrote this tutorial with our Valentine’s Day T-shirt bears in mind, but it holds true for other holidays and regular old days alike. You can always find MAQET character templates and information here. Below is a brief tutorial for making your own special 3D Valentine. Of course, it doesn’t have to be February 14th to tell that special someone you love them!
Your download will look like this: a “flattened out” version of Shin + Nao’s Dankeschoen bear. Think of it like a coloring book. We have already started coloring it for you. (For simplicity, we’ll use pink in this tutorial.)
Open the template in your choice of design software. (We’re using Adobe Photoshop.)
Now have some fun! We found a clip-art cat and added it to the T-shirt. Experienced users can shift colors and change the bear’s expression as well.
Please do NOT change the size, DPI or file format of the template. When you’re finished, save it with any name you like, but keep it as a 2048×2048 .png.
Note: You can return to your template to make changes after you’ve viewed it in 3D. Uploading it to the Character Designer in the next step is NOT a commitment to purchase. When you are happy with your design, you will click Make it Real to bring your Valentine MAQET to life.
We’re often asked to explain how 3D printers work. Well, thankfully, Japanese-born, Canada-based artist, Hine Mizushima, created this wonderful explanation in animated gif form. So terrific! Any questions?
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