Re: man of steel costume and physique
sheol, that is all solid advice and that is what this thread is all about. i actually have that arnold encyclopedia myself, that thing is huge. you could almost use it to do some curls lol. but it is full of good tips and no shortage of exercises in there to stop your routine from going stale.
sorry for the lack of updates in the thread been away on vacation so workouts sort of fell behind too. was actually at a new crossfit box that just opened in my home town. it was awesome, really great having a group of people doing the workout with you to encourage you to work that wee bit harder. i would love to commit to it but i dont have the time or money to make their schedule and cost. the trainer there was also a little closed minded in my opinion. now i will admit i can be too when it comes to certain exercise. but i was explaining to him i have had some back trouble in the past and was working on correcting it, and i think it has been working, i have noticed a fantastic improvement in my posture, people are commenting how i seem taller and more confident. but anyway i was explaining the work i was doing to isolate those muscles that are lagging behind and giving me poor posture and he basically wrote that off. he said why bother to do that when you can do one movement that will work all those muscles (a compound movement essentially) now i am not a trainer but i consider myself well informed in some aspects of exercise, i love to read about all this sort of stuff and in some depth too. and i couldn't believe what he was saying. maybe he misunderstood what i was talking about but he was criticizing it because it was too much like bodybuilding. but in my opinion my problem started because i over trained the so called "mirror muscles" and neglected my back and things like sitting at a desk etc led to poor posture and weak muscles. and other larger muscles in my back had to over compensate for the problem and without correcting that you would only be building on a poor foundation. you would of course still be training those weak muscles but not giving the attention they need to prevent over compensation by the other muscles thus not fixing the problem. perhaps making it worse. please excuse my rant, i just couldn't believe the trainer would ignore something like a muscle imbalance. it seemed like he was reading from a prepared script that was all about how crossfit is the answer to everything. now please dont think i am having a go at crossfit, i think its amazing and it works, no doubt about that it just seems he was drinking from the "koolaid" too much. other than that the class was very enjoyable and also pushed me to my limit. and the trainer was very good when it came to teaching form on the over head squat which is what we were doing that night.
i think though i will stick to my own routine, i can pick and choose and also focus on my own specific goals, but i think for anyone looking to just improve all aspects of their fitness, crossfit is a very good option. and i am sure it will take off in my town and people will think i am crazy for not sticking with it lol
now onto suit updates. as of today all of my suit samples have arrived. the first was from citrus rain in the uk. the second from rasmart, another uk company and the third and final was from fabric on demand.
on the left is rasmart, the middle is fabric on demand and the right is citrus rain.
the citrus rain sample i posted pics of in an earlier post so i wont post more, but i would like to compare the three of them. the citrus rain is the worst. it and the rasmart samples were both from carls mkI suit were as the fabric on demand is from the mkII (an awesome suit btw)
the citrus rain sample was very dark and lacked any great detail and citrus have yet to respond to my emails regarding it. they asked for a pic and they havent replied since, that is nearly 2 months ago. not great service in my opinion.
the rasmart sample is fantastic in terms of quality. it is so crystal clear.
and the print is saturated the whole way through the fabric
meaning when it is stretched there is none of the "whiting" out you sometimes see in the fabric like the elbows and knees of some suits including my raimi suit. the only problem is they mentioned they had some trouble getting the file printed, something to do with the print porcess and the sample itself looks distorted. the \s/ seems out of shape. almost like the fabric moved in the printer or something. also the fabric doesn't have as much stretch as the other samples. which might rule it out, the last thing you want is the suit becoming baggy every time you put it on.
which brings me to the fabric on demand sample.
it is very good, looks fantastic in real life. very clear print and has good stretch to it. it does seem to "white" out a bit when stretched. not sure if this will be a problem since it will be covered in puff paint. like i said this is off carls mkII suit so there are some awesome improvements. the piping looks more 3d, it actually fooled my dad, he reached out to touch it thinking it was an applied piece so that speaks volumes about carls efforts it achieving the look. the \s/ also looks better thanks to the bevel carl has added to the edge of it helping it give that raised look. also i cant say if this is fabric on demand or the file but i can also clearly see the chainmail detail on the \s/which i couldn't in the previous samples. it is almost non existent in the citrus rain sample. i added a shadow effect to the yellow parts of the shield to help look more like the original and that detail can be seen clearly too. hope it shows in the pics. i might over exaggerate the shadow for the full suit since i will be painting over it and the effect might become lost. another thing with the fabric on demand suit, it seems to have a bit of a green hue in the blue, at least to my eyes anyway. it doesnt really show up in photos but i will email them about it and see if there is something i can adjust in the suit to get the blue to be more "truer"
i started to paint the fabric on demand suit, it really starts to come alive with the paint added. it is a bit rough, but its is practice. might do what carl suggested and fully paint it then frame it and hang it on the wall. i might see if carl will consider doing a puff paint specific suit where the chainmail is a contrasting colour to the rest of the suit to make it easier to see. it can be hard to pick it out sometimes in the more shadowed areas leaving me to guess it a little bit.
all in all i think the suit is coming along way. i think i will go with fabric on demand for the full suit. they were fantastic with their customer service and the sample is very impressive and i know they are familiar with these sorts of prints. rasmart were fantastic with their customer service and i might go with them because their sample is incredible but their fabric i think will let them down, also their turnaround time was quite long, just over 2 months to get the sample, and it was an expensive sample too. if they could perfect the process and improve the fabric so it had more stretch i think i would go with them. i have some thinking to do lol
something i have been thinking about is how to make the cape. i still havent decided on the fabric yet, need better reference pics of it. cant decide if suede or velvet is closer. the velvet is def lighter and will probably move better in the breeze. but i think i have my pattern figured out. the problem will be the length. it is very long and i would like to achieve a seamless cape if possible.
sorry for the wait in the updates, was waiting until i had something to post.
hopefully i can kick the workouts up a notch and start posting progress pics and reports for that stuff too
sheol, that is all solid advice and that is what this thread is all about. i actually have that arnold encyclopedia myself, that thing is huge. you could almost use it to do some curls lol. but it is full of good tips and no shortage of exercises in there to stop your routine from going stale.
sorry for the lack of updates in the thread been away on vacation so workouts sort of fell behind too. was actually at a new crossfit box that just opened in my home town. it was awesome, really great having a group of people doing the workout with you to encourage you to work that wee bit harder. i would love to commit to it but i dont have the time or money to make their schedule and cost. the trainer there was also a little closed minded in my opinion. now i will admit i can be too when it comes to certain exercise. but i was explaining to him i have had some back trouble in the past and was working on correcting it, and i think it has been working, i have noticed a fantastic improvement in my posture, people are commenting how i seem taller and more confident. but anyway i was explaining the work i was doing to isolate those muscles that are lagging behind and giving me poor posture and he basically wrote that off. he said why bother to do that when you can do one movement that will work all those muscles (a compound movement essentially) now i am not a trainer but i consider myself well informed in some aspects of exercise, i love to read about all this sort of stuff and in some depth too. and i couldn't believe what he was saying. maybe he misunderstood what i was talking about but he was criticizing it because it was too much like bodybuilding. but in my opinion my problem started because i over trained the so called "mirror muscles" and neglected my back and things like sitting at a desk etc led to poor posture and weak muscles. and other larger muscles in my back had to over compensate for the problem and without correcting that you would only be building on a poor foundation. you would of course still be training those weak muscles but not giving the attention they need to prevent over compensation by the other muscles thus not fixing the problem. perhaps making it worse. please excuse my rant, i just couldn't believe the trainer would ignore something like a muscle imbalance. it seemed like he was reading from a prepared script that was all about how crossfit is the answer to everything. now please dont think i am having a go at crossfit, i think its amazing and it works, no doubt about that it just seems he was drinking from the "koolaid" too much. other than that the class was very enjoyable and also pushed me to my limit. and the trainer was very good when it came to teaching form on the over head squat which is what we were doing that night.
i think though i will stick to my own routine, i can pick and choose and also focus on my own specific goals, but i think for anyone looking to just improve all aspects of their fitness, crossfit is a very good option. and i am sure it will take off in my town and people will think i am crazy for not sticking with it lol
now onto suit updates. as of today all of my suit samples have arrived. the first was from citrus rain in the uk. the second from rasmart, another uk company and the third and final was from fabric on demand.
on the left is rasmart, the middle is fabric on demand and the right is citrus rain.
the citrus rain sample i posted pics of in an earlier post so i wont post more, but i would like to compare the three of them. the citrus rain is the worst. it and the rasmart samples were both from carls mkI suit were as the fabric on demand is from the mkII (an awesome suit btw)
the citrus rain sample was very dark and lacked any great detail and citrus have yet to respond to my emails regarding it. they asked for a pic and they havent replied since, that is nearly 2 months ago. not great service in my opinion.
the rasmart sample is fantastic in terms of quality. it is so crystal clear.
and the print is saturated the whole way through the fabric
meaning when it is stretched there is none of the "whiting" out you sometimes see in the fabric like the elbows and knees of some suits including my raimi suit. the only problem is they mentioned they had some trouble getting the file printed, something to do with the print porcess and the sample itself looks distorted. the \s/ seems out of shape. almost like the fabric moved in the printer or something. also the fabric doesn't have as much stretch as the other samples. which might rule it out, the last thing you want is the suit becoming baggy every time you put it on.
which brings me to the fabric on demand sample.
it is very good, looks fantastic in real life. very clear print and has good stretch to it. it does seem to "white" out a bit when stretched. not sure if this will be a problem since it will be covered in puff paint. like i said this is off carls mkII suit so there are some awesome improvements. the piping looks more 3d, it actually fooled my dad, he reached out to touch it thinking it was an applied piece so that speaks volumes about carls efforts it achieving the look. the \s/ also looks better thanks to the bevel carl has added to the edge of it helping it give that raised look. also i cant say if this is fabric on demand or the file but i can also clearly see the chainmail detail on the \s/which i couldn't in the previous samples. it is almost non existent in the citrus rain sample. i added a shadow effect to the yellow parts of the shield to help look more like the original and that detail can be seen clearly too. hope it shows in the pics. i might over exaggerate the shadow for the full suit since i will be painting over it and the effect might become lost. another thing with the fabric on demand suit, it seems to have a bit of a green hue in the blue, at least to my eyes anyway. it doesnt really show up in photos but i will email them about it and see if there is something i can adjust in the suit to get the blue to be more "truer"
i started to paint the fabric on demand suit, it really starts to come alive with the paint added. it is a bit rough, but its is practice. might do what carl suggested and fully paint it then frame it and hang it on the wall. i might see if carl will consider doing a puff paint specific suit where the chainmail is a contrasting colour to the rest of the suit to make it easier to see. it can be hard to pick it out sometimes in the more shadowed areas leaving me to guess it a little bit.
all in all i think the suit is coming along way. i think i will go with fabric on demand for the full suit. they were fantastic with their customer service and the sample is very impressive and i know they are familiar with these sorts of prints. rasmart were fantastic with their customer service and i might go with them because their sample is incredible but their fabric i think will let them down, also their turnaround time was quite long, just over 2 months to get the sample, and it was an expensive sample too. if they could perfect the process and improve the fabric so it had more stretch i think i would go with them. i have some thinking to do lol
something i have been thinking about is how to make the cape. i still havent decided on the fabric yet, need better reference pics of it. cant decide if suede or velvet is closer. the velvet is def lighter and will probably move better in the breeze. but i think i have my pattern figured out. the problem will be the length. it is very long and i would like to achieve a seamless cape if possible.
sorry for the wait in the updates, was waiting until i had something to post.
hopefully i can kick the workouts up a notch and start posting progress pics and reports for that stuff too