Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Gravity Gun for Child's Play

Last year, I got it in my head to put together a Portal Gun for the Penny Arcade Child's Play annual charity dinner in Seattle. Child's Play is an awesome cause, and one I am very happy to support. Gamers often get a pretty bad reputation in media and the public eye, but this organization has been pulling together millions of dollars for children's hospitals for years now and has really shown what our community is capable of. 

Well, last year went fantastically, and the auction is coming up again tomorrow. I really went down to the wire on this one, but this year I'll be bringing a Gravity Gun from Valve's Half Life franchise for auction.

 
The Gravity Gun has been a little bit of a combination of white-whale-unattainable and Sistine-Chapel-level-intimidating for me ever since I thought about getting into propmaking. Its complicated, intricate, and if I didn't get it just right, I'd have about a million gamers ready to tell me exactly why.


Normally I don't toss up show-off posts with just pictures, but as the auction is tomorrow, I really wanted to get the word out about this piece. If you'd like to contribute, certain lots will be available for proxy bidding over the phone. This means you don't necessarily have to be at the dinner in order to bid! If you're interested, please contact Jamie Dillion at jdillion@childsplaycharity.org to learn about remote participation.

I should note that the Portal Gun fetched a little more than twice what my car is worth, so if you're planning on proxy bidding then be prepared!


I will have a process blog post about the build of the Gravity Gun, as per my usual style, in the coming weeks. Until then, please enjoy these fantastic photos by my friend Dan Almasy. (Facebook in the link, Flickr here)


Finally, thank you to everyone in the gaming community for making things like this happen.

 
Thanks for reading, and happy holidays!

23 comments:

Special_Ops_Geoff said...

Very nice work....

Knightofashes said...

It's so intensely awesome! I don't know which one I like better, this or the Portal gun. No wait, I know...dual wielding both!
Volpin, you have the best job in the world.

Unknown said...

Abandon Warehouse... Classic.

Snook said...

That is absolutely fantastic. And so is the cause, congratulations on an awesome replica :)

Todd Brown said...

Masterfully executed.

beal said...

SO ridiculously awesome! A great piece of work for a great cause. Well done!

Unknown said...

It's OK, but you messed up the... um
you forgot the... hmm
and what about the... err

Nevermind. You nailed it. It's damn perfect.

tiff said...

I...want this so bad!!

Josiah said...

The detail is amazing! Well done!

Weaselhammer said...

Not only does your generous contributions help this great charity, but you have done a great service in getting the word out about it to people like me who can chip in something ourselves. Even if we can't afford to bid on outstanding pieces like this, there are alot of affordable ways to get on board and help through their website.

Jason said...

It's builds like yours that really got me back into making things. Keep up the good (scratch that), amazing work. Now if only I had enough to bid.

The Great Spaz said...

:The Zero Point Energy Manipulator is NOT a toy..."

I'm sorry CHHHHHHH you're breaking up.I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

This looks Better than it does in game. It's a fact, no one can deny it.

ZaCrazyMan said...

I'm really glad the cloth(duct tape stand-in) worked out well, and actually looks great.

Ivan said...

Just stopped by to say I love your work. I'm a big fan. I mostly follow you on Facebook though and hardly come to your main site. Decided while I was here I should comment.

Anonymous said...

great work!

Anonymous said...

You are an inspiration. Thank *you* for posting.

CX7000 said...

Will you be posting the creation process for this?

Uber said...

Uhm.

Sorry, but you did get 2 things wrong.
1. The color is lighter orange
2. The front end isn't that long

Harrison Krix said...

Uber, feel free to correct these oversights when you build your own Gravity Gun.

Pieman said...

I love it! Like all of your props, it looks awesome! How much did it auction off for?

Unknown said...

FUCK YES

Krazzyman said...

I was wondering if I could get the model you based the gun off of?

Unknown said...

This Gun is really unique in design.

Post a Comment