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Pimp my Ransai

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 11:24 pm
by Ho
The story of how this:
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became this:
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I first played pop'n music a little over a year ago when Secef brought his Ransai up for a visit to the Ho-House. I was instantly addicted and had to get it for myself. I placed an order for a Ransai soon after and received it a few weeks later.

Bryan, one of my friends from high school had had one of his friends, Justin, do some painting for him on a computer case and an arcade cabinet. The work was quite impressive. I had also seen some pictures of some of his other work. He's a full-time painter for an Indy car team, so he certainly knows his stuff.

I thought it would be really cool if he could paint a Ransai and contacted him about doing just that. We came to an agreement, and I ordered my Ransai in basic, no-frills white with the intention of having Justin paint it.

Unfortunately, a string of scheduling issues delayed the project for almost a full year...until last week. Last week Sunday I finally had the opportunity to meet with him and put the Ransai in his quite capable hands.

My main goal with all this was to attain a smooth and shiny finish for the controller, and I communicated that to him. I really didn't give him any other direction as to design. I just said I wanted it smooth and shiny. I mentioned that my favorite color is red and that I also like blue but that I would not be disappointed if he used neither.

I got an e-mail from him mid-week that he had come up with an idea and then another on Friday that he had completed the work and wanted to give it the weekend to dry. So on Monday I met him for lunch to pick it up.

He pulled it out under a towel and put it in my car to do the reveal. I was totally blown away by the result! I had full faith in him as an artist that he'd come up with something cool, but he totally exceeded all my expectations. This thing is really a sight to behold. Pictures hardly do it justice, but it's the best we can do on the Internet, so here we go...

At the beginning of this post is a picture of the Ransai the day I got it in its basic white paint. Following that is a similar shot of the controller after its custom paint job was complete.

Here's a front view of the controller
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Here's an overhead shot
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The following three shots are various closeups showing the detail and the metal flake in the paint.
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This picture shows the unbelieveable glossiness of the paint. You can see a practically perfect reflection of the glass blocks on the front of our bar on the surface of the controller. It feels like glass to the touch.
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This picture shows his tag "PainterGeek" ... afterall, you really should take credit for something this awesome!
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Finally, here is the controller setup in front of the TV, ready-to-play
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Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 11:42 pm
by SoDeepPolaris
I like it. Alas, I have not played Pop'n but if I did I'm sure I'd be jealous of a setup like that.

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 12:45 am
by LikeableRodent
Yes, you probably have one of the best looking Ransais currently in existence. Not that I keep up with that stuff, but it looks damn good.


I might as well throw out the obligatory "how much did it cost" question. So then, how much did it cost?

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:09 am
by ShammerS
Congratulations on a beauitulf ASC; you'll be Pop n' in style from here on out.

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 10:16 pm
by djfooboo
OMG that is about the coolest Pop'n controller I've ever seen. I like that there is a lot of empty space on Pop'n controllers, it's a canvas begging for expression.

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:31 am
by Ho
LikeableRodent wrote:I might as well throw out the obligatory "how much did it cost" question. So then, how much did it cost?
Is that obligatory now? I can remember getting yelled at as a kid for asking how much something cost. But I have noticed in the past four years or so that it gets asked a lot and most people don't seem to think anything of it. I don't really care either way, I just want to make sure I know which way the cultural tide is flowing.

To answer your question, this was not a straight cash transaction. Instead, it was some good old fashioned bartering. I upgraded and did some work on his computer, and he painted my Ransai. So we each put some money for materials into each other's project, but the real tradeout was on time and expertise.

He ended up putting about 11 hours into my Ransai. Painting of this caliber does not come fast or cheap. Had he been charging me by the hour like any normal person, and depending on whether he was charging me his shop's rate or his independent rate, I could have easily bought the Ransai all over again for the cost of this paint job...maybe twice!

There's at least six different kinds of paints on there and several layers of clearcoat. Each of those constitutes another step and therefore more time, not to mention taping off the design and masking out the areas that were not to be painted. Frankly, it would have been worth every penny--his work is absolutely outstanding! However, I doubt I would have made such an investment at that price level and would likely have opted for something much simpler.

As it stands, I will happily serve as his computer slave/consultant for a good long time to come. My work for him was quite utilitarian. I was fixing stuff and there was a clear beginning and end. His work is art. He agonized over it and put a lot of himself into it. He admitted himself that he went overboard on it. I totally understand that mentality. I'll stress over a couple pixels being out of place in a graphic design just to satisfy myself even though I know the client won't notice the difference. He took extra time as a matter of pride...and it shows!

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:48 am
by LikeableRodent
Well then, that answers my quesion.

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 2:45 pm
by hascoolnickname
Very nice- top quality job. Props to paintergeek, that definently takes some skill.