Hello and welcome back for another installment of Meet The Modders! This is Jon again bringing you back for more introspection on the people who top the modding scene here at TBCS and elsewhere throughout the modding world. This month it's my pleasure to introduce to you a modder who awed us all with his attention to detail, wide range of developmental interests, and revolutionary concepts. Meet Boddaker, a TBCS member since June of 2006, but he has been building stellar designs for much longer. Boddaker has a history of tinkering with fast cars and class act PC's and even has his own website proudly displaying his phenomenal work. Today I thought you'd enjoy getting to know more about what makes this man tick and having an opportunity to ask some questions of your own. If you're lucky, you might get an answer! So without further adieu, I proudly bring to the mic, Boddaker....
_________________________________________________
Boddaker, thanks so much for joining me for a sit down in our new series "Meet the Modders"!
How did you first become familiar with the idea of modding?
Well, I was always tinkering with cars along with my friends. We all had hot rods and raced at the drag strip every Wednesday night; we were also into paintballing. Soon after we got lazy and started playing FPS games on our computers, which was just like playing paintball in real life, so our attention changed from cars to computers, hot-rodding them instead. That's when I decided to be different; I put a light and window in my rig for the next geek-fest (as we called it) and so it began.
With a background in hot rods, which are often for "show" as much as for "go" so to speak, would you say that either aspect of your mods weighs more heavily than the other?
Back when I was messing with cars, I recall that performance took precedence over looks. Interestingly, with modding it seems to be the opposite; at least for me, looks are more important than performance, as I'm not an avid overclocker. Most of my prior builds are not rocket ships; Home Sweet Home was for my mom, using her old system which she used to check email. 737 was a bit better, taking my old gaming system and building it for my dad. Only now can I get newer, better hardware for my builds, thanks to my being sponsored and having won some cool kit in contests. I still haven't ventured into overclocking much at all, even though I have the components to do it: I think that will change with Trident. To answer your question, I think it's a 60/40 split with emphasis on looks.
Gaining sponsors is a very commonly asked question by modders everywhere, how did you find a sponsor and do you have any advice for folks who
have yet to learn the ropes?
I didn't get sponsored until I took the 737 case to GeForceLAN3, and got the attention of EVGA. After meeting with Joe and telling him about Mystique, he agreed to give me a video card. Sponsorship is a sort of give and take. Companies won't just give you hardware for free; it's an investment on their part. They're all about ROI (Return On Investment) so I had to tell Joe what kind of exposure I was expecting with Mystique, and where I was planning to show it. Fortunately at the time I had been asked by CoolerMaster to have it displayed in their booth at CeBit that year and I was taking it to PDXLAN and showdown LAN as well. So I got some great exposure for them in return for getting a great product. I guess my advice to beginners is to get a few mods under their belts so they have something to show a potential sponsor. Just saying how many views they have on their project log on a given forum won't be enough to peak their interest. Having a track record helps; placing in contests, magazine features, going to LANs, etc. LANs are great because you can talk to the vendors right there and they can see your work first-hand and that's how I got Crucial to sponsor me.
So you have a pretty extensive relationship with your sponsors, and a very respectable portfolio of mods under your belt to boot. How many
mods have you created by now?
Trident will be my 7th mod to date.
So now we know that you have experience modding cars and computers, does your modding instinct lead you to mod other types of things?
Pretty much anything crafty I come up with that is within my means, I will try to build. For example, I built a race car bed for my son a couple years back and will soon have to build one for my daughter as well. I try to do remodeling stuff around the house and yard, which saves money too. I should add that it sometimes backfires on me, because when I try to get out of doing something my wife just says "if you can build an airplane out of plastic, you can do this!"
Have you found that your experience with computer modding has affected the way you approach other projects?
I have noticed that I am more systematic in my projects now. Thanks to the forums, I'm persuaded to finish what I started; when my projects are out for public viewing, I'm motivated to post updates. If I'm working and resort to taking short cuts I stop and think "I cant show this on the forums" and I do it over the right way.
So aside from the motivation to finish a project and to keep the work clean, is there anything else you get out of posting your projects on community forums?
Most definitely. The modding community is great when it comes to criticisms, suggestions, ideas... and just the camaraderie that exists here. People sharing their experiences is what makes it invaluable as a resource for any project.
How many different forums do you post on, and do you have a favorite?
I post on 8 or so forums, but my favorites are TBCS (of course!), Bit-Tech, BoxGods, and Gruntville, where I started. They are all great sources though.
So about your mods, what do you do with them when you have completed the project? Are all of them in use?
All of them are still in use, except for Sideview. I had to cannibalize for the 737 mod due to lack of hardware. I don't like doing that. I want to keep each one as it is and move on. Sponsors and contests have helped me do that for my later mods. If you want to know where each one is, HSH is at my Moms, 737 is at my Dads, Mystique is residing in my living room as my HTPC, and BSG is my current gaming rig. My very first unnamed mod is currently a web server at my place of work.
Did any one particular project pose any extraordinary challenges? What were they and how did you overcome them?
I would say the biggest challenges for me were the 737 body and BSG's sliding blast door. For the 737, I had to come up with a way to form the shell of the fuselage. So I ended up designing and building my own vacuum forming table so I could mold the shape. That little venture took almost as long as the entire build. But I persevered and got it to work. BSG's blast doors were difficult to get the servos to work correctly with the door. Took many iterations and redesigns to get it working, and it barely works. I don't want to get into it too much, but basically the spool sizes differ just enough to cause slack in the door after a few open/close sequences.
You've worked with a wide variety of materials throughout your modding career, do you have any favorites by now? Why?
Good question. As far as metals go, I think I like aluminum best because of how easy it is to work with. For plastics, I really enjoyed using styrene on BSG; very easy to cut, bend and form into any shape I wanted, then just glue it.
How do you come up with ideas for new mods, do you have any particular sources for inspiration?
That's a hard question to answer because I never know when an idea or concept will materialize. Usually I'm doodling on note paper at work, and things just come out. For Trident I just came up with the idea to do a mod based on the number 3. I think I may have seen someone's rig that had three video cards in it and thought it would be cool to continue that throughout the case. It seemed to fit in at the time because processors were at 3Ghz, and DDR3 just came out. So I don't really know where my next idea will come from. It may come out of necessity, or it may just emerge from a dream I had the night before. As far as inspiration is concerned, it could come from any number of sources. A few that come to mind are: television, movies, car shows, and even furniture stores can spark a great idea for a new mod.
Once you have an idea in your head about your project, how do you plan out your build? Do you work with sketches, models, 3D graphics?
First I sketch out numerous concepts on paper (drawing by hand is still the quickest way to get something out of my head), variations on the theme, then when I get something I think I can work with I go into Sketchup to get a basic design laid out. Then I refine from there, adding more features as I go.
Do you have any advice for newcomers who are unaware of some of the bumps in the road when it comes to planning out their first project? More to the point, have you found any of these methods of planning to be limited or lead to problems?
I would say the more you can visualize your idea, the better. Sketchup is great for seeing your idea in 3D space and can reveal problem areas not readily seen by scribbling something on a cocktail napkin, but there will always be unforeseen problems that will only manifest themselves once you start building. Those you will have to deal with as you come to them, sometimes it means going back to the drawing board.
Speaking of design, there has been a long debate amongst modders as to whether art or engineering play the stronger role in modding. Do you have an opinion on this?
I think that in the world of modding, engineering IS art! To me they are one and the same. You can't have one without the other.
In this world of modding, do you have any heroes?
There are so many talented modders out there, and I have the utmost respect for all of them. I would say though that when I first started surfing the internet for mods, I came across Paul's Doom3 case. I think that impressed me the most and made me realize what was possible. Geno from BoxGods is another very talented modder. I'm constantly bouncing ideas off him and getting advice.
Has anyone ever tried to buy one of your mods from you, or commissioned you to do any work for them?
Not yet. I have received tons of emails about the BSG case though. There are lots of people wanting me to build them one, but when I tell them how long it would take and what it would cost I never hear from them again. A case mod like BSG is so hard to put a price tag on because it’s so involved and would take me so long to complete. Nobody wants to spend what I think it is worth.
Haha, how much would it cost me?
Let’s just say, if you have to ask, you probably can't afford it.
Is that something you are aiming at in the future? That is to say, commission mods or hardware?
I would like to do commission work for companies, or even private parties. It would be nice to actually get a serious inquiry for once.
So do you have the intention to start a business in computer hardware?
No, I think my modding will remain a hobby for now. I don't think I can devote the time a full-fledged modding business would demand. My modding time comes only after daddy time. When the kids go to bed, then I am free to go out to the garage. I am firm on that. Plus, if I made it a business, I don't think I would have as much fun. I don't know how Bill Owen does it to be honest.
Many of us who have been watching the modding scene over the past few years have witnessed how quickly the ideas of individual modders get scooped up by the computer industry and sold retail. How do you feel about that?
An unfortunate circumstance, I'm afraid that's the price we pay for showing our work to anyone and everyone. It would be nice to get paid for it, but I guess we just have to settle for 'imitation is the highest form of flattery'.
So in a sense, forums are helping these companies prey on young modder's ideas aren't they?
Yep. But I think we are helping the greater good in a way; sure our ideas get stolen by companies, but they use them to make their products better, so the consumer wins in the end and we just don't get the credit.
Do you think patenting our ideas is a possibility?
No, unless you have a ton of money. It takes a lot of capital to finance the patent application and renewal process. It's just not worth it and on top of that, once you actually get a patent, a company can come along and change just one minor thing on your design and 'make it their own'. Then they are free to market it without any recourse.
_________________________________________________
All of us here at TBCS would like to thank Boddaker for taking the time to chat with us and open up about his work. We would also like to encourage you to visit Bod's website at http://www.bods-mods.com/ and see some of the great work he's done for yourself. Stay tuned to his "Neptune's Trident" worklog right here on TBCS and watch the development of his latest masterpiece. Thanks again to Bod and thank you for tuning in to the latest Meet The Modders. Feel free to ask questions in this thread and maybe we can lure him in to answer a few. Keep your eyes peeled for the next installment and until then, if it's stock and boring, your audience is snoring.
-Jon
