I’m sure many of you have already seen this awesome model on various websites, or maybe you stumbled upon it here.

I was fortunate enough to conduct a small interview with Harrison Krix, the builder of the real life Portal Gun and he graciously answered a few questions I had. Check out the interview after the jump.

Gamernator > So what made you decide to embark on such a project? What have you made before this?

Harrison > My fiancé and I went to a convention here in Atlanta… Actually, it started before that. We made some cool Halloween costumes in 2007 and went as Link and Midna from Zelda: Twilight Princess. People really liked them, and said we should go to a convention, so we decided to go to Dragon*Con in Atlanta. The reactions of people there were awesome, we even won “Best group” and “Judges Choice: Craftsmanship” in a costume contest there. I had been playing Portal a bunch at the time, and fresh off a huge ego boost, decided I’d build the gun for Emily to wear to the convention next year.

Previously, I’ve made a few Zelda props, but have always been building things. I also rebuild vintage cars in my free time, and went to art school for graphic and furniture design. Since this whole thing has picked up, I’ve gotten a lot of commission requests, which you can check out on my blog as they’re completed.

Gamernator > Has it been taken out to shows? What’s people’s reaction to it?

Harrison > No shows yet, but the internet reaction has been HUGE. We’ve got almost 250,000 views on Emily’s Flickr account, and I’ve gotten emails from several game developers about similar replicas. The first debut will be Dragon*Con 2009, and I anticipate it will be a crowd pleaser.

Gamernator > How on earth did you get it to light up like that?

Harrison > Lots of LEDs, and a 9V battery. Since completing the project, I’ve been contacted by another prop maker who is building her own gun with illumination and sound output as well! We’ve been sharing our ideas and I may be retrofiitng this gun to play the portal sounds on command. There are about 30 LEDs in the whole thing, and the center barrel is an acrylic rod illuminated on both ends by 5 LED banks.

Gamernator > What are the various parts made from? Was it all made form scratch or are there some found parts on there?

Harrison > All of it was scratch, really. The only “pre-made” parts are the thing inside the barrel, which is a printer roll spindle, and the center illuminated bar, which is an acrylic plunger handle I sprayed with matte clearcoat. Outside of that, the entire thing is hand made/carved/sanded/etc. There will be a few duplicates made in the future which will all be pulled from molds of a new gun.

Gamernator > Does it move?

Harrison > Nope, the whole thing is static. Given the budget I was working with, the “recoil” action of the barrel wasn’t a feasible option. Also, the claws don’t articulate as the ones in-game would. Again, this would be nice to have, but the complexity of those moving parts just wasn’t really cost-effective to our budget.

Gamernator > How long did it take you?

Harrison > About a month and a half, working on and off when I had the time to. Sanding the surfaces to the finish I was after took the longest time of anything.

Gamernator > Did you have any problems you couldn’t get round? Do you think you could have improved any areas?

Harrison > Every build has problems. The paint gave be some headaches from time to time, and the fitment of the pieces could be improved. I’d like to add a sound board, and also the arch on the rear casing is way too shallow. I’ll be fixing that in upcoming versions. I was on a bit of a deadline with this, trying to make Halloween 2008, so towards the end I had to cut a few corners in the name of timeliness. Given a long enough timeframe, I’m certain I could make this 100% perfect even to my own critique, but I think that deadlines are really the only thing that make sure I get anyhing done at all sometimes.

Gamernator > Who is more pleased with it, you or your better half?

Harrison > Its a toss up, really. She thinks its funny that whenever she does bring it out, people will be thinking of her as an accessory to it, not the other way around. I love the attention it has brought to my little hobby, and the opportunities to create new projects for new clients is pretty welcome as well.

Gamernator > Any plans for other videogame props?

Harrison > Oh yeah, a huge one in fact – I’m currently working on a life-sized “Big Daddy” from Bioshock. I realize this has been done before, but I think I can bring it to life in a more authentic and realistic way than has been displayed before. Also, I’m totally open to commissions. I’m also working on a PipBoy3000 with an integrated iPhone dock, and a “Fat Man” nuke launcher from Fallout 3. Good times!

Gamernator > Is there in fact cake?

Harrison > YES! Emily made a cake, years ago, called a “thundercake” which is the subject of a children’s book on what to do if its raining and lightning outside. Oddly enough, it bears striking resemblance to Valve’s cake in Portal. We even have a picture of it:

Thanks to Harrison for taking the time to answer my questions, we’ll be looking out for those other projects soon and good luck at the conventions this year!

Tags: cake, gun, harrison, interview, krix, portal

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.