[Virtualgirl has done it again Dtoiders! She went through hell making this work of art. In fact, she almost super glued her finger to her tongue! Read on to see how she made this piece step-by-step and how she murdered some innocent NES controllers. Don't worry, they're in a better place now. -- CTZ]  

I love this project. Even though it in NO way filled the requirement given to me by my professor. This was a plaster unit … yeah, I know my sculpture is made out of metal … LOL!

Alright, as you can tell, this was my latest big project. My sculpture professor assigned us with the task of creating a visually interesting piece by utilizing repetition in forms created by plaster molds. I have never worked with plaster before, so it was a real learning experience! What did I learn? I HATE PLASTER! I am not going to lie, it was interesting to see how creating molds and casting from them worked, but ultimately, I picked a poor object to work with.

[VirtualGirl's ChocoMog is f***ing sweet. That's really all there is to say about it. Check out the gallery for the full-on spectacle of her work in the gallery. I must see this in person. Some day... -- DMV]

So its done! My choco-mog is complete! For those of you who do not know what I am talking about, I am taking sculpture this semester in school. For our first project we were required to make something that combined two animals, using sheet metal and rods. Right away I tried to figure out how to make this project something I could put in my game room, and I thought it would be uber cute to mix a chocobo and a moogle together.

After getting permission from my professor to use imaginary creatures instead of real ones, I started by creating the sculpture out of paper. When I had that all mapped out, I moved on to the real deal. I have NEVER welded before in my life, so getting started was a little difficult, but after a few false starts, I got used to it and it went much smoother. I did burn my face with a braising rod once, but other than that, I avoided major injury.

The whole project took me 25+ hours, not including all the waiting time between the 10 coats of paint. I really wanted the whole thing to fit the “kawaii” style of Japanese design that is so cute, so I made the mog wings and the ball glittery, and stuck to the bright yellow paint for the chocobo body.

I also included a spiraled rod of metal around the body of the chocobo, glittery like the wings, to help show movement in the sculpture. In reality, it is supposed to be the chocobo attack, but I think my choco-mog is too cute to attack anyone. Overall I am really happy with it! I hope you guys like it too! I still have two more projects to go, one with plaster and one with wood, so I will be asking for some cool ideas from you guys before to long!

[Editor's note: This year's San Diego Comic-Con was full of the usual surprises -- celebrity appearances, videogame announcements, sweet comics (of course), and the obligatory crew of chicks in costumes. Since Niero looks fat in his Lara Croft costume, and my Emma Frost outfit shrunk in the wash, we didn't make it to "the con" this year.

Destructoid community member Virtualgirl (Meagan VanBurkleo), on the other hand, had a great time. She's pretty excited about it, and she has a lot to say about her experience. And who can blame her? She rubbed elbows with some of her favorite comic book artists, was close enough to Thomas Jane to smell his deodorant, and may have used Tommy Tallarico's bathroom. 

Envious? Read on to find out more. Oh, and if you just like looking at pictures, there's plenty of those too. No seriously ... there are a lot of pictures. I'm not kidding. Take it away, Meagan. -- Nick, Editor-in-Chief]

Wow -- where to start? San Diego Comic-Con was one of the most amazing trips ever. There is almost too much to talk about, but I will try my best to get it all out for you!

[Editor's note: VirtualGirl has done it again! Our resident art school bombshell has devised the most professional looking trivia game on the subject of video games in the history of geekdom. The name is For Teh Win, a typo only endearing to the hardcore gamer. I'm dying to play this game -- maybe we can get a round going at PAX? Hit the jump for photos and the rules of engagement. -Niero  PS. Guys, the girls are kicking your asses.]

Time for another one of those giant game related projects that I worked on for school. Not as cool as my Nintendo project, but it was still fun to put together, and turned out pretty fun to play!

The concept was simply to create a brand new game, and since I warp every school project to relate to gaming, I decided to do a Video Game Trivia board game called "For teh Win." It was another very research intensive project, and a lot of work to make. I had the board, the avatars, and the game trophies laser cut out of plexi-glass, and then hand cut over 150 trivia cards. I only have the 150 trivia cards at the moment, but eventually I hope to get up over 1000 cards to make sure that the game experience does not repeat between play. Below are the rules that I came up with!