So, I wanna share the story of this “borderlands red carpet” project I got myself into. Sounded like a cool, reasonably simple idea at first, right? Just a themed rug for a get-together we were having. Man, I was way off. Getting that authentic Pandora feel was a whole different beast.
First off, I had to really get my head around what a “Borderlands red carpet” should even look like. It’s not your fancy, plush Hollywood thing. It’s gotta be gritty, weathered, with those iconic thick black outlines. So, I hit the internet hard, scoured through tons of game art, screenshots, you name it. Just trying to soak in that specific cel-shaded vibe.
Then came the materials. Regular carpet fabric felt too… clean. Too nice. I wanted something that looked like it had survived a skag attack or two. I eventually lucked out and found this heavy-duty canvas at a surplus store. Tough stuff, and pretty cheap too, which is always a win in my book. The color, though, that was another saga. I figured I’d dye it myself. Bought some fabric dye, aiming for that distinct Borderlands rusty red.
My first attempt? Disaster. It came out this awful, bright, bubblegum pink. Seriously, my garage looked like a candy factory had exploded. I had to wash the whole darn thing out, which was a mission in itself, and then start over with a much darker, grungier dye mix. Took a couple of tries, but I finally got something close to that signature crimson.
But the real challenge, the part that nearly broke me, was the black outlines. I toyed with the idea of using thick black tape, but I knew it would look cheap and probably wouldn’t stick to the canvas properly. So, I resigned myself to hand-painting them. Got myself a big tub of heavy-body black acrylic paint and a collection of brushes. This is where any illusion of this being a “quick project” completely evaporated. I spent hours, and I mean hours, hunched over that canvas, carefully painting those thick, slightly wobbly Borderlands-style lines along the edges. Then I added more lines to make it look like cracked earth or worn fabric.
Now, you might be thinking, why put so much effort into a darn carpet?
It’s funny, this whole obsessive focus on getting the details just right really threw me back to this one gig I had years ago. We were prepping this massive presentation for a super important client. My manager at the time, a good guy but a real stickler, got fixated on the exact shade of blue for the PowerPoint template. Not just any blue, mind you. He called it “CEO Confidence Blue” or something equally ridiculous. We must have gone through fifty different shades. He had me tweaking RGB values for what felt like an eternity. I remember thinking it was the most pointless exercise ever. But then, we actually landed the contract, and the client specifically mentioned how “polished and professional” the presentation looked. Sometimes, those seemingly over-the-top details actually make a difference, or at least, they make you feel like you’ve given it your all. That’s kind of how I felt with this carpet.
Anyway, back to Pandora. After the black paint finally dried – which took ages – I wanted to add a bit more flair to the whole entrance setup. I managed to find some old tires, gave them a quick spray paint job in yellow and grey, and stenciled on some Hyperion logos for good measure. I also dug out some old plastic toy guns, gave them a quick, dirty paint job – you know, rust, scratches, the works – to fit the Borderlands aesthetic. Little touches to complete the scene.
So, the main steps really boiled down to this:
- Figuring out the core Borderlands look.
- Hunting down the right kind of canvas.
- Struggling with (and finally conquering) the fabric dye.
- Painstakingly hand-painting all those black outlines.
- Adding weathering effects.
- Scrounging up and modifying some props.
When it was all said and done, and we rolled it out for the party, it looked pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was definitely Borderlands. People got a real kick out of it, posing for photos, doing their best psycho impressions. Seeing that reaction made all the hassle – the pink dye incident, the back-ache from painting – totally worth it. It just goes to show, sometimes these little passion projects take on a life of their own, and the journey is just as much fun as the end result. Well, mostly fun.
