I can't find my 1920s tank.

I'm so sure I did some work on it at home, but since it's not here I reeeeally hope it's at uni.

I don't see why I don't have it, considering I back things up a lot.

A lot.

So yeah.

I really wanted to have him and something else done this week, but by the looks of it that isn't happening. I'll just have to move onto something new if it isn't here.

EDIT: I see it on remote access but I can't get it. Annoying.

Howler

I spent today working on the Howler a bit more. I wanted to keep the 2 key parts of that account:

1) The titular howling

2) The tiny toddler feet

But, as I was trying to make it look less grey-childy, I had an idea: instead of it having toddler footprints because it was the size of a toddler, maybe that's just what the player is led to believe. Then, when they see it for the first time, they get the surprise of findoung out that, despite its teeny tiny feet, it's actually really big.

The 'final' draft (The one at the bottom-right) doesn't have the feel that I wanted, so I think I'm going to bulk its legs out a bit at a later stage, lest it feel too stilty and fragile.

For the pinup

http://third-year-scribbles.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/concept%20art/honours

Just a quick way to look specifically at the work I've done for the module.
If I can, I'll hand this in with some printouts rather than printing everything (because I am poor D: )

YEEEEAHFUTURES

I finished the essay. Yay!

Well, I say 'finished', but I need to put the Bibliography in. That's just grunt work though; the main body was the tricky bit, and it's done.

I had some big doubts at the middle-point of it, thinking I'd chosen some lame subjects that weren't to do with anything. And it was most certainly difficult, because it wasn't something tangible and lookupable like, say. Hairbrushes. They're all concepts rather than things. But, I'm glad I stuck with it, because by the end I was seeing links in stuff that made me feel like it made sense to choose them.

I think my saving point was Spongebob Squarepants. When I got to that, I realised it connected to my other stuff surprisingly well.
So yeah.

Thanks Mr Hillenburg.

Well.

I'm done for this year.

I LOVE DESIGNING

So for my GDD, I was making enemies. I read this really cool story - supposedly true if you want to believe the witness - about some squealing creature with the footprints of a toddler that he nicknamed the Howler. Being a sucker for creepy stories, and with it being such a nice blank canvas I decided to use it as a starting point for an enemy.

Everything was going great, until several weeks later...

... I realise I've just drawn a Grey Child from Silent Hill 1.

Why is designing so hard?

How is it possible to very blatantly rip something off by accident??

So.

The Howler's going to need some really major work done.

Hmph.

So yeah. Read this awesome story. It really is very creepy (And I really hope it's true and not just a big fake).

Fewchers

I have big regrets about the things I picked for Futures. I've thought of a couple of subjects that'd be much more appropriate trend-wise, but it's far too late to change them.

So basically I'm stuck with 3 things that I don't really feel have a trend at all. They're just.

Things that happen forever.

But I have to roll with it until it works.

1920s Range

Ugh, I kept churning out failure after failure with this guy. The art was pretty awful, the content was rubbish and it just didn't look like what I'd imagined. I'm not going to post most of the things I drew of him because they're really bad, but here's a couple of things that turned out okay-ish.

My favourite is the uncoloured one where he's lighting the molotov. I think the face looks most like what I had in mind. Rhoda suggested a posher waistcoat for him, and I think it looks more fitting than the wooly one. Very snazzy!
The gun isn't any in particular, though it's most like M1903 Springfield rifle. I spent ages trying to find a bolt-action rifle that can be disassembled, but I didn't have any luck. I think it really has to be suited for quick dismantling, and bolt action thingers look really cool so I want to keep that in.
Anyway, I did a stylised picture of him that I was hoping to match with the Assassin. Something about it isn't quite fitting - I think partly because the makeup adds better detail and the Range obviously doesn't have any - but I think it's alright for getting a feel for the style. I think I should've done thicker lines in places, but.
Ehhh.

A quick note

I won't be able to update this blog - or go on the internet in general - so much anymore as my landord believes, perhaps wrongly, that using an ethernet cable with the router will "steal all the gigabytes". Since the gigabyes are to be shared by everyone, I will have to go through the effort of buying a wireless adaptor, asking him for the real WEP key instead of the incorrect one we were told and at some point replace the ethernet cable he broke when he pulled it out while in our flat with no prior notice, and when we were out and unable to remedy the solution ourselves.

Not that I'm annoyed or anything.

The last 1920s Assassin concept!

I made her Deco style.

I intentionally tried to make her look kind of flat since the pictures I found were styled like that.

Tried to use sweepy lines that are angular where possible.

Lips are pouty and big and squidged to accentuate the flapper style.

Shading is minimal except immediately by edges.

Anything else that seems weird is probably accidental.

EDIT: OOPS FORGOT THE EARRINGS.

Reworking the mechanics

I had some problems with my GDD in that the different tier abilities were too similar. I have found a way around this (I hope) and I've changed one of them.

At the moment, they are as follows:

TIER 1: High-jump/Glide

Similar to the common double-jump, Don can jump several times mid-air and then glide for a limited time. I'm thinking there could be a disadvantage to this, like being exposed to something in the air for too long while gliding will pull you wildly out of control and you'll have to land to be safe.

TIER 2: Gravity change

This one used to be inverting the level, but that would be both too similar to the high-jump in its advantages, and undoable outside. Now, Don can change the gravity, which moves loose objects in the desired direction, though it could hurt you. I think restoring gravity to normal would send all the objects back to their origins.

TIER 3: Corner jump

This needs a better name to describe what it is. Basically, there will be some corners, edges and walls that Don can fit through and travel to the other side. It takes time though, and it can leave him exposed to danger or send him hurtling into it if you don't know what's beyond you.

On a side note, I feel ever so paranoid when people look at the work I've pinned up. It's not dazzling and amazing like some of the stuff people have done and it makes me worry that people are laughing at me behind my back.

A Revelation!!

Unfortunately it took me this long, but better late than never!!

I was looking at my Futures stuff today; the child past, child present, adult past, adult present thing. Before I didn't really know why those groups, but then it clicked.

I get it.

I finally get it.

YES.

It's to prove that it can be:

1) Applicable to and enjoyable for children

2) Used for nostalgic value in adults, as well as just being entertaining

3) Popular again and again for more than one generation.

That's why.

Suddenly it all fits together!

... At least, I hope I got that right.

1920s Art

- Lots of straight lines - avoid round where possible
- Shading is thin or shallow - images look sort of flat
- Exaggerate thin limbs and blush in women
- Browns, golds, creams
- Thick arms in men that seem straight and almost consistent thickness
- Angular and jaunty creates strong male figures and tapered female figures
- ???
- I dunno
- I'm going to bed.

What? More 1920s Assassin?

You better believe it.

I was really tired when drawing this so yeah, it looks lame. Sorry.
This picture is three ways in which she kills people - poison, stiletto knife and heels - and one picture of a nice happy smile.
I'm going to scrap that mauser and give it to someone else, because it's too unwieldy and because Jamie told me about a better gun called a derringer. It's ever so cute and tiny, and very fitting for her, so I imagine she'd have one concealed somewhere.
I still don't think she'd be a gun nut but it's a good little backup weapon. I think, if she really had to use one, she'd choose a derringer over a big clumsy mauser.

I think there'll be one more set of flapper pictures before I call her pretty much completely designed. Exciting!! I'm not looking forward to the other 1920s characters so much - other than perhaps the Range - but hopefully I'll get into them.

Even More 1920s Assassin

Getting bored of her yet?

Adding colour was really useful for progress. I thought I was set on what I wanted but when I coloured it, it didn't look fitting. I think a yellow dress is too loud for her. I tried a blue, but that didn't seem elegant enough. I think a neutral cream looks posh without being overbearing, with bits of turqoise and yellow to add a bit of energy.

The dark patches on the dress are sequins. I'll draw them myself in the proper final picture, but for this I think that texture does the job.
And yeah, that mauser is like a cannon. Oops.

EDIT: I should also credit this site, which has been something of a colour bible for this character. Very very useful for colour schemes, makeup styles and hairstyles.

sdfsdf

I jsut found out Satoshi Kon - the guy who made Paprika and Paranoia Agent - died recently. I'm not a big anime fan, but I thought they were really good. It's kind of sad to hear that someone who made such beautiful things is gone.
There's so much rubbish out there, yet the person that has made this decent anime ends up dying.
Hm.

I think Futures is coming together nicely. We have to make posters for each topic that are divided into 4 groups: child past, child present, adult past and adult present. Child past is giving me the most trouble. I'm sure there's a lot on it, but it's hard to find pictures of it. Especially for things like nonverbal communication.

We had to do 2 pages of the pitch document for GDD too. I've done them but they're not printed. I tried to make these ones a lot lighter so they wouldn't come out dark.

Eh.

That's pretty much all the news.

Deco or Nouveau?

Yay for Rhoda! She's sorted out my passport stuff and now it's all mailed off! No more stress for a few weeks! Exciting.
She said she liked my Assassin pictures too. It made me feel good about them! When I get home I'm going to rewrite the text on it so it's more presentable. I found a lovely Deco style font to use.

On the topic of styles, I was wondering which movement to use - Art Deco or Art Nouveau - or if I could use a mix of the two. Obviously Art Deco was the one associated with the time, which suggests I should use that, but it's not like all the Art Nouveau stuff disappeared overnight.
On one hand, I think the swirly, flowy girlyness of Nouveau suits the Assassin. She'd have a lot of money, and I assume Nouveau trinkets were worth a lot after the war, so she'd like to splash out on expensive things like that.
But.
Would it be outdated? Though it was only a decade or two before, that's the equivalent of me wearing fluorescent parachute pants now. It'd look stupid. Not that I don't already
But maybe furniture goes out of style slower than clothes?

While Deco is nice, and would fit in, I wonder if it'd be a mishmash to combine it with Nouveau elements.

If I can only pick one, I'm leaning towards Deco, but I'd like some flowwy femininity in there too. I imagine the flapper look is partly a front - if only a little bit - and deep down she perhaps enjoys some retro elegance.

EDIT: After having a thorough look, I think she's going to stay mainly Deco. Though Nouveau is glamorous, I don't think it has enough 'edge' to suit her tastes. It's all a bit too demure.

Another go at colour

I had another go at doing lighting. I think this is much more successful than the last attempt!

On the left is ambient light using Multiply, and on the right it's with Hard Light. I think Multiply would be good for a dark area like a cave, whilst the Hard Light would be useful in a sort of unnaturally bright, 'heavenly' area.

Constantly ill apparently

For the past couple of months I've been constantly getting ill. Any time I recover, something else hits me. It sucks and it's making me lazy.

But at least I did this.

I think this is the outfit I'll be sticking with. The fur shawl will probably have animal bits stuck to the end of it, as was the fashion apparently, but I didn't draw it in. 

I'll probably change the earrings to inverted triangles instead of ovals. That way they'll match the necklace and will also have a more Deco-y style.

For some reason it took me forever to draw this. I think I work much too slowly. If I do one character concept a week, I won't have time to finish them, let alone do any finished pictures.

Scary stuff.

Also passports. What stress. I've spent a lot of this week trying to get it sorted. The site says it'll come within six weeks of applying, and it better had. If it comes a day later, that's it. No holiday.

Flapper Outfits

Further work on 1920s Assassin.

I like the hair of the first, the colours and the shawl of the second (though it looks terrible there), the shoe style of the third and the hat, necklace and dress of the fourth.

The shawl's meant to be fur, and I think I'm probably keeping it. It's definitely the sort of thing she would wear. I much prefer the long cigarette holder too.

Opinions?
Preferences?
Spam?

First Hons pinup!

I did all my characters, scanned them in (Which induced much raging) and printed them off. Even with four pages on each sheet of paper, I had so many for pinning. As I heard someone aptly call it, there is a 'pin famine' in the class. There aren't enough. Warner was nice enough to lend me some, and I had to be stuper-stingy (Pinning 4 things with one pin often). I still feel like I used too many, but I do need them. I have 10 pages of work, which is more sheets than many people.
Not my fault, right?
...Right?

Anyway, with the pin famine, I didn't put up moodbaords. That'd be an extra 6 pages, and that would be outrageous. I have a ton of pictures though, so I'll pop them on the blog at some point just to show the sort of research I'm using.

The Flat for reals this time

Apparently, the problem with the Maya file was just that I'm using an older version than the one at uni. Luckily Jack has the new one, so I've salvaged some screenshots with his computer:

Green things are 'portals' (Can travel into dreams through them, maybe?), red things can't be used and the purple thing has an unlockable use (alternate outfits).

 

I might put some of these in Photoshop and draw over them to give the intended feel and a little detail I want to include.

The FlatOHWAIT

Well, I found out someone else in my class is doing a game about dreams. Eek. 

Her idea sounds pretty cool: it's about demons that have possessed some children, and a group has come to hijack their dreams and flush the demons out. Hopefully the dream thing won't overlap too much and we'll both have distinct ideas.

After trying and failing to get a good isometric picture of Don's flat, Jack suggested I try making a 3d blockmap. So I did.

...

But Maya, being as brilliant as it usually is, has corrupted the version I had on a memory stick so no screenshots for you today.

Sorry.

Western Civ's Colour Practice

Rhoda said I should try to draw one of the characters like the way I did that girl. I chose the Western Fantasy Civilian because she's an interesting shape so it would be a good challenge; and a challenge it was! I don't like it as much as the girl picture, but I'm glad I had a go.

I decided her species is a 'Quilish' race. Just so you know what's intentional and what's not, I'll briefly run over the anatomy.

A Quilish being has a ridge that goes down the centre of their face from the back of their scalp to the tip of their nose. They have horns that are smaller and straighter on females, while the males have longer, more twisty ones (I forgot to draw them in, dur). Their lower jaw is very small, giving females a more heart-shaped face. Males on the other hand, though their jaws are also small, have a wider chin, giving a less "pointy" appearance. The fairly flat (except for the ridge) shape of the nose, with the wide bridge, give a Quilish person an epicanthic fold. Their eyes are very large and the tip of their nose and their mouth are small.

Their ears are fairly big and elongated. They turn down at the end on both genders, but on males they curve back up in a soft flick at the tip.

Quilins have hair that can be remarkably naturally straight (Like the Civ), but can be of any style. Head hair doesn't grow on the ridge, but they are covered in a thin, fine fur which may have splotches of other colour.

Quilish colours can be varied but are often earthy.

And now, the picture. The first is the Civ with no ambient light and the second has a pink light, like sunset. Sorry if the colours are out; I think my monitor isn't showing them normally.

Colour Practice 2

When I said that the blue lighting comes out looking smeary and weird, this is what I meant. They're very rough splotches of colour so it looks even worse, but even if I'd done it neatly it'd probably still look terrible. The one on the left is set to Hard Light and the one on the right is Linear Light.

 

 

Surprisingly I couldn't really find any tutorials about lighting. I'm going to skim through one of the links that Bev sent to see if the answer is there.

In other news, I've nearly finished all the basic concepts for characters! Only three more to go. If I get hit by a bus or something in the next few days, at least I can hand in a little bit for every character. Better than nothing!

I'm going to do a colour test thing like that girl picture with one of my characters. I think Western Fantasy Civilian has an interesting face shape so I'd like to give that a go.

Detailed Colour Practice

Bev sent us some links to things that could be helpful, one of them being a list of tutorials. I read one (Yeah, I actually wasn't stupid and stubborn for a change) about making skin look good. It said that spackled brushes are good.
I thought I'd give this brush a try and started drawing a picture, cycnically spackling it a little, and.

Well, I quite liked how it looked.
Instead of giving up and scrapping the picture as often happens when trying new styles, I kept going with it. I didn't even use lines in the end. All in all, I was quite happy with how it turned out. It's no masterpiece, but it looks a little more passable than most of my other stuff.

I had a go at doing some lighting but it didn't work out. Any time I tried an interesting colour (Mostly blue) it looked smeary and weird. Maybe I'll get it some other day, but for now this is good enough.

Proposal, etc.

I pinned my work up for the GDD nice and early so I got a good spot, derp. Sneaky tactics. I really wanted the DoweyWall (The one near the office) because it's easy to reach and there's plenty of room. I got it, so hooray!

A lot of people only did moodboards for some reason. I guess there was some confusion and people didn't read the email.

Anyway, here's Don and Blackbuck. Aside from future tweaking, this is basically how I want them to come across.

Optimism!

I'm glad I started this blog because I've been getting some great feedback from people.

The tutors are all very helpful (Obviously). I sometimes feel like I'm pestering them way too much because I'm always shoving sketchbooks in faces and mithering them for advice. I guess it's better than just assuming what to do and getting on with it alone...
... Right?
Katy and Jonny have both given me some useful tips for my problems with Eastern Fantasy. They've made me feel like I get it better, and which sort of themes I should be looking towards for inspiration.
I always get Jack to check over my scribbles to see if I'm heading in the right direction.
Rich sent me this link that is exactly the way I feel about my sexy-female-characters rant. He's phrased it way better than I did.
It's worth watching!

Back to work with GDD proposal. So far I've done a mood board, but I'm not entirely sure what the writing/picture ratio should be. Is it meant to be quite descriptive or more concept-artsy? Should it be flashy with nice backgrounds and things, or does that come later?
I think I'm doing too much Honours compared with GDD and Futures. I find it hard not to get caught up in it, what with it being bigger than any other project like it that I've done. I did a couple more characters today but I can't be bothered to upload these yet; the batteries I have are so bad that I can only take a few pictures with the camera before it eats them.

It's why I'm not doing environments

Well, Jack kept asking me to tart up a doodle of his crush, the Western Fantasy Civilian, so that's what I did today.
He named her and everything.


This isn't a final design. It's just a fancy concept sketch.
I'm sure you can tell from this picture that I hate doing backgrounds and still haven't got the hang of them.
Some day I'll learn.
But not today.

Biggest Possible Art Dump

This is going to be huge because the next upload is over half of the character concepts. It's going to take ages, but it's the only one that can be this big.

So, here are the next 20 characters!

Good Punk Civilian

 Good Punk Assassin

 Good Punk Tank

Good Western Fantasy Civilian

Good 1920s Civilian

Neutral 1920s Soldier

Good 1920s Support

Evil 1920s Tank

Evil Eastern Fantasy Assassin

Neutral Eastern Fantasy Civilian

Evil Eastern Fantasy Range

Good Eastern Fantasy Soldier

Good Eastern Fantasy Support

Evil Horror Assassin

Good Horror Civilian

Neutral Horror Range

Evil Horror Tank

Good Modern War Civilian

Evil Modern War Tank

Good Western Fantasy Support

So, that's a lot of characters to digest. I think I'm happy with how most of them are developing, but others (such as the Eastern Fantasy Civilian) are probably going to get a big makeover.

I'm doing my best to ensure I get at least one of each possible combination - such as good tanks, female 1920s, neutral males, etc - to show variety in the characters. I don't want to wind up with 6 evil assassins or an all-female team. It gets a bit difficult towards the end of a category because it sometimes ends up looking a bit biased towards one of them, so I have to really concentrate on balance.

2 Character problems.

One problem is directly in regards to Honours, the other is about designing characters in industry.

Firstly, it's Eastern Fantasy again. I'm having doubts about even doing this. A while ago, I had problems distinguishing between East and West fantasy. I've been clawing my way through it slowly, and today I decided to look into what exactly inspired Final Fantasy - one of the most Eastern fantasy titles out there - to see if I could find anything I may have overlooked that is a big part of the genre.

What do I find?

It was inspired by

three

Western

fantasy

games.

NGGHGHGNNNNGGHG

Any time I feel like I'm getting somewhere with distinguishing the two, something gets thrown in my way that glues them together again.

The next problem is just characters in general. This course challenges us to be creative and really make something intelligently enjoyable rather than just a flashy cheap thrill.

For example, if I were to do a character for this project that was just a hot girl in a tiny bikini, I don't think it would get me a good grade.

For the most part, this is fantastic. I love good characters and I struggle to enjoy a game without them.

However.

When we look at the big titles out there, what kind of characters do we see?

Starting

to

see

a

trend

forming.

Compare and contrast Rochelle, who a lot - a LOT - of gamers hate. Some say it's because she's boring, annoying, loud, goofy, sombre or "not black enough", but some have the slightest shred of decency to at least admit they don't like her because she isn't "hot" enough.

The horrible thing is, it's not just the fault of immature, sleazy designers. Why? Because the people lapping this tragic garbage up - and requesting more - are the ones buying the games.

This is what people want.

And what do I do about that?! Surely the best plan is, course be damned, to be part of a company that does nothing but these sorts of characters. I wouldn't enjoy it, but I guess it beats being unemployed. They even probably make a lot of money.

It gets me down sometimes because it makes me debate what a good character really is. I generally think it's someone who is believable, riles an appropriate emotion (such as really rooting for them, or loving to hate them) and is a joy to watch. But if what people want is someone pretty, thin and barely dressed, who am I to judge? If anyone is going to be right, it's the majority - and they are the majority, not me.

Good female characters can be such a rarity, so I am really trying to design mine to have more than one dimension. Sometimes they aren't pretty. Sometimes they aren't thin. But at the very least, they will have personalities, purpose, and above all, substance.

EDIT: I also wanted to say that male characters get this sort of treatment too in the form of being huge hulking muscle-men, but if I wrote about them too this post would be even more unbearably long.

Not much news,

But I felt like I should write something because it's been quite a while.

I spoke with Rhoda about the GDD today and I definitely get to do ViDys (hooray!) so there will be more from that, and not so much anything on the other two. I do like some ideas from them though, especially the glitch one. I'm thinking of adding a mechanic that's inspired from both a dream and a common glitch. In some levels, Don might be able to jump through particular corners or walls to progress. I think it'd be fun watching him inexplicably squeeze through an impossible space.

Though that may be too hard to do visually.

For example, here's a video from Donkey Kong 64 of corner-jumping:

I'm getting on a little better with my Futures, though I'm really finding the non-verbal part hard. I'm not finding that much on it other than a lot of people saying that humans use it a lot. IP is especially hard.

I think one problem is that all three topics are similar and there's a lot of stuff that crosses over. I'm not really sure what to put where. After all, representing colour with emotion and using symbols are both forms of nonverbal communication.I think I should focus more on the body language side than simply the umbrella term of "non-verbal communication".

Back On Track

I didn't have such a great start to this week. I'd sort of burnt myself out a little and my work was fairly lacking. I'd been working a lot of the time most days, thinking it was the only way to make progress, and obviously it didn't work out so great. I think Futures suffered the most, because what should have been an easy, fun, smoothly flowing project seemed to be a confusing, rigid, bumbling mess. I just couldn't properly get into it.

Thankfully, Bev helped me approach it the way I should have, and now that I'm trying again it seems to be flowing much better.

I mainly wanted to write this post to show some art I found that really captures the point I wanted to make about colours and emotions. Some art seems to be a bit cryptic, like it doesn't really speak to me in the way I think the artist intended, but looking at this just seems like it would be evocative to anyone. It's very stunning and seems to have an almost nostalgic beauty about it, like the way one might perceive a memory.

Here is some of Leonid Afremov's work.

Art Dump and Slow Internet

Apparently, someone in this block needs to be downloading something huge all the time, lest he face some sort of severe consequences such as the death penalty. I suspect he's using torrents because they seem to get some sort of priority. Because of this, I have the sheer joy of being unable to do so much as view images on Google without having to wait a good 15 minutes for the pictures to load. Because of this, I can't do research outside of uni.

Hooray.

On a lighter note, here are some concept sketches, just to show that I am in fact doing something while waiting 10 minutes for the "New Post" page to load, or to see a picture, or instead of effing and jeffing in Left 4 Dead 2 because Versus Survival is finally out again but I keep getting disconnected every few seconds so I can't enjoy it.
But I'm not bitter about that or anything.

So, we have:

Evil Modern War Civilian

Good 1920s Assassin

Good 1920s Range

? Eastern Fantasy Tank

Evil Horror Support

Neutral Punk Soldier

Some Futures Direction

Today was the first meetup for Futures. I feel a lot better now that I have a proper grasp of what I'm meant to be doing. We had to come up with 2 or 3 interesting elements of modern culture or media that could influence and have been influenced by a lot. It's hard to explain - and that was probably a bad way of doing it - but I do get it.
Even if it doesn't look like it.
There were some things I didn't really see how they could work (Someone's doing exploration, which I don't really think is creativity-driven), but others - such as bullet-time and dreams/nightmares - seem really cool.

I'm doing:

Colours and Emotions
Non-Verbal Communication and Body Language
Symbolism in Art

Sounds like a lot, but they're pretty knitted together so things like colours and emotions will overlap. I like these subjects so I think I'll have fun in the project.


Basically, we look at examples of these in modern times (Not so much in games at first), then we see how the users of them were inspired to do them, and from that we estimate how they could be used together in the future. So, I could perhaps design a game with no text about someone whose emotions turn them different colours. Something along those lines.


... It's not as confusing as it sounds once you get your head around it.

Success!

I made a sticky post (Except not really, I cheated and just set it in the future) so that if you want to just see work from a particular area, you can follow a link and it'll take you to all of them. Neat, eh? I worked it out myself!


From now on, I'll also be colour coding modules. I couldn't think of a better way to do it and this seems good enough. All GDD text will be red, all Honours will be green and all Futures will be blue. Remember that!

Reformat

I will be talking about my Futures a bit later and hopefully can do an Honours concept art upload extravaganza, but I'm just quickly going to try to rearrange this blog. I was speaking to my sister about it and she said it can be hard knowing which project's which. I want to find a way to have a sticky post or something similar at the top with links to specific big tags (i.e. Honours, GDD, Futures). I also want to have maybe a header on posts with the main tags there. This might be a lot of effort, but if I can do it, it'll help the clarity looooads.

I also need to change the images on it at some point. I don't like using someone else's stuff, even if it is freely available.

Eastern Fantasy vs Western Fantasy

I bumped into a design-based hurdle yesterday when I was working on my Honours yesterday. I was working on an Eastern Fantasy tank when I really began thinking about the difference between Eastern and Western fantasy. When I struggled to objectively categorise them, I considered just compiling them both into fantasy. However, that wouldn't be right because, though I can't put my finger on it, there is a difference. Lord of the Rings and Final Fantasy are very distinctly different.

But how?

I came up with a few ideas, but none of them could be considered definite differences. There was always an exception.

1) Mythology

Western tends to use creatures that have never really been thought to exist, such as orcs and elves (A lot of things like this bother me because they're clearly someone else's reused ideas). Eastern has dragons and chi and things like that.

But this instantly falls through when you consider Gandalf and Harry Potter. These are big characters, and back in the day people did think witchcraft was real. So there is real life influencing it. Also, knights definitely existed, and dragons were rumoured to. So they do take some 'real' elements.

As well as this, Eastern Fantasy is not all about mythology. Take Dragonball as an example. Sure, it's based around Journey To The West, but I'm sure stretchy alien Piccolo and pink rubbery villain Buu were not part of that.

2) Abilities

Maybe it's just the style of powers used. West is swords and bows, East is magical powers. Right?

Well, no. Wizards use magical powers (Though they are less common in the West), and many characters in East have some sort of weaponry.

3) Beauty

 I read a good article about a similar point ( www.armchairarcade.com/neo/node733 ), though it was about the 'cuteness' of the East. I was thinking about it more in terms of the elegance of the East, in the way that nothing is particularly ugly. For example, an orc in the West is very ugly. Compare that to the droves of cutesy little anime girls that may be seen in the East.

Basically, West has more grit and East has more elegance.

But the article brings up Disney films in it, and I think this goes against the point I believed. The Little Mermaid portrays a pretty and cute heroine with an attractive love interest. Other characters may be less attractive, but the main ones are what I'd expect from the East. However, I guess a difference is that hero Eric is a strong, beefy man compared to cutesy little Tidus from Final Fantasy...

... But compare and contrast superhero Goku from Dragonball. He is absolutely not the elegant, slender stereotype I believed.

4) Colour

This is the closest I think I may have come. West is earthy greens and browns, East is pastels and bright colours. I suppose in this way, West can be thought of as more 'foresty', whereas East is sort of 'spacey'. Though East can also be set in an old-timey environment like West often does, the clothes are frequently bizarre and bright.

Obviously there are exceptions.

5) Art style

East is anime-children, West is busty women? East is pretty beasts, West is hideous trolls?

I don't know.

I give up.

All I can guess is that these are some criteria, and each genre can pick and choose between a couple. They may tend to lean in one direction, but could perhaps not stick to every cliché.

I just don't know.

baw

Any point coming in other days?

This is the second day I've been in class outside of when our year has to be, but I'm not seeing much reason to. I mean, I'd like to say I feel like I'm using my time well and whatnot, but on Wednesday I didn't see any tutors, and today I still don't see any but I am potentially depriving second years of a computer. I don't know how Bambaloo Guy did it. I don't want to be a pain, and it seems like I might be one for no good reason.

It seems that there's more point just staying at home.

A Little More W-Fantasy Assassin

I need a way to abbreviate my character 'names'. I'm ending up with files called WFantasy_Assassin_ConceptSketch_1 . Very long.

I had a go at doing some stronger shapes by building my character primarily from them. As she's stocky and muscly, this girl was made mostly with boxes. I think they're quite a manly shape though, so I really pulled in her waist to give her a more recognisably female look.

I made a couple of simple outfit combos and stuck them together. If nothing else, at least I'm making progress on one character! These images are maybe a bit blurry, but that's because I was working with a large canvas and had to shrink down after.

The main sets of apparel to look out for are hair length, fringe, ears, top, bottoms, shoes and extras. Also posting the template so you can clearer see how she looks shape-wise.

Another note about the shape: Jack asked me, "Why does she look like that?", in reference to her shape vs her archetype, I guess. It's a good question I think, luckily with an answer (I just think of everything don't I?).

Well, assassins are normally depicted as lithe and elegant, right? That doesn't make sense for the way this one behaves. She tends to sneak around in trees, often climbing and jumping about  (This is also why I want her to have green hair: camoflage). However, if you're going to be doing such active movements, you're not going to be a slender little stick. You need to be very strong to move the way I imagine she does. Also, her small stature helps her squeeze through little spaces, ideal for persuing, hiding and escaping.

Imagine her actions as sort of like a treefrog.

Proposals

Well, I went into lesson with Jack yesterday, and it was dead. Not even quiet. Just... dead. There was one other person there, and apparently he was from MA. I honestly thought someone else would turn up.
I might not come in Wednesdays so often because there were no tutors around, so I couldn't really ask for help. I'd rather come in on a day when they're available.

Today has been more about GDD, but Rhoda was nice enough to check my honours anyway. She showed me some links to artists in regards to body shapes and sizes. The pictures were so good. Makes me jealous.

Hmph.

Must remember to bring headphones to lessons as well. There is some, uh. Slightly distracting raucus laughing.

As for the GDD, though I had my heart set on the one I'd been planning over Summer, we had to jot down 3. At first I struggled, but I came up with two other ideas that I actually think are okay. I might implement some features if they have a place.

The first one is ViDys, obviously.

The second one's a game about mythical creatures that's really simple and preferably without any dialogue. They all have individual abilitiesand you have to switch between them to solve puzzles - for example, a tsuchinoko could roll, a griffin could glide, etc.

The last one is about glitches. I love glitches, so I thought it might be fun to make a game where it was either presented in a way that seemed like it was glitching, or certain areas that were purposefully shoddily made that can be breached, with them being the only way to get through the level.

Now I just need to pester a tutor apparently, durr.

AHHPANIC

Okay, I spent the past couple of days taking the concept stage of one of the characters slowly and being nice and thorough.

HOWEVER

If I spend 2 days on concept art, and it takes me about 2 days to do a finished picture, that leaves me, what.

1 character a week.

And it only leaves me 3 days for everything else.

 One character a week is about 20 characters.

And that is NOWHERE NEAR ENOUGH

So basically I'm not so sure on how to juggle concept art, finished art, GDD and futures.

I'm just not fast enough at drawing.

Anyway, here are some sketches for the Western Fantasy Assassin. She's partly based off a character I made up a looong time ago that I thought had some qualities that would be fitting. The annotations pretty much sum up everything, I think.