GDD Honours Futures

Good news?

I think

think

my GDD's all done. I might add some more enemies if it seems necessary, but other than that it's all finished.

Thank goodness.

It was kind of fun, but it's still a massive relief to have it out of the way. There really is so much to do, and it's such hard work getting everything to an acceptable standard.

Smore

 Western Fantasy Tank, Eastern Fantasy Civilian.

Fabulous

I lost my first image - as in, totally lost it. It was pretty much finished. It is now a large black square.
Seriously gutted.

I have the videos, so at least you can see what it would have looked like, but without the file, what's the point? Ugh.

I might as well have had the weekend off and just had a good time instead of doing anything. Either way, I'd end up with the same amount of work done.

Doc 1 done!

I think my first design document is done. I've done all the character pictures, I've put in some bosses, I've added some illustrations for the mechanics and I've finished the story and all the possible endings. Whew.

Next is the nightmare that is Doc 2. I think this one needs the most work.

Ugh.

Anyway, I'm glad I made some progress. I remember at the start of the year, Josh said, much to my disappointment,  that we couldn't do pointless stuff-happening-for-no-reason sort of horror in games. At first I saw this as a hurdle, but now I'm actually fairly glad we couldn't do it. It made me really think about the plot; why are things happening, and how can it be made interesting but still 'believable'?

I got to learn some pretty neat stuff while I was trying to come up with a solid story. One of the endings is that Don basically suffers from Kleine-Levin syndrome. It's a very bizarre but interesting condition, and it's probably the most logical reason for how someone could be hallucinating and stuck in their dreams.

With all the endings, I tried to tie them in with the story somehow. That way, regardless of the ending, the player could still see it making sense in relation to what they've been through already. Ideally, I would have had a lot of moments that show the player which ending they're heading for (such as secret levels, path-specific cutscenes, etc) as well as more choices to change their path. However, this would probably have killed me, because I'd have to come up with a whole tree of events, levels and choices. It'd be cluttered and much too confusing. As it is, the player makes 2 specific choices, and these determine the ending they get.

Whew.

Uh oh

My computer's almost full. I don't know how it is already but I suspect these development videos. I'm not sure how to make them smaller without them being bad quality.
This is sort of a disaster. I can't do all my characters with the amount of space left!!


ARGH


GDD date's coming closer too. I didn't realise just how close until Jack reminded me. Luckily, I've done everything that basically needs to be done - that is, there are no big holes in my work as far as I can think - but there's a considerable amount of fixing up that needs to be done in the next couple of weeks.

I forgot to post these

More finished ones.

If there's time, I'll be changing aspects of some of these (Most likely the Horror ones). There's bits I'm not too happy with in them, but overall I think it'll do.

Also, the Western Fantasy Assassin is meant to have really long legs, but the pose makes it look like a mistake. It's a shame, because I think this particular pose suits her better than standing ones that show off the legs better. I'll just have to explain it in the book to make sure my intentions are clear.

Horror Tank

I feel like I finished this too quickly. It's not as detailed as I planned (I was going to painstakingly draw every limb in detail on the body), but I don't really have time to do something that would probably look too busy and get deleted anyway.

Well, I'm glad I finished it today. It was one of my most dreaded pieces, and having it out of the way feels like a big relief.

Another one down

Range 1920s.

I've been using Blurb and trying to get everything compiled for a book. I think this software was made by someone who despises the world. It's sinfully painful to get it working at times.

I've stopped thinking about how much time is left. I really am too nervous to consider it. I'm just trawling through and hoping I get enough done. It's not worth the terror of counting the days.

One down, millions to go

I finished the Eastern Fantasy Support. It brilliantly crashed a whole lot so about half of the video is missing (hooray!) but at least the picture is done. I spent a long time perusing Japanese pictures when drawing it. It was really, really hard to pin down what makes a traditional Japanese picture look like a traditional Japanese picture, but I think I hit at least some of the key points:

1) Canvas texture

2) Background (Will pop one in later)

3) Calligraphic lineart - though a lot of pictures had quite simple lineart, it helps to make it look authentic anyway

4) Pure black hues

5) Smoothy straighty "wavy" lines - I really can't describe it. It's just something I tried to get a feel for.

The basic idea behind this character is that he's a Houngan sur pwen from Africa who was taken to and raised in Japan. The skull is a mix of a Gashadokuro and a fetish used for healing, protection, divining and other things.

ARGH

I'm getting rather sick of all the corrupted videos for my project. One or two I could handle, but when every picture gets maybe 4 or 5 ruined segments, especially in the crucial bits of drawing, it's really not okay. It's several hours of development down the drain. 

CamStudio is really crummy for recording important things.

In better(?) news, I applied for more jobs today. I really hope I get something this time! There were some jobs in particular that seemed like great opportunities - exactly the sort of thing I'd want to do - so fingers crossed especially for them.

Maybe I can do 3D after all!

Sorry for being arrogant, but I'm really proud of myself!! I can't believe how well it turned out. I know it's not brilliant by normal standards, but considering I was so unconfident in my 3D ability, I think it's so much better than anything I've done in 3D before. I'm so pleased!!!

I did have to use a tutorial to do it, which I was grumbly about at first. I tried not to be overly dependent on it so I did my own model rather than the one in it. I feel like, if you follow some tutorials exactly, you don't learn how to do anything for yourself; you just learn how to make the thing in the pictures. By doing this model, I had to think how I could apply what I was learning and how to actually use it myself. I really felt like a learnt a lot too.

3Dizzle

If you like uncanny valley, you're going to love this.

 

It's not finished, but I don't think it's going to look a lot more different. I tried really hard on it, and even though it is a bit eerie, I'm happy with how it came out. I figure it makes a good addition to my Honours too!

It's taken two days so far, and while that isn't a very long time, I think doing a body will take up too much longer when there are other things I ought to be doing.

I'll post wireframes and the UV when it's all done. Hopefully it'll only take a few minutes tomorrow, then I can get back to those final pieces.

Well,

I got my first rejection letter. I'm dissapointed, but I'm also pretty thankful I got something considering how many applications I've sent off. I haven't had a single reply before this one. At least they got back to me.

Better than that, I was really lucky and got back a lot of advice on how to improve my chances as a candidate. I wasn't expecting it but I really appreciate it! There are some really useful tips in there, so hopefully I can use that and get better.

Just gonna write a quick good news post.

Apparently there's a new Rockstar game coming out set in the 1920s. I figure this is really good for me, because it shows that the 1920s style I did for Honours is a popular choice for current games. I guess I made the right choice!

Horrible Week

Between taking care of an invalid and intense landlord drama, I haven't had a productive week unfortunately.

In short, I no longer have a decent connection to the internet.

We had an email about the degree show from Craig today, and apparently everyone who requested a monitor will have to share one with up to 3 other people. I felt a bit bad that, as a character artist, I get equal allowance as a 3D modeller, so I offered up my space to give someone a better go.

We had an Honours pin up on Monday. It was nice seeing all the work on the wall, but I wish there was a bit more. I put up my favourite characters and got to work on the 1920s background. The past few attempts I had were just awful and I felt a bit miserable doing them, but the one from Monday went a lot more smoothly. It's not finished, but I felt a lot more in the zone and I think it's already a big improvement over the others.

Jennifer

I should mention that the monster here is just the mouth thing, not really the girl. 

Jennifer is a parasite that lives in the mouths of its victims. It spreads its eggs to new hosts, where it grows more parts. I guess it's a zooid of sorts in that they're individual organisms, but they act as one unit. I think Jennifer could do with more detail, like little barbs or sacs to make it a bit more gross, but I'm happy for now!

Toby

Next monster done. I used a different style for both him and the background. I want it to be like an archive made by many people; someone sees a monster, draws it, puts it in the book. I hope they're looking okay so far.

Reginald

It was suggested a while ago that I do monster pictures for my Honours. I did my first one today.

I'm no good at naming things so for now, all the monsters are going to have regular names, like Alan and Kevin and Tim.

This one is Reginald.

Reginald is based off a monster in a nightmare I had recently. I don't really remember what happened; something to do with hell, and he was turning everything hellish and scary and trying to take people with him. 

I don't much like the background, but Josh and Rhoda said that it's good to have backgrounds for characters sometimes. It shows context and atmosphere. So, I gave it a go, and I guess it gets the feel across!

I also didit in a sketchier style for 2 reasons:

1) I'm better at it than super-polished things

2) I think it gives a nicer look for a monster book; like someone saw it, drew it and documented it rather than it just being a glamour shot.

So yeah.

Please tell Reginald what you think of him.

Mixed Day

You know how I said I'd be gutted if that picture wasn't perfectly finished?
It isn't. :(
Rhoda and Josh said that, if I'm planning to put her with other characters, she needs to look more like she could be interacting with them. Also, the intended setting doesn't suit the lighting on the picture. They're right, but I wish I'd done it better first time.
I got to see both Rhoda's and Josh's art today. It's kind of obvious, what with them being our tutors, but they draw so well. I wish I could be that good. I feel like I need to push myself a lot more to be at a standard where people would want to hire me.

I got to see Rhoda's creepy puppet today! It's sort of a skeletal Pinocchio. It was so cool but I was terrified of breaking it. Jack hated it. I don't think he likes creepy things very much.