Easter.

Turns out the studios are closed for the next two weeks.  Apart from Thursday; one of my tutors has kindly told us that she's coming in on Thursday so that we can come on in and do some work.

But on Thursday I'm off out on a uni trip to Manchester, so that's a shame.

I'll update again soon, though.  Got a lot of sketches to throw up here and two weeks to do it...

Peace.

Work and things.

The downside of not having a lot of technology around me at the moment is that I haven't been able to scan in my drawings for the past couple of months.  I've been drawing a lot.

I've modified the first Maya body I did to look a bit like a character I've drawn up for a commission (of sorts).

Yea, it's not textured or mapped or anything and the model itself is pretty messy, but I wanted a feel for the overall shape.  I'm not a modeller, so it's just to get the idea across as best as I can.  I'm ok with that.  I've been drawing up some really fun stuff for the game I'm working on and I'm pretty excited to be able to scan it in at some point and get it all up here.

Peace.

Bits and bobs.

Found a few nice photog bits that I thought I'd keep a reference for.

http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/erin_fongs_more_ergonomic_dslr_concept_15367.asp

and

http://geekcentricity.com/2012/05/geek-gadget-preview-revolve.html

Two pretty nice ideas there.  The first from 2009 and the second from a year ago, but nice ideas all the same.

Peace.

Research bit.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112767602/google-co-founder-wearing-glasses-012113/

Found this link about the Project Glass thing from Google.  Thought it'd throw it up here.  I'll post a bit more work later - I've got my lecture this afternoon instead of this morning, so I'll come back in after that and scan in some bits.

Peace.

Worky.

Got a nice load done today.  A good number of sketchbook pages doodled in and a little 3D 'for now' model of one of the things I'm drawing up:

Yaay!

I'm trying to expand an idea that was thought of last week.  It's a great idea for the game, so I'm going full steam ahead with it.  As you do.

Time for Lacrosse.

Peace.

Lectures, lectures.

Today saw two lecturers come in to the uni and talk to us for a bit.

The first was great; the second, not so much.  But their time is appreciated and all that.

Fig Taylor came and spake about her time in the illustration business and agents, clients, freelance work and so forth.  It was hugely inspiring and helpfully practical.  Interspersed with some funny anecdotes and advice that is very usable.

The main theme of the lecture was how we can create an effective portfolio and use it to get hired.  Based on her book 'How to create a Portfolio and get hired'.

It was helpful in getting us to understand how we can tailor our 'folios - whether digital or printed - to the needs and uses of the companies we are thinking of applying to and what to expect - for the most part - when we go and meet up with prospective employers.

It was engaging, motivating and thought-provoking.

Then we went to a second lecture and watched videos.  In the first lecture, we were told that bad illustration and illustration that we don't personally like are two very different things.  So what I saw may have been good animation.

I used the word 'spake' instead of 'spoke'.  I'm trying to bring it back.

Peace.

Back on track.

It's been a pretty good day.

I've been getting bogged down recently by the thoughts of making this game playable and accessible to as many people as possible, while thinking that if I didn't look at the programming side of things, I'd make an unfeasible game that is fundamentally flawed.

Now I'm thinking screw it.  If they like it they'll make it.  I mean, I'm not expecting people to look into technology to entertain my whims and support my ideas of this small game - it'd be nice, sure.  But if I wanted to eat a Dodo I couldn't expect people to be willing to accommodate that.  I can, instead, dream about what that Dodo would taste like, how I would cook it, present it, share it.  All of that.  I wouldn't have the Dodo to do any of that with, but should someone want to buy a recipe from me for a Dodo that they have, then why not make the best of what I have and collaborate with someone to form the most delicious meal the world could have ever known?

I think this is more of a metaphor, but maybe I'm hungry.  I'll try and make sense of it.  For my sake, above everything else.

I have a great idea for a game and I have some great ideas as to how I want the game to play out, the characters I'd like to see in the game, etc.  Instead of worrying about what is possible to do and what is not possible, I'm going to create this world, these characters and the mechanics as if it we completely possible.  Of course, that means thinking about the parameters of the game and the limits of what I can do, but that's the same with anything - consoles, board games, PCs and all that.  But I want to start drawing and designing characters and creatures again.

It'll be a cyclic thing, too.  I'm going to be thinking about what I'd like to see in the game - what mechanic a creature would maintain.  With that in mind, I'd design the creature and make a few notes on it.  Based on my first mechanic ideas and first sketches, I'll re-think my mechanics and that'll lead to a redesign of the creature.  And so forth until I have something I'm very very happy with.

Josh and I talked a little about some of the things we could do in terms of interaction between cards - marker cards and otherwise - and the idea of both earning things through the game and being able to buy upgrades from a source outside of the game (newsagents, etc.)

Rhoda and I talked about the character designs themselves and how it's a good idea to focus on that and step out of what I'm comfortable with doing.  At the moment, my default setting is drawing Subject 86 in various poses with various items.  I can do it in my sleep now.  Which I like - I've always wanted that familiarity with a character - but it's also what I go to to escape and get away from things.

This is both good and bad.  Bad because it's not letting me progress as fast as maybe I can, but good because I have an ever-increasing amount of images for my main character!

So it's back to the drawing board and back to the notebook for me this afternoon; thinking about mechanics in order to get a good idea of what to draw and from there, taking the design back to the start and repeating that over and again.

Peace.

1812.

I've had Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture on most of today and yesterday.  It makes me feel like I'm doing work victoriously.

I've been doing a good few drawings for a summer camp that we hold at the church.  I haven't scanned anything in yet, but I'm having a great time drawing a lot of things very quickly.  Back to good old pen and paper.

I've also been fighting with Maya for the past three days in uni.  It's not the most cooperative programmes at the best of times, and now that I've found a way to model that suits me well it's crashing like it's going out of style.

Battling that as I am, here's what I've done today:

Well, not completely today, but throughout the week.  I spent Tuesday getting the body and legs, yesterday on the arms and then today finishing off the arms and doing the hands and head.  A lot went wrong and a lot can be improved, but two things keep me encouraged:

One - for my first figure in Maya I'm very happy with it, even though I know very well that my 100th figure in Maya will be almost infinitely better.

Two - Doing things to the standard you want to do them and taking your time to do it right is better than a rushed job full of flaws and things you knew you'd want to change when you were doing it.  I will get better and I will get faster.  And I'm looking forward to that.

Still.  I'm pretty stoked to have this guy done as my first model.  A good milestone.

In other news, I found the Minecraft spot in Borderlands 2.  If you didn't want to know about it, don't read that last bit.

I'm off home to draw some more and maybe play a little Borderlands 2.

Peace.