Friday.

I've been going through what I've called my mid-course crisis.  I wasn't sure if what I was doing was the right thing to be doing and I wasn't sure if I was going the way I should be going.  So I spoke to Josh, my course leader.  He straightened me out.

Basically, I've been getting a little worried that while I'm confident and really happy in creating the project I have for my Masters; my employable skills may be lacking somewhat.  I've been thinking and talking about getting into Maya to learn the ins and outs so that I can have '3D modeller' on my CV, but it would have been a weak claim, if any.  As I'm seeing it now, it's good to be a 2D artist with a good ability to make things in 3D, but what is also great is a designer with a strong 2D ability, which I think is what I'm on right now.  I've gone from the practical creation of all things concept and illustrative and I've transitioned into the role of designer while maintaining a 2D strength.

Or something like that.

Here's some things I've drawn up today:

A while ago, I drew up a rough idea for a Haemogoblin.  Here he is again.

Another few SpEngineer drawings.  I went the pencil route and then over him with a brush pen.  Pretty fun.  I don't do that a lot.

So one of the things that I'm working on for my project at the moment is the idea that Subject 86 was not the only person to have been retrieved by the aliens on the planet that he's now occupying.  The basic coffinpods are created to hold up to 20 persons, so I was thinking that it'd be nice to see a couple of dozen other Subjects at some point in the game.  Not all at once, obviously, but throughout the game as it progresses.  Some of them are going to be more grotesque than others - it'll be anything from a simple arm swap (as we've already seen with Subject 86), while others are going to be used as living incubators, some will have half of them exchanged for another part of some other animal.  It'll be fun.

Finally, Zach Braff has got a Kickstarter up.  (I've decided that Kickstarter is my Pinterest).  If you don't know what Kickstarter is, you're probably not alone - it's a crowdsourcing platform that helps people get funding for projects that they want to start.  Ultimately, they pitch their ideas in a polished, edited, Dragon's Den style and it's up to the public to decide whether or not the project will float and how much they want to risk in backing it.  These 'backers' are rewarded with everything from e-high-fives to a hand crafted 10ft whaling boat based on how much they pledge.  Only once the amount needed is reached will the backers be charged for what they have said they want to give.  If the project doesn't get enough funding, that's it.  Game over.  No-one is charged and the project is taken off the site.  Hopefully these links will still work in a month when the projects are completed.

Back to the point; Zach Braff has a project up.  It's for a film called 'Wish You Were Here'.  Why Zach Braff is asking for the money to fund it, I don't know.  My rose-tinted view is that although he can fund it with what he probably carries round in his pocket from day to day, the idea that people can be personally involved in the film he wants to make is something that he wants to offer and share in.  One of the images on his Kickstarter page is of a few characters - very basic blocks of colour to see what they'll be kitted out in.  I figured it'd be nice to have a go at redrawing them myself and seeing what I could do.  This is my progress thus far.

It's been fun.

I've been listening to The Dreadnoughts all day and they're pretty great.  I'm listening to their album 'Polka's Not Dead'.  Check it out.

Peace.