Update Dump

I'm taking my lab hours to do a massive update on both the references I've gathered and any sketches I've been doing. Most of the sketches I'll be posting will be pencil sketches I drew on some class notes and in my sketchbooks.

Real Life References:

 

Art/Game References:

Undercity Sewers - Blizzard Entertainment

My color palette inspiration.

 Dalaran Sewers - Blizzard Entertainment

 Dalaran Sewers - Blizzard Entertainment

 Biohazard Symbol via CreativeWallpapers.com

 Biohazard Barrels via iStockphoto

Biohazard Barrel via bigstock.com

Beginning Sketches:

Disclaimer: These are basically doodles, super rough!

 Some sort of title art.

 A more abstract depiction of a sewer entrance, I thought it would make sense with the overarching dream setting. This could be fun to run with.

 

Another abstract design.

Possible instances of the levels.

From left to right: A gap in the pathway, a toxic barrel to overcome, and an area where the player could be forced to jump and fall unaware of what's to follow.

Digital Media Project Proposal: Version 2.0!

So, after the discussion about my project during class today I have finally made a decision that I'm really excited about! First of all, I wanted to thank everyone who listened to my ramblings about my project during class today and made suggestions. I wouldn't be nearly as excited about this project without everything you guys said, so thank you!

I want to reiterate my final decision here on the blog just to make sure everyone, including me, will be clear on the concept I am pursuing for my project. I decided to, in a way, combine both of my ideas and put the long term project in a series type of format. Each "episode" will be a stand alone game that will delve into the subconscious of the character through lucid dreams. Something I thought would make the series more interesting as a whole would be to have a predetermined order of the "episodes" but to execute them out of order. For example, I think a terrifying childhood fear such as getting sucked into the sewer might be something that would be experienced deeper in the subconscious. So, rather than being Lucid I: Sewer, it might be better placed as Lucid IV depending on how many "episodes" I wish to create. In order to quantify which fears/thoughts/memories go to which "episode", I've been reading a little bit about suppression and repression. Fears, thoughts, and memories that are more suppressed rather than repressed would be first in the series. And, as the player gets deeper into the subconscious, more repressed fears, thoughts, and memories begin to appear which I would assign to the later "episodes". A possible list I just thought of is as follows:

Lucid I: Current adult fear (getting older, financial trouble, etc.)
Lucid II: Childhood fear (Sewer)
Lucid III: Childhood memory/trauma (being picked on by peers, negative family experience, etc.)

I know this is getting a bit too specific for the parameters of this term, but I would really like to continue this project and really flesh out my ideas to include it in both my BFA review and thesis. I'm using this post as a huge brainstorming session of sorts.

So, after all of that rambling, here is my working timeline for this term:

W 1/12: Gather references for sewer environments and begin sketches in Photoshop.
M 1/17: No class!
W 1/19: Continue sketch work while solidifying visual concepts.
M 1/24: Continue working on environment, starting to gather references and ideas for a character design.
W 1/26: Finish gathering references for a character and begin sketching ideas.
M 1/31: Proposed prelim. Critique showing current 2-D work.
W 2/2: Continue to work on all 2-D pieces including environments, characters, or anything else.
M 2/7: Continue working and posting progress.
W 2/9: Begin working in Maya, creating the level designs in 3-D.
M 2/14: Continue working and posting progress.
W 2/16: Begin working on character design in Maya.
M 2/21: Continue working and posting progress.
W 2/23:Continue working and posting progress.
M 2/28: Final Project Presentation/Evaluation - Possible complications with me, I will discuss this with Professor Arellano on Wednesday 1/12!

Digital Media Project Proposal

Dear Collaborative Team of Artists,

As some of you may remember from Wednesday's class, I have two specific concepts for my project. The project, overall, is going to be as much pre-production work as possible for a video game concept that I come up with. The video game, if it were to be finished, would be in a side-scrolling/platformer format with 3-D aspects. Some points of reference for this are The New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Epic Mickey (specific levels), and Donkey Kong Country Returns. The pre-production work will include both 2-D and 3-D work. The 2-D work will include concept art of environments/levels, character(s), enemies, and possibly user interfaces The 3-D work will include bringing the concept art to life with a few 3-D renderings of characters, enemies, or levels. I will create most of my work using both Photoshop and Maya.

Now onto the more difficult part of this project... selecting a concept. I want this project to be part of the work I show for my BFA mid-program review and my overall thesis for the BFA program so a strong concept is important. Here are the two specific ideas I have for the video game:

1. Sewer
My idea for this concept stemmed from an early childhood fear of being pulled into the drain of a shower or sucked into the whirlpool of a flushing toilet. I think the concept of this game surrounding that basic childhood fear could be relatable to most people, making the connection from the player to the game stronger. Or I could just be alone in having that fear as a child, who knows! The game would encompass one main character, a child, being sucked into the shower drain and spirited away to the sewer underworld and forced to fight her way out. The gameplay would all take place within the sewer, so all the environments/levels would reflect that. I also thought there could be a specific antagonist attempting to prevent her from escaping by constantly changing the sewer environment, this could be an interesting alternative to the classic onslaught of random enemies attacking a character.

2. Lucid
This concept is all based on the ideas behind a lucid dream state that the character would be experiencing. What got me interested in this concept is the lack of control that most people have over their dreams and how someone might wake up and wish they could have changed the outcome of that specific dream. Although some people can achieve entering a lucid dream state, it would be interesting to be able to have that control within the setting of a video game. The game would include a main character, possibly rendered in some sort of neutral fashion so anyone could relate to him/her. The levels could be more creative in this concept, perhaps overcoming huge obstacles that might occur in most dreams rather than combating enemies or a specific antagonist.

I think those descriptions are specific enough, but I can always add more during the class discussion.

Thanks Everyone!

Lindsay

Art 450 Post Mortem and Propaganda Posters

So I thought I would do a quick blog post about my thoughts on how my first 450 class went. I really feel like Tawnee and I had a great concept to start the project with and I'm actually still really excited about possibly continuing with it during Winter term. On the other hand, in the end I think Tawnee and I both felt that the expectation of three fully finished characters was setting the bar a bit too high. If I could go back and change anything it would be to change the expectation to one or two characters rather than three. Another option we could have pursued, because we are both very interested in 3D work, is to just do everything in 3D for the whole term with just the expectation of learning and seeing what the result were.

Overall I really liked the direction I was going with my Ugly character but in turn sacrificed time I could have spent working on each character equally or working on the Ugly character in 3D. Above everything else though, I did end up learning a lot from the critiques and can't wait to take another 450 class next term!

Onto the Propaganda Posters! These were for my Print Studio class. The assignment was to make a series of post card size anti-narrative pieces based on some sort of apocalyptic event. If you don't know what anti-narrative means, feel free to look it up because I think I would butcher the definition. :-/

For my anti-narrative project I decided to create propaganda posters from different organized groups that could pop up in a post apocalyptic 2013 society.

More Ugly

New wings!

Silhouette Fun

Miles talked to Tawnee and I on Tuesday about how drawing silhouette forms of our creatures could help us to get a better idea of how we really want the body shapes to look. I did some silhouettes for all three characters and I also wanted to show some detail work I did on the Ugly character. Even though I might be changing that character around, I still think it was some good practice in drawing cloth and gave me a good sense of how I'd like to approach clothing on that particular character.

Ugly Silhouettes:

I think an aspect that I really like about this character is that, although his body shape is meant to be incredibly thin, I still find myself adding characteristics to him that make him heavy. I think this is an interesting contrast that was initially unintentional.

Ugly Detail:

Grotesque Silhouettes:

Nasty Silhouettes:

Quick Revision!

Revised Ugly a bit over the weekend.

I changed the size of the wing knob thing (I made it smaller so as to put more emphasis on the wing itself), put the leg in the correct position, changed the shoulders a bit (I wanted them to feel more like they were hanging there and a bit heavy or cumbersome), shrunk his head, and did some super rough shading.