FMP sketching

So after getting on my pc and going around the net a bit I was looking through about what I could find to do with my fmp and came up with a lot of great reference pictures to do with persian clothing. Not as many as I'd hoped but to be honest I should be thankful I found anything at all. So with my references in hand I silhouetted 12 different figures that I'd use for the hero of my story.

I've also looked a bit at Seahorses after realising my initial monster design looked like one and theyre quite interesting, just a bit thin and weedy for my liking and I'm not sure a tail that curls in front would be a great idea for my monster.

Also lead onto doing a little pied piper character who controls the main monster with his left arm a violin, and right arm, a bow. He will be dressed in persian dress as well to make him seem more like an Imp or a vengeful persian spirit coming back to exact his revenge. Of course he is really trivial and can be left until the end or just as a side project.

I got around to doing a speedpaint of what I wanted things to look like and having a look at colours to use which is mostly in the browns, oranges and yellows.

Finally all my reading brought me around to One Thousand and One Nights that I'll be looking for in the library on Wednesday as from what I garnered it's full of great tales that would no doubt feed my mind if not only for my FMP but forever.  Not to say I haven't heard of it before as everyone has heard of Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sinbad.

Woo work time

Now with what I have managed to get done this year, I'm not gonna have to spend every single day of christmas trying to do 12 weeks worth of projects in 3 weeks.
Just some minor changes: making the lid of the chest bigger, fixing my trash to Jolynns paintover and finishing my crab with some zbrushing on there too. Seems like an easy enough task, and many many sketches to do with my FMP to get a visual idea of what I'm gonna be doing.

Never been too good at drawing but I gotta do my best so I'll probably start doing a bunch of sketches tonight and everyday so I can have a massive log of stuff to show Chris, then he'll be really impressed and amazed and I'll get a super high grade for lots of development.
So I need to make a final decision though it doesn't help that Heather seemed really unimpressed when I explained it to her. LOL IDEAS

Alchemy

For the last day, I have been using Alchemy to generate shapes for me to draw over and hopefully help me with some monster design. I've never been too good at thinking outside the box with most things, like generating 25 variations of the same outcome. Alchemy has helped though, I've gotten a unique image from every random shape it's made, most of them being monsters/creature designs which are really going to help in the long run.

Blitz

I must say it was really useful having a word with Mr Web today as he highlighted many things I never would have looked at when modelling or when planning a piece.

Firstly we discussed my FMP about how it shouldn't be created like a wedding cake and only finished when the last bit is done. It should be more comprised of elements that stand well on their own so that if I run out of time, I will have something to show. So it totally leaves me with some planning to do regarding what it is I actually want to make for my FMP and how I will go about it.

I do enjoy making assets/props just not whole levels, having to plan where everything goes. This is referenced in my little alley way environment which is turning out great and isn't a whole large thing as it just bogs me down. Hence why I quit the rooftop and went back to the crab.

The other two things he helped with were the Trash and my Chest project. The chest, he said, was a bit drab and should really be more contrasting with much brighter colours to keep the interest in. Bringing areas out and giving them more punch so tonight I will be working on that, also to my specular. If I make the grooves less shiny, it stops them being so bright like in real life and gives the rest of the gold more punch.

My trash needs some scaling work, as I never really considered how big things are in real life. He said the cans and bin were about right so everything else needs to be scaled to fit. Have to change the shape of the bin bags to make them seem as though they are leaning onto the bin, and make them bigger so they seem more realistic. The other point he made was about story. He pointed out that there wouldn't be trash around the outside of a bin if the bin wasn't full. Hearing him say that it just comes out like common sense.  

Stumble Upon

After Eavesdropping a conversation, I took a note of Stumble upon and checked it out when I got home later and I have to say it is really amazing.

There are so many sites that I have been to that have just had excellent things to save into my inspiration folder.  Lots of great graphic design and lots of art. A bunch of fonts and hilarious pages and online games. Though I do look forward to it pulling up a page of someone else's pictures and seeing how others think and work.

I don't wanna be a concept artist or anything but I still love the look of pretty pictures and those of well dressed characters of course. Headphones and angst is the future I tell you. 

And my chest

Not my cleavage, that comes later.

This isn't the most recent version since I forgot to put a keyhole in it but that is now done. All I have to do is sort out of UV then start work on the zbrushing.

3rd Year Post.

I have been working on things just not posting on this blog for lack of not wanting to update with a three line post. Though thats sort've what this is gonna be anyway.

Just finished the modelling for the trash project. Wanted to branch out and model a dumpster and a wheelie bin to place near shops, restuarants or flats. This is pretty near the 500 tri limit.

I did want to unwrap and zbrush my mimic chest today but then because the labs are now on 3DsMax 2010 we have the same problem as last year with the labs being one version of what I have.

This is my current progress into the 2D to 3D sprite contest that Game Artisans was running. I was unable to work while it was on but liked the idea so I made a model following the guidelines. It's Django from Boktai sitting at 3k tris which is the limit.

Shall we take Risks?

Apparently not. According to this Kotaku link there are people in the industry saying games aren't that creative anymore. Industry veteran and Zoonami CEO Martin Hollis compares films to games saying that films were about two things. Romance and Guns hence the "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" phrase. Bond films in a nutshell really. Then saying that games were all guns and killing with "Bang bang, Bang bang" Apart from games which aren't meant to have enemies in them (puzzles and sports games) what was the last game that didn't have a certain degree of fighting or doing harm to another? (Yes whacking an animal on the head with a net counts as violence)

Violent scallywag

None really come to mind. I look at my collection and only those you'd expect not to have violence don't. What is it about violence and killing that makes us play loads of games about it? Is it that all gamers are repressed criminals and use games as an outlet? Do we enjoy murdering other people, nazis and ambassadors of other races using all sorts of weaponry? I suppose we do.

I look at prototype and remember that there are no children walking down the sidewalks. Then I remember that Alex Mercer is an over powered psycho who can fling people up in the air like a 10ton truck just by running down the road with a shield out. 

The majority of grunts can't even touch you in this game.

But that isn't the point of this article. We are here to discuss that all games are now similar and don't stray from working formulas. This is one of the reason I hate games about war. Not just any war. The two world wars. They have been done to death and back and that's the reason Wolfenstein has Nazi Zombies. All the characters are generic army guys who shoot army guys wearing different colours with a range of automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns. There may be jeeps or tanks but there'll be many town levels and some field/forest/jungle ones maybe even a few in the snow. If you don't kill all the bad doods, they will chase you throughout the level until one of you dies so you have to kill everyone. How many times have there been war-based games? Too many for me to count. 

I like new games, I like fresh characters. Stereotypes are fine. They provide foundations but don't make everyone look and act the same; Army guys, RPG characters like Cloud, little girls holding massive weapons. At least Max Payne is slightly different, Kaim Argonar from Lost Odyssey and Tingle in Zelda.

No character in the world is as unique as this 35 year old Fairy man.

The article later says that new IPs fail because it's new and it is not what people want in their Testosterone man games. MadWorld, the black and white Running Man-esque Wii game went down and even that wasn't a kiddy game. I still want to play it but I've heard good things. Same with No More Heroes made by the people who made Killer 7 about a schizophrenic serial killer.

No More Heroes. Cel Shaded Assinate em up

People know that they like to shoot and kill. They don't quite know if they like new characters like the one in Scribblenauts. I've seen this receive much hype, especially since you can put a steak on a baby and get it eaten by a lion and I think they have God fighting Satan in it too. Fez is a 2D platformer that then rotates the world 90 degrees a time so you can reach other platforms. It looks great and is only being made by 3 people. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat was an amazing platformer that used the bongos but now it's been ported to the Wii it doesn't use the bongos. That's half the fun taken away.

See, look how fun it is. Accessible to kids without being crap to adults

I feel saddened when I look at the game shelves and I see games that were obviously just knocked out such as the Wii and DS plague of Brain Training, Dog Training, Toilet Training, Train spotting style games. Then the rest on those systems thats all casual or for kids. 

Xbox is plagued by shooting games and RPGs, I don't even look at the Sony shelves.

In years to come I see developers only taking the safe options in FPSs or casual/kids games instead of taking risks and doing something new and different. Like the whole point of games is supposed to be about. I come to games either looking for a Narrative or an awesome experience. Some games are falling by the wayside these days, though stalking Kotaku it's hard not to see what's going to be coming out that has potential. However looking at a release schedule for Europe holds no promise at all. It seems to be one promising title per 5 cheaply made game.

Can't wait for the 18th of September on the Wii. Great day for gaming.

I wanna change that. I want to make games that aren't the same or have been done before. I want new stuff.

Fun fact. Searching World War 2 Game character in google, the first image is a gypsy. Actually only the 5th/6th image onwards are of war.

Some interesting images

The first up is this picture of an Aye Aye Lemur baby. Search Aye Aye Lemur and it's all that comes up really. So for a little while I had a warped view thinking theyd all lost their hair and the looked like wierd  batty gollum monsters. Certainly a unique animal. It's the one that taps on trees with its long boney fingers to find bugs.

Next is this image done by an artist who modernised old retro games like Sonic, Mario and Megaman into fresh new colourful pieces. Of course these kind of things could be remade to look like this nowadays. I suppose it's the nostalgia and then seeing everything in a brand new lease of life.

Presumeably this picture was done in biro alone and it really goes to show the scale of how big Giratina is compared to the Trainer. The moon being the main draw and seeing a collosus in front of it, then it's giant wings and leading down its body to the dead trees really brings in a haunted atmosphere.

And this, I think, is a character from fighting game Blazblue. I like the design as she has the big hood, hidden face and massive hand image going on. Alot like Vivi in FFIX. The constrast between her dark face and bright clothing makes me wonder just what kind of character she is.

Current WIPs

I thought I'd post these up too just to have a record of my summer progress.

First is my Azure Kite/ Lucario All star cosplay for a Game Artisans mini comp

Second is my entry for Comic-con: the Phantom Stranger. Due to going away for a week I couldn't finish it before the deadline so I'll be sure to finish it now that I have more time and make it look better than if I'd rushed

We don't call it Summer

We call it the Rainy Season. Yes its an old photo but I wanted to post it up. I want it to rain again now. Or at least have the swimming pool open again >:(

DS Style models

Recently I've been making some Low poly models after I found people had ripped a model of the GTS from Pokemon and the Link model from Phantom Hourglass.

The first one is a Highwayman which i think i was subconciously inspired by the guys Gambit Comicon entry.

And this one is the Pokemon Typhlosion inspired by the news that Gold and Silver will be remade.

But this is it for the DS models. After this I'll finish the Phantom Stranger and another model hopefully by the time Uni starts again

Sack Scyther

A quick normal texture to see what its like and it certainly helps a lot more than a flat colour. Ill make it more intricate as time goes on  but for now i wanted to see what it looked like, those blades could be a pain though

Sword

A pretty basice painting and i need to learn how to waste less time when i paint. The front arm is cut off btw

WHOS THAT POKEMON?

???

ITS SCYTHER

My latest model, a bit of a fleeting one but it kept eating at me until i made one. So ill texture this in the next few days i believe

Could this be our BG&E2?

Personally I'm hoping it is. Compared with the first trailer it looks like Jade. There is a Bo staff there to. IT also sounds like her. A little wierd that shes gone MGS4 and travelled to the middle east to do what shes good at. Running from the authorities in a very stylish fashion. I hope this turns out to be it but that even will be a cutscene, a quicktime event or ingame but not as cool, with running into walls without hands being put up. That said BG&E had some impressive animation, for Jade anyway.

Ooo I hope it is, its been like 10 years since we got that wonderful underrated and underplayed game.

 

How many games people lost their jobs?

12% of the entire games industry it seems.

This personally isn't that good especially since it isn't people being cut from studios, we have the entire game studios shutting down. Like 3D realms this week. They brought us Duke Nukem, they didn't bring us Duke Nukem forever. Must be hard 'making' a game and then having the hardware change so you have to do it all again.

Wanda Meloni has worked out these numbers and 12% is 8450 people that lost their jobs due to this recession. I wonder when we'll be getting out of that, it has been quite a while since we got into it, also seems that Swine Flu hasn't been spoken of for a few days.

She also claims these people are working at other studios or making their own which can be good in ways  but then it means theyre filling up all the jobs before we get there :( But good for them getting those jobs back.

I just thought, i hope its those people who make crappy shovelware Wii and DS games that lost their jobs, then again, they probably make enough money to never worry about it again

Artsy games *Persona 4 spoilers*

My artsy game of the moment is Persona 4. Its a great looking game and has a fantastic atmosphere for a little rural village.

It has a great use of colour and the detail they have on every model is very impressive. I love the characters and i stare at their clothes as often as i can to see if i can pick up anything for my own modelling. Obviously i can't put a massive gap between the thighs as all these characters seem to have but the texture space must've been used well if they can show alot of detail on each character.

The point of this post is to show one of the models from the game that i was really impressed with. And that is one of the later bosses, Shadow Teddie. It was a great concept and it was modelled and textured great and i couldnt help but think i want to model something like this at some point.

This is the concept for him showing size and his general prescence on the screen.

And this lame youtube shot shows how he fully looks ingame, a cracked face to show how hollow he is inside. Poor Teddie, though those eyes and expression are really damn creepy for the comic relief of the game

Final Texturing renders

The final renders of my piratey babe. Done on the 512 diffuse with no speculars of normals. I kinda like it this way and flat diffuses always have a charm, especially since all the games I'm playing at the moment don't have any of that.

I wanna learn how to paint like persona 4 T_T

Inflation

MY first speed painting in a while and I am gonna aim to do one each evening over the summer so that i keep painting. This one is about an hour but i was constantly distracted by msn to have my full attention on this. I hope to get quicker.

I will also aim to learn how to draw animals as I have never drawn them properly before and itll be helpful to finally get some things right.

Why are pirates called pirates?

Getting towards the end of this project now. Got a few little things left to work on and then ill be calling it quits on this so I can do a little bit of Dom War work whilst Dom War is still on.

Ken Sugimori art <3

I'm so happy, I managed to find a Zip full of Ken Sugimori's art.  If you didn't know, he's essentially the main artist behind Pokemon.  As you can see from this array of 3 Pokemon themed images. It's great to see how far he has developed his style since he started with Pokemon Red and Green. I have no idea why this first picture has such strange proportions for everything but it is great to see Red again after all this time.

The second image from Pokemon Gold and Silver. Sporting its brand new character and a new colouring style. I did love his initial style as he didnt fill in the image fully and tended to use white as a highlight making everything look really shiny. As a kid I didn't care, this art was amazing and it was pokemon flavoured. Its delicious art through and through. I'm so jealous. 

He is also the first artist next to Richard Elson (From Sonic the Comic) whose name I actually remember.

And a final action image. It has humour, it has action, it has suspense. I love it. Shame its the only one thats like this, the rest follow his Fire Red/Leaf Green style. I wish I could see more like this though, nothing like having two Trainers being chased on bikes by a legendary sky dragon. He no longer uses white as a highlight, and it moreso seems that they are so much more subtle. However this could just be the lightning lighting things up. All in all I love Ken sugimori. 

Following his colours from Red/Green will be fun for a change but his drawing style....perhaps not

Todays current progress is...

Looking much better than before. After working out a few snags, I got around and did more texturing adding alot more detail than i had before. Mostly on the jacket and skirt.

Texturing comp progress

Texturing competition time.

Going for a piratey theme after seeing some of the unattached triangles on the skirt looking like a pirate coat. Now I gotta unify my colours and add more detail and research more pirates for the dom war.

Ingame upskirts

No longer will the discerning otaku have to fumble the crouch button and the camera up button at the same time, hoping the camera gets stuck against a wall and it forced downwards showing the goods.

This article explains how we can finally have full control over an ingame camera by where we look. Of course however many games can make use of an upskirt camera like this I'm not so sure but it might make fps' easier to control so you can see the Hot dancing girls over there <--

 

Tohohoho

Games with new themes

Coil: Coil is definitely one of those artsy games, that if you didn't read too much of a description, you wouldn't instantly understand what its about.

It turns out its a game about pregnancy, or moreso the conception. With the creepy music constantly playing in the background its really hard to know if its a game about consenual sex or rape but then wishing the rapist was still around. I couldn't tell but it was certainly an interesting play as it only used mouse gestures, no clicking or keyboarding. I enjoyed it but was pretty creeped out by it but kept playing as the text inbetween the little games was very gripping and written in in a great way.

And yet it moves: AYIM is your standard platformer but its really taking a different approach to it, much like Braid did with all of its levels revolving around the control of time. You control your unnamed character with A and D and jump with W but then rotate the world 90 degrees using the left and right arrow keys. Having to rotate the world let for some puzzles, which is mostly how to get around things by moving it round a few times to get around an obstacle but at the same time very infuriating because he kept his momentum as you rotated so you can rotate and still die by falling 2cms.

Something else i loved was the art style. Everything looks as though it was cut out of paper. The main character is plain white and looks like he is wearing socks, but the world has some nice textures over it and overall a great looking game.

Mevo and the Grooveriders: A new sort of rhythm game. In the style of Beatmania when you press a key when it goes over an indicator. This is a sort of platform game however with no platforming involved. You play as a grooverider, you chose a stage which is essentially a song and they run across the platforms passing through the left and right beats. To which you press that button. Its a very simple concept but kind of a hard game. It offers a wide range of customisation. I liked it because it was different from the usual rhythm genre but the songs were too bland and monotone to be a decent music game .

Self Portrait

Is it done?

Why yes it is

Inspirational moodboards

This is a collection of images that I've saved that I thought were funny or inspirational. Actually its just the first one thats funny. the rest are things that i liked the look of that I may call upon in the future.