A Month...

...without updating.  Whoops.

Well, I've finished term 3 and am enjoying my winter break before starting term 4 and *gasp* final project! O^O!!!!!

I've grouped up with 4 other students in my class and since we're all staying in Vancouver for the holidays we've met up a couple of times to chat and brainstorm a bit before the next term starts.  Apparently we need 3 ideas to pitch to our mentors and get their feedback, so we're aiming to get about 6 basic ideas, then pick 3 and flesh them out.

Besides that, my break is consisting largely of work (extra shifts = more monies so Kimmy can stay warm and full over the next few months) and exploring the frozen, north edge of the world at the rim of the sky to face down giant fire breathing monstrosities with magic, steel, and voice; in other words: playing Skyrim! Mwee~ >w<

I am a Breton who favors conjuring and one armed weapons, with a little bit of archery for hunting :P  But I'm thinking of making a second character to just run around and steal ALL THE THINGS, with the goal of simply being filthy stinking rich by any means necessary.  Most likely either a Khajiit or a Dunmer.

I've noticed something though, in open world games like Skyrim or Red Dead Redemption, my favourite thing to do tends to be hunting.  Seriously, anywhere I go is littered with the bodies of hundreds of innocent forest critters, their corpses ransacked for anything of use or value.  I waste waaaay too much time chasing deer.  I think maybe that's why games such as Lost in Blue, Minecraft, or Monster Hunter appeal to me; I really like hunting things down and scavenging for things to use for survival.  Give me a game where I gut a wolf and use its hide to make a sleigh to carry mushrooms, eggs, and various small game back to my makeshift home in the middle of a vast world to explore full of lore and history and I am happy.

Maybe it just boils down to "I <3 looting"?

In other news, I've been messing around in Maya.  I'm going to be doing a lot of art over the next several months, so I can definitely use the modelling  practice.  I'm just making random things and keeping everything relatively simple and low poly, so hopefully I'll be able to take at least some of it to use as a starting point for various assets in whatever game my group ends up making.

Well... that's all I can think of to say at the moment.  So have some links.

Bird Boy - A fantastic webcomic set in a unique world full of puppetlike beasts
Rice Boy - A great site with 3 wonderful webcomics.  I definitely recommend Vattu.
Etymology Dictionary - Ever wondered about the origin of certain words or sayings?
Behind the Name - Similar to the above, but specifically for names.  Great for character naming.

Also, the Hobbit.

P.S., I'm trying this new thing where I link to games that I mention rather than just taking it as a given that people will know of them or will Google them.  Good idea?  Bad idea?

Texturing and More

I have faced the beast known as texturing and come out wiser and better for it.

It isn't too difficult to do, it just requires a lot of patience to do it well.  Unwrapping, sewing edges, making sure the texture won't distort.  I had the unfortunate lack of foresight to make my model a Hork Bajir rather than the human we were supposed to be modeling, and it's legs were... an absolute mess to deal with.  I had to go back to them after I had more of a handle on it.

It's definitely something useful to practice, however, I'd also really like to get into actually painting textures.  I think it will likely frustrate me a lot at first, but there's quite a bit of power in texturing and it's a skill I'd like to have.

Might be good to look into it more for our final project and get some practice in.


In other, slightly outdated news, a few weeks ago I purchased both Pokemon White and Dragon Age II, and I have to say I'm enjoying both quite a bit though I feel a bit guilty for starting on Dragon Age II while my copy of Dragon Age: Awakenings that I got for Christmas is still sitting there in the plastic.... probably feeling very unloved.

I'm not particularly far in either due to dividing the little gaming time I have between the two of them, however they're both quite enjoyable so far.  Dragon Age II still feels quite buggy and slightly unpolished however, but it's great fun, I love the characters just as much as I loved the cast from Dragon Age Origins, and gray morality!!  Thank you Bioware for making me think beyond "Do I want to be evil or good this time around?".  I also like the fact that the dialogue options have tone indication, you can be blunt and forceful or lighthearted and sarcastic, or diplomatic and pacifying.

And pokemon... goodness, every time a new game comes out I go on such a pokemon binge.  It is my guilty pleasure, I admit it, but I just love the series.  I grabbed the oshawott, named him Derpymaru, evolved him into a dewott and I'm currently looking for an everstone to prevent him from becoming a samurott (I like dewott's design much more).  I still love pokemon after all these years, but I have noticed their designs seem to have gotten unnecessarily complicated over the years, they were much simpler in the beginning in general, nowadays they have so much extra crap on them.

Anyways, I suppose it's time to wrap this up.  To end things off, I'll leave you with this trailer for an upcoming movie...  It may be of interest to you, after all future events such as these will affect you in the future :P

Post Process Volumes, Anothology Covers and Turtles, oh my!

Dropped off my scholarship applications last week, all I can do now it cross my fingers and hope for the best... and have nightmares about being disqualified for overlooking something and making a tiny mistake on my application. Heh heh...

But let's talk about less stressful things, I've been making my way through UDK tutorials and just finished off the basics of creating a level and got my first taste of Kismet. The idea of visual scripting is very intriguing to me, code is something I've wanted to learn for a long time, however I am definitely a much more visually oriented person. Other, more widespread coding languages are still something I'd like to sink my teeth into however.  I am getting a taste of some coding in flash class, but it's not really the main focus of the class and we haven't gone very in depth so far; unless we dive further in down the line, it's only serving to whet my appetite.

One of the things I learned about today was post process volumes. I have to say it's probably rather silly how much I like those things, but man, the possibilities!

This probably isn't the best explanation, but basically a post process volume allows you to change the look of a particular area of your level by adding a volume around it. You can change the settings of that volume to to tweak things like the colour of the area, the depth of field, bloom and more, and you can change how quickly these settings take effect. For example, if you were making a horror level, you could set up a volume around a particular room that would cause everything to suddenly turns red once the player walked into that room, or you could set it up so that as the player explores and spends more time in the room, the colour slowly fades away until everything is black and white.

There's so many ways you could apply this; you could create a desert game where the environment feels boiling out in the open, but stepping into a cave feels instantly cooler. Or you could make an area filled with poison, that causes the player's vision to be slowly more blurred the longer they stay there, as if their character is about to pass out. It makes me want to take what I learned in Cine class about movie lighting and create a level in which the player walks through different movie genres, from Horror, to Western to Noir to Sci-Fi.

Anyhoo, tomorrow I have comic class, which so far looks like it'll be great fun. We're teaming up with students from VFS's writing program, they'll be writing four pages of a comic and we'll be drawing them, in the end it will all be put together as an anthology. Last class the writing students pitched 3 concepts and we got teamed up, and I'm quite happy with the story I'm to illustrate. However, the comic class is for Animation stream students and I'm in the digital design stream, I'm just sitting in on it because I really love comics and I wanted to learn more about creating them. As a result I'm supposed to help with the cover and packaging for the anthology and I'm to make that my primary focus. At work today I was jotting down some ideas for a theme to sort of tie the whole anthology together, something like The Worlds Inside your Head, or Creativity or Bringing your Ideas to Life, to emphasize the joining of different VFS programs in the common goal of learning and creating, or possibly something like Comic vs Graphic as we have a mix or more comedic, newspaper style "comics" versus darker, more mature "graphic novel" type stories.

Well, I have work to do, so I should probably wrap this up for now.  I suppose I'll finish this post off with another video, I've been throwing a lot of these up here lately, haven't I?



So cute.... so tiny....

Oh and... um... it-it's a wonderful use of depth of field... and really shows turtle movement and anatomy which could be a helpful reference for anyone wanting to draw a turtle...

Yeah.... That's totally why I linked it.

Mostly Videos

I like when people can appreciate solitude, I've never understood people who can't stand being alone for very long, quiet can be nice.



The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a beautiful movie, with wonderful animation, story and amazing scenery shots. I've also found it seems to have a disproportionate number of well done AMVs compared to most other anime (yes I'm an AMV junkie...)





A video I came across a while ago and recently stumbled upon again. You may not want to watch if you're easily creeped out.



Ahh gaming.... you've come a long way.



Behind the scenes of the ever so popular old spice commercials, it's interesting to see what goes into all those set changes.



And finally, an absolutely beautiful little animation called Out of Sight, reminds me of Studio Ghibli in a lot of ways.

Break Time is Work Time

Got a couple days off of school now that term 4 has ended.

Time to catch up on UDK tutorials and work on scholarship stuffs, I want to get my scholarship stuff more or less done this weekend so I can focus on final project stuff.

But this is pretty much me right now:



hmmm... I could say more, but I think I'll save it for later and try to get my stuff done.

In lieu of words, have another video:

And the Disconnected Number I Still Call...

Here are some of my most favourite poems.

First, my favourite poet: Shane Koyczan.  He is a spoken word artist, so it's better to hear him perform the poems, my personal favourite of his is Atlantis:



Others that I like though are Move Pen Move (it starts out with another poem, so wait until after the lady reciting “Divine Sonnet X”/"Death be not Proud") and The Crickets Have Arthritis.  Both are rather sad though, so be warned if you don't like bittersweet poems.

This one I discovered recently, it's called "Long Distance II" by Tony Harrison:

Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.

You couldn't just drop in. You had to phone.
He'd put you off an hour to give him time
to clear away her things and look alone
as though his still raw love were such a crime.

He couldn't risk my blight of disbelief
though sure that very soon he'd hear her key
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.
He knew she'd just popped out to get the tea.

I believe life ends with death, and that is all.
You haven't both gone shopping; just the same,
in my new black leather phone book there's your name
and the disconnected number I still call.

The final stanza is my favourite.

And finally, this one is my absolute favourite for a long time, "The Old Astronomer to his Pupil" by Sarah Williams:

Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, I would know him when we meet,
When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet;
He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how
We are working to completion, working on from then to now.

Pray remember that I leave you all my theory complete,
Lacking only certain data for your adding, as is meet,
And remember men will scorn it, 'tis original and true,
And the obliquy of newness may fall bitterly on you.

But, my pupil, as my pupil you have learned the worth of scorn,
You have laughed with me at pity, we have joyed to be forlorn,
What for us are all distractions of men's fellowship and wiles;
What for us the Goddess Pleasure with her meretricious smiles.

You may tell that German College that their honor comes too late,
But they must not waste repentance on the grizzly savant's fate.
Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

What, my boy, you are not weeping? You should save your eyes for sight;
You will need them, mine observer, yet for many another night.
I leave none but you, my pupil, unto whom my plans are known.
You "have none but me," you murmur, and I "leave you quite alone"?

Well then, kiss me, -- since my mother left her blessing on my brow,
There has been a something wanting in my nature until now;
I can dimly comprehend it, -- that I might have been more kind,
Might have cherished you more wisely, as the one I leave behind.

I "have never failed in kindness"? No, we lived too high for strife,
Calmest coldness was the error which has crept into our life;
But your spirit is untainted, I can dedicate you still
To the service of our science: you will further it? you will!

There are certain calculations I should like to make with you,
To be sure that your deductions will be logical and true;
And remember, "Patience, Patience," is the watchword of a sage,
Not to-day nor yet to-morrow can complete a perfect age.

I have sown, like Tycho Brahe, that a greater man may reap;
But if none should do my reaping, 'twill disturb me in my sleep
So be careful and be faithful, though, like me, you leave no name;
See, my boy, that nothing turn you to the mere pursuit of fame.

I must say Good-bye, my pupil, for I cannot longer speak;
Draw the curtain back for Venus, ere my vision grows too weak:
It is strange the pearly planet should look red as fiery Mars,
God will mercifully guide me on my way amongst the stars.

My favourite lines are "Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."

Couple of Game Videos...

Must keep up with blog! Raaawr!

I want to keep an eye on this game... It looks pretty cool, if only for the opportunity to create a paradise on earth, admire it for a bit, then plop a volcano down right in the middle.

It reminds me a lot of Black and White though, especially with that tower with the blue flag/symbol hovering over top.



I am also thoroughly addicted to Minecraft videos after a friend of mine shared this one:

Videos

A couple of Videos from term 3 at VFS:

My After Effects Final...

And my Classical Animation Final (starring 2 of my Discovery Monsters)

Term 3 is over, Christmas Break! :D

Colour Variations

 

Here's some colour schemes I'm kicking around for the pack animal, I haven't yet done the final design, so it's still the lineart I posted last time.  Each one is based on a different animal; coyote, thomson's gazelle, sand gazelle and wildebeest.  I'm probably going to wind up mixing and matching elements from each one.

Still sketching out ideas for the other critters, but I don't really have anything I want to post yet.

Some stuff I'm looking at:

Pterosaurs

Striped Hyenas 

and finally, the Dik-dik!  The cutest little antelope you will ever see

More Stuff

Whooo, my second post.

Here's some more things I enjoy, they give me the inspiration and patience to see tough, frustrating projects through:

The Story of Khale

I would embed this one on youtube, but it's crappy quality on there and you really need to appreciate the detail and timing the creator put into this.

Same goes with these: Brackenwood Animations!  They're amazing little animations by Adam Phillips.  The music, animation detail and timing, and creature designs are awesome, these are my favourites from Brackenwood

The Yuyu
Littlefoot
Last of the Dashkin


Penndragon:

An experimental animation about an angel out to earn her wings







And some webcomics

Gunnerkrigg Court
The Abominable Charles Christopher
Johnny Wander
Hanna is not a Boy's Name
Phoenix Requiem

My New Blog

Hmm... this place needs some sprucing up....


Whelp, first some stuff:

An amazing little animation series called There She Is! By SamBakZa, a group of Korean animators.











And a song I like called Bris (or Breeze) It's in Norwegian but this video comes with a translation.