Helloo.

Blog's a little slow, eh? Think this'll be simply a text post for now. Can't be arsed with pictures, maybe tomorrow. Err so what's happening. Design for Animation's coming along. Speedily finished two backgrounds to a reasonable standard, Four characters are finished, although as usual I don't like the last one i painted. Wow i really haven't updated this for a while. Things left to do are aplenty; Draw several baddies, One more background, a front cover, make Design Bible, er.. Plots, etc etc... Make a powerpoint. /Cry. I'll get it done though, or at least, most of it.

Other thing is the Exeter thing........ I think i'll update this tomorrow rofls, otherwise it'll just be a sub-standard post. BRING ON CHRISTMAS!

woo

Finished my first/third guy :D I've hated him for so long, but weirdly... I almost like him now. It literally happened in the last 10 minutes when I was finishing the painting/playing with the colour levels and saturation. Strange. I think it's cause he just helped me realise the importance of playing about with the image when you're done with it. Helps give the image much more impact. I've heard people saying that but doing it yourself really changes things. Once again he looks pretty different to the other two characters in my opinion, but I think that may be indicative of the things that i'm learning as i continue on with this project. The first guy I finished took me forever, I was getting too bogged down in the details and only realised half way through. The next character is much less detailed but more dynamic. I think I might need to do some colour correction though. And comparing them all together right now makes me wonder whether I went overboard with the colour stuff on my latest finished character... lol. Oh well, I'm learning and that's what's important. How long have I been doing these? Seems like forever, I don't even want to know...

Really need to nail my story and character bios asap. I feel kind of bad that I'm creating these characters with little in mind but aesthetics. I don't think that's the way to go about it. Thinking about it, I have a problem where I try not to get myself into trouble by thinking of character traits and personalities too early on, as to not end up having to omit them because i'm not good enough to convey the emotions properly when it comes to the actual painting. I just start sketching with a vague idea in mind and see what I come up with, then plan around that... Totally the wrong thing to do I'm pretty sure. I'll need to set this straight at some point. I find it reaaaaaally difficult conveying subtle character nuances, or even really obvious ones sometimes. I hope with experience i'll have a better handle over emotion and stuff like that, so I can have a strong idea in mind and blast it out straight away.

Think that's all I have to blab on about right now... Although I do have some sketches. Lemme scan em.



There's a potential fourth character and a potential bad guy. Both very simple sketches. I'm having trouble deciding what to do for my fourth char... I'm gonna have to think about it for a while I think. Do I go for a crazy character? Silent and brooding? Tough guy? bleh.

Anyway, here's my finished third guy, who is... I think.. The main character in the group, although he doesn't deserve to be because he's given me so much hassle :P.



p.s. I'm not ill anymore :D :D

hi again

stuff that's happening: I'm getting on with my Design for Animation project reasonably well, I think. The first character took me foreverish to paint, but I'm happy with him, then when making my first steps on the second (but original) character, I got really stuck and didn't like how he looked. So I sketched up a third character, a girl this time, and somehow i was pretty happy with it straight from the off, and i did it sooo fast compared to usual. I can't remember where but I think I did some of it on the bus? I dunno, terrible memory. Anyway, I scanned her in and surprisingly it carried on in exactly the same fashion. I flew through it and finished her in just two days I believe. Shockingly quick. I think i may be loosening up just a little. I still won't leave something that i'm unhappy with or looks messy, but I'm learning to paint in less detail, because when you're zoomed in to 700% the detail is not only lost when you zoom out, but most of the time doesn't even look very good. Anywho. I've restarted the original guy today and am finally making some headway. I've managed to get a face from scratch that I'm pretty happy with, and the body's all drawn out ready for me. Just have to whip that up, but after a few hours painting today i'm kind of burnt out cause i'm REALLY FUCKING ILL. Christ it's annoying. hopefully it'll leave me alone sooner rather than later, and I can continue working in peace. Oh, also I'm scared my characters are looking too anime-y. That's not cool, I want this to be fresh...

Maya's going alright, I feel comfortable with the interface but I need to get my head around the theory (or whatever you call it) eg, correct edge loops, topology, workflow, etc. When I get that all that'll be left to do is modelmodelmodel until I'm speedier and able to make tasty characters. I'm kind of anxious to get more into the 3D stuff, but as the design for animation project deadline is looming, all of my efforts are going towards that at the minute.

Something i've noticed is that I always do things by the book... and I don't mean being honest but rather I never try to invent something new. Of course I try my best to make exciting characters with interesting clothes and stuff, but I get the feeling that it's all been done before. Most of the time I like my work, but I want to be original. I find my stuff almost derivitive sometimes. And that doesn't please me. I think next time I get the chance i'm going to go completely crazy and make the most abstract and original thing that I can think of... Maybe. It'll be a difficult hurdle to jump.

I like blogging. My head hurts. Beardman is cool. Out. No wait, here are my pix:






(WIP)

Later.