I think we have another IP student that needs to see this

http://www.today.com/video/today/39635116#39635116

like down the thesis example and then some.

3/1/2013 plans for a post break week

I must confess I don't have images to share this week. I found most of my week stolen by my other class and the fallout of ideals against fairness. I'm declaring that now that I lost this week. My work towards fixing and improving my game to be better and something new as opposed to the traced copies of my classmates left me with a project late and therefor uncounted. I now understand the values being displayed in that class and won't have to worry about it in the future.

So what is a student to do now that he is secure in the knowledge that IP is the only thing that need concern him? He worries about projectors and monitors. About display ratio's and color correction.
All things that will be fully studied when he returns to the structured life of class.

This is all I can really say at the moment. I believe that this will be a productive break for me. I just don't know in what manner yet. Until then I hope you have a wonderful break and I will see you when I return to the structure.  

2/23/2013 Another day another post

I think things will work out. Have a few more images

2/15/2013 annoyed and sick again

Well I would be annoyed if I wasn't sick with this evil cold. A cold foot from hell that crushes my brain, drains salt from my eyes and has ignited my nose in a stinging discomfort.

No I'm not annoyed.. not any longer. I was annoyed Thursday. I admit that without defending it. I was annoyed by the continued pressing of a singular idea from the class. "You cannot do this."
I cannot create a journey. Should I instead create a singular scene?
Should the scene be heavy with the dialog I so desperately want it to be? I could do that.
Shall I also wrap it in abstraction? have movements and additions that make no reasonable defense as to their importance? I could do that.

But will I feel like I will have locked myself to creating this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqd3XtX23l8

Ignore the dialog. I have visuals that have been inspiring appreciation. Paintings with a texture and gravity that has captured something grand. I should focus on those instead. I could do that.

Perhaps I can give them a little bit of an animated push instead. I planned on letting my clouds live and spark with a little energy.

But will I feel like I have locked myself into creating this?
http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/

Perhaps I should avoid animating events. Perhaps I should freeze my work into a wall of frames. Or I should enshrine my progress within a book. An idea I had near the end of a semester past once entertained. Some believe that turning the pages of a book bring about the same connection and discovery as a game as simple as mine.. So I could do that...

But I cannot do that. I cannot yet yield to the challenge before me. I appreciate my peer's sound and reasonable advice. I don't doubt their sincerity in wishing me success in my work. But I cannot Back away from my goal yet. These other doors won't close until the eve is upon me. And I walk a hallway that still has such doors branching off from it. The hall becomes shorter as I continue to walk forward. But I have not reached the end  yet. I'm more focused than ever. I'm even happy I've got a crowd who I can shock and wow when I pull off the impossible vision....but it must be a dream. I'm too much a cynic these days to not believe things will go sour.

Its a funny thing but I feel like I should add this now. There is such a strange feeling within this studio. These works are clearly our own. And yet I see more often than not a disagreement in what is to be done with a piece. How many times have a reached out and asked another "is there something I can do to help?" does it outnumber the times I have said "I don't think you should do that?"

I say this because we really tore into the pieces and ideas presented to us Thursday. We did not ask Ellen if we could have helped make her work come to fruition. Instead we demanded and dictated and forced Ellen to bend her ideals to our view. I have not felt so guilty before in a critique and yet I know that I have in all likely hood done similar dictations in the past.
I don't know.. I got annoyed Thursday when it happened to me. So I'm not some innocent party when I contributed to the same feelings Ellen may have felt.

They are right. I cannot do what I've outlined this week to others. It is not reasonable given my engagements, illness and abilities. I should cut my losses....I don't want this post to end the way it does but....................................................................grade be damned. Emotion be damned. I just hate the way this week has turned out. Here is to a better week to come. I have work to do so excuse me. I cannot compose any more thoughts about this now. 

2/9/2013 bad time for a sick day

So yeah...Basically lost Friday to illness. And of course I'm only able to make this post is because I was woken up by a nightmare about it. So apparently I have incredible alarms hidden within my subconscious.  



 so I've got my background clouds for the sky boat. Got my area where the boat will drop the player.

Got what might one day soon turn into a hive city.






Some images that currently look like these two.

 And I've got my final postcard image. The faces don't look too bad. could be better but are not the worst.

 The other thing is that this pixel art stuff is now about
90% of what I'm working on these days. Can't escape it
cause I'm crafting idea images for my other video game
projects. I figured I might as well toss those on here just to share them. I notice that my rough stuff is gonna need a lot of cleaning before I think it's ready for the final games. But it's been fun. I get a muted palette for my IP project due to the nature of the stories tone. Then I balanced it subconsciously by tossing some vibrant stuff into these concepts... gonna need to think about bringing some of that color back for the next batch. 

Oh plan for Tuesday- storyboard of the game is a given. Would love to have a live reading of some of the scenes as well. Might provide the needed context for what is happening on top of the environments.

2/1/2013 Pixel art

The last image here is the really interesting environment. I'm wondering where the character will stand but it also gives me a lot of ideas for the area. One thing I need to sort out is the color palette of the journey. black and white is fun (all these pieces started as such so I could build the forms 1st) I'm just worried that the player would fall into the tones of the scene because I can't change the personal lighting on his sprites. (3d games do have some advantages when it comes to this sort of thing) Anyways these are fun. I might talk about why pixels are great next time. But for now I'm just gonna show these. 

1/26/2013 forgot to do this

Forgot to do this blog post.... but then again I don't feel like there's much to say.
 ...
how are you?

1/18/13 Writing from other perspectives

So my newspaper article was a little bit of a side step. I say that because I didn't go too much into the details of what I'm trying to invoke. I guess I wrote it from a perspective I fear I will have to face. That of an audience that has a casual exposure to video games. Frankly its an audience I will find myself brushing against if I continue down this route. I don't fault them but it may lead to a stilted surface conversation because of a gap in experience. Anyways can't say that the newspaper piece was of any great literature. I started with a boring character and he stayed boring throughout his small writeup. I think the only part I would keep in a rewrite would be the bit about how he only really wanted to sit down.

But that's done. I have other things to write and do. Like my characters for this project.

I've tied myself to using "Jack" as my lead characters name. I would say it's because I could make a Jack and Jill reference...but really its because its a short and easy name to use in dialog.
I need to finish up work on his model. AKA animate it so I can plop him into the unity engine and advance the environment art.

Since most of the other characters are skeletons with small clothing changes it shouldn't take me too long to fill out the rest of the cast...Course I'd rather like to say that in past tense.

The one thing I did this week was story board the work out so I can at least see a progression.. they work well enough in concert so if the worst comes to it I can present them along with my final piece to help shore up any lack of content......wait have I already telegraphed doubt and insecurity? I need to get back to work then.   

1/11/13 The Blog lives again

1) Please reflect on what you learned about yourself over the course of the semester, what you heard in the course of the review, what resonated for you, and how you will proceed with this information as you begin next semester.

Oh what Have I learned about myself? Uhhhhh.. Do I really want to sit down on the therapist's couch? Well I guess it is rather comfy. Alright lets see...I think I can boil this down to a basic idea that I don't seem to be able to get over. This gallery showing is meant to make a statement. That's a simple idea right? I should be creating a work that makes a well reasoned effort to tackle an issue of the world. Even when that statement is a logical one born from an artistic style. "splashes of ink can form something!".....To me that statement doesn't have teeth. To me that's really a statement that can be answered with a simple yes or no for the bubble sheet scan-tron 9000. 

The more interesting question. The one I'm sure you yourself maybe have asked is why did my work shut down? And that question and the answer I believe I may have for it is a layered one. One that in this setting would be an ideal fit. To be fair I do like images that are just pretty. I like thinking about creating environments for use in games and otherwise...But those pieces don't really ask or present a good artistic statement on their own now do they? I don't think they do.

I managed to take in a lot of wonderful environments over the course of this break. Both from life and from the games and movies I derive many pleasures from. But the fact that I failed to truly create last semester has got me really interested (and concerned, and fearing) Its interesting that last semester led me to have the "I'm not an Artist!" talk before break began. Of course I'm a artist! It is time to pull the camera back and capture the elements and emotions surrounding such a moment of doubt.

So I begin a new semester as one would. Wounded and frightened for having experiencing the past. Hungry and driven to rise to the future.