wow, i have updated quite recently :p

yes, i am smug.

well this late night post is also quite self gratifying. I have spent around two hours on this and i wanted to show the wood engraved art style i've been trying to emulate.
This image is copied from the victorian harpers bizarre book and is a summer gown and hat designed in 1894.

I have also read a fair amount of Fashion and Womens Attitudes in the Nineteenth Century by Cecil Cunnington. The writing style is a 'wordy' convoluted mess, leaving a very small amount of information to be displayed with any sense of clarity.
This book should be a golden egg for my research, but it has left me dissapointed. My main gripe comes from the fact that some bloke from the 1930's would be able to understand the female psyche of women from the century previous using rare quotes from historical documents.
To his credit, this may well have been quite 'out there' for its time dealing with gender conflicts and relationships as a science.

A Study in Scarlet

Lately i've been doing alot of different types of research focusing on narrartive (Sherlock Holmes, Dickens), academic theory (Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat) and visual, both primary (with a visit to strangers hall) and secondary (internet and book based on victorian histories, fashion and art styles of the time. Thankfully, for my own sanity, I have also done a little bit of my own artwork. This comes in the form of sillouettes and victorian wood engraved illustration. I will post the latter after it has been scanned.

Listening: Funeral for a Friend, Memory and Humanity

Come Back Around

Just to get myself organised here's a research title page i've been working on. Things are coming together nicely. Its just getting everything presentable with a degree of clarity ^_^ that's the problem.

I finished notes on Sheri Graner Ray's Gender Inclusive Game Design book today. This is the second time i've read this book and its surprisingly accesable for an academic piece. This will go to research for my current project and my dissertation.

Yesterday i picked up a victorian painting book and a Dickens overview book, for further research.

Also I downloaded 4OD and have watched the Victorian Uncovered series. I'll have the notes on here soon i expect.

I'll update progress later. I have a feeling me and neongoat's scanner are going to be sharing alot of time together today.

yay for kleenex, beds and good films

a brief update really. I've been ill since Sunday and so work rate has slowed down somewhat.
However, while i was bed ridden i did watch many a dvd. Some of which are relevent and can be used as research:
Sweeny Todd
Bridge to Terabithia
Big Fish
and maybe stardust.

Basically Sweeny Todd is a story and play written around the Victorian period and so i can reference costume, environment, personalities, Crimes and etiquette.

BtT is a film based on a childrens novel. I think this can be used to show gender equality. I love the vibe of this film and would like to bring the companionship elements to my game project.

Big Fish is a Tim Burton film (as is ST) and Burton is someone i said i'd research in my learning agreement. I love the strange balance of realism and fairytale in this film. Overall Big Fish is ridiculously charming and the characters really stand out.

Stardust is a nice concept. maybe i could look at some dickens stories and mix them up like stardust does to traditional fairytale. costumes are also nice. They have modernised the outfits in a similar way i planned to do with victorian fashion in my game.

currently downloading victorians uncovered documantary so more on that later

Go ape woooooo

yeah, i did this while playing with a few new brushes in photoshop. I've been working in 3D for a while and needed to break out a little. Been working on a gothic lolita girl in PS too.......after realising that i suck at digital colouring i downloaded a digital tutorial by Drew at digitalart tutorials in which im half way through. He seems to rely on channels rather alot but has a solid no frills way of doing things.

pesky kids

I have spent the last 4 hours (approx) catching up on this texture. Some electrician turned off the power while i was working and corrupted a few of my files. amusingly, all the files affected were progress points of this UV map, which means i had to start from scratch.

i had fun re-doing this actually, next time i'll lay out my uv's better so i can texture without stretching.

zzzzzzzzzzz -_-

listening: Incubus, light grenades

Boogiepoop

Here are two layouts for research on the boogiepop 'light' novel series and The Umbrella Acadamy short comic series. Both are really entertaining and i'm glad they are a part of my research cos i'd be reading them anyway.

Deathnote, Heroes and Supernatural are next in line

Listening: Biffy Clyro Blackened Sky

oh...3D UPDATE: my low poly model has been weighted so i can now start to animate come Monday. Texture is probably 1/4 complete. depends on how much detail is worth doing on so few poly's

unlikely to be favored renewable resource boy

Here is the template for the Steamboy research pages mentioned previously. Photoshop brushes kindly donated by iron. This may well end up being the layout for most of my research, because continuity is fun.

Today, I was taught in the morning how to construct a skeleton using the joint tool and how 'parenting' works. In the afternoon iron (my saviour) taught me how to use Locators, IK Handles, IK Splines... he also told me about the birds and the bee's.

With this newfound knowledge i am rigging a low poly model.
I may well post a whole production cycle when finished. Including, modelling, UV's, rigging and animation.

My Learning Agreement has to be revised after said parchment met MC's red pen. boo

just jump in

I have just ordered three books singled out for my dissertation. I now have to work tomorrow to pay for these books.

Monday was spent on a low poly model which will hopefully have a texture by the end of the week. I also watched Steamboy while taking notes for research.

Today was spent working, grr. I also made graphics from Steamboy stills to present with the Steamboy research notes.
I will do something similar with Heroes and some books i read recently.

Byeeee :)



Reading: Deathnote The L.A BB Murders

SB and SSBB

well here is a new SB. The powers that be told me i was not allowed to use eye dropper, smudge, dodge or burn. This is the result.....i hope that female model never see's what i have done to her lovely face :S

may use painter next time.




Playing : SSBB and losing, poor link.
Listening: Pretty Girls Make Graves

SB lite. a more managable chunk of artfulness

Here is this weeks finished sb lite. i'm please with the greyscale work. joker had 'i'm bad ass and moody' lighting. Il est difficile!








Listening: Imogen Heap, Goodnight and Go
Reading: Northern Lights
Playing: PES 09

Hello Study Buddy

These are the first two study buddy sheets i have completed in cooperation with Calum (neon goat), his entry on this subject is far wittier than mine. so go see his site. The original study sheets are made by the brilliant Paul Richards at autodestruct, and are a tool to help improve 2d digital skills.

SB cont....

deadlines, life drawing and pro evo

Here is yesterdays life drawing. Trying to catch walk cycles and quirky things people do. I've started to draw in backgrounds, it gives the figures postures relevance. Improvement over thursday's work i think.

Today, I made my course calender in excel. It is a very boring program, but it's easily editable. Which is convenient considering how often lecture and tutorial dates have changed recently :p

The Hobbit

Today i spent an hour life drawing on gentlemans walk (norwich) with the 103 crew. It was a perilous adventure, we climbed past mountain ranges. Through the cold dusty streets of norwich, and past Tesco Metro. Then we sat and stared and learned.......
That people walk too fast.

Oh, i also used tea staining to define shape in the sketches. Some of the sillouettes came out nicely, particularly the lady middle bottom ( a happy accident) others not (an unhappy accident)

Lain!

Today i spent time studying yoshitoshi ABe's, 'rebuild an omnipresence in wired' artbook. This was really just an excuse to look at manga anatomy deformation and to try out my new greyscale faber castell pens =). I will continue to look at ABe's art for inspiration and influence, woop

self portrait....my eyes are actually not quite this big

I always neglect Photoshop in favour of 3d or traditional 2D. So today i decided to go through the basic 2D work flow.
The image started as a quick doodle in my sketchbook. At the time i was thinking about how to put a twist on art noveau hair and mix it with a cartoon style.

I will create a progress sheet for this piece today or tomorrow.

The image is also being used as part of my banner. Which may well change at a later date.

<------ click on the image to see full size ^-^

Dissertation and Crs

In summary of the first critical studies. I hope to look into:

The social environment of gaming
Gender in gaming (consumers)
Gender in gaming (avatars, NPC's etc)

Because this year's dissertation has a small word count i may have to refine my topic down further depending on what my research yields.

Chris Lowthorpe has suggested this book and its successor as a good starting point.

Here is a link which seems to summarise 'From Barbie To Mortal Kombat'.

The 3D community

I have registered under the name of yourlocalhero at the following sites:









Having been a long time watcher at these sites i now want to become an active participant in the game community, offering my work up for critical analysis.

The Online Presence

After viewing a fellow student's blog page, i have decided to switch to this site for all my blogging needs. I had previously set up a wiki-site but this seems so much more colourful!

I intend to use this blogger as a diary for progress and development of a game concept, containing mechanics, 3D art development, 2D art development and progressive thought Hopefully this will be more organised than the scrap paper and post-it notes that generally litter my room.

I will back date several posts for continuity's sake and then summarise my current progress as i have set this up 7 days into the project.