Return of the Thesis Updates! (Stardate 04302013)

Hello Thesiskateers! (I'm listening to Thrilling Adventure Hour while I write this, so I'd like to think of you all as the Adventurekateers to my Captain Laserbeam. Don't know what I'm talking about? What's wrong with you?)

So after 2 weeks of radio silence, I return to deliver good news:

This project tentitively titled "Creature Fears" has been green lit!!!

(I actually really want to change the title because I was asked to come up with one last minute and I don't really like it. Suggestions are welcome.)

I presented it to the Thesis Committee on Friday night and they enjoyed the story and characters and are on board for my proposed plan of execution.

A family portrait I put together for a take away card for my presentation. Someday it will be in color....

I have received a few questions regarding what a thesis for an art degree means, so I'll run down what the proposed (and I guess now approved!) project is:

In order to prove my "mastery" of character design and modeling (considering this is a Master's degree. after all), I will deliver the following:

- All three characters made into maquettes (my summer project! fun!)
- All three characters modeled in 3D: one bipedal human, one quadruped creature, one bipedal creature
- All three characters textured, lit, rigged (gulp), and animated (not by me, hopefully) in a simple walk cycle or other proof of movement
- A simple environment modeled in 3D
- An art book comprising of process and concept art with DVD reel

It's going to be quite the feat, considering the characters I have designed means I need to model hair, cloth, fur, hard surface, and 3 different types of skin.... most of those I don't know how to do yet. Good thing we have a guy on faculty who was on the team at Pixar that did Merrida's hair (I KNOW!).

So here are the concepts I have done so far:

Sarah: 13 years old, awkward and shy, but very caring and loyal

Fashion based on late 90's/early 00's. including flair capris and butterfly clips

She's not the cool girl, so I wanted to make sure she looks uncomfortable in her own skin, but not super self aware yet. The oversized sweatshirt and unkempt hair is at least what I default to, so.....

The newly named Spaz: she's unpredictable and bipolar. She represents the fear of loosing sanity, but on the flip side represents the appreciation of rationality. She is the most fun thing to draw in the world. (And those socks - I mean come on!)

Stubs' design was the one thing the Thesis Committee thought I needed to work on, so I'll be figuring out how to make his silhouette more interesting. But regardless: he's sardonic and lazy, representing the fear of sickness, as well as the appreciation of one's health.

This week is my break between Spring and Summer semesters, so I'm not working on anything school related, mainly for my sanity to build back up. Next week starts 3 classes I'm pretty stoked about: Hard and Organic surface modeling (the class I dropped this semester, and a very important and useful CG class for these characters, especially Spaz), Digital Sculpting in ZBrush (also helpful for lil'Stubs), and Animal Anatomy (which will be perfect to make sure the anatomy on these guys are spot on). Taking three classes during the summer will definitely keep me busy, but it also means I'll have one fewer class for each semester next year, and that's a good thing.

This time next year I'll be (hopefully) employed, or looking for employment. 12 more months until I start truly living the dream (and not paying to live the dream)... so here we goooo!!!!

Thesis Production Log: Stardate 04162013

Hi! Sorry this is a day late, I am in the middle of the last week of class, so it was a scramble to get some stuff done for tonight's class last night. It was 1am and I'm pretty sure I was still painting when I went to sleep, so no blog until now.

That makes it sound like I finished stuff. Ha! That's not quite the case, but I did promise non-sketches this week, so let's see what I've got for you...

As I've mentioned previously, it's hard for me to post in-process images (although that's the point of this blog...), so I'm going to conquer my fear and post completely unfinished paintings.

Here's Sarah's turn around, probably the most finished thing I have right now. I want to re-paint for better contrast eventually.

You even get to see my pallet that I forgot to hide before I saved the jpg. (Woops.) Also, turns out I really like drawing feet now....

Here's Insanity. This guy is *insanely* fun to draw (pause for laughter). He's basically a chinese crested/golden retriever mix that got it on with a coconut crab and has bad dental insurance....and I love him.

He also needs a name, so please help with that.

I just wanna hug him! Oh look! More color pallets.

And finally (and least figured out color-wise), here's Sickness, who also needs a name. Help with that would be great.

Looking at komodo dragons for his skin, I now want someone to genetically adjust their attitude so I can have one as a pet.

So here's your homework (HA! I get to give homework now! TAKE THAT!): Help with names!

Things to keep in mind:
- At this moment Sarah is about 13, but these creatures have been with her for a long time, so her naming is probably very childlike.
- "Insanity" is a bipolar yet innocent dog-like creature.
- "Sickness"is slightly sardonic and lazy reptilian teddy bear.

This week we're finishing up classes (art history and character design down; sculpture and pre-thesis to go!), but this semester has been SO LONG it doesn't feel like it could possibly be ending. Now to just finish all those projects due during finals week.....

Our game that I've been art director on this year (don't remember if I've mentioned that or not) will be part of the showcase (I really wish it was called the Showcase Showdown, but its not) for the DigiPen student games on Friday. I'll link to the recording if it ever gets put up. It's a big deal, so I'm really proud that this game has gotten the reception (and will hopefully continue to get great reception in contests!) that it deserves.

A week from Friday I give my thesis presentation to the committee asking for approval to continue the process! So barring any disasters, it looks like I have survived Year One of Grad School.

Oof.

Thesis Production Log: Stardate 04082013

What a week!

Shortly after I posted the last blog, I realized it's really hard for me to show my process from week to week, because (and I'm sure every artist can relate) showing something in-process is scary. I want to scream out "DON'T JUDGE THIS, IT ISN'T DONE YET!", but that's kind of the point of doing this PRODUCTION log is to note the steps it takes me to get to the end. And believe it or not, a few weeks into the design process, things are still rapidly changing.

The day after I last blogged, we had a critique in our Character Design class. I hadn't had a ton of time to get everything done as I had wished, but I was also at a point where I feel like I needed feedback in order to go any further. And boy was that instinct right!

I didn't get a very good reaction to my creatures, which at the time was disappointing. They (my two professors who team teach the class) liked the design for Sarah, and liked the direction my Sanity creature was headed, but the other two they weren't sold. Sickness wasn't interesting enough (I agreed), and Abandonment didn't really look like the fear of abandonment to them. I really liked that creature, so it was hard for me to - you guessed it - abandon him. (budum ching!)

But taking a night to sleep on it and think over what they said, I know they were completely right. That whole "kill your darlings" thing it true most of the time.

After talking it over in our Thesis Pre-Production class a few days later, I decided to switch up the story a little, in order to adjust the scope of the project as well. Instead of girl and 3 creatures, it is girl and 2 creatures. The new story is this: Creature #3 (Abandonment) goes missing, so she must take her pets out for the first time ever (dressing them up to hide their most terrifying parts) to find him and bring him home. This not only makes the amount of work for me more manageable, but I feel gives the story a bit higher stakes (taking them out for a walk isn't an every day occurrence), and gives her a deeper relationship with her pets.

Also, since I won't be modeling the Abandonment creature in 3D, that means I can go back to the original idea of only seeing that creature from the back. That was going to be near impossible to figure out how to do (in this short amount of time), so I think that was a great decision on all accounts.

I also went back to the drawing board for my Sickness creature. Instead of a gross slug-like creature, I now have a little walrus dragon, and I quite like him. I'm maintaining some aspects of the previous Abandonment creature (the open rib cage, the bipedal nature...), and adding some fun details that will give him a really unique walk - he uses his tusk as a crutch for his gimp leg. Poor fellow.

The new "Sickness" creature. His skin is saggy, scaly lizard skin, he has one eye, his left leg is only a femur, so he uses his left tusk as a crutch to help him walk. And on top of that, his uncovered rib cage is filled with tumors. He's pretty gross, but Sarah puts a sweater on him to take him out, so that keeps the draft out.

Next week you'll get to see more than just sketchbook pages, as I've been working on character sheets and color comps for tomorrow's class.

As painful as it is, sometimes a pretty big redesign is exactly what one needs. The handful of times Photoshop has died on me, it always results in a better drawing the second go-round (even when it is beyond frustrating and has brought me to tears.... ok, happy thoughts...)

In other news: our game is due in a week and it's so exciting to see it almost done. The summer will bring polish to make everything sparkly and perfect, but so far so good!

Also, I spent the evening with Ben on Saturday painting and enjoying each other's company. I used gouache (opache watercolor) for the first time ever, and understand why some people loath it, but it's definitely something I want to keep working with. Here's what I made - a little ode to spring and warmer weather (may it come quicker than it is):

Have I mentioned how much I love Art Nouveau?

Thesis Production Log, Stardate 032613

I know it's been a long time since I've put fingers-to-keyboard here, but it has been a really insane semester. Not only has it been a ton of work to get done (several times I have tweeted that I didnt think there were enough hours in the week to accomplish all that I had to do), but it has also been the slowest 3 months of my life. I don't know why it's been crawling by at a slug's pace (I'm a Washiontonian, we do slugs here more than snails) but shoot its been a struggle.

I ended up dropping a class that will be made up during the summer. The less workload has been a huge blessing, because now I can make good work, not just turning something in just because it needs to be done.

The game I'm art director on is charging ahead and we are optimistic for the reception it will receive (competitions....?????). It's a good team and we not only work together well, but we have a good time together too. And it is super fun to see your art work in a playable atmosphere.

Amd then we have our THESIS. In a few weeks we are presenting our thesis (theses? thesi?) to our thesis committee to either be green lit for the next year of production, or told to rework them. Fortunately, we have a pre-production class and our character design class working together to help us get a workable idea, so we aren't on our own.

I've decided to keep a weekly log of how my thesis is going for the next year, posting pictures, remarking in what I'm learning, and the difficulties I run into. Not only will it help me when I have to put together the book for it, but it's the only time of my life this will ever happen, so I'd love to remember all the steps I took to get my terminal degree! MFA HERE I COME!!!

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On a different note, many of you know my brother Ben has been fighting cancer for a long time. This has been really rough week as options have run out. Please pray for peace for him, his wife, and my family; and that decisions that have to be made quickly will be blessed. It's been a really hard week, and anything short of a blatant miracle from God, it's not going to get easier. Thank you all for the support on all fronts, especially the faith when I can't seem to find any. He has been diligent and very honest in blogging, so if you want to follow along in prayer, here you go.