It is done!

About 10-12 hours rendering time, and it's all done! :D Wish I could somehow put more emphasis on the computer, but ah well, people'll just have to watch it twice to see it properly :)

WIP shot of my animation

I know I haven't been posting much, I've been busy trying to sort this animation out. Here's a pic of it in the meanwhile, while I try and get the second half of it sorted.

The tecture's not on the conveyer belt at this point, but the lighting's all sorted and I'm loving how soft and almost model-like it looks.

Kitten 3D model

I finished the li'l guy a couple of days ago, and I'm really pleased with the result :)

It's got my username on it because it was posted to deviantART and it seems silly to resave it without my name. A lot of people like this so far, so hopefully that's a positive sign that the rest of the designs should go okay too.

Simluated client brief, designs and storyboards

First of all, a copy of my proposal (I had issues with the dropbox, and I know this is late, sorry).

Download (password is 'uni', so people don't randomly download it)

So, for my project proposal, I've decided to focus on the more lenient (and hopefully more popular) message of saying that it's alright to file share and download as long as you support the artists you like. That way the file sharing is no different to hearing something on the radio and TV and the artists you want to support can keep going. This is hard to pull off in 20 seconds, so I had to simplify the message a lot.

Instead, I'm going to use the example of 'when you X, God kills a kitten' (with X being something bad/sinful/something a person wants someone else to see). However, I'm going to have a pirate squishing the kittens with a mallet with a squeaking sound from them, making it seem more comical. I've found the 'God kills a kitten' fad on the internet to have more of a sense of humour about it, so people hopefully won't think it's trying to see you as a criminal for whatever you do like most adverts.

Here are the charater designs:
Simplified to make it easier to model, texture and animate. Also simple because 20 seconds isn't long enough to justify a details character design when it will appear for such a short time.

The Storyboards:

Pretty self-explainatory, really. If you don't pay for music you like to support artists, kitten go squish, if you do, kitten gets petted, which means happy kitten ^^

Messing about with styles again

So the last few days I've really gotten into trying to draw more styles, and since I pretty much always use teenage girls as a style base to get the main idea down, it's mostly gonna be females in this post.

I really like the designs at the bottom, they seem so much more lively with more personality than the other sketches (although I do like most of those, too). I wanted to experiment more with proportions.

And I got this. Well, these. It's the same character but with different clothes. I'm VERY proud of how this turned out, and I'd love to try working with this style some more, maybe making a project of it sometime :)


In other news, I finally started a portfolio using deviantART's new system. Most of it's anime so far, but that's because I'm working on something good enough to post in the other sections.

You can view it here.

Just remember it's still in progress.

Character designs for animation

Forgot to post here again. Anyway, my head's been all over the place the last couple of weeks, and ideas have been really few and far between, but here's what I've got for animation so far.

First of all, I tried the cute and simplistic type:
The one on the top right's not my design, it's from a game I like. The bottom right one's not so much cute as just following the simple design part. And the pencil sharpener's to do with one of my other design ideas, it just ended up on that page. I like the screep looking dog thing that's middle left. It's got such a blank expression that I keep getting drawn to it. I also like the penguiny thing that's middle right, 'cause I find it really cute.

The next idea I followed was a guinea pig character. I love guinea pigs and they're not used too often as characters, so I gave it a quick try:
The first one was Hamtaro based, the second one was based on a triangle shape, the third was an oval and the fourth was kind of more realistic. None of them really stood out at me, and the only one I could instantly recognise as a guinea pif was the more realistic style one.

Possibly my favourite train of thought was stationary. Sounds weird, but I can't really remember a franchise based off antropomorthic stationary. So I did some designs for a pencil character, since that's what I use more than anything else:
I like the Victorian era and superhero designs, since they're simple and can give a lot of character. I thought about it further and realised I could make the scenery drawn and coloured with crayons. It would add a far more cartoony style to it and they would be relevant to the theme. And yeah, that's why there was a sharpener in the earlier one. I needed to fill space on it. Rubbers may erase what a pencil's written, but it's the sharpener that cuts the pencil down, so it seemed logical to me.

Adventures in MMOland part 6

This is gonna be my last post in the actual uni schedule, but I might post more, 'cause they're fun :3

So, since this is the last time I post before the deadline, I decided to go on an explore-athon. Once I got to level 26, first stop was Zaid, which I found out is always snowing, and wasn't just 'cause I went there around Christmas.

There's not much to do there, since there's no monsters on the outskirts and I didn't fancy going through a load of warps just to see what was around me.

There's two sets of stairs that lead to...well, they didn't seem to lead anywhere, really. I got a nice view of the town, tho'. Well, I can't really call it a town. It's more of a village, really.

Then I went to Madelain; the jester town. I was hesitant to go there at first, 'cause I've had bad run-ins with jesters taking my items >.>

It's certainly a bright place. Clowns creep me a bit, and I was expecting something to jump out in front of me O_O

And there's the main attraction, I'd assume. I gotta say, there weren't many people around. I guess everyone had the same idea I did when it came to circuses XD

And there's the obligotory closeup backshot of Kiya looking at it. I wanna tinker with this and make it look like a painting sometime X3

Next I headed to 'upstream on Glasis River'. I'd already been there once with Leanne, but this was my first time alone. I fought a few Wood Golems, who are quite easy to beat, and they don't try to attack you when you're dozing off to regain health.

Then I fought some Nixies. They's stronger than Wood Golems, but give some good experience. A couple of potions sorted me right out after fighting a few of them :3

Then I decided to head back to Madelain. It was night by then, and the lights were on, which I thought looked really pretty. I have an obsession with lights in the dark for some reason.

Then, once I returned to the Madelain through the warp, it was off to sleep for Kiya, until I decide to wander around Shiltz again.

Adventures in MMOland part 5

So, I went on SealOnline to meet up with Donna. First thing I noticed was how annoyingly overcrowded Elim was with all the merchants. It managed to slow my computer down, and I've got 2gb of RAM! O_o

I finally met up with her and friended her (I had to switch servers first). And we talked for a bit on private chat, fighting some Rascal Rabbits.
That's pretty much all I did on there today. Fighting rabbit after rabbit after rabbit. Wasn't too bad, really. It's not like their experience is terrible, and it gave me something to do. I got some more items that I sold for some cegel, too :3
Anyway, there's this warp in the area that I was fighting that said not to enter unless you were a really high level. My hand slipped and I hit 'yes' instead of 'no', so I got taken there. Not for long, tho'. Two seconds after deciding to take a quick look at the place, I was something move...
I immediately ran back to the bridge entrance and look a better look. Their names were in bright red, so I knew I didn't stand a chance. After getting this screen, I headed straight back through the warp.
And finally, a random shot of Kiya looking out over the waters. The area beyond is at least partially 3D rendered, but she would never get there. Kinda deep in a 'what the hell are talking about' sorta way.

Adventures in MMOland part 4

-This first bit's mostly for the lecturers, so don't read it if you don't want to-

First of all...sorry about the lack of anything the last few days. I've had a few...problems that's kinda taken over my time. And for those who wanna know, I've got a boil on my cheek and it's made me ill. I might have to miss at least Tuesday 'cause I've gotta go to the doctors again then (already went today). My cheek is all swollen, and it hurts loads - -;;;


-Okay, now for the actual post-

The winter event's over on SealOnline, so everything's gone back to normal. The giant Christmas tree in the main square's been replaced by the more usual fountain.

Of course, since I arrived in Elim during the winter event, it wasn't a usual sight for me ^^; It's very pretty tho'. Too bad you can't paddle in it XD

I also loved being able to see the actual water effect. The snow on the ground hit is a fair bit, so I spent ages watching it flow by X3;;;

I started fighting some Beanies and Piyo's again so I could get some healing items (I have a bad habit of using them way too often). At least that way nothing'd attack me when I used the sleep command to heal, so it's win-win! :D

The grass is a weird texture. Looks more like paving stones O.o Oh well, it makes a nice effect in the distance. Also, my sister Leanna (Ayana in the game) traded me a new shiny sword ^^ And it's part purple, too, so it's even more awesome! X3

Next time I'll look arounf the other areas now they're not wintery. I love comparing stuff :3

Adventures in MMOland part 3

Okay, so here's what I've been up to lately.

I fought a giant tree with an afro and comb.

I saw a birdy. It's not very interesting, but I wasn't expecting it ^^;

There's a building with a giant book and pen on top that keeps trying to fly away like a bird.

There was a giant killer raddish XD I think it's called a Queen MooMoo.

I found one of those comedy swords. Didn't do much for my stats tho' :/

Neither did the face part of the chicken costume XD I'll stick with my MooMoo headphones.

I went on a few quests to gain more fame. It increases as you complete more tasks for people. I needed to Giant Rascal Rabbits to get Wit so the kids in a school would be smarter. I have no idea how that works, but I took the job anyway. It was great experience. Oh, and those Afro Trees earlier were to get oxygen for something. I'm too higher level to get that quest anymore, so I can't remember ^^;

The Tower of Training in the main town, Elim. There, I can learn new skills and abilities to help me out.

Oh, and guess what?














I got new gear! It's called the Aviator set. I've got all of it on except the hat, 'cause I hate how it hides the hair. All I need now is a weapon that's better than my Rascal Rabbit Cleaver, 'cause I've had that since I was in Town Newbie ^^; I don't think I've mentioned my bat wings, either. They increase my ability to dodge attacks, and I love 'em to bits ^^

If I have any more pictures, I'll scout them out. I think I took some of Town Lime the other day. It's a small place, but it's better than Zaid. I couldn't get used to that place :/ I'll post pics of that too, later, but I gotta get some first XD It costs 1,200 cegel to get there, so it's not cheap. Well, I've got about 80,000 cegel, but I'll send up spending most of that on potions.

Adventures in MMOland Part 1

I finally got around to joining one of these! X3 I don't like online games like SecondLife, 'cause they're too....normal for my tastes. So me and Leanne went stalking around the net for one we both liked. That happened to be in the form of the overly cute online RPG, SealOnline.

So, here's my character:
Isn't she adorable? ^_^

So, on the game, I'm a Knight called Kiya and Leanne's a Mage called Ayana. Here's a pic of the two of us together:
We tried to make our hair look similar to our own, but there's not too much customisation in this game, so everyone looks similar at first...until I started equiping :3

Now I look like this:
I've been wearing a lot of brown lately, so it's pretty coincidental ^.^ I really wanna draw a pic of Kiya sometime, so I'll post it when I get around to it.

Some interesting points to make about this game.
1) There's a rabbit in the moon, just like the Japanese say, but this one's got a meat cleaver:
You get to fight these guys to train up. They're pretty cute in a killy kinda way :3

2) To gain regain health, you sleep under a newspaper:
I read that these can get upgraded to a bed, then a comfy bed if you get your fame level up enough. You do that by completing quests and the like.

You start off in Town Newbie, which is for people level 10 and lower (I'm level 11 right now, but as long as I don't leave yet, I'm okay ;P)

There's also a lovely couple of lakes there :3

I tell ya, this game is so sugary it could rot your teeth, but I don't care, 'cause I love it to bits ^.^ I've got some more screens, but I'll probably upload them some other time....if I remember to ^^;