Mice on the Brain

More mice! Non-stop Mice! Working on distinguishing body types and face types per each character. Next up, characters in the ROUND (front view, side view, 3/4ths view). I'm tempted to scrap a project I'm not-working on (started it last month but time got away from me again...) in favour of this. On one hand, thats me just repeating the never ending cycle of NEW IDEAS ARE SO EXCITING old ideas are so not going to happen; on the other hand cute things are always easier for me to draw. What I will do is finish scripting the project (called "Murder at the Queen Ann") and then let it sit in my script file folder (I think I have 15+ scripts by now). Then I will embark on creating a story for these mice. 

The Mice Brigade!

In my evenings I tend to watch tv with a group. Sometimes its current television, but recently its been TMNT (the 2012 version, which I realize is actually spelt out "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" but I prefer the abbreviation). The animation company Bardel does the show (which is in my city!!!) and its fairly AMAHZING. Seriously. I had my doubts, because the rebooted Teen Titans is just too sad for words (ugh, my teen-years, they hurt) but this show!!! (Also, I know because I applied to work at Bardel and ended up taking a story-boarding test, Bardel has little control over what the contracted shows entail - they're JUST the animation studio. Unless its an in-house project, all they can do is make the story/script *look* pretty, they cant make the words any better or worse.)

I ended up having some down time so I started doodling mice. The thought process went thus: what if TMNT was about four girls instead of four boys? (It would be designated a "girly show" and dropped from the network...) Then I went, "but I dont want to do girl turtles, that would be weird... how about... MICE! They're inherently girly, right?" So then I drew mice. Lots of them. Lots and lots and ... look I have about 8 pages of mice. They're ADORBS.

Obviously from my previous posts, I have a thing with mice. I think I've had a thing with them since before Ace Adventures... possibly all the way back to Texas... I blame Don Bluth/ Disney. Between American Tail, Secret of NIMH, The Rescuers, and The Great Mouse Detective, my childhood was inundated with adorable mice and TERRIFYING RATS!

Battle Girl

I'm pretty sure anyone over the age of 20 being called "girl" is ever so slightly demeaning. But thats the trend, so who am I to buck it. I kind of like how home-made Battle Girl's costume looks. Like she's wearing old high school P.E. clothing. With a leotard underneath. In fact, BG is wearing a yoga top and pants over thick tights and the top portion of a leotard. Which seems to be more clothing than one would want as a wanna-be superhero. Perhaps its cold in the city BG likes to protect. 

I also made a little Battle Girl Lego figure because, why not? :)

A bit of Champagne

Well... if that isn't interesting. Apparently the cintiq I was working on not only had a too-warm filter (leaving the colors looking redder than they do now) it also painted the background grey. -__-

Anyway. I was watching the trailer for the new Frozen movie (not impressed at all) and was inspired to return to a rather old story. And by rather old I mean "I came up with it sophomore year of high school."I never went very far with the story because I could never figure out how to write it, and how the story would be paced. After watching the Frozen trailer I knew how to fix it. I had to change the very character of the heroine. At some point in time I hope to get around to writing the story. Or at least drawing parts of it. I cant do it now, because of the Second Season of Billie VS (WOO!). But I think I'll carve out some time (when I find said time) to at the very least plot the story.

Billie VS NDAs

When I said the other day, that I had little to show, I was mistaken. I have little I *can* show. Now that I'm working contract jobs, most of which with NDAs, I have tons of work and less that I can put online. At least, not until the projects are publicly announced.

Yep, Billie as Rosie the Riveter is being coloured. I threw in Gideon looking miffed and at some point in time will get around to finishing the colouring. When I find time.  

Billie VS The Early Days

Pen Sketches FTW

Wow its been a couple of months, hasn't it? Not to say I haven't doodled (cause I totally have) there's just so little worth showing. Today was the first burst of artistic inspiration I've had in a long while. I'm not going to announce anything big or such like; I just will admit I may be toying with a ancillary comic for Billie VS. Like most things, I dont know what will happen till I get beyond the planning stage. I do know I've planned the second season (YAY!) and have started writing (onto the second episode!). Which is all pretty exciting, really. I love the way things are shaping up for the Billie VS story/ universe. Adding in a comic might be a great idea. OR I may not have any time for it :( ... Only the future will tell. 

Concepting Sketches at the Game Jam

Some pre concept sketches and concept sketches from the game jam. I thought it would be fun to upload the work I did in my sketchpad as well. 

Before we had characters or even a basic story/ mechanic, I had doodles of women. What kind of style would I go in? What kind of face shape? And even what kind of body. I (secretly) wanted to do the ghost at the top. In fact, I think I might go ahead with the idea, even if its just to a proof of concept stage (or a low-res flash comic). But I need some more time to work on it. To flesh it out, create a bible and a world, and to plot.

Once I figured out what style I wanted to draw in, I set about finding what character shape to use. She could be younger, older, or heavier. I also concepted the world background, as per Andrew's specifications (based off of Scott Pilgrim VS the World, mostly). 

During the animation process (low res) I got stuck on the jumps and on the kicks, so I went to the sketchpad. So many tiny sketches. Fortunately, I think I got it mostly right. :)

Late in the game I realized...

By the time I got to animating the last sprites (the hardest as Sam's hair kept changing) I realized it would have been easier (and possibly less cliche) to have her be brunette. Alas. Too late.

Sam's brown haired sister, Maggie

Initially, when I started the jam, I came with an idea rather than a mechanic. This is one of the problems with being a writer and not a game designer. I think in terms of story first, gameplay second. Games are (and should be) built gameplay first, story second.

But I really wanted to do something unexpected. To discuss "strong female characters" in a larger frame. Of course, thats what novels and essays are for. But I wanted to talk about how one of my favorite movies, The Secret of NIMH stars an incredibly strong female character. Despite her timidity and fears, she goes on an adventure to save her family. Its the perfect metaphor for what I believe.

We use strength as a gendered term, implicitly. Especially when we frame strength with physical feats. Strength is masculine. But it doesn't have to be. When we talk about strength, we should speak of strength of character. What makes a character strong? I have a theory. Its not about cutting their hair and joining the army (masquerading as a man, naturally). Its not about being a body builder or an archer or competing in a sport not designated for your gender. Its about the things you believe in and those you hold closest – and the lengths you are willing to go to protect/defend all that you hold dear. Its not about being perfect, flawless, and unemotional. Its about being flawed and complex, realizing these faults, and overcoming whatever demons/ problems you face regardless of them.

What makes a good strong character, is a character who, despite their faults, succeeds. Who faces insurmountable – even magically improbable – challenges and at best, wins, at worst, survives.

Samantha Torne

I think I should have suggested "Samantha DANGER" but... too late. They've already got the title screen done. :/ .

With less than 30 minutes left, I unfortunately didn't get around to animating the villains/ monsters. It would have taken me about an hour to vectorize the characters, yet alone animate them. :( . Instead I did a short hand cheat and grayscaled our heroine. This way it looks like she's battle depression. In an cliche, not at all accurate way.

The idea of the game was (and still sort of is) the main character, Sam, must battle her inner demons, LITERALLY. (Within herself, no less). (Well... not within herself like her hearts and organs or anything, more metaphorical self.) (It looks like a city.)

Some of the baddies included:

The "Angel" (and the "Demon" never got drawn). She has to fight the ideal of the Madonna/Whore complex. The idea is these baddies are things a girl faces IRL. This could also represent "Purity." 

I know its cliche to use greyscale as depression, but there you have it. It was the easiest to replicate, as its just Sam without color. I just finished compiling these in half an hour, so at least we have something for her to battle. 

The "magazine girl". Aka the perfect version of herself she could never be. Unfortunately for this version, the collision points would change (minorly) but enough to cause heartache for the programers. Plus, I would have to redraw her entire illustrator model. 

The "final boss" monster character: Sam's perception of herself on a bad day. Call it "Bad Day" Baddie. Thats about all I have. Unfortunately I never got around to vectorizing and animating any of these baddies. But it sure was fun to animate. I think I could start calling myself a character designer. 

game jamin

Of course, every time I leave the jam to go to sleep, I wind up singing "We Jammin." Even if there's no music playing at all. Not that I'm leaving the game jam, we're in the middle of it still. The thick of things, so to speak.

I was lucky, this morning I came in and my teammate, Lawrence, had his brother come in to help with art. WHEW. So he's working on backgrounds (hiphiphorray) and I'm working on sprite animation. NOTHING BUT SPRITE ANIMATION.

I kind of love it.

As of so far I have: Walking, Running, Idle, Punching, Kicking, and Jumping (from and standstill). Next is Jumping (from a Run) ... and possibly a "Hit" animation (when the character gets hit) but after that it's onto HI RESOLUTION ... and villain animations. SO MUCH WORK. SO LITTLE TIME.

iamagamer Game Jam!

Been SUPER busy. The end of the term is coming, like, in two weeks so its MEGA CRUNCH TIME. I've been finishing off hi-res assets for Pix's vertical slice, animating characters in 2D Toolkit (a Unity plugin), applying for internships, interviewing for internships, AND writing Billie VS. My life feels like it might just flatten under the weight. 

Which is why, though maybe a bit ill-advised, I'm participating in a game jam this weekend. WOO! It'll be a much needed break from all these legitimate demands. Though in preparation for the game jam, I've been working double time to get all my actual work done BEFORE the weekend. 

Right, onto the game jam. So Dr. Kim Voll (my prof) decided to host her own game jam, with the sponsorship of local game studios and the school itself, called "iamagamer." Her idea is to create game jams centered around inclusion, with a social perspective in mind. By that I mean, games that focus on, or are lead by, characters who are atypical. PoC or LGBTQ or differently-abled ... etc. For her first jam (this one) the focus is a bit broad: simply games built around female characters. All because of a barrage of ill-timed articles with the theme that more or less, female characters didn't sell games or make good games. 

Today I started sketching some potential female characters. It feels SO good to just draw for kicks and giggles. SO GOOD. I miss drawing for fun. Anyway, I quickly realized that the majority of the female characters I drew were either: monsters, aliens, geometric shapes, anthros, or ghosts. I can tell you why, too. Because I want to avoid, at all costs, easy sexualization of the female characters. It might be silly or inescapable, but there you have it. 

Billie Morgan

I've been wanting to draw Billie in this pose for a while now. I just transfered the reference picture from my cell phone to my computer yesterday – which was why I spent a good portion of this afternoon drawing and painting this. I think it took about 3 hours in total. I'm not too sure when I started. Sometime after lunch.

I like drawing Billie in confident poses. She's supposed to be a Hero. She possesses all the required traits: stubborn, head strong, opinionated, leaps-before-thinking, is often times in over her head, refuses to back down... She is undoubtedly a fun character to write. Well, she'll be more fun once I get her through this season's emotional turmoil. Just because she can kick physical ass doesn't mean she can kick emotional ass. In fact, like a good hero, she's quite bad at emotions. Like disappointment, failure, heartbreak, loss... Oh Billie. You're going to hate me before we're through the first season. Yet alone the second and third.

Pix-Specific Blog has Launched!

I will still be uploading sketches to this blog, but I must admit it may be less frequent than usual. Which means instead of 2 to 3 times a month, maybe once a month. And probably as a large doodle dump. As we kick off the more artistic phase of the game making process, I'll be drawing more of Pix than anything else. Not that I wont be doing other things. I tend to need stress release – which comes in the form of not-project-related-art. PLUS I still have a few projects to finish (like FemDocWho).

As I will be Pix focused I've created a Pix-Art Blog! I'll be updating that much more regularly *(ha!) or so I hope. So bookmark that into your web browsers and come see what I, at Unclickable Studios, have been drawing. 

Good News!

No – GREAT news! I know this is about two weeks late, but I've been busy. Plus I only just ran the idea by the team. I was afraid if I posted everything they'd be all like "NO! NDA!!!" But we dont have a client next semester. We are our own directors.

At some point in time I suspect we'll get the Official Project Blog up and running (and then I will create a tangental ART Blog dedicated to the project) but till then I'll just continue updating news here.

WE'RE MAKING A GAME!!! (wooooooooooooooo!)

Who knew, right?

Long story short: for the past month we (Unclickable Studios) have been working after projects to create an Executive Summary, Business Document, and Dragons' Den Pitch on our own project for next semester. Two weeks ago – Friday – we pitched to the Dragons Den and received the green light on our project.

We decided to be as open with this as possible - so we'll hopefully be updating weekly, if not daily, about our progress. In an effort to garner more fans / wide appeal / buzz about our project, we're going to start (eventually) putting our name out there. As in, going to events/conventions, making swag, bombarding forums and blogs and facebook. And I have taken up the role of tie-in comic maker.

Remember that post where I said I couldn't show the image because I was uncertain about if it would happen? Yeah? Well this was it. :)

THIS

Well its HAPPENING. I'd been planning on doing a comic for the game whether or not we ever got around to getting a green-light and making it. But now that we ARE, I have good reason *to* make the comic. So I will. :) Especially since I've been bogged with writing (SO MUCH WRITING) I haven't really devoted much time to comics these days. It'll be fun!

I am story developer and character designer on the game after all.

Character Sketches

I've burnt out of the original steam I had for the new story idea, but fortunately it wont stop my progress. Its just going to go a bit slower. I ran into some hiccups in terms of story. I dont think the cast of characters is strong enough, but then I realized its because the rest of the cast (sans the main two characters) get so little screen time. Not good. Characterization occurs best when in conflict or conversation with more than one character, after all.

So I'm spending more time on fleshing out the WHOLE cast - and writing more scenes with them in it. I focused so much on the COOL parts of the story (Billie, the main character, and her job) that I neglected the important part - how she relates to her friends, her peers, and her day to day life. Once I get that hammered away I believe the story will have better locomotion. After all, plot only makes sure there's a structure for the story, its the character interaction/ conflict that drives the story.

Frozen and other Animations

Was looking at "Frozen" artwork. Some claim it isnt the real artwork - just really high quality fan work - but I find that hard to believe. Well, not that hard. It would explain why each bit of art looks exactly like previous Disney properties. Its still... rather depressing. "The Snow Queen" is one of my all-time favorite fairytales - though I always forget to add as a caveat "except I ignore all the religiosity within the tale." But maybe thats because I owned the abridged version when I was a kid. 

In response I started drawing more kids-y characters. Actually, she's a character from an older story I've decide to tinker with. Why create new stories when there's so many old ones to fix?

Making a decision or two...

... And managing not to stick to any. I was possessed (as one usually is) by an idea and began pursuing it in my nighttime hours. I'm thinking of doing a new series for Big World Network. Or something. Its been a sad dry spell for more than a couple of months - so writing anything at this point is good news. Upside: its not a comic, so I dont have to decide whether or not to stop working on TSU. Downside: I know how long my furious spur of inspiration lasts, and its very short. I know, inspiration is overrated. SERIOUSLY. But I've been staying up SUPER late trying to get all these scenes and thoughts out of my head before they get lost. Just to have a framework to go off of. Interestingly enough, I have a whole second season planned, but no first season... I'm going to have to work on that.

Anyway: I figure I'd be able to hack something out, framework wise, for the first season, and then resume writing for BWN. And include illustrations, as they seem to be working the most for me (instead of comics >.> poo poo).

I started drawing specific scenes from my night time endeavors - and discovered that the easiest way to take it from thumbnail to final product is to just trace it in photoshop and draw/color it in there. Which I'll have to do for the Not-God Loki scenes I doodled in January. And I'll have to start drawing scenes for the first season of this new idea. ... Oh, it needs a title, doesn't it? YEAH. 

One such scene. In fact, the only scene I've taken from all the little sketches I've doodled. I've got a lot more work to do on this one, but at least its started. And I really like the color scheme and character expression. Sadly, this is an illustration from the second season. I know - how can you have a second season without a first!? Easy: I'm the queen of getting ahead of myself and writing what I like to call "fanfictions of my own, unwritten stories." In fact, I think I may have more fanfictions of unwritten stories than the stories themselves. One of my friends claims that its technically cannon if I wrote it for myself, but I like to think of them as backstories (or future stories) that no one but me will ever read.

Season two, on the other hand, is cannon, I've just got to figure out how the character gets there. Where does she start? What does she do? What sort of character arc occurs? Who's the big bad - and what sort of themes does the storyline deal with? There's a lot of work ahead of me. But at least I have a clear vision of where I want to go. Its the getting there thats going to be interesting.

A backlog of sorts

I was going through some old file folders on my computer (which is a funny thing to say, considering I've only had this computer for a semester and a half) when I came across some year old images I never posted. I dont know why I never posted these. (I mean, besides the fact that I didn't launch this blog till the summer, and I drew these in the spring.) A little, lying part of my mind continuously insists that I've posted at least the Ziggy Stardust pictures somewhere on the internet. Because I can invision the backstory that goes along with it in type. Hmm. :/

I was going through a phase (and I sorta feel like I still am) of drawing the character's heads too small for their bodies. Or maybe, more accurately, their bodies too big for their heads (as I draw heads first). The girl on the left is Maria, a character from Ordinary Citizens. I didn't quite get her right. And it looks like her upper body (esp her shoulders) is too high up. On the right is ... oh, thats right, I never did pin down her name. Well, she's a character from a dream I had. Involving what could only be described as "X-Men meets Battlestar Galactica meets Falling Skies." 

A "disney" styled sketch of Adeline. From the internet serialization that I write. I mean, this isn't at all the right style, or what she even looks like, but it was fun to draw. 

Aaaand, the Ziggy Stardust story. So, up until a year ago there was a sister site/ competition to NaNoWriMo, called Scriptfrenzy. Scriptfrenzy took place over April (instead of November), and involved writing a 100 paged script in the month. It was a fun little adventure, one I found far more productive than NaNoWriMo, which introduced me to very useful tools like Celtx. They had featured on their site a little "random plot generator" that spun like a slot machine in a video-game and pulled up very, incredibly nonsensical plots. Except for the rare times that it didn't.

I saved all the silly plots that I believed I could do something with (using screen capture and a pictures folder) - eventually using one idea to graph out a Mid-grade story, one to create a massive project (involving a comic, an illustrated book, a collection of poems, a play, and a novella), and the other to draw 3 characters and no story. The first two ideas are on the back-burner for now (they're actually really good ideas!) the last one... is never gunna happen.

But it did involve Ziggy Stardust, a dim-witted but incredibly hansom pool boy, and Ziggy Stardust's #1 Fan. And how, together, they had to save the world. Or was it universe? Either way, they had to save the day and it was going to be utterly ridiculous. I even rocked out a new style for the story. Alas, it was never meant to be.

Some Sketchbook Sketches

I know I didn't mention it before, but this past weekend I participated in the Global Game Jam! (yes, that is the game I worked on). There were a handful of sketches, but for the most part we just jumped RIGHT in. It wasn't like there was a whole lot of time for concept art either. 

None of these sketches relate to the game, but I did one or two during the Game Jam (whilst on my breaks). 

Like this one. I did this before we divided up into teams. I'm still on a monster kick, so there's a pseudo anthro owl, a gryphon head, a mutant pig with wings, and the face of a beluga whale. Beluga's are cute, in that slightly terrifying way. Though I think most water creatures are terrifying. Even mammals like dolphins or whales. 

Right before the Gamejam started I was playing around with some of the Sponsor's games (namely Doll Divine – yes, sometimes I am a seven year old girl) and got an interesting idea stuck in my head. No, its not about clothing or dress-up. Its about dragons. Which is perfect, after all, I've been on this weird monster thing this whole month. So the above 3 pages of sketches was me trying to get one of the main characters right. I have this vision that the whole comic will be Miyazaki in theme (beyond his style because thats just something I cant replicate - hello lawsuits!); mostly in terms of the story. 

And more sketches! These too, were attempts at getting the style right. I think I've got it nailed (which is nice) and can extend it to the rest of the characters, male, female, old, young, etc. 

But, as life would have it, I haven't had much time to devote to plotting and scripting. And this new idea is coming into direct conflict with that other, equally fun Idea I've been toying with for the past semester and a bit. Because I very well know, I cant do more than one story at once. I can do them separately: as in one week work on story A, next week work on story B, following week back to A; but at the same exact time? OVERWHELMING. So... there's that. And then there's the client work myself and my team have been doing. NOT to mention the 2 weeks I've been sick. 

Yes. Sick. Like, out for 1 and 1/2 weeks because of Flu. Come back a week later and work, feeling healthy. Go to Game Jam the following week of good Health, come back with a Head Cold and AHHH Sinus PRESSURE! I think Vancouver hates me.