Yep. Shamelessly stolen from Danielle at the ICC meeting today, the phrase was roughly used to describe the feeling of sudden inspiration, which seemed particularly fitting. That and I love shinies.
I have a real title! Yay!!!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
450 Project Timetable
So, here's my preliminary schedule. I've got it set up so there's a major checkpoint about every other week. The flash tutorials and everything will be going alongside the project deadlines too, it's looking like the technical stuff won't be too involved to the point I can't figure it out by the time I need to implement it.
Phase 1: Planning - 1/12 - 1/24
Goals:
- Writing: Create plot, setting, background info. I'd like this to be pretty in-depth, and some of this step will probably continue past the deadine.
- Sketching: Concept art, setting, atmosphere. Digital and actual sketchbook.
- Research: What actual methods will most effectively present my project with minimal coding complications?
Checkpoint: Monday 1/24. If it is feasible, I'd like to get feedback on the concept work before putting it together, since any suggestions or additions people might make are easiest to implement at this point. The next checkpoint is a lot more important though, if it isn't practical to do both.
Phase 2: Layout - 1/24 - 1/31
Goals:
- Decide on specific plot and scenes, make a kind of map of all the possible choices and how scenes will connect with each other, incorporate sketches to illustrate. All on paper, not putting it together yet.
Possible Checkpoint: Monday 1/31? Tentative. This is an important step, I would probably like to get feedback at this point, but a map like this will probably get convoluted, and it will probably be easier for other people (who haven't been staring at it for hours) to understand when it is interactive and actually laid out in the final format, at the next step or two.
Phase 3: First Draft - 1/31 - 2/7
Goals:
- Put everything together into an interactive draft using color sketches, to test the flow of the game and work out all the functional problems with the programming, graphical stuff will come later. This is a very rough version. I need the sketches to be just tight enough that someone else will be able to play through the game without too much confusion caused by the graphics.
- Write all dialogue that will be used, complete, but rough draft.
- Continue concept drawings
Checkpoint: Monday 2/7. This is the important one. I'll present additional concept work along with the (very!) rough draft, and ideally get feedback on the flow of the game, and any technical difficulties that are likely to arise, before the artwork is final. If there are places you would get unreasonably stuck in the game, hopefully this is where that would come up. Major changes need to be during this step, and not later on.
Phase 4: Revisions - 2/7 - 2/14
Goals:
- Fix all the things that came up last critique
- Start cleaning up sketches, moving towards final art
---- no checkpoint, unless presenting minor changes ---
Phase 5: Second Draft - 2/14 - 2/21
Goals:
- Polish artwork
- Figure out graphical tweaks
- This is the almost-final version. It should look clean, and be playable.
Possible Checkpoint: Monday 2/21. Tentative, depending on how many changes I need to make. If I feel there won't be much change between this and the final version, I'd rather just present the final version. I think some feedback would probably help though, just to double-check, even if there are only minor changes. And it would probably be nice to present the progress between this and the first draft.
Phase 6: Final Product! 2/21 - 2/28
Goals:
- Make last (and hopefully only minor) revisions
- Add all the bells and whistles and fun shiny things between second draft and the final.
Note: The timeline for this project includes a 1-week buffer in case I need it, the second draft should be polished enough that it could be a final product.
Final Presentation: Monday 2/28!
Phase 1: Planning - 1/12 - 1/24
Goals:
- Writing: Create plot, setting, background info. I'd like this to be pretty in-depth, and some of this step will probably continue past the deadine.
- Sketching: Concept art, setting, atmosphere. Digital and actual sketchbook.
- Research: What actual methods will most effectively present my project with minimal coding complications?
Checkpoint: Monday 1/24. If it is feasible, I'd like to get feedback on the concept work before putting it together, since any suggestions or additions people might make are easiest to implement at this point. The next checkpoint is a lot more important though, if it isn't practical to do both.
Phase 2: Layout - 1/24 - 1/31
Goals:
- Decide on specific plot and scenes, make a kind of map of all the possible choices and how scenes will connect with each other, incorporate sketches to illustrate. All on paper, not putting it together yet.
Possible Checkpoint: Monday 1/31? Tentative. This is an important step, I would probably like to get feedback at this point, but a map like this will probably get convoluted, and it will probably be easier for other people (who haven't been staring at it for hours) to understand when it is interactive and actually laid out in the final format, at the next step or two.
Phase 3: First Draft - 1/31 - 2/7
Goals:
- Put everything together into an interactive draft using color sketches, to test the flow of the game and work out all the functional problems with the programming, graphical stuff will come later. This is a very rough version. I need the sketches to be just tight enough that someone else will be able to play through the game without too much confusion caused by the graphics.
- Write all dialogue that will be used, complete, but rough draft.
- Continue concept drawings
Checkpoint: Monday 2/7. This is the important one. I'll present additional concept work along with the (very!) rough draft, and ideally get feedback on the flow of the game, and any technical difficulties that are likely to arise, before the artwork is final. If there are places you would get unreasonably stuck in the game, hopefully this is where that would come up. Major changes need to be during this step, and not later on.
Phase 4: Revisions - 2/7 - 2/14
Goals:
- Fix all the things that came up last critique
- Start cleaning up sketches, moving towards final art
---- no checkpoint, unless presenting minor changes ---
Phase 5: Second Draft - 2/14 - 2/21
Goals:
- Polish artwork
- Figure out graphical tweaks
- This is the almost-final version. It should look clean, and be playable.
Possible Checkpoint: Monday 2/21. Tentative, depending on how many changes I need to make. If I feel there won't be much change between this and the final version, I'd rather just present the final version. I think some feedback would probably help though, just to double-check, even if there are only minor changes. And it would probably be nice to present the progress between this and the first draft.
Phase 6: Final Product! 2/21 - 2/28
Goals:
- Make last (and hopefully only minor) revisions
- Add all the bells and whistles and fun shiny things between second draft and the final.
Note: The timeline for this project includes a 1-week buffer in case I need it, the second draft should be polished enough that it could be a final product.
Final Presentation: Monday 2/28!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Art 450 Proposal
So, I've always been fascinated by the myst games. It's fun to explore strange, beautifully rendered worlds, finding bits and pieces of a story that have been left behind. I'd like to create something similar, laid back to the point that it's almost more like a comic or story than a game, where the point is to explore and see what you find. My focus will be on 2d, digitally painted scenes made interactive and (lightly) animated by flash. It will be primarily visual, but there will probably be text involved as well, through books or letters that might be found. The genre will be fantasy. I haven't decided on a storyline yet, and I'm not sure if the game will be linear, with more places unlocked as you go, or something more freeform, where you really just explore every place you can find.
I very much like the idea of "animated concept art," and I'd like to aim for a similar style, sketched/created using photoshop, then imported into flash to make it work as part of the game, making it interactive with Actionscript 3. I know photoshop solidly, I do not know Flash or Actionscript at all. I don't know how complicated the scripting for the game will be, hopefully I can just keep it pretty basic, but at this point I have no idea how that will go. Since learning the program will be taking a significant amount of time, as will planning out the story and the layout of the game, I'll be keeping animation at a minimum, and the art quality at about the level of finished concept sketches. If by some miracle I end up with a surplus of time at the end, it might be a little better.
Software:
- Flash CS5
- Photoshop CS5
I very much like the idea of "animated concept art," and I'd like to aim for a similar style, sketched/created using photoshop, then imported into flash to make it work as part of the game, making it interactive with Actionscript 3. I know photoshop solidly, I do not know Flash or Actionscript at all. I don't know how complicated the scripting for the game will be, hopefully I can just keep it pretty basic, but at this point I have no idea how that will go. Since learning the program will be taking a significant amount of time, as will planning out the story and the layout of the game, I'll be keeping animation at a minimum, and the art quality at about the level of finished concept sketches. If by some miracle I end up with a surplus of time at the end, it might be a little better.
Software:
- Flash CS5
- Photoshop CS5
Winter 2011
Starting the blog again for winter quarter! Here's a fun little thing I got from DA called an influence map. Basically you get the template [here] and fill it with images of the things that influence or inspire you most. Doesn't have to just be art either.
(These are ranked more by size than by number, so this list isn't in any particular order.)
1. The Chronicles of Narnia. The first novels I read that really stuck with me, I will always love Narnia :)
2. Linda Bergkvist - a contemporary fantasy artist, also known as enayla on DA and elsewhere. I like the elegantly dark twist to her style. It doesn't really show in this example, but the way she does skin tones is absolutely amazing.
3. Arthur Rackham, classic illustrator extraordinaire.
4. Edmund Dulac. Just found out about his work recently, but I absolutely love it, it's a similar storybook-type style as Rackham, but a little more delicate, and he has a way of making light almost glow off the page.
5. Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. Probably my favorite contemporary artist. Inspires me to work on my watercolor.
6. J.R.R. Tolkien. Is my hero. I feel a little bad about only giving him 2 squares, but I had to fit everything on here somehow.
7. Yoshitaka Amano Also a recent discovery, probably most widely known for the Vampire Hunter D manga. I really love his watercolor paintings in "The Dream Hunters", especially the dreamy pieces like this one, with minimal linework, a lot of open space and broad washes that really let the watercolor play, shaping the mood and landscape on its own, almost just relying on luck to have the paint settle in just right. Or making something from the way the washes of paint settle after the fact, I'm not sure which order he works in. I also like the gilded metallic look some of his work has.
8. Loreena McKennitt - celtic-fusion music, uses interesting choices of poetry for lyrics a lot of the time. Listening to her music definitely helps me work.
9. Alphonse Mucha - I know, who doesn't like Mucha? Very decorative but very beautiful, I've always loved the delicate, organic Art Nouveau-ness, but my all time favorite of his, [Siberia], actually looks nothing like the typical prints people see from him, it has a depth of feeling that really made me stop and think about it.
10. The World, nature, etc. Has the biggest chunk of the map for a reason.
11. The MYST series. I pretty much like everything about these games, visually amazing, incredibly richly detailed background story and world, and I love the actual gameplay of exploring and tinkering with things.
12. Hayao Miyazaki - Not so much a direct influence, as much as I consistently really like all of his stuff that I've seen. I like the emphasis on nature, and the detailed landscape artwork, especially in Princess Mononoke. Some of those landscapes with the forest spirit were just amazing, you could feel how ancient everything was.
13. Brian Froud - Faeries! He's probaby a little more widely known for Dark Crystal, which I only saw recently, but liked. I like how he blends natural elements like trees and plants into not-quite-human creatures, and how he can portray iridescence and light, there's something magical about it.
14. Ukiyo-e. Japanese woodblock prints, I've been drawn to the style, not exactly sure why. I like the simplicity of it with the flat shapes and patterns against bold, graceful lines. Definitely influenced a lot of artists that I like.
15. Celtic illumination and knotwork I was obsessed with learning how to make knotwork for quite a while, and some of the spirals and interweaving designs definitely stick around in my artwork. That and it's just so intricate it's fascinating to look at.
(These are ranked more by size than by number, so this list isn't in any particular order.)
1. The Chronicles of Narnia. The first novels I read that really stuck with me, I will always love Narnia :)
2. Linda Bergkvist - a contemporary fantasy artist, also known as enayla on DA and elsewhere. I like the elegantly dark twist to her style. It doesn't really show in this example, but the way she does skin tones is absolutely amazing.
3. Arthur Rackham, classic illustrator extraordinaire.
4. Edmund Dulac. Just found out about his work recently, but I absolutely love it, it's a similar storybook-type style as Rackham, but a little more delicate, and he has a way of making light almost glow off the page.
5. Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. Probably my favorite contemporary artist. Inspires me to work on my watercolor.
6. J.R.R. Tolkien. Is my hero. I feel a little bad about only giving him 2 squares, but I had to fit everything on here somehow.
7. Yoshitaka Amano Also a recent discovery, probably most widely known for the Vampire Hunter D manga. I really love his watercolor paintings in "The Dream Hunters", especially the dreamy pieces like this one, with minimal linework, a lot of open space and broad washes that really let the watercolor play, shaping the mood and landscape on its own, almost just relying on luck to have the paint settle in just right. Or making something from the way the washes of paint settle after the fact, I'm not sure which order he works in. I also like the gilded metallic look some of his work has.
8. Loreena McKennitt - celtic-fusion music, uses interesting choices of poetry for lyrics a lot of the time. Listening to her music definitely helps me work.
9. Alphonse Mucha - I know, who doesn't like Mucha? Very decorative but very beautiful, I've always loved the delicate, organic Art Nouveau-ness, but my all time favorite of his, [Siberia], actually looks nothing like the typical prints people see from him, it has a depth of feeling that really made me stop and think about it.
10. The World, nature, etc. Has the biggest chunk of the map for a reason.
11. The MYST series. I pretty much like everything about these games, visually amazing, incredibly richly detailed background story and world, and I love the actual gameplay of exploring and tinkering with things.
12. Hayao Miyazaki - Not so much a direct influence, as much as I consistently really like all of his stuff that I've seen. I like the emphasis on nature, and the detailed landscape artwork, especially in Princess Mononoke. Some of those landscapes with the forest spirit were just amazing, you could feel how ancient everything was.
13. Brian Froud - Faeries! He's probaby a little more widely known for Dark Crystal, which I only saw recently, but liked. I like how he blends natural elements like trees and plants into not-quite-human creatures, and how he can portray iridescence and light, there's something magical about it.
14. Ukiyo-e. Japanese woodblock prints, I've been drawn to the style, not exactly sure why. I like the simplicity of it with the flat shapes and patterns against bold, graceful lines. Definitely influenced a lot of artists that I like.
15. Celtic illumination and knotwork I was obsessed with learning how to make knotwork for quite a while, and some of the spirals and interweaving designs definitely stick around in my artwork. That and it's just so intricate it's fascinating to look at.
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