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
Monday, January 10, 2011
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.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Link: Oil paint
Random link of the day: How to judge oil paint quality, from winsor & newton
(yes, they're probably biased, but it looks like good info regardless.) All you ever wanted to know about the properties of oil paints.
(yes, they're probably biased, but it looks like good info regardless.) All you ever wanted to know about the properties of oil paints.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Resuscitation
So to kick off posting here again, here's a new link:
songs you taught me
A photography blog, but not so much about photography as about recording little interesting bits of life through pictures. Simple, but really great stuff, and down to earth.
Hopefully more interesting links to come, not sure yet if I'll continue with this blog and revamp it or start a new one, but there will be something :)
songs you taught me
A photography blog, but not so much about photography as about recording little interesting bits of life through pictures. Simple, but really great stuff, and down to earth.
Hopefully more interesting links to come, not sure yet if I'll continue with this blog and revamp it or start a new one, but there will be something :)
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Sketches 5-something-10
Don't know when exactly these are from, but didn't post them before, so I'm going to. Not like anyone reads this, but oh well. At least I feel like I did something remotely useful.
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