Hi, me again. It's been a busy first term of grade 12 but these Easter holidays have given me a little extra time, although there's still work for me to do on holidays (How twisted is that :\) I do have a few things planned, plus I've been exploring new ways of drawing, as well as looking at some drawing techniques. Where to begin? Okay well, first thing I looked at was a program called Paint Tool SAI. I'm pretty sure it's what the Asians use to draw their manga with, so I figured it had to be pretty goddamn good. And it is. It's sort of like a simplified Photoshop that's easier to use and more orientated to drawing rather than photo editing. It's got some good tools and it seems to be designed with drawing tablets in mind. How convenient, I HAVE ONE OF THOSE! :DDDD It's got heaps of options for pressure and blending and all that lovely crap. I already managed to do some good drawing on it, including a birthday present and a Hotline Miami fan art:
It's still rough around the edges but it works. Hotline Miami is a fantastic game btw. I've been harassing my friends about it for weeks. The fill tool doesn't seem to fill in spaces cleanly, leaving little white specks, but generally this program is very good.
The other drawing program I got was Art Studio for iPad. You get more than you expect for a $5.50 app. I wasn't really sure if I would enjoy drawing with my fingers, as they aren't very accurate and cover the drawing as I draw it. But, my favourite thing about this app is that you can zoom in just by pinching/spreading your fingers. Once you're zoomed in it's quite comfortable to draw with your fingers. Plus I really like being able to do this wherever I take the iPad. Although using my hands is fine, I couldn't resist buying an iPad stylus the other day. I got a Targus one for $15. It's fairly responsive, and it really does make that little bit easier. So for 20 bucks I've turned my iPad into a small, moderate quality interactive pen display. Not quite a Cintiq, but it's good enough for me.
So as far as projects at the moment, there's two main ones. Firstly, I've gotten into Game Grumps. Two comedians play games and talk and argue etc. Not very original but they have so many golden moments. There's already a lot of animations for Game Grumps, but I'd like to have a crack at it. I've already picked out a clip and started animating it, and I plan on finishing it. It'll be an animatic (keyframes only, no inbetweens), like most of the G.G. animations. http://www.youtube.com/user/GameGrumps
The other thing, which I'm not so sure about, is a comic series. First and foremost, I want this to comic to look GOOD. Full bodies for the characters, in colour, in a visually interesting environment. Right now it's just an idea with a few characters drawn out, but I would really like for this to go somewhere. It's about two teenagers, (I'm thinking of adding a third) who build their own ship and sail out with no particular destination in mind. They get stranded on a desert island alongside a bunch of cannibalistic volcano-praising tribesmen. They decide to make the most of it. I've named them Chase and Tori for now. I usually like to work alone on these projects, but I'm considering hearing ideas and seeing sketches from others. I have a few ideas for what can happen in this comic, but If you think you have ideas on how it should play out, or what the island looks like, or what kind of characters should be involved, come talk to me. I don't even know what the tribesmen look like at the moment. If this comic becomes a joint effort, that's fine by me. It's always heaps of fun.
Also, I upgraded my video editor to Sony Vegas 11. The rendering quality is a lot better. The black backgrounds actually look black now, instead of that fuzzy dark grey in my old videos. I did a short recording of me playing SCP: Containment breach. Hopefully this makes up for me not doing that SCP flash I promised before. The game kept updating and the jokes didn't make any sense anymore :( Plus it looked terrible.
This is actually a bit scary so don't watch it if your testicles haven't dropped yet.
Apparently some of my friends got into this game after watching this. Best of luck guys!
I think that's just about everything. Sorry for the delay. It's probably a good idea to subscribe by email if you wanna stay updated.
Just a short one because I haven't released anything a while. I've been meaning to do this one for ages and I finally got around to re-voicing and animating it. Sorry there's no backgrounds or shading/colour, but it's hand drawn and finished. Took a few hours, enjoy.
Been too busy for flash lately, too busy doing other interesting stuff like this children's book called Budgy the Budgeting Bird. Basically it's about this budgie named Budgy who's so good at budgeting he wrecks the local economy and suffers the consequences. Credit goes to my good friend Michael Manci for coming up with the story; I had so much fun illustrating it.
Possible morals behind the story: -Always support your local economy -Listen to you mother, especially when she's being a bitch -Penguins are ideal for government employment
So what have I been up to? Well, mostly pimping, selling drugs, building nuclear devices and other mundane activities, but I've also been playing this free survival horror game called SCP: Containment Breach. It's based on fictional documents from The SCP Foundation, and basically its an area 51ish facility filled with different monsters and ghoulies and what not. Some of you will already be very familiar with this game as I've been pushing some of my friends to play it. I, personally, find it very unnerving and fun to play. You can download it for freehere.
I'll be doing a flash parody on the game. It's already recorded; it uses audio taken from the game and my voice acting and is exactly three minutes long :D Of course, it won't be very scary. More...goofy. It's pretty much my experience of the game.
It's a solo project I have to do in between school work so I have no idea how long it will take. Also, if I have time I'll release another one of my weird videos on Youtube.
I'm sure you're all wondering how my "detective" flash is coming along. ...Not as well as I hoped.
So far I've got a few small scenes written, and even some recordings done which are mildly amusing. The story I have right now, however, has no ending, is filled with gaps and barely incorporates the side characters. It's just Lance and Skittles running around town getting into trouble. I don't feel it's worth animating as it is, and It's taking me forever to come up with a full story. To make matters worse I still don't have a decent voice actor for the Chief and I don't think I can really pull it off myself. So at least for now, this project is on hold until I finish the story or abandon it altogether.
Of course, I haven't been doing NOTHING. About 2 weeks ago I animated a small scene that I found pretty funny, which was to be shown early in the flash. Lance heads into town to look for a new recruit for the department and arrives at the city park where he finds a puppet stall with, you guessed it, John Skittles inside. I wanted Skittles to formerly have a profession that would in no way qualify him for the job. And so, puppets. :D
Only the puppet show itself is animated, everything else is static. Hopefully it'll be enough.
The other thing, which I'm not so sure about, is a comic series. First and foremost, I want this to comic to look GOOD. Full bodies for the characters, in colour, in a visually interesting environment. Right now it's just an idea with a few characters drawn out, but I would really like for this to go somewhere. It's about two teenagers, (I'm thinking of adding a third) who build their own ship and sail out with no particular destination in mind. They get stranded on a desert island alongside a bunch of cannibalistic volcano-praising tribesmen. They decide to make the most of it. I've named them Chase and Tori for now.
