#29 - Catching Up

It seems like there's been so much to say and so little time! I recapped on DeviantArt, but basically we're moving out of San Francisco. Probably to the Spokane area in Washington, or somewhere else we find that is awesome. But eventually we'll be getting out of the states entirely. Basically this country is a sinking ship, and it's actually quite terrifying that "Freedom of Speech" is now a felony.

Anyway, so while we've been busy planning out our move (Gotta get rid of some stuff) we've also been talking a ton about Plexxus and made some huge breakthroughs! It's really exciting, basically it feels like a complete and full game now. I also made some breakthroughs with the cutscenes. The presentation will be nicer (basically now I can make the frame any dimension I want instead of just a constant rectangle, with helps with the storytelling), and also figured out how to make the coloring process better.

The platforms it's coming out on now is Android, iPhone, iPad, Kindle (wow), and Mac. Props to Jason for being an amazing programmer and being able to port things. And also for implementing Multiplayer.

And I've been practicing a lot. Which has helped a ton with the art. Just gotta keep getting things done!!

Some practice..

Horse Prize Drawing - GIF

Yesterday someone had caught my 123,456th pageview on DeviantArt. So I drew them a prize drawing today x) The actual horse they wanted me to draw was slightly different. It was a demon horse. But I drew a normal horse first just in case since I kinda took liberty on the whole snowy theme and they hadn't replied yet. I don't know if it fits, but I sure wanted to draw snow for some reason XD

Usually I record the prize drawings I give people but I forgot this one ;---; So instead I took shots of the history and put together a gif. My first gif! :D

The last step (I did after I made the gif -_-) is just a orange soft brush with "Overlay" as the blend mode.

#28 - Feeling Better! New Layout Design

My back feels better. So that means back to drawings! I managed to finish this background today. 


I saved a couple steps and put them together. I got inspired by those girly things you find on Pinterest, showing the process of some hairdo or something. It always looks so straight forward and easy to follow. Not that I did that to my tutorial xD Too much text..

Changing up the Console design a little bit. Adding the wood paneling as a throwback to the "Brown Box". Same kind of font used for the Magnavox Odyssey. And of course the same kind of design as the Pong system. But I'm wondering if I should change that up a bit... I just liked how it looked so much.

Drag and drop image into browser address box to see full size

Also, it should be noted that there is a nifty new theme that corresponds better with our website :D Hurray! I feel like a hacker now with all the "coding" I did. I turned this into this. So dang proud.

Website Update

Long story short, I hurt my back and our website got hacked several times. So I couldn't draw ( I hunch over my tablet while drawing ) But I could still type if I kept my back straight. So I decided to fix our site and actually moved the whole entire thing into Blogspot!

I'm happy I got to give a shot at web design and coding :D It was actually quite fun once I got the hang of it. Our other site was PHP so definitely couldn't touch that. But this one is a little more straight forward. Furthermore, I can now "link" up this blog with our official site. Don't be startled if the layout of my blog changes to fit our new website. We'll eventually redirect and merge the two! Will be slightly more legit. B-)

For now there's just test posts and really nothing on the site. All that's left is to just fill it up!

#27 - Level Work + Backgrounds

Sadly, back into work full force meant I had to do some level stuff first. It's all boring coordinates and numbers, but It's so exciting, seeing the end of the tunnel with this game! We're putting some great things into the game, I think it will really be fun!

Anyway, as for art, I'm going to focus on backgrounds for a while. I'm feeling pretty comfortable with them (Which is so weird! I have never really touched backgrounds before this, but now they're just so fun to do!), but not so much with the characters. So I can poop these out pretty quick and it will be much easier to go back and place the characters later
 (Once I get better at them. Gotta traaaaiiin moorree Dx! )

Anyway.. Background!

And also, there's a new logo :D

Or a simpler version I tried out that's hopefully more readable

Surprise Funerals!

Sorry for the late post. (If anyone is following xD) But had to make a surprise trip to Utah because my grandma died. And while I was at my grandma's funeral, I got a text that my grandpa on my other side of the family died. Really pretty bummed out...I was really sad that I couldn't see my grandpa (I came to my grandma's funeral in the hopes that I would also see my suddenly sick grandpa) But it was great seeing family. It's been an extremely busy visit, it has been like 2 years since I've been home so had to fit in seeing everyone.

Woah! And shoutout to some of the family that reads the blog! That was awesome hearing that. <3

Anyway, I slept for like a day and tomorrow I'm going to get back into work full force.
But here's a background I did when I got the news. So half way finished.

Andy's bro gave me a tip to put more imperfections and scuff marks on the background. Thanks Javi :D!


Also, I got rid of all the gameplay stuff on my blog. I got kinda scared seeing that there was 10,000 pageviews. I had just assumed nobody but friends and family read this blog so it was okay to kind of put our game. Just art elements from now on sadly.

#26 - About to play

Went kind of out of order. Man I'm not sure about that last shot :\..... I gotta remember to not rush ahead to the details. Or I mess with it too much.

This one I made sure to slow down on the sketch and lineart stage. And to think more.

Woo! I did two today!

I found something else out. The key is to stay zoomed out as I'm sketching and shading. And just lay down sloppy tones and shapes, but tones and shapes that look right. Even all the way zoomed out, it still looks right.

I think I'm getting the hang of this new way of coloring the furniture.
 I did a comparison side by side to see the different techniques, since there was the same kind of shot in the Atari level. That's why the TV's are different, the bottom one is an older model.

Coloring just by going at it with the paintbrush.

 Coloring by doing lineart first then coloring inside the lineart. (more control over details)

Again, the bottom one took much less time.

Here's the previous background with the same technique

#26 - After Playing Reaction

Such amazing graphics!

#25 - New furniture method

So did this one in the furniture drawing method I tried on the last one (Lineart> select lineart > work within selections one at a time)

It came out a lot more detailed! Since I can focus on all the details in the lineart stage, then just color what I have, it's easier than just making up the details as I paint it.

What the heck is this thing?

Also had a mini-realization with greyscale shading. Kinda like just how light sources are 3 dimensional. So it's not really like it hits the "left" side or "right" side. I think I want to make a tutorial out of it. x]

Edit:
Woo! Did two today!

Yeah, the box design is temporary. But looks better than nothing. Still have to design a good one!

#24 - This one took a while :(

It was from sketch to finish in one sitting. I recorded it all for the heck of it. (except for the end, it said something like "Terminal recording error. The recording has stopped... etc. I didn't notice until I was already almost done.)

I discovered a new way to do the background furniture. To start out with the sketch, then make lineart with all the details. "magic wand" select the exterior, then inverse selection. Then color from that.
You can see that method on the left end table, vs. the old way I would do it (just start coloring it) on the right. The one on the left actually took less time :O!

1st Cutscene- In Order

I want to see how they all look together, So Far.

#23 - Two More Paintings

Did these two yesterday. I'll be focusing on cutscenes again. Working on bigger resolution for the iPad 3 :O 

#22 - Rough Pixel

Flexing my pixel muscles. Using the Sega Genesis palette and specs.

Don't know if I like this one yet.. I'll make the laboratory next. Boy this takes longer than I thought!

EDIT: Played with it more. More Genesis-y?

#21- Genesis In-Game cutscene

This will all be pixel. I did the storyboard version that I will eventually animate. I can't wait!! We finally figured out how this will all fit. It's going to be really fun. My mom is visiting tomorrow, so me and Andy have to clean up the apartment today. :( I hope I can start this asap. So many interruptions........


As far as the story goes, This is the level in the early 90's. Where the Sega Genesis was dominating. And this is a fictional game "Plexx", about a radical otter that goes to save his friend in the evil animal testing lab. It turns out it's full of MUTANTS. :O

"This might come in handy...Looks like a perfect fit for my BAZOOKA." "RADICAL."

Sketching Shenanigans

Had an urge to draw some exaggerated expressions! Basically I'll repeat what I said on Deviantart, it's actually what I wrote in my sketchbook before I drew these xD 

The thought I had was, It's not the shape of the mouth that makes the expression. It's WHICH muscles you show in work that makes an expression more intense. And how the muscles pull on the nose and eyes and cheeks are equally important.  That's why learning about what muscles do what (contract the mouth, lift the upper lip) and what it looks like when the skin folds when the muscle is being used is so important. So it's not just adding details, it's adding the "right" details?

Add the specific muscle movements with the position of the teeth and you get something new!

Dem nose muscles~~

-original sketch

-Colored

And some side muscle practice T_T

Anyway, sorry about this random post. I got caught up in doing level work again (for the game I'm making with my boyfriend, for those on DA) So much tedious work, my brain was tired and this was a good outlet. I think I'm done at least for now on the level work, I need to get back into my regular schedule of posting everyday. I got kind of out of sync for a while.
I'm going to go draw some more in bed! (To get away from the computer for a while...)

And thanks to you guys from DeviantArt! 30,000 views in one day on that drawing. ;_____;.... ?!