Live Brief Initial Sketches 3

I thought that SWAT gear could potentially be very useful against vampire, adding a tiny bit more shielding. You do have to ask where would the survivors get this from, but we don't yet know what kind of resources etc they have. It would be unlikely I think for multiple characters to have it if any.

I also thought that the 'hillbilly' stereotype could be fun in a game like this, especially as it is often associated with Christianity which is something that plays a large part in vampire mythology.

I ended up going a little more extreme with proportions as I looked into this - these kinds of shapes almost seem like they are there as comedic characters - which they could be, if there was a larger cast of characters in this game. I think that these designs could be a little to exaggerated though, as the game itself sounds fairly serious.

Life Brief Initial Sketches 2

I like the idea of having some kind of priest in this setting because they are perfect against vampires, although I don't know how much it would affect the characters in the game. Trying to design characters with limited detail was hard to do partially because I don't quite know how the models will come out - I know that they are low-poly, but I'm not sure how the texturing will be working and quite how low poly they will be.

I started drawing a little more stylised because not only am I a lot faster at it but I think it would actually work out better; using simpler shapes would be better for the modelers since they only have so much to work with on low poly models. 

Live Brief Initial Sketches

I started off sketching some bits and pieces from the notes that I made last time since both the environments and potentially characters may use these props.

I also quickly sketched down some of the things that happen to shops etc. in riots that might make up a fair bit of the environments in this world. It felt very weird starting off with backgrounds/environment design rather than characters, so I thought that I would switch back over for a while to help me get into the project.

The brief put a lot of emphasis on exploration, so I decided to get some characters down without worrying about them too much; thinking about the stereotypes/occupations first can make it easier to the figure out how to make these things fit in this world.

At this point it was still unclear whether or not there would only be one character and how much they may be involved with the story, or if they were mostly there for gameplay. This meant that I still had time to look at a lot of different character types without worrying about their place in the world. I wanted to make sure that I still got some ideas down for stereotypical characters like the 'tough guy' as above, because they are generally very popular characters.

Live Brief

I have included my main brief as a file for submission, but I won't be posting it as it is still part of a project undergoing development. I can however post my initial sketches etc so far.

I accepted this brief because it was fairly open, and gives me the opportunity to experiment a lot more with both environments and characters. I can focus predominantly with ideas instead of working towards something fully completed, which works well for me. As the project progresses I would likely be creating turnarounds for the 3D modelers as well as possible diagrams of environments which will work well in my portfolio.

Due to the nature of the brief and the stage in which the project is in, I will not have a finished piece before the deadline, but I will have initial ideas and some development to show.

For the exterior environments I am looking into riots as they often come hand in hand with supernatural rise ups. The state of the environment may depend on the type of vampires; plenty of media include vampires who would work like humans to get things back into pristine condition, but there are also some that thrive on violence and terrorising humans so both ideas would be worth looking into. I also asked about the location/architecture but so far the only decision is that it is based in somewhere like the UK or US.

Notes;

garlic

crosses (made of rowan?)

iron

holy water

mirrors

open windows - letting light through in case a vampire can invade

ringing bells

features of a safe house

not necessarily clean or used all that often

does not need to be spacious

function > form

may have been abandoned before

in the middle of nowhere?

stockpile; food, weaponry, bandages shelter etc - may need to stay a while

Injuries, war wounds? What may you do to protect yourself? Do chars have a tan b/c they go out into the sunlight so often to hide from vamps, do very many of the characters wear crosses, do some of the more eccentric ones wear garlic?

Volunteering

I am looking into volunteering at galleries etc as I'm still unsure how involved I want to be with the practical side of art when I leave college, but working with/near art would still be very fun. Since I am intending to work part time anyway I should be able to manage volunteering every so often and this could even help me with networking.

Notes;
JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES

Castlefield Gallery doesn’t currently have any paid job opportunities, however we have a dedicated team of gallery volunteers and we are always interested to hear from people who are looking to gain volunteer experience in a professional gallery environment.


We currently have opportunities for Volunteer Photographers and Volunteer Gallery Assistants:


Volunteer Gallery Assistants at Castlefield Gallery can get involved and gain experience in; marketing & social media, gallery administration, event coordination, exhibition installation and art handling, front of house and visitor services, plus much more. Volunteering at Castlefield Gallery is valuable for both those wanting to develop a career in curation, gallery administration & management, as well as anyone wanting to develop their own artistic practice.


Requirements CG needs volunteer gallery assistants who are personable, hard working, punctual and reliable.

You should be available to volunteer for at least 1 day per month (6.5 hours) for a minimum of three months. However for volunteers to get the best experience 3-4 days per month over a longer period of time is recommended. As all of the staff at Castlefield Gallery are part time we do not offer work experience placements.


Payment Unfortunately we are unable to offer payment. We can however reimburse basic travel expenses and lunch.


Apply Anyone interested should email Matthew Pendergast, Programme Manager on matthew@castlefieldgallery.co.uk. Please include a short statement outlining how volunteering at Castlefield Gallery will help you in your career goals and attach your CV. Matthew will get back to all successful applicants as soon as possible and invite you for an induction at the gallery.

- See more at: http://www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk/about/jobs-opportunities/#sthash.KmrenHHN.dpuf




Manchester Art Gallery and the Gallery of Costume - volunteer roles include delivering tours, facilitate discussion sessions, support artists to deliver our workshop program and help out behind the scenes through research, cataloging and conservation work.

- Find more - Bury, Oldham, Rochdale

Thought Bubble 2015: Writers' Roundtable(2/2)

 MB - no formulaic way to break into comics. "Kelly Sue DeConnick - get your worst comics out of the way now so you're ready sooner". MB - Digital webcomics/building a fan base/awareness is very good for practice and meeting people. Fawkes - against more established comics' way of doing it. Less bias of people - i.e straight white males was most likely. If they know here's an audience for this person's books, hen more likely to hire. Kurtis didn't set out to be a girl power book, just wrote the characters. Thought it would fail horribly. Thought 'fantasy setting by two dudes' would receive eye rolls. No amount of marketing etc could do what the fans do - tumblr, cosplay, getting attention that way.

 Emi - patreon with reader support. A lot of stress but feels good to know people will support her but now has to put out work - more pressure. Has less time to do stuff with her own Plutona book now though. Charles - more diverse and niche markets b/c internet etc really helps. Will continue 'flowering of cool comics' in M/DC and creator owned comics. MB - new blood - stronger and better ---> how will tech change industry? Fawkes - large comp - telling stories over and over won't work so more diverse titles out there, more individual voices + higher reader responses.

 Emi - excited - plutona ignored 15 years ago. Everyone accepting and excited for new comics, more and more art style out there. Kurtis - digital landscape open things up a lot. Webcomics grew but hard to break in - now easier to find and read online. Instagram etc makes everything much more interactive. Fawkes - wide range of things comics can do that TV etc can't and comics can still be more widely explored yet. Emi - think in pictures. Kurtis - love collaborative spirit of i, another creative person takes it and makes it better. MB - form follows function - stories diminished in other forms of media. Charles - amazing seeing it done a few months later. Likes breaking story a lot - public place let ideas come, caught in flow of the place. MB - not a gig in which you get rich. Fawkes - thank god romance comics brought back. Sci-fi re surge recently, love to see more horror. Uzumaki tricks only work in comics.

Thought Bubble 2015: Writers' Roundtable (1/2)

Charles, Marguerite Bennett, Ray Fawkes, Emi Lennox, Kurtis Weibe

Who do you write for? Charles - write for myself - challenge self, say something about who he is. MG - catharsis, discover feelings/opinions etc. Fawkes - driving force that he can't identify. Hope his writing will connect, writes stuff mostly for himself. Kurtis - is there's something that he wants to read that isn't out there, he wants to write it. Women aren't well represented in fantasy, so wanted to do something outside the paradigm. MB - never a time while working in comics that social media didn't effect who she spoke to etc. - found people on twitter (from mad max fanart) to work on bombshells with. Social media - both good and bad. MM - 2 dif writers in comics - just put it out there, or 'stand in front and shout about it'.

Charles - like twitter, easy to write something wrong in 140 characters - career could be completely over from it. Good as an outreach tool rather than for interaction. Twitter lets put self out there in a way that feels relatable, but also letting work speak for self. Kurtis - set up 15 issues of Rat Queen - change a lot after fans so invested a lot of cosplay - don't want to mess with those most popular characters. Marvel/DC fans - can be nasty or supportive but better with creator owned comics - less intimidating. Charles - in a way, M/DC 'handing out pellets' - doing what the fans want? Emi - dif sort of audience from rest of panel - writes about life so doesn't take influence from readers/audience. Writing for self, documenting life so being honest, worried about being judged from auto-bio comic, with social media but 'gotta do what you gotta do'. Take most popular chars from comics - how to plot a course from what they're expecting.

Charles - killed Wolverine - so many ways the story could have been wrong. Needed to tell a story based on what he felt was right. His biggest book by far. Hoping fans would say he did it right. Fawkes - many fans liked the book but treated it like a puzzle - how is he coming back? Kurtis - came into comics a lot later on. Warren Ellis was one of his biggest influences. Emi - influenced by Craig Thompson. Fawkes - Alan Moore's superhero books made him want to write comics. Was a writer before a comic writer. Mentorwise - learned loads by working with a mentor. Margueritte - Scott Snyder was her professor - wanted to be a writer/comics writer. They kept in touch and he reach out and asked about writing a comic together before writing on own. Brian Michael Bendis message board had a lot of writers talking including BMB popping in himself and talking. 'Pluona' series Jeff Lemire - been a friend for a while - wanted to help her write stuff, not just auto-bio which is what she wanted.

Thought Bubble 2015: Creator Owned Comics

Sean Murphy, Matt Schol, Was Craig, Bengal, Jerome, Remender

Most on panel left jobs that pay more than comics b/c excitement of ideas, working with friends etc. Bengal - almost every comic in France is creator owned. Less rewarding there - harder to stand out. Wes worked in games, but just wanted to do comic books. Nice for name on cover, a real personal statement. Matt - less big studios in Italy - a lot of schools of comics - waiter etc while working on own stuff. Never had to pick between comics/anything better. Done some small anim concept stuff. Marvel = constant work, was asked by image to do comics instead. Murphy DC for 7 years - didn't 'fit in', did some Vertigo and some at Image with Remender too. Rememender - inspired by TMNT etc, realised 'oh, anyone can do this' and followed Robert Williams to Zapp comics.

Wrote own comics when very young. Jerome - 6 - Indonesia for a year, started to read comics. Made him want to make them.. Craig - French translations of American comics, B+T. Sort of started with Akira, Teen Titans. Teen Titans turned him into a collector but Eisner's Spirit made him want to do comics. Matt - started with American comics, Italian and manga at the same time. Parents didn't want him to read a lot. Anime Saint Seiya got him wanting to draw as well as Fist of the Northstar and Dragonball. Murphy - Chris Ware, Karl Baker, not gavitating to superhero comics but saw some B+W - tried to so smilar with m/DC style to pay the bills. Remender saw Murphy's Hellblazer comics and asked him to do a creator owned one - initially said no. Remender and Murphy wanted to do a book together, took 3 months of throwing ideas around. Probs a year after taking elements they liked and giving life to. Was 4 1 book b/c style and interests work for plot. Matteo for worlds and things coming together seamlessly. Remender - very little time to read other stuff etc. Looked at some when Matteo - working sometimes 18 hours a day before so couldn't read others, now has free weekends to read books - work is better for not constantly worrying 'what am I doing next?' Murphy - not always a burned bridge when swapping from dc/marvel to creator owned.

Thought Bubble 2015: Sketching Spotlight

Doug Braithwaite, Wes Craig, Isabel Greenberg, and Amy Reeder.

Isabel - doesn't typically have a commercial style, usually gets narrative-based illustrative jobs - much less effort in work only for money than stuff loved. Doug - absorb into life like drawing if you want to be a good artist, no longer any time to. DCA - hard to fill up SB - hard to find the time, airports etc easier to draw random people. Also aren't always inspired. MG - Hard to figure out what to draw/do once started, easier to find stuff to do with comics, learn to draw what the comic calls for. DCA Good once in a while to go back to studying/try something new, contributes ideas to stories if he has any that writer can add to script. Final script after art work. DB - read the script a few times, plays through head like a film, starts jotting down little panel compositions in margins then layout the pages.

2x3" atm then blow thumbs up. Can get composition right at that size.

MG - Hard time coming up with stuff, es to public places for ides - curiosity of people is motivating, keeps on topic. Only draw something right once. Draws images for separate panels first before actual panels, and figures out the panel shapes afterwards. Blows up thumbnails and prints bigger. Hand-draws everything. DB - comps a lot more now for adjusting layouts. MG - comp nice, edit endlessly + make it disappear. Colours + letters digitally. Wesley - paper. Roughs by hand - 4 thumbs per page of paper, print on blue line, bristol board, photoshop adjustments. Doesn't like drawing on glass (tablet), prefers the feel of paper.

DB - paint greyscale (time constraints) - nice compromise, more colour in photoshop + overlays. Bought old canvasses, don't end up using them. Wes - knows it's way faster to comp but ideas come faster when writing by hand. Could draw digital more if could swivel it like paper. DB - think people should learn more traditional art, use digital as a tool - learn better otherwise. MG - see big picture and be loose first - too much concentration on detail b/c so much zooming in/out. Digital looks too 'floaty' because of stroke, undo, stroke, undo. 

Wes - being comic art was more feasible than becoming an astronaut etc. Kept drawing, thought being a comic artist was probably not going to happen. Skills good enough that maybe he could do it. Isabel - was always going to be art. Can't make a living with illustration graphics, well, you kind of can. Happened slowly with making small comics & getting a book deal. Never made comics before - got into them because it's like stories + drawings. Doesn't do comics for the sake of being a comic artist.

MG - graduated college, comics weren't on radar at all. Got into manga, found a USA contest manga book. Never considered being an artist. If I treated this like school, could I learn? Made it into a contest book. Desire to tell stories. Minimum  amount of people messing with you ideas. Wes fave comics are from only one person making them (rather than a team). MG - doesn't like collaborators and editors etc. - likes more control. MG - if you're having trouble, sketch as loose as possible. Make happy mistakes. DB - spontaneity - flow, movement. Wes - drawings where too much attention is paid to one things isn't good and doesn't look focused enough. MG - hard pencil with a very small point. Shalvey - small layout easier to see whole picture - not deal with details. If comp doesn't work when super tiny, it doesn't work when bigger. Shalvey, life drawing - don't worry about what you're doing. Dif purposes to dif types of drawings. Wes - drawn from real life and work out kinks themselves. DB - find out who your influence's influences are. Look at everything for influences - pre-raphaelites, impressionists. Even stuff you dismiss as rubbish - still stuff left to learn from them. Develop own personal style, try not to replicate. That's how to grab editors' and readers' attention.

Wes does some writing on the side but art takes so much longer. Doesn't work on too much to keep ideas fresh - save money to take time out to do own comics. DB - some writers let him pace stories and panels how he wants. Sees self more as a storyteller than an artist. MG - goal to write and draw all own stuff - 'my art, more than just the pencils - story continued in colours and letters, synergy when everything's all coming from one brain. Write for self - immediately can make something  more unusual or not. Wes - play to strengths make images better work - writer might mean you're not playing to your strengths - but on own, might mostly know what's comfortable. MG - scripts often add too much , not enough to space to draw from. loves a lot of direction on the characters feelings  + expressions. Anime and Norman Rockwell Influences.

Thought Bubble 2015 Decompressed

WORLDBUILDING
Kate Leth, Kieron Gillen, Noelle Stevenson, Rick Remender, Scott Snyder
 Leth - did not intend  to be a writer. wrote very few comics before asked to do an adventure time comic. Taking someone else's sandbox and building on it - she originated with fanfiction. Remender -  subconsciously building on things that we could subconsciously be dealing with in the future. Why build a world? Rem - tricky with marvel, can't change world. boundaries already. LR/EW process feels dead if not working for fun. Nimona - jobs that fit based off her personal work. If you're telling a story in an established  world, still some world building sometimes? People like to live in lots of dif worlds. Snyder - suffusing world with everything you're passionate about. Creator owned - inherently your own - need to convince people it's accessible, can create a world that is a projection on how you feel in a certain place or situation. Make the audience care! Build worlds because it's fun. Emotional Resonance. What connects your own thing with everyone else? 3rd year of writing, only just feel like beginning to be a writer. Rem - find something you can put yourself into. Gillen - place as a character. Nimona - playful tone but still sets up for a darker tone. Noelle - read a lot as a kid. Made a lot of stories but didn't know where they were going?

 Nimona - knew the ending immediately, started as generic superhero story last moment changing to knights etc ----> world developed from that. Didn't spend a lot of sketching out - some chars designed on the panel in finalised drawing. Not all of it had so much thinking but knew the tone of the story, knew where it was going. Last minute changes allowed with a webcomic - less so with an editor. Leth - a lot is improvised. In other worlds, knew how it had to end. Power up - these or chars we want to explore. Not necessarily an ending. Will have 2 hour talks about their apartment, workplace etc - tells you so much about what a char is about. Gillen - done so well in video games. Leth - Gone Home - taught to pay attention. Snyder - chars conduits for him to explore himself. - as long as know the end game, he's good to go. General map = exploratory throughout the rest. Al - wanted to go all over the place at first. Likes to do prep and very tight outline - gladly deviate from it if it feels right. Explore how we create monsters in our head through gender, race etc. Likes not being precise if it doesn't surprise you, it doesn't surprise anyone else.

 Remender - no right or wrong way to do it. Do want to have an outline and know where you're going. At one point rewrote loads and had a checklist - the thing would be perfect - then has to write it for a year  - takes the jout out of it. Second guess or get bored it. Idea can live with me for so long  that they get bored of it. Still structure, intention, beats, landmarks,  pre-planning beginning, middle and end - can see what needs to be cut. Black science 12 issues was cut to 6 issues. Save the Cat structure - a lot of films based on it (based on Ripley saves the cat (name sake) Gillen - like if every song in the world using the same beat - boring and predictable. Remender - survey where people enjoyed not having an unpredictable ending ----> can make people enjoy it less, want what they are comfortable wih.

 Leth - why Saga works - you know where this is going; "someone I love is going to die". Ewing - BkV - writing in 5 act sructure instead - why it works so well? Unlikable chars are good - stretch our perceived limits of our empathy. Leth - get mad if you kind of empathise with them. Snyder - it's suffocating knowing/using a structure but start using your own and start making it about something important to you. Making sure the story takes you somewhere emotionally.  Chars can surprise you and take you to places that you don't want to go in. Emotional authenticity > well built plot.

Gillen - most people think contrived D&D when worldbuilding is mentioned - worldbuilding is actually a tool, not an end product. Would rather read smething that takes risks etc. Filling - story is a mirror and when everything else falls off, you're staring at yourself. Love to see more worldbulding more worlds that we wants than worlds than we fear. Potential in 'This is how the world could be'/ Noelle - darker worlds allow that element of Hope

Flower Bookmarks

I have been commissioned to make a few simple floral bookmarks, so I thought that I would have a little bit of fun with it and use Brusho inks. I think that they stop the bookmarks from looking too graphicy which doesn't always go with flowers, but I like the effect that it does have. This was extremely open and vague, but the client was already happy enough with the few initial ideas that I created. It would be interesting to think a little bit more about bookmarks since that isn't something I've ever really thought about making but could be good for a little more illustrationy practice.

Book Layout

I am creating a book of my development work for extended for the exhibition, so I have been thinking about my earlier research of art books. I came to the conclusion that I want to keep the layout as simple as possible in this case, as some of my ideas have a lot of small design, and most of it is just that, ideas, so it doesn't need to be overly fancy or anything. I will use different colours for different sections but here are a few simple example of the pages

Research and Engagement Presentation

In PPP so far, I've mostly looked at the different options I have available to me, since I'm undecided with what exactly I'm going to do when we finish college.

I felt like freelancing was a big thing that I should look into, if only because of all of the options it gives me. I did keep finding more negatives about it though, which might be more because I am unsure about doing it. I like the idea of being able to try so many different things, especially if my portfolio contains illustration as well as design for games/animation, but with the financial side and the amount of networking you have to do to get jobs etc, it is a little bit daunting.

It's partially the constant job searches that I find off putting when it comes to freelance and being in charge of my own work, so I've been looking at agencies as an alternative. I was surprised to find agencies aimed towards gaming companies along with agencies for other areas involving art, and I thought that would be interesting to look into especially as it could allow me to specialise even more in the future. The benefits and limitations of working for an agency are as above. I'm not yet decided if working for an agency would be quite right for me yet, either.

I thought that it would be worth looking at the recurring requirements I've seen when looking at companies as well, just to know what would be needed if I did work for a company. A lot of companies I have found only hire people in for certain projects which means that their requirements might be completely different depending on the brief which does make it a bit harder to research some things that they want, but I found a few points that most if not all of the character design jobs had that I found (a fair few of which were on the animation jobs website). A lot of the jobs I looked at were from Nickelodeon as well just because they have a lot going at the moment, and it was interesting to see how little experience some of them actually asked for.

Even though it is a little less work based, I've also been looking into different art books. I want my portfolio to stand out and look good, so I'm investigating different ways to lay out my pages and make them look interesting. I'd have to be careful not to make them too busy and stop my designs from fading into the background which is why I want to look at quite a few. I like the Persona 4 Arena art book on this slide because not only does it have all of your usual design elements, but it also has diagrams of how the characters actually move, showing key frames of their fighting animations which give you a much clearer idea of how they act. 

Some work much better being simple, though. The page on the left which I think is from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has a really nice contrast between the drawn designs and 3D models. The models show how they would look in the actual animation, whereas the drawings show personalities etc much more making it quite a balanced page. On the right, Morrigan from Dragon Age has the different parts of her outfit shown as more of a guide to her outfit than the design process, and since it's so finished the more decorative page looks a lot better. Despite the detail in the borders, the page is still nice and clear and the character does not get lost in the background, keeping the page nice and readable.

After researching these slides, I'm still not 100% sure what to take further and what sort of plan I should focus on, so I've made a simple list of the next things that I need to do. I'm definitely going to go to more events even though I'm still trying to plan it all out, and I want to have business cards made and ready by then. I need to decide on what companies to visit, if companies are in fact the best way to go; I'm not sure if talking to freelancers or conversing with agencies would be a better idea for me yet. I want to make more things for Redbubble since I've stopped and haven't had anything new on for ages just as something to keep designing for no matter what kind of job I go for. Last on my list for now is creating new portfolio pages, including editing older pages and experimenting with layouts for newer pages.

I think once I visit/decide where I'm visiting I'll have a clearer idea of which way to research and start working towards, since a lot of my portfolio depends on that and start making more connections.

Gaming Networks in Yorkshire

GAMAYO  is a network based in Yorkshire for people who make or are interested in making games. It can be helpful towards people who are looking for collaborators, studios looking for local talent, indie developers who may need al sorts of other things, or people who sometimes work on games as their job. They put emphasis on people who make games, rather than companies who do, to make more of an approachable, community type of feel for the people involved in games around Yorkshire.

They have local meet ups in Sheffield, Bradford, York, Huddersfield and Leeds which is a great opportunity to network with people and meet possible collaborators. They require you to already be making games, even for fun to join in with this network, so I will have to look into ways I could begin doing this.

Another network I want to keep an eye on is GameRepublic; they are an "industry-led games business network that supports and promotes the Yorkshire and Northern England games industry". They give support, contacts and business development in the North of England, UK and global games industry, arranging meetings and business-focused networking events with companies including Sony, Microsoft, Amazon and Nintendo among others.

Both other these will be great networking opportunities; I need to get business cards properly designs and printed to give them to people if I attend any meetings etc from both of these, as well as update my portfolio and create some games-orientated art and design work. Whether or not I do decide to venture into games when it comes to a career, I think that having these contacts, and even just the experience of meeting these kinds of people will help me a lot.