Winter.... and Break!

Things I wanna do (right now): Do more sketches. Start drawing up designs for a small game I came up with. Read more of the Game Design book. Draw megaman, for a megaman book art request. Animate in CS3's photoshop. Play more Assassins Creed (somehow).

...And, as I segway into another topic:

A short animation I did for a concept on friend's game.
http://megaswf.com/simple_serve/88121/

...Articles that are changing the way I thought about things:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=280419
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6216/the_brain_that_couldnt_die
And this book so far has been giving me understanding about what it is that I enjoy so much about games, "A Theory of Fun for Game Design"

...Annnnd, a sketch/painting I did recently:

 

Click here for a progress GIF

3D updates will come next month, because I poorly transferred any screenshots I had of my work with me.

I most likely will add my game board documentations to my Game Portfolio Blog!

Slowly populating level....

...with props and walls!

Had to redo my statue, if I wanted it to be awesome. And I did want it awesome. ;p

Have to draw more animal heads... and monster heads too... for game design.

New update!

HEY!

Go look at my "portfolio" blog!  http://estherlovedesign.blogspot.com/

I've got some new updates!  :D

Crystals!

And an update on the statue. Zbrush-ing it now!

yey renders!

These are rendered in Maya, so they aren't in their highest potential of existence, but I really wanted to show something! When I get them into UDK, I'll take a screenshot of that too. :)

Little bit 'o progress

Just showing ya what I'll be working on. I'm going to be sculpting detail into this guy in zbrush real soon! But I did pose this guy into what he looks now. He was pre-rigged, so all I had to do pull on certain things.


I have more screen shots of other things I have been working on, and they will be coming up soon!

Another Game Design Illustration

Rough

What I got so far, but needs a whoooole lota work. 

Illustration for Game Design

Rough

Final Version

 Still gonna fix up some things tho.

Childhood Memory

It's interesting to think that something that my teacher did to me as a punishment, still haunts me today. I forgot what I did to be punished, but she punished me by having me sit at a desk in a corner of the wall and a shelf. It was time to watch some sort of movie, that I'm sure I was looking forward to seeing, but to add injury to insult, the TV was right on the other side of the shelf. So I sat so close to the TV, but couldn't see a thing. I saw the glow of the TV in the dark room (cuz she turned off the lights), and saw colors change around, indicating stuff was happening that I wouldn't ever be able to see. And I heard my classmates laughing at things I wouldn't never know about.

I don't remember much from grade school or the movies I watched in class, but I sure do remember the time I DIDN'T see a movie.

I'm sure it wasn't the teacher's intention to "scar" me mentally like that, but it's funny how something so insignificant like that would still be in my mind today.  I guess I'm still curious.

Atlantis: the Lost Empire - Trial by Fire

So I actually read the whole article in IGN about Disney's FPS of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and I was moderately intrigued and amused. His review sounded like a bias avid gamer, who 'really tried his hardest to judge neutrally and give the benefit of the doubt to this Disney game', but when I finished and finally went to take a look at the screenshots, there really was barely any props or interesting characters with interesting characteristics. And most of all:

..... the environment was very uninspired, very geometrical, poorly visually detailed (it apparently had no shadows in the game), and from the sounds of it very badly designed layouts. At list price of $30, I guess you get what you paid for, because even back then games were atleast $50. But if Disney hires a company to make a game, and this is what they came up with...  Even game art students can make this quality, and even better sometimes! What's worse is that Disney was actually ok with this! But I can't ignore the fact that this was made 9 years. And ironically enough...produced by Disney (despite my last comment). You'd think that a multi-million corporation like Disney would want to produce high quality stuff all the time, but if you look at their "ToonTown" online game and current TV shows, I guess it's too be expected with them if it's not theme park or animation related. Especially since Atlantis wasn't their top selling movie.

Buut....off my musings. I will get back to my work that very desperately needs my attention.

P.s. Their Lion King game "Timon and Pumbaa's Jungle Games" was 100000000x better and it was made in 1995!!! 15 years ago! It was a different type of game, but the quality of challenge, fun, and experience was alot more paid attention too than in Atlantis.

sketch

Old drawing I found, for a scratch board preliminary.

Moved to new blog address!

I moved my art blog to another address, since I needed something proffessional and 100% art.

http://estherlovedesign.blogspot.com/

Follow me on there for my art and game progress!

This blog will just be my musings related to art/school/personal topics. Might have some sketches put on here, but anything visually noteworthy will go to my new blog. See ya there!

Finished concept!

Shinjuku, Japan

My finished concept art for my theme pitch in 3D class. My theme came in third place, so I feel decidedly proud of myself for making it that far. What I've learned from the experience is calm down when doing a presentation and don't talk so fast. My other learning experience is...Even when I work on my hw casually, I still had to pull an all nighter!

We are going to be doing "Submerged Atlantean and Steampunk ruins" for our semester long level making. So you can expect alot of gears and columns to be made. And since it's Atlantean/Ruined Greece, there will be alot of crumbled stones and rocks. Our teaching is still debating how much of that we will be making. But yey for that theme winning, I choose it as one of my top 3.

Now onto working on my first assignment in UDK, making a level! Whoo!

concept 1

quick looking, but not so quick painting of my concept. beginning of something.

I think...

I will very much enjoy making games. :)

1st day of class, a success! Very excited about it. Definitely will be updating.

muh

Uh, so this whole Florida Residents thing is more complicated than I thought? I thought I read things right, but apparently not? I don't know. Humm.

Hopefully I can get pell grant next year. Definately move off campus next year.


Federal and State really do their best to make it as hard as possible to get some aid. Sighhhhh. I say that being an out of state, dependent, and not too wealthy individual.

I really just hope I graduate! Really do. Im gonna work hard to get an internship! My graduation may be on the line if I don't get enough money to make it another 2 years. I just realized that my friend who wasn't able to come back this year, she would have been able to attend another year if she was rehired as an RA. It's things like that you don't realize is a big thing until you get the letter 5 months later and find out yer short some thousand dollars. WTF.

If things don't work out, I pretty fucking determined to get to my goal. If I slip 100ft down a mountain after climbing it for so long, I'll climb another fucking 100ft and then some.

First, I need to find myself a good source of tea to keep me awake. I'm like a narcoleptic. SHIT. Where did my energy go? I have a mountain to climb!

Another asset done!

2nd one!

I made a barrel!

1st succesfully made 3d object!

Stomach feeling slightly weird today. I think I've worried myself enough to give me stomach aches again. Oh well. I have such an emotionally sensitive stomach. hehe. (plus, having coffee on top of it all never helps! ha)

Random Note: BBQ chicken pizza from Domino's is great!

I've started turning the wheels of my vacation plans today! Had my bosses know that I plan to ditch them in about a week. lol. Nothing is set for sure, but I have some ideas what I want to do. But even if all I do is just stay where I am right now, I'd be happy.


Points of Interest for the day? Twin Peaks. Assassin's Creed Lineage Series. Alan Wake Prequel Shorts.

Btw, a friend I know has very unsupportive parents. It's a shame. She's a very good student, and deserves alot more than that... I hope she reads all the supportive comments that people left for her online.

Once again

...I did it! I wrote my letter and sent it in today. Woo!

I woke up feeling horrible in my stomach this morning. I didn't even know why! It took me a few minutes of staring at the ceiling before I figured out what was bothering me.

"Hmm... I finished signing my loans. That can't be it.
 I've talked to all the people I had to yesturday.
I haven't lied to anybody or did anything bad....

....oh! Send in that addendum to the committee."

It sucks that my mind was worrying about it all night even though I had forgotten about it for the meantime. I suppose it's my body's way of reminding me things that are extremely important. But I need my rest! I worry about stuff like that while I'm awake already.

I did eet!!

I finally signed that loan of dooooooooomage!   yey.

So now all I have to do is wait on the school. Hmmm... waiting is another excruciating challenge for me. But it'll be worth it if all works out!

Cross fingers for me internet!

Loan update

Nervous! Still haven't signed the darn loan thing. I know... yer thinking, "well just do it already!" and I will! I actually got alot done today. Talked to people that I needed to deal with for business reasons. I tell ya, I've been anxious about it all weekend. My dreams have been getting kookier and kookier. Thankfully, I don't remember what they were about, but it sucks waking up to it and feeling troubled. Once school starts, I should be done with all this. All having to do with money ofcourse. Going to college is such a rough lesson in real world money management.

I promise myself I will sign today.

But I lost a really good friend to loan/money issues. She is a really great and passionate Graphic Designer.

Housing arrangements will remain to be seen by Friday, hopefully.

[...Just got distracted for about 30 mins...]

Ok, I'm back! uh.... In conclusion....

I know I can hang in there! It's a scary step in life, but I will keep pushing to stay on top of it all! And I have no better source of inspiration and strength than my sweetie ♥

Costumes and Memories, oh my!

So looks like I won't be getting that pell grant this year, but I'm not too worried yet.

So I've just finished watching all Anime Expo 2010 clips of the masquerade. More accurately, I watched only the awarded skits. hehe. Reminds me of when I used to just watch convention skits for fun and then for inspiration. On that fateful summer of 2007, I actually went up on stage myself. Fun fun times.

Heres a video too of it! Embarassing to look back on it. I could never watch a performance of myself. But it was damn fun DOING it!

Note my glowy-ness!

And.... I'm pretty sure I wanna make this soon. TAKOYAKI! Yum!

I miss my best friend, Stephanie! We did such awesome artness and costumeness! (I miss my other best friend Krystal too!)

Sorry for the random posting. Not feeling quite myself, but this is helping me I'm sure.

It's that time of year again...!

Scrounge for money and loans!

Already hit my first patch of rough dirt in the financial process, but it should be taken care of by today, hopefully. And Trouble is not to far from my friends either. I hope we all make it thru this college tradition/obstacle of "Who will survive [financially] for another year?" In more than one way, they were right when they said to us on our freshmen orientation, "Look to the left, look to the right, one of them won't be here by your senior year."

What an adventure, huh?

On a good note- I inactively sold a painting of mine. It was actually a painting I disliked, but apparently someone out there liked it enough to buy it right of my dorm hallway. Cool! I feel like I should do more painting now. hehe. And as cool as digital work is, I think unless you are targeting and/or selling online in specific communities or at a convention, traditional paintings sell alot better anywhere.

And I don't know how most people feel, but the almost inevitable feeling of doom kinda makes you wanna work harder when you survive it. I guess thats a well known reaction to close call things like that, but I've definitely already had my share of it. Enough to think how fortunate I would be to continue another year. And to think I will have 2 more summers like this after this year! 2 more times I will have to worry whether I will have another year Ringling under my belt. As far as budgets within my control, I am doing pretty good! First time I've ever had to pay rent consistently and buy a car while I'm at it, I would say I'm managing very well. I've adapted to this whole working/paying thing. lol. Living life happily with my sweetie too!

Just need to get this loans business taken care of. But giving up is definitely not an option. There will be other solutions, and I will work at those until I've exhausted all I can, and move on to another possible solution.

Anyways, yey college. I can't wait to look back on these blog entries, and say to myself, "Yeahhh, I remember that."

:)

progress

So I found a way to make an image plane without using the image plane thinger on Maya. Just make flat plane and add a new material and then use a file (your reference for the photo). Yey self teaching.

Yey!

A relief!

Fav. Games (constantly updated)

Alan Wake - I loved the level of interaction with the environment, and the small things that were not necessarily important but fun to experience. Like when the minor characters (ex. Anderson Brothers) would talk to each other and include you in their convo.

Splinter Cell: Conviction - I liked the option you got on how you wanted to interrogate the enemy. It adds a level of personalization to the gameplay. Then you also had a certain amount of choice in how you wanted to take out the enemy. And in general, I also enjoyed watching the NPCs interact with the surroundings.

Heavy Rain - Interaction like a movie. You made the choices on how a scene went.

GTAs - ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL the different stories you learn when doing missions and side missions.

Lost Oddessy - Depth of story, lore, history, and characters in the game.

Final Fantasy XI - I have great memories from this game. It left me with an experience that was personal to my gameplay. Plus I enjoy(ed) the FF series.

Warcraft - Deep deep history & detail of story. Side missions, countries, and characters all had their story that weaved together the world of warcraft. (standalone and the online version)

Portal - Enjoyable puzzle game with wicked physics. The main evil character was very interesting too.

Half Life - Lots of story told in the environment. I felt sympathy for certain characters. Cool puzzles in the game too.

Yakuza 3 - Interesting types of interaction with the environment and the people in the game.

Assassin's Creed 2 - Just like GTA but more puzzles and historical amusement.

Bioshock - Story told thru the environment and each level had a story behind it, that led me to want to know more.


Dead space - same as Bioshock.

Fav. Genre - Adventure, First Person Shooter, and RPGs. Horror, Sci-FI, and Fantasy.

(written because i felt this would be the most productive to my development at the moment)

more rambling!

Found a car... bought the car... now I need to find car insurance, get registered (tags and Florida license), and then fix the AC in the car. I feel like when I'm in a video game, you spend all your money to buy that awesome armor or new weapon, then you have like zero to spend on potions, armor repair, or that measily glove upgrade you really needed too. Yup.... Back to camping them bunnies.

Aaaanyways, things are getting better in a minuscule sense. But better is butter! Uh, better is goooood. I mean it its hard to hit your so called "rock bottom" and then NOT see/cherish what good things you do have. One example, life with my cutie and his brother is great! Buying a car with my own money? Woah. Holding 2 jobs and commuting? I've never done that before!

I've been so stressed, worried, and overwhelmed, that I couldn't seem to enjoy the small things I've always found satisfaction in. Things could be worse. And that is really a good motivator for enjoying the present.

I'm trying to mod a game, not sure where to start but I've got UDK and SDK.

Oh, and I wanted to list out game I really like. That'll be in a seperate post.

Love my mom and dad! Their anniversary was last week!

Btw, I beat Alan Wake. It was great! Ending was a "wait, what?" type of deal. I foresee a sequel.

bleh. Got a car. Need some fixin'. Will update later on it. And how the heck do you mod a game? seriously... i try real hard to look for tutorials or whatever, but i can't seem to find a place that can tell me what to do first. Im downloading UDK. We will see what happens. Im still in a stump right now. Trying to pick myself out of it. Too much that I am too incapable to do. Sigh.

Worst week yet of this summer. Out of the pan and into the fire. I can't wait to get my car and live off campus.

results

Well, I checked out the car. But it wasn't worth the trouble. I look forward to another opportunity!

Getting my financial aid stuff done tomorrow. Whoo! I pray it all works out!

Not sure how I am going to work out my job thing. I was offered another job on campus today. And it seems like a pretty good job. But do I really want to work 6 hours a day for the rest of the summer, or just do 4?

I think just 4.

I still have quite a few books to read, and articles to read, and games to play for the summer, and I want to get to them! Alan Wake is still waiting for me.

Definately going places!

Well, I am working my two jobs right now. Hoping to get a car with the money I saved up at this point. I was not able to get my hours clocked in for it to be distributed to me in time. My account for clocking in is not letting me have the option to put in hours for one of my jobs. Sad. But I know when I do finally get my check, it'll be a big one. 6 hours a week right now. I hope to lower it to 4 hours only after this month. I was overloading to get a good sum for my future car. I will be looking at a car tonight. Hopefully it's the one.

I also have an internship that I am hoping to drop later on today. It hasn't started yet, which is good, but I weighed the earnings for the internship with my 2 jobs, and I am getting more money with the two jobs than I would with the internship. Right now, money is more important. Mostly because I want to get a car, need to pay for florida liscence, fees, AND I want to buy a computer for my new major. So I can work at home if I wanted to. I am a little worried about that, because I don't want to cause inconvenience, but I have to do this. It is not helping me with my goals.

And something else that I have been worried about is my financial aid. I always seem to have a problem each year with something. It worries me alot. I hope to get this little thing over with so that I can not worry, get my loans (hopefully), and continue my education. I should talk to the financial aid office about scholarships..

Lastly, I think I will.. talk about what I am worried about more. Not on here tho. This will most likely be the last time I.. well, or should I put it here. This is my portfolio blog....sorta. Uh, I think I will make a seperate blog for my portfolio. I have decided, this will be my college progress blog. I will journalize my process. Assignments and the like. For those prospective students or curious people who would be interested in seeing and reading about the day in a life of a Ringling Game Art Student. (I feel kinda staged for saying this outright, but I like title-ing my stuff. Current chapter: Summer for a Game Art student. gasp!)

Phew, I said it. It was scary. I am a Ringling Game Art Student now!

Anyways, so I will make a separate blog for my finished stuff and professional updates.


P.s. Today was kinda scary for me. I hope it gets better. And I would like to say that I wouldn't have accomplished this much so soon if it wasn't for my cutie.**

After 3 weeks into Summer of 2010..

I've realized that I do alot of my research from looking at people's blogs. Alot of the things that I am looking for are from upperclassmen or students with classworks that I am interested in seeing.

I can safely say that I am happy where I am now. Or, should I say, happier.

My zest for drawing has returned (or rather mentally returned, cuz i haven't actually drawn anything yet, lol)

I don't feel so...highly expected to make next to godliness work anymore. Not that i'm saying I won't be trying to make masterpieces. 

I felt like an outsider. A feeling imposed by me, onto me, i'm sure. I love to draw, and yet I lost the feeling of excitement when I drew. 

I will spare myself, and you [the reader], my ramble, but the point I will make in this post is..

I have changed my course of study, and will now pursue something that I very much look forward to making my life career!

Uh.. I feel like my excitement about this is not fully realized, but I am about to play Alan Wake. lol. Brb!

update on portfolio

portfolio on my blogger page has been updated with the mermaid illustration! :)

I should be getting my paintings in soon too.

Self-Promo postcard art

done

Not at all happy with the grading tho. 

I'm done with painting until I can get the bitter experience that these paintings gave me out of my system.

Close ups later i guess.

preview of 12x12s

And heres a painting I did in Figure Class:

stuff

2 more 12x12s, then fix up the bad ones, then work on notes for my film language final, then finish illustration, and on friday show cooper my revised paintings. And then I'll be DONE!

Oh, but I get to worry about packing after all that, housing bizness, then getting a job at the library, then wonder if I'll get the volunteer/internship job at school.

MOO.

Nothin' but painting!

Painting, painting, painting. I am always painting! Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy?

Mastercopy

Downtown Painting

small update

Self-Promotion Postcard wip

Getting started with Maya!

So I've started up Maya again. Learning some animation things since it seems to be the quickest, easiest, and most interesting way to get familiar with the program (atleast for me). I plan to show my progress here on this blog, so watch out for some pretty rough stuff. I plan to animate something before the end of the semester, which will be May 3. This will be a good trial to see if I enjoy it. But so far I am. Secret: I like it when I'm actually doing something, I hate it when I'm struggling to get the middle click button to work with Maya.

FInished!

I'm tired, so I'll right more about this later!

updated Portfolio Page with this illustration.

My friend's website!

Stephanie Marroquin's Game Art Website!

I felt like giving her some love, so check out her work. She going to graduate this Fall! Yey, Steph! Shes my bestest buddeh with whom I've arted with and had adventures with since high school. May her gaming endeavors take flight!

wip

wip for current illustration project

Still Life

Latest oil painting.

Btw, I need to get some work done! I have 12 paintings to do before the semester is over AND an illustration. Keep'on keepin'!

(picture taken with a 3G iphone, and omg it looks great!)

Oh, and today I went to a presentation by Irene Gallo (of Tor Books) and Greg Manchess! Very informational. Since I have tons of oil paintings to do, I think this was the best thing to attend for inspiration. PLUS, Greg Manchess is starting a series on falling figures, which is kind of what I'm interested in - free flowing figures! Fun fun.

Digital Sketches

Figure Class quick studies!

Addition to blog page~

new portfolio page up! Check it out! It sits atop the latest blog post, under the title.

Quick link to it!

Notes

oh yea, lemme try noting what i've learned.

Keep to limited palette.
Sketch gesture-ful, to get detail & ideas.
Keep color in mind.
Atmospheric Perspective.
Get ideas out there, and do it. Then do another idea after that if you have one.
Talk to people and ask them suggestions.
Stay positive!
Don't draw in your head, draw on paper. (teehee)

And I think thats it for now.

Discovery of a Fallen Giant

I'm done! So this was for the Imagine FX art challenge, "Illustration for an RPG game". This illustration is of a made up RPG, so don't go trying to guess what game it's from.

Next up.....! Fairytale Illustration for a Movie poster with a celebrity as the main characters. yummmm.

I guess I'll speak a bit more about what has been going on:

I had my low for the month, but things are looking forward! I learned alot while being unsure of alot of things. I figured out my process a little more.

Need to do 12 paintings for class still. My finalized theme for the paintings, is a flowing and continuous naked figures that is disappearing into perspective. yey!

Learning alot about painting in my figure painting class, fortunately! In my painting class, it's more like painting practice time. Learn thru experience.

Almost Spring break, and I have lots of plans of enjoyment with friends and my cutie dearest!

Til next time, every...bodyyyyyy!

few more adjustments...

...but almost done!


I wanna give a shout out to Andrew! Who help me and kept me going on this. Best art director and friend I'll ever have. :)

This was a frustrating piece, but thru all the struggle and attempts at doing this illustration, I believe I've come out of this alot more knowledgeable and stronger. Lets hope my next illustration will come out alot more smoother than the last. hehe.

humm..

Almost...there...

A wip....

...thats not going very smoothly. I can't seem to color this. I've hit my occasional "colorist's block".


:(

I can draw stuff, just not color. This is due on Monday for the challenges I'm making it for, but it looks like I will miss another challenge yet again. Self peace within myself is at a low for today. I am so overwhelmed with all the different brushes out there. I would/could do things traditionally, but I haven't done traditional since.... over 3 months ago. And my memory is not the best when it comes to short term learned skills, like water coloring or gouache-ing. I may have been good at it once, but after not doing it for a long time I've forgotten.



Here is my still life painting that I've been working on for the longest time for painting class. Teacher seemed pretty pleased about it. I'm actually content and feeling 100% sure that its done.

And last but not least, some panels I drew in for Film Language class. That class is fun btw. Would not wanna major in it tho.

FInished poster and... a wip

A challenge piece for CG Hub that I didn't finish on time.