Neckbeard, the Third

Despite still not being wholly satisfied with the sack - or really satisfied at all with it - I blustered on forwards with colour, because I felt that was what my evening (late night, early morning, whatever) needed. Today's been a stressful day, but full of significant advances on my senior project. I've come to realize how weak my understanding of the basic structure of UDK networking truly is, but I'm squirming my way around it. I feel like most of my solutions have been messy at best, and really not following how the tools are intended to be used - that said, the documentation seems so convoluted, yet so sparse, on the matter that I cannot discern the designers' intent. No matter, with deadlines this close, all that matters is that it has to work.

I was set on this palette since last night. Raging purples and blues, accented by some reds on the joints and the belly. I really want to push the whole distended nature of the stomach, I think I may even try to make it seem somewhat translucent, but we'll see how effectively I can communicate that tomorrow.

Neckbeard, the Second

I think Neckbeard is far more suitable at this point than silly Troll Claus, not that anyone's keeping score. I'm still iffy with the limbs falling out of the sack, but I'm liking the general vibe of revulsion from the rest of the character design. I'll probably move into colour with this tomorrow evening - thinking of some purples and blues, with reds to accent.

Troll Claus

I'm not really sure what I'm going for here, but for some reason I got a very krampusy vibe while I was working at this. I think I'll go back tomorrow night and repose that arm and the sack. But I kind of like the whole idea of it... We'll see.

Also, I decided to leave the 'Revisiting the Sprite' piece alone. It was becoming monotonous, overworking the same parts over and over, and I just couldn't find any satisfaction in it. So I moved on.

Self Portrait the Second

Self Portrait

I've made very few attempts at self portraits in the past, and that is something I've always meant to remedy. Doesn't help that I'm none too fond of my face, but you've ultimately got to work with what you've got. I'm glad I decided to work at it today, though, when my face was at least a bit stubbly. I look much younger than I am (even height aside, my face is particularly boyish), so I only shave once every few days. Doesn't do much, but that's okay. I kind of like how this one's coming along - I may continue it tomorrow night.

Artblock is the Worst

I feel like I'm sinking back into the rut I'd flopped around in for the past few years - where nothing would come from my fingertips, and all the lines I drew went down wrong. Then, this afternoon, I thought maybe I'd escaped from the clutches of my art block. Not long after, though, things went wrong again.

This is about the best I could manage, before I finally gave up for the night. Ugh.

More of the Vampire Stuff

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Truly a classic - the gameplay is boring, it's riddled with bugs, and much of the cities get repetitive very quickly, but my god, I love this game. I played it first a few years ago - I can't remember when, but it must have been at least two and a half years. I found it painfully frustrating at times, but I adored it for the characters and the brilliant voice acting, both of which really brought the entire world to life.

Now, it was on steam a week or so ago, so I picked it up for something like five dollars. I was dying to play it, but unfortunately, the last week had me working like a dog on senior project, since approval for participation in the senior project fair was to be granted yesterday based on a demo to a couple of profs. Our demo was buggy as hell, didn't entirely work, but somehow we got in.

But back to my main point - I finally got to play it yesterday evening, after a four hour nap (prior to that, I'd been awake all night, working a total of 19 hours on senior project without a wink of sleep). Just as good as I remembered. There are a whole slew of things that I wish could be improved, but at the end of the day, this game is eight years old, and it is still fantastic. They really put such a wealth of effort and money into the story and characters, and all the tiny details that give the impression that you've entered a real universe. It almost makes me want to step back and work on a game with graphics that are considered sub-par today, and gameplay that is painfully simple.

Anyways, so I put the game down for a few hours and started sketching out a scene - needless to say, it was way more sexually charged than I've attempted in a long time. I only really explored a progression based on a single thumbnail, but I wasn't really sure what direction to take with it. I want to keep the characters clothed, but I'm afraid it might seem unnatural and out of place. Maaan, I donno.

Paladin Skill Trainer

So I didn't post the WIPs as I was working on this one, largely because I never really liked it at any stage. I've been pretty burnt out from working in UDK and studying for midterms and I've spent my evenings on this. I'm still not particularly pleased, but it's good enough for what it's for.