Thursday 29 March 2012

Another Background

Hey Folks

Here we have yet another background for the project this is just a simple higher up hill type background where our character is coming nearer to the city.

Enjoy Muchly

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Two More Beasting Backgrounds

Hey Folks

Today i used what i had in the concept drawings to come up with the rest of the backgrounds for the film.

Here we can see that we have a nice beautiful landscape with the cable trees, happy mountains, happy clouds and our ghetto blaster saluting in the sky. In the foreground we have some subwoofer flowers which adds a nice depth and effect to the environment.

However in this picture we see a total contrast from nice to nasty and this is when the CD takes over the characters mind to think that Planet Deckturn is in turmoil. I have created some eeries and horrible looking monsters in this one from melting subwoofers, horrid hills, a destroyed ghetto blaster and even a dead bubble bass. YEAH I KNOW IM SICK IN THE HEAD BUT WHATEVER ITS COOL. Besides I know my teammate sarah will have a ton of fun colouring these up for me.
Enjoy Muchly

Tuesday 27 March 2012

The Ghetto Blaster Deckturn's Mightiest Subwoofer

Hey Folks

Now this is a special post once you see this post you have to bow down to a God like creature which is none other than the "Ghetto Blaster" this is the biggest and most badass subwoofer in the known planet of Deckturn it is so huge that his head is practically in the Sky.

Enjoy Muchly

A Horrible Monster

Hey Folks

This is a concept for a background creature for when the CD overtakes Planet Deckturn.

I thought about maybe this monster could be in the background or something like that.

Enjoy Muchly

The Cable Tree

Hey Folks

Here is a nice concept i made called a cable tree! this tree grows all the cables of planet deckturn so that once they have grown and sprouted some cable wires depending on the weather for that day they will the fall off and can be used. However these trees are grown in farms and are then shipped to the shop.


Enjoy Muchly

Some more Concept Work for Backgrounds

Hey Folks

Here is some more concept for buildings in my backgrounds


Enjoy Muchly

Monday 26 March 2012

Deadmau5 and Daft Punk Concept

Hey Folks

I thought this was quite funny so I drew it up.

Enjoy Muchly

My Background Concepts

Hey Folks

These are some concept work for the backgrounds that i am working on. These ideas will be used for designs for when the backgrounds become very eerie and disturbing using the character's body as parts and not to mention distorting other members of the films like the dead bubble bass and the speakers and all sorts.

I even threw in a deadmau5 concept with my own design twist with octopus tentacles like cthulu.





Enjoy Muchly

A Quick Colour Sketch

Hey Folks

This has nothing to do with my project but i thought i would make a quick colour test of a character today and try some toning exercises.

This is my Drunken Fly Sketch that i made today. I watched some colouring tutorials and just thought i would take a crack at it...I must say i'm quite happy with my little fly character.
Enjoy Muchly....bzz bzz

Planet Deckturn animation test 2

Hey Folks

This is the 2nd animation test using my own style of animation. To be honest i cant really see much difference so i am happy to continue to use a combination of both styles for animating the planet in 3D.


Enjoy Muchly

Sunday 25 March 2012

Planet quick animation test

Hey Folks

This is a quick animation test done in after effects with the use of Edmunds frame animation. I wanted to see if it works and i think it doest to be honest but now i want to see what happens when i animate it like my own style...Whatever proves most successful shall be animated in 3D.


Enjoy Muchly

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Cool Concept for Backgrounds

Hey Folks

I was wandering around town the other day and noticed this in one of the shop windows.
I was totally interested in it and thought what a cool concept for something in one of my backgrounds.

Enjoy Muchly

Thursday 15 March 2012

Two More Drawn Backgrounds

Hey Folks

Here is another set of drawn background for my good ol buddy sarah to colour up :D, In the first picture you can see that in the foreground there are whats meant to be speakers. I have decided to get rid of them and come up with some cable wires which will act as plants for the foreground.

The colour for the environment here is mean t be like purples and greens and the wires are meant to be their normal colour of grey and black.

The hills will be something that contrasts with the sky colours maybe like a reddish orange kind of colour.

But we will see how sarah works her magic on this one folks

Enjoy Muchly

Sunday 11 March 2012

Pit Stop Accommodations Logo

Hey Folks

So today I helped my sister come up with a logo for one of her business ideas which was an app idea for the closest accommodations for folk on the road.

So i came up with some ideas for the logo like a pillow and a flag and stuff but in the end i made a road sign with the bed representing the car.





Enjoy Muchly

Thursday 8 March 2012

Edmund McMillen Backgrounds

When I look at Edmunds Backgrounds I instantly recognise a lot of inspiration from other games as well as his own style inflicted.

Selection Map Screen Image From Edmund's Game "Super Meatboy"

For example you can see that in his backgrounds for “Super Meatboy” you can see faces on the ground and the bushes. A typical influence from the Super Mario series with the happy cloud faces. Edmund Played a lot of super Mario games when he was younger and I believe that this is where some of the inspiration came from.

Image From Miyamoto's "Super Mario The Lost Levels"

His first game to introduce this style was in the game “Aether” where the planets had happy or sad faces depending on what are the character visited. This has influenced me to create my own backgrounds with some personality within them but I shall take it further by animating the faces to give them more life and make them more interesting.

Image of Level Screen from Edmunds Game "Aether"

The detail to vegetation and the layout of them in the background is interesting to me because I feel that it gives more of a feel to what is around and give more depth.

Image Screen of Level from Edmund's "Cereus Peashy"

When I played “Aether” I noticed the specific style to the clouds with a flat bottom and fluffy top. This style was interesting to me because I find that the style is very simple but effective just like his character designs. Edmund also reflects upon the depth of the clouds depending on the shape and size. Edmund then improved on the evolution of the clouds by adding a bit more of a smokey style to the clouds. I personally prefer the flat fluffy top ones in aether.

Concept Art of Characters from Edmund Mcmillen

The Background that I am working on in my project reflects heavily upon Edmunds Style with the Mario influenced faces but on the other hand I have been influenced by john Ks style for textures and the use of effective layout for animation. Edmund Designs layouts for computer games and I am designing backgrounds for layout drawings. Therefore I think it would make my backgrounds more effective by introducing 3D elements for the planets in space and animated faces for the other backgrounds.

Background Design from My Project

Background Design from My Project

Otis Teaching Tips: Reflective Writing

Hey Folks

I was getting a bit stuck on how to write a reflective essay and i found this cool little video on youtube. Its basically a teaching tip on reflective writing for students, although it doesn't show you how to write a reflective essay. It does show you what you are expected to achieve in the end of the essay. They speak about the differences between a normal essay, a learning essay and a reflective one so it will help out if you get stuck.



Enjoy Muchly

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Edmund Mcmillen Character Design Reflective Piece

Hey Folks

Today I have been studying Edmund Mcmillen's use of character design. So here is on of the sections for the essay.

I love how edmund mcmillen can easily use a simple concept and join two pieces together to come up with an unusual but very interesting character. His character designs are very inspiring to me as they are very simple shapes which makes me feel comfortable in a way in which i do not need to over complicate drawings or character designs to get a message across about the story of the character.


Edmunds Whole Character designs for the Game "Gish"


The first thing that draws to me is his eye designs. simple black dot with white dots on top he will add more detail like tone depending on the characters facial expression. edmund also makes some characters eyes white with black dots and can even make some bigger than the other or pop out and some don't even have eyes. but the way the eyes are drawn onto the character it makes it work so well with eh expression of the face itself


"Monstro" A Boss Character from Edmunds "The Binding of Isaac"

once you have seen the eyes they draw you in and then bring you out to explore more of the character for example the mouth. depending on the character design and their emotion edmund can create very interesting mouth shapes with use of the teeth, the size of the mouth and the shape of the mouth. The mouth is drawn up using shapes as simple as a semi circle which again makes me feel more comfortable with not needing to over complicate shapes and sizes.
"The 4 Harbingers" Mini Boss Characters from Edmunds "The Binding of Isaac"


Edmund's attention to detail of his character designs really does pop out to me once you've gathered the whole shape and emotion of the character. for example on some of his simple characters its as much as one line under the chin or just a hair. when you get to more of his complicated designs its nothing more that simple lines to show all sorts of things like skin folds, bumps, scratches, cracks, wrinkles, to clothing for folds and creases.

"Fistula" A Boss Character from Edmunds "The Binding of Isaac"

The next thing is his attention to the construction of the little things on the character from different sizes of teeth, muscle mass, limb sizes and wether the character is made of something else from slime, smoke and even their own filth edmund will use this as an advantage to create some atmosphere around them from unique smoke patterns to even smaller creatures.

"The Duke of Flies" A Boss Character from Edmunds "The Binding of Isaac"

The personal favourite for myself is how edmund inflicts gore into his characters. whilst playing the binding of isaac some characters have organs showing, guts hanging out, blood on their face. other characters have open wounds which have things coming out of them like maggots. Edmund even makes organs characters so the player has to pay attention to the gore. This makes me feel total satisfaction to see that i can show gore on my characters and helps satisfy that little bit more that they feel more real and that they have something inside them.
"It Lives" A Boss Character from Edmund's "The Binding Of Isaac"

Edmunds character designs are just out of this world he can take something as simple as a boy and his dinner to make super meatboy! a boy made out of meat who saves bandage girl, who is made from used bandages. A fleshy blood like dumpling with an open wound, a dead foetus baby chick who spits blood balls and his environments being characters of their own. I feel that this is a good way for myself to know that i can come up with any type of character i want as long as they have a purpose and a mechanic then they will become believable and fit into my stories.
A Page from the "Super MeatBoy Comic Book" in the Ultra Rare Edition

When edmund puts all of these elements together he then polishes them up with colour and tone. i love how simple things as 3 shades of light, medium and dark can help make an image really come to life, I feel that this can help my style push itself when creating character designs that need to be pushed just that little bit more.

"Super MeatBoy" World Map Selection Screen

So as you can see i have been heavily influenced by Edmund Mcmillen for pure character design. I have designed a character of a planet which has been made in 3D. Edmund displayed on his blog a short clip of his game "The Binding of Isaac" and i feel that they 3D character model is not reflecting upon edmunds style to its full potential.
Image taken from "The Binding of Isaac Halloween Trailer"

I have decided to try and design my character reflecting from edmunds style and try to make it in 3D. I feel that i have made a very good job of the model, texturing and design of the whole character himself.


250 Word Abstract re-done

Hey Folks

I have re one my abstract for my essay so here it is.

Brian Lindsay


Reflective Writing


Through watching classic cartoon animation to contemporary 2D video game animation. I have gathered a specific interest in John K and Edmund Mcmillen who are both animators and character designers for cartoons and computer games. They have influenced me to try and expand my animation style to the maximum. Why have they influenced my studies and what makes them so interesting?


This proposal aims to explain how each of these artists share common grounds in the animation media and to explain how their styles have influenced my own style in animation.


I will explain, the look of the characters, exaggeration in the expressions of the characters, how they are animated to the exaggerated style. I aim to interrogate why this all looks so inspiring to me.


I will also explain how these styles are helping me with my studies with the use of 2D animation and 3D character style.

Thursday 1 March 2012

Planet Deckturn The Final Texteeeere

Hey Folks

Here is the final finished texture for Planet Deckturn.

Looks much better than the first one made on Monday, now onto the blendshapes, then animation.

Enjoy Muchly