blogger? more like frogger

    I twisted(?) a cube to create Bashful Benson.   You may be able to spot the pen I drew on the reverse side of Benson's page. This was my continuous line drawing.  I used to find them a little annoying to do but I have recently found the value and joy in continuous line drawings and, similarly, in non-dominant hand drawing exercises. They force you to slow down and think about where you're placing your lines, but they also have this inherent messiness to them so you can never feel too precious about them. My go-to drawing practice focus was portraiture for a while, and I found it fun and visually interesting to find smooth ways to move between different points of the drawing. I tended to move along the topography lines of the face and/or follow shadow lines which created an interesting look and made me think more about the face's 3D form.

In workshop A we went over background removal, layer masks, and colour channels.  The remove background tool uses AI to identify and remove the background in an image. I have already used layer masks before. They are useful to use as a non-committed erase tool (nondestructive, push and pull) or for colouring line art. I have also used it to place an image within (under) a shape/text. Black = transparency. White = mask. Files that allow for transparent images: PNG or TIFF (or GIF) Colour channels allow you to separate your view by RGB colour, i.e. hide the red and green channel to only view blue.  AI manipulation tools in PS: - smile enhance, head tilting - harmonisation (remove a bg, insert a new bg, harmonise matches the colours better) Some notes about PS: - Holding shift when transforming changes the ratio - different from InDesign - Need to Export in order to save as a PNG

  Jumping slime. He's jumping. I like how it looks like he's putting a lot of effort into his jump. I drew this on paper in class, scanned it, then put the scan into Photoshop. I adjusted the curves to make the darks darker and lighten the whites. I arranged the frames to line them up. I then saved every frame as a PNG and used a GIF creator site. Yippee!!

I'm not planning on using Aseprite for any PROD142 work, but every time I've used it, I get frustrated trying to figure out how to move multiple layers at once and so I just need to write it down somewhere. I also need a tool shortcut list because the tool bar is on the right side on Aseprite, while I'm used to having them on the left where my hand sits on my tablet.    Shortcuts: Tools    Marquee (select area)                M      Brush                                    B     Eraser                                  E     Fill                                     G    ...

I used InDesign to create a set of cards for our PROD121 physical game remix project, so this is not exactly PROD142-related but I did learn some new things! I followed   this tutorial . I wanted to create the cards using this method as I figured it would be more efficient and leave less room for error than copy and pasting entire formats, or writing them all by hand. It also means that I can easily adjust or edit the card template later on without having to re-input anything.   I had a vague idea in my head of how the cards would be laid out. They would be based off of business cards to fit our theme and they could be very bare-bones for this project and especially for this stage (initial prototyping). I made a very quick and simple layout on InDesign, including the title, description, and two card descriptors. I then input all the card details to a Google Sheets sheet.   If I wanted images, I would need to add an "@" at the beginning of the column titles on the spr...

Defining our character and vehicle: Our character is an intense, fashionable girl from a wealthy family. She does what she wants and she gets what she wants. She races for the thrill of the race! She is highly competitive and needs to win to defeat her arch nemesis, Cathy. Her cars are always well-kept and shiny (it is important that her possessions are kept at mint condition). All of her multiple cars are petite and aerodynamic - she picks which car she'll use based on which works best with her outfit that day (we will design her favourite car, her prized possession).  Aside from the private racing lessons she receives, she uses some social tactics to slither her way to the top. Before the race, she breaks her opponents down, cheerfully putting them down and subtly insulting them. Additionally, she'll sometimes charm or bribe other racers into sabotaging her competition during the race. Sam and I had already gotten started on sketching some ideas last week so we're already...

Added more details and cleaner formatting on my 2D program tips master blogpost. Some tips and shortcuts might not have made sense before  for anyone else reading it , or the relevance/use case might not have been very clear.  - Short explanations on the Export and Place functions on InDesign. Export is essentially used in place of Save As (as how it works in most other programs). Place is for inserting images (and other files?) properly, with the files linked.  - Added a list of "image transform keys".  - Added quick explanation of the windows I regularly use and keep on my workspace. Overall, I just made things clearer for others who might come across my blogpost. Next, I intend to re-familiarize myself with Photoshop (it's been a few years since I've used it) and delve deeper into Maya. 

    A waddle doo key ring charm. Two shape friends. Gerald, and Finley. 

    It took us a while to solidify our aesthetic but we've decided on a girly-pop, Gen Z "y2k" genre of preppy with some ballet and ocean aspects thrown in there. We will see how this develops!

Sam's theme: Aesthetic: Preppy Live Inspiration: Amphibian Vehicle Type: Land   My theme: Aesthetic: Patriotic Live Inspiration: Amphibian Vehicle Type: Land Initial Thoughts:       Sam and I initially joked our character being two gay frogs (many such cases), one preppy and one patriotic - an opposites attract situation. We realised that we should just stick to one character and one aesthetic to keep things from getting too messy or complicated. We did brainstorm ways to combine preppy and patriotic, such as an American cheerleader/jock vibe, or very British frogs, but the preppy aesthetic itself is much more exciting to us so we're focusing in on that. Problems We've Encountered and Progress:      We're finding that there are quite a few different areas to consider and many directions we could go. On one hand, it's good to have so many options to explore and choose from, but on the other, I sense some decision paralysis further along and I know ...

Master post - u pdated as I go.  View on desktop - formatting is bad on mobile :(   > Never use Maya Binary, always Maya ASCII! <  It's easier to fix ASCII.        Navigation Rotate view                           alt + left click Pan view                               alt + middle click Truck (not Zoom)                        alt + right click,  or scroll Toggle Four View/change view       press spacebar Hotbox menu                            hold spacebar                                       ...

 

Master post - u pdated as I go.  Photoshop, InDesign, and Clip Studio Paint tips and shortcuts.  View on desktop - formatting is bad on mobile :(  I do not tend to use tool shortcuts and so these are not included - may add later.   PHOTOSHOP Layer Blending Modes: Darken: hides whites Lighten: hides black Overlay: hides 50% Gray Difference: inverts Color: affects color Basic Shortcuts (things I already know): Save                           ctrl + s Save As                         ctrl + shift + s Undo                           ctrl + z Redo                            ctrl + shift + z Cut                           ...

    I love these little ceramic fish dishes. They are so round which is both good for their carrying capacity and also cute. Their round shape gives them a friendly and silly feel. I enjoy their turquoise colour and how the words "fish" and "dish" rhyme.   Blub blub :)