A little overwhelming but not quite.
This project has had its up and downs, but I can say that it is finally within grasp of finishing. I’ll be honest, it seemed like there was no way to have an overall finished project for this product, but it changed when things fell into place. After taking that last step back to figure out a different design changes, everything started to run smooth.
The idea was to have a storytelling mechanism in a spatial format for children to explore their imagination through cognitive theories, by using familiar and modern designs, props, physical objects, and play forms.
Lets take a look at the journey through concept development. The early stages when the idea was just that. It could not be described perfectly and led me into a wild pursuit.
As we look at some of the development that was done, it shows some progression in how I went back and forth to figure out the minor details that made the bigger picture smoother.
As it progressed the development of the project became more fun than I had ever imagined. It felt like it all came naturally without major thought of choosing certain progression in the modeling, and illustrations. As for the development of the product itself, it gave me challenges in ways of having to think of certain scenarios before having a finished prototype or developing the next step in finishing the product.
A few kinks and bumps in the road but have led to great progress during development of the assets for the product. Then I realized, there was more than just a few models and sculpts to this overall, the play forms, the story telling mechanism, etc. I needed a way to put that play form into a physical and spatial design.
lets take a look at the secondary progression in the project.
Here we dive into the storytelling mechanism.
One way to pursue this was by using a familiar object to children, cards and physical miniatures. The pursuit of this mechanism by testing with nieces and nephews led me to believe that the game aspect that is so familiar is pushed aside by an activity. The play form is a role-playing activity rather than it coming across as a game. This gives the user the ability to have endless storytelling play.
For the activity start, the user will have a introduced quest/story pursuit and the choice to choose between 3 cards to continue that story:
Chapter 1 - The Paladins Quest - Introduced story card:
(with examples to help spark the activity)
Once upon a time, there lived a paladin, Ellie. She was one of the strongest royal guardians to the king. In the king of ( there will be a fill in the blank for the user to give their own imaginative setting) the battle for the sacred ( there will be a fill in the blank for the user to give their own imaginative setting - but for example a pendant potion etc.) emerged. The (said object or battle format chosen by the user) was an ancient prize amongst everyone in (the kingdom they chose), the king sent out a request to a once fierce and retired paladin, dear to the kings heart.
Then for the user to continue to the story and start the activity, or for the user to choose from the following setting to progress their imagination.
Card 1 - Starting the story with Ellie - the Paladin:
Ellie receives the letter from the king and begins the quest of acquiring the (said object from the introduced story card) before the enemies of the kingdom.
Included asset - the kings letter for spatial play.
Card 2 - Starting the story with Draco - Ellie’s dragon companion:
Draco receives a king’s letter addressed to Ellie of a lost ancient (said object from the introduced story card) that the king is looking to acquire before it falls into the wrong hands. He sets out to find Ellie.
Included asset - the kings letter for spatial play.
Card 3 - Stating the story with Golem - Ellie’s Earth Archon companion
A bit of background in Archon’s - is that they are celestials in the service of all that is lawful and good. Golem has joined Ellie and never left her side.
Golem is pursuing training with Ellie, as a messenger arrives. The king’s letter states that he requires Ellie, Draco, and Golem to meet at the castle for a dire message. In p.s. the ancient (said object from the introduced story card) is at risk
Included asset - the kings letter for spatial play.
I am posting what I have to show as illustrator can sometimes be a pain and crash during saving!
Adding in the type, and finishing the artwork/re-linking and clipping finished artwork is only left to finish the cards. They are mostly all printed physical, just need to print the instructions cards, and character cards as described above.
The play form of the story mechanism is as familiar as a deck of cards, shuffle and draw a card. The only difference is that there is no hand in play, and each card drawn gets discarded throughout the activity.
Quest Encounters, Travel Encounters, Travel Scenarios:
Range from encountering people, side adventures, random objects to spark imagination, doing specific’s with the physical objects during imaginative play, towns/taverns, and merchants - for example.
The quest encounters are used to develop a behavioral and connectivism to the story being spatial developed, and the imaginative role play the user experiences.
Setting Encounters:
Range from giving a the story a rest, or the user the ability to pursue outside the current setting they are imagining.
The setting scenarios are used in the behavioral pursuit of the product for the user to understand their imagination and how one can problem solve, multi-task, and develop sparks of imaginative intent to move the story along during the activity.
Quest Encounters: Attacking Enemies!
Added this into the mix via a testing with niece and nephew. They thought having a fun way to pursue the story and have an imaginative battle sequence to explore as they quested during the activity.
The life counter object is the used to display life - still within the minor works as the original design did not work. A small rod to spin the mechanism seemed easier said than done. After some research I able to stumble across a way to develop a spinning mechanism using a string/rubber band for more easy of use.
The dice are used during the battle activity. Each dice is specific to their characters by color, and they all have attack, block, the damaged armor/attacking and blocking did not work, and an hourglass meaning that to skip that characters turn at the moment.
The dice will have their own instruction and description card, which is being developed. The original idea was to print out small icons and stick them to the dice. The dice were too small and it was a process that seemed easier to print the dice instead.
The Hex tiles of terrain, and assets placed on the hex tiles are used for the spatial environment movement, description, and display of the users imagination. They can be placed in anyway or format that is desired to represent the imaginative activity.
As it is all coming to an end, I am proud that I was able to learn 3D printing, and utilize this my workflow for the project.
One major thing I have learned so far is not to tax out my computer! Using Illustrator, rendering in Blender for package design, Rendering character and asset turnarounds in Zbrush, and listening to Sotify, causes crashes apparently, or maybe the 180 tabs I have open on Chrome. ADHD = Crashing Computers!
To finish / do:
Polish up the cards displayed, due to crash need to just add in the correct type and images,
Finish the product renderings in Blender, this is equal to about 8 hours of renders.
Finish character and asset turnarounds, and display images for the exhibition and my portfolio.
Instruction sheet finish, some minor tweaks as to spelling errors and well, I clearly should not write it at 2 a.m. ! lol
And that is about it!
I’ll be painting the physical models for the demonstration video, for fun, if they all do not get painted then no big deal.
One major thing is to decide on what was mentioned during a test, the children wanted to paint and color them their selves. Should I add in a slight change to the product and incorporate painting tools and paint? Very easy add, but the age range may be too intricate of design.
Cannot wait to show you all everything during the demonstration video and exhibition!
Slight changes can really progress or halt you!
Alrighty!! This is just a taste of a vision My Little Adventures! As it started coming together, I was relieved in many areas during production. I would not say I am finished, but I would say that I am extremely close and pleased with the results so far.
Last week during my gathering of work to create a post, I noticed that I moved along in the project as a whole. This left me with open questions, unfinished results, and a wide range of the project unfinished, to say the least. It was no surprise because of the many travels back down the road to start from the beginning, or forks in the road that came about. I decided to take that time last week to gather my notes and gather what we missing, a clear direction. It’s not saying that I could not proceed, but it would have ended with a half finished forced project. I would have not been happy with it.
Pushing back once more and moving forward gave me ability to see a clearer picture of the project.
There are many aspects of the project that seem like a game, let me clarify. The mechanics are within the realm of role play and offer the same style that might be portrayed or envisioned as a game. These props and instruments that are more keen to a wide range of consumers viewing them will think it is a game. For example, seeing miniatures, cards, dice, well duh! Yea seems like a game! Right!?
Well no, it’s not. I decided to go with props and style that is modern and more keen for us to remember, or see as an easy explanation. We see cards we think of many games and or collectibles, mini figures, and dice all add into this thought.
The reasoning behind choosing these instruments is because it allows for more physical, behavioral, an connection between the user and the product. That basically sums it up!
I ran into a snag with printing my stickers for the cards, staples said Covid reasons, what else is new. I finally received them and am stickers them as I type this. Printing the assets on the 3D printer and moving forward. The end is near to show you the end result. Only a few adjustments were made such as instruction cards being printed, and made, need design/icon forms to display certain easy to understand progression with the instruments. For example, halt your story! And reverse your adventure, etc. or, open ended progression as usual. Card front are being worked on and will be printed from home instead without ease this time around. Only thing left after is compiling it all together, demonstrations and renders!
Onward I say in this journey. I am currently painting the 3D models once they finish printing, attaching the prints to the cards and dice, doing some minor testing in the play forms to make sure it’s going good, and continuing to texture and render the assets.
Enjoy the progress!
Revisions, iterations, stop think, repeat!!!!!!!
let that title sink in, I never would have thought that I would need to make changes this far into the project! I thought I had it figured out enough to proceed and the minor changes/details that would present themselves would be “MINOR!”.
Well in all reality I needed to step back and look at what was the original accomplishment and what needed to be done within the time frame given. I noticed that certain elements in either a model, sketch or ideation concept was not presented correctly. I had to make sure that I had a clear direction.
Below shows the the direction I am headed in the iterations made for each element. I know that it is not every element included in the set, but I needed to have the ideas down roughly to proceed. They were just written ideas that were never pursued because of confusion in other terms (puts it lightly).
It’s funny to think that we would need to take steps back to the beginning to make sure everything is smooth, but in reality sometimes this happens. It’s al in the process. I am keeping this post short because in all reality the real progress is within light this upcoming week, and I am excited to share the overall with you as we pursue this product. Oh wait ! ! A name! It has been digging in the back of my head, if you have any suggestions please let me know!!! In short this product is a story telling mechanism that helps a child pursue their imagination in a cognitive theorem in a spatial format.
If a name comes to light, well… that is one area I am extremely struggling in ! Never would have thought a name would be so hard to concept, but after being in many bands as a musician for 20+ years it makes me laugh! Because that is the number thing you come out with is a name!
The 3D printing is about as far as a learning curve at this point, but I have finally learned quickly to understand my issues and iterate them. I am waiting for prints of the hexagonal plains, and the card templates for prototyping, but they have yet to give me a time frame when the prints are going to be done! (Staples btw - do not use them, just do it yourself!!) I bought different printer paper, according to the printer settings and printer you may own (via me too) there is paper that works to print for your needs! Well I guess we all learn something sometimes, only with patience. I feel that a wide range of my progression has been learning some by mistakes being made of minor knowledge that I thought I may have within each process. This has been a fun experience, but with the iterations made, I feel that the anticipation within the next post will show what you have been waiting for!!!
Below is the 3D printing process, one is the fact that well I came across the problem of scale in an accurately funny way! These are just test prints and not the final model, only printed for testing! The other factor is the tolerance per material. The pins I modeled and tried to print for the hinge of the book did not go over so well. They did not fit correctly, which yes the correct calculations should have been used, but I figured a test would be fine. I did not account for shrinkage etc. The other factor is that I print the bottom of the book at a certain height and well the intended height of the character/objects do not fit!! I guess it is all within the process of this project…
Time Will Tell…
Pursuing the areas that were mentioned last week, each post will include shortened description’s as a refresher/reminder of the project. For the next few weeks these post will be visualizing the product with descriptions.
One good thing I have noticed is to get critique from others not involved in the project. A perfect example is when I was struggling to figure out an exact approach to getting this project in a physical form in order to explain it better, my wife said that my ideas are there they just need to become more simplistic to approach the overall. I started to dump out sketches and ideas that became clearer as I pursued each section.
The environment for example, a great approach was to utilize a pattern, why not go with the \typical hexagonal pattern for table top play. I pursued this to give the platform of never ending and the ability to control the environment. The additional assets will be sized down to meet the hexagonal pattern, and give the 3D element of the environment during play. The assets that I already have created are in the process of finding a good size and fit to the hexagonal pattern. I purchased blank hexagonal game board pieces and cannot wait to add my touch of the environment to them.
The cards and the dice are a bit more complex, as I did not want rules to form within the storytelling process, I needed a way to initiate the story, or find a way that the interaction connected on a cognitive level. The deck will include up to three starter story cards for interaction of initiating the story. The card deck itself will feature elements to follow, along with surprise interactions to guide the imagination process. One thing that was important was the age group I originally focused my concept around, 5+. The issue is that the typical comprehensive age that children read is around 6-7 or first and second grade. This toy design may need to be aged up. It is not a big bump but a starting age of possibly 6+ or 8+, may be the way to go to. The dice can help trigger events, and be used solely for character purposes. I am heading in the solely character purpose direction. This is still within design element and research stage, only due to the fact that the characters are not fully developed.
The sketch of the simplistic concept having the book, hexagonal pieces, cards and dice, are placed in a play pattern to give me the idea of the overall project. The play form of the storytelling by fill in the blank cards, develop the environment and pursue the open ended quests/tale from the users imagination varies on the user. It is not a game, it is a storytelling mechanic that is spatial present for the user to learn while using their imagination.
I noticed a few things that needed attention as I pursued everything in a simplistic manner. The story!! I cannot have a product like this without the an actual story development for the child to follow. I started by pursuing the back story for characters I have already developed, and it did not seem like enough to push the entire product. I needed an extra, possible companion/traveler that was a part of the paladin as Draco is. I took inspiration from Dungeon and Dragons, and the role-playing game Neverwinter. In Neverwinter you have companions that fight beside you, and empower you throughout the game. I used this concept to develop another character for the product. The golem, is a companion to Ellie the paladin, and Draco. The back stories are as follows: (on what I have so far for the project)
Once upon a time , there lived a paladin. She was one of the strongest royal guardians to the king. In the kingdom of **** the battle for the sacred (pendant, potion, or other object) emerged. The **** was an ancient prize amongst everyone in ****. In order for the king's royal subjects to feel safe against the threat of their kingdom, the king sent out a request to a once fierce and retired paladin, dear to the king's heart.
Chapter 1 - card 1
Ellie receives the letter from the king and begins the quest of acquiring the (said object) before the enemies of the kingdom.
Asset king's letter
Card 2
Draco receives a king's letter addressed to Ellie of a lost ancient (said object) that the king is looking to acquire before it falls into the wrong hands. He sets out to find Ellie.
Asset king’s letter
Card 3
Golem is pursuing training with Ellie, as a messenger arrives. The king's letter states that he requires Ellie, Draco, and Golem to meet at the castle for a dire message. In p.s. the ancient (said object) is at risk.
Asset king’s letter
Ellie Card Backstory
Draco Card Backstory
Golem Card Backstory
Enemy Card -
Attacks Card -
Remaining story cards
Encounters
Enemies
Outsiders
Bandits
Villagers
Story progression
Based on cards 1,2 and 3, or open ended progression
Camping - hungry, tired, etc.
Random acts from each character
Travel cards
Move the environment while telling the story
Or rearrange the environment to enact the progression of the story
Event cards
Characters leave campaign
Characters become distracted and lead off on their own.
It was cheaper to buy a 3D printer than to have my stuff printed, this should be fun!! In the process !!!!!
Another day, Another dollar spent.
At first I thought I was ten steps ahead on my project but in reality I was missing some key steps and research within the process.
After a great meeting with my advisor/mentor, I would have never realized that I was looking at my project in a different approach, but then, in reality it is exactly what it has been, a learning tool. Cognition and the development of children is the approach within my project. I thought I could find a way to demonstrate a fun activity/role-play toy, but it makes much more sense to explain it all in a cognitive way.
Discover, Imagine, Create, and Play is a wide range of cognition used in many toys and games. So after long thought I decided to head the direction of the story telling play-form that involves many other play-forms. For example:
The toy consists of chapters to each story, involving many different choices the player character and story teller can make. The cool thing about this play-form is that I can control the story while you are the character in play. (Yes, exactly like a Dungeon Master)
Solo play-forms:
Discovering the toy and assets, creating the land/environment with the limited props given, and controlling the story in your own full imagination, reveal a card and full in the blank of the story to progress, or roll the dice to tell your story in an open ended imaginative play. These play-forms can be combined and used to tell a multitude of stories around the characters and props given.
The reason the cards, dice, props, and environment are limited to only a few assets, gives the chance to discover new stories and imagine a world that only the user can see.
Multi-person platform:
Considering what was mentioned above transfers over to this play-form.
The chance to explore a realm that is created by another person, and explored by the other.
A family that chooses the cards and fills in the blank, or one rolls the dice, the other builds the environment as the story progresses, and others can be the player characters within that story.
Each individual chapter offers a set of props, cards, dice, foes, and allies designed to keep the story teller (the child) in individual play form, to give them cognitive learning through imaginative story telling and role play.
Yes, the easiest way to put this is exactly how it sounds, Make D&D play accessible to younger audiences.
In shot, this Storytelling Tool for young children is constructing things spatially to inspire the player/child to engage in imaginative story telling. This holds a cognitive approach to learning for ages 5+.
The overall design is stylized to specifically approach the children in a more modern way. As I stated in a previous post, that all toys are basically the same iterations over and over again. I wanted to clarify that! For example, as you approach an isle in the store you can look down that specific isle and know what exactly each isle is directed towards, what the toys are used for, and the approach to capture the heart of the child to the age range described on the product. Another clarifying statement; If you notice that most of the same caterpillar format for a young children’s toy geared towards 1-3 years of age, are the same caterpillar. You wouldn’t exactly notice this due to slight upgrades in materials, and we turn a blind eye to most things in the design factor of the toy. If it looks cool and or is what you as a parent or child is looking for, then that specific toy will get noticed no matter the design.
Clarifying another statement; This brings me to the fact of long living/long lasting toys. This means that a patent has been made that gave everyone the ability to develop a toy or platform that has made it through generations or 5+ years of shelf life before hitting a bottom in its own sales.
Yes, materials have a major factor to play in the development of the toys, especially in today’s economy when plastics are on the rise, along with mostly everything around us due to Covid. This is a soar subject in my mind to say the least, it seems llike it has become an excuse to limit resources in ways that we cannot afford to live.
I wanted to go with a recycled plastic of some sort for this, but in reality, recycled plastics are a bit more expensive due to sorting issues. It can be sometimes hard to find matching plastics. It can be a cheaper route to follow, but the recycling of the actual product is what is in demand, meaning the labor and this results in a higher price point overall.
Plant Based plastics sounds too good to be true, and since I was interested in a possible different material being used for this product, because the use of cardboard would only destroy the value/play form for children (in my own opinion based statement, because it just seems too not hold that figurine and toy like approach). Sustainable plastics are made of 30% ethanol sourced from plant material, and the bad thing is that the plant based plastics won’t decompose! Recycled yes, in the normal PET fashion, but the bio plastics being made from agricultural scrapes still sounded too good to be true. Because it can still be recycled into the other recycle plastics. I came across this on science direct that just immediately turned me away pursuing this as the material of choice. “Bio plastics and plant-based materials contain toxic chemicals, Bio-based and Biodegradable materials are similarly toxic.”
The growing rate of plastics overall are becoming more costly and harder to use regrind when it can create issues with machines. This is an ongoing thing I have encountered at work, along with the fact that most of the marketing teams are pushing to do as much as they can with products that do not use plastics at the moment. But, then you walk down the figure isle or lego for example and see the companies pumping out these huge child life size doll houses, and lego sets, along with the plastics that are continued to be used in the development of infant toys.
Polystyrene being a clearer plastic, the stuff you normally see on the outside of case that is clear,, was thought about for the possible cards, dice, and environment setup of the product. Polypropylene was in the factor of props and possibly character creations. Vinyl has always sat in my mind, but it is an expensive expertise that is mostly use for designer toys. I haven’t fully decided on what plastics to go with as my overall design in going to be using a wide range of it throughout the product. Then in return brings forth the issue of price point, and how to engage the audience to buy it. What if it is too expensive, then in my opinion it may seem as most companies may choose not to pursue it, and other would laugh at the cost for making 1,000 units of this product. If the cost come be lower and the price point on the shelf was able to be within reason of the consumer then maybe a company will dive into the idea.
I was able to cut out a few pieces that required plastic, the environment, possible some props, the cards, and play mat. I feel that approaching this product with a $29.99 -$49.99 dollar approach is within reason to start each journey. The reason for the first approach, give the chest of the first chapter, all the first chapter props, the characters for the given chapters, and the first set of dice, cards, and environment mats. The secondary products would range from $14.99 - $20.99. As each chapter will include more cards to form a story deck, more dice to pursue the story, and re-discover the older chapters through development of a environment mats, props, new story deck cards, and dice to roll to create iterations to that story. We can refer to this in simpler terms as a Expansion. The reasoning on the price range for the secondary assets are for the possible development of foes, and props to match the chapter. The Expansions would not include the original amount of product included in the initial buying platform, it would only include limited resources in smaller amounts to really engage the imaginative play form, and connections that can be made through each story developed.
After looking through my notes this is when I discovered a slightly cooler different approach to the story-telling journey platform. Adding in a play mat, or what is using called a Dungeon, in a top view map format. This can be done by giving the Storting teller a foldable mat, or what I felt was the best idea to come across to iterate the project in the middle of the week. Use shapes to create an on going slow moving environment for when the story progresses, the mat can be taken apart and resembled in the front of the player character. There can be a card that tells the storyteller to rid of an environment mat, or the dice can control the ending to the story.
I plan to approach the rest of the project as I was guided by my advisors/mentors, create the assets that are needed, and then move forward in the creation of secondary assets that may be needed. Find a way to breadbox the idea, and demonstrate the play-forms for a better descriptive approach to the product. Research more on the cognitive learning theories that product designers have used to see if anything can be applied to improve the product. Finally, the last thing was once you have this created and a way to demonstrate, then pursue the possible of chapters and props that could go along with it, for a general concept art format to show what the possibilities are next determining the overall never ending story telling cycle.
The assets that I have developed so far, are mostly of what is needed, so that list is within grasp in the next week or so. The research has led me to see design to a cognitive approach is much more complex way of learning and teaching, but offers the designer and user a way to develop new products, and learn how to approach life as they get olderThe future of imaginative playtime in the lives of children today is at great risk.
“Currently, 40% of schools are considering eliminating- or have already eliminated- recess from the school day. The goal of this essay is to argue the irreplaceable value that imaginative play has in contributing to the cognitive, emotional, and social growth of a child. In making a case for the importance of play in child development, all three of these areas of potential growth will collectively be considered as true development of the child. To lay the foundation for these specific categories of benefits, it is necessary to understand the general biological background supporting the innate importance of play, as well as the previous work of those who have researched this subject. Once this information is presented, the cognitive, emotional, and social benefits of imaginative play will be explored in more detail, and the effects of play deprivation and play reintroduction will be discussed. In this manner, it is the aim of this presentation to demonstrate the exceptional importance of imaginative play.”
I copied this abstract from The Importance of The Importance of Imaginative Play in Child Development by Aleksandra Helena Plocha, to give clarity to my prior blog posts and to use this as a foundation. Cognitive learning and a newer approach is connectivism, the way we connect to our personal belongings, new toys, and hobbies. We learn from engaging in these forms. I wanted to slightly use this approach, because it felt that it connected directly to the imaginative role-play. Role-play is not only a cognitive development and learning experience in many shapes and forms for children, but for young adults, and adults as well. This includes, but not limited to behavioral theory, in which we engage in the environment around us.
When given the tools described in this product that I am developing it approaches the connectivism, behavioral theories extremely close in the theory formats. Not saying that some of the theories are not within grasp, but having a focus to work from is better than having too many options.
After my time spent reviewing the critique from the staff of the DMD program, my colleagues, and close friend that I engaged in conversation with about my project, it all was made clear, and gave the ability for me to approach this project with confidence, describing the overall of the product in better terms and grammar, and fun ways to continually develop it as the process continues.
As for what is in store the next few weeks:
Finishing what assets are needed to demonstrate the product .
Possibility of having extra developed assets depends on time and if they can be accomplished within reason.
Further developing the play forms.
Breadboxing the play forms, creating a viable demonstration situation to describe the product and show how much research has developed it into what it is as of today.
Possibility of having these bred boxes 3D printed but within reason and time constraints.
This leads to the development of black and white non color pieces and possible foam board products.
The play forms are within reach as far as the cards and environment map, and dice.
Amazon has blank cards, dice, and game boards needed for this demonstration. Purchased this weekend to pursue more development as I will be able to prototype it.
Finishing the Design of the characters, turnarounds, drawings and props creation.
This is something that an employer would rather see that a semi modeled concept. They want to see drawing skills and the fact that you can lay out an idea before bread boxing, or modeling digitally.
I have pursued the development of the designs although I started to explore them digitally. I wanted to show what my original thoughts were through the sketches and then what they came to be digitally. (or bread boxed).
Continue learning the process for 3D printing in keys and articulations.
Only reason for this is that I never realized until I would bread box a prototype and create a hinge for example, that it was second nature in a real world situation. Trying to key and articulate designs for manufacturing has never seemed so close in grasp for me. After much research and understanding, I have developed ways to show that articulation and keying in the products that will make for manufacturing and assembling the product if possibly 3D printed.
This is only a personal gain and which I read and watch videos on manufacturing, 3D printing and developing products for this reason. I found that it is a viable way to manufacture and can cut costs to assemble rather than print/make a part as a whole, but this is just hearsay from videos and demonstrations. If I come across a better source for this information I will include in my next posts.
And of course, the development of work statement, video demonstration, and deliverables for this project.
It is coming down to wire on time left to pursue this project, and I feel that what is left to accomplish is in reach. I will stick to the plan of only developing what is needed, rather trying to approach this in a huge project, and include what can be developed in a timely manner per the timeframe left.
Here are some images of my latest approaches to iterations, and design drawings/concepts.
Punching the Clock on this one…
It is one to be blind but to be biased in the form of only seeing what you want to see, and having that person do exactly what you feel is correct, is quite frankly a burden on others more than you think. It is not necessarily saying either side is correct in that matter. Just goes to show that sometimes you need to help pursue rather than manipulate work.
That was just an interesting clip I came across, unfortunately I have no idea who it was because the quick videos that you come across on social media do not display the person, show or much of anything other than slang hashtags (by the way are the number sign? lol) Just thought I would share this because it really stuck with me all week and I found it interesting that Helen Keller had a quote of the same concept.
Anyways, diving into the week I realized I need to pursue one of the concepts I drew up from last week. Clearly, the understanding of ideation and concept development that has been taught through many courses throughout my education at Penn State must have been different from those viewing the post. I wanted to clarify that the ideation and concept development approach I took was to draw upon my ideas and research rather than compile a mood board or reference board which in my opinion is sometimes a step backwards, unless you need to have one for a project that requires it. Or, is demanding that you develop something new from it. The perfect ideation combination probably exists out there somewhere, I have yet to find it. But, I feel that the perfect ideation combination for someone is of their own creation and organization.
After long thought, I wanted to do three different concepts of toy design that would incorporate my idea flow of discovery, imagination, creation, and play. But, I found that I have a series of concepts that need more innovation rather than a solid end goal concept. What I mean by that is the fairy lantern concept gave opening to more and was recently used in another project. The time travels book series can be a whole tale to tackle all in all. It can go from revealing coloring and messages, to digging up excavation sites, puzzles, etc. The possibilities are endless in this concept and I wanted something that was strong enough to pursue at the current moment. I went with the Paladins Quest because I can create three books for the beginning of the series and will all play into the ideation flow I mentioned earlier.
Before I dove into trying developing the concepts for the second pass of ideation, I knew right away that I would be halted by the need for mechanical and electrical parts of the toys. The ability to have them mass produced in a printing/3D manufacturing world and that I was not exactly keen on the development of such mechanisms for a younger generation of toys. I pursued it by starting out with the number one thing that bothered me the most, the lock and key mechanism. I wanted it to be an easy task that a five year old can complete, being that the way a five year old may hold an object or have strength etc. I am only knowledgeable about the way our younger generation uses toys and objects through my internship. I completely forgot after researching just simple technical drawings to try to understand exactly how I can change the way these complex instruments work, I came across the definition of a “model”. The lock and key model is not only a way to describe the actual physical thing, but a biological approach to design.
“The lock and key model also called Fisher's theory is one of two models which describe the enzyme-substrate interaction. The lock and key model assumes that the active site of the enzyme and the substrate are equal shaped. It supposes that the substrate fits perfectly into the active site of the enzyme.” (DocCheckFlexikon)
For the enzyme and substrate action, I needed this to be more simplistic in the way of developing the lock and key to open the chest to discover the books, toys etc. I am still working on it but, more or so, a simplistic approach was to change the overall structure and give it the ability to be a push and turn snap fit joint. This would then unlatch the chest in a very simplistic way for a child to open it.
As I remembered when writing down these notes, I needed a latch or snap fit joint for the books to latch closed. I put the lock and key on hold at the moment because I thought it would be easier to start with this mechanism and build it within the model. This then could lead me to an ideation of designing the lock and key. We can find just about anything on the internet today, not entirely knowing if these tips and calculations are correct, but it seems that Core77 had most of what everyone else was saying in their articles and CAD forums on designing such components. HUBS, a protolabs company, always has some great information and resources on just about everything for 3D printing, that is why their article on designing snap-fit joints came in handy.
For the rest of this post it is pretty open ended, as in the open ended of “Toys, Not Games”. (Andy Russel) I live by that statement for this concept. I want to give a way for the toys to be open ended pursuits rather than just a one and done deal. I decided to dive into the development and second pass of the concept ideation. Of course, I skipped a few steps in this process, and at first it seemed to be going rather well. Then I ran into some snags, which are indeed my fault. I did not finish character turnarounds to model from, thinking that I could get the job done without a full idea, maybe has some surprise twist or ideation from the flow. I did not, unfortunately, so as of what is displayed is only for the sort that I need to finish the turnarounds in order to gain a better informative approach to designing the characters. That will be displayed in the next post. The environments and concept structure was hard to find a way to make it possible to imagine and create. I started creating objects/props thinking that a five year old would understand then of course it hit me, I understand it but there is no way that they will. So I took a step back and started designing in a different approach. I considered many options from pop out coloring, to building and creating their own in an educational point of view. This was all in all too much thinking for something that can be so simplistic as lego’s, or an older toy from my generation that accompanied terrains and figures etc. Trying to bring forth a more unique approach I discovered that being more simplistic was the key to this design. Having modular pre-made props and structures for the child to play with, create their iteration of the environments and play the characters through their own created stories, or the semi story offered in each book was the way to go. I started designing some pretty cool, if I say so myself, little props for the audience to use in the creation of their imagination. The book will open to give the props, and the book has indentations displaying some cool art underneath, like ground and plants from a top view. But, the audience brings that top view to life by placing the 3D objects onto the book in any way they can imagine to tell the story in their own way. Of course, the semi story I refer to is just a starter, the possibilities are endless with the fact of each story book giving new props and new engagements along the way. They can collect and imagine their own world for the paladin's quest. I call these shorts/short chapters rather than a series or short stories, because they are technically over from when they start. The small speaker display in each book will have sounds associated with buttons, and will tell the short theme based chapter for each book. This helps in their imagination and creation if needed.
By far this is more of what I wanted to aim for in the overall concept and Capstone project, leaning towards the Discover, Imagine, Create, and Play. This was discovered in just writing down my ideas and taking notes on the links listed above that sparked my interest in making these changes.
To put it in simpler terms (for those of you who may be reading this)
Discovery:
This occurs in the discovery of the product, and is then helped with the sensory play concept of discovering something. The key to the lock of the chest and opening to find even more than to discover.
Imagine:
Diving into the chapters to imagine a world where they can create the way they want to see it. Play starts to take effect early, because of seeing all the components that the audience can be a part of.
Create:
This stage dives straight into after the imagination and play effects are still brewing in their minds. Creating the environments and staging the way the stories can be told, maybe they do not even bother with telling the paladin's story that is offered to them. Maybe they create a completely new story with the props and characters at their disposal.
Play:
The final stage, since it started early, is only due to the eager nature of a young mind. When seeing something that wants to dive into the possibilities can become endless. The play factor continues onto each chapter, taking steps back to discovering new props, imagining new worlds and creating new chapters for their own play.
This leads to the never ending possibility of a “long lasting toy” No, not something that is sturdy or something repairable per-say. It is something that has a market value, that lives within the child, and is something that gives them ways to discover and imagine as they get older. In my opinion the key to innovation today is the strive for imagination, if the imagination and discovery was not sparked within us at a young age, the ideas and innovation created today will just be that of small steps or none at all. (this is all my opinion) I feel imagination, creativity, and discovery are key influences in children and even adults. Do not think that I am one to say that video games are not sparking this area, because I am a strong believer in that video games have really strived a different spark of innovation, creativity, imagination, and discovery in many minds today. I just feel that we should really start with physical sensory imagination and discovery to give the creativity the younger audience may need today.
Here are all of my concept workings so far throughout my post. I hope you enjoy seeing the development of this product.
You’ve got a friend in me.
For some odd reason this song has been playing round and round in my head. Not only for the fact of engagement in my internship and capstone, but to find a way to be diverse and innovative in an industry that is saturated of ideation is to say, sometimes the simplicity of thing is what sells and sells a brand. All in all that is overwhelmingly true. You try to be different and over the top but you get down to the very simplistic approach and it is what sells. Especially during concept development.
I wanted to take a different approach to my concept development and find a way to give in to the stylization of products that we came across as kids, teens and parents today. You look at all the toys in each aisle, and or a toy in general and the obvious approach it has to each specific audience. That is a consideration that many take into account for the overall persons in positions for many years making decisions for the company product area. One thing I look at when I engage in toys is that they are all basically the same, and when something new comes out everyone else has a different version of it, almost like let’s hop on the band wagon. It seems short that the way to invest in an idea that might flop or change the way a company develops products is a far fetched promise or dream. We all take the approach in which we would rather see other fail in it, and then redevelop or we wait to see how something might do on the market before we jump in.
I have learned and notice that is not all the same in many areas, some are striving for new ideas, while others are striving for re-imagining the brand of their companies. After much compiled thought and research of my own viewing of many different toys on the market directed at different audiences, I decided to go for an approach that I wish I saw more of as a kid, rather than develop more towards a brand nature.
Will it sell, is one of the number one things I have learned to keep mind during the ideation and concept development stage. Another thing is that is it long lasting? The toy association pusses this as a good thing to keep in mind during concept development. They also speak of companies would rather buy lasting concepts/products rather than taking the chance to see the product succeed.
There is always something new to learn and new resources to explore, especially for a subject area such as toys, and developing creative toys. I could spend my entire capstone researching and understanding all the approaches and iterations todays toys have grown and shaped the world today, throughout young minds.
After sketching through and researching other toys that might play into these ideas such as creative artistic approaches, creating puzzles, to figurines and role play, I ended at a wide range of concepts.
I am unsure of which book I would like to use for the paladins quest, but I came to the realization that there a different approach to my concept on discover, imagine, create, and play. I took into consideration of other popular toys out there today that create the spark of imagination and play, especially video games. The reason for video games is that it has changed the way toys and imagination are used for young minds.
when I was a kid I had a few things that the product came with and I had to create and play. That shaped the way I imagine everything today. I also remember that I wish there was more stylization and cooler looking toys designed to help spark that Imagination. As stated earlier that a wide range of toys have not seemed to change in much of appearance than the usual. Yes the updates have applied as technologies have grown, but you do not see a wide ranged of extremely stylized toys on the market, I mean this as much of appeal and artistic approach more than the toy itself.
Next week will be fun, I am going to choose which concepts and move forward on the actual development. I need to make some engineering changes as far as latches, keys and locks, etc. a wide range of mechanical components for the play set that will need to be implemented into the designs.
stay tuned!!!!
And so it begins ..
I decided to approach my capstone on a different concept then my original, this post will be vague due to developing a proof of concept and what goes along with catching up from the last few weeks until now. I cannot wait to explore the different possibilities that await me in my trial and error phases of my concept development.
Peter Fikar said in his conference paper that “early intervention services support in children with disabilities in their development form early age and on”. The research led me to believe that maybe I should consider a learning curve/disability in perspective of my designs.
Pursuing a way to spark imagination and creativity in young minds brings me to believe that there really is not an exact method perse. I believe that it is already within the young minds, but the need for connection to physical/touch and feel abstract is what really gives the spark.
Sustainability of course came to mind when I took a perspective approach on my research. Denis A. Coelho stated that “eco-design of toys is considered “tout court”. In, short that it is up to the company on cutting costs and exploring other resources rather than automatically jumping into a sustainable approach from the start.
In my experience today, plastics are within the big downfall of toy design. Everyone wants to cut costs and move on from major plastic use, but this issue at hand is that how can we still charge the same pricing or make revenue based on non-plastic goods for our consumers without pushing them onto the next company that is not considering their sustainable approach.
Approaching a different perspective on Luca Martignon’s approach to sensory learning and early childhood development. He uses a puzzle to explore sensory and problem solving with a simple functional toy that is as clean and clear in direction. Looking at ways to give a young mind shape while using a sensory driven perspective is what we are looking at in my design too.
It was a great research and development process to consider during my adventures, I will be moving on to developing my concept further with the research and development that I have come across, plus the research and development of myself through my internship.
Works Cited'
Berman, Marc. “Discover, Imagine and Create.” Challenge Camp, Challenge Camp, 9 June 2021, http://challengecamps.com/pre-kindergarten/amp/.
“Process of Making Toys.” Enamel Badges Made by Cooper, https://madebycooper.co.uk/products/toys-figures/process.
Runge, Katja. “Tapetto Sensorial – Sensory Puzzle for Children by LUCA MARTIGNON.” Afilii, 16 Sept. 2021, https://afilii.com/en/tapetto-sensorial-sensory-childrens-puzzle-by-luca-martignon/.
Fikar, Peter & Güldenpfennig, Florian & Ganhör, Roman. (2018). The Use(fulness) of Therapeutic Toys: Practice-derived Design Lenses for Toy Design. 289-300. 10.1145/3196709.3196721.
Coelho, Denis & Fernandes, S.A.. (2013). Toy design methods: a sustainability perspective.
“Make Measurable Progress in Reasonable Time” Jim Rohn
This weeks post explains it self. I went about the same progression as my prior sculpting techniques. I found that having a base to work from has really helped me visualize the overall structure of what I have learned in anatomy of the human body throughout the semester. Progress is as displayed. Enjoy!
I started per usual with the bone structure of the arm, I wanted to revisit the overall work throughout the semester. I know that my work lacked in displaying the knowledge I have gained, and the placement/structure of what I have learned throughout my study of anatomy. The Radius, ulna, and Humerus gave me the ability to discover my flaws in the past with my prior arm sculpts. I noticed that without the correct placement I was unable to place the Biceps, Brachioradialis, extensor capiradialis brevis, and the extensors, and flexors for each. This made it seem like the arm had more muscles that needed.
Side note —— Hands and I are not getting along so basically we will progress in the love hate relationship.
Every experience in Life changes the Brains Anatomy. “Deepak Chorpa”
In this addition to my adventures one thing stands true that I am even beginning to notice, practice and progress are key the discovery of our own skills. This opens doors and shows you that there is not one true way in the world to truly accomplish a goal or to accomplish a task at hand. As my usual start I went with pursuing my drawing skills more often than sculpting to move forward in my progress. I choose to use a bone structure to build the muscles and makeup of the legs last time, but this time I took a more chunky approach to the way the torso can be built. I wanted to find an easy way to get the big shapes in. The lateral, abdomen, and oblique, in other words, the lower part of the torso, seemed like a great place to start. The Linea Semilunaris, and Inguinal Ligament are quite defined in many figures throughout my search and quickpose references sketching. The Asis appears sometimes as a bone structure on the outside for few, as then the External Oblique protrudes in ways to give a way to display fat, etc. There are many different shapes and builds, along with forms and structure of the human body, but I tired to find reference of the male human body close to the one I am sculpting from the The visual guide to Anatomy by 3D total publishing. I wanted to find similarities, possible iterations, and ways to come up with making the torso overall, so that it resembles the reference, or does not quite resemble the reference but is still correct.
From the External Oblique I worked up to add in the Rectus Abdominis, Transverese intersections, Linea Alba and the Pectoralis Major, most of which was done in the mirror mode so that way I would not have weird deformations on each side of the body. I left the external Olique in a big shape for as long as possible to build from. This allowed me to switch to the back and start adding in the Latiissmus Dorsi, Scapula Muslces and then the Trapezius. I was able to then add in some Serratus Anteriors. I thought for a second that I may be going over board before going back to the sculpt overall and making iterations to from the reference images, but I saw I missing some major detailing pieces of muscles that show throughout the structure. I left the sculpt in big shape form again for as long as possible to add in the missing pieces to structure puzzle I had in front of me.
I then began to adjust the big shapes, and noticed I completely missed something. I spent a few hours going over each piece, hiding them, rebuild the sculpt and moving things around to finally realize there is a very important piece I missed, the Latissimus Dorsi, which I thought I may have already sculpted and shaped into the sculpt, but I came to realize that I just moved around the big shaped rib cage to make it look like it was there, but then every time I made iterations, it began to get buried in the sculpt. I added this within the iterations, made some improvements with time spent visually inspecting the reference to sculpt, and my final output is displayed below. Enjoy!
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” F. Douglas
I’ll admit anatomy of the human body was not something I particularly wanted to study, but I have learned a wide variety of skills that can be incorporated in much of my work to come. My sketching abilities are sought out as too loose at first, then I am too tight in replication. I cannot find a happy medium between the progression overall. I wanted to share my progress over the last few ( few as in 3) weeks, in order to show that I have that the abilities and skillset are in progress, there is always a struggle in getting better, but without doing there is no result. Below you will see in order of the sketches progression I have made through the past few weeks.
I felt like I needed to start over and start from a presentation of my work that seemed more fit to my abilities. I began to sketch more and fluently develop the skills needed to replicate the anatomy studies within my sketching and sculpting. I began with a bone structure, only because I felt that every time I started something it became stylized, and gave a feel of not so realistic. This gave me ability to build around the skeleton rather than sculpt the overall structure and shapes of the human leg/foot to give better presence to detail in the end result. I felt as a great starting point would be the Adductors of the leg structure, because without this volume the rest of the leg will fall into a semi inflated and or weird thigh structure. I then began to form in the structure of the Semimembranosus muscle which would give me placement of the quadriceps and the knee once in the overall finished structure. One thing I noted in the study of other human legs besides the reference shown, the patella of the knee is by far one of the most visible pieces of the leg, and the indentations behind, and on the sides where the muscles meet to warp around the the leg. The reference I used was from the anatomy for visual artists by 3D Total Publishing, captures that are photoshopped together and deleted nonsense of the reference in order to proceed in the study, After continuing to build around the femur, I created a tibia and fibula to give the structure of the bottom half of the leg. Since I extended the muscles in the upper leg this gave me placement to work from in the reference to structure and start from the Gastrocnemius muscles of the calf and worked around building the overall structure of the lower leg, into the foot. At first I noticed once flaw and workflow I need to iterate and develop further in my own pursuit, is the toes section, along with the overall structure of the foot. Within reason I gave a Dynamesh and using the Dam Standard brush I was able to structure the toes in an overall better format to represent the reference, compared to my prior study, this foot I feel is an accomplishment. I continued to pursue a more fluid and smooth approach to give a better structure of the leg from reference images, this is still a work in progress.
“I am complete but not finished” Steve Maraboli
Working towards representing the overall storyboarding and concepts was a hard task to say the least. As one individual developing a project of many in a real setting, this task has become an overall learning curve that I admired throughout the process. I wanted to dive in, get a structure and develop the animation with what was fluent and correct in my head, but without pre-production, where exactly does it all make sense. When can someone make changes or suggestions without making the animators take five steps backwards. Overall the progress has been presented in each blog post, but will be fluent in the Languishing Hiraeth sub page above. The overall storyboarding meets within the structure of my progress so far, given that I wanted to develop assets and environment structure/concepts along the way through the pre-production. I wanted to give all of the concepts and thought process in one fall swoop, rather than developing iterations and renders of each. This gave me a way to develop camera angles, concepts to be drawn from in animation and the overall progress to pursue in the production phase of Languishing Hiraeth. Below you will see the story boards and concepts developed, incorporated in the boards, and after is the refresher of the story.
Once upon a time….
Human technology advanced more rapidly than they had expected. The advancement meant that in order to produce gains to their existence, they needed to make sacrifices. As Earth once was, a beautiful atmosphere with loving human existence created by Odin. Pollution and destruction of the planet was no longer a far from reach theory. Fjorgyn (Jord - Earth - Mother Nature) became disheartened with the human race destroying what was once a precious beautiful Earth. She sought out, overruling Odin in finding a way to stop the human race from destroying the planet.
One night Fjorgyn discovered a research lab in creating a technological atmosphere to be produced, in which this would give humans the ability to travel to other planets. Fjorgyn, distraught by the evidence, stopped the oxygen intake that was needed for the experiment to take place. The result was devastating to human existence, cutting off all oxygen to earth and destroying the human race.
Odin in his last efforts was not pleased by the decision Fjorgyn made. He led their consciousness of the few chosen to explore the possibility to live amongst the planet, rather than against it, and was moved to the only living organisms on the planet, animals. Fjorgyn was not pleased with this decision, and began to find ways to continue to put an end to technological developments in order to save the planet.
Einar Onfroi, one of the chosen few amongst Odin’s last efforts, was tasked with finding a way to develop a sustainable food source for what remains of human existence on the planet. This was not an easy task considering the ever changing nature of Fjorgyn, and her will to lead to technological destruction. Einar was tasked with finding a way to develop and grow a source of food in the elements that remain on the planet. But little did Einar know what exactly happened that day, nor did he recall why he was one of the chosen to continue to live amongst the planet.
Einar wakes up within a tank on a ship in space. Little does he know yet why he is here, but soon realizes he is not as he remembers. Odin gave Einar another chance as a fish to explore the possibilities of living on Earth as what he became through this process. As much time passes, he explores his new surroundings and drives himself mad in languish. Einar cannot seem to understand what he is doing in this situation quite yet, all he feels is a hiraeth, longing for home.
As time begins to fade into a lost subject, Einar is greeted by Seager. Seager is the A.I. system developed on the spaceship in order to help Einar complete his research and task at hand. Seager introduces himself and scares Einar by telling him they approaching Earth. Einar is unaware of who is speaking and cannot find answers to why they are passing by Earth. Seager is wondering why Einar does not know of his existence throughout the time passed aboard the spaceship. Seager realizes after an analysis of Einar that he has no recollection of what happened on Earth that day, and why he is here.
Seager explains everything to Einar, but Einar is still driving himself mad being trapped within the tank. Einar begins to explore possibilities by writing notes within the algae on the wall of the tank, and beginning his research. Seager notices that Einar is within his limitations of developing a food source for what remains of the humans. Seager than takes it upon himself to create a robotic suit in order to help Einar better complete his tasks aboard the ship. Seager grabs Einar’s attention and tells him that his suit is almost in the completed stage of development, Einar is caught by surprise as he gazes upon what Seager has created or him.
After much time has passed abroad in space, Seager gains the attention of Einar once again. Sir, we are approaching Earth once more, that would mark a year in our books of research, Seager says. In excitement Einar runs to the window of the ship to gaze upon Earth, little does he know that his research is about to give him frustrations. He cannot seem to develop a sustainable source in the resources he was given for this task. He decides to make the most of his languish by taking a nap, listening, and rocking out to some music as he lets his work begin the processes once more.
Seager awakes Einar in what will be the last time we hear from Seager. Seager shows Einar that his latest process is working and creating a plant that is sustainable in the new substance driven water from Earth. Little does Einar know that Seager has been working along side Einar in an attempt to drive the research to success. Seager gives his soul to the substance in order to drive the grow, and create clarity in the substance driven water. Seager leaves a note behind explaining how to develop his soul as a by-product to be used in the grow of much more for the human existence to once again survive on planet Earth as animals.
Einar is driven mad by the decisions in this languish and is determined to find a way to bring back Seager, but the possibilities are endless……..
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” George Bernard Shaw
I decided to take a step into developing more of the assets and projects that I wanted to display in my portfolio, along with continuing to work on Languishing Hiraeth storyboarding. I had a vision for a certain scene, and I arranged it over and over again, but did not like the result, then one day at work I sketched out the scene that was in my head, come to find out it was an iteration of the storyboard I created originally. I went back and forth to find the differences between the ideas and scenes I kept throwing out and the ones that I drew on my lunch break at work. In reality there was not much of a difference at all, it was just the development overall of the each sequence and how much more detail than feeling was represented in each. The old one had more feeling, the new one had too much detail that took away from the story that was not needed. I went back into my storyboarding development and found that there was too much detail in a few other boards, this gave a change of pace to the way someone would view each sequence. I made some iterations to those boards. I wanted to share the old board that was done many months ago, to show the understanding that that there is no need for the finer details in a storyboard. This particular scene where Seager tells Einar that he has created a Robotic suit for him to do his work, has a much more feeling and flow that I wanted for the specific sequence. I then of course was put against a decision for the storyboarding and progress, stop and go back to make sure each flows as desired to this point, or continue on from this point and develop a new flow. It was a hard decision to make, because the audience can get lost leading up to this point in the story overall. I decided of course to make sure the flow is reached to this desired sequence then pursue on for the finishing two sequences of the short. I will say it is an stressful situation when you continuously notice a flaw that makes you have to go back to the beginning and iterate your work up to that point, but in return the deliverable will be much more unique.
I began to review and revisit the projects that I wanted to include in my portfolio. The progress in my work and a new found workflow overall for most of what my skillset put me in a situation that I was able to complete much more than I had originally intended to do. I gave a way to show my skillset in many ways for each portfolio asset, creating story, mood, product design and development, and many other skills that I have gained throughout my education. Before you would view for example just a table I modeled, no major description, just a modern table, whooaa!!! Yea , no, I feel the same way BORING!!! I found a way to use the best of my abilities in ways I never thought of before I started these projects. The Telecaster Guitar will be a model of its own for viewing of course, which there does not need to show that skillset for every asset, but I have added a stand and studio setup to the file in order to get a nice clean render in different angles of the model to showcase. The table I spoke of prior, was combined with my apple project, and a few other projects that I had laying in my portfolio that were itching to be displayed. This became a story in itself displaying interior design, modeling, storytelling, and many other skillsets that I possess. I have decided to go in the same direction with other projects, such as my juice/soda design, giving that a label remake, iterating the models, and giving it an environment/studio to be rendered and showcased as a product. The chess board game was pursued in the same manner, giving it the chess and checkers product development, and an environment to tell a story and to share within the product for an audience. My crash branding exercise was a great icon development, and coffee product development, that gave birth to me creating that product and showcasing it. One thing I am uncertain of is that some of my projects that I want to include in my portfolio are a bit too big for a normal quick view, and are their own project overall. For example, I revisited Biggs and the Shape of Motion (2D animation) finished the character model sheets and gathered my assets to showcase. I feel that it should be its own page such as my work that was done within the animation festival, and Eidetic Labyrinth is also within this realm. They are both big projects that were completed ambitiously that I feel they may need to be showcased but within their own page of my website. I have some other major decisions to make on what to pursue to develop Languishing Hiraeth, I will need to learn a wide range of rigging and animation in a short period of time so I will be researching that shortly, along with the decision of how much is too much in a portfolio. How many projects should I display, I understand that it is only as strong as your weakest piece, but spending too much time developing assets can be tedious, and distracting. I wonder if creating work to showcase the skillset better than it was from the middle of education is a good way to go. I look at some of my work and it needs more than a helping hand at times. For your pleasure, I will give a sneak peak into some of the developments I have pursued to make iterations to and use in my portfolio. Nothing is officially rendered and completed these are just W.I.P’s of the progress, except for Biggs and the Shape of Motion, I am proud to say that I was finally able to complete the character model sheets after a little time has passed.
Brace yourself, fireworks are coming!
I do not own this image.
I do not know about you but I feel for the elderly, pet owners, and those that work early shifts after, during, and even before the event takes place. Fireworks became legal in the state I reside and it seems like a great opportunity to play and have fun, but it can be overwhelming in many ways.
But then again this is me when the Fourth has taken over my soul !! (facepalm)
I do not own this image.
I took some time away from Languishing Hiraeth only because I hit another wall within the pre-production stage, better learn now and get through it than when it is on the line for a due date! I believe that I am learning drastic lessons in not only the pre-production stage but in the overall process of a good workflow for many projects. It has changed the way I approach a project and take notes and plan ahead. I know that it is never a perfect picture and we cannot plan for every possibility, but when it hits, we can work through it in a much faster/better pace then be set back drastically. I finished the Dermot Storyboarding course on Linked - In learning, and the of course that was the wall I came across. Although there is no a story to the overall short, a viewer or lets even say someone working with me to develop this short, will be so confused and lost at the second marker. It was because I did not consider the flow of the story to the actual written one, to display thoughts and motion of camera/angles and display of the overall goal for the audience to understand. I took a step back and thought maybe I should just take a break to clear my thoughts on the project and try pursuing more course work throughout my week. Well this came as a major surprise, I thought I would go through a well organized drive and try to pull together my portfolio assets. Well I guess lesson learned, I will by far be learning a better file management workflow, because trying to find existing work was tedious task.
I was able to iterate, develop better geometry for my old 3D models, and make iterations to other projects that I think will display my skillset in a better fashion. Although I have had many different projects of the years, I found that the combination of what I thought would be a great display of my skillsets are just beginning to look like a cluster of not knowing my own direction. As I have said before, the issue with the program I am currently enrolled in is that there are too many introductions to too many possible outcomes with no focus on what the student feels they would like to pursue, along with only using industry standard programs such Adobe, it has become a struggle because the way to display the work for the industry without using industry standard programs for modeling, rendering, and other areas I am interested in pursuing has become a major struggle. Below you will see much of the revisited projects I plan to iterate and pursue for the portfolio, but you notice the same thing I notice. There is a wide range of skillsets here, but no direction or pursuit of direction. They all share a style, and display of myself, but yet there could be more direction in the work. With that being said, I will have to create work/projects for my portfolio in order to pursue a better display of my skillsets. Again, below is some of the iterations and revisits to work that I would like to finish up and add to my portfolio throughout the remainder of the semester.
It is a mixture of longing, yearning, nostalgia, and being forced.
I have spent much time and research in developing a
better way to describe languishing Hiraeth to an audience.
The metaphorical output of each symbolizes a contradiction
that works well in giving hope to a happy ending.
I look at how much the pro-production of this short film has grown from a concept, to a fully developed story, character concept designs, and the process of placing the corrections/progression that has been made along the way through the storyboards at hand. The storyboards became the hardest task of them all. This was led by the error in my pre-production process. I began developing concepts and ideas built around what was stuck in my head, rather than getting a solid story to build from. I have approached building a solid story and finishing concepts with a backstory, research into these concepts for name, structure, reference, and putting it altogether in order to have a flow for an audience to understand. I was struck by a wall every time I would gain further development into the storyboarding process, because they either did not make sense, or did not flow into each other with the same story at mind.
In order to give clarity read on:
Once upon a time….
Human technology advanced more rapidly than they had expected. The advancement meant that in order to produce gains to their existence, they needed to make sacrifices. As Earth once was, a beautiful atmosphere with loving human existence created by Odin. Pollution and destruction of the planet was no longer a far from reach theory. Fjorgyn (Jord - Earth - Mother Nature) became disheartened with the human race destroying what was once a precious beautiful Earth. She sought out, overruling Odin in finding a way to stop the human race from destroying the planet.
One night Fjorgyn discovered a research lab in creating a technological atmosphere to be produced, in which this would give humans the ability to travel to other planets. Fjorgyn, distraught by the evidence, stopped the oxygen intake that was needed for the experiment to take place. The result was devastating to human existence, cutting off all oxygen to earth and destroying the human race.
Odin in his last efforts was not pleased by the decision Fjorgyn made. He led their consciousness of the few chosen to explore the possibility to live amongst the planet, rather than against it, and was moved to the only living organisms on the planet, animals. Fjorgyn was not pleased with this decision, and began to find ways to continue to put an end to technological developments in order to save the planet.
Einar Onfroi, one of the chosen few amongst Odin’s last efforts, was tasked with finding a way to develop a sustainable food source for what remains of human existence on the planet. This was not an easy task considering the ever changing nature of Fjorgyn, and her will to lead to technological destruction. Einar was tasked with finding a way to develop and grow a source of food in the elements that remain on the planet. But little did Einar know what exactly happened that day, nor did he recall why he was one of the chosen to continue to live amongst the planet.
Einar wakes up within a tank on a ship in space. Little does he know yet why he is here, but soon realizes he is not as he remembers. Odin gave Einar another chance as a fish to explore the possibilities of living on Earth as what he became through this process. As much time passes, he explores his new surroundings and drives himself mad in languish. Einar cannot seem to understand what he is doing in this situation quite yet, all he feels is a hiraeth, longing for home.
As time begins to fade into a lost subject, Einar is greeted by Seager. Seager is the A.I. system developed on the spaceship in order to help Einar complete his research and task at hand. Seager introduces himself and scares Einar by telling him they approaching Earth. Einar is unaware of who is speaking and cannot find answers to why they are passing by Earth. Seager is wondering why Einar does not know of his existence throughout the time passed aboard the spaceship. Seager realizes after an analysis of Einar that he has no recollection of what happened on Earth that day, and why he is here.
Seager explains everything to Einar, but Einar is still driving himself mad being trapped within the tank. Einar begins to explore possibilities by writing notes within the algae on the wall of the tank, and beginning his research. Seager notices that Einar is within his limitations of developing a food source for what remains of the humans. Seager than takes it upon himself to create a robotic suit in order to help Einar better complete his tasks aboard the ship. Seager grabs Einar’s attention and tells him that his suit is almost in the completed stage of development, Einar is caught by surprise as he gazes upon what Seager has created or him.
After much time has passed abroad in space, Seager gains the attention of Einar once again. Sir, we are approaching Earth once more, that would mark a year in our books of research, Seager says. In excitement Einar runs to the window of the ship to gaze upon Earth, little does he know that his research is about to give him frustrations. He cannot seem to develop a sustainable source in the resources he was given for this task. He decides to make the most of his languish by taking a nap, listening, and rocking out to some music as he lets his work begin the processes once more.
Seager awakes Einar in what will be the last time we hear from Seager. Seager shows Einar that his latest process is working and creating a plant that is sustainable in the new substance driven water from Earth. Little does Einar know that Seager has been working along side Einar in an attempt to drive the research to success. Seager gives his soul to the substance in order to drive the grow, and create clarity in the substance driven water. Seager leaves a note behind explaining how to develop his soul as a by-product to be used in the grow of much more for the human existence to once again survive on planet Earth as animals.
Einar is driven mad by the decisions in this languish and is determined to find a way to bring back Seager, but the possibilities are endless……..
Languishing Hiraeth by Gary Kulp
By now you may be familiar with much of the design concepts that
have driven Languishing Hiraeth to become an animated short.
Here is a refresher, with more depth and inspiration used in the creation:
Defining Languish/Languishing:
Suffer from being forced to remain in an unpleasant place or situation. (Oxford Languages Definition)
Reference of meaning from the Bible:
To languish is to become pitiful or weak because you're sick, in love, or stuck somewhere. A prisoner might languish in jail, longing for her freedom.
Defining Hiraeth:
A longing for Home/something - a deep longing for something or especially someone’s home.
Welsh translation.
Concept:
The concept is Driven by a contradiction and metaphorically placed word structure, it gives a vibe of one longing for something or one trapped longing for something. In this depiction the use is structured to represent the longing for home, and desire to accomplish a goal in order to return to their desired home.
The atmosphere is within the future of current times, to give a scientific feeling to the mood of the story.
Work Cited
“Hiraeth.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 May 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiraeth.
“Languish - Dictionary Definition.” Vocabulary.com, www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/languish.
“Languish.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/languish.
“The Untranslatable Word That Connects Wales.” BBC Travel, BBC, www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210214-the-welsh-word-you-cant-translate.
Einar Onfroi
Einar Onfroi is the main character/protagonist of Languishing Hiraeth. Einar is challenged with the task of discovering a new way for their human technology to survive in the ever changing world.
Einar is one of the remaining humans that shifted to another consciousness during the technological meltdown, when mother nature (Fjorgyn) had enough of the humans destroying the earth.
Einar is one of the few chosen to have the consciousness moved to an animal, the chosen subject was a fish.
Einar origin:
Danish, norwegian, old norse, swedish
Pronounced Ie-nahr
One who fights alone
Einar origin:
Danish, norwegian, old norse, swedish
Pronounced Ie-nahr
One who fights alone
Onfroi:
Germanic
O-nohf-reh
Fighter of peace
Unfrid
The one who gives peace
Reference and inspiration, driven by Gurgle of Finding Nemo.
Sculpting and Modeling progression in current development stages.
Work Cited
“Einar- One Who Fights Alone, IE-Nahr, Danish, Norwegian & Swedish on BellyBallot.” Belly Ballot, babynames.net/names/einar.
“Onofre- Fighter of Peace., o-NOHF-Reh, Place on BellyBallot.” Belly Ballot, babynames.net/names/onofre.
Viking.no, www.viking.no/the-viking-heritage/the-viking-linguistic-heritage/norman-family-names-of-viking-origin/.
Seager
Seager is an A.I. system that believed in the development of the human race. Seager did not pursue to destroy it, yet help and become more valuable to the surviving few after the devastation.
English:
See-gar
Reference and Inspiration.
Meaning the sea spear:
A great representation of giving forth and creating a way for those to succeed in the current state.
Sculpting and Modeling progression in current development stages.
Holographic texturing study and observation.
Work Cited
“Seager- Sea Spear., SEE-Gər, English on BellyBallot.
” Belly Ballot, babynames.net/names/seager.
Einar Onfroi & Seager’s Spaceship
No back story
Asset developed around the concept and structure of the story, giving birth to a representation such as the movie cars by Pixar/Walt Disney.
Reference and inspiration.
Concept Development
Sculpting and Modeling progression in current development stages.
Sculpting and Modeling progression in current development stages.
Seager’s Robotics Aboard the Whale Ship
No Back Story
Asset developed around the concept and Seager
Reference and Inspiration
Roboshop was a great resource in finding inspiration for concept development.
Concept Development
Sculpting and Modeling progression in current development stages.
Work Cited
ROBOSHOP. www.robotshop.com/en/.
Robotic Body Suit Developed by Seager for Einar
Same Reference Sketch as Einar’s Development was used in the process.
Developed by Seager around the process in order to give Einar a way to complete research
Mecha toy research and reference
Reference and Inspiration
Concept Development
Sculpting and Modeling progression in current development stages.
Work Cited
“Mech Building Kit: MyBuild: Mecha Frame.
” Mybuild, www.mybuildtoy.com/.
The storyboarding process was put aside at the moment in order to fully develop understanding and concepts to work from. I realized once they did not flow, or make sense once put together, it was a realization that they need to be worked on to follow through with each event and trigger of the story.
Within reason of the portfolio development throughout the semester, I have given thought to my overall work. I need to make changes and adjustments to display the skillset I desire to share amongst the hiring or developer looking through my work. I currently have many different projects to choose from, but they are all within a different study of my education. There was no way to pick and choose between one developed project throughout each semester when they did not correspond to each other or give a good skillset to be shown through the portfolio. So with that being said, I have narrowed down my work to a few projects that I would like to display, and will be creating other work in order to have enough of my skillset to display through the portfolio. My resume needs some fine tuning and updating and the overall structure of the website needs a makeover.
Tune in next week for an update on the chosen projects to revisit, Languishing Hiraeth Storyboarding development, process, and final touches.
Week Check - in # 2
A short and sweet post this week, because I was inspired by my research and development to strive for the concepts to be created. So this week it is more or so a display of artwork and progress in the concept developments.
Continuing in the pre-production for Languishing Hiraeth and it was brought to my attention that I needed to define more characteristics of the story overall for the viewers, thanks to an elegant peer review. One thing that was struck to the attention right away was the fact that one can define Languish as different meanings. I needed to address the fact that the story can be interpreted differently, and that the characters/development of each asset needs to be understood as well. I took into consideration that my interpretation of languish is that Einar is being forced into a situation rather than a deteriorating living thing or one within its own self crime. It is pursuing the nature of the role that he needs to find a way to help those left on earth survive, that is why he is sent for research.
All in all, this is something I really need to define within my next steps in order to continue creating the story and concepts. I feel that I am glad there are others to help me notice the missing links. I have been researching ways to define more background and story development of the characters and overall short itself. I have been also exploring ways to manipulate the concepts to art/style of the short I am creating. For instance, a whale spaceship for Einar to be riding in, an asset that I did not realize I did not create prior before starting the storyboards. I was able to incorporate some fun and funny details in a way of creating a spaceship, but it being an animal as I wanted prior.
I began to develop more of the concepts that the suddenly started falling into the story and research of the character, It felt so much more easier to push through developing the concepts, rather than just waiting for the idea to strike. I was able to define a basic concept for each important asset within the film, along with gathering my works cited for developing a story, and character backgrounds.
As you’ll see in the post, I developed a Space ship for Einar, began defining the robot that will be created by his A.I. System Seager. I was able to research and develop names and concepts around each as I was drawing in the ideas and sketching out the concepts. They will be included in the written story to be posted next update, it needs to be slightly more defined so that there is not confusion in metaphors etc.
Spaceship - structure and development sketch
Spaceship rough sketch
WIP - Robot for Einar rough sketch
WIP - Robot for Einar concept line art
WIP - Seager and his robots amongst the ship, structure and concept sketches
Does having Athlete’s Foot qualify me as being sporty ?
A short but sweet post this week highlighting the anatomy of the foot/feet (feets lol). I personally share in many others that feet are weird, especially mine since I have broken every toe. Per usual I will share in an endeavor of my life to represent the anatomy study, which is great because I feel I have just about every area covered!
I participated in Tae Kwon Do as a teenager through high school and furthered my studies until I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder which led to muscle deterioration. We were wrestling and I was learning an extreme amount of pressure resistance and body weight compensation within the exercise, well little did I know that my Sensei was participating in the other students weight distribution, at this time I was about 400 pounds and in very good shape, he was not watching his placement of himself at the time and stepped on my foot. I felt pressure but disregarded it as a minor inconvenience at the time of the instruction, well little did I know that when I went to pull my foot out of the way, the weight distribution that he was placing and mine combined pulled my ring toe and pinky in a different direction, which then shattered the bones, and the ring toe is permanently curled, the pinky toe healed a small bone fragment out of place and its permanently pressed against my ring toe like a duck, and they both healed in a weird state overall. This was probably the most painful experience to date, it is like a Peter Griffin when you scrape your knee or another other small inconvenience, and you overreact, but well I never noticed until the next day! So now I have some weird toes/feet to accompany my disliking of feet which many others share including my wife lol!
I started out with the Mellem book and continued my studies in drawing from reference with his direction. I sketched a few different boxes and structures, and then noticed something. The foot has many similarities to the hand in boxing in the shapes and developing the structure, but has many differences in bones, ligaments, and muscles that play a role in how we perceive the foot.
I moved on to my own techniques that I once lost in sketching and have recently come accustomed to within the last few weeks, with the help of 3D Total Publishing of course, because I have learned most of my techniques from their books. I then structured the foot in a way that was referenced in the Anatomy for 3D artists by 3D Total Publishing, it was a way to define the shapes in a rather boxy, yet defined overall shape to give structure to the foot before producing a sculpt. I sketched these ideas instead, which led to a rather interesting outcome. Then I began to study the anatomy of the foot through the guidance of the books I have been referencing this semester. The Calcaneus and Cuboid of the foot are some of the largest bones which are represented in the heel of the foot. The Talus, Navicular, and Cuneiform bones are the structure that defines the foot from the heel to where they sit on the base of Tibia, on top of the Talus bone. The weight structure and placement is distributed from the arrangement of the bones, which can vary in many different references, and can be different between someone that is flat arched/flat footed, and a female or something that displays more weight on their foot. Then the similarities between the hand and foot come into play. The Metatarsals and the Phalanges, which are structures along the ligaments of the arched placement of bones and to the Dorsal side of the foot creating the surface and knuckles that we see when we observe a foot.
As the same reference from prior of the same male from Anatomy for artists : A visual reference guide by 3D Total publishing, I began my sculpt. I blocked out my reference points that I thought were displayed in the reference that should be more defined, rather than taking a structure of muscle which I found from my last study can be created by adding and removing clay in areas to obtain the desired structure. The only problem that I am currently facing is that It seems to have webbed the toes within the foot and I can no longer separate them. I may have made a mistake in using the program, but at the current moment I put it aside, more on the reason why I put the foot study aside.
My research and development in Anatomy and Sculpting came to halt when it was brought to my attention that I am not fully displaying the volumes and the muscle placement correctly. My proportions seemed off to me as well for my first attempt at a hand, but this was the case that continued. I took a step back and wanted to research and develop a way to structure my work instead of working in a way I thought was correct. I started to wonder if maybe I approached the entire study at the wrong position. I could not believe that after all these years it would be lost in my daily life, or lost because I would rather play music or model something from a reference that was already created. I realized then that it was time to really get my drawing skills back to par with my learning. I am in for an adventure now, because the plate has become full for this meal, and it seems that I may need a second plate (aka. buffet style, if you have two arms and two hands, you can take two plates and two drinks, lost of practice with that specific metaphor has led me to this !)
I took the time to revisit the overall of the arm and hand studies to see if I had possibly gained more knowledge and ability within the research. Here is some roughing out of volumes and shapes, to revisit the arm and hand sculpt. This will give me the ability to display muscles and rough in the anatomy to discover where I have gone wrong in my previous workings, and the ability to further my progress.
I was extremely please with taking a step back, waiting for the Anatomy for Sculptors book by Uldis Zarins with Sandis Kondrats, which was recommended to me by a fellow classmate. I also began to take advantage of observing prior streams and live events that Pixologic had to offer on their website. This led to giving me reference and techniques and ideas to use in the sculpting of the study.
I will say that I am happier with this result the second time around, I only see progress in the future.
My wife being a sculptor, and studying sculpture within her educational adventure, mentioned to me that maybe I should try to learn shape and form of actual sculpting clay or base of my choosing. It may help me consider the way a material can be used and manipulated in order to gain the desired form, because she felt that the digital style lacked in fundamental developments. I agreed so I began to explore this on the side of my studies, and created a sketch of a character that I want to try to create with sculpey polymer clay. I’ll keep it updated in the post as I go through a little at a time while exploring the anatomy studies.
I begin my exploration in the torso, let’s see what it has in store next post.
Languishing Hiraeth Progress in Pre-Production!
Languishing Hiraeth is not only an adventure for myself but an adventure for viewers to relate to my interests, and everyday psychological displacements. It has become a thrill in learning everything from storyboarding to character development, to the way we perceive a short/film in action. Storyboarding has been a level up for me, I feel that I have progressed in my storytelling, and storyboarding techniques through Dermot O’Connor. I was able to really take a step back and understand the development of my storyboards through his direction. It came as a major surprise that many of my already developed storyboards lacked the actual design and understanding to be represented to the intended audience. I thought that in a storyboarding the overall design and structure of the film/live action/or short was not of importance in design, but distinguishing the overall was very important to the audience, and the character development/design.
Original Concept Design of Einar Onfroi.
I took into consideration the development of character design throughout the Linked-In Learning course from Mary Jane Begin. I wanted to also refresh my skills in concept art, along with painting over the semester. I learned a wide range of skill sets to incorporate into my designs and development, but my improvement is something that matters to me overall. I look back on the majority of my painting skills to my illustration/illustrator skills and I personally feel that they have improved drastically. It is a huge surprise that when I develop a concept, line art, and then paint my idea, it actually makes sense. Rather than having a really robust file, and or multiple files that I cannot seem to recall where I may have left off or need to progress. One thing I have noticed is that I have tried to incorporate my sketching skills into learning it digitally, and it has not been an easy transition. I have made some overall improvements, but then of course, still have a major amount to learn. With practice comes progress is my overall goal in this matter. I did not learn to play guitar overnight, but from the age of eight to 14 I was able to accomplish goals, and then learn many other instruments, and then become a lead vocalist/guitarist in a touring band. This did not stop me from at this point in my life, when I was asked to accompany many other bigger bands, and write, play, do sound, and then be an addition in the studio overall bands. I was really successful in my music career which kept leading me to learn and more, then I realized at one point I hit a wall. I needed to keep furthering myself in the overall development of my life to get further in two passions. Art and music. Here is the finished concept design for the main character.
Original Concept Design of Einar Onfroi.
Line Art of Einar Onfroi.
Einar Onfroi Concept Design.
I was able to accomplish a goal of the overall story development through the title scene this week, along with the fully developed major character in the story. Storyboarding is a unique process that makes me second guess the way I would like the entire short to be planned out. The process then led me to evaluate each section I had already developed. It seems as if it lacked in many ways from giving the precise and professional wording, the suggested transitions, to the way the sequences flowed. Here is the original Storyboard for the title sequence that I sketched out before learning more about the process through Dermot O'Connor Storyboarding course on Linked-In Learning.
Original title sequence Storyboard.
I then began to study more about the suggestions that Dermot gave in his course and started applying them to a new version of the title sequence. Fading into a scene or suggesting to fade out was a unique way to look at how a beginning sequence can be brought forth to the audience. He mentioned that it is not necessary to use black to fade in and out of a scene, you can use white, or any other color for that matter. Dissolving the frames and sequence is a great way to explore a short amount of time passing by through each transition. Simple cuts are probably going to be a style that is explored throughout my short, meaning the break/cut between each camera will shift the viewer's attention to what is happening within the sequence. Another transition that I desperately want to explore and research through Dermot’s suggestions are the reaction cuts, it will be able to give me a dramatic effect or other camera angles to achieve while possibly exploring the atmosphere of the environment while the sequence is taking place. I have several ideas for this to explore as to giving an open space a moment when Einar sees the note from the A.I. system that his robot is almost finished, and gives a secondary camera view to the process of the A.I. system making the robot, then cuts right back to Einar’s reaction. This will give me a unique way to display the environment(s) around the sequences and introduce another character to the sequence such as the A.I. system. The concept of the A.I. is still under development because of trying to find a happy medium between holographic cliche sci-fi computers, or creating a different type of it through an actual rigged character. But, I wanted to also show that the A.I. system can control the ship, and other surrounding props as well. So this has been the next step in development, in which I will explore a resource given to me from Professor Redding. The AEIOU design thinking worksheet, and drawing ideas resources from the drawing ideas book website. (drawingideasbook.com)
I then realized that there are more concepts to the short than I realized! Yet I did not have them designed or ready to be a part of the process. This made me take a step back and stop at this point in the storyboarding process, because I need a concept in order to design the boards around. The spaceship I wanted to design as a fish/underwater animal, but yet be a sci-fi spaceship. I have a lot of work to get done!
I move into the staging and composition, direction of action, lighting and depth, because I want to revisit these episodes of the storyboarding course while making progress in the boards for the short. It will help me develop and correct the ways to portray my concepts. I have old developed storyboards, that I look at and the seems to make sense to me, but not to someone else that would be working on my team for example, I need to revisit the structure of them in order to have a better understanding myself of what I am trying to achieve in the short, as well as for others to explore and critique. Here are my current workings of the next sequence in the short, and I will display the old storyboards to show the progression made in my research and development.
Title Sequence 0.0 - Storyboard - Languishing Hiraeth
Sequence 1.0 - Storyboard - Languishing HiraethThe overall design and thinking for the character development was driven in a way to understand most of what Quad development workflow can be a great influence on 3D animation. It also gave me the opportunity to revisit the concept creation of Einar Onfroi and give the model the correct edge flows and Quad-development it needed. I noticed in my last attempt at the start of this process through Professor Collins, that the skinning of the low poly design, stretched and had weird indentations of things I didn't quite understand at the time. I went back to see what the issue may be, and it is that the original low poly design had triangles, and n-gons, which are 5 sided points, and poles in areas that did not necessarily need to be there. A pole in when you build quads of one point, for example:
I do not own rights to this content.
These can sometimes be a pain and cause issues. I was able to restructure somewhat of a better retopology (which is the process of taking a high poly sculpture and creating a low resolution/low poly count for the details to bake to). Here is the result of my research and development into a better suited model for animation. I know that it is not completely correct, but while I still research and develop the skill set for this project, I will be able to make the changes off of this base that I have created.
Einar Onfroi - Retopology
Einar Onfroi - Retopology
Einar Onfroi - Retopology
So far my written story development has hit a wall because I find it extremely difficult to put my concepts and ideas into words. I am really working on finding a way to convey this in more professional way. So far after much thought the short story to the film is as follows:
Einar Onfroi Is in languish longing for home “earth” and is trapped aboard a spaceship. He was charged with doing research to help develop a stable way of living in the polluted oceans by humans.
The story starts out as the storyboards show, the title, then it transitions to space. Space is empty but the camera moves up to the ship floating within space. The camera moves into the space ship, to see the fish robot character working. The A.I. voice comes over the speaker and says excuse me sir (whomever the name is) I do not want to interrupt your work but we are passing by Earth.
The fish robot character gets extremely excited and turns around and tries to go towards the ships window, but the character loses his robot response helmet. He then slams his face into the glass tank of the robot twice trying to get him to move. He then scurries to get his response system back on and then blurb blurb blurb he speaks and robot scurries in a frantic to the window, the fish slams against the back of the glass helmet like whoa!!!! And the robot races through the sci fi scene up the stairs to glare out the window to see earth.
Although I am thinking to follow more suggestions and concept development as Dermot O’Connor says, sometimes the writing is not necessary. This can be all conveyed in well developed storyboards. I will not have much dialogue in the overall short, because facial rigging is a process that is all too new to me, and I may not be able to achieve this in a short amount of time. Although I will study facial rigging in order to achieve facial expressions. I will continue that skillset on my own time to understand and learn the process.
Stay tuned for more on Languishing Hiraeth!
Works Cited/References
Anderson, Kenneth, et al. Creating Characters for the Entertainment Industry: Character Design for Animation, Illustration & Video Games. 3dTotal Publishing, 2019.
Begin, Mary Jane. “Welcome - Learning Character Development and Design Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, 12 Apr. 2016, www.linkedin.com/learning/learning- character-development-and-design/welcome?u=76811570.
Connor, Dermot O'. “Exercise Files - Animation Foundations: Storyboarding Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, 26 July 2016, www.linkedin.com/learning/animation-foundations-storyboarding/exercise-files?u=76811570.
Connor, Dermot O'. “Welcome - Animation Foundations: Drawing Cartoon Characters Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, 31 Aug. 2015, www.linkedin.com/learning/animation-foundations-drawing-cartoon-characters/welcome?u=76811570.
“Sharon Ross: Designer for 2D Animation - Sharon Ross: Character Designer for 2D Animation Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com/learning/sharon-ross-character-designer-for-2d-animation/sharon-ross-designer-for-2d-animation?u=76811570.
Vaughn, William C. Topology Workbook. Hickory Nut Publishing, 2019.
Vaughn, William C. Topology Workbook: Volume 01. Hickory Nut Publishing, 2018.
Williams, Richard. The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators (Expanded). Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.
Now Entering the Pre-Production Stage !
I do not own or take credit for this image.
I felt as if maybe I dove into too much too soon, but then it was a surprise that I had much of this process already covered in the past. Although it was a great refresher and I caught many flaws in my pre-production that I would have caught in a bad time during production stages. That is why diving back into the pre-production process and researching ways to develop a solid short was a great idea by Professor Redding.
I became interested in an article I found by researching some storyboarding techniques and just refreshing my memory overall in the development process. The article by Julia Camenisch “ The Perfect Plan: Storyboard and Shot List Creation” is by far an amazing recommendation for anyone looking to get into the swing of pre-production. The emotion and color of your pre-production is one thing to never forget, you want the most of your process to be developed in order to convey that concept and idea to your team. Storyboarding is where I began my research and development process in my pre-production. Just like Julia Camenisch said, “Why is it so important?”, because we are the only ones that know exactly how the short takes place and how it should be developed. But not everyone else does, and the fact that you plan out each scene in a series of frames or segments helps to develop your overall progress, troubleshooting ideas and situations that may arise, and gives you something to fall back on when in doubt or have hesitations in ideas and development. Having a strong storyboard and story overall is something to have completed before exploring the next step. That is why during my research and development, I took a few steps back and took advice and advantage of learning more about storyboarding processes, how developing the overall of the short in the pre-production process is what matters, character development ideation, and a bit of quad-flow development. (only because it is relevant to my current studies for other courses.)
After exploring more of what Julia had to offer in her article, I stopped before I got too far in the pre-production process, because as she said the most important place to start is the storyboarding. Dermot O’ Connor is an amazing animator and illustrator, I took his 2D animation: Tips and Tricks, Essential Technical Aspects of Animation, Animating in Photoshop, Learning 2D animation Principles, Animation foundations: cartoon characters, and many others on linked-in learning. He offers a Animation Foundation course called Storyboarding, and since I learned so much from him in the past I thought he would be a great addition to my research and development throughout my Capstone project. I am currently not finished with his course because it is a bit longer than I expected, and I wanted to explore his tips and tricks within my own storyboarding as I explored the course. Currently in the stages of the process acts and sequences, and giving ways to describe camera movement/placement and staging and composition along with the direction of action in the storyboarding. Something that my storyboards extremely lacked overall. I wanted to take what I learned and make notes on the boards before I redid them and finished them for the overall storyboarding pre-production process. It is better than spending more time focusing on his tips and tricks because it gave me more insight into the way more short is structured.
Sharon Ross on linked in learning, although a 2D designer for Animation has several different consulting/hand in many other developments of shorts throughout her time in the industry. She did not only work on many of the tv shows and films we saw as children or growing up, her hand plays a major role in storytelling and storyboard development. The slight 10 minute interview/description of her career was a great refresher to taking a break and hearing that the time spent in pre-production is more than well worth it in the stress developed in production.
Although my ADHD kicked in severely this week, I remembered that last semester I was diving into Mary Jane Begins Character Development and Design course on linked in learning. I wanted to finish that because I only had a small amount left in her course to finish it. I chose to research and develop my character development and design through this course because she is an amazing artist and has a way of seeing things in character development that I normally would miss. She also has a way with explaining great tips and tricks to develop your character, elements of developing a believable character for the audience, and her take on style meets substance. Giving forth your own style, but getting a positive reaction from the audience/viewer is all what matters in the end.
I wanted to reference some other areas that I explored within Creating Characters For the Entertainment Industry and how the development of the story development is key to understanding a way of developing the characters around the story. Although I am ahead of this step it seemed relevant to the tasks at hand. (Unfortunately I cannot scan or take too many pictures of these books because they are copyrighted etc, these are some images that are featured throughout the selling points of the books.)
I do not own or take credit for this image.
I do not own or take credit for this image.
I also explored some of the Topology Workbook vol.1, Topology Workbook vol.2 because it was relevant to the development of the characters in the software in the future, but also relevant to the development of my current studies of anatomy and sculpting in my independent study this semester.
I do not own or take credit for this image.
I do not own or take credit for this image.
And of course here is a little present from the The Animators Survival Kit, Buy it! Live by it!, keep it at your side forever!
I do not own or take credit for this image.
I cannot wait to dive into the ideation and iterations of my storyboards and character development and have them structured/developed for my next post, and continue pursuing the pre-productions phases, tips and tricks, and all the other resources I may come across in pursuing my Capstone project.
Works Cited/References
Anderson, Kenneth, et al. Creating Characters for the Entertainment Industry: Character Design for Animation, Illustration & Video Games. 3dTotal Publishing, 2019.
Begin, Mary Jane. “Welcome - Learning Character Development and Design Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, 12 Apr. 2016, www.linkedin.com/learning/learning- character-development-and-design/welcome?u=76811570.
Connor, Dermot O'. “Exercise Files - Animation Foundations: Storyboarding Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, 26 July 2016, www.linkedin.com/learning/animation-foundations-storyboarding/exercise-files?u=76811570.
Connor, Dermot O'. “Welcome - Animation Foundations: Drawing Cartoon Characters Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, 31 Aug. 2015, www.linkedin.com/learning/animation-foundations-drawing-cartoon-characters/welcome?u=76811570.
“Sharon Ross: Designer for 2D Animation - Sharon Ross: Character Designer for 2D Animation Video Tutorial: LinkedIn Learning, Formerly Lynda.com.” LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com/learning/sharon-ross-character-designer-for-2d-animation/sharon-ross-designer-for-2d-animation?u=76811570.
Vaughn, William C. Topology Workbook. Hickory Nut Publishing, 2019.
Vaughn, William C. Topology Workbook: Volume 01. Hickory Nut Publishing, 2018.
Williams, Richard. The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators (Expanded). Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.
I bet you can’t lick your elbow!?!?
I do not own or take credit for this image.
I thought maybe things would get better once my hand healed up, but boy did that all change. I came home at the beginning of the week to find out the water heater decided to take a mind of its own and well flood my basement, and destroy my money pit, a.k.a., my collection of wood that I have stockpiled for a rainy day of woodworking. Luckily the savings account in this current state of the price of wood, did not take severe damage (oh, btw if you need wood let me know lol).
So, onward did I ever face the one a challenge of replacing the water heater while my wife watched me like a hawk so I didn’t mark up the walls with dirty hands or carry the old and new up and down the steps. Little did I know that I was going to bang my elbow on the wall as I was approaching my final steps of finishing up, I felt like Peter Griffin holding my arm and crying in pain and laughter for about 20 mins. The good ol’ funny bone, well that led me to believe that the next step in my anatomy studies for sculpting should be the arm, right? I was not able to explore more of the tutorial due to time constraints of replacing the water heater, but I was able to explore the construction of the UI for Zbrush and develop my own intuitive interface, along with customizing the overall program for my liking. Thanks to Derrick Davila for the Flipped Normals UI link, and watching the tutorials further in development of understanding the program before diving into more.
This was by far a different approach and more refreshing way to go about my studies, before I spent so much time researching many different websites and resources in order to come up with what I thought may be a good place to start and approach the hand, well this time I stuck true to the books and references I used before. This gave me more time to focus on my sketching, which was by far rusty to say the least. I approached by studying the arm from Anatomy for 3D Artists, and Anatomy for Artists. The in depth approach to understand the bone structure and muscle movement are outstanding in order to achieve the correct structure of the arm, it also offers in depth proportional reference as well.
The arm is a very complex structure although in structuring it for blocking out of a drawing and for the overall structure in sculpting it can be depicted by two gesture lines of the flow in which the arm is being displayed. After those two lines are given, you can then block in or what I found easy as how I used to sketch instead of blocking out using cubes, etc. I sketch flow and structure where those lines may meet and then pursue a better blocking of what I am sketching. As you can see in the being stages of following along with one of my favorite drawing/sketching books by Jeff Mellem. The simple shapes can be brought forth by cylinders and then explored in a structure of the bones. The bones in the arm have a form of showing depending on the build and have a unique way of pushing the muscles out for display. The Forearm consisting of the Radius and Ulna twist around in ways to give the Forearm movement. I honestly did not know that we were constricted to only a few ways of motion until I dove into constructing the narrow placements of the wrist and elbow for the blocking of the simple shapes.
Elbows like many other joints in the body can be structured as a tongue and groove joint when sketching and blocking out. Although this is of importance when sketching in order to get the point to the tip of the elbow and place the forearm, I found that in the sculpting forms of the arm, the elbow seems to hide itself in the skin and muscle surrounding the area. The difference in sketching and sculpting is that the light falls on the structure of the elbow in sketching. It is a very unique point to have detailed in the sketch, but in the sculpt can be slightly buried in the outer details of the arm and overlooked. The Pectoralis muscles of the chest connect to the Humerus and are important to display because when we twist the arm, the Ulna and Radius are displayed in difference presence and proportions as the Delts of the shoulders are. The Three major important muscles to remember for the shoulder are the Serratus, Rhomboid and Scapular region and are attached to the torso, so remembering them when sculpting only the arm is that they hold a presence in the form of the Delts and Scapula of the arm. The joints as many others in the body are only of importance when the arms are extended or twisted, so in the form of animation having the weight painted in a specific area for the Ball and Socket joint of the shoulder, and the Pivot joint of the elbow are important, but in a pose of T-pose of a sculpt, using reference of the given sculpt is by far enough to get the indents and placement right of the joints twisting to the skin stretching. If in the future I am going to want to do a more organic or stylized character, I will have to take into consideration the way their joints will move those specific muscles if they are exposed from clothing etc.
The Deltoids are three a three headed muscles and can become one of the most complex areas of the arm, which is why it is a good idea to start within this area which I did. I structured my block out around the fact that the Medial Head and Acromion Process Depression of the muscles give the proportional length and structure of your reference arm to elbow length. By then the Long head of the Bicep and the Brachialis will be able to be formed quite easily around the structure of the short head of the Bicep. Medial Triceps and then easily filled into the remaining open area of the upper structure of the arm, which then gives you placement to construct the elbow. The Brachioradialis, the Pronator Teres, and the Anconeus are able to be placed, leaving a gap for the Longus and Brevis to be started, wrap around the forearm, and given structure developed by the Extensors Digitorum and Minimi. All of this then extends into the hand development, but it is a good ending point to structure the blocking or sculpting around a band that is an Annular Ligament within the body, this specific one is the Retinaculum at the wrist.
I began my sculpt with a using a bit of the techniques and tips I picked up from the Beginners Guide to Zbrush, I find it easier to read examples and work through them rather than bending my ears to understand a time-lapse tutorial or watching a time lapse and confusing myself even more. I blocked out the overall structure in different polygroups using the IMM Primitives brush and manipulating the spheres inserted with the move tool. I did not do dynamesh until the end because I wanted to work with a lower res to get the structure formed first. I used different polygroups to consist of the overall major shapes of muscles and structure, rather than trying to bend each to the exact muscle without a skeleton to work from. I think dynameshed and used the reference I took from the Anatomy for Artists (I do not take credit for the images), I manipulated the images to remove the nudity from some of the images.
I pursued sculpting and refining the structure with the use of the clay strips brush, dam standard brush, and the move brush. I only added slight detail to indents and imperfections of the sculpt to reference by using the standard brush in both adding and removing clay. Here is the result:
I do not own or take credit for these images used as reference.
Works Cited/References
Amin, Jahirul, et al. Anatomy for Artists: a Visual Guide to the Human Form. 3DTotal Publishing, 2020.
Lewis, Marisa. Beginner's Guide to Zbrush. 3Dtotal Publishing, 2017.
Lewis, Mathew. Anatomy for 3D Artists: the Essential Guide for CG Professionals. 3DTotal Publishing, 2016.
Mellem, Jeff. How to Draw People: Step-By-Step Lessons for Figures and Poses. F & W Media, Incorporated, 2018.
Team, 3Dtotal. Sketch Workshop: Anatomy. 3dtotal Publishing, 2014.