Thursday, November 4, 2010

Miles To Wisconsin! Work! Also Comic Template, Ames Guide Vids

I'm headed off to Wisconsin next week (November 8 - 12), so work your @sses off while I'm gone. I'll expect to see fresh new dummies, and at least 4 pages of finished work when I get back on Tuesday, November 16.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Morgan Hickman - Children of God


Thanks to Morgan for sharing his stuff with us today. Check out the the latest Children of God and keep up with Morgan's mojo over at his site--Drop him a comment and stay in touch!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Banole by Dave Marshall and Luke Kralik


Banole is a cool web comic collaboration by S.O.U. alums Dave Marshall and Luke Kralik. Dig it! Dave will be coming to our class on Thursday, October 28. For all y'all Star Wars types, he's also one of the masterminds behind I.M.P.S. The Relentless.
Hey the links work now!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Free Olde Animation Night This Weekend!

Come check it out. Good times. Saturday at 7 in the Meese Auditorium.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Week 4: Dummy and Another Finished Page

This week, we'll be critiquing your first page of finished art. The plan is for you to get some very specific feedback to help hone your individual approach to your work. For next week's critique, Tuesday, October 26, you'll do another page of finished work and bring in an updated dummy of your project.

Talking points for October 19 crit.
1. Clarity. Of action, story, setting, characters.
2. Consistency. Establishing the key visual forms and overall design.
3. Contour. Finishing and varying.
4. Story. Action and tension. Continuity.
5. Flow. Maintaining reader interest.
6. Graphic Power. Composition, composition, composition. Use of black/color. Visual hierarchy.

Here are Miles' videos on the basics of drawing in Flash.

Here's the direct URL if the embedded video doesn't work for you.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Week 3 - Complete a finished page

Jack Kirby, original art from Manhunter.

For Tuesday, October 19. Complete a full page of your book. Make 5 copies of the page. We will critique them at the beginning of class.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Week 2 - Visual Research - Influences and Design Guides

One of Miles' big influences, Lynda Barry
On your web site, write a reflective essay about one or two of your influences. Describe the work. What drew you to their work? What do you know about their working methods? How do they use composition, line, shape? Is the work precise, sloppy, loose, detailed, free, tight, etc? Be sure to post examples of their work to back up your observations.

Pick a book or two to use as the design touchstone for your book. Discuss margins, gutters, bleeds, typography, lettering, height/width ratio, page measurements etc.

Work up a proposal for your book and post it to your blog. Include working title, short working description (2-3 sentences) and 5-10 images. The images can be thumbnails, character concepts, anything!

All of this is due Tuesday, October 12 at noon.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Fall 2010 Week 1 Comics & Picture Books

Cover of Volo, by Miles Inada
Your first project is to take the rough breakdowns you brought in on Thursday, September 30, and work them into a roughed out 8-page book by Tuesday, October 5. Make 5 copies of your book for your classmates to read and critique on Tuesday!

Here's a link to a post on Miles' working process.

Finally, be sure to get your blog up and running today, post the URL with your full name as a comment to this post! I recommend blogger as it's easy and free and endorsed by Robert Conrad.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Final for Art 450/496 Special Projects n' Capstonez

Leavin' a patch at the Art 450/496 Final Critique. Eat my fire, suckahs!
Final Crit for Art 450/496 is Thursday, June 3, 5:30.
Note! This is NOT the final for the Comic/Picture Book class. See the previous post for Art 349 final crit times.

Final Critique for Art 349 Comics et Picture Books!

Students get freak-ay at last year's Comics n' Picture Books final crit.

Final critique for Comics unt Picture Books is Wednesday, June 2 at 3:00 in MA 101. Bring 5 copies of your work, and we'll have a reading festival. Miles shall bring some snaks.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

iPad'in

Catwoman, done by Jim Lee on an iPad using SketchBookPro.
Just got an iPad today, and it's groovy. Here's an interesting bit on Jim Lee of DC breaking his in as a drawing tool.
One of the most exciting things about the iPad is that the SketchBookPro software cost . . . $7.99
That's a difference-maker right there. Compare the costs of the following digital art start-up kits:

bottom-end iPad ($500-800) + SketchBookPro ($7.99) + some kind of stylus ($20.00-30.00) = $527.99

bottom-end Macbook Pro ($1199) + Photoshop (academic vers $200.00) + Wacom Intuos $309) = $1708

The iPad is not a ready replacement for laptop/wacom set up yet. Intuos pressure sensitive, high res, etc. . . But. . . it's looking real interesting, especially because. . .

I think the iPad is a bona fide publishing platform with significant advantages over olde-fashioned books. It's extra-spiffy. The comic-viewing capabilities are down-right spectacular.  The main difference I felt was that the contemporary full-blast digital coloring techniques in today's comics look loads better on the screen (where they were created!) than they do in print! I wasn't expecting that, but it blew me away. The mac Book reader also comes with a sweet free ebook of Winnie the Pooh. It's splendid, though I still imagine good old kids BOOKS are here to stay. Anyhow, I will bring this new robot girlfriend in to class on Wednesday for y'all to check out. I think it'll be a major development in the way comics n' picture books are "consumed" and created in "the future."

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Assignment for Monday, April 19 - Final Project presentation

Finished and preliminary drawings from Maurice Sendak's Higglety Pigglety Pop! 

Monday, April 19, you'll present your final project idea to the class via your blog. Your presentation should include:
1. 3-5 images of your own work.
2. 5 images from your visual research.
3. A one paragraph written description of your project.
4. A one sentence description of your project.
5. Specific technical issues you'll need to figure out to get this project done.
6. A timeline for what you're going to have done on your project when.
7. What you will have done by Monday, April 26, which will be our next critique.
These Maurice Sendak images are reproduced from an article on a Sendak retrospective in the San Francisco Sentinel.

Early cover concept for Where The Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Double-Edged Wednesday

Stealin' from the best. My shower scene on the left, Clowes' Ghost World on the right.

If the first blade misses yer beard, the second one does the job. . . yes. Here's the to do list for Wednesday, April 14.

1. Bring your FIVE copies.
2. Update your BLOG.
3. Write a one paragraph description of your final project idea.
4. Cite a specific piece of visual research you've used in making your latest and greatest work. Here's a link to a post I made discussing the example above!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Miles' Working Process


I'm an un-methodical, un-organized person by nature, but I've been forced to get a little more systematic as I've grappled with making comics and animation. Here are some observations that have helped me to carry out a project like a picture book or comic book.
1. Start a folder. When I know that I'm working on a big project, I go through my scrappy drawings, notes and sketchbooks and pull out stuff that might be relevant to the project; Then I stick it in THE FOLDER. I label the folder with a nice working title, and I'm off and running. From now on, ANYTHING even remotely related to the project goes into this folder.

2. After I've started the analogue folder, I scan my stuff in and start a digital folder. I then back this folder up to another drive or disk. Regular back up is the key to survival when you work on a long-term project.

3. Git to work dealing with the nuts and bolts design of your book. Font/lettering ideas, logo designs, panel layouts, etc. Eventually, I work out a template that forms the basis for all of my pages. A key part of this process is settling on a page size.

4. Get on the phone/internet and talk to printers to get turn-around times and submission requirements. Err on the side of too much information. Revisit step 3 as necessary.

Here are some more detailed posts on my processes.
How Miles makes his Arms and Ether web comic.
How Miles made the Arms and Ether comic book.
A link to Miles' Arms and Ether comic book page template.
Link to Miles' Arms and Ether web template. 
Link to The Ohio Players, Love Roller Coaster, 1975.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Comic Picture Book Assignment 1 & Blog Expectations

Image from Woman Wonder by Will Elder, Mad #5, 1952

Hey, here's your first project! You've got two weekends and all next week to cause some mayhem.

1. Create an 8 page comic!
2. Print, staple, and fold 5 copies!
3. Bring 'em to class on Monday, April 12!

Make sure to do yer visual research and post yer progress on yer blog!
I will be checking blogs every Friday morning, starting April 9.
Here's what I expect as a minimum. 

1. A Visual Research post. This is a post that contains at least one image and some written analysis of some visual material relevant to your work.

2. A Work post. This post should contain at least one image and some writing about your own work. If you're working with analogue materials plan on at least one scanning session per week!

Click here for examples of visual research and work posts from my own site.

Hey It's My Self-Portrait

Here's a self-portrait of my day. Mornin' til night.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Art 450 & 496 Special Projects & Capstone


We'll meet next on Thursday, April 8th at 4:30. I've already talked to you about your projects, so I'll expect you to have the details firmed up as follows:

0. A working title for your project.
1. A one sentence description of your project.
2. A one paragraph description of your project.
3. A one page description of your project.
4. A description of what you're going to actually produce during the course of your project. Make sure you include any preparatory/exploratory sketches, photos, collages, animatics, rough cuts, and interpretive dance you'll be doing.
5. Visual and/or written research for your project. Stuff done by other people.
6. Treatment visuals for your project. Stuff done by you.
7. A written description of specific technical and research issues you will need to address during the course of your project.
8. A timeline of your project. When you will be doing all of this good stuff. You must include specific deadlines (for example: "April 27th", not "some time in April."
9. A blog containing all of the above. You will also keep track of your activity here. If you do something for your project, blog it. I check these things oft, so I expect to see constant brain activity here. POST YOUR NAME & BLOG URL as comment to this post.
10. Your magic sunshine. See you then.

Critique schedule is as follows:
Thursday, April 8, 4:30
Thursday, April 22, 4:30
Thursday, May 6, 4:30
Thursday, May 20, 4:30
Final Critique Thursday, June 3, 5:30 p.m.

Capstone Paper Guidelines

Everyone in Art 496 has the honor of writing The Glorious and Most Noble Capstone Paper. "What are the expectations of such a paper, and how can I write one?" I hear you ask. Well, I'll tell you.

1. Think of the paper as a presentation of your project to an audience of complete strangers. Use your project proposal to help you articulate your project and your process to this audience.

2. What were you trying to achieve with the project? Did you have a clear goal or purpose in mind? Were some aspects of the project more experimental? Discuss influences on the project, and include images and a bibliography.

4. Reflect on your process and give a post-mortem of the project. What went right? What went wrong? Did the project change as you went along? Did obstacles arise? Were they expected or unexpected? How did you overcome these obstacles? What advise would you give others undertaking similar projects?

5. Include images of your project and process. These may be attached as an appendix or integrated into the body of the paper.

6. Print this out, bind it, and bring it to our final critique.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Blogeth Me, Spring 2010 Comix People! Assignment 1

Hey, leave your blogs urls with your full name as a comment to this post!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Idiotic Guessing Game in ActionScript 3.0

I've spent time I should have spent contemplating the beauty of the human form or drawing trees creating a computer guessing game. It's sure to thrill. Here's a link to the full code in a .txt file. If you really like to rock to funky beats, you can download the .fla file and the .as file right here. Anyhow, let me know if you manage to break it.

Here's the main code for getting the guessing down. Initially, I came up with many hare-brained formulas that didn't work. Finally I resorted to digging around on the net, saw a post on limits and the light went on at last. Here's the code for the "no" button. The minLimit variable is initialized as 1 and the maxLimit variable is initialized at 101. As the computer guesses, its guess becomes either the new max or the new min limit. The computerPlay function just runs the animation and keeps track of the number of guesses.

function onNoButtonClick(event:MouseEvent):void
{
output_txt.text = interestingMessage;
if (computerGuess < userNumber) { minLimit = computerGuess; computerGuess = computerGuess + (maxLimit-minLimit)/2; computerPlay(); } else if (computerGuess > userNumber)
{
maxLimit = computerGuess;
computerGuess = computerGuess - (maxLimit-minLimit)/2;
computerPlay();
}
else
{
output_txt.text = lieMessage;
}
}

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Game Developer's Conference - Career Stuff


Here are some links about gettin' the ol' game career going. Our very own Ms. Lindsay Peck is off to the GDC (Game Developers Conference) next week, so we look forward to some good stories. These big conferences can be a good opportunity to see the game world in action and make it all a bit more flesh and blood. Often times you can apply to be a student volunteer, or take advantage of a reduced cost student pass.

Gamasutra - GDC Career Pavillion Tips For Success
Game Career Guide - GDC Tips For Students
Siggraph Career Page - includes The Demo Reel From Hell and The Five Minute Career Mentor.

SIGGRAPH Conference Site
Game Developer's Conference Site

Saturday, February 27, 2010

NYTimes on Animator William Kentridge

Published: February 26, 2010
The Museum of Modern Art’s “William Kentridge: Five Themes” lays out the strengths and weaknesses of this prominent South African artist’s work with a forthrightness that is almost touching.
Click here for full article.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Artiste O' The Day


Sir Garrett of Eldenhalle sends us this lovely site of Raphael Lacoste's work. Nifty concepts from Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, and the like. Also, Raphael's been studying his art history hasn't he? Piranesi, fo' sho'. And check out the Friedrich shout-out below.
 
  
Here's Caspar David Friedrich's The Sea of Ice from 1823-24. Friedrich's one of those guys that we should all dig on. Cheers, Caspar!

Lithia Motors Internship - Looking for a FLASH designer

 Hey guys, here's a very cool opportunity. Lithia is looking for a paid intern for 10 hours of work per week. Needless to say, this would be brilliant professional experience: national company, major brands, wide distribution of your work, etc. etc. If you're interested, here are the specs:

Build a flash element for a Lithia store. The winning student
(s) would have an opportunity to present their work here at Lithia, or we
could come there to review.

What we would like to see from the designers as part of the project, is a
flash build that has:

technical elements of:
1. follows IAB standards
2. is under 40K
3. size is 300x250
4. 15 seconds
5. one loop
6. a swf, fla and jpg (the jpg is the final frame used for browsers that do
not have a flash player)
7. if Rich Media can be incorporated, that is an added bonus

Lithia elements of:
1. includes store logo, Reno Subaru, logo attached
2. includes a vehicle
3. the final frame would have a strong call to action
4. uses a circus theme or spring cleaning theme

We would like to see creative by March 8th if possible.

Here's the Reno Subaru logo:
 
Let me know if you have questions, and get your work to me by Friday, next week! Get that career goin'.

Final Critique Times For Miles' Classes

Art 351 Interactive Studio: Wednesday, March 10, 7:30-9:30 a.m.(!)
Art 399 Concept Art O' The Rich & Famous: Wednesday, March 10, 3:30 p.m.
Art 353 3D Modelin' & Lightin': Tuesday, March 9, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Art 450/496 "Special" Projects & Capstone: Wednesday, March 10, 5:30 p.m.

Have all yer work blogged up and ready to present.
All critiques will meet in the regularly scheduled labs.

Monday, February 22, 2010

The Excellent Bill Wray

Lots of nice stuff at Bill Wray's site. I like the backgrounds he did for Samurai Jack.

Controlling MovieClip Timelines!

Your event handler will look something like this:

function onYourButtonClick(event:MouseEvent):void
{
 startPage.gotoAndStop(2);
}

If you wanted to control a clip within a clip, use dot notation!

startPage.cuteMovie.gotoAndPlay(30);

Friday, February 19, 2010

Mac vs. Adobe: It's Civil War, I Tells Yuh!

 
Articles on the Adobe Apple feud. Will Flash survive??? Probably, but hopefully emerging much improved by the struggle.
Wall Street Journal
The Guardian
New York Times
As an artist/animator, I like Flash, I really do. To me, its strength is the integration of drawing, animation, and programming into one nifty flexible environment. Yay, for me. However, that's not why Flash is a dominant web presence. I think Flash has risen because it has serious Adobe market muscle behind it. In its evolution, Flash has become a classic bit of bloat-ware--it can do things like play video and generate slideshows for the web, but it's by no means the best way to do those things. Sure, Flash has a video player, but most people hate it and want it dead. And why the hell should people be forced to use Flash to make a web slide show?

So, what's the point of all this? As an academic teaching studio art and "emerging media," I don't like the idea of perpetuating olde techniques and approaches to doing things just because I know how to do them. Over the past few years, I feel that some complacency has set in, that we're still using a lot of this corporate bloat-ware because that's what us olde perfessers know what to do. There's much more to say on this subject, but I'll end it for now with the thought that I want to make sure I'm not teaching some corporate party line, but rather some basic principles and concepts that my students will be able to adapt and develop into their own approach to things.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Here's How To Start and Stop Sounds (Flash AS 3.0)

Here's the .fla file for you to download.
Here's the .as file for you to download. (right-click and save as for best results!)

package
{
// here's where you import the Sound and SoundChannel classes
    import flash.display.MovieClip;
    import flash.events.MouseEvent;
    import flash.media.Sound;
    import flash.media.SoundChannel;
   
    public class Main extends MovieClip
    {
        //these first variables are to hold sounds that have been imported to the Library
        var noo:Noo;
        var waterloo:Waterloo;
        var ooh:Ooh;

        //this creates a variable to contain a SoundChannel. To play a sound, you must have
        //a SoundChannel to play it in.
        var soundChannel:SoundChannel;

       
       
        public function Main()
        {
            //here we load up the sound variables with instances of the Library sounds
            noo = new Noo();
            waterloo = new Waterloo();
            ooh = new Ooh();
            //here we load the soundChannel variable with a new SoundChannel.
            soundChannel = new SoundChannel;
           
            //here are the Event Listeners!
            //buttonRoll is the instance name of the button in my scene.
            buttonRoll.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, onButtonRollOver);
            buttonRoll.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, onButtonRollOut);
            buttonRoll.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onButtonRollClick);
        }
           
            //here are the Event Handlers
        function onButtonRollOver(event:MouseEvent):void
        {
            //this starts the waterloo sunset guitar playing in the soundChannel.
            soundChannel = waterloo.play();
           
        }
        function onButtonRollOut(event:MouseEvent):void
        {
            //this stops any previous sounds that have been playing in the soundChannel.
            soundChannel.stop();
            //this plays the annoying noo sound
            soundChannel = noo.play();
            trace("out of this world");
        }
        function onButtonRollClick(event:MouseEvent):void
        {
            soundChannel.stop();
            soundChannel = ooh.play();
            trace("clickin and tickin");
        }
    }
}

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Here're the Interactive Storybook Files with Button Jumping

Main.as
InteractiveStorybook.fla

package
{
    import flash.display.MovieClip;
    import flash.events.MouseEvent;
   
    public class Main extends MovieClip
    {
        var startPage:StartPage;
        var hillPage:HillPage;
        var pondPage:PondPage;
       
        public function Main()
        {
            startPage = new StartPage();
            hillPage = new HillPage();
            pondPage = new PondPage();
            addChild(startPage);
           
           
            //add event listeners
            startPage.hillButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onHillButtonClick);
            startPage.pondButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onPondButtonClick);
            hillPage.backToStartButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onBackButtonClick_Hill);
            pondPage.backToStartButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onBackButtonClick_Pond);
        }
        // here are the event handlers
        function onHillButtonClick(event:MouseEvent):void
        {
            addChild(hillPage);
            removeChild(startPage);
        }
        function onPondButtonClick(event:MouseEvent):void
        {
            addChild(pondPage);
            removeChild(startPage);
        }
        function onBackButtonClick_Hill(event:MouseEvent):void
        {
            addChild(startPage);
            removeChild(hillPage);
        }
        function onBackButtonClick_Pond(event:MouseEvent):void
        {
            addChild(startPage);
            removeChild(pondPage);
        }
    }
}

Useful Movie Clip Properties

Access these properties with dot notation!
myMovieClipInstance.property
For example:
startPage.alpha
to access the alpha properties of "startPage".

Anyhow, here's a list o' properties.
alpha = transparency        Takes a value from 0 -1. Default is 1 (opaque).
height = height in pixels   1 is lowest possible value. Decimals are okay.
width = width in pixels     1 is lowest possible value. Decimals are okay.
rotation = rotation in degrees  0 to180 = clockwise. 0 to -180 = counter clockwise.
scaleX = horizontal scale of an object    Default is 1. This is a percentage, so .5 = 50%, 2 = 200%, etc.
scaleY = vertical scale of an object    Default is 1. This is a percentage, so .5 = 50%, 2 = 200%, etc.
visible = visibility  This is a Boolean value. It is either true or false.
x  =  x position on the stage    In pixels. Up left of stage is x = 0, positive x is to right of stage.
y = y position on the stage      In pixels. Upper left corner of stage is y = 0. positive y is down stage.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Whoa Concept People! Whoa! New Critique Date!

 Alack, Professor Miles has to leave class early today and Wednesday, so. . . dramatic music. . . we'll move the full class critique to Monday, Feb 22. We'll have small group critiques today instead. So, present your work and discuss your schemes for the final project. Now stop reading this and git to celebratin' our dang Presidents.

Monday, February 8, 2010

David Hockney

Check out an alternative to the geek-chic neo-realist approach to concept design. Why, it's good ol' David Hockney!
and a little thing called modernism/post-modernism. . . Mon Dieu. Screw the ambient occlusion and caustics!!! Just bust out the good ol' flat COLOR.

Ryan Church

Thanks to Garrett Ross for this link to Ryan Church's site. Make sure to check out his bio, links and working methods section. EEExcellent.

Art 351 - How To Jump Around The Timeline

Create a new blank layer and call it actions. Select the blank keyframe and open up the Actions palette (Window > Actions).

Here's the basic code for jumping around in your timeline.
To add it, click on a blank keyframe in your actions layer and open up the Actions palette.
In the code below, "button1" is the name of my particular button instance. To give your instance a name, select it on the stage and enter an instance name in the Properties palette.

Also note that the "(10)" after the gotoAndPlay command means I want to jump to frame 10.

stop();
button1.addEventListener(
  MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP,
  function(evt:MouseEvent):void {
    gotoAndPlay(10);
  }
);

Here's the same file with a second button added on frame 1

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

He Came To Rock You

 
Samuel Palmer, Cornfield By Moonlight, 1824

Samuel Palmer from his Shoreham period. Hell yes, people.

How To Upload and Embed .swf Files

1. Open Fugu. It's in your Applications folder.

When opened, it'll look like this:
 

2. In the"Connect to" box, type:  webpages.sou.edu
like so:
 

3. Follow the login prompts and your network directory 
will appear on the right. Double click the public_html folder.



4. Now, you can drag and drop files from your computer to your account. Hoorah.
5. Now, you can access files in your public_html folder by typing the url into any web browser.
Here's the url:
http://webpages.sou.edu/~username/filename.ext
Here's an example using my username and a .swf file.
http://webpages.sou.edu/~minada/framejumpinginAS3.swf


6. To embed the file in your blog, use the code at this link. Just like I done it down below! Make sure you're in "Edit HTML mode," or it's going to look awful funny. Also make sure you enter the height and width properly! I tend to keep my blog .swf embeds to just under 400 px wide. Set and check your height and width in flash before you export your .swf.
 
 Remember, your height and width settings are under Modify > Document. . . in Flash. Here's the click-able embedded .swf

Monday, February 1, 2010

Art 351 Assignment 4 - Jumpin' Jehosaphat!

This assignment has two parts:

A. Create a library of 10 buttons, just for kicks.

B. Create an interactive timeline-based story the user will navigate using buttons to jump around the timeline.

1. Script and thumbnail out your story. We'll look at these this Monday, Feb 8. Make sure you post your work to your blog.

2. Shawn will be coming in to demo some basic sound recording on Wednesday, Feb. 3!

3. This piece will be due for critique on Wednesday, February 17.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Embed Source Code for Animated Flash Movies


The above button is an example of an embedded swf file. Here's a link to the source code you'll need to embed your animated flash files. Make sure you are in the EDIT HTML tab of your blog post or, it'll look silly.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Art 399 Concept Art - Assignment 2 - Environment Concepts


Game Bridge concept by Alex Munn

For your second project, you'll be researching and developing a set of environmental concept drawings. These could be  concepts for a game, an animation, a movie, a book, interpretive dance, amusement park, stage set, or none of the above. Here's what you'll do.

1. Write a description about your place. Where is it? What year? What does it look like, smell like? Describe the color palette there. What emotions does the place invoke? Who and/or what lives/lived there? Let your imagination run wild. Wild, I tell you.

2. Do lots and lots of visual research on your place. Architecture, flora, fauna. Mood. Look for images of interesting lighting schemes that fit your vision. And always, always. . . textures. Blog this stuff, baby. Taking your own photos is very helpful too.

3. Do it! Create preparatory drawings/collages as needed!

4. We'll have a work in progress crit on Wednesday, February 3. Final work is due Monday, February15.

Make sure you check out your hero artists to inspire you to new heights of lunacy. Blog about 'em.


Art 351 - Assignment 3: Create 15 Animated Dingbats


1. Create a library of 15 animated dingbats.
2. Due Monday, February 1.
3. Post your progress as you go!

Here's a quick demo video on getting started with animation in Flash. More to come.

Concept Designs for Left 4 Dead 2, Youtube Vids by Daarken


Randy Lundeen, Environment Design, Left 4 Dead 2
Here's a link to an interview with a character and environment designer on Left 4 Dead 2.  Dig it. CG Society's a useful site. Check it out.


Daarken, Liche King Design
Also, here's a link to Daarken's Warhammer character design demo that Cody McD shared on Wednesday. Loved it. Live it. It's just part 1 of several -so check 'em all out!