Illustration ideas

So, apart from looking over my old work for inspiration for some t-shirt or illustration ideas, I'm looking at what other people have done.
In particular I'm looking at these video game influenced t-shirts from nerdyshirts.com because I'm into that kind of imagery. Here are a couple of examples:





So there is an old school theme going on here with lots of 8-bit pixel shapes or adaptations on those shapes, gathering appeal from reminiscence of the games and a growing up around the imagery.
However much I really like these shirts, I think unless I can add something new to the theme, I'd best stay away from it to avoid blending into the many many others out there.

Tell you what, tomorrow morning I'll hammer out a good few t-shirt designs and see if anything comes out of it. I've got a feeling that this kind of brief is best answered just off the top of your head really, so I'll have the results of that for you tomorrow!

XNA: Bringing game design into your hands

This is based on info taken from fanboy.com so I didn't write it myself but I've fully understood what the post is telling me and I'm currently downloading the available software ready for running what tests I can of any game we make.

It's very cool that Microsoft is doing this - creating video games has always been very closed, hats off to Gates and Co, on this one:

Microsoft Invites the World to Create Its Own Xbox 360 Console Games for the First Time

"In the 30 years of video game development, the art of making console games has been reserved for those with big projects, big budgets and the backing of big game labels. Now Microsoft Corp. is bringing this art to the masses with a revolutionary new set of tools, called XNA Game Studio Express, based on the XNA platform. XNA Game Studio Express will democratize game development by delivering the necessary tools to hobbyists, students, indie developers and studios alike to help them bring their creative game ideas to life while nurturing game development talent, collaboration and sharing that will benefit the entire industry.

By providing an integrated, seamless development environment based on Visual Studio Express and .NET that simplifies the integration and use of game content, XNA Game Studio Express makes game development easier to accomplish for smaller projects, strongly increasing the chance for great game ideas to make it out of the concept stage and into the hands of gamers everywhere.

The XNA Game Studio Express beta will be available Aug. 30, 2006, as a free download on Windows XP, for development on the Windows XP platform. XNA Game Studio Express will give anyone with a Windows XP-based PC access to a unified development tool that liberates the creation of great Xbox 360 and Windows XP-compatible games, providing a new alternative to the existing multithousand-dollar development kits that many console games require. The final version of XNA Game Studio Express will be available this holiday season."

Figure drawing with Todd Harris

This is a drawing critique and refresher on figure drawing/toning from concept artist Todd Harris. I hope he doesn't mind me posting this up here but it's a very useful video for the concept briefs I'm undertaking.

Taken from Todd's figure drawing blog. I need to get back into doing that.. but where the hell are the classes I can go to??

Flash game research

Just more visual research for zombie game.

I found this Flash game from New Zealand to be quite entertaining:

Anika's Odyssey

"Anika’s Odyssey is a magical adventure deep into a lush and enchanted land. Break away from reality to enter a mystical world inspired by Aotearoa, New Zealand, as you meet the curious spirits and exotic creatures that inhabit this wondrous wilderness. Anika’s Odyssey is an enchanting point-and-click adventure game, full of a surprises and charm. Help Anika explore her colorful landscape as she journeys to reclaim her beloved friend."

Visual Research for game

Here are a couple of other examples I found for some stylistic inspiration for the game.

RayRay Parade


So simple but instantly recognizable as a person!



Same sort of thing here too in 'NinjaTown' from Shawnimals.
These are both examples of mega simplification of the human form and they're kinda the direction I'm thinking for the human and zombie characters in the game. But.. it is possible that Owen was thinking of an even more abstracted look for the characters so I need to take that into account. I'm thinking this because that would correlate with the style of Loco Roco and Patapon that he talked about.

To be honest, I'm pretty sure that if I made it look good enough, I'm pretty sure I could have almost complete free reign over what I made the style of the game to be as Owen has told me a few times more or less that he just wants something that works really. Need to stop limiting myself from the off set :P.

Anyway, I should take a look at hyper-simplified human form in image culture if I want anymore stylistic research I think at the moment, but it's time for some drawings I think.

Animation examples

The kind of audience Tony is wanting to aim at is around mid teens and up, basically being anyone who would watch cartoons online. The feel of the cartoon is to be surreal as Tony requested.
'Surreal' can be interpreted in a number of ways and one of the ways I think Tony would be particularly keen to avoid would be a 'surreal' cartoon which just involved senseless violence just for the sake of it because he would feel like I was copping out and not doing anything really worth watching. I believe though that violence used effectively could certainly be a very useful tool in entertaining this audience so I will probably end up working some of it in somewhere.

What we've got here are some examples of what I feel relates to what we're trying to achieve here; some of them along the lines of what we want and maybe one or two that really stray off the mark.



'Happy Tree Friends' from Mondo Media is an example of a twist on cutesy characters commiting paradoxically horrific and violent acts upon each other.
I don't know quite how I feel about this show. My understanding of why someone would watch it would be for the inventive if somewhat predictable deaths and not for the characters, who do have their own personalities but they pale in comparision to the amount of timing and development poured into the more violent aspects of the show. I like the visual style, the animation and the sound effects but usually I find the jokes to be too shallow for my taste. Thats not to say it's not good for a quick chuckle if you're waiting for something else to load, I just wouldn't spend a half hour of my time watching it.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/123073

In a similar vein of small animal anarchy comes 'Retarded animal babies' or 'RAB' for short. You'll have to follow the link above if you want to watch it because the hosting site doesn't allow for embedded video.
I like RAB because its alot more unpredictable than shows like 'Happy tree friends' and although the comedy it employs is very crude, it's fluctuating mood and temprement works well. After ten or so episodes, the colon, cursing, boob and dick jokes tend to wear a bit thin but the purely surreal plot devices seem to be enough to keep a hugely dedicated fan base watching. Unexpected one-liners also seem to do this.
Maybe this cartoon shows that on the internet, something hyper surreal, if interesting enough, can be enough to draw continual interest. I'm not convinced just yet though. I would prefer to be part of something that was a bit more substantial.


Now, they're not strictly INTERNET cartoons, but, up until recently in the UK, it's difficult for people outside of America to view them due to differences in legislation between Cartoon Network of America and the other international branches of Cartoon Network. Thus, alot of the international fanbase for the show stems from uploaded episodes, which is how I came across it. There is a varying 'feel' to the kind of content and comedy that features on Adult Swim, typically action/thriller based Animés and surreal cartoon animations.
The shows are all aimed at an 18+ audience so this is pretty relevant research!




12 oz mouse: Fast. Scribbled drawing style throughout and vastly erratic storylines which tend to have a light theme of alchoholism and bank robbery. The protagonist (Mouse) is a cocky drunk and that is pretty much the driving force of the show.



Sealab 2021: Based on the Hannah Barbera cartoon -Sealab 2020. Here's what Wiki says:

The show is set one year after the time frame of Sealab 2020. During this year, the crew's professionalism and morals have slowly degraded, causing the crew to spend more time goofing off in various ways rather than doing any serious work. None of the episodes share any connection or ongoing plot. As a result, continuity is frequently ignored; for instance, the entire installation is destroyed at the end of many episodes, and cast members are often killed in horrible ways.

The show hosts a series of well thought out and.. enigmatic characters.

Captain Hazel "Hank" Murphy is the ostensible leader of the crew. Unfortunately, he is also the most deranged member and quite unfit for service; instead of providing any real leadership, he's either running a pirate radio show, ordering crewmembers to steal cable so he can watch his favorite show "Chopper Dave", complaining about his missing Happy Cake oven, or playing golf near the station's reactor core. He once became addicted to scorpion venom.

Captain Bellerophon "Tornado" Shanks earned his position as Sealab's new captain by answering a help-wanted ad. A retired football coach and lovable redneck, he has all of Murphy's shortsighted idiocy combined with a Southern charm. Tornado's leadership qualities have led him to coach the crew in a football game against killer robots, declare Sealab a sovereign nation (named Sealabia), warp the minds of Sealab's orphan population, and assert that a huge tumor on his head would go away through prayer alone.

Debbie DuPree (voiced by Kate Miller) is the token female of the crew (other than "black debbie"), a marine biologist, and blonde and beautiful to boot. Being the token female, she tends to get upset when the guys do chauvinistic things but is also a stereotypical dumb blonde. She has an on going sexual relationship with Doctor Quinn and slept with Murphy at least once. She is slightly promiscuous and an exhibitionist, often ripping open her shirt for various male characters. In the episode "Butchslap" she tells Marco that being a filthy whore is "all she knows". In the last season, she becomes devoutly religious, going so far as to speak in tongues.

Derek "Stormy" Waters (voiced by Ellis Henican) is the station's resident pretty boy. Very childish, he's all looks and no brains most of the time; he barely knows what's going on around him. He greatly enjoys coleslaw. His stupidity has gotten him into trouble several times, mainly with "Black" Debbie. It is wholly possible he has hidden intelligence but he usually ruins any displays of intelligence he shows through equally stupid actions afterwards or revealing where he learned something. This was displayed in the "Stimutacs" episode, where the drug gave him "total cognizance of every synapse in [his] cerebral cortex", making him the smartest crew member and giving him the ability of mind over matter. He also knows how to make a Dagwood sandwich underwater. He has a habit of exclaiming "Holy Bejesus!" whenever something happens.

Inspiring stuff. See, these characters with their oddball attributes and a complete disregard for continuity give way for the surreal to pour in from every direction. The same can be said with all of the shown 'Adult Swim' stuff really, so I'll just show the last remaining examples and let the clips do the talking.



Aqua Teen Hunger Force!



Squidbillies



Frisky Dingo.

When I find other examples worth talking about I'll post them up but this will do for now.

Some computer doodles

Before some research examples and the utter abundance of hard-copy pencil and pen sketches I will upload here, here are some pictures I've knocked out to show some ideas.
They're quite erratic-looking, as ideas are really but basically they're examples of me feeling out what emotions the character might express frequently and what that might look like. There are also some ideas for themes of episodes or side characters.





Fear and concern, very blue emotions shown here. You can see here I'm using a much looser drawing style than Tony's and this is for a couple of reasons. It's faster when idea generating and usually I find it's a quick way of making an image more kinetic and eye catching.

Scary guffaw. Quite gruesome looking! Maybe if he was going mad. Or this could be the ghost of a hari krishna who died in an abandoned public restroom. Now THERE'S a plot hook if there ever was one! >.>


A sock puppet which here looks very lively and dragon-like, despite the drool. The general idea of this is that the character would have a sock puppet with him which he whispers to, or is much more involved in the stories, by being an actual character, perhaps alot wiser or much more crazied than the protagonist; anything to supply some kind of contrast of character really. Maybe the puppet could inform most of the character's important decisions or could try to purposely attempt to disrupt him. It could be a blood thirsty maniac but it's spirit is trapped in a lowly sock puppet. In this case, maybe the character aquired it through some voodoo ritual or found it in a bin when he moved in, which used to be the house of said maniac who blew himself up or made some crazy deal in which he'd be this puppet for some reason. Or maybe it was bestowed upon 'Ronnie' by a crazy god child or something.
Anyway, you'll see it pop up in a fair few of the sketches.

This is what I can only describe as an aztec yam. Maybe 'Ronnie' eats these regularly or is under the delusion that he started life as one or that one of them in particular is actually his mother. I like the sworls around the yam, they make it very mystical.

Yeah, I'm not even totally sure whats going on in this picture. I think his body consists of only the top half of his head, his legs and his arms which now come out of his ass. Either that or they're pink tusks. Also he's bald and has attempted to paint his own hair back on using a mixture of rose water and chocolate milk. Obviously.

This is 'Ronnie' being heart-broken over his delusion that the sun no longer pays him any attention like is used to. Or maybe he's right! Either way, I like how non-surplussed the sun looks here, possibly rolling it's eyes back as if to say 'oh jesus, not him again'.


Woodland nighttime lightning-strike fun. Possibly nude running in the dark in the middle of a storm. His eyes looked glazed over; he's seen something darker than a thousand midnights.

And here, in the guise of some sort of bean. could be a side character.

This is where the side characters really come in though.


HIS DOG (?) WITH NO EYES! or it should have none, but a strange grey dot has appeared in the left one completely ruining the effect .. . .

OR A DOG COSTUME.

A friend (CatJess) gave me the idea for 'Ronnie' to have a 'number one fan!' who follows him around relentlessly or turns up at inoppertune moments and makes poor mimickry of 'Ronnie''s habits. I think it's a pretty good idea for a creepy or adorable side character but I think he will become annoying the fastest his personality at the moment is based on a more pathetic version of the protagonist's.

Here he is dressed as a potato/peanut.
And here, as some kind of dog animal.

Three possible episode ideas or themes. Well, i guess eggs and ham are one really because they're very Suess-centralized. The idea with 'ghost worms' is some sort of plot around discovering a graveyard for worms or having to find a continuous supply of worms or worm-like things for some spectre to consume. Really, I just liked how the colours and the shapes in that image went together so I'll run from there.




And here he is with a sailors cap and some hairy hairy arms. And he loves it.