Oh hey, a blog.

Well, lookie here. I had almost given up on trying to regularly update this but with a conversation that we had last week in my IM 413 class I've changed my mind. We talked for a short amount of time about keeping progress blogs/artist blogs that talk a bit about whatever big task or project we're working on at the moment. I won't go into details at the moment (I spent half of last week in and out of the ER) about our big epic project of the semester, but I figured I'd try to touch on as much of what's going on right now.

So Senior year got here REALLY freaking fast. There are two big project-oriented classes this semester, and a third one that, while it's huge, isn't going to kill me as much as the other two are (it's working with sound, something I enjoy immensely). Projects include working with FMod in 3D soundscapes, designing a game for multiple touchscreen platforms, and a big fucking epic project that will probably end up with me in the ER a hell of a lot more this semester. I'm a little worried and excited at the same time; we're working on a touchscreen interface that will allow the user to experience a completely new way of enjoying music and dancing than usually done. And to trim that last statement down to the motto that Jim had at the beginning of our class: "IM 413: We do cool shit!" I'm hoping that in both of the group project-heavy courses I can work more and improve my niche as a designer/artist type. I would (ideally) like to work coding and other aspects into the mess, but considering that I'm taking a lot of what most students consider "heavy" courses all at once, I would be more than overjoyed if I got told to sit in a corner and draw X all day for the rest of the semester.


Speaking of drawing, I do have a tumblr blog that I have (grandoise) plans for. It is going to be (hopefully) used as a sister blog to this one. Where this one will go into the nitty-gritty of the processes that we're working on, the other one will be image-based at most. I've found that my ability to draw bodies in poses has slacked off immensely in the last year or so. In an attempt to improve myself (and to on those super typing/etc days that I just need time to draw) work on artwork in short bursts so that I'm continually keeping up my digital tablet proficiency as well as improving on my own artwork. Thanks to the BF buying me TF2 for my birthday this year, as well as the Polypack contest, I've done a ton of research into the ways that VALVe has gone about designing their game series, especially how each TF2 character has its own distinct personality and outline. My current sketches are based around an online forum that uses TF2 classes kinda like D&D. I know, uber geeky, but I'm also working on my writing abilities in the forum and some of the stories I've collaborated on just beg to be drawn out. I've started out doing face/body shots of some of the characters as a test. If it helps me improve, fuck, I'm all for it. I will link to it when I'm awake a little more, but for the moment, just take my word that it's there. (It's empty anyway....)

I lost track of the train of thought that was occupying this post, so it's probably best for me to call it a night. Just plan on hearing more from me soon. OH YEAH. I also finally got a Droid2. Officially completely hopeless and wired.