Chronologically Kiwi Capers

Tick, tock.
Here's a clock.
This kiwi pair don't wear no frock~
(Because kiwis aren't weird like people)

We had to make a clock. That was just friggin' awesome in my humble opinion, it was time to show what I could do.
Haha... time...
Well enough of puns, before I begin to... tick you off...

OKAY. That is enough puns. Let's... tock about the assignment.
Okay, sorry, I can't help it. Just don't tell anyone... it will be... hour little secret.
...gotta... hand it to me... I bring out bad jokes, so you will just have to... face... the facts.

OKAY.

I decided upon an image-based clock, rather than some fancy design. But there were so many ideas to choose from... and I sketched up four differing designs, one of which I would choose for the final design.

The first sketch depicts Splash and Cascade from my graphic novel Dreamspace, from the Splash saga.

The second sketch depicts Tarri and Ruby from the same graphic novel series, Dreamspace, from the Timelock saga.

The third sketch, again from Dreamspace, shows Tarri in his actual fairy form.

The fourth sketch is completely unrelated to Dreamspace, but is based on another concept I had with kiwis.
This is the idea I went with, since I already chose Dreamspace/Splash for my Snakes and Ladders game, used Tarri (dragon) and Ruby in my 2nd Year Animation, and am using Tarri (fairy) in my 3rd Year Animation.

I set out the clock using simple font numerals. Since the cheerful image is colourful and cartoonish, I thought these would suit the style best.
And below we have the final design~

....TIME TO GO~

Dolphin Time - Can't Touch Fish *breaks it down now*

Time Currents and Infinite Arms

One of the projects we had to do for our first assignment was to create a board game based on either Snakes and Ladders, or Chinese Checkers.

I went with Snakes and Ladders, mostly because I felt I could have more fun with it.

So behold, planning and such!

For starters, a theme. In all the awesomeness of creating my own Snakes and Ladders, I used my graphic novel, Dreamspace/Splash, as a theme. As you can see, the above reference to one of the pages in the first chapter, the protagonist, an as yet unnamed dolphin in terms of having a dolphin name, is influenced (unbeknown to him) by the Ocean Star. This causes the character (who introduces himself with the alias Splash), is somewhat "outside of time", and from the outside observer, his movements are either insanely fast, or undetectable. I used this effect and referenced them as "Time Currents" in the game, which takes the place of the traditional ladders.

Towards the end of the Splash series of Dreamspace, the main plot will introduce what is only known as "Infinite Arms," which takes on what appears to be dark tenticle-like tendrils reaching from outside of space and time. These have taken the role of the snakes.

I also had to make sure I had a base for the game. I was dead set on a full 100 square game, much like the version I enjoyed as a child:

The trick of course then is to place the positive and negative squares in place, and while I wanted them to be spread out somewhat evenly (with a few exceptions to psychologically challenge the player), and then add the additional apparent difficulty by mounting more of the Infinite Arms squares as you get closer to the end, and having less of the Time Currents.

These are the Time Current squares. Upon landing on one of these squares, the player moves up the Time Current to the destination square, each tile above in order from the first to last of this line.

In order from left to right:

"Make a Friend" - An image of Orcy.

"Ranha Screws Up" - Mako's lacky, Ranha, messes up once again.

"Mako's Plans are Foiled" - Image depicts Mako stopped by Coral, Anteia and Swift.

"Super Rainbow Quacker Duck Musical Accompaniment" - Depicts the Super Rainbow Quacker Ducks breaking out in song.

"Treasure Ship" - Depicts a sunken treasure ship full of treasure.

"Splash Saves the Day" - Image depicted by the protagonist, Splash.

"Help from a Dolphin Pirate" - One of the Dolphin Pirates, Sapphire, assists.

The above tiles depict the Infinite Arms squares. The reverse of the Time Currents, landing on these squares will require you to follow the tendril down to the destination square.

In order from left to right, from earliest to last:

"Moray Ambush!" - Depicts the villain siblings Mor and Ray.

"Mako Takes the Ocean Star" - Depicts a grinning Mako.

"Dolphin Pirates Arrive" - The Dolphin Pirates enter the story and cause trouble.

"The Ocean Star Disappears" - The Ocean Star mysteriously vanishes.

"Spritz is Kidnapped" - Depicts a crying Spritz.

"Ghost Ship" - Depicts the evil Ghost Ship.

"Dark Tide" - Shows an unprecedented ocean swell, drowning entire lands, towns, people, etc., with the Ghost Ship riding on top of the surge.

The final board looks as such:

I made it so the destination squares either had a white-blue spot, or red-black spot (depending on Time Currents or Infinite Arms), so it would be easier to know where to land.

In addition, it would be quite ideal that any playing tokens created especially for this game be of various characters from the story.
Ideas for this included:

Splash, Cascade, Caley, Spritz, Mako, Ranha, Sapphire, Ocry.

NUDES NUDES NUDES!!!

...as in, incompletely UV unwrapped and unfurred characters. Get your damn mind out of the gutter!

But (lol, butt) up to this point, between that cursed and forsaken Bones of Essimir and Digital Illustration jack-in-the-boxes (aka homework due the following week which I am never really able to account into trying to plan all these tasks, scheduling this stuff is nearly void), I have been focusing on building the characters up, and a couple have been UV unwrapped and have basic textures applied to them.
The rest are either half-unwrapped or I neglect the hell out of it (mostly because it will suck my life out of me anyway, much like multiple assignments.
...I wonder if the life-sucking monsters are a subconscious metaphor for the multiple assignments and tasks draining my energy...)

Anyhoo, I will do a picture thing.
With pictures.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, in my case it's worth a thousand dollars.
And I have a bunch of pictures to show.


Tarri - Fairyfox

First we have the protagonist of the Dreamspace series, Tarri, as his true form.

The head has always been a starting point for me, and this is no exception. While building the head, I always build using half-a-head, and a mirroring duplicate for the other side.

At first, as I designed Tarri's head, it became clearer and clearer he was becoming less of a fox and more of a piggy-pig-snoggleton.

I decided to restart, following a similar process as before, only this time round the shape actually began to form the way I wanted it to.

And in the end, we have Tarri's head, which I gave two spheres for eyes, which make him look of the undead. Quite ironic since he is a being of pure life.

Next I needed to begin work on the body. To do this, I start with a new piece of geometry. Like the head, I create a special duplicate to create both side simultaneously.

The first basic body set-up.

I quickly realised with this render that merchandising was feasible, and that

Fairyfox Coffee Tables were the in thing.

 

The body came together, as I built upon the basics. Once the body shape had come together, I extruded a simple neck from the body to the head, and then I combined the geometries of the body and it's mirroring duplicate.
I then UV unwrapped him, of which was only really necessary to facilitate the features of the body of which had different colours, and no fur (which would be added later).

Andler - Fairydeer

The same process was followed for my fairydeer character. Head first, then body, join by neck, then combined both sides together to form a super-deer.
Oh, and the name Andler is just a name, it won't really be referred to in the animation. I just couldn't think of a name at the time, so... antler... Andler...
When it comes time to actually work on the story in later times, chances are I may find a much more awesome name.
Like Auron.
Auron is badass.

Auron from FFX

Anyway, back to the stag that is Andler.

Fairydeer Coffee Tables are just as popular.

Of course, these are just basic colours. The fur for these characters should, in theory, make them epic.
The form of this male deer is staggering.


Fairytails

Cannot forget the fairytails, the fantail-like fairies. These were obviously different from the previous two characters in terms of building and shape.

Like the previous two, I started with the head, and then build the body. The body was a different shape, more like a squashed, really fat banana.

The problem I did find with this one is obvious. When I attempted the feet, I accidentally imagined the "knees" as being forward-facing, instead of the reverse.
So reverse feet became a thing, and Creepy Feet was born.

Of course, I corrected this error quickly, and worked with the geometry until it looked right. In terms of wings, I was advised to forego the idea of using paint feathers and just using geometry. I worked out the feathers before I even began - after all, given the patterns and colours the wings for every feather will be separate from the whole wing, I had to know where the edges of the feathers would be in order to cut them when it came to UV unwrapping.

Airy Fairy Air is now go for take-off.

To get the desired effect of all of the feathers (wing-bound and tail), I realised that I would ultimately have to overlap the edges of the feathers with others in order to prevent them from looking like spikes or something.
Because they would totally be the fairytail's weapon of choice, since a being of life would totally take yours (sarcasm).
The fairytail thus now looks like this, and is currently in the process of UV unwrapping.

The Anticre

Then you have these badasses. They don't give a fridge magnet about whether or not you want to stay alive, they actually don't give a thought or anything. You could say they have no real purpose other than to feed off your life force.
They don't think, or feel, they have no remorse, therefore you cannot bargain with them, they will just feed off you without any real thought, since thinking is not something they do.
They do, however, have an impeccable singing voice.
And by singing voice, I mean otherworldly screech which will paralyse you with fear where you cannot move while they will slowly move in to feast while all you can do is just stand there, watching them draw in closer... and closer...

Same story with before, start with the head, then build the body, join by neck, combined both sides.
These sexy babes used to be human, then they died. Then their corpses were overtaken and tainted by some anti-living force.
The last image depicts that it wants a hug. (It's not after a hug, it will suck your life out, but hey, it could be your grandmother! Who will kill you. And then you will become one of THEM. Cheery food for thought. I don't like cherries).

Another thing with the head I need to keep in mind is that the lower section of the mouth needs to extend drastically.
Also, this one has no texture, since they are purely black.
Whether or not I decide to give it a texture is to be decided, but at this point there isn't any point in it.



Fairyflies

The fairyflies are basically the fairy version of fireflies.
I have created a basic form for them, although whether or not this will be ultimately the last form is yet to be determined.
For the meantime, they have wings much like the fairies of The Legend of Zelda (Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, etc), however these are just basic wings and are supposed to look a bit more like steams in the near shape of wings.
The main focus for the time, however, was the lighting.

The initial tests looked okay once I had some good lighting, and the wings were very faint.

These shots I had encased the fairyfly body in a glass-material sphere. This gave the effect you see above.

The above image shows the wings clearer than the last, the last having a bit more glow on the wings.
While the top one may seem to display the detail more of the wings, the bottom one would give them less of a generic wing-like appearance, which is kind of what I am after.


And that is what I have to show the class today.
I have run out of tea, I need to brew some more.
Oh, and the whole thing about "a picture's worth a thousand dollars," you owe me $26,000.
I will send my thugs to collect the money at some undetermined time.

The Cornerstone of Modern Rusty Roofing is Here!

PREPARE TO ENTER...

TARRI'S
INCREDIBLE INFAMOUS IRON
RUSTY ROOFING REALM

Step right up, step right up! Experience the miracle of which I have been contributing for the past couple of weeks for the Doors... er, Bones of Essimir Project!
Prepare to be amazed, ladies and gentlemen, and behold in wonder as you gaze upon the rusted corrogated iron products of which I have worked hard to texture!

But that's not all, ladies and gentlemen! Utilising these fine, rusty pieces of shi- I mean, corrogated iron, I put together a sound roof to shelter the people of Essimir!

Of course, this could not be possible without the help of my esteemed colleague, James, who created the geometry of the iron in the first place!
Ladies and gentlemen, James!
James: "F*#k you, Tarri."
James, ladies and gentlemen!
The crowd goes wild with applause.

And we cannot forget the first corrogated iron piece that got us here in the first place, 100% geometrically designed and textured by yours truly (that's me, ladies and gentlemen), raise your sights to the original corrogated iron!

Isn't she a beauty, ladies and gentlemen? Now I cannot presume too much, but I think we can all agree there is nothing sexier than a piece of iron with curves!

PREPARE TO BEHOLD...

THE CORNERSTONES OF CIVILISATION

Look at these cornerstones which I textured, bumped, and specularafied.

LOOK AT THEM.

Beheld? Good.

Show's over, go home.