December 4, 2010
Vanille fanart
November 21, 2010
Headshots and an update on Disney Masterclass
A collection of headshots I'd done recently. Posted the first one before but thought it'd be nice to have them altogether. They're all random characters except for the last one which you may recognize as the smooth Flynn Rider from Tangled ;) I'd used the original pencil designs of Flynn as reference and realised too late that in the film, his hair is different. Well... Whew, break time, I say.
The Disney Masterclass with Roy Conli and Glen Keane was amazing and inspirational. There was one part when Glen was explaining Sculpture drawing (shading when animating) using a pencil test clip from The Little Mermaid, where Ariel was singing 'Part of Your World'...but there was no audio. And to fill in the silence, Glen had asked us to sing along and guess what?...you could only hear squeaks, haha! Though, a huge sing-along would have been fun..
Plus est en vous... There is more in you
Related posts:
November 2, 2010
More headshot practice
I know I should really be studying my books (related to my uni course, that is) but..my hands get itchy. Been working on drawing and coloring still-life, stock is awesome! For this piece, I wanted to use what I'd learnt recently from practice and other great artists. I'm quite happy with the result :)
Also, there's gonna be a Disney exhibition at the ACMI, plus, Roy Conli and Glen Keane will be coming to town for a Masterclass! If you're interested, head over here. I know I'll be there ;)
October 15, 2010
Fighter
Labels:
artwork,
Traditional,
words
Wow..this feels strange..I haven't drawn like this in quite a long time. What do I mean? I mean, me just flicking my pen over a drawing. I've been so hung up on details and getting things perfect, neat and 'inside the lines', if you know what I mean. I picked up drawing from reading comics so doing lineart was really fun. And you know what? Fight scenes were even more fun! Ka-POW! haha And I realise today, no, more like I am reminded that the drawing has more life when the lines are..imperfect. At least, I prefer it this way :)
October 8, 2010
Warrior
Labels:
artwork
Trying to do more semi-realism. This character is based off a previous character concept which I'd posted here before =P
Full body pic can be found here .
This took me about 8 hours from random sketching to completion.
Full body pic can be found here .
This took me about 8 hours from random sketching to completion.
September 10, 2010
September 7, 2010
A day in the city
Labels:
artwork
Followed a friend to a sketch group in the city...
Just some random sketches of people
September 2, 2010
July 8, 2010
(late) My review of Final Fantasy XIII
Labels:
words
That's right, it's late but I'd written three quarters of it and thought I might as well finish it.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. you have been warned. more technical spoilers rather than plot. Still, if you haven't finished it, I wouldn't advise you to read it - I don't wanna influence what you think of the game while still playing it! That just destroys the fun ^^
What I did like:
In-game Graphics: Just wow. Who’s to complain? Transition into FMV is so smooth now, gone are the days where FMV scenes would be a treat, a time to put down the controller for awhile, sit back and enjoy. There’s so much detail everywhere I’m afraid to miss anything - that, or I’m subconsciously trying to search for a mistake/glitch or a bug somewhere, but I could not really spot anything! Some small things I noticed that I liked, the character’s ankle (and you seldom get a chance to see the character’s feet when you’re playing outside battle) bends/responds accordingly to the uneven ground; characters actually have a sense of weight when they’re walking, mouths and lips are synched with the words as best as possible. And the big one: Facial expressions! I especially loved those little eye movements or lips parting slightly when the character is just thinking or listening.
Battle gameplay : A lot of work must have been put into this (I say ‘must have been’ because I wouldn’t know better, I have absolutely no knowledge of programming and game creating what not) because whilst you are only given control of one character in the battle, there’re a lot of calculations going on at the same time. For e.g. how does the other CPU-controlled characters select which ability to perform to best fit the situation? And this all happening in real-time (not turn-based gameplay). Although when I first saw the Auto-Battle function, I was thinking “Whoa, what are the people at Square-Enix thinking?? Is this game really that easy that I can just choose that option and enjoy the show?” The battles do get tougher eventually, with strategy playing a bigger role (since your stats progression is conveniently limited, as it is known that players if they could, would just LOVE to grind their characters till they were unbelievably too strong for the monsters…can you say satisfaction?). Still, there’s some really good stuff (calculations) happening back there.
Voice-acting: Loved it, though at the very beginning, Vanille’s voice got me cringing; it grew on me eventually. But overall, the best voice acting (English) in the FF series so far.
What I didn’t like:
A very personal/sticky camera: Throughout most (like 98%) of the game, you’ll have the view of your character’s back facing you as you are controlling him/her and IMO, this gives a very limited, very ‘cropped’ view of what the world of FFXIII(as created) actually is! The only time I remember the camera actually moving away from that position was in Pulse where you rode those elevator-like contraptions or at Yaschas Massif. It wouldn’t hurt to have the camera pan out more often to get a much wider look at big ol’ Cocoon. So much effort was gone into rendering the surroundings but I feel as if I’m only allowed to take in a tiny bit of it, and that I think, that contributed to that feeling of linearity of the game (probably affecting the designs of the areas too? – straight paths with occasional tangents to get to a dead end that most often has an item, after which you return to your straight linear path and move along, towards the marked Goal. Other than some parts of Gran Pulse, in other areas, the character will always be sandwiched between ‘walls’ on either side, forcing the player to just proceed forward). The grandeur of the world was lost, and with it the story.
The world: [This one will be more of a rant rather than a valid point] The world of FFXIII design-wise was very visually-pleasing of course but sadly, not memorable. I have to say Sunleth Waterscape was my favourite just because it looked really pretty. Taejin’s Tower was nice too. The rest were pretty flat and kinda..meh, probably due to…a lack of culture? But the biggest disappointment to me, and I’m just being nit-picky over here, was Oerba..Fang and Vanille looked very different to the people on Cocoon – they had a more tribal look going for them, and yet when you finally do get to Oerba, it looked…pretty similar to Cocoon, more advanced than I’d thought with blocky concrete buildings. But then again, I suppose the concept was that Cocoon and Gran Pulse have similar if not the same roots/origins, and the only difference was their ’geographical’ location.
The directing and script: Note, it’s not the story I’m complaining about. Coming up with a story as complex as this (and it IS complex, I mean, just look at all those things you have to read up under Datalog! ...yea..so.much.reading.) is not easy, I would think. My problem with it is that it could have been a really well told story. However, that wasn’t the case for me when I found myself thinking that reading the chapter events (when loading a saved file and again in Datalog) seemed to unravel new information to me that was not presented clearly or at all during the cutscenes i.e. Voice in my head: *reading the chapter* “ohhh,…wait, really? That happened?” - Not a good sign. And I wonder how many times the characters said “We’re Pulse l’Cie now, enemies of Cocoon” – more than necessary, I say. I felt that the dialogue during the cutscenes were spent a lot on team building and creating a sense of togetherness and hope, rather than explaining more of what’s really happening – BUT imo, this was probably a good idea.. and best portrayed then. My main qualm would be the lack of information via …
The script of non-playable characters i.e. the citizens of Cocoon: It was pretty cool that if you go close enough (just by running by them), it’ll activate their speech, with distance recognition! However, what they had to say, you can totally ignore, because they are just whining (except in Nautilus) in the background i.e. those NPCs played no role except to show that Cocoon is in fact populated (in case you had begun to wonder) and I think this was such a waste. A lot of information, small ones, could have been included in their script to make the world more immersive. Any (not so very) interesting or plot-related conversations are instead bundled up into those cutscenes, which you know are bound to happen anyway thanks to those little markers in the map- kind of like ‘finish lines’. Also, eventually the story builds up to the point where destruction of Cocoon was likely, however this felt very..thin. Why? Because there is a lack of atmosphere. And imo, NPCs play a great big HUGE part in creating this atmosphere of fear and doom – conclusion: they did not get enough screen time and only used as extras.
One-off characters: Cid and that blonde girl with glasses. Nope, I did not bother reading them up in Datalog. They felt like characters that just came and went. Sure they played a part in the plot, but their roles were poorly portrayed.
Lack of sidequests/freedom: Nuff said. I would usually put in great effort to at least obtain the final weapon for the main character, but this time round, I couldn’t really be bothered.
Additional stuff that didn’t fit into the above 2 categories:
Music: It would be unfair to completely dismiss the music just because it’s not very memorable except for a few (like FINAL FANTASY –The Promise – and the battle theme). What Masashi Hamazu brought to the game was definitely different from what Nobuo Uematsu had done in the past FF and I will admit, not the kind of music I would put on loop on my playlist. However, Final Fantasy XIII piano collections are due out and personally, I can’t wait to see how those grand music compositions of his (most that barely carry a tune to hum) are transformed into notes on a staff.
Final Thoughts: All in all, Final Fantasy XIII was kind of like a visual novel but in a 3-Dimensional third person view (minus any sort of freedom in decision-making). For me, at best, FFXIII was something to enjoy and pass the time. 10 years in the future, I will look back to it and when asked what it’s about, I’d say that it was the first FF game on the PS3,with graphics that blew my mind (at the time)…oh? What’s it about…urm…2 worlds and a bunch of people trying to save theirs. To play and complete this game, what you need is PATIENCE and a little bit faith and hope – which I still have..for Final Fantasy versus XIII. Bring it on!
Related post:
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. you have been warned. more technical spoilers rather than plot. Still, if you haven't finished it, I wouldn't advise you to read it - I don't wanna influence what you think of the game while still playing it! That just destroys the fun ^^
What I did like:
In-game Graphics: Just wow. Who’s to complain? Transition into FMV is so smooth now, gone are the days where FMV scenes would be a treat, a time to put down the controller for awhile, sit back and enjoy. There’s so much detail everywhere I’m afraid to miss anything - that, or I’m subconsciously trying to search for a mistake/glitch or a bug somewhere, but I could not really spot anything! Some small things I noticed that I liked, the character’s ankle (and you seldom get a chance to see the character’s feet when you’re playing outside battle) bends/responds accordingly to the uneven ground; characters actually have a sense of weight when they’re walking, mouths and lips are synched with the words as best as possible. And the big one: Facial expressions! I especially loved those little eye movements or lips parting slightly when the character is just thinking or listening.
Battle gameplay : A lot of work must have been put into this (I say ‘must have been’ because I wouldn’t know better, I have absolutely no knowledge of programming and game creating what not) because whilst you are only given control of one character in the battle, there’re a lot of calculations going on at the same time. For e.g. how does the other CPU-controlled characters select which ability to perform to best fit the situation? And this all happening in real-time (not turn-based gameplay). Although when I first saw the Auto-Battle function, I was thinking “Whoa, what are the people at Square-Enix thinking?? Is this game really that easy that I can just choose that option and enjoy the show?” The battles do get tougher eventually, with strategy playing a bigger role (since your stats progression is conveniently limited, as it is known that players if they could, would just LOVE to grind their characters till they were unbelievably too strong for the monsters…can you say satisfaction?). Still, there’s some really good stuff (calculations) happening back there.
Voice-acting: Loved it, though at the very beginning, Vanille’s voice got me cringing; it grew on me eventually. But overall, the best voice acting (English) in the FF series so far.
What I didn’t like:
A very personal/sticky camera: Throughout most (like 98%) of the game, you’ll have the view of your character’s back facing you as you are controlling him/her and IMO, this gives a very limited, very ‘cropped’ view of what the world of FFXIII(as created) actually is! The only time I remember the camera actually moving away from that position was in Pulse where you rode those elevator-like contraptions or at Yaschas Massif. It wouldn’t hurt to have the camera pan out more often to get a much wider look at big ol’ Cocoon. So much effort was gone into rendering the surroundings but I feel as if I’m only allowed to take in a tiny bit of it, and that I think, that contributed to that feeling of linearity of the game (probably affecting the designs of the areas too? – straight paths with occasional tangents to get to a dead end that most often has an item, after which you return to your straight linear path and move along, towards the marked Goal. Other than some parts of Gran Pulse, in other areas, the character will always be sandwiched between ‘walls’ on either side, forcing the player to just proceed forward). The grandeur of the world was lost, and with it the story.
The world: [This one will be more of a rant rather than a valid point] The world of FFXIII design-wise was very visually-pleasing of course but sadly, not memorable. I have to say Sunleth Waterscape was my favourite just because it looked really pretty. Taejin’s Tower was nice too. The rest were pretty flat and kinda..meh, probably due to…a lack of culture? But the biggest disappointment to me, and I’m just being nit-picky over here, was Oerba..Fang and Vanille looked very different to the people on Cocoon – they had a more tribal look going for them, and yet when you finally do get to Oerba, it looked…pretty similar to Cocoon, more advanced than I’d thought with blocky concrete buildings. But then again, I suppose the concept was that Cocoon and Gran Pulse have similar if not the same roots/origins, and the only difference was their ’geographical’ location.
The directing and script: Note, it’s not the story I’m complaining about. Coming up with a story as complex as this (and it IS complex, I mean, just look at all those things you have to read up under Datalog! ...yea..so.much.reading.) is not easy, I would think. My problem with it is that it could have been a really well told story. However, that wasn’t the case for me when I found myself thinking that reading the chapter events (when loading a saved file and again in Datalog) seemed to unravel new information to me that was not presented clearly or at all during the cutscenes i.e. Voice in my head: *reading the chapter* “ohhh,…wait, really? That happened?” - Not a good sign. And I wonder how many times the characters said “We’re Pulse l’Cie now, enemies of Cocoon” – more than necessary, I say. I felt that the dialogue during the cutscenes were spent a lot on team building and creating a sense of togetherness and hope, rather than explaining more of what’s really happening – BUT imo, this was probably a good idea.. and best portrayed then. My main qualm would be the lack of information via …
The script of non-playable characters i.e. the citizens of Cocoon: It was pretty cool that if you go close enough (just by running by them), it’ll activate their speech, with distance recognition! However, what they had to say, you can totally ignore, because they are just whining (except in Nautilus) in the background i.e. those NPCs played no role except to show that Cocoon is in fact populated (in case you had begun to wonder) and I think this was such a waste. A lot of information, small ones, could have been included in their script to make the world more immersive. Any (not so very) interesting or plot-related conversations are instead bundled up into those cutscenes, which you know are bound to happen anyway thanks to those little markers in the map- kind of like ‘finish lines’. Also, eventually the story builds up to the point where destruction of Cocoon was likely, however this felt very..thin. Why? Because there is a lack of atmosphere. And imo, NPCs play a great big HUGE part in creating this atmosphere of fear and doom – conclusion: they did not get enough screen time and only used as extras.
One-off characters: Cid and that blonde girl with glasses. Nope, I did not bother reading them up in Datalog. They felt like characters that just came and went. Sure they played a part in the plot, but their roles were poorly portrayed.
Lack of sidequests/freedom: Nuff said. I would usually put in great effort to at least obtain the final weapon for the main character, but this time round, I couldn’t really be bothered.
Additional stuff that didn’t fit into the above 2 categories:
Music: It would be unfair to completely dismiss the music just because it’s not very memorable except for a few (like FINAL FANTASY –The Promise – and the battle theme). What Masashi Hamazu brought to the game was definitely different from what Nobuo Uematsu had done in the past FF and I will admit, not the kind of music I would put on loop on my playlist. However, Final Fantasy XIII piano collections are due out and personally, I can’t wait to see how those grand music compositions of his (most that barely carry a tune to hum) are transformed into notes on a staff.
Final Thoughts: All in all, Final Fantasy XIII was kind of like a visual novel but in a 3-Dimensional third person view (minus any sort of freedom in decision-making). For me, at best, FFXIII was something to enjoy and pass the time. 10 years in the future, I will look back to it and when asked what it’s about, I’d say that it was the first FF game on the PS3,with graphics that blew my mind (at the time)…oh? What’s it about…urm…2 worlds and a bunch of people trying to save theirs. To play and complete this game, what you need is PATIENCE and a little bit faith and hope – which I still have..for Final Fantasy versus XIII. Bring it on!
Related post:
April 24, 2010
Concept: Steph
Labels:
artwork
character concept quickie for a game project.
EDIT: Character art as used in the game - :Still looks kinda sketchy. I was asked to draw the night before the deadline. Still I'm pretty happy with it :)
and...a background scene for the same project. Just one of a few backgrounds - The Noel Space Station.
April 21, 2010
3 hour pieces /// Floating heads!
Labels:
artwork
practicing some semi-realism
wanted to try a more cartooney look
a warrior concept
April 6, 2010
A new start
Labels:
words
Hi there :) I didn't realise that with uni workload, I'd been very unproductive art-wise and that is not good at all. So I've decided to dedicate a few hours every week to art. They won't be masterpieces complete with details, background, a story etc. but more like practice and/or experimental as I continue to learn and hopefully improve.
So why smallsushi? I don't have a cool reason why, unfortunately. I just stole my niece's alphabet set, dumped it inside the toy box (also stolen), closed my eyes and picked out random alphabets (putting them back after each pick, for u maths pedantics, geez! :P) and voila, It's like some higher power wanted me to use the name smallsushi and I accept it gracefully. .... ok, but seriously, my brother suggested it out of the blue. sigh reality is so boring
So yeah, watch this space
- Vann
So why smallsushi? I don't have a cool reason why, unfortunately. I just stole my niece's alphabet set, dumped it inside the toy box (also stolen), closed my eyes and picked out random alphabets (putting them back after each pick, for u maths pedantics, geez! :P) and voila, It's like some higher power wanted me to use the name smallsushi and I accept it gracefully. .... ok, but seriously, my brother suggested it out of the blue. sigh reality is so boring
So yeah, watch this space
- Vann
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