Monday, February 27, 2017

A Contract with God - Will Eisner

     This story felt incredibly pitiful to read due to the nature of the character change brought on by the grief of the main character, Frimme Hersche. I'm not religious myself, but I understand the feeling of betrayal that Hersche felt, at least to an extent. I haven't had a loved one die because of a betrayal, but it's definitely harsh to deal with. To have the source of this pain come from God, someone who is all might and would have no reason to go through such an effort, must feel incredibly terrible -- like he went out of his way to make it happen. I almost felt like I was the one who got betrayed just reading the story -- which was great, from the perspective of a viewer, because I was able to relate, to an extent, on the misery that Frimme was feeling.

     Then, Frimme became an entirely new man -- a man who acted selfishly and without remorse for his actions. Witnessing him put on this new face, literally (he shaved his mighty beard) and figuratively, I felt like I lost the connection that was established between him and me. The rise in billing, the lies told -- all to create a new, more valid contract with God and be struck down because of the process it took to get him to this goal. Once, I read "Humans are incredibly selfish, aren't they? We only cry when someone dies because we will miss the things they did for us and how they made us feel." Now, I know this is blasted out, but there are a few aspects that I agree with, to a small extent. Although, in reality, we develop care for others and will act selflessly for the people we love, there is a portion of us that feels sorrow because they did the same for us -- they gave back to us. Imagine acting out for someone else and not receiving the same treatment -- I'd be willing to bet that after time and time again of this kindness being abused or ignored, it will die down and if, God forbid, this person dies, you (someone in general) wouldn't feel as bad, relative to if the kindness had been returned. I believe this to be some sort form of greed -- not in a terrible sense, because I think that it should be expected for people to treat each other with genuine kindness, especially to those acting in this way towards them.

     This aspect of greed, though, I believe, is what the story was about. Frimme lost his adopted daughter. Betrayed, he went against the common word of God, "doing things that were previously unspeakable," all to create a new contract with God because of what happened to him. Frimme acted selfishly in order to achieve a selfish goal and was smitten. This, at least, is how I analyzed my feeling of pity towards this man -- a man who lost the only person he had and ultimately died himself because of how he reacted to it. 

Superman, the World's Mightiest in: the Test of a Warrior

     I haven't really read many of the classic DC Superman comics and this felt like a pretty casual comic to begin with. From what I hear from my friends and movies/shows/videos about the man of steel, I understood Superman as a selfless person who would go out of his way to help those who need it. Because I really only knew of Superman in the most modern context, it was cool to read of one of his tales of selflessness from back when comics were only 10 cents.
     
     Judging from the title, I expected something a bit more dramatic and grandiose, something that would've been challenging for even Superman himself. Looking back, I realize I might have thought this because of many contemporary superhero movies where there is always some incredibly powerful threat posed against the people who are supposed to fight it off. Instead, the comic was about Superman helping a Hun-Sha, a man in an Indian tribe, survive this Test that was rigged with traps by a someone else in the tribe. Were the contents of this comic dramatic back in this comic's time? I'd imagine so because technology wouldn't have been able to simulate what it can today, but in the scope of the power of Superman, at least as I know him, it seems like a rather minuscule task.

     Those were my thoughts on the story of this short comic -- I enjoyed it but it didn't seem very daunting or dangerous -- I didn't feel like there was a huge threat, although, relative to Hun-Sha, the threat was lethal. I appreciated the message that this comic sent, though, in that you should not plot against others if you do not want to have it come back and harm you. 

Sunday, February 26, 2017

The Struggle - Spiraling Energy Particle Effect


    
     I was able to achieve most of my original goal with creating a spiraling energy particle -- The particle consists of a burst of energy that occurs when the particle starts, the erupting spiraling energy and then some fireflies to add to the magic. In order to get the energy to spiral, I had to create a blueprint with 5 points that rotated around an axis while the ribbon particle turned on -- originally, I wanted to just use an animation from Maya but the .fbx import was giving me some technical issues. For the video, however, I had to copy the particle blueprint set up, not the blueprint itself, over to the barrel explosion in order to have the particle activate properly. The fiery explosion is not a part of the particle for this assignment, but rather my spiraling energy was an addition to the explosion.

Blueprint for the Spiraling Energy

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Little Nemo in Slumberland - Winsor McCay

Being taken away by clowns to a land that you can only reach when you're asleep sounds like a nightmare. Sleeping Nemo, however, was "saved" by the rise of the sun.

Those were some weird first impressions I got of the short comic. Overall, though, the entire comic felt like it was a wild ride that was yanking me all over the place -- to a land with mushrooms, flying horses and kangaroos, and incredibly long-legged flamingos. Winsor McCay definitely did a great job at making this comic feel like a dream often does feel, at least for me whenever I happen to fully remember a dream -- random and quite peculiar.

Nemo's dream of appearing in the middle of an ocean with large creatures is the dream that stood out the most to me -- it was a nightmare. I began to feel bad for Nemo for constantly being pulled into this Slumberland where everything is unpredictable, which means that his enjoyment of this alternate realm could go either way. This, to me, made it seem like Slumberland defeated its own purpose occasionally, which was to provide an enjoyable dream while the victim was resting. I understand the need for some contrast in design of the story, but this event was counterintuitive to the impression that the term "Slumberland" gives me, and I think many other people well.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Understanding comics - Scott McCloud

Understanding comics quite the enjoyable read; the comic was both enlightening and entertaining. Many of things Scott McCloud mentioned gave me a new way to look out how drawings and words are juxtaposed together, although they serve the same purpose, granted they yield differing results. 

I really enjoyed the portion of the comic where he was explaining how simplicity is what brings attracts an audience because of our tendency to project ourselves onto everything we see. Part of the information in this portion felt like information that just sits in the back of the mind, but once it was explained further, it was just eye-opening. One thing I've noticed with social media, for example, is that the stylized, less realistic artists tend to have more followers than those who do incredibly realistic paintings or figure drawings and it felt great to understand that it happens because people just subconsciously relate more to a less detailed, therefore less defining, characters. 

Then, when he took it one step further beyond a face being simple two dots and a line and explained that "F A C E" is another way to draw a face, being that writing is a form of art, I felt like I understood the connection between literature and art more -- and better yet, how they can be combined to create something that is truly amazing.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

The Arrival - Shaun Tan

This comic left a pretty big impression on me. I haven't "read" a story that contains no words up until this reading, yet the story was still very well told through the compositions and gestures of the characters within each frame. Without the words, not to say that words can't be encapsulating, I was able to fully focus on the meaning of each picture -- The lack of words actually allowed me to stitch together my own dialogue of sorts, which I think is an interesting "feature" of this unspoken art. Through the various expressions and tones of the characters and in the colors, I was able to feel what they were feeling -- The frustration of the our main character as he tries to explain what bread is -- the sadness of the old man who went to war and came back to his home, destroyed -- the terror that the farmer remembered as he explained how he got to the city that our character had to travel to. This story re-emphasized the power of expression and tone in story-telling, which I believe will help me as an artist.

I also appreciated the breakdowns of the events that were occurring as well -- they were forming their own sentences that, without one of their panels, would be incomplete. For example, when our character asks the man pasting advertisements on the wall if he could help in return for... something (I assume money), I didn't understand the interaction that was going on until they shook hands and our character began to place the ads on the wall (albeit upside down). 

This story pretty much brings a new meaning to the fact that a picture can speak. [Credits]

My Particle Effect -- Research

For my custom particle, I intend on creating an energy beam, or clusters of energy, that swirl around a radius that expands as the particles move upwards. I'm hoping to emulate a vortex-like effect, more or less, that comes from the energy sphere on top of my barrel when it is going to explode.

Along with this spiraling energy, I want to create particles that fly off and then sizzle/ smoke out whenever they collide with a surface. So, all in all, there are at least 3 particles -- as of now -- The spiraling energy, the sparks, and the smoke from the sparks upon collision.

So far, I'm just focusing on how to get particles to move in a spiraling fashion and I've learned about the point and line attractors from This Post. The sparks and energy are most likely going to be procedurally generated while the smoke will be a flip note.  

The video below, more or less, at least illustrates the motion of the particle that I am aiming to create. It does not detail all of the effects that I want to happen.

This here is another video that shows the direction I want to head in


Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Exploding Barrel Project


Everyone's favorite tale draws to its conclusion. Enjoy.

Here's the code, nerds

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Race Track [P1] -- Gray box Edition

     Alright.
   
     So, I'm thinking for my race track idea that it takes place in a desert. Ultimately, I'd like for the level to contain a good amount of straight shots with a few round elements (i.e. Turnabouts, Drift spots, bounce pads) to emphasize the idea of a design that consists of rectangles and circles. Within this desert-area, there'll be some kind of factory that produces some of the things that will be found on the track, like some barrel depots and the bounce pads.



Color Palette
      Within this level, I'm hoping to place a canyon in that will collapse upon a trigger event, a large, wide drift semi-circle for the player to perform some sick mechanics, a collapsing bridge, and, again, some bounce pads that will project the racers upwards and forwards.

Thumbnails of views  1-3

Thumbnails of views 4 - 5
5 features the jump pads
     I'm mostly hoping that players will get that feeling of intense urgency, i.e. in the collapsing canyon in which it will seem they are barely able to make it, but in reality, they have a pretty high chance of doing so.

Some Inspiration: 




Thursday, February 2, 2017

Explosive Barrel Concept v1.0


Left - The Barrel hasn't been triggered yet and the colors remain cool.
Right - Barrel is triggered and the colors quickly become a warm red - the rectangular extensions fall off to aid in indicating that a change within the barrel has occured.