Landestroyer's Blog

New Portfolio Site

2011-11-26T18:45:00.001-08:00

Hello Again

2011-10-14T20:54:00.000-07:00

It may seem as if I've abandoned by good ol' landestroyer blog, but the fact of the matter is that I'm working on thesis right now and I have a separate process blog for that! so here's a link if anyone misses me.

http://singleriderprocess.blogspot.com/

Low res

2011-04-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

Still haven't gotten the hang of this character thing. It's better than the last one though.

a "finished" sculpt and how I feel right now.

2011-04-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

I never got why people found vampires so attractive...

2011-03-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

but maybe now I do

Belle is slowly but surely coming along. It's a shame that she's become such a side project to prepro because I really enjoy working on her.

Today is intense

2011-02-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

Pass/Fail crit then catching a plane to San Francisco for GDC! Fun/Stressful times. Totally Pumped.

another belle update

2011-02-26T20:33:00.000-08:00

that's her name by the way. like Belle Starr. This may be as far as I get before I leave.

Sculpt Update

2011-02-23T16:11:00.000-08:00

Still goin...needs a lot of work yet. Playing with poly paint getting an idea of base textures.

Modular Character Update

2011-02-21T13:13:00.000-08:00

If you don't remember what I'm talking about I posted the concept in an earlier post. My character is Belle, a vampire hunting gunslinger inspired by the game Darkwatch. She is a modular character with alternate appearances and accessories. I would like to have her finished by the time I leave for GDC, which is a week from today so its coming up fast. Here is some of my progress so far...

I did most of the modeling in Maya before going into zbrush. I had never worked with zbrush before this assignment. Learning new programs is always challenging but I'm really enjoying it so far.

These aren't the most recent screen shots of the sculpt, I've actually gotten a bit further than this now. More updates soon as I continue to work on this throughout the week.

Speaking of sculpting, here's another exciting bit of news...

I participated in a traditional sculpting workshop last Saturday hosted by Hasbro here at RCAD. It was a great learning experience taught by artists David Vennemeyer and Lane Feuer (who also critiqued my zbrush sculpt on Belle during my 3d for games class and gave me a lot of good input as well as teaching us all some great zbrush tips and tricks) . The outcome of this is that over the next few weeks I will take a character from concept to completion using their traditional sculpting process. So in other words, I get to make an action figure, with articulation and everything, I'm pretty excited.

Head bashing and Kit bashing

2011-02-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

We're in the thick of it now. Pre-Production has started for us. I'm working in a team with four other guys. Being the only girl I like to think I add a little feminine perspective to the group. I haven't had a lot to show here lately mainly because most of the work we've been doing is process and idea generating stuff. Here are some pics from a kit bashing exploration we did for vehicle concepts for our game. I did the tank, aka the LANDESTROYER!!!!

Paintover

Character Exploration

In 3d we are also modeling characters. I'm still working on the Darkwatch inspired gunslinger chick, she's coming out fairly well I think. I'll post progress shots of that later.

I'm a little teapot...

2010-12-22T15:22:00.000-08:00

"Mutually Exclusive Realms of Experience"

2010-12-15T13:47:00.000-08:00

"We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies - all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes. Most island universes are sufficiently like one another to Permit of inferential understanding or even of mutual empathy or "feeling into." Thus, remembering our own bereavements and humiliations, we can condole with others in analogous circumstances, can put ourselves (always, of course, in a slightly Pickwickian sense) in their places. But in certain cases communication between universes is incomplete or even nonexistent. The mind is its own place, and the Places inhabited by the insane and the exceptionally gifted are so different from the places where ordinary men and women live, that there is little or no common ground of memory to serve as a basis for understanding or fellow feeling. Words are uttered, but fail to enlighten. The things and events to which the symbols refer belong to mutually exclusive realms of experience. " -Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception

Glean from this what you may, I just wanted to share this excerpt because it has affected the way I look at crafting experiences, or attempting to at least, within the realm of game design. I think it's important to look at what we do as creating new experiences for each player to perceive in their own way, rather than trying to create specific past experiences and force our associated feelings onto them. I feel like a lot of the time the reason we have trouble communicating our ideas is because we make things too personal. That being said, I also believe that its good to draw from past experiences to create new ones. I feel like maybe someone brought a similar idea to my attention before but I can't remember.

As important as crafting experiences is to me I've decided to embrace a new obsession...anyone who has talked to me in the past month can probably guess what that is. So camera at the ready I have decided to begin consciously exploring and studying the world around me though the lens of visual effects. I find myself doing this already, I feel like I've always noticed and appreciated these things, but I think it would be more helpful to me to document my findings rather than just sending them to the dark closet in my mind where so many other things end up. It gets cluttered in there. So, I may have gotten a bit sidetracked, but the actual reason I was reading The Doors of Perception is because I'm really interested in trying to create hallucinogenic effects and I was hoping it would lead me to greater understanding on the subject.

For now however, some Holiday themed gems from around my parents house, or as I like to call them: XmasFX

These ugly lights in the windows were the first thing I noticed when I got home, I give them props for flickering, but they aren't fooling anyone, not sure if they're trying to though.. Its funny because I made a candle particle for both of my big projects this year. In the real world if something looks fake, people accept it as such, in a game word, that doesn't really fly. Unless its very obvious that its supposed to be fake people will just think you did it wrong.

This is more something you can only see through a lens, but for me I see it through my glasses so I accept it as a valid phenomenon. There are a lot of cool things you can do with light refraction. I have these glasses that make all the lights on the tree look like snowflakes. So cool.

Distorted reflections are always fun...I've spent many a time doing this when I was little...and last summer.

Eye bugging fabric...this one was kind of hard to pick up on film.

other stuff:

I'm sure I'll find more interesting things whenever I actually leave the house. In this cold blustery weather I've noticed a lot of great things happening with smoke that I can hopefully document as well.

Cheers for winter break...

Fantastic Environment

2010-12-11T13:58:00.000-08:00

Another 7 week group project. This one still needs a good deal of work until I'll be pleased with it. It was my first try at primarily concentrating on visual effects so I want to really polish things up for my portfolio. I've really found something I love in taking this track however, and it would seem I'm pretty good at it considering I got the bonus points for vfx on both of our projects this semester.

Our concept is pretty self explanatory. It is a surrealist desert of time, that is actually inside of an hour glass.

Image claims

-sand blowing over the dunes particle

-heat distortion material

-pendulum blur

-sun particle

-glass material

-gold material

-really just all materials

-pouring wine material

-as well as various models/textures

There is a lot of movement involved in these things so its easier to read in movie form. I just have to make myself a new camera move and I'll post it up here. There is a night scene (the bottom of the hour glass) too that will be in the camera move. My main focus for this project was actually an event that triggers in which this shrine crumbles and you fall to the bottom through the center of the hourglass that is more like the inside of a clock, and that of course will be showcased in the camera move as well. Hopefully that update will be soon, winter break is upon me so work resources will be scarce for a few weeks while I go home

I'm working on a character concept as well right now, that also needs a lot of polish over break. Not really what I want to do but its kinda fun.

Her name is Belle. If you know the game she is inspired by, you're awesome. If not she's basically a Victorian female gunslinger, half vampire, undead-hunter. Awesome, no? We'll be modeling, rigging and doing some light animation on these next semester.

Realistic Environment

2010-10-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

We had our final critique on our realistic environment assignment today. It was a pretty good critique as all of our teachers, the head of the department and visiting artist Vincent Proce were all there. I was nervous but it went really well and my group and I got great feedback.

I worked in a group of 4 on this. Our concept was a post war tree house inhabited by children trying to survive on their own. The tree is the only thing left in their world that is living and thriving. It is surrounded by ruin and waste as a result of nuclear war.

Here are the final screenshots, contact sheets and video deliverables from the project that were due today. We are going to go back and do a smooth camera move as well because the walk through didn't turn out as well as we had hoped. The reason we chose to do a walk through was to highlight the physics assets so that was successful at least.

(click to enlarge)

My favorite shot

Hero Bridge!!!!

Inside one of the rooms

Realistic Environment from Elizabeth Landis on Vimeo.

I'm feeling pretty good about myself and my work right now. Granted, I hardly feel human anymore, but I think I'm on the right path to becoming what I want and who I was meant to be. It's like everything finally clicked and fell into place for me. I learned a lot of things from this project about group dynamics, UDK, and most importantly about myself. Luckilly, the things I learned about myself made me feel confident that I can do anything if I stay focused. My peers seem to have a lot more confidence in me too.

All the hard work I put into this has bestowed its reward. Now we wait for the grade.

A Preview of Things to Come

2010-10-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

Pure Creation

2010-09-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

This is my first finished drawing for game art assignment. The one in the bottom right corner is the inspiration for my next assignment, the fantastic environment (gotta finish the realistic environment first, updates on that later). Besides that one, the butterfly monster is probably my favorite. I always wanted an attack butterfly at my disposal.

Here is some of the process that went in to creating these, doodles, textures, and silhouette variations:

Camera Move

2010-09-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

M.C. Escher Inspired Modular Construction Kit by E. Landis from Elizabeth Landis on Vimeo.

And a better Screenshot

Escher Modular Construction Kit DONE

2010-09-07T14:47:00.000-07:00

Ain't no rest for the wicked (awesome).

I would say more about this, maybe after I recuperate from this past long laboring weekend, but its hard to form words right now. I made a camera move vid too, but it needs to be tweaked a bit so I'll drop that on here later.

This one is a WIP shot before I did lighting and stuff, but I like it

a chance to breathe

2010-09-01T20:20:00.000-07:00

So this first week was extremely intense, but getting back to work feels wonderful.

Today I got to eat, sleep and drink so I feel a little more human again and decided to update my blog.

Here is some of what I've been working on. For 3D we are creating modular construction kits, I chose to use the theme of Escher architecture so that I could use my ascending/descending staircase, which has evolved a lot from being just bsp in udk to a nice clean model in maya :). I just got to the texturing stage which is exciting because I'm doing something pretty new for me and making it stylized rather than realistic. The goal is to make it look drawn/sketchy, but still architectural.

texture progress in udk, still needs work

other assets in maya:

Dome

fence (this is actually four pieces put together

stairs, they can either be in the base or be two sided for more of that escher style

four sided building piece

arches, showing old and new topology

some of the assets put together with the stairs

Our teacher is giving us the long weekend to complete the assignment so the next update will hopefully be awesome finished assets.

idea generation tool: silhouettes

2010-08-28T23:07:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, somewhere in the outskirts of San Francisco...

2010-08-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

I need practice so practice I shall. Just a quick speed paint of a scene from my last trip to visit my sister in good old san fran...I think it captures the mood of that trip pretty well. I want to do more of these, I've never been good at painting environments, it's something I definitely want to work on. Also trying to experiment a bit more to get away from my always soft air bushed style and use more texture.

edit:

With everyone talking about Bioshock Infinite today it got me wondering: Which is the scarier prospect...drowning under the sea or falling from the sky? Either way I like the use of uncomfortable and strange terrain (or lack thereof) in the bioshock series, that in itself is kind of a thrill.

Illusions

2010-08-02T16:45:00.000-07:00

Just like everyone else in the world, I too was inspired after seeing Inception. The idea of creating impossible architecture is what really got me excited, which isn't surprising because I've always loved optical illusions and the art of Escher. Thinking of a game world as a dream world more so than trying to create the real world opens up a lot of doors to things I didnt think I could do before.

So heres my first shot at it, the ascending and descending staircase. (sorry my blog layout doesn't allow for the full size video)

Here's a link too (this is actually a different version from what I thought was a better angle): 2010-08-02_2215

This is far from perfect, basically its a prototype. I added one bot in there to demonstrate how it works. I originally wanted to use a crowd, and while it did work to a point it was very messy and as we all know, the crowd is stupid and does not like to stay on its path, also that problem of using triggers arose again and I couldn't recall if we ever solved that and if we did I don't remember how. The lone soldier does his job. Poor little guy is trapped forever in an endless loop. It would be a lot more believable too, if I could figure out how to get rid of the teleport effect...the goal is to make that transition seemless. (If anyone knows how to do that please let me know.)

The hardest part was figuring out how the stairs actually work in 3d space. I went through a lot of math to figure out that there really isn't that much math involved. The stairs spiral up and in and the numbers of the stairs go 9, 12, 6, 3. After that it sort of just comes together. The angle isn't perfect but I blame that on UDK's camera.

If nothing else this served as a fun project that helped me brush up on any UDK skills I may have lost over the past couple of months and I learned a bit about the updates to the July beta which is the version I was using. Btw, you now need a GameCrowd_ListofAgents archetype (which is hidden in the actor classes tab with the other classes that need the two boxes at top unchecked) as well as an UTGameCrowdAgent archetype to get crowds to work, if anyone went into their old files and was wondering where everyone went.

I can't wait to get back to Ringling ^_^ its coming up so soon!

Life is becoming less of a mystery.

2010-07-20T15:55:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in a while. Partly because I don't have much to show you, mostly because I've been doing what I consider more important things right now. Don't take that as to say I haven't been thinking about my art or game design goals, because I have, I've been working on small projects but mainly I've been working on my larger goals of self improvement.
I've been working on self promotion in the form of my in-progress portfolio site, which I hope to fill with better things as this upcoming semester progresses, and of course get a domain name for. Which brings me to my other activity, making money for that, going to GDC in March and some minor school expenses.
I've been reading a lot, inundating my mind with all kinds of new ideas and imagery in the hopes that it will come in handy this year when I'll be needing ideas the most and also just to feed my craving for knowledge and pretty words. This exploration is really what opened my eyes to the fact that I've been holding back my true potential. I found something within me that I hadn't really noticed before, and if I had, chose not to nurture.
When I mentioned self improvement up there I did not mean that I am trying to change myself. It has become clear to me very recently that there is nothing wrong with me or in need of change, except maybe my perspective. I just need to take what I thought was my greatest weakness, accept it and make it instead, my greatest strength. Needless to say I am feeling a lot more confident about my future goals now that I have realized this.

So heres to this upcoming school year, I'm looking forward to it now more than ever, and without trepidation.

Frustration and Time

2010-06-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

The concept of time is what I consider the worst aspect of life. It's just so oppressive. I'm always waiting for things, trying to have time for things, planning, trying to be on time, meet deadlines, it's exhausting. Time flies when it shouldn't and lags when I don't want it to. I'm always thinking of back then and someday, and worst of all, I always feel like I'm wasting it.

But unfortunately I can't sleep without hearing a ticking clock...

And isn't that just the way things always go? You

can't go on without the one thing that drives you the craziest.

Just a quick sketch inspired by the classic story, "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" by Harlan Ellison. I've been reading a lot. I've also been trying to do more art just for me, things I like, things I'm inspired to do, trying to not just become another artist for the machine. I have my whole life to create what people tell me to.

Oh, and I got myself a shiny new computer, if that doesn't make me feel better, nothing will. Hopefully that will facilitate my getting some work done.

A tribute to the time machine

2010-06-01T22:02:00.000-07:00

Visit carlisle: where you can get retro books, retro toys, retro clothes, retro movie going experiences,(my personal favorite. What I wouldn't give to watch City Lights in that beautiful old art deco theater) retro dining, even retro candy, and what isn't retro is historical. Honestly I have trouble defining the difference. Maybe retro is hip, and historical is educational and therefore unhip. Anyway, I never really noticed all this before but as I sat eating a squirrel nut zipper (which are delicious by the way) it all became transparent as lace. No wonder I am the way I am, I grew up in a time machine.

I'll leave you with this:

"Men get to be a mixture of the charming mannerisms of the women they have known. " F. Scott Fitzgerald

Just food for thought, gentlemen.

Forgetfullness

2010-05-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

I was showing my work to a friend yesterday and I realized I had some things missing from here, one being the lighting assignment we spent like half the year on in 3d for games. So here are my screen shots from that. I should note that the lighting is all that was changed and all the assets and level design are property of Unreal.

Original Concept Paint Over:

Final Product (Top:Before; Bottom: After):

It changed a little bit from concept to completion because when I did the original concept I wasn't aware of all the cool things I could do with lighting. It was a really good learning experience.

Currently Playing: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days

2010-05-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

It seems appropriate that at the beginning of this very long summer I start playing a game that revolves around counting the days. I've had this game in my possession for a while but haven't had the time or interest to play it. Honestly, even though I have played every other KH game out there, with much excitement and exuberance, I felt as though maybe I had grown out of the franchise. Kingdom Hearts was the first game I played on the PS2, Christmas day I believe in the year 2002. Coincidentally this was the same day I decided I wanted to be a game designer. It was so beautiful, it's beauty further enhanced by the fact that the last game system I owned was an N64 and there was quite a graphical leap there. I was easily hooked and reeled in, mesmerized by the pure feeling it evoked in me. But that was just a moment. Growing up and away from that I realized that it wasn't the most wonderful game ever made and went on to play new inspirations.
I digress...
358/2 days is not quite as beautiful as KH1 because even though I am playing it 8 years later it has the graphical disadvantage of being released on the Nintendo DS. It's still impressive for a hand held though. It's definitely not the big gray game boy I carried around in the little pink bag embroidered "Elizabeth" when I was a little girl. I seem to be running on nostalgia today...
This game is a lot like all the others, more like its console counterpart than the previous handheld KH game, "Chain of Memories", but there was one thing, a pretty small thing I guess, that stood out to me as being kind of special, and that is what the game calls "Intel missions."

The idea behind these missions is that you go to a new world and try to figure out everything you can about that world, the people who live there, what happened there, how things work in that society etc. without talking to anyone, just exploring the clues left behind. One example would be seeing claw marks in a castle and from that deducing that a beast lives there and is involved in some kind of struggle. What's this then? A lesson in environmental story telling? Yes, it is sort of given to you in a very direct way while in most games it's up for player interpretation and observation, but a lot of the time these very small details go unchecked by the average player anyway. It teaches you to pay attention. It really appealed to me because, as you all know, I have a bit of an affinity for deduction and pretending to be a detective, but also because I love environmental story telling.
What is unfortunate however, is that the game stops giving you these Intel missions pretty early in the story because your character is better suited to hitting things with the key blade than doing anything meaningful I guess. What really bummed me out was that there was no Intel mission for Wonderland...I really would've like to see how the game explained that one.

In general 358/2 days isn't bad, it's fun, got a decent upgrade system (known as the panel system) that feels a bit like packing UV's in Maya, a simple combat system, game play is a bit repetitive but jumping around worlds constantly keeps things feeling fresh, and I have no clue whats going on with the story, but hopefully that will sort itself out by the end.

So I guess I haven't grown out of it completely, it's sort of the same way I feel about Disney World. I don't want to buy into it, but when I'm there I just can't help it. Nothing like Disney magic to bring out your obnoxious inner child.

Lol^ amusing google image search result

I think next I'm going to play Metro 2033 and see how it compares to the book. Should be interesting.

The sacrificial altar was disguised as a throne...

2010-04-30T11:48:00.001-07:00

So this is it. Today is the last class of game design II. We successfully spent a month creating a concept for a game that couldn't be made, and made a totally different game in the span of about two weeks. I'm fairly proud of us. Since I was put on the tech team but then ran out of things to contribute there I decided to do some art for todays class. The concept of our game revolves around aztec/inca cultures and my biggest contribution to it was the idea and implementation (with help of course) of a sacrifice mechanic in which one player from each team must reach the goal point as the sacrifice for your team to win the game. It's a team oriented game where three classses must work together to reach this goal.

So the art I did for today are some concepts for what the Sacrificial Altars may look like for each side. one side revolves around a snake god, (sort of like Quetzalcoatl) and the other around a sun/cat god (like Tezcatlipoca) Its supposed to be dark comedy so the style and characters are cute, but its also very bloody and violent, in an exaggerated way.

It will be interesting to see just how far we go with this over the summer/next semester.

game pics

2010-04-29T08:58:00.001-07:00

Something Fun and Something Done

2010-04-28T21:28:00.001-07:00

Well I haven't updated on my character for a while, but for all intents and purposes she is done. Could be better but this was my first attempt at a character and I should move on. We are in the process of rigging right now. We aren't going to animate them but we are testing them with the default unreal animations which is...interesting. You can see from the victory pose below. I also got someone to photograph my game for me and I should have those pics tomorrow :) Vic is for Victory!

And lastly, this is totally unrelated but I like it so here it is. This was just something fun I did for my friend Kelsey. We had an art exchange and this was my contribution. Roller derby pin up! We went to the roller derby for the first time a while back so I thought it might be a nice memory.

Face

2010-04-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

Here is just a progress shot of my face sculpt. We learned this neat trick to import the 3d model into photoshop and merge the face image right onto the mesh. That's why it looks pretty creepy with the texture on (left) but it's helpful. She's starting to look more human than porygon! I do like sculpting, I wonder if that will be helpful at all in the future...

OH YEAH

Just as a side note here: My mod of Clue, Flappers and Philanderers, from last semester got into the Best of Ringling show this year! I worked really hard on that and I loved every second of it, play testing, taking photo ref and even creating the art assets. I'm really happy and honored that it was one of four to get chosen for the show. Thanks to my play tester's and everyone who put up with me while I was working on it. I know I get a little crazy sometimes, but that's just because I'm passionate :). I still need to take better shots of it for my portfolio, when I do (after I get it back from the gallery) I'll put them up here.

The invisible woman

2010-04-03T07:39:00.001-07:00

Just a progress shot of the sculpt on vic, I've only done her clothes so far. Don't mind the collar, it shouldn't be black but the normals are facing the other way and mudbox doesn't like that.

Progress

2010-03-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

Well we've started modeling our characters, and oddly enough I'm sort of enjoying it. I mean it still gives me horrible neck pains, but I'm doing a lot better than I normally do. Not sure why, but I won't complain.
These are just some work in progress shots of the base mesh and then the rough clothing I just added. She's still a bit disconnected. She's starting to look like a detective though, as soon as I put the hat on her I was really excited.

Base Mesh

Rough Clothes

Now to sculpt and texture, hope that goes as smoothly so she's awesome in the end.

Game Design Mechanic

2010-03-04T21:36:00.000-08:00

What's this?

2010-03-02T18:56:00.001-08:00

So I played the heavy rain demo (purchase soon to follow) and it got me thinking. It reminds me of when I'm watching a movie and something is happening, normally something undesirable, and it makes me feel tense inside, like I want to help or stop the situation but I can't because its only a film. Some would say that a game that is like one very long cutscene with quick time events would not be immersive, but I found the exact opposite in the case of heavy rain. Actually this didn't become apparent to me while I was playing it (because while I was playing it I wasn't actually playing but over analyzing like I always do) but while my room mate was playing. She got so worked up during a fight scene that to me it looked as if she was taking part in an actual struggle. This made me laugh on the inside, and then it made me ponder; what if we could help that person on the other side of the silver screen?
I'm a little wary to even call heavy rain a video game. Yes, it is on the tv, and yes there is some element of fun involved, but I feel like that fun comes from the experience of being able to live a Hollywood fantasy rather than playing with some nifty core mechanics. In game design class we once discussed the difference between a movie and a game and we concluded that since you could not alter the outcome of a movie in any way, it was not a game. That is kind of an incorrect statement considering that most games are linear and you can't really effect what happens in the end, but the point is that now we can and I don't think that necessarily fits the definition of a game either. The way I look at heavy rain is as an interactive film. You are not in the story, but you can control the characters that are, therefore altering the world and the outcome of the story, especially since when you kill someone off, they don't come back. The stage and the players are all layed out for you, you simply must play the puppet master. I suppose if you look at it that way, like a little girl playing with dolls, the definition of a game would still apply here. I guess I'll play the rest and see how I feel then.

On an only slightly related note: L.A. Noir needs to come out NOW. That game looks so amazing. Just the fact that they turned facial animation into a mechanic (yes, you have to read faces to see when people are lying to you) just blows my mind, not to mention that they completely, practically one to one, recreated 1940's LA with over 100 indoor areas. Man I would have loved to be on that research team. See, this game fullfills my hollywood fantasy while still giving me the kind of play I'd expect from a video game. DO WANT NOW!

On the topic of rain and so I don't disappoint here's a preview of an image WIP from my design doc for game design class thats due on friday. The finished version and everything will be up sometime after that.

Detective Vic

2010-03-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

Here are some character designs I did for 3D. The idea is that we are modeling our core fantasies as kids and mine was to be a detective. I know I do a lot of detective themed stuff and I tried to get away from it but I couldn't deny my inner child. I kind of wasted a really long time (like 10 hours ugh) doing all three outfits because I was under the impression that was the assignment, but oh well. I'm going with the trench coat cause apparently everyone loves a cliche. It is kind of bad ass though.

Her name is Det. Vic (Victoria) Lawson. Shes a private detective in Philly who works above a tea shop in china town :). There's a whole elaborate back story but eh... For inspiration I watched a lot of Castle (because Stana Katic is awesome and yeah that's her face) and by a lot I mean the whole first season and 5 episodes from season two in about a day...

I'll let you know how the modeling goes.

NEXT TIME

I will talk about the movable jump pad! and all the other stuff I've done for game design.

It's just like...kismet

2010-02-14T08:51:00.001-08:00

Here's a video of the result of my first scripting project in UDK using kismet. I call it the wonderland mechanic for obvious reasons.

Wonderland Mechanic from Elizabeth Landis on Vimeo.

Enjoy! and Happy V-Day!

Spring!

2010-01-25T19:10:00.000-08:00

It's about time for an update (or so I've been told).

This semester seems like it will be full of new beginnings.

I'm working on a few projects right now but the one with the most visual progress is what I'm working on for game design II. The assignment was to find a real world space and turn it into a multiplayer map for unreal. So I went downtown to my favorite dark alley and took lots of pictures, resulting in this:

Which further resulted in this gray boxed version:

so far so good.

Oh right...

2009-12-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

I almost forgot this stuff. Better pics later I hope. Unfortunately Cooksey is collecting our games over break.

Level progression

2009-12-08T19:45:00.001-08:00

I've been meaning to put these shots up for a while but I've been busy...so here's weeks worth of work all in one post! It still needs work so I'll put up my final screen shots and perhaps a video walk-through sometime after Thursday.

It all began with a map sketch and concept...

so here's the gray box layout for my level that I started with

some set dressing progression...

Lighting and further set dressing up to where I am now...

and just for fun...a space invader made of cinder blocks (because I got frustrated and needed a distraction :p)

so i decided

2009-12-04T10:03:00.000-08:00

to make life harder for myself and hate my charlie canary illustration...just the face really, i fixed it a bit, still don't like it much but now I have to change the art on all the stuff I already printed...-_-.

promised screen shots coming soon

one more week....I can do this. I hope.

the rest of my clue characters

2009-11-30T19:20:00.000-08:00

another fix...

2009-11-30T18:09:00.000-08:00

life would be so much easier if I could get something right the first time.

massive clue update imminent, I'm done with everything, just gotta print/cut/construct....as well as shots from the level I'm working on, due to my absence from Ringling during the holiday I've only spent about three hours on it so far so needless to say, its not quite there yet. I guess its my fault for wanting to see my familly...

dirty bike is dirty

2009-11-20T18:16:00.001-08:00

less dirty***

"finished" motorbike in unreal

2009-11-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

this isn't to say there won't be changes but for now I'M DONE. This thing has eaten up so many hours of my life...but its a labor of love and I'm pretty happy with it, though it could be better and the polycount is still too high. wish me luck in crit tomorrow.

edit: I don't like the spec on that so I fixed it. I think it should be tighter, more like this:

***another edit****

I'm a workaholic...but i fixed the seat.

Character: Milton Mint

2009-11-16T12:44:00.001-08:00

The Jazz musician.
not sure if this is done yet but for now it is. I'm trying to work faster so I can get my game done.

Motorbike pre-textured, rough colorscheme

2009-11-15T21:16:00.000-08:00

some screen caps

2009-11-12T17:03:00.000-08:00

because I just downloaded Jing an I wanted to play around with it :P pretty fun by the way.
plus, I thought an update on my CA work was in order. So here it is, progress on my motorcycle and all my other finished props in unreal. Nevermind the lighting and set up, I sort of just threw it together in a minute so not much thought there. Also,the color on my laptop is different than it is in the labs, everything seems a bit less saturated, especially my AC for some reason. well...back to work.

It's been a while

2009-11-09T22:26:00.000-08:00

but here's a new clue illustration
final idea for the character Roxy Rose, meaning this is probably what will be put on her card.

Playtesting!!!!!

2009-11-07T20:05:00.001-08:00

grab that clue
my lovely play testers, wearing my hats, looking stylish

phase 1 and phase 2

halloween/more photo ref

2009-10-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

more photo ref starring me. I used Halloween as an opportunity to create/perfect my female characters and take lots of photo reference. Now I suppose I should find a guy to do reference for the male characters...or not. Maybe I can just dress in drag. anyone have a small suit?

Sherlock

2009-10-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

Really, just because I can :)

some stuff

2009-10-18T13:27:00.000-07:00

these are the models I've been working on for CA class, doors, windows, walls, trim and a roof. I put them together in some little scenes and took screen caps for your viewing pleasure :). They'll look much nicer once we put them in unreal and add normals and all that cool stuff.

walls

2009-10-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

some walls I made. yep, exciting stuff and things to shoot.

however unexciting walls are, I'm still totally happy to be working in Unreal and excited to see what the future holds.

Character: Miss Scarlet

2009-10-12T22:25:00.000-07:00

I decided on making miss scarlet the stereotypical, good time for all, flapper character in my clue game. I'll probably change the names but for now she's still miss scarlet. the painting in the hallway is a throwback to my first Miss scarlet Illustration, drastic change. I should start working on the other characters. I have ideas but no visuals yet.

psychology

2009-10-12T20:35:00.001-07:00

this is another one of those assignments for a once a week pointless class that I didn't care too much about. Its a representation of what mental illness means to me.

Best Reference Photos EVER!

2009-10-12T13:03:00.002-07:00

I normally don't post my photo reference, but these are awesome. I love the fact that I just had all this stuff just laying around. The costume isn't perfected, no hair or make up yet either, but these will work well as a basis for my next illustration. I also love the confused looks on my roomates faces when they caught me taking these (I thought they weren't home, but really, they should know me by now.) and don't worry mom and dad, that is a chopstick.haha.

silhouettes for Clue characters

2009-10-10T13:48:00.000-07:00

I love this project so much. I've decided to do it 1920's style, because I just love that era. Needless to say I'm having a lot of fun with it. I'm thinking of going on a private tour of the Ringling mansion and using that as a basis for my game board, because for one that place is gorgeous and there's a lot to work with, like those mysterious stairways and connected rooms, and I hear they have a game room in the basement, and two, the last time I went to visit the guide told a lot of fascinating stories about John and Mable Ringling and the way they lived in the 1920's. It might even be interesting to base some characters off of them. Theres the additional circus folk aspect that I could work off of as well. We'll see, but I'm doing some fun research either way.

I'm not just changing the setting and characters of the game, but some mechanics too, which I have thought about, but not as extensively. I definitely want to add a detective as either an NPC or dungeon master type character and a lot more to the board.

So exciting ^^

oh and coincidentally, I've decided to throw together a flapper costume for halloween.

New Look

2009-10-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

but I cant get the stupid banner to look right, stupid blog spot messing with my image.

gah.

I'll fix it later...

it's pretty insignificant

as are most things.

^that is the lesson of the day kids.

alleyway concept

2009-10-04T22:59:00.000-07:00

wish me luck tomorrow

its lame

More Clue.

2009-10-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

Accusation and checking evidence. I like it in B&W better because that's how I saw it in my head, but the assignment was for a full color render so I did that too.

tux is now a member of the green lantern corps

2009-09-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

it is so bad...there are so many things wrong with it, but its done.

Second Batch

2009-09-24T19:53:00.001-07:00

of Game design sketches. I like these ones better, I'm starting to incorporate/develop a style. This assignment is similar to the one before only now each sketch is supposed to represent two mechanics interacting. I may put up some of the reference shots we took, cause they're pretty funny. I got some old detective movies and such from the library to watch while I worked on these haha, fun research.
so anyway, the first sketch is Move and block door, the second, move and make a suggestion, and the third is make accusation and look at evidence.

creative geometry

2009-09-23T01:13:00.001-07:00

I know you're all curious as to what we actually do in that class...so here it is. lol. see any math here?

Seriously though, i did this really quickly to fulfill a project requirement of artistically representing the fourth dimension. So to me I guess it is literally movement through space, if you want to get deeper meaning from it, she can represent a spirit. To be honest though, I was thinking of the flash when i did this mostly...:P

Secret Passage

2009-09-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

Well here it is, four movies and ten hours later, my final illustration for the clue mechanic use secret passage.

ms. scarlet in the study with the knife.

still some things I want to add/fix, but I think I need a break from it for a while. I'm really starting to like using Painter, however :).

Clue Mechanic Sketches

2009-09-17T22:18:00.001-07:00

These are the three sketches I did for game design class to describe the mechanics of clue. They're really rough and basic but I'll be doing a finished version of one of them here soon. The first is the use secret passage mechanic, the second is make a suggestion mechanic, and the third is the accusation. I was trying different techniques while learning how to sketch in both corel and photoshop so my skills are anything but honed yet, but this was good exercise. I used my roomies for reference too so if you know them maybe you can tell. My personal favorite is the secret passage mechanic.

well I'm back

2009-09-15T11:44:00.000-07:00

at Ringling that is. so that means I'll probably start putting things up here.
So far so good...class-wise that is. Game design is awesome, I'm starting to get the hang of CA.

One project I had a lot of fun with recently was creating my own poker mechanic. I played it with my roomies and they all seemed to enjoy it. Here are the rules to my game:

Royal Suicide

Main Rules:

- Must be played with 6 players
- Each is dealt 5 cards
- If you are dealt the king of hearts your hand is ‘dead’ and must be discarded.
- This effect is nullified if you also have the queen of hearts in your hand or if you pick up a joker (to be explained below).
- If you get a dead hand each of the other players then gives up one of their cards to you as a ‘condolence.’
- They are then each dealt one more card, so everyone has five again, but different hands than they started with
- If someone folds or is out of the game the dealer provides the condolence in their stead.
- If the king doesn’t show up in anyone’s hand (since there are 6 people, times 5 cards and there are only 52 cards, there is a good chance of him popping up but it won’t always happen) it is played like normal 5 card stud.
- Then either way, whenever everyone has his or her final five card hands, whoever has the highest hand wins
- The highest hand in this game is a royal flush in hearts (10 J KQ A)

Jokers:

- Played with 2-4 depending on the deck being played with
- Laid face up on the table
- Can strategically replace the king of hearts in your hand
- Example: if you have a good 4-card hand and don’t need the fifth that would be a good time to use it rather than losing your whole hand.
- Jokers should be used sparingly because each can only be used once in a game.

Betting:

- Betting is basically done as it is in regular poker with some exceptions
- Each turn before the deal there is an ante, but this goes into a separate pot called ‘the condolence pot.’
- This pot goes to the person who had the king of hearts, only if they lost their hand, unless someone has the queen of hearts then it will go to them.
- Then there is a primary a round of betting
- After the first round of betting the person in possession of the king of hearts must announce suicide.
- There is a round of betting before the announcement to throw people off and make it more interesting, to keep with that, the person with the king of hearts may not fold during the first round of betting, they don’t know what their final hand will be yet anyway so it would be pointless to fold.
- After everyone has their final hands, there is another round of betting and so on.

Final ideas:

The idea I had behind this game was to make poker tell a simple story. While play testing my friends and I had a lot of fun with that concept. It was also interesting seeing the ways that the king of hearts’ suicide could be used to screw someone over, not just the person with that card in their hand, but the other people with good hands that had to give up a card. It works well both ways.

Another thing we've been working on is observing real world mechanics and altering experiences with those mechanics. So far I've been looking at the crosswalk that goes from the bayou to main campus across old Bradenton and the lock on my door, because I have been locking myself out quite frequently and would rather blame it on a design flaw than my own stupidity. Just for the sake of this post having an image, one of my quick sketches illustrating opening a door:

Next post I'll put up my sketches for 3 mechanics of Clue, the board game I chose to mod for this semester. Should be cool.

oh, and also, my hobby for game design is costume design so I'll be putting up process work for that as well, as soon as I find time to work on it that is. My first endeavor will be to create a feminine jack frost costume to go with the hat I made over the summer. I'll put up some sketches of my ideas as soon as I get around to scanning.

Just as a side note, a friend told me the other day that the way I try to incorporate my art into my everyday life, most times as a means to make it better in some way or just to better understand it, makes me original (which is not something you hear very much at all in art school). That made me pretty happy and instilled in me a new sense of faith in my work. I think art is something that should make life better, I've always looked at it that way, and that's why I do what I do.

So on that note, I'll end this post with my favorite quote of all time, from F. Scott Fitzgerald's book, The Beautiful and Damned:

"Art isn't meaningless. It is in itself. It isn't in that it tries to make life less so."

I Really Want a Cloche Hat

2009-07-23T22:09:00.000-07:00

I love the 20's era and I really want a Cloche hat, I think they're so cute...I keep seeing them in games like Devil Summoner and movies like Changeling. But for now I just did a speed paint of one. I guess that'll have to do til I get some monies.

Summer Musings Part I

2009-07-15T09:05:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a lot of opinion articles on morality in games, realism in games, virtual murder ect. and it's made me realize more than ever that the line between games and reality is becoming very thin and blurry. It's fascinating and almost a bit scary, but it makes me even more excited to be a part of this industry.
Obviously, creating a realistic game world can only be done if you have a deep understanding of the real world. By analyzing our world and attempting to recreate it we may find things we may not have noticed before. It allows us to see ourselves, the way we live and the world in which we live in a new way. The human experience is a confusing thing, therefore hard to replicate, but the harder we try to do so the better we may be able to understand it. (Taking this route in trying to understand life has almost been like a personal therapy for me.) By making a 'realistic game' we are taking our world and turning it into something artificial, something changeable and understandable to us because we built it. Its almost like a science project a child would do when observing the behavior of ants.
But what happens when we look at life as something artificial? something we ourselves have created? Is it the point of view of a god we have granted ourselves or a completely jaded view of the meaning of life? Maybe life as we know it is only that, a game. Soon the question will be 'which came first, the game or the player?'

This almost goes hand in hand with my P4 morality rant.

Anyway...I never thought that my response to "So why do you want to make video games?" would be, "To better understand the real world" but its seems that's where I'm at right now. I think at the beginning of last semester when I was asked that same question my answer was "to create a new world." Funny how things change. Although that still doesn't seem like a completely undesirable thing to do. Maybe I'll do both.

Jack Frost Hat

2009-06-27T20:06:00.001-07:00

I made this hat completely from scratch and my obsession with Atlus. :D

Its made of fleece so its warm and cozy. Modeled by yours truly.

If you make it purple and change the smiley face it can be Black Frost's hat too.

I will do a commission for any other Atlus fans out there, just contact me at:

elandis@c.ringling.edu

HEE-HO!

Morality

2009-06-23T17:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I haven't put any work up here yet but that doesn't mean I haven't done any. I'm just lazy.

But one thing I have been doing is thinking. A lot. So much in fact that my insomnia has gotten to an unhealthy level and I'm pretty sure that's why I'm sick right now. But on the bright side, at least I have something to say now, instead of being a completely dull waste of space.

Another thing I've been doing is playing games, I wouldn't be me if that weren't true.

So, I read this blog on Gamasutra today about morality in games and it made me think about none other than my favorite game atm, Persona 4.

(many a spoiler here so if any reader is interested in playing the game I would suggest reading this later.)

Never while playing a game, even when shooting people without reason and stepping on poor defenseless turtles, have I felt so horrible about my moral code as when I threw Nametame into the TV in Persona 4. Since I don't really know of anyone else playing this game right now I'll explain a bit. This occurs during a scene near the end of the game, where you confront the man believed to be responsible for the murders in Inaba . At this point I was feeling exactly the same way as the characters in the game were about the situation. I was blinded by how pissed off I was at the guy for 'killing' Nanako, a young little sister like figure in the game, killing two other people and putting all of my friends in danger. These feelings resulted in me chosing, instead of thinking things through, to hastily throw the man into the TV, thus ending his life. This action lead to Nanako's true death and a horrible ending to the game where nothing is really solved and no one is happy. Right then and there as I watched the credits rolling by I realized my mistake and felt like a horrible person. I should've thought about things more instead of letting my emotions dictate my actions. Thankfully in a game, unlike real life, you can go back to your last save point. So I went back and chose to think about the situation and be calm, and low and behold, the man was innocent, Nanako lived after all (due to my good karma) and I found the real culprit leading ultimately to the salvation of the world. Though this is probably a more extreme cause and effect than we see in most real life situations it really makes me wonder; if a situation like that came up in real life would I do the same thing? Maybe I didn't think as hard about the consequences of my actions because it was 'just a game'. But, it was 'just a game' I had invested much time energy and emotion into that I really did care about the outcome of.

This really impressed me. The game forced me to think and make meaningful choices and most importantly, to see the negative effects that can come from a bad choice. It somehow made the game experience more personal to me, that I could have such an effect on the outcome. Not only that, but it made me question my own morals. So I really do think that a sense of morality makes the gaming experience a lot more meaningful and satisfying. Maybe not to every form of gamer, such as my father who will only play games in which you can shoot stuff and has zero interest in a story, but to those of us who have evolved past the whole violence = fun mentality and are looking for a little more out of a game.

Come to think of it, another of my favorite games had a very strong theme of morality, and that is Darkwatch, an old shooter I used to play on the Xbox. You play as Jericho Cross, an outlaw, recently turned vampire. Throughout the game there are many "good" and "bad" choices that effect your morality and in turn your morality effects your powers throughout the game. I've seen things like this in many games since then, its definitely not a unique mechanic. In the case of Darkwatch and other games with a similar morality system however, I think being bad is more fun and theres really no negative outcome to chosing the dark side, unlike in Persona 4. Those rage like powers are really more rewarding. And that is the problem with a lot of the morality systems in games these days. They make the player think they are getting a choice but really when it comes down to it, most people chose fun over morals, especially in a game world.

I guess at the end of the day, sometimes people just wanna kill things to unwind, and there's nothing wrong with that. So I guess it's good to have both types of games out there. I really wasn't trying to prove any type of point here, just thinking out loud, so to speak.

I'm starting a blog!

2009-05-05T20:23:00.000-07:00

my TA character

Hopefully having this will give me a place to share my work over the summer.
At least that's the plan.

I miss ringling already :(

Anyway, for my first post I suppose I'll put up some of the stuff I created this past year that I kinda like, just as a reflection of sorts.

So letssee...here's my freak project, it was for color class and inspired by Thomas Woodruff's Freak Parade and the game Persona 4. I think I used about every material imaginable in this, paint, photoshop, marker, theres pins, chains, gromits, mirrors, rhinestones, ribbon, etc, all attached to cork board. needless to say it was a lot of fun.

Then theres my unfinished figure portrait, that I kinda like but wish i had more time on...

and a monochrome self portrait...

Aaand, heres some random sketchbook pages I like. If I wasn't so tired i would reflect on all the stuff i learned this year, but that can wait until tomorrow.