Heather Died: the temple!

In my second video game (you can play the first here), you will visit the Miao Fa Buddhist Temple in Portland, Oregon. I had a friend go there to take reference photos for me, then set about re-creating as much of the temple as seemed reasonable for the art style. The real thing is gorgeous, with far more detail to look at, but... for the sake of time and sanity, I am watering it down a little. Still, I'm proud of the results.

In one segment, you will gaze into the eyes of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy. This was my favorite statue at the temple, so it was important that I recreate it. This one I did by whipping up an ink drawing, scanning it in, resizing, then resizing again to capture the pixely look. I draw the line at 500 pixels for my usual one-at-a-time method.

I also created a Soundcloud where you can hear the music in development for this game as well. Check it out. Another fond discovery was a folk song/chant for Guanyin, which I was easily able to cover. Players might think it's just some Chinese-sounding thing I wrote, but damn it, I'm doing my research!

Buddha statues.

A dvarapala, a Laughing Buddha, and a Kwan Yin.

More enemies.

Jerry (a "summon"), and some more kitchen baddies.

Main menu.

Fear the spatula.

Kitchen pixels.

Playing around with some concept art for an extremely short RPG. (Read: something that might actually get done.) The story? Culinary-themed. The major brainstorm that set me off was a boss that starts as the cute Grease Fire and becomes the Grease Elemental. Cue the dramatic music! (Preferably something from Final Fantasy 4.)

I have been busy roller derby training, then recovering from a roller derby injury. Suddenly I felt like making art again, so there you go!

A return to pixel art.

I'm going through one of those phases when I wonder what the hell is wrong with me investing so much time in comics, and I just hate them, and hate drawing, and WHAT IS HAPPENING, SO MANY FEELS.

It'll pass. It always does. It's just part of my glorious brain chemistry cycle, or the wrath of a vengeful God, or whatever you're most comfortable pinning it on. I tend to just grumble the word "bipolar" and wait for it to pass.

In the meantime, though, pixel art!

Each alternating white/gray square is 32 pixels. Yes, I'm finally doing my art with actual game mechanics in mind. This will be the only house of this type in the game, so I don't mind that it's not really a reusable "tileset" and will be a slider puzzle when it comes time to put it in the game maker. My main goal is to get the house looking good, and I think I've achieved that.

Terra.

Another friend wanted a Terra. While the FF4 field sprites fit a standard frame perfectly, the FF6 sprites are just those couple pixels taller, which poses a problem. I solved this by using Terra's crouching sprite. Fits in a 2.5x3.5" frame again! My friend and I discussed our love for struggling, emotionally charged green-haired heroines so it seemed an even more appropriate pose.

Poor Terra!

Hear ye, hear ye.

I have been on a little bitty bit of a cross-stitching kick lately. I did a Final Fantasy 4 "Rydia" for myself, and then Dark Cecil and Paladin Cecil for a friend of mine. Observe!

These take a godawful long time but compared to the stuff on Sprite Stitch, I consider myself a lightweight.

And then, on Friday, I thought it would be a cool idea of create a coat-of-arms for my family unit. I changed my last name in my early twenties, and my husband took said name, so we really are a totally new unit. I figured it would be a good time to solidify our values and identity in a way that would be both bad-ass and a helpful reminder for the goals we want to strive for (before we get too cranky and old).

I spent some time in the SCA as a kid, so heraldic stuff is not entirely new to me. I think I took to it rather like a fish to water! The hours of research were quite fun and it's really amazing I didn't try to shove more symbols in. There are so many to choose from! I originally meant to put a cool crown/collar and chains on the ox but totally forgot about it when it came time to ink. Oh, well.

The Latin translates (if Google is to be believed) to "wealth (within) skill and knowledge lies". I wanted a real "working class" badge, with a hammer and star representing the quest for perfection through arts/crafts. The star also corresponds to the symbol for a third son, which is what my husband is. The 'X' pattern is a Scottish designation for the first generation of a coat. Shafts of wheat (in place of, traditionally, garish ribbons) and the wheel (in lieu of a helm designating rank) for progress, forward movement, and fruition. The ox represents fortitude/labor and the lion valor/achievement. The owl, of course, for wisdom and learning. Apparently there is a big difference between eared owls and earless owls, so I gave him ears. I will say that the one owl I saw in the wild was earless and pretty damned freaky. Every other culture of the world but the west is into them as harbringers of death.

Jerry says that orange and blue is the best color combination EVER, so what choice did I have there?

What can I say? I love symbolism.

On and off.

Little bit here, little bit there.

Here's me and my siblings as kids.

Dust storm.

Filling a planet.

Our hero jumps, bugs fly around, carnivorous trees speckle the landscape, and the pipeline goes from offline to online.

As always, for Vox Venio updates from our mighty programmer, check out his blog.

Playing with the idea of an early colonist that's gotten fed up and turned into kind of a space hermit.

So I started with a photo of an old trailer and went from there. Likely lots more to add, but it's fun to think about. A shipping container, an old fuel cel for a rocket, some giant rover tires. What might you want out on your scrap-made Martian homestead?

Sinise. In. Spaaaace!

Playing around with Gary Sinise as my model. Because he is awesome. Without saying too much, I might be on board as a story developer/concept artist for a video game. Potentially a pixel artist, too, but  you know my tendency to hop right into stuff without having a firm grasp on responsibilities. I need some time to really mull it over and figure out if I have what it takes.

For now: whee!

It's the eyebrows.

Three big-time NPCs. I used one of my favorite hunky actors as a base for one of them, and different actors for the other two. These characters are based on people I've known at my various workplaces, though I don't have pictures of them. It's pretty fun to adapt their personality traits into a pop culture reference into a fantasy role.

The answers may surprise you.

Rotoscoping.

Trying for that classic cutscene look. Still in 256 colors, plus matching the simplified colors of the sprites and tilesets.

Economy, double, or deluxe?

This is coming along really well, I think!

Signage!

We are all familiar with the old armor shop, weapon shop, black magic shop, white magic shop, item shop icons.

But what about hobo markings?

Tileset kingdom.

Perhaps some humble beginnings...

"Where does the line start?"

The riff-raff at the Guild Hall waiting for their assignments.

Wolfenstein moment.

For the status screen and potentially dialogue boxes, I thought it'd be a good idea to be prepared with avatars - representing our heroine's current physical/emotional state.

It's like I keep saying: "A couple of pixels changes everything".