Character/Concept Art

Since I have been mainly focusing on the story and script for the past 2 weeks, the drawings that I have done are mostly sketches on the subway. I did a few with color. I do feel that I am getting somewhere with the protagonist- boy character. Here are some sketches that I did. They are mostly the boy and the mother. They are from my sketchbook so the paper is a bit see- through.

Movement Study 1

Progress Report

Update on summer * deliverables:

• story
  
• script
  
• storyboard
• character sheets
• paper

I am happy with it, but it is DEFINITELY too long!
I'm getting there though. Baby steps.

* Summer just means that all of these are first drafts

Garden/ Outdoors inspiration and research- Part II

Garden/ Outdoors inspiration and research

Progress

Yesterday I finally sat down with pen to paper and wrote the story. I don't know why it was taking me so long to get what was in my head out. But, I will say this- it really does feel better. It's certainly not perfect and I have a hunch it's too long. If anyone feels like they have some free time, please let me know so that I can send you a copy. It would be awesome to have a reader. I know I am posting a lot of things here, but I feel funny putting up my entire document online.

The basic idea is this:

Mica and his mother live in their digitally enhanced "pod" life. They are hooked in, logged on, socially networking and computing- so much to the extent that they are barely communicating with each other in the physical realm. One day Mica notices that his mother's eye is frantically twitching and slowly before his eyes-his mother begins to morph into a robotic form. In a state of panic Mica runs to his computer and searches for a remedy to the situation- but nothing came up. He runs all over his house and despite the fact that his long lost father's room is forbidden, he goes in. His father's room is a relic from time's past. There are books and smelling salts and things that Mica had never seen. Mica rummaged through various books trying to find something that could help his mother- with not much luck. Just as he is about to leave the room, he lifts up a small book which in turn breaks open a bookcase to reveal a tunnel leading to a secret garden. Mica and his mother enter the tunnel. In the garden they need to find a seed to plant in order give the mother juice from the nectar of its fruit. This leads them on a quest to find the seed and in turn themselves.

As you might have noted- I also changed the gender of the protagonist. This decision was made for a few reasons, including the fact that I have now made contact with a young boy who is going to model for me and help me out along the way. (I am actually really very EXCITED about this fact)

Deliverables Progress:

• story- draft 1 complete
• script
• storyboard
• character sheets
• paper

And now for something completely different

well sort of different.

Style comparison

Okay- here are basically the two styles that I am considering using the same sketch.

a) vector- based off of drawing but not committed to it.
b) hand drawn, scanned and inked.

a)
b)

Another vector girl

This is a more vector version of one of my sketches (see earlier entry). Any thoughts as to if this works better as a vector image? I guess I should probably try coloring her in digitally so we can have a good comparison. I'll get on that. pronto.

You spin me right round....

Today I did a ton of sketches which I will scan in tomorrow am. But the quick and dirty vector version of what I am dealing with is below. Basically I am practicing drawing frontal, 3/4, side and all the hot mess of in betweens. I also quickly colored one of my sketches- it's a colored-in version of a low res crappy scan, but I wanted to get an idea to see if I should pursue this girl any further. Any thoughts?

Character Design_ Day 2

Today I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to experiment, but I did a version of a girl completely vectorized. I am not sure what I think in terms of style- one over the other etc. but this one definitely looks "cleaner."



and... here is a version with a tad more shading:

Character Design

I have been slowly revising my concept for my thesis. Long story short - I want to do an animation that deals with the issue of losing touch with authentic experiences due to the digital world. I am coming up with a concept for a story but it's not quite clear in my head yet. I do have a character evolving in my head and I did many sketches today trying to figure out where I am taking it. I also tried digitally inking one of them. This is the first time that I did that- it could use a lot more finessing and I think that the issue I had with this one is how I scanned it in, but other than that I am optimistic about this technique. The line quality was greatly compromised here- and I can go on and on about what went wrong with the inking process, but it's definitely a "first attempt".

First go

Here is my first go at a "look and feel" prototype. Some penguin action. Not sure about shapes, but I do like the palette.

Rio's Great Wall

Article from Wall Street Journal on a wall created in Dona Marta to protect trees.

Meeting with Ethan Silverman

Today I met with one of my professors- Ethan Silverman to talk about my thesis. The meeting was helpful because after running my idea by him he made the point that the action of my interaction is exactly what I am trying to help to avoid in reality. This is a somewhat obvious point, however it made me consider a few alternatives to my game concept. One thought is to have the game utilizes alternate worlds- or realities- so while we are doing something that happens in the rainforest (for example) we could see how it is directly effecting the life of a city inhabitant. (this would help me to localize the content maybe?) Another thought is to come up with a scenario where there are portals into the past present and future so that any time you can see how current actions effect the lives of humans, animals, flora and fauna in the different times. This is a little complicated but I am going to try to write this out and make the index card prototype.

Some resources that Ethan suggested I check out include:

• Rube Goldberg's illustrations
• The Sims
• Spore
• The Boston Science Museum
• The Manhatta project at the Museum of the City of NY
• Eco- tourism in Costa Rica
  

Going to the Library

I am in the process of making a reading list but since the overall topic of land preservation is HUGE- I am going to try to break it down to what I need to research in order to have a good enough understanding of the subject to build the narrative.

LAND PRESERVATION : specific details about the kinds of issues involved in preserving land so i can work them into the narrative
- what are the real threats?
-what kinds of environments are being threatened?
- is modernization an issue?
- is housing an issue?
- what kind of development is really happening?
- how are animals effected?


CURRICULUM: what are 8th graders learning on the topic?
- what is the current didactic materials being offered?
- what kind of in-class discussions are taking place?

REAL LIFE CASES: what is really happening?
- case studies?
- American case studies?
- statistics about virgin land in America?/ world?

PRECEDENTS: what has been done on the subject?
- animation
-psa's
- games
-literature
-art
- other

Cave of Time

I finished reading Cave of Time a few weeks ago and didn't get around to posting about it until just now. I think that I wasn't jumping to post this because I felt what Simon Cowell would call underwhelmed by the book. The book is a "choose your own adventure," "tree book", "game book" and/or "interactive narrative". The story was written in Each story is written in second person and so the reader became part of the story by dictating the choices and actions that the protagonist would make throughout the narrative. This was achieved by simple directives that followed at the bottom of a page where the character was at a crossroads- for example- if you choose to go into the cave go to page 5, if you decide to go on a horse ride to a castle go to page 11. In theory I thought that the concept was fun - but I felt that the resulting story was a little bit boring and sort of like clicking link after link in your browser following a whim. The plot lines were weak and I think the novelty of having say in the future of your reading is what added to the success of these books. I would also add that each reading of the book took 20 minutes maximum. Maybe this is what also appealed to its readers.

Although I am speakingly negatively about my experience, I do think that these are all things that are important to consider in regards to my potential audience. I need to remember that it is a game and that it needs to be fairly quick paced and to- the- point in order to be successful.
So, I do need to keep in mind:

• TIME: keep each portion of the narrative short and decision making limited
• PLOT: the plot doesn't need to be wildly complicated to be interesting/fun
• INTERACTION: a choice can be as simple as deciding to go left or right
• FUN: the novelty of the game playing interaction or core mechanic will provide a certain element of fun- not to be overlooked.
• AUDIENCE: keep the game appropriate to the age of your reader/player

I did read that some of the other books in the series dealt with more historical fiction and/ or political type topics. I am going to try to get my hands on one of these books, however I do feel that these books are like a one liner joke in that you get what they are about within 5 minutes.

Into the Wild Green Yonder

I recently watched a video that was made directly for DVD release called Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder. The movie was great not just because it provided the typical humor and creativity that one can expect in the regular Futurama programs, but also because it dealt with the serious topic of land preservation vs development. In the animation, this was achieved by an elaborate plot dealing with the father of one of the regular Futurama character's (Amy). He is plotting to rebuild Mars Vegas into an interplanetary "mini" golf course which finishes on a rare "virgin land" planet that has some of the rarest animals and plants in the galaxy. Although I am simplifying here, the story becomes a quest of sorts for the characters to save the planet from development. What is worth noting here is that in this treatment of the subject, in order to identify the need to preserve the natural land and associated wild life- they needed to also identify the "trouble maker" or direct cause of that problem being developers. While in this particular scenario the developers were creating a needless and somewhat questionable theme park, in reality the problem is more complicated. Sometimes land clearing/ loss etc. is done to make way for more prosperous development opportunities - for example housing, eco- tourism, park or recreational land.

I think that it is important to say that this issue is not monolithic and that is why I am leaning towards making a game- not an animation- to show that there are sides to every issue. Maybe the solution to recognizing this issue is to not make a linear "narrative" with a correct course of action but maybe having different endings that would allow players to come into a potential in- class discussion with different views that would assist a dialogue.

Greens, greens nothing but greens

After doing some online research, I think that it is really important for me to state my interest in land preservation not conservation. While I do feel that both are very important and I am not opposed to either, I am interested in preservation because it addresses unique issues in human interaction with the environment. Preservation is focused on setting aside land, while conservation deals with creating a balance between industrialization and maintaining a harmony with the natural environment.

I learned that environmentalists are divided into three groups: dark greens, light greens and bright greens- which seems to basically distinguish levels of intensity in terms of activism.

Science, Art and Me

So it's been a few days since my last post and I feel good about the fact that I am not totally walking away from an idea. I don't care that it is not 100 % finalized, but I do like the fact that I have a concept: I want to create a narrative game based on Rube Goldberg mechanics that is built to raise awareness of a social issue. More and more I am liking the idea of virgin land. Today I read a great article in the Times about the man who re-creates human life forms - he is a paleo artist. He does all of the work for the Museum of Natural History. I am not sure if this relates at all to my thesis other than the fact that the work he creates is truly the intersection of what art can do for science. I want my project to be able to communicate an emerging scientific issue, show how human interaction created this problem, and show the results of the problem. I don't think that I want the problem to be solved in a game scenario because in reality- this is a problem that doesn't have a solution. What I can provide however, is a new awareness about this issue through game play. Audience? I need to research that.

On a sidenote I just started working at Sesame Workshop. The environment is truly amazing. I am working in the international division and am specifically focused on creating interactive and sometimes mobile educational material and content for english language programs in Asia. I could not be more excited. So far I just designed a teachers resource packet and collateral material (including an Elmo paper puppet that you put together with popsicle sticks!). The team that I am working with is very into making quick and dirty prototypes of things which I think is really good for me to see. It is comforting to know that you can just get an idea out there sometimes without being really judged. BUT... at the same time I do feel like when I create a dirty prototype in a work environment, and even to an extent at school people are judging the look of the product. I don't really know what to say about that other than I think it's a comfort thing that I just need to get over.

Loads of inspiration

Miguel Tanco



Andrey Gordeev

Sam Weber


Jillian Tamaki


Dave Prosser

Flying Pizza Kitty

Crappy Cat


Mark Verhaagen

Kyle Reed


and.... the most beautiful animation

The Little Ninja

I have been a fan of Ninjai: The Little Ninja for a long time. I think that the beautiful graphics add to the storybook feel of the series.

Technical Stuff

I found this great little article on making indie games for those with less technical know how.

In an equally cool find, this chart on the wild web of gaming from Wired is pretty interesting. I like how there appear to be "gateway" games that lead you into totally different realms of thought. Sort of like how Lost has lead me to several other dorky sci fi adventures.

An Inspiring Game: Blueberry Garden

I recently discovered the game Blueberry Garden. The game is really beautiful and whimsical. It is an artful game that has a hand drawn style that I truly appreciate.

In terms of how this relates to my project- I think that I am interested in the kind of navigation that it employs as well as style. Conceptually, I don't want my game to something of pure whimsy, I want it to have a true social message.

Concept for thesis

I am in the initial stages of coming up with a concept for my thesis.
Domains: games, informal education, illustration, animation,and the environment
Design Questions: - How can I create a simple interactive experience to explore the topic of maintaining virgin lands?
- How can I use a fictional narrative to investigate the issues of land preservation?
- How can I incorporate a "choose your own adventure" theme into a simple narrative?

Concept: My current concept is to create a flash point and click game in which the user is asked to help a character navigate through a fictional world using Rube Goldberg type logic. Initially the world is full of lush lands filled with an assortment of creatures, however as the player navigates through the world, based on their choices it becomes increasingly more industrialized and so the story becomes a quest to save the virgin land from extinction. The industrialized world boxes the player in and ultimately gives them less choices to make in terms of using the natural resources and the land.

Questions:
1. How do I create a complex multi-leveled narrative?
2. How do I make this game dynamic?
3. Should I try to make this multi-player?
4. Should I try to incorporate real time data?
5. Do I stick to creating a multi-tiered narrative?
6. I don't even want to think about the action scripting involved.

Precedents:
- The Polyphonic Spree: Quest for the Rest

- Myst

- Interactive Fiction

- Tree Fiction (choose your own adventure)
-Dystopia: 1984, Farenheit 451, Brave New World
- Memento
- Zirk I



Resources to Investigate:

-Complexity in Narrative (Stephen Johnson)
-Cave of Time (Edward Packard)
-The Throne of Zeus
-The 39 Clues
-House of Leaves
-Rashoman
-The Game
-Paris, Je T'aime

Dance Test

For the final-- just imagine these guys being rabbi's ... with toupee's.


Dance Pencil Test from Jess Klein on Vimeo.

Inside the Wolf

Inside the Wolf from Jess Klein on Vimeo.

From the first day of shooting on the set of Little Red.

This is the scene when Red and the Grandma are eaten up by the wolf.

Yaks

Some work for a potential project- any interest?

Final Title Sequence

I can't remember if I posted this, but here is a little project that I did in Flash. It is a title sequence for my life. I still need to clean up the pacing, but I thought I'd just get this up here to remind myself where I came from on this project. The whole process for this piece was nice- illustrations, animatics, and this, which is actually more of an enhanced animatic, but if I had more time I would fix up little movements here and there.

Updated Storyboards

Notes on Sound from Film Art Reading

- elusiveness accounts for part of the power of sound effect
- strong effects yet unnoticeable

sound effects: speech, music, noise
pitch: high and low of sound vibrations

rhythm: the beat pulse, tempo or pace (includes speech)
Timbre: the colour or tone quality f sound

sound mixing: used to guide the viewers attention
ex. ping pong game

dialogue overlap masks edit

external diegetic sound: sound outside of the character
internal diegetic sound: only from the mind of character (music or dialogue)

mickey mousing

Crabs

Here are some crabs that I made for a potential client. They wanted to see two different styles so here is one that is more digital and another that was done in ink and gouache.

Train Ride as Exploration of Character in times of Uncertainty

Lightness

Social Documentary Project

Bladerunner- response paper

At first glance I was interested in how this movie was an exploration on how the world is dealing with the humanizing of technology and that particular topic was very intriguing to me because it made me consider all of these abstract thoughts about how far will technology be allowed to venture in terms of emotional and intellectual cloning, artificial intelligence, abnormal psychology, interconnectivity and reproductive rights. All of these topics are extremely interesting and the film creates such a unique backdrop for all of these social concepts by having at its core, a compelling story about a bounty hunter who becomes empathetic for his targets and in turn lives in an isolated ‘outsider’ world where he casually interacts with every party involved. Slowly I became really mesmerized by how the film’s stylistic elements played into the thematic messages and narrative. While the film is clearly set in the future, the world that we see is a dark, densely textured, overpopulated and dirty place. I felt that the world that we are presented evoked feelings of nostalgia despite the fact that this is the future- modernity and so that contradiction informed my entire viewing of the film in that I felt like the problem of identifying and
“retiring” genetically engineered humans was an ongoing concern. Every scene was oversaturated with people, text, and sound. This juxtaposition of elements that are extremely contrasting allowed the viewer to realize that the entire film was about contradictions and sorting out who is the “other” by the deductive process of comparison. I found myself question what makes someone human because in the film every character looked, acted and bled like a human. The film suggested that emotions and feelings is what makes someone a human. So then, if emotional capacity is what makes someone a human, and throughout the movie the bounty hunter is killing these “replicants”- these computers with evolving emotions, what is really being said? Is this a conversation about cloning? Or about corporate corruption? Mortality? (this was beautifully suggested in the scene where a replicant plays a human in chess). I’m not so sure, maybe it is a conversation about everything. I feel like the central theme of this film is to question humanity via empathy. That theme is then underscored by all of these micro-themes that build this tapestry of interesting and complicated characters. The characters visually look like they came right out of a 1940 pulp fiction novel. The women are delicate but vixens, the men are physical yet softspoken. But again, we are in the future! So why was that choice made? Was it made because the viewer would recognize these tropes and empathize with every character and then in turn see that the line between what is initially presented as the truth in the film is blurred? I believe so, I think that in the same way that some characters are the makers of “puppets,” “toys” and “replicants”, other characters are the puppets, toys and replicants and if anything, the film allows the viewer to ask questions about the world around them that is created for them and in turn, what role, abilities and power they have to influence that world. On a personal note, I love how the style of the film took the narrative to a completely higher level. I really would like to be able to play with unexpected style choices in my work. So often I feel like my work deals with getting a specific message across that I lose my focus on how it’s done. I know that at the core, a strong concept is important, but I am really becoming more interested in how I communicate my message. Bladerunner was surprisingly beautiful and I think those elements of the movie moved me to question the larger social issues that much more.

It's really snowing out here in Queens!

This is a really nicely done grafitti area that you can only see coming on the A train to/ from Rock Park to Ozone Park area. It's right by that Bowling Alley (high above in the sky). My window had tons of ice on it today. There were MTA people cleaning off the ice. I've never seen so many MTA people on the Rockaway commute.



some scenic photos
when the train stopped at the Rockaway Park station- they wouldn't open the doors for 25 minutes. I sat alone looking at the wet floors and listening to the whistling of the window. It was beautiful and sort of lonesome all at once.




The station. Covered in 3ft of snow today. (at 8am)!

at the bus stop- waiting with a group of 20 something people for about 25 minutes.

Making My Puppet

Some NY Street Art

I saw these a few months back but forgot to take them off the camera. I like the juxtaposition of color, type and naughty image.