I still exist! ...and I'm still making stuff.

Alright... Let's catch some fish.

MousePaw has pretty much taken over my life... yes, it's true. Creating a game requires a lot of devotion! But in my spare time (weekends, pretty much) I still work on other things...

A Vocaloid Character Design Contest!

Yes, blog followers, by now you must know that I love Vocaloid a great deal... so when I heard about the "Everyone's Vocaloid Project" Character Design contest held by Yamaha, I had to try my hand at drawing up a character or two.

This one, Nocturne, is my first entry, but since there are no limits on entries I'll probably make another one (a guy) as well. :)

One-Wing 2011 - Finished at last.

It feels like months ago when I posted the pencil drawing which eventually led to this finished product. At first I attempted shading her in Photoshop like I did with my illustration of Len & Rin Kagamine. But no matter how many times I tried, I just wasn't satisfied with it...so I ended up going with a much simpler vectorized shading instead. ^^;

And that's what I've been working on.

Thanks for visiting; I'm really sorry I no longer update this blog nearly as much as I used to. I'm down from once a week to once a month if even...but yeah. At this time of my life, I have to keep myself busy or I'm afraid I'll become depressed or something. :/

MousePaw: Pipe Climbing

I finally have a new Word4Word clip to show!

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The last couple of weeks I've spent on "exit" and "enter" animations - where our two characters Alicia and Rebekah walk in and walk out of various stages (leading up to the various challenges/ story sequences). It sounds simple enough, but there are a few twists...

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One of them is that they have to climb in and out of pipes! Take a look...

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Another challenge is that I always have to have the characters stop and start in the exact same place so that the various clips can play together seamlessly. (The video above is actually four clips played in a row, for example.) It's so interesting to experience all that goes into making art for a game.

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Hopefully I can find a few more things to post that won't give away too much of the storyline of the game. We'll see! ^.^~

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One more thing. Mousepawgames.com has just opened its Beta listing. If any elementary school teacher would be interested in Beta testing our game for free in their classroom, please visit our homepage. :)

MousePaw: Aviary Ambient Animations

Do you think there are enough A words in the title of this post? :)
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Once again, the ambient animations for Word4Word are intended to be background as the player is making decisions - just to make the characters seem like they're not standing around lifelessly.
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Here are the different bird characters in the aviary of the pet store. Simple enough animations, yet fun - I enjoy how "twitchy" bird movements are.
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The Seagull Sisters:

Dip the Pelican:

(He isn't eating the soup, he's just stirring it...for now.)

Stringfellow the Hawk:

Morris the Eagle:

Sadly, I won't be able to post too much more of my MousePaw work online because it will give away elements of the story - and we can't have that :) So you'll just have to wait for the release to see the rest of my work for the game.

What I'm Working On

Remember the days when I used to post something new once or twice a week?
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Those days are definately gone, but it's not because I'm producing less work than usual. I could still crank out a fully-rendered drawing a week. However, I've turned my focus to bigger projects - and lots of 'em! The only downside is the long periods of time where I have nothing to show.
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That's why I decided to make this special post to show a few bits and pieces of all my various projects right now. All of them are works in progress, but it should give a bit of an idea what I'm spending my time on lately.

I. MousePaw: Word4Word

Not surprisingly, a great deal of time is going into MousePaw Games' latest game project, Word4Word, an educational game that teaches English skills. The kindergarden version Beta is projected to be finished in August of 2011 (Just in time to give to schools for testing. :))
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I'm approaching the animation for the game by starting with the simplest things and working my way up. First on the list is the ambient animations, which basically have the characters staying in one place, but shifting around and blinking as part of the background while the player is doing something. I've uploaded two short clips to serve as examples:
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Here are Alicia and Rebekah in ambient:


And here they are again, but this time in scuba mode!

After the ambients are finished for every stage, I will move on to the exiting and entering animations - and then finally the action and lip-sync as the characters interact with one another and with the player.

II. Vocaloid Art: Len & Rin Kagamine, Append ver.

By now, most of my blog visitors probably know how much I love Vocaloid, the software which allows users to create songs with virtual vocalists.
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Len & Rin Kagamine were originally designed by character artist KEI, the same artist who designed my two favorite Vocaloid characters, Miku Hatsune and Luka Megurine. However, I did not love the Kagamines quite as much... that was until I saw their Append versions.
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Miku's Append version, which served as an add-on to the original program, adding 6 new variations of her voice, was released about half a year ago. Besides increasing the realism of the virtual voice, Miku Append also came with new box art featuring the character Miku in a much more "technological" design. Now, last December on the Kagamines' 2-year birthday, their own Append version was released. I was absolutely amazed by the new box art and knew from the moment I saw it that I would have to draw them myself, and soon.
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And so I began with Len:

This Vector drawing may seem nearly finished, but it actually has a long way to go. Firstly, I plan to take it into photoshop and paint on more dramatic shading. And secondly:

I have to add Rin!

Here is a rough idea of what the completed version will look like. Sing it, Kagamines!!!

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III. One-Wing 2011

Because it's just been too long since I've drawn my own character mascot... ^^;

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Right now she's only in rough pencil phase. Hopefully I will get more time to finish her soon...but it probably won't be until after I finish the Kagamines.

No, the dress won't be transparent in the finished version. :P

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I'm also doing a little bit more internship work for Shine Global in NY... however, I am not allowed to post any work online. But that is what I am working on! Please come back soon to see all of these projects once they are finished. :)

The Last MousePaw Characters...

Finally done with all of these! Now to move on to in-game animations.
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Here's Dip the Pelican, who is fond of alphabet soup.
And this last little guy is the player character! His (or her) name is Scamper, and he works for the SpyRats, as you can tell from the funky spy-watch he wears. His watch serves as part of the UI for the game :)

MousePaw - Crabs

Here's some more characters for Operation SpyRat: Word4Word. They're all crabs! Most of them don't look all that different...but wait until you see the last two.

Pinch:

Clamp:

Snap:

Bob:Claude, the fiddler crab:

His Majesty, the King Crab:

I had to do a lot of looking at pictures of real crabs to draw these...and man they are ugly, especially those king crabs - they are huge and make me cringe quite a bit. Nonetheless, I think the characters aren't nearly so untouchable. :)

Seagull Sisters

More characters for the MousePaw games...
These three sisters which appear in Word4Word are like chatty teenage girls. I decided to give them matching scarves & anklets as well as ridiculous eyelashes to go for that effect. :3

Birds of Prey

More MousePaw stuff here! Technically this is part of the "Pet Shop Animals" set, but I didn't title it that because really... why would birds like these be in a pet shop?? Anyhow...
This is the bald eagle, Morris.
And this is the hawk, Stringfellow.

Birds of prey are always so tricky to draw, because if you get the proportions wrong it's easy to mistake them for a normal bird or a chicken or something. :( But I have always loved birds of prey so I'd practice drawing them... I hope these guys turned out alright!

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I'm going to be starting a Game Art internship soon, for all of you who don't know. I don't know if they will let me post my stuff on here or not! But if not, the game will be on facebook for all to see :)

Annie & Soonyi

Now that the opening sequence for the game is finished, it's back to making more vector models! Firstly, here's our armadillo heroine that helps out the SpyRats, Annie.

Not only is she cute and smart, but she can roll completely into a ball. Handy!

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Now on to more villains. I've already introduced Blueclaw the cat and his sly siamese minion, Ming. Now, here is another siamese minion. This is Soonyi (pronounced "Sue-nee"). Unlike his playful counterpart, Soonyi is more of a bully.

Here are both siamese minions together! Obviously two very different kitties.

They are siamese if you please. They are siamese if you don't please...

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Just as a side note, I get to do the vocals for Ming! I'm excited about that. (After all, I love villains.) It will also be quite a contrast to the deep voice of Jake Haffie who voices Soonyi.

Operation SpyRat: Word4Word Opening Sequence - finished!

Weeks go by with nothing to show...but that's all done now! As promised, here it is - the Opening Sequence animation that I've been working on for so long.

Just hop on over to youtube to watch it. :)

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Up next will be more character models for the games, as well as other illustrations of a new style... Come back again soon. ^^

Word 4 Word Opening Sequence Animation - Sneak Peek!

For all of you who are curious about the project I've been working on for the last month or so, here is a little glimpse.

Did you see the lip sync?! :D I still remember being in my Flash class and getting so excited when a guest speaker came and showed us how to do lip sync. Little did I know then that one day I'd be working on a game project where lip sync was a large part.

For those of you who are wondering - yes, both voices are me. Those probably won't be what we use for the final clip (so I'll have to tweak the sync a bit again, heh) but that's all I've got to work with for now, hehe. :3

Although I've only posted a short clip, I actually have 1 entire minute of animation completed for the opening sequence - I suspect it will be 3 minutes when done (including the credits). And that's what I'm up to!

Don't forget you can keep tabs of both sides of the work for Operation SpyRat: Word 4 Word on MousePaw's website, www.mousepawgames.com.

Cats!

Every game needs a villain... And when your main protagonists are mice, of course the villains have to be cats!
This is Blueclaw. Like most evil masterminds, he is bent for world domination - of course.

Don't make him angry...

This is Ming, a minion of Blueclaw's...though he may or may not have his own agenda as well. This little siamese is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters for the pending MousePaw game series Operation SpyRat!

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In other MousePaw news, our website is up!!! Not much on it yet, but there's a short paragraph about our games & our mission, an update on our process, and of course a countdown ticking toward the projected launch of game 1! (Operation SpyRat: Word 4 Word) Check it out - especially if you're looking for cute, fun, and educational games for kids.

http://www.mousepawgames.com/

Vector Model - Rebekah

I'm continuing work on making all the MousePaw characters into vector models, and next is Rebekah the turtle. I'm getting faster at making these things, I think :3
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I'm also doing a bit of animation for Append7 and will be animating these guys too now that the scripts are ready. Hopefully I'll have showable animations soon.

One-Wing & Flutter

Likely you've noticed One-Wing's Gallery has a new banner!
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The art featured is my first step into an entire new way of making art - illustrating with vectors. The drawing was created entirely out of vectors, then taken into photoshop for finishing. So what do you think about the look?? Here is the full drawing:

Click for full size

Personally, I'm pleased with the result and excited to pursue this new style further.
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Here is the vector drawing before taken into photoshop:

About the characters featured: Obviously you all know One-Wing, the mascot of this website. But a few of you might recognize her little friend as well. It's Flutter, my own personal character from the MousePaw game series. I would have had to make a vector of her anyway, so why not include her in this new experiment?
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Comments and critiques welcome. I know that since I'm starting something new, I still have a lot of things to work on, so I'd love to hear what you guys think I could fix. :3

Vector Model - Alicia

Here's another MousePaw Flash Vector - Alicia, the female mouse who stars in Word 4 Word.

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I also have more Vector Models for Append6 but I'm going to wait and post them all at once, I think. Also, you may notice I got a new template for my blog, but the banner no longer fits very well. Thus, a new banner is in the works as well. And I've started on the animated intro to Append7 as well!! (Then I'll actually explain what it is.) Yup, busy as always. :3

MousePaw - Animated Logo

Here is an animated logo I created that will be played at the beginning of each MousePaw Game.

I think it turned out pretty nice. Also, in the final version, when the whiskers twitch, a little mouse giggle will play.

Vector Model - Luke the Mouse

It's time for the first of the MousePaw characters to be converted to an animatable Flash vector for the new set of games coming out this year. Of course, it had to be Luke the Mouse. I think Luke's design converted well to a vector - he didn't lose his fluffiness or character and still is his cuddly little self.

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Just wait until I start animating him. :3

Rodents

Here we have two little rodents - one squirrel and one bat (does a bat count as a rodent?) both drawn per request!
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Harry here is for my sister. <3 I hope she likes him.
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White Bat below is for my friend Jason's game but it is a character based off another good friend of mine.
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Yes, I take requests all the time :) No matter how busy I am, I like to make people happy with my art.

Dragons

Here are a pair of dragons I was asked to draw for another set of games in the "Lab Rats" series by my friend Jason.

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I've had other people mention they would like to see me draw dragons as well, so here you all go.

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I might have a lot on my plate, but I always take art requests from people. If you would like to see me draw something, let me know!

Remmie and the Lab Rats - Next Bunch

I'm back - and I've brought a few friends with me. Here they are, the second bunch of characters for the children's game Remmie and the Lab Rats that I have been asked to make. What a good way to end the month!
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Before showing the little guys to you, I would like to explain why I have not been posting in awhile. It is not because I haven't been working on anything - but you should know that by now, right? No, in fact, I have been working on many projects, but because they were all long-term projects I haven't had much to show of them. But they are all getting finished around the same time. And so, expect a lot more posts from me in the near future...

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Okay, so that last one was just for fun. I couldn't resist.

Anyway, hope you all are having a great summer. I promise more posts soon.

~One-Wing