Been working on audio and visual layout for the teasers. Finally sorted out the photoshoots, and we're placing them on the backgrounds, moving them around the way the final characters will - we'll replace the photos with sketches, then linework, and then final color! And hopefully we'll have a good audio mix by then.
The teasers, the K&K one that is, will lead right into the Indiegogo campaign, so, er, gotta figure that out.
What we really need to look into right now... is recruitment. Some more digital artists, compositors, who can help piece all that together... hopefully local. Also... hoping for, like, patrons, producer types? We are gonna dig into the $500 fundraiser, of course, but it was a K&K fundraiser, so, only going to use it for K&K.
I talked to Brandon, artistic director over at the theatre, and he said, what we gotta do is really put ourselves out there, being specific with who we're looking for. I need help forging my approach, for sure...
Ha, I dunno, I've been really out of it lately, feel like I've been walking through unreality the past few days. I've been pondering somehow arranging some sort of nightly gathering of TAPAS updates, but, there's just no way I could structure my life well enough there, and I'd never get anything done myself...
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Thought I'd show off some highlights of the concept art we've been doing! Focused on making the teasers, but we're also doing some early preparations for what comes later.
This is Ted, our most prominent villain as the story begins, drawn by Nathalie. Did a great job with his many-layered wizard robes, I wouldn't have known myself how to handle that and make that look interesting. All that I really had in mind for the character was for him to have very curly hair, and perhaps some face paint to identify him as a more primal warlock rather than a refined wizard.
King Dworin, again by Nathalie. We hear his voice in the teaser - provided by our very special guest Bobsheaux, we're expecting the final audio mix very soon! - and here's our first concept of what he'll look like. Definitely looking regal and complex like a proper "big powerful good guy" should look, and a nice start to the look of his mighty magical flails, my mind's been buzzing with ways to enhance their design.
Dwizella, drawn by McKenzie. Simple dwarven priestess, simple vestments, simple hammer. We're still not sure what dwarf women look like in our art style, always a hard thing to determine in a new world, but I think we've got a great start on her face here. I like those many braids blowing in the wind! I'm considering avoiding braids in this art style as much as we can, might look too busy, but this reminded me of the time my cousin Thalia was really little and she wanted FIVE pigtails, and somehow she pulled it off. Might try to reconstruct that for this character.
This one I did myself - it's Cthulhu! My first attempt at getting a handle on his anatomy, based not on any traditional depiction of the dread Great Old One, but on the homemade LEGO version from the comic, made from a t-rex's body, with a giant octopus for a head, and spinosaurus sails for wings. For our Cthulhu, I wanted to recapture the LEGO octopus's eerie blank stare, and gave him even more spinosaurus traits to make him look more aquatic. I based his stance on old outdated depictions of dinosaurs, which had a rather kangaroo-like way of standing; and unlike most Cthulhu depictions, I certainly want to imply early on that those wings are actually good for something.
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And, okay, as of writing this last segment of the entry before posting it, we have that master audio file now! All the voice acting, all the music - gonna take a few notes on it, add some sound effects later, almost done for sure. And we're nearly done animating the opening monologue, I think, keeping it going on that layout... I'm hoping these teasers can be done and done by the end of the summer!
And... from there, gosh, I kinda let this blog sit for a while, I don't know why, could have easily just posted it like three weeks ago. But, er, everything on it still stands! And I'm feeling good and working on more activity in the team.
