Unityyyyyyy!

Just thought I would share with you a bizarre look at Into This World from a different point of view. And I mean that literally and also in a punny way. This is a screenshot from ITW being developed on the program, Unity.

Look at them there new fan dangled three dimensional looking photographs.

This is what Unity looks like when you move the camera around. Not so 2D sidescroller now are you? part of me wants to incorporate some 3D elements into the environment and then the other part of me says screw it, that's too much work, let's go eat a Klondike Crunch bar instead.

Never Happy

Emo kid is so sad. So very sad.

"Glue your hand to the prison bars they said. Glue your head to your hand that is glued to the prison bars afterwards they said. It'll be fun they said."

I am in a constant struggle with being satisfied then spiraling into a deep depression over the fact that I am never happy with my weapons designs for the EDU. This is a little example (I think my second example on this site, actually) of how the weapons changed over the course of me designing the game. Some factors that get, uh... factored into the changes are as follows;

1. Color: It must stand out from the EDU so as not to confuse the player.

2. Size: Sometimes the gun covers way too much of the EDU and looks too bulky. Or it can look too thin and underwhelming.

3. Non Gun Shapeyness: The hardest part of designing these guns is the fact that they are not supposed to be a gun in the traditional sense. They should not have a handle or a "butt" to them since they are turret guns that attach to the side of the EDU's gun mount. If they looked to much like the typical rifle shape, then I failed as an artist and a human being.

4. Tool Inspired: Since the EDU is a drilling mech first and foremost, it shouldn't be wielding military equipment. It can mount guns onto it's "weapon" mount but the drilling weapons should look more like power tools.

A: The Matter Maker. The original version isn't even the original version. That is the third rendition of the weapon. I finally nailed it with the more power tool looking version on the right. I love that design and it hit exactly what I was looking for in my weapon design. Futuristic but still recognizable as a tool. I spent a good amount of time at Home Depot looking at nail guns, saws and hand drills for inspiration. The left version looked too much like a gun and not a power tool. I have been known to be called a power tool on occasion. Usually when I had too many Mountain Dews in my system.

B: The left one is obviously dumb looking. This is an example of how I usually start off a gun to get the basic design and shape of it before I proceed to making a full version. I like how the drill ended up. I added the rivet looking things onto the drill part because that's how actual drills look that bore through rock. Plus it gave it more depth when it's animated.

C: The Cat Cannon original layout. I thought it looked dumb. It kinda looked like a sad robot penis. I also thought to myself "Where's the cat shell being held?" Obviously if you shoot a cat, it's gotta be contained inside something. So I redid it and it only took me one more time to nail the look. I wanted to keep it stubby looking. No need for a big gun with a long barrel. I mean c'mon, it shoots a cat. Not a lot of recoil on cats. Trust me.

Funny thing about this gun. I always think about Les Miserables when I see it. It took me the entire movie to animate the gun while my girlfriend and her friends watched the movie. See how dedicated I am to this game. Even when a shitty overly melodramatic... I mean, award winning sweeping epic of a musical is playing in the room, I ignore it to hone my pixel craft.

D: The Sound Drill is the Bane to my Batman. It has crushed my creative spine. I will never be satisfied with this design. Honestly, I don't think I ever will. The new design has that "rifle" shape that I am trying to avoid. Ugh. Ugh to my life.

E: Nailed it. Might change the color but my first go at it and I think I got what I wanted for the Mine Launcher. Big thick stubby barrel and not rifle shaped.

F: The Flamethrower was a simple fix. The original is the third rendition and I like it but wanted it a little more gritty. As gritty as adding some tubes and a rail on top can make something. I did this to some other gun designs. Nothing to dramatic to show off.

So, fellow pixelers, if you are having a hard time nailing a design, don't fret. Move onto something else and come back to a design later. More than likely, whatever else you ended up pixeling instead, heightened your pixeling skills just a little more to endow you with the prowess to conquer the earlier design that is thwarting your every mouse click.

 "Yeah guys. You can be emo and happy. Take it from me, Spiderman 3's Jay Leno!"

That's who that is, right? I'm hip. Please agree.

Cat Launcher

I thought I would share a new weapon I cooked up today for Into This World. This is going to be a hard one to find in the game. Don't ask how. Mainly because I don't even know how. It's that f'ing secret.
It's called....

THE CAT CANNON!

"For the record, I really do love cats. Here is some proof."

ULTIMATE CAT NAP!

"Ugh. Is that what I look like in 3D? The camera adds a few pounds. A few pounds of ugly. Hey oh!"

Hey, Classic Gameplay There, Bro.

My love for ye olde video games of yore heavily influence my decisions in making Into This World. One of these aspects is how the player controls the two playable characters:

The EDU Mech

The EDU Mech will fill the position of the "Heavy" archetype. This is usually reserved for soldiers, barbarians, or tank like characters in video games. The Heavy is for the most part slower but has a lot of firepower. Even though the mech moves slow it dishes out the damage in spades. In spades I says! It's essentially a God damned sexual Tyrannosaurus.

Just like him.

Drea

Drea is the classic "Ninja" archetype. She can pop out of the mech and hoof it if the player (YOU!) feels so inclined to do so. She's not a high heels type of gal so she is pretty nimble. Wall jumping, sliding, rolling and diving, all that shiz. The Ninja archetype is usually highly agile, but is balanced by the amount of suckage in the health department. Drea likes to jump but doesn't do much damage.

While the Edu mech has the ability to fire weapons and makes use of projectiles to keep enemies at bay, Drea will make use of her close ranged survival knife. She's gotta get in close and attack quickly.

Just like him.

Pre Production Photos

I just wanted to share some photos I whipped up for the Into This World short film I'm directing. It's coming soon for the Kickstarter campaign. This is the concept behind the film: Drea versus pixelated enemies. This will be easy to make. Right? RIGHT?!

And a quick look at Drea's gun. No prop building behind the scenes on this piece. I really didn't want to take the time to explain it all. I think iI was busy watching Cinema Snob reviews at the time. Let's see... Foam, parts of a Nerf gun, flexible thin foam, misc screws, plastic bottle top, other stuff, etc.

Into This World Behind The Scenes: The Props: The Arm!

So if you have been following the blog so far.... GOOD! If not, go back to the older posts to know what the hell I am yammering on about. For those in the know, here is the final prop for Drea's costume. Her mechanical arm. 

I almost didn't make this. Not because the level of difficulty but the level of laziness I was feeling at the time. I almost (very close to actually doing it) had the actress playing Drea just roll down her sleeves to cover up what should have been her mechanical arm. Then she would have worn a glove to further cover up the fact that I didn't take the time to make the prop. The Bannon of two days was such a lazy pice of crap. 

Roll down her sleeves? Psshh! What kind of cinematic genius would I be if I skimped on the most important asset of her costume? Not a good one is the answer. Not a good one.

I started off with a cheap ass glove from the 99 Cents Store. Guess how much a pair of gloves were. You get one fucking guess.

I cut out pieces of my favorite foam (that I mentioned in the older prop making posts) to my liking and glued onto each other and then glued them onto the glove. When the glue was not as hot, I put the glove on so it would form to the shape of a hand instead of laying flat.

I found out this way works better then hot gluing the foam to the glove whilst wearing the glove. Needless to say, I got an "booboo" on my knuckles.

I kept the arm in three separate pieces so the actress could easily move and twist her arm and the arm prop would twist also in accordance. The body of the arm was nothing more than a tubular shaped disinfectant wipes container.

Tubular indeed.

Put all together, it looked like this unpainted. I stuffed a sock in the glove to keep it upright so I could see how it rests in the arm. I then stuffed a sock in my pants and rode the subway. I caught several onlookers gazing upon my majestic bulge.

The actress had a hard time keeping the glove on when the arm portion of the prop would push and bump up on it. I know how hard it is for ladies to handle themselves when I push and bump up on them, so I obliged her. I glued the glove to the inside of the wrist. Then I painted the entire thing in a black primer.

And there you have it. Drea's military issued mechanical arm. I sprayed metallic silver spray paint on a paper towel and continuously rubbed it on the arm. I tried avoiding the nooks and crannies so it would be more black and give the arm more depth.
I thought the arm needed some color, so I taped off the black/silver areas and spray painted an olive green on the hand and wrist area. I took a shinier silver spray paint and did the same towel technique but only on the edges where paint might have been chipped on due to Drea's rough housing.

Drea costume: Complete.



Ah shit... her pistol!

More Costume Stuff: The Hat!

The main character of the game, Drea, wears clothes. I know, I know, it's a stretch. Strong women characters in any medium should be butt ass naked. But alas, I thought I would try a spin on a classic here and give her some clothes. One of those articles of clothing she wears is her hat. It's that thing that goes on top of people's heads.

Eh... sort of like that.

Drea works for the United Drilling Federation on Mars. And she wears her company's uniform. This build was equal parts easy and difficult to make. Kind of like sexing it up with a really big fat chick. She's got nice cans but good lord, the rest of her could use a tune-up.
Sorry any fat friends I might have offended. What am I talking about? I'm handsome and only hang out with pretty people! Mwah ha ha!
No seriously, sorry.

First step, bam! Get a hat. I went to second hand clothing stores for a perfect olive drab trucker hat. Couldn't find it anywhere. So once again, bam! Went to ebay. Found hat. Ordered. Finally... KABAM!

Second step, bazoom! I proceeded to cut out the shield shape emblem. I carefully cut into the emblem (the difficult part) the UDF logo. Sloppily I might add. Then I cut the foam in half revealing the negative space from the top layer.

Last step. I cut out another shield shape and glued the carved out piece onto the new shield piece of foam. I spray painted it silver then took a black sharpie to the outer rim of the emblem. I colored the inside too to make the lettering "pop". Then I glued that bastard on and I was done, KADOOSH!
Then my cat asked to get some face time on the blog so this happened.

ITW Kickstarter PreProduction: Making the Vest part: TWO!

I'm back, bitches and bitchettes. I got the vest all done and purdy-like today. Let's dip our toes into the jacuzzi and get started.

The first step was to spray paint the vest in a black primer...

"Did someone say Black Slimer? Ah yeah."

No damn it. A black primer. It allows me to cover the vest in an uniform color then I can add other colors on top. Any how. I covered the entire vest in a BLACK PRIMER.

I added some old Korean War pouches onto the vest. Pretty easy. Glued them on and primed them too. Bam!

Step three, or actually 6 or so... Lost count. Step three of part two was to spray paint the body of the vest in an olive drab color. I covered the armor part in masking tape and paper. Make sure to get in every little crack with that tape. I then used a camouflage spray paint and satin olive spray paint to color it. 

Hmmm. Satin Olive sounds like a fancy French restaurant. I'll make reservations for this afternoon for two. I'll see if my mom is available to go. Or maybe the mail lady. I'm so alone.

I did the opposite for the vest once it dried and spray painted the "armor" portion with a metallic silver color and a bright shiny silver for the edges. I brushed off the paint with a paper towel to distress it. I also threw on a nifty little pin for some character. I pinned my own body with hundreds of these pins to give me character. Apparently it still hasn't worked. Maybe nipple piercings will do the trick.

I threw this painted beauty into the dirt and rocks to rough it up a bit and there you have it, the battle armor vest. Stay tuned for the hat! That's right, a hat! It's a thrill a minute here at the Into This World blog, ain't it?

ITW Kickstarter PreProduction: Making the Vest part ONE!

I decided to get started on the pre production side of the live action short based on Into This World. It will be used as my Kickstarter campaign (start saving your pennies now). First thing I wanted to get out of the way was the wardrobe. If the actress doesn't look like her video game counterpart, then she might as well be naked. Well...
I am no stranger to making props. I've done it for my own stuff and for art direction on shorts and webseries. What do I make props out of you ask or did not ask but I will tell you anyway because that is what this whole f'ing post is about. I make most of my props out of foam. It's light weight, semi-cheap and easy to cut (just like my ex wife).

"Bannon, you sonofabitch. You still owe me child support. I know we never had kids but I found a couple last week rummaging in my recyclin' bins. They keep trying to tell me that they are an old Chinese married couple. But I know kids and their sneaky tricks. I'm on to em'. God, I miss you."

Well, that was unpleasant. She's a fantastic woman, hell of a cook too. But, eh, not in the kitchen. Breaking Bad anyone? I just started watching. If you live in Los Angeles and you don't watch it, they come after you with pitchforks and torches.
What about the foam?
This is the foam I speak of. You can find it on craigslist every now and then for cheap. It might have to be cleaned because some parents put it in their children's playroom as a fun floor for the kids to fall/piss all over.
I buy mine at Target because I like to support small businesses. A pack of four run about $24 each.

FOAM! For the love of foam, it's FOOOOOOAAAM!!!

The first prop I started building was the battle vest that Drea wears. It's a mix between a modern military flak jacket and sci fi armor. It's meant to protect a driller from shrapnel and other debris flying at them.

The base of the vest was a cheap ass life jacket I found at a thriftstore. It's perfect for a thick vest like a flak jacket and it already comes with adjustable straps.

I did not add a photo of the life vest before I put shit all over it. Because we all know what a life vest looks like. Enjoy Chris Farley.

Here is the first stage of the vest. This is unpainted of course. I dont think the day glow look is bad ass enough. Like I said, the foam is easy to cut and adheres well when you use hot glue. It pretty much melts the foam into the other foam piece you glue it to. I got the basic shapes done, cut them out  with a razor blade and started gluing and used some masking tape to hold pieces together. I taped it together so the foam wouldn't bend back to it's original flat shape. You can bend this stuff with a heat gun. I do not have one. A blow dryer will not work. Trust me.

 I added some rivet holes by simply taking a magic marker top and twisting it hard into the foam. It leaves an imprint. Kinda like bevel and emboss. Any Photoshop hustlers out there? Holler!

I also took my dremel tool and etched some battle marks into it. This will be painted later to make it look like the paint got stripped and scuffed the metal.

This is the back of the vest. You can tell because it's the opposite of the front. Once again, I did the whole magic marker rivet trick. Those will get finished up with the paint job. That will be for next time. 

And no, that is not my jewelry hanging on the wall. It belonged to my ex wife...

"You bastard! I have been looking for that necklace for the past five years. I'll sue your ass so hard that your ass will countersue me. And then you'll have to front a bunch of money to your ass's lawyer. But you won't because your'e a cheap sonofabitch. Then your ass will be all butt hurt and you two will have a falling out. Kiss your ass's friendship goodbye, sucka!"

BTW... ITW Live Action

Another thing that has delayed me is preparing for a live action Into This World "commercial" to be used for my Kickstarter campaign. I don't know if hating Kickstarter is a thing but I am going to use Kickstarter either way. Too many damn success stories from other people for me not to try it.
I would much rather devote all my time and money on this game than anything else right now. But alas, I can't. Single tear rolls down my face.

She'll be paying the part of Drea. I don't want to give her name out in fear of Facestalking. I know I would Facestalk her. Lordy, look how tough she looks. I could probably still take her in a fight. Probably.

I will be doing a behind the scenes look at constructing the props and effects for the short film very soon. Stay tuned. I don't know how you can tune your internet exactly. Figure it out. Look it up on the internet. I think that's the thing that you and I are on right now. Oh, oops... nope. I'm on an Atari 2600. I'll copy and paste this on the blog later.

It's Been Too Long

So, I'm sorry my super dedicated zealots of Into This World fandom, but I have been super busy. This stupid thing called "life" got in the way and slowed down progress of ITW. New job, various art jobs, building props for a web series. All that shiz.
But I'm back and starting to get my pixel on again. I decided to do what I normally do with my sprites. I went back and touched them up a bit because I am never (never ever ever never) happy with them... Ever!

ORIGINAL

The very original flying animation had a gradient light on the back leg. I thought it looked dumb. And I was right.

REDUX!!!

Redone sprites can get a little too overly sprited. I added a couple of panels to the cockpit to make it look more like a Viper or Hind cockpit. But the newly added Iron Man/ Minority Report tech stuff got covered up and left the whole design too garbled. I also added some highlights to the mech. And I shaded the arms a bit more. I also added a shadow under the halogen light and the big round gear thing that holds the weapon. The cockpit also now has more of a gradient to highlight an ambient light source. Lots of subtle things but I think it fleshes out he design more.

Without the bracing on the cockpit you can see all the flight controls stuff going on. This is what I will end up using.

This gets way too garbled. If you think something looks bad or have a second thought about it, that's because your brain's pride doesn't want to give in and say that extra work you put it actually made the art look worse. If you second guess yourself, it most likely means it's a bad idea and you already know it. Kind of like the part of me that ants to get rid of the bounce that the EDU does in this idle animation. Is it dancing? Does it have Parkinson's disease? 

Now you can actually see the scanning system. Each action you make will change the cockpit HUD display. If you simply stand there, this animation will play. Kind of like Drea is scanning the area and receiving information.

Unrelated Awesome Redux Video

Not my video but pretty damn cool. Watch it with loved ones. If you have no loved ones... yeesh.

City... Why You So Busted?

This city has seen much better days. The game will feature limited amounts of surface levels. This is an example of what I am trying to do with the cars used as tiles. I wanted to make them double as a storytelling device and for level variation. I was trying to concentrate on actual buildings and street tiles but I kinda got a little obsessed with making the vehicles once I got rolling. I still have a flipped over truck and a bus that Drea can walk through inside. 

The background is temporary for right. I am dreading having to do the giant city background. I will not settle for standard repeating building sprites. I really want to show a world that has gone to shit.

Inspiration for the look of the city is a mix of Los Angeles where I live and what they did in Minority Report. I like how they kept the original city intact but built futuristic structures around it. Old buildings wouldn't necessarily get demolished to make room for the newer "spiffier" ones. The old ones would become historical landmarks that we would have to work around. Like when I turned my grandma's room into the guest room. Sure Grandma's corpse started to stink the place up as she rotted away in her favorite rocking chair but who am I to diminish her historical significance.  If my guests feel creeped out by how it looks like she is staring at them as they sleep, then that's their problem. I think she looks better with her eyes open. I tell people she is watching over them while they sleep and will make sure to keep away evil succubuses in night. That's grandma for you.

Getting to know you

Let's get to know each other!

Well, just got done watching another shitty episode of Grimm. How is it that I have watched every episode and have never been enthralled by it? Yet, I have seen every episode? Must be some Hexenbiest spell. Meh.

So let's get to know the main character... Drea LeBas.

Drea Cuadra
So she had some bad luck in the past year or so. Her planet was overtaken by an alien virus (boo hoo). She was ripped in half and put back together with cybernetic parts (double the boo thrice the hoo). And to top it off she is now back on Earth and fighting an army of creatures to find her long lost brother (cry me a river, then jump in said river and drown yourself, please). So, basically she is a drama queen. Possibly a diva. Still working that out.

Drea has a military background but for her recovery process, she has been working for the UDF drilling company mining precious ore in the caverns of Mars. She acclimated her motor functions through diligent work and got used to her new cybernetic body.

She is kind of a Bitter Betty since the accident and doesn't talk much. She is pretty legendary around the Mars community due to the fact that she is the only person to ever survive an attack by the alien planet.

My inspiration for this character was of course Samus Aran. Who is of course inspired from Ripley in Alien. Drea is not a rip off but more of a homage to the perfectly competent female capable of kicking some major ass type of character of movie and game lore. At the same time not throwing it in the face of the audience that Drea is a woman. Sure she has some nice bazooms but this character can be a male or female. Doesn't matter. It worked for Ripley in Alien and Aliens (we don't talk about the other movies).
The major difference in character is that this chick is pissed. She has a military background and therefore does not take anybody's crap. Unlike some people that would like to talk out their problems, Drea would rather punch it out. Since the accident where her body and face got mangled, she has become kind of a shut in. She's kind of an emo girl that would kick your ass. On a side note, I pray to whatever cosmic god out there... Please O mighty deity, let there not be this vile emo fad in the future. And if you do not heed my cries, it's no future I want a part of.

"Since your'e rambling, I thought I might add my two cents. I don't know if the emo craze is still officially going on. I think they started as scenesters, evolved into emo then into their latest form of hipsters. Much like the misunderstood nerds turned into goths then eventually turned into vampires after Twilight came out."

Uh... wha? Anyways, you'll get to know more about Drea when the game comes out. During the game you will be able to jump out of the EDU drilling mech and give your legs a stretch. Of course you won't be physically as strong as your mech but you will be able to fit in smaller spaces and be more nimble.

   

I promised bazooms. You shall receive bazooms.

"Another thing about social classes. Why do the jocks and bros pop their collars? The original collar popper was Dracula. It was used on stage to help the actor disappear into a trap door but a giant popped collar is synonymous with vampires and other nocturnal ghoulish fiends. Why do jocks pop their collars? Dracula is just about as gothic as you can get. Don't jocks despise and pick on goths? Sure Drea has a popped collar but it's because she wears a military flak jacket. It's meant to protect the neck. And have you ever tried to fold those things down? Impossible. Plus a popped collar was how they used to make seemingly boring characters seems more hip and cool."

He is as cool as Mickey Mouse playing a blue guitar without any pickups and not even plugged in. Good job, bro.