The Final Construct

Its been a while since I updated my progress but as of a few days ago, I have finished. I finished my series of characters, made a showreel from them, used a past prologue novel in another gallery and used the hyperlink system to put my interactive game trailer in working order. Im all done. Feels great. I hope you enjoy.

Decided

I have chosen the all round design, finally. I have gone with consistent grungy border on each page, all in black and white. And warn looking, simple text. This gives the style I wanted and also its extremely simple and doesn't over power the actual art it exhibits.

Not My Best Skill

The new problem on my list is how pretty my web site is going to be (trivial but important). I want something simple and conservative but at the same time have an original resounding design or style. Its a tough one. Ill post some layout and design ideas when I have them. I hate graphics, Im not the best at that. Here is an epic fail of a poster I did a few months back for a party at the su....

.... Horrific.

Gallery Of Failures

I've decided not just to have a gallery of my best pieces but also a separate gallery for "The Failures" as well as their showreel. This is simply so people can read the origins and have a closer look at the character designs.

An Odd Bunch

Here are some characters I've been working on just recently all from the same narrative reality. The idea is to break away from the cliche heros of most comics and show how heros and powers can literally come from any were, the humorous randomness of life. Due to their similar back ground, the team and comic is to be called "The Failures". They are all in the same style and are simple character designs displayed in an overall similar way. What I could do, is in fact keep working on this narrative and come up with a series of characters, that would be ideal for my showreel. Not just the same style but the same reality, perfect. Just for interests sake I have given a short origin story to each one.

The "Corporation". A company that has been the biggest producer and developer in almost anything you can think of from Weapons to Cosmetics. On the surface they are straight and honest, supplying the world with the things it needs. Under neath however, they have dark secrets, dark developments and even darker motives.
Above is Pandaman. This character was born in the depths of the "Corporations" darker side. Kevin Blake, s reluctantly retired, highly reputed SAS soldier who was long past his best, returned home to his loving wife and an 8 year old son who resented him for his military life. No sooner had he arrived when a letter was sent to him requesting his presence at the closest "Corporation" facility. He went. They told him that he did not have to leave his glory days behind. They could make him the greatest soldier that ever lived, and serve his country once again. He agreed to it in secrecy from his family. They carried out a six month program with frequent doses of enhancing drugs, operations and scans. In the final stages they back stabbed Blake. Unknown to him, they had been giving him a mind obedience and focus drug. This slowly turned him into a mindless killing machine, that would take basic orders and carry them out precisely. They medically burned his body into a super soldier combat suit and prepped him for transport to the east as a sales pitch to foreign military powers, their true intention from the start. Before his family grew suspicious of his disapearance, they burned his house down with them, and a planted body, inside. They had miscalculated however. The drug dosage was not high enough to sustain permanent effect and during transport, he overheard one of the guards mention his families murder. He broke the mental control, went mental and killed every guard on the convoy with his bare hands. He travelled 50 miles on foot, so not to be tracked, back to his home. All that was left unburnt was his sons favorite soft toy panda. Driven insane by the drugs and the murder of his family, he made himself a symbol of vengeance, modified his suit adn became Pandaman. You may find his appearance humorous, but don't laugh, he is no joke.
(that was way too long Im going to simplify the rest).

This fine looking fellow is Granvill Peters. A extremely simple fellow who grew up wanting to be a delivery man, simply to travel the world. Obviously he was deluded to were he would be delivering to but he love it none the less. When the Corporation hired Granvill's company to deliver a package they recruited their most dedicated employee, Granvill. Though this was not his lucky day. On delivering the package, Granvill was mugged at gun point. His unbreakable dedication however led him to not give up the package, so the gunman shot him. He flinched and brought the package to his chest. The lead bullet passed through the package and hit him in the heart. The package however had a radioactive substance thought not too be dangerous which actually fused with the bullet and then, through his circulatory system, his entire body. Over night, after a incident that should have killed him, Ganvill transformed into a solid piece of bio-lead. This grants him near invulnerability, Super strength and An extremely high resistance to radiation. He is now known as Granvill The Anvil, and though he is a bit slow in the head he joins with the failures to fight the evil doings of the Corporation.

This is SupaDupaMan. Due to a mix up between the Extra Terrestrial Department and the Cosmetic Department at the "Corporation" (yes, they do cosmetics) an alien life form was sold in its containment cell which was mistaken for lip stick. This cell was bought by the famous citizen, Cuban Carlo, leader of a successful gay rights group based in New York. When he used what he thought was luminous pink lip stick he in fact fused his body with the alien life form, which in turn granting him other worldly powers. These powers are flight, speed, super strength, super endurance and a sonic scream beam (yes, he screams a beam).

Here we have The Kestrel a.k.a Alfie Cook. His powers, like the rest, have derived from the evil doings of the "Corporation". They were trying to develop the ultimate re-con soldier and like with Pandaman, they were successful. Human DNA crossed with that of a bird created a Human with hollow bones, stronger leaner muscles and super sharp eye sight. The Kestrel however fled the "Corporation" when they let slip that he had not been crossed with a bird of prey but in fact with a pigeon, a fact he is now extremely secretive about. In his embarrassed escape discovers multiple evil motives behind their schemes and allies with the other "Failures" against them.
With the aid of his specialized suit he can use his bird like attributes to fly. He fights with gadgets and his military combat training.

Onwards

Now that I have the final footage for my trailer sorted I can leave the hyperlinking until later, that will be a simple process. Time to move on to the other points on my brief. The next main task is to create am online portfolio. Now for a specialized artist that would be easy, having a certain talent they can focus around. For me that would be 2D art. My problem is I cant really define it further than that. My styles, media and genre are quite varied, especially those of my best pieces that I would want to use on the site. Also, I have to create a 30 second showreel of my work. This is were I think I can tackle my problem. I am going to have all my best pieces in my gallery which will show my varied styles. Then for the 30 second showreel I am going to focus on one particular style, or even one particular narrative I have been working on. The narrative character I may focus on in particular is Pandaman. The next series of posts will be of Pandaman works for the showreel and the varied pieces I have chosen for my Gallery.

Construction, Completion And Most Importantly, Celebration!

Now I had all the pieces to my final piece it was a piece of cake. With a bit of tedious timing and easy ease key frames (godsend) I think I have pretty much nailed it first time. I have made three separate videos, all that is left to do practically is join them together somehow, perhaps using hyperlinks or some other kind of point n click system. I would use flash, but I haven't got a clue how to.
So seems as I have got this all together in plenty of time I went out and bought my self a nice big pile of comics. Not the way you think a student would really celebrate (to be honest, I did go out and have few too many in the evening) but reading a comic is by far the best relaxation and "letting loose" for me. Spending time churning out writings and illustrations, its nice to sit down and enjoy the churnings of somebody else.