lindseyabendschein

[lindseyabendschein]

Recently, I've been continuing my journey with 3D and Blender. Just as I had finally cut the Adobe cord, I was commissioned for some animation work, which I was happy to take, it simply plunged me straight into my own personal deep dive with Blender. It was a fun, and often hair pullingly frustrating experience, though I learned a lot, so much so that I got more and more excited about doing more work in Blender.

This project is one that I've had on the way back burner for quite some time. I wanted to take this illustration I did many moons ago, and turn it into a short, looping animation. I had various ideas, especially as it related to the various Adobe options at the time, and with more 3D options the concept is beginning to solidify. First things first, get the character modeled and rigged. While these are not small tasks, I'm looking forward to seeing this character come to life in a new way!

[lindseyabendschein]

More gesture drawing today, along with circling back to some concept art for another project that's been a bit back-burnered for me, a 2D platformer game. With an interested party on the development side, it's time for me to start digging into this project a little more deeply so we can start moving ahead with it together. These are some rough ideas for the Peter Pan and Tinkerbell characters. Perhaps another reread of the original work might be in order to help further the world building, along with creating some fun references/easter eggs for fans of the story.

[lindseyabendschein]

As I've been continuing to work through the Mermay prompts, my goal is to turn these into a series of postcards, or posters, maybe some stickers depending on the artwork. Once things get further along and I start completing them, perhaps I'll do a poll to get some input on what to print.

This particular piece is certainly a work in progress. My hope is for a more graphic looking piece like my design for the #force prompt, using simpler shapes and colors, while also being a bit more fluid in the illustration style.

It's been fun revisiting this project, and as it has been in the past, working on each of these has really helped to re-energize my creativity and playfulness with every other project I've been working on as well.

[lindseyabendschein]

Revisiting the Mermay prompt of Dolly in a few different ways. This revised version fits more with my initial vision for the sketch, now I'm working through the coloring of the piece. While I was originally imagining something much simpler, I'm liking how the texture is working and would like to see the two ideas come together.

[lindseyabendschein]

Continuing to follow the Mermay prompts, today's entry is for Dolly. Bit more challenging today, especially with my first concept for dolly. While the image was clear in my mind, translating to the page proved more difficult than I anticipated. Will likely need a bit more refinement before moving on to color with this one.

My second concept will also need a bit more refinement. I had a simpler character design in mind, and got a little too lost in the reference.

Definitely some fun ideas to revisit though, looking forward to seeing how each of them progress!

[lindseyabendschein]

Another Mermay inspired sketch based on the prompt Toy. I had a couple ideas for this, and wanted to pursue them both!

[lindseyabendschein]

As I continue to re-focus my work by re-incorporating more time for my own sketching and project exploration, I've been going through the Mermay prompts. May fourth was force focused, and I liked the idea of focusing on the forces of nature. Whales and waves can be so unfathomably large, that they can be forces unto themselves, which made it fun to see how I could incorporate these little mermaids.

[lindseyabendschein]

Inspired by Mermay and my earlier attempt with the #Aloha prompt, I discovered it had been way too long since I did some drawing, or any real creative projects for myself. Working my way back towards more character work, gesture drawing, and delving back into my own project work has become a much needed priority again. I'm always too quick to sacrifice time for myself because I am so invested in collaborative projects and those I'm working with, and am always reminded that my creativity is fueled by this type of work. Looking forward to more play, and continuing to explore some of my on-going projects that had gotten back-burnered recently.

Prioritize the play!

[lindseyabendschein]

A late, and very rough entry to Mermay.

[lindseyabendschein]

Back to the Donut Tutorial today, sort of. Following a bunch of tutorials in order to play around with text, geometry nodes, and other tools in order to make a more visually interesting intro to my rather long-in-the-tooth donut tutorial project.

Some tutorials of note: Blender Guru -- really a fantastic resource, and this time creating a small candy in order to demonstrate the geometry nodes. Joey Carlino -- while a little quick for this newbie to follow right along side, lots of really great information and explanation for each of the added elements. Really well done.

[lindseyabendschein]

Some very early, rough character design concepts for some game art I've been working on. The end look will be pixel art, which is very new for me, and so I wanted to try a few different styles and character types to see which might translate the best to the game environment.

[lindseyabendschein]

Some more very rough storyboard art for my animated short. I found myself back in Photoshop today, doing a little experimentation since I've been working in Krita for a bit I wanted to get a sense of the performance differences. Unfortunately it is significant, may need to continue to seek out alternatives, or simply see how things progress with the hand-drawn animation side of things. I do like how that side of Krita works over Photoshop, but there are still some major issues. Lots to keep experimenting with and consider.

[lindseyabendschein]

Back to more character design work for today, working some fun poses for the princess character of my animated short project.

[lindseyabendschein]

Revisiting this little animation today, aiming for more of the heft and weight of the sword for the character. It's not exactly where I'd like it to be, though since it is more of a test for the Knight character, I may move forward to see how the character design works with the animation.

[lindseyabendschein]

Continuing along with the very rough animation of the Knight character from my animated short. I think it's something I'm going to have to act out as I wanted to have more stumbling, staggering around from exhaustion as the character hefts the sword and readies to attack. Looks like I also may need a bit of camera work to follow more of the movement, making it a little more intense, or dynamic. Lots to be considering, it will be fun to see the direction this rough ends up taking.

[lindseyabendschein]

Started playing with some animation testing today, aiming to capture a moment with the Knight rallying as they retrieve their fallen sword. I've really been enjoying the drawing work as of late, though I think revisiting Blender again might help bring some refreshed energy to this project overall. First I might continue with this animation since I've really been enjoying seeing the character come to life through movement. Quite a bit to consider, which means lots of fun directions to pursue!

[lindseyabendschein]

More character design work for my animated short project, continuing with the Knight while expanding to other characters. The Dragon continues to be a bit of a challenge. Perhaps experimenting with entirely different styles might be more helpful, or shifting focus to the environmental look. Since I'm imagining simple shapes and color, it might help in further developing the final look of these characters.