astingliamberry

[astingliamberry]

Five Nights At Freddy's Free Pizza!

At EGX there was free pizza given out by people who were promoting the FNAF movie that was finally releasing this month! I am getting tickets for the premier date. I cannot wait to watch this movie and I am so psyched they gave out free pizza as a promotion.

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EGX: The Games I Played

The first game I looked at was Billie Bust Up. This game has been in development for years and it is something I have been following for a while. I would watch the progress videos on the game again and again and gather information on said game. I follow them on twitter so as soon as they tweeted about the game being available to play at EGX I happily started playing. I did nab quite a few stickers after playing as shown above. The game is this musical type platformer about a goat named Billie and their sidekick who is a flying fox (not to be confused with Tails from the Sonic series). This game also has a wizard type axolotl that is a little bit anxious but we do not see that in the demo given to be played at the event. I played but I am not very good at platformers so I took longer than Weston.

Mineko's night market is a game where you play as a little girl moving into a new town. Unfortunately it didn't seem to keep my attention. I played for a while collection flowers as instructed but I easily became sort of unentertained. This isn't my kind of game, I am not super into story games except for the odd gem. This is a shame because it is made by the same company that created Billie Bust Up.

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Lazer Engraving and Cutting

I made this plaque by drawing it up in adobe illustrator and changing the settings so that it would engrave the text and cut out the plaque. I had Liam help out with finding the right wood for the model too and recreated the red brown stain for it.

I glued the plaque on with wood glue, which is just PVA.

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Progress made on model

I quickly stained the frame of my wooden model because then it would match the box I had made. After staining said frame I then waited til the next day I was in for it to dry. It ended up looking really cool but I felt the colour was a bit pale.

As the glue dried I started drawing the planning sheet to reference in my portfolio. I drew some dinosaurs as well as coloured the original planning sketches. I also made the sketches into a flap so that I could include the proper measurements underneath.

After the frame dried I then made more "stain", a mix of red and brown paint with some water, to get the proper colour I wanted for the box. I changed my mind on what I wanted window wise, I decided it would probably look cooler if it had a completely clear view into the model. I like how it looks and I will make more progress soon.

[astingliamberry]

Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing is a game I have been playing for years, I played it ever since christmas 2012, a little over a month since the release date. I was so excited to play any game involving animals, I loved animals. I initially thought that animal crossing was a game where you played as humanoid adorable animals, I was a little disappointed that you had to be human but I brushed it off, ended up playing the game for years, I even remember a villager I had. Drake!!

Something I remember the most has to be finishing the fossil museum quite quickly. I felt so proud as I walked through the museum I finished, I think it has to be where I discovered my love for dinosaurs.

I really thought this would be a good connection to my project, as its dinosaur related.

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Discworld

Discworld is a game about a wizard who is not very good in his world, which is held up by elephants on a turtle. There is w whole world on top of this living creature, much like the tree full of microorganisms living on top of my dinosaur. I always kind of liked the cover art for this game. I found it really cool but I never seemed to pick it up. My father always talked about it and the books. It makes me want to pick up the books and learn the world and the stories of the series. I may start at the game ,of which my dad has an original copy of with the manual, so I would get the full experience if playing it. He even has the original PlayStation console to play it. Reading the manual it tells you a bit about the world and it is safe to say it is pretty enticing.

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How to Add Your Own Photos To Other Photos

I was taught how to add your own photos to these kind of photoshop files by chris today, I also learned how to undo undo. To add photos of your own to these types of files you have to double click the photo that is already in that file. As shown below I chose the right page.

This is the original page, I just pasted the photo I wanted on top of it and hid the current one by clicking the eye icon on the layer that it was on.

After I saved it and it appeared on the right page. I found this very easy. The text is a reference to night in the woods as shown next to it.

I also learned how to undo undo's by looking it up on google, this is very useful.

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Poster

I experimented with different poster ideas for the side of my model, I was hoping to make a little poster and a little flier to show off the exhibit. I thought of just using a dinosaur footprint then I thought of the classic eye dinosaur poster. I then did this new idea I had which would make the dinosaur teeth into the text of the poster. I thought it was a rather unique idea. I asked a few people what they would think about what poster, which one would be best for what I was doing. Everybody said that the eye one would be the best option. So I went with that one.

I moved the photoshop drawing into Adobe illustrator and traces around it, I couldn't draw the cheese leaves so I traces around this photo of one. The reason I did this in adobe illustrator was because it uses vectors to save a drawing instead of using pixels. It is so useful because I wanted to make the size rather small for the poster, and maybe make a flier for this too. This is the progress I have made, I have made linework and plan to finish the colour work today. I had done this before but I completely lost my progress photos and file.

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THE FRAME

Kystie approached me with an idea, she told me that the lazer cutting was finally working again and was able to be used so she said I could make this cool frame with a design of my choice on it. I was happy to do this but also feared that the time I had to do this would probably be minimal. I didn't think I would be able to do this within the time frame that I was given to complete the project. I did it anyway because I really liked this idea. She drew out this plan for me to refer to. I thought it was pretty cool and happily referred to it when needed.

I made a really cool design that was a little different from Kystie's idea because I realised that it wasn't very good. I know she was just drawing to get the idea across for what she was talking about but I will make it less boxy and more fluent with the design elements. I thought about doing a pointed top for my design then I decided it would be cooler if I did sort of a bumped lip kind of thing and I ended up liking that better. Doing this helped me out learning more about adobe illustrator. I normally struggle with it so learning how to do this properly was really cool I even learned that colour numbers mean all sorts of different things. The numbers and colours are not nonsense they have meanings behind them. the f's on colours mean FULL like full colour! Chris told me about the colours we needed to use for adobe illustrator to communicate to the lazer cutter where to cut. I took notes on the settings and everything and took loads of photos of the lazer cutter at work. I also learned that the reason the lazer cutter wasn't working for Kystie is because she always forgets to press the reset button on the machine, so it lazers stuff all wrong.

I didn't know it would display the file name for my project on the printer and I thought it was pretty funny liam said "okay its now printing really cool thing". I should name a file something sillier when I lazer cut next time.

THIS IS THE RESULT I am so happy with how it came out and I can't wait to start staining and gluing it to the box! I was a bit anxious as this was only my second time using this lazer cutter but I am so happy with how cool it is.

[astingliamberry]

University Talk

Looking at University has always been a bit of a struggle with me, I never knew what I wanted to do, and I found difficulty when it came to what exact course I would like to study. I wanted to do something similar to the course I am currently on and writing this for. I wanted to do something to do with model making even maybe prop making for movies and tv shows. I really love the idea of making realistic models for a living, this is something I have recently fell in love with but I fell in love hard. After making that really cool mountain model a year ago, the dry brushing the painting it was just so perfect. I couldn't believe I made something so cool, I was so shocked that I could create something so realistic so easily. I liked drawing but it didn't feel like me anymore, it felt like I was doing it for someone else. Making a model felt like something I was doing for me. Back on track to university talk.

A person came in to tell us about UAL a university of 6 collages of different category's of creative courses. There's buildings all based around fashion, graphic design and more! She went on about the kind of courses each building has by listing and talking about what courses are available for people to take and what they entail. Like if you were doing graphic design they had multiple courses focusing on specific graphic design like climate graphic design which specifically is graphic design for social issues like climate change, the healthcare system and anything like the trans healthcare system too. I really like this course and have been considering it a lot. It was only mentioned because I asked about the difference between graphic design and graphic communication. The difference between the two is that graphic communication is more worrying about the communication that the artwork brings across like the message its supposed to bring. Graphic design is about creating things for graphics like making a font or something similar like making a simple illustration of a person. I did graphic design in high school as well as art and I loved it. It was a load of effort and very hard but I loved it. I loved both courses that I went out my way to do at the same time because I was creative in both ways. The graphic design course had no women on it, only cis men and me a trans man. I was isolated but god it was worth it learning everything I did. The art class was a good mix even though I had a run in with my teacher being transphobic I had a good time and I learnt a lot. She may have gotten herself fired but I still learned an unbelievable amount. I love both things and I want to learn both but for university I have to choose between model making and graphic design. I wrote a few notes on it so I could look back at it later. I wrote down a course called graphic media design that seemed to have a bit of both when she explained it.

She talked about student finance, apparently the debt isn't as hard hitting as its described in media. People go on and on about how painful student debt is but they probably are basing this on American student debt which is criminal how much they expect you to pay. In comparison to the amount that you pay for british university. I want to do university because I want to experience something like this, a university sounds like such a fun and educational experience. I honestly don't care if they are skimming off the top of my wage a little bit if it means I get to experience university and all it has to offer.

I also like the idea of living in a big town, living in a small town as a trans man is hard. Not everyone understands you so they turn to hate, and due to Rishi Sunak it has become a safe space for transphobia because they can say: "The prime minister said it was ok and so did Elon Musk so it must be ok." But unrelated, I just want to move to a big town where I can blend in to the crowd of other people who are experimenting with their gender identity. I am a wear London is very expensive but the salary lines up with the cost of living so, I will happily move there when I get the chance. I keep thinking about my life in dorms and my life as a university student and I just love it, I love the idea of making art for a living and maybe I will discover what job I exactly want to do. I keep mixing between all different kinds of jobs and deciding what ones I want to do and the idea of freedom with a safety net is pretty cool.

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After the wood dried I started testing weather or not it would properly fit together, it was loosely fitting and kystie suggested cutting it down. it did and I was quite happy that the result was like that, I couldn't stop taking pictures of the model I was so happy it went so well. you can see here i glued the painting I did onto the wood and cut around it so that it would fit perfectly.

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After finishing the base I started staining the wood with a mixture of brown acrylic paint and water. It was to give it a darker colour and a more appealing look than the light wood.

After sorting out the colour of the wood I moved on to adding my dinosaur to the model. Gluing it on with wood glue and hiding the glue with dirt. it ended up looking quite good and I was really proud of

I found the sketch work I had done so that I could get the idea across for what I wanted and how exactly I wanted to do it. I added it to the worksheet with some masking tape and glued the measurements sketch Kystie created underneath the little flap I made. I also started a drawing of what I wanted the background to look like.

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Working On the Base

I spent my time working on the base of the cabinet, making it look kind of elevated in some areas and using cardboard pieces and using pva and masking tape to keep the peices in place. After doing so I glued rocks I found outside of the classroom to the base to make it look like it has boulders around it. Trying to add more things to the scenery and I will be either trudging through the woods near my grandmas house or using kystie's supply of things. I am trying to get in the habit of doing it myself so I can find exactly what I want and if I wanted to do something like this in my free time I just gotta toddle outside and it's all good I cut an x into the cardboard and added pva so that the tree would slide in easy. After it was dry I surrounded it at the base with masking tape and painted over it. I then glued it and added dirt.

I DROPPED MY MODEL AND THE TAIL END CAME OFF I am very upset. But it's ok, I can't repair it with new sculpey so I will simply just green paint it and I might stick some greenery to it and make it seem like it's supposed to be like that.

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➶The Background Of The Display➶

This is the plan for the display, just a rough little sketch of the things I wanted to make for the project too. I want to make a poster put on the side of the box and a little flyer for the museum on the floor.

This is the start of the background that I wanted to make for the display. I added some darker and lighter colours to make it look more natural and interesting. I really enjoy painting if I am honest, I am so happy that I have an excuse to make this really cool looking landscape painting. I normally don't feel motivated enough to paint so having a bit of a motive is really cool and helped me a lot with this process.

I added some dirt patches and added some clouds. I also added some highlights in the higher parts of the grass, adding more depth to the painting. I know how to do these things because of bob ross, I used to watch his show through Netflix. I fell in love with the techniques and tips and ended up using them myself.

I covered up a lot of the cool painting I did with these trees that were not at all worth what happened to the background. I wish that I didn't add trees but, it is too late. In reality I needed the trees to be there but I still miss the clouds I painted and the cool gradient. Anyway, this is the result of what I left, I am cutting it down to fit in the box currently.

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☆More Model Progress☆

This is the final look for my model, you can see I added some moss on the side and I think it looks pretty neat. I might add some moss onto the sides of the trees but I am still not sure which way they will be facing so I will sort that out later. You can see here there is little pieces of paper about where I am going to put stuff like rocks and all sorts. I will be getting some greenery and rocks myself this weekend when I go out the Nowton Park with my dad, my sister, his girlfriend and her daughter. So I can hand pick exactly what I need to use for my project base. I made some measurements on the wood I set it upon so that I could make one of those cases that they have in museums containing a scene.

Above are measurements for the case I will be making. Kystie helped me out a lot with the shape and what I could do. I told her about my ideas and maybe how we could put little things on the top like a mini cardboard box, which I have myself, and railings on the top to keep other stuff there.

After we added some more things into the plan so that it wood be more sturdier. We added these little rectangular beams to the edges so that we could glue the wood against it as the sides were too flimsy to just glue together as is.

I have a fear of the machines, so I politely asked Simon to assist me. He helped me out a lot with the wood cutting and honestly just did it all. As much as I like to say I am brave, if I am not wearing ear plugs or have adult super vision I am not very good with machines at all. I have poor impulse control and little stubby fingers. After Simon cut these bits of wood we figured out that the wood was not at all tall or thick enough for the backing. I asked Simon what we should do and he suggested he cut the remaining wood and just glues it on. I agreed to this and he assisted me with applying it. Something he taught me was that if you put wax on paper glue will not stick to it. I was honestly quite happy that he showed me that, this is something I can really use in the future as I use a lot of PVA in my projects!

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✿The Greenery✿

I had to decide what to use for the tree portion of my dinosaur, I tried a couple different greenery that Kystie had to offer. I took a photo of all my options to easily sift through and choose which one would work the best. I ended up liking the one above because I thought it was a cool mix of what I wanted colour wise and I happily used it for my dinosaur guy. One of them looked like a fall tree and I thought it was really cool but not for this project. I know what to use if I am trying to go for autumn vibes now though.

I added similar greenery to the trees so it would tie into the whole thing with the dinosaur blending in with the trees to become the ultimate hunter like I imagined. I am so excited for how this is turning out. I know people might not be super excited about the trees but I honestly am loving how they are looking.

Here's the results so far for the main model portion! I added some bush to the neck how I did in the drawings, Its so when he lays his head down he looks like the bushes!

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More Painting ( ・◇・)？

I finished the base colours and started adding some brown to the tree, I had a lot of trouble with mixing the right colours for this creature. I kept making too dark of a green and it honestly looked awful, so I added a lighter colour on top of the dinosaur instead of on the bottom of the dinosaur. It turned out a lot better and I started feeling motivation again. I was proud of how it was turning out again, excited for more painting. I dry brushed the tree with a lighter colour after filling it in with the nice warm brown I made.

After neatening up the roots and branches I decided to finally work on the face, I went in on the tongue with this nice deep red then covered up all the spillage of red onto the teeth with this nice off white colour. I was quite proud of how small I was working here. Due to the size I had chosen to do it in I had to use a pin to paint the teeth. I also used a pin to make the pupil in the eyes. I am so excited for this result and I can't wait to add some decorations with PVA and stuff kystie found in the woods.