#the devil works hard but my photoshop crashes harder

[fandommiss]

insp.

[shochmonster]

84 Questions

original: https://fuckyeahsurveys.tumblr.com/post/61049002526/84-questions

Put your music player of choice on shuffle and list the first 10 songs Guns of Brixton - The Clash Holiday in Cambodia - Dead Kennedys  Chainsaw - Nick Jonas California - Joni Mitchell Make It Wit Chu - Queens of the Stone Age This Woman’s Work - Kate Bush The Bad Thing - Arctic Monkeys Between the Bars - Eliot Smith Drown - The Smashing Pumpkins Different People - No Doubt

If you could spend a week anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? Would you take anyone with you? I’d take @duoloopo to the UK. I’d like to see places other than London.

What is your preferred writing implement? (eg. Blue pen, pencil, green pen)  I use my iPad stylus the most, but I have this heavy mechanical pencil I really like for drawing. 

Favourite month and why? October. I just love the fall vibe. 

Do you have connections to any celebrities (even minor)? List them. I went to undergraduate school with Rebecca Sugar. We used to ride the bus between NYC and DC together on holidays. 

Name 3 items you could pick up from where you are. Can of seltzer, pencil case, stack of bills

What brand logo is closest to you currently? REAL Skateboards

Do you ever play board games or other non-computer games? Got any favourites? I love Small World and Munchkin. 

A musical artist you love that isn’t well known Laura Stevenson and the Cans

A musical artist you love that is well known Red Hot Chili Peppers

What is your desktop background currently? Thomas Barrow on the beach in the Season 4 Christmas Special

Last person you talked to, and through what you talked to them @duomaxwell02 with my face :O 

First colour name you can think of that isn’t in the rainbow White

What timekeeping devices are in the room you are currently in? Two wall clocks, though one is very old and doesn’t wind anymore. I also have a clock @duoloopo ‘s dad made for me. It’s on the piano. 

What kind of headphones do you use? JBL Bluetooth, noise canceling 

What musical artists have you seen perform live? Foo Fighters (3x), Incubus (3x), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, Beastie Boys, Audioslave, Justin Timberlake, Troy Sivan, Arctic Monkeys, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Queen (but with Roger Daughtry, not Freddy... for obvious reasons.). Probably a whole bunch of others I’m blanking on. 

Does virginity matter to you? Not really. 

What gaming consoles do you or your family own? PS4, PS2, PS1, XBox 360, N64, Gamecube, Wii, NES, SNES, various Gameboys, Nintendo DS, PSP

What pets do you have? What are their names? Two cats, Hemingway and Renji

What’s the best job you’ve ever had? I like freelance art gigs the best. As for ‘normal people jobs’, I once was a sign painter for Whole Foods. That was pretty fun, minus the work drama. 

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? Food service. 

What magazines do you read, if any? I’ll pick up Time once in a while

Inspiration behind your URL? My classic original URL was LinkWorshiper and had been since AIM first existed. I picked it because Zelda was the first fandom I ever joined. Now I’ve changed all my handles (except on AO3) to reflect my actual name, as my literary agent thinks it’s more professional. 

Inspiration behind your blog title? Mean Girls. I always chuckle imagining Thomas and Jimmy as some Edwardian version of the Plastics. 

Favourite item of clothing? My Downton livery waistcoat. And the stiff bosomed shirt and collars I have to go with it. 

Are you friends with any exes? Nah. By the time I felt comfortable enough to possibly try, I also didn’t care enough to. 

Name at least one book you loved as a child. His Dark Materials (the trilogy by Philip Pullman). I still love them and am jazzed that he’s writing more these days. 

What’s your native language? If that language has distinct regional variations, which variation? (eg. AU English, US English) US English, mostly a northeastern dialect/accent

What email service do you use? Gmail

Is there anything hanging on the walls of the room you are currently in? So much stuff. I have a mood board full of Downtons stuff over my desk, various DA posters and memorabilia, plus some artwork I’ve done, and some of my JC Leyendecker collection. The aforementioned wall clocks, a San Francisco cable car bell, Sailor Moon and a few other little knickknacks, like my hamsa. To name a few lol. 

What’s your favourite number, and why? 212 because it’s Manhattan’s area code and also because it used to be the notation for one of my favorite ships in an old fandom. 

Earliest moment in your life you can remember? Sitting under the table and looking at my grandma, who was wearing a Cruella Deville dress she’d knit herself. Like, it had the actual Disney character on it. Pretty cool to a little guy, I guess!

What did you have for dinner yesterday? Quesadilla 

How often do you brush your teeth? Whenever they feel gross

What’s your favourite candy/chocolate? Lately, I’ve been into Junior Mints. 

Have you had other blogs on Tumblr? Do you have any other blogs currently? This blog used to have my old handle, linkworshiper. I did a small Whole Foods blog when I worked with them, but it never went anywhere. 

If you were suddenly really hungry, what would you choose to eat? Sushi

What fandoms would you consider yourself a part of? Downton Abbey, though lately I’ve been crazy busy and not as active as I once was. Casually still poking at old fandoms like Zelda and Gundam Wing to name a few. 

If you could study anything, what would it be? More art education can’t hurt. Maybe some formal history education. 

Do you use anything on your lips? (eg. Chapstick, gloss, balm, lipstick) Chapstick 

How would you describe your sense of humour? Seinfeld 

What things annoy you more than anything else? Mouth noises

What kind of position are you in at the moment? Sitting

Do you wear much jewellery? Nope

Who is the leader of your country, currently? Any other levels of government with leaders? (State, region, province, county, district, municipality, etc) Three supposedly equal branches of government, currently being run into the ground by a clown 

Last 3 blogs on your dashboard, not including any of your own @halcyondaze @mab1905 @lavender-hued-melancholy

What do you carry your money in? I try to never carry cash, but I carry a small wallet 

Do you enjoy driving? Why or why not? I like it but sometimes it feels like a chore, especially during a commute. @duoloopo thinks I’m a shit driver so she tries to drive whenever she can, which has pluses and minuses. 

Longest drive you have ever been on? Savannah GA to San Francisco, CA in a UHaul

Furthest away from home you have ever been? Germany 

How many times have you moved house? God, I don’t even know. More than ten. 

What is on the floor of the room you’re currently in, not including furniture? Cat toys, unused canvases

How many devices do you own which can access the internet? Phone, computer, iPad, various game consoles 

Is there is anything that is guaranteed to always make you happy? Thomas and Jimmy <3 <3 

Is there anything that always makes you sad? Thinking too hard about being a failure

What programs do you currently have open? I just rebooted, so only Chrome, Spotify and Photoshop

What do you associate the colour red with? This line in the Kate Bush Song Blue Symphony, which goes, ‘I associate love with red, the color of my heart when she’s dead.’ 

Last strong smell you can remember smelling? The Greek food I ordered in for dinner

Last healthy thing you ate? Roasted veggies

Do you drink tea or coffee, and how much per day? I prefer tea, and I drink coffee for energy, though sometimes I think it just makes me crash harder. 

What do you associate the colour blue with? The sky

How long is the closest ruler you can find? 12 inches

What colour pants/skirt/etc are you currently wearing? Dark blue

When was the last time you drank water? About a minute ago

How often do you clear your browser history? Rarely

Do you believe nude photos can be artistic, rather than erotic? Yes

Ever written fanfiction for anything? Oh God, yes. You can still find it under Link Worshiper on AO3, though some of my ‘classics’ have been removed since I turned them into original manuscripts 

Last formal event you attended My cousin’s wedding

If you had to move your birthday to another date, which one would you choose and why? Maybe inch my birth year up just by two so that I’d stop being called a damn millennial. At my age, I really just don’t relate to the generation even though technicalities make me a part of it. 

Would you prefer to be at a beach or in the countryside? Beach

Roughly how many people live in your town? 52,000

Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you? Leonard Nimoy :D 

Favourite place to shop? Can be a certain store or a place where there are multiple stores I haven’t really gone shopping since the pandemic. Right now, it feels like the only place to buy anything is Amazon XD

Do you have a smartphone? What kind? If you don’t, do you want one? Samsung. It’s not a Galaxy but is a new model and a fraction of the price. 

What is your least favourite colour, and why? I don’t think I dislike any colors honestly. 

How do you spell grey/gray? Grey. I’ve got too many British online associates to ever go back. 

Go to your dashboard and describe the image shown in the radar section (below the “Find blogs” link) It’s Umbrella Academy fanart of Klaus. He’s in black and white with this hands over his eyes and the background is red. It’s very graphic. 

What difference is there between how many followers you have, and the number of blogs you follow? 736

How many posts do you have? 8,859

How many posts have you liked? I can’t find the stat D: 

Do you post mainly reblogs, or your own content? Mainly reblogs but I pepper in my own content when I can. Lately, I haven’t had time to do as much fanart though, and I kind of feel like it’s not worth bothering to post my original stuff. Nobody follows my blog for that. 

Do you track any tags? No. 

What time is it currently? 7:33 PM CMT

Is there anything you should be doing right now? Waking up @duoloopo. TIME TO JUMP ON THE BED. 

tagging, if they feel like it: @abbys-little-whippersnapper​ @bumblebarrow​ @irrationalgame​ @downtoncat​ @mab1905​ @duoloopo​

and everyone who I’ve forgotten

[mi5014dylancoulson]

A Souvenir of Hell

A Souvenir of Hell, this is the first story I read out of the ones we were given, it is also the story I have decided to work with. I really enjoyed this story more than the other stories that I have read. I have a big interest in supernatural stuff, so I was immediately drawn to it from the moment of reading the title. I got a sort of mysterious feel from this story, you are not properly introduced to the mystical beings/characters from hell entering the shop. This makes it harder to understand who these characters are and what their backgrounds were like. This gives me a more open, free mind to think of the possibilities for these unique special characters. The two main characters are Anna and her grandfather, there is also minimal information on her grandfather, which I think will make things challenging for me.

Hole in the Wall

This was another one of the stories I read, this was also very interesting, especially the unexpected sad ending. This story was also mysterious however in the end the angle was a lair and everything became clear, their also seemed to be a lot of information on the angle character, Udi seemed a little harder to come up with his backstory, I also did not feel as connected to this story therefore I did not choose this one.

Baymax Task

Here is my Baymax model after following along to Gary’s tutorial. I found the task quite easy to follow along with ran into minor problems was easily able to find a solution.

Head Retopology Task

Here I have screen shots from following Gary’s retopology tutorial. I found this task quite easy to follow I ran into no problems, that being said I have tried to do this in the past and found it difficult. The tutorials that were given made this very easy and clear to complete task without an issue. I found this task enjoyable.

Characters Backgrounds

When being given the task to find cues the author has given for the characters backstories, I found this really difficult after reading the story. There wasn't much information on any of the characters past, it was all mainly focused on the present time. However I was able to pick up some things on the characters, and have some sort of idea of what there background may be.

Anna:

Backstory

Anna is from Uzbekistan and has worked in her grandfather's grocery store for as long as she could remember. She will be very educated in running a shop as she grew up working in one.

She is not close to any of her family except for her grandfather as far as I know, signs she also doesn't like her father who is currently in hell, and is introduced as a nasty piece of work. This could be part of the reason Anna ended up working in her grandfather's shop.

Her grandfather’s store was built on the edge of hell. 

The customers that come to the shop don't understand Anna, this is because they are from hell and don't speak Uzbek, Anna would try to make friends with them anyhow. This must make it hard for Anna to meet people or have proper conversation with anyone other than her grandfather. This makes Anna different to a normal person, she will not be afraid of demons or other spirit like entities like a normal person would.

The village she was living in was very boring. This could open the character up to adventure as she might get curious and explore new things. Also the village and shop was so boring Anna and her grandfather talked about unique customers that weren't so unique for days

She was unclear whether she wanted to see her nasty piece of work father.

She loved someone from hell

Anna’s Grandfather: 

Backstory

Owns a Grocery shop

Has a granddaughter 

Has a condition that only lets him sleep 1 hour a night, he would appear tired all the time.

Special Visitor:

There is not much information on this character but there are few details I can take and understand about the character.

Has spent 100 years in Hell we do not know the reason why

Because the character has been in hell they must of done something bad or feel guilty for something that happened in there life

character is attractive  

A Souvenir of Hell Moodboard

Faithfull:

I have found images relating to the story to keep the story telling as true to the original story as possible. When reading the story I felt that the visitors would feel out of place being back in the world of the living after 100 years. I also thought about whether the beings are alive or dead in the time of being back or are they just spirits this is not stated in the story therefore I can let my imagination run wild with this.

Distorted:

I found it quite hard to think of an element to slightly change to distort the story a little, but enough to make a difference. I have decided to see what would happen if Anna’s special visitor was able to not leave and stay with her. I believe it would have a huge impacted on the current time which the story is focused on, leaving the ending with many more exciting possibilities, rather then Anna living a boring life. I get the idea that it would be sort of a prison break from hell, devils or angles being the police having to bring back the escaped prisoner.

Radical:

What if the people who came back from hell weren’t nice like in the original story, what if they acted just as they did back in the past, or what if hell made them even crazier than what they already were. Also I was thinking what if the people in hell weren’t just people, what if they were various different creatures, with terrifying unique shapes. I also thought about what if it became a war hell against earth? Maybe every 100 years there is an outbreak in hell, but not all people or beast from hell are evil, therefore the special visitor and love part of the story could stay true to the original storyline with major differences.

Character Designs

Special Visitor

This was my first idea for the special visitor character, I went with a more mysterious look as you don't get to know much about him and there is not much visual description said, therefore it is hard to understand how he will look. I decided to change my mind with this character design as I did not gather many images for my moodboard relating to this design.

Here is my second attempt at this character. This time I focused on taking more from the radical moodboard I created and implementing that into this character design, though finding this challenging I think I did a decent job on designing the aspects of this character from the moodboard. The design could still be better. I am not the best at sketching although I could spend time and sketch out more ideas for a better result, however I am happy with the current one for now.

This is the final outcome of this design. after putting the drawing into photoshop I traced over it to make it look better, smoother and ready to be model in Maya. I have also decided on the colours and added some minor details.

Anna

This is my sketch for the Anna character, I found some ideas from the story about what Anna’s background could be which helped me with the design a lot, I feel like There wasn't as much on the radical moodboard to go off for this character so I did more research and look at the fashion in Uzbekistan and went off of that. I felt more comfortable with this character as there was more description to go off. I tried to focus on the main point which was, she is a Uzbekistan grocery girl, because of this I found a great images with everything needed for the design of this character.

Here is the final outcome of this characters design. Overall I think it went pretty well, it is now ready to be put into Maya and 3D modelled. I think there is room for improvement here, finding more moodboard images would be a big help, I did struggled to find images I was looking for this character.

Environment Ideas

Here I have gathered some images on where the setting for the character could be, images of the mouth of hell and Uzbek villages and grocery store. For the setting I think I like the idea of the character inside of old sandstone built grocery store as this is where most of the story takes place.

Inside of grocery store

Sketch idea of inside the grocery store for the environment setting.

Here I have created a 3d model of the base of the grocery store which I will used for my animation. I have used the sketch I previously drawn as a reference so far I think its a good layout and is going well.

I have modelled the head of my character and unfolded the UV maps and is ready to be textured.

Here is my current character progressing I have modelled the hair and textured the head and hair using the UV editor I was able to use tools such as unfold, optimize, utilize and so on. it wasn't so easy getting a UVMap outcome that I was happy with, I had to play around with the the tools and manually use the them to get a reasonable UV guide, after that I took it into Photoshop and painted on my texture.

Now I have modelled the whole character as well as textured everything I am really proud of how my character turned out as the is the first time I have created a full character with textures, I got on well with this part of the project, due to computer issues I have had times when Maya has crashed and even my entire computer during this process besides that, this part of my project was very enjoyable. Next I will rig the character ready for animating.

I have started to rig my character here i have placed the joints and made sure the orientation of each of them is correct to make animating function correctly and a lot easier.