Weekly review - 13/12/2013

This week, I had some computer trouble at home which prevented me from doing much work on the backgrounds I wanted to work on. However, I have confidence that the problem isn't big, and I'm fairly certain that I know how to fix it, thanks to the help of a friend of mine.

In spite of this problem, I managed to finish the bookcases for the Grand Abbess' study. I used a wood texture for the framework, and I planned to use leather textures on the books, but I couldn't due to the problem with my computer. Instead, I just colored them, flatly, in Photoshop. I also used a photo of a real skull as an interesting decoration in the bookcase.

I very slightly edited the linework of the first bookcase to create an alternate version, which did not have a skull. I did this because I wanted some slight difference in the bookcases, so that it was less obvious that they were actually just copied and pasted.

Once these were completed, I used them in the background of the Grand Abbess' study. I would like to point out that this is rudimentary, and I am definitely planning on making a better one when I can rely on my computer. I tried to make the room seem dark, but welcoming, by using dark browns, as if it were paneled with darker woods.

While doing this background work at home, at college, I worked on my walk cycles for Red and the wolf (whom has gained the name Dwolf, as a portmanteau of dwarf and wolf). I feel very confident about both of these walk cycles, especially Dwolf's, even though Dwolf's cycle was supposed to be much harder. I did research into how wolves and dogs move, partially online and partially from watching how my aunt's husky moves. With the walk cycles, I have first started with pencil mannequin-style sketches. I plan on tracing the full characters on separate pieces of paper using the lightbox. I'm rather proud of myself that I noticed an interesting quirk of how various quadrupeds move. When a quadropedal animal is walking, their front and back legs are slightly out of synch with each other. Their feet hit the ground at different times, which people seem to find difficult to achieve.

This weekend, I must remember to put my qualifications onto UCAS, as that's the only part of my UCAS application that is still unfinished. I would like to have more backgrounds finished by the time I come back from Christmas holidays, namely the backgrounds of Red's nunnery, and more forest backgrounds. Also, I would like to finally get to editing the transition forest background, to make it less jarring when it reaches the creepy woods.