August 31st, 2024

Spent some time making a stream set up, so I decided to record a couple of demos. I consider streaming sometimes, but for now this is a good way to ease into it. Like a way to larp streaming. Maybe next time I'll do some commentary. If it were to be live it'd be editted heavily, or just just done in post. Kind of how I approach these blog posts.


I did do some voice over but I tended to trail off and speak to my self. It was nice for me but I don't feel right. Half way through the video I messed with my PCs resolution and icon size to try to make up for the sensitivity and it helped! I don't usually stray from defaults, but as time goes on I'm starting to move away from that.

I forgot about something come to think of it.


I was also working on this stinky fella. I was inspired by an artist posts who's character used a version of this pot on his head. I was gonna mod it into a game and post it in the thread the artist made on twitter, but a confluence of things made it so it never really went anywhere. Unity was being weird about the model, and was causing problems I hadn't encountered working on my first character, and then after a while it felt like it was too late to contribute to the bit. I'd like to atleast texture it, but besides that I'd rather make another model entirely for a mod, and it'd be Bloom of course.

If you are interested in seeing where this comes from here is the Artist's Twitter

I've been trying to open myself up to doing more collaborations with artist's I admire, I just have never really hands on collaborated with someone like that to my memory and I'd like to be open with that. There's a couple of people from the old art collective I used to be part of but I feel like it's just not the right time.

August 25th, 2024

Got some demo type stuff for this post along with just some thoughts as well.


Enlarging the gif will allow you see how the "armatures" are more bones than abstractions of bones. For me that was difficult to elegantly make sense of. I think it's interesting to note how different "armatures" or, bones, like the clavicle have different muscle clinging on them. Those bones shift muscle that either are unexpected, or not even known to exist. But this isn't comepletely analagous I'm realizing. The muscles and tendons are what move the bones, no? So maybe the armatures more resemble will at this level. There are more complex models with muscles the pull and flex. That is the challenge of this. The pointed to decision making to either forgo those specifics for the sake of, your mental. With the model of bloom I'm making I want that softness, that dynamism of flesh, but for this, it will do.

Until I get somewhere different, I will be where I am.

August 9th, 2024

Working on this model has shown me that I don't really know what features makes me distinctly me. As seen in the parappa homage, I have a way of representing myself in a very simple way. I also do not typically draw my facial hair. Im trying to decide if im going to make it more cartoony, but realistically i have time and can make different versions, and I have been enjoying this little expirament.


It's a work in progress, and it's better to be working, meandering and having fun, than not working at all.

August 6th, 2024

Spent the day working on replicating the Parappa the Rapper artstyle, inspired by a Rally Mix I really like, truthfully I don't really feel like clipping the video to give off the vibes, so I'll just provide the song itself.

August 5th, 2024

Finally working on something. Working on something that is less for raw complexity learning has been a nice change of pace, that means I've been able to reapproach old stuff, even if only a lil, cause, while important, it doesnt feel like if this doesnt look as good as it possibly can, it will be the end, and not worth even be worth sharing.

July 11th, 2024

I ended up working early into the morning. 3am. Working on this stuff takes alot out of me emotionally and mentally. The battle still rages on, realism vs. abstraction, advancement vs perservation. It's that damn sillohuette, it feels off.I am trying to made a nude boy so the legs done feel right on Key.The way the legs extruded out from the hips, and knees bend and the feet just sit there, none of it feels right. I know got a fact that the accuracy of the underlying structures (bones and muscles) is more accurate than its been in the past, it really just is a matter of wehtter or not any of that will matter when I add the sctructures that are what makes my style compelling to myself. Will it even matter? Will it mix the cuteness and coolness well? We'll have to see. but I know it's temporary, atleast, I hope it is. I look at the the old models and I realized thats theres so much less detail despite all my lamentations. I realize this is bigger than just the person I'm looking at on the screen.

I know I can make cool shit, I've done it before and I will do it again, I'm just simutaneously trying to process alot, so realistically theres so much consideration being put in, for outside of the piece in front of me. I hope that soon I'll find a happier balance, but for now its just a matter of just putting in the work, treating it like a work of study.

If you compare the noses of both models at their bridges, then you can tell the distance between each edge has shruken significally, and consequently pulled the forehead skin forward with it. When I am going throught this process it seems to simplify the structure. All the strange pathways the faces go along move away from their, current, needless location. The decrease in distance also allows for an increase in detail. While Bloom's eye brow ridge is gentler, Key's is intended to be sharper and more intimidating to really reinforce the shape of the eye and increase the potential coolness factor when they are shrouded by darkness at fault of their iconic lavender visor (and mask).

July 11th, 2024

/Morning: So I spent last night really trying to pin down this face, contrasting the cartoony, wide headedness of the examples pictured above with more realistic bone structure. This was not working, and I had just came to the realization that at this point in time it wouldver never had worked.

To explain this I'll start with how I came to "finalize" Bloom's design. I did not start with a head and work from there. I build most if not all of her design. I made sure to make her braids, her glasses and a simple version of her outfit. I was not doing this for Key. I was just trying to do it raw, even though what I was doing was unprecedented for my work flow. Key started out as a wide-headed faceless enigma. So trying to give them a face, without building everything that had developed over the years of their existence was the epitome of a fool's errand. I wanted the chandelier, without building the house it would stay in. I'm aware of the human capacity to see, assume, and focus on faces. I think it's one of the things most people focus on when starting out. Although I guess thats just not me. To me the most important part of Key's design is their wide shoulders, small waist, short torso, relatively long legs and overall head sillohuette. I was just lunging at a wall over and over again instead of retreading the old ground that got me to the wall in the first place, and I just feel really dumb for it. Getting frustrated at how dopey this face was turning out because I thought myself better. I'm not saying that the face above isn't pleasant, but it's fragile. There were no anchor points that pushed me into turning this amourphous blob into something recognizable.

This still by far my favorite model and I can only recapture it with more complexity by referencing it in conjection with the knowledge I've gained since I first made it.

July 8th, 2024

Last night I was working on this face, and as I pulled at the skin and shaped the underlying skeletal structures, I felt a certain ease. The foundation I had created with Blooms face was so strong it facillatated the creation of another, Key's. I used plenty of other references, my own of course. I was tempted to use art I had commission but I wanted to make sure I kept the wider heads of older models, despite my attempts at moving towards a greater sense of anatomical adherence.