Last week at work I set off to do some relatively complex pixel animations. I mentioned to my lead that I didn’t have a 2D animation software since my computer has been changed. I used to have Flash,  it’s not really appropriate for pixel, but then, it animates better than Photoshop.  So he suggested I try Pro Motion 6.  Which I did, I got the trial version. It’s way cheaper than Flash and it’s conceived especially for pixel animation with extensive palette management options, onion skins, adjustable frame rates and layers.

I have to mention that at my first game job, we used a software that was developped  for the Amiga, it was called Aura and was distributed by Newtek (the people who make Lightwave and VideoToaster.) Aura was pretty complete when it came to doing bitmap based animations (as opposed to vector based) with effect brushes, flexible layer management, spare images, drawing modes and onion skins.  Aura is not sold anymore, but it was a rebrand of TVPaint, same software but  under another name.  TVPaint still exists.

Why do I mention this? Because despite having all kinds of trouble getting started with Pro Motion, it did have a lot in common with Aura and I would progressed far slower if I hadn’t had a lot of experience on Aura.

So when I started working  with Pro Motion, I was finding it very confusing, frame management was weird, layers was completely wacky, I read the help and it didn’t really help, palettes were very very confusing. It took me about half a day to start finding my way around it. I got some good work done. Then, erm, I tried to fix something with the palette and I accidentally lost most of what I had done. The frames went BLACK. I was pissed. Still, it did take me an hour or two to get back where I was. I learned more about the palette. It’s still not perfect, but getting better.

So all in all, Pro Motion is an efficient if tricky little 2d animation package, priced at 78$ USD it’s way cheaper than most. It has everything I need and I will learn how to handle it and stop loosing work. I think it deserves a look. TVPaint is more of my taste, even if only because I know it better. But it’s also 950€ for the  pro version. Both are entirely different from Flash which isn’t very precise for bitmap based animation.

So, as discussed in part 1 and ranted in part 2, token females are not a good thing. So what’s an artist to do? We don’t decide on stories, or hire the cast. But we decide what people look like! If you get a job designing characters, it’s up to you to make sure that they all have a personality! And if the lone female of the gang looks like more than just a generic hot chick, she’s a lot less token. Really. The problem with token characters is more than just how there is just one of them, it’s also that they are there as a generic archetype.

Let’s take the smurfette as an example, what does she do? She gets in trouble and is saved, she waters flowers and tags along with the other smurfs. She doesn’t even get to be vain! They already have another smurf for that job. They also have one to be strong, and one who’s handy and one who’s a dork, and one for every single job or personality aspect. The smurfette only gets to be female. We, as artists, get to draw females who are strong, or vain, or handy, dorks, tough, old, young, spindly, fat.

Too often in mass media, especially games, we see guys old or young, wise or frivolous, slender or muscular, or fat. Girls, well usually they are hot, thin, preferably with big boobs. Hot girls are sometimes evil but ugly one always are. The plain ones are the ones who get squished by cars in open world games or turned into zombies.

But there are also good examples to follow. Belleville triplets come to mind. Given that a bunch of old ladies save the day! And what delightful design on these characters too. Strangers in paradise the comic by Terry Moore.  With the slender but wary Katchoo and the slightly chubby but usually cheerfuland sometimes sexy Francine. And an awesome support cast. Geeze, even Dora the explorer is better than most!

So, what’s an artist to do? Draw females, and make them all fun, and interesting and different! 

Lastly, 3 related articles:

Center for media literacy What makes a good female character. A short but comprehensive list of criteria.

Overthinking it  Why Strong Female Characters Are Bad for Women, using the live action Transformers movie. You know that they can’t really be nice to it.

Lorem Ipsum  More on female characters in fiction or is your story anti-women.

This is a small update to post a dev diary/making of of the Ubisoft collaboration to the Moulin à Images. I’m not in there, because having worked on the storyboards, I was long gone and assigned on a new project by the time this vid was filmed. This video is in french.

It can be a project, it can be a collaboration, it can be something you do for fun, or to help a friend, but it’s not a job. When you are a freelancer, it can be ok to work for free in some circumstances but you should never mistake that volunteer work for a job. Yes, even if someone promised you royalties or a “bonus” or revenue share. Unless the people involved have a proven track record of successful projects, you won’t see a dime.
/rant

Some of you might remember that when I started this blog, I was a freelancer in the field of videogame art. I was trying to build a regular client base but before I reached a point where my client list was really full, I got offered a job at Ubisoft’s Quebec city studio. Since I am contractually prevented from pursuing freelance work in the videogame industry, I kept busy with moving, painting and discovering my new city and workplace.

I took a while but I have decided on a new artistic goal. I want to build a portfolio of black and white illustration to try and get freelance work in the rpg publishing industry, starting with the spot illustrations found inside books. So while I still have plenty of stuff to say about the videogame industry (it’s my dayjob after all!) I’ll also keep you posted on my progress finding work in the rpg field.

My first goal for my portfolio is to make:

• 2 vampire pieces, White Wolf style
• 2 asian medieval pieces, Exalted style
• 2 D&D type fantasy pieces.

Preferably with lots of action going on, and maybe a few mood pieces for variety.

I think I also figured out how to allow you to suscribe to my RSS feed! Let’s try this.
Subscribe to my feed

Recently, a former client contacted me for a pixel art job. Unfortunately, I am under a non-compete clause so I can’t take videogame gigs outside of my day-job. Then I switched project at work, going to help on a yet unannonced DS title and what do I do? Pixel art animation! Yep. Pixel art is alive and well, it can be seen on DS titles, on mobile, on flash games and on Iphone. Many of these platforms can support 3d or at least full colors and sometimes alpha channels but pixel art is often the most efficient way to take advantage of small screen real estate and super small pixel art usually looks better than super low-res 3d. It’s also more precise and very useful for tiny huds.

And you know what, not too many people can do good pixel art, schools churn out 3d people, not pixel artists. I think I can count competant pixel artists at my day-job on the fingers of one hand.  And while there certainly is less glamour in doing pixel art for the DS than there is doing high res stuff for next gen, it’s still good videogame work. I personally, I like it better than 3d…

Lately, a young MBA student called Caroline Himmelman started a blog aimed at helping artists with the business side of freelancing.  Her writings can be found at candestine.com under the name The Art of Business. There is much in her blog that is seldom breached when talking about business, like balance sheets and health coverage. I can only hope that she keeps going!

Edit: little update to give the new URL http://www.artofbusinessblog.com/

This is the second year for the Moulin à Images (Image Mill) in Quebec City. The Moulin à Image was produced by Robert Lepage and his company Ex Machina to celebrate Quebec City’s 400th anniversary. It consists on projections and special effects on a range of grain silos 30m high and 600m long, making it the biggest projection ever (a Guiness record.)

This year, the second year of the Moulin, 20% of the content was changed. Some companies outside of Ex Machina were asked to produce a part of the new content. Ubisoft was given a 40 seconds segment to do on how videogame companies helped the rebirth of the St-Roch neighborhood. I was asked to create storyboards and help produce the animatics that were then presented to Ex Machina. That’s my first official storyboarding credits. Of course, there have been much changes since and many many others have spent more time than me working on the project. I’m still happy how it turned out. Oh, and I got the shirt to prove it!

For a long time I have wanted to do a post about local networking. Unfortunately, I’m not very good at local networking and haven’t had that much success in finding freelance work locally compared to the work I have found over the net. However the work that I HAVE found locally has proven to be more long term.  I also did meet some very interesting people, even if they haven’t given me work.

So, where did I try the whole networking thing?

My local IGDA chapter, which at the time was Montreal. It can be hard to meet new people, so once you do, make sure they introduce you to the ones they know! I got a contract from there, which lasted around 6 months, not bad! However, depending on where your chapter is located, the attendees can be almost 100% game designers and programmers at big companies who are there for the beer. Some chapters have more indie attendence.  If you have a membership to the IGDA, don’t be shy about volunteering, helping out at events can  be instructive and I met neat people when I helped animate some round tables.

MIGS (Montreal international game summit) I was a volunteer there because being a part-time freelancer, I could not afford or justify paying to go to MIGS. Fortunately, I met MIGS’s organiser at the IGDA roundtable and he suggested I go as a volunteer. So I got to see the lecures I was most interested in and met a few people. But if you go there to network with the other volunteers, you will mostly meet students.

My local sketchgroup (Quebec city Drink & Draw) nice people there! I’m not looking for freelance work anymore and I don’t think I would find any if that’s what I was interested in. But I did meet great artists and people who are interested in all kinds of art projects. Fun stuff! I’m sure I would have met neat artists in other social sketchgroups I have been to if I had attended with any kind of regularity. Dr.Sketchy for exemple. My local life drawing sessions were not big on networking however, and mostly attended by retired  hobbyists.

What experience have YOU had at local networking? How did it go?

Well, it’s not exactly new. It looks like it has been going on since August 2008.  Jon Schindehette is a senior art director at Wizards of the Coast and he’s working on the AD&D product line.

His Art Order blog started small but now it’s updated almost everyday. You have art contests that sometimes lead to commisions from WotC, and always lead to your work being seen by a bunch of art directors at a bunch of companies. That’s not something to be taken lightly for a free opportunity.  There’s also artist spotlights and lots of samples of art that Jon receives regularly.

But the real incentive for me to hang there is for all kinds of advice.  How to market yourself, how to present your portfolio, how to handle commissions. After all , I’m happily employed in the videogame industry but I hope to be able one day to get illustration commissions. So I’m following his blog regularly. And I’m painting too!