Progress - Where To Now? What Happens Now?

This post is going to be short and sweet just giving you an idea as to where I am with creating my iconic videogame character for Shiny Money Entertainment. After having various talks with industry figureheads particular Joel Simon from Flickerpix, seeing industry standard work in the form of William Simpson's concept pieces and characater research which will be posted soon, I now feel ready to start creating my iconic videogame character. I will pitch my idea to the client and hopefully they will like what they see and hear. First things first though, I will post my research for existing videogame characters in general before diving straight in. Enjoy and thanks for reading folks!

Image Smiley Ref:http://thekop.liverpoolfc.com/_3622745-3d-render-of-an-toon-smileyjpg/photo/18705765/173471.html

More Wisdom - Meeting Joel Simon From Flickerpix

Coming off the high and excitement which was having the opportunity to see some of concept artist William Simpson's work, I was able to get another opportunity today which was meeting in person Joel Simon. Indeed, I came into college class just going about my daily routine (working ever so hard of course) until the class was informed Joel Simon would be coming in to give us a small talk on the industry. The purpose of the talk was to give me and the class a more detailed insight into the creative sector of animation, as well as giving us some guidance on how we can approach creating the iconic videogame character which Shiny Money Entertainment requires.

If you don't know who Joel Simon is let me explain and give you a brief profile on who he is. Joel Simon is founder of Flickerpix based in Holywood, Northern Ireland whom specialise in the animation craft within the creatitive industries. Flickerpix have worked on mainly animation shorts for children but also have worked on comedic materials for adults using clay animation techniques known as Claymation. Since being founded Flickerpix have won many awards based on their expertise again with animation. Joel Simon stated he was unemployed for quite sometime but had the idea of bringing this unique craft which is animation to Northern Ireland, because Northern Ireland doesn't have such a company like Flickerpix until now.

The talk Joel Simon gave was quite inspirational to me because he is proof nothing is impossible, all you have to do is to be realistic and focus on what you do. It is also worth mentioning, Joel Simon presented some of his clay models from  which he used on some of his anmation projects during his talk, giving me a better understanding of the hard work which goes into some of these projects. If all of this is nonsense to you up until now let me summarise the talk Joel Simon gave and my understanding of it: Nothing Is Impossible! :-) Catch you all later then.

Flickerpix Logo Image Ref: http://www.flickerpix.com/

A Picture Paints A Thousand Words (William Simpson Exhibition)

Before I start I would like to sincerely apologise for me not getting you guys up to date constantly but I have been very busy behind the scenes researching materials for this project I am faced with, so it isn't all doom and gloom. With that out of the way let me start head on with what this next entry is about, although I touched briefly on it in the last entry, I was able to meet an industry figure head as well as having the opportunity to go and see some of the works done by comic artist William Simpson. If your looking at this saying who is William Simpson either feel ashamed or let me explain briefly who this great guy William Simpson is.

William Simpson is from Northern Ireland and is notably recognised in the creative sectors as a comics artist having done artwork on many mainstream standout comics. Although William Simpson is seen as a comics artist by many William Simpson has now more recently provided his artistic skills to the television and film industries respectively. Me being a HUGE comic buff it must be said I admire his works in the comics industry. His comic works have included working for DC Comics (Batman), Vertigo Comics which is a DC Comics imprint (John Constantine) and AD 2000 (Judge Dredd) to name a few. William Simpson has also now applied his artistic skills to television and film but more recently is recognised for doing artwork on the hit TV series known as Game of Thrones.

I must admit and hang my head in shame I don't watch Game of Thrones but just know those words really, though I do know it is a very popular series and has been filmed in Northern Ireland at parts. Making me feel happy because nothing ever this exciting rarely happens here but hopefully more stuff like this takes off here in Northern Ireland.

Back on topic then, so me and my college class had the opportunity to go and maybe not see the man himself, William Simpson, but we were treated to an art exhibition of his Game of Thrones work. This was really important to me because it will give me an insight as to what concept approach I should take whilst developing my new iconic gaming character for Shiny Money Entertainment. I managed to be snappy happy with my camera taking the following photos from the exhibit at the Odyssey W5 building in Belfast they can be seen below, showing his artwork for chracters and storyboards for Game of Thrones as well as other works. Catch you all later in the next blog post then and thanks for reading.

        

          

Ref Source for Introduction Image: http://www.w5online.co.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/item/14/the-art-of-william-simpson/