Samus 9

Overview of the differences between Samus & her clone.

Henohenomoheji

Continuing the spirit of bad calligraphy in Japanese class, I present: a henohenomoheji. Honestly, I only did this because none of my attempts at *real* calligraphy turned out very well. lol.
Also, info: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Henohenomoheji

Samus 8

Anyway, more Samus stuff! Twice the Samus, twice the fun!

Te Inveniam (Draft)

Obligatory plug for Harmony of a Hunter: 101% Run: it's fantastic! Especially the song (by the same name) that inspired this piece. Fucking Metroid opera, it can't get cooler than that.
(Finished version is on dA.)

Some Characters from Quadropheniac

Hi there. Turns out I can still hold a pencil. How about that. Have some character sketches. Probably won't have much more until winter break (a few weeks from now).
Also, funny story: I'm FINALLY writing Quadropheniac (a story that's been bouncing around in my head for ages), but not in the way I planned... originally, it was going to be a comic, told from Jace's perspective. Now, thanks to the Intro to the Short Story class I'm taking, it's a short story told from Ezra's perspective. I'll still probably do the original at some point, but this has been an interesting experiment. I might upload the finished version to dA when it's... you know, finished. Until then, random people that stumble upon my ramblings!

Drawings from 2AM

My mind goes strange places sometimes.
(The scanner cropped out some stuff on this one. Oh well.)
1. I really wanted to draw something, so I just thought, "I'll draw the first two characters I can think of." And those two characters turned out to be... Rin Tezuka and Kay. Um. Yeah. I decided that Rin would take an inexplicable liking to Kay, and Kay would absolutely not be cool with it.
2. Yeah, I've been playing Metroid Prime 2 a lot lately. From here on, brace for extreme levels of fanboyishness.
So yeah, wouldn't it be funny if one of the Amorbi was a girl, and was super-friendly and apologetic about her brothers trying to eat Samus? Yeah, I don't think so either. Don't know where this silly idea came from.
3. I love reading the Lore in MP2-- especially that heartwarming story about a Space Pirate that was lonely and had no friends (I'm extrapolating that bit), so he tried to make a Metroid into a pet. He'll be recovering basic brain functions in about a cycle.
Also special appearance by Caboose.
4. Close-up on a Space Pirate. Not exactly pretty, but I've never drawn one before. I love how organic their armor looks; at first I thought those spikes on his shoulders were part of his body, but some kinds of Pirates don't have them, so they must be strapped on... or maybe GROWN on... hmm...
5. Fucking Shriekers.
I love the sheer creativity in Retro Studio's enemy design, even if it goes a little overboard sometimes, like it did with the Shrieker. That thing is like a Metroid enemy swiss army knife. It has leaves! It can fly! It can turn invisible! It can shoot tornadoes at you! Buy one today!
6. One of my favorite bits of background info in Torvus is that the little eye-like things on the walls are actually cameras, and U-Mos is using them to keep an eye on you. But even better, those things exist in the Dark World, too-- and they're basically indestructible. So the Ing have had to go about their daily business, pissed as hell that the Luminoth are watching them, but unable to do anything about it. lol.
7. Warrior Ing need more love. I demand a plushie version, or at least a cute chibi mascot version. 
8. In keeping with my slightly bizarre trend of making MP2 enemies look cute, this was supposed to be a couple of Inglets holding tentacles, until the scanner cropped 'em out. Pity; now it looks like they're... um... OH GOD MY EYES.

Um.

Yeah I don't know what the fuck.

Rough Ride (Draft)

A little Fridge Logic from Red vs Blue Season 10... final version coming soon to deviantART.

Master Chief (Halo 4 version)

Finally got around to doin' this! It took... entirely too long. Had some trouble with the chalk; couldn't find any small pieces so I had to work with a big one. Didn't think it mattered until I started taking pictures, and noticed how fuzzy he looks. Oh well.
A lot of the details were lost... partly due to the chalk, partly due to the fact that I set my sights a little too high in terms of how much technical detail a chalk drawing this size can actually have. Below is an earlier version; I removed the texture on Chief's under-armor because, as a friend correctly pointed out, it makes the whole thing look too white... or does it? I'd love to hear some feedback one way or the other.

Master Chief (Template)

Hey, I did one o' these for the release of Halo: CEA, so why not for Halo 4?

US Ch. 3 Page 6

Kay~! :D
I really like drawing her. Not sure exactly why. Also, you may notice that the large panel of her is, in fact, a tracing of an earlier (rougher) sketch. At the time, I just wanted to draw her in her parka/overcoat/thing, but when I was done, I thought, "actually, that's exactly what I was thinking when I wrote her introduction scene."
There's a part of me that's still amazed that it only took three months to get from there to here.


Script:

ALWIN: You ain't an engineer...

    [He starts circling around the still-shocked Kaleem, peering at him in a somewhat creepy way.]

ALWIN: Whatcha doin'? Whatcha doin', eh?

    [From somewhere across the room, a green burst of light zaps him in the ass. He howls, and bounces off into a corner, grumbling. Kaleem peeks above his arms, to see a girl come strolling towards him. She's wearing a parka and goggles, making it nearly impossible to see her face. She's also carrying a large gun.]

KAY: Sorry about him.

I changed a few minor things in the script, as you can see... For one, I thought Kaleem should be more bewildered than jumpy after seeing Alwin get shot in the ass. I also wasn't sure how I should draw him bouncing off. :P Some phrases just don't translate well from script to page...

US Ch. 3 Page 5

Welcome to Engineering. It's rather cold here.
(This was really fun to design... all that time working on construction sites helped a lot!)
I'm still a little uneasy about the shading there... just to be safe, I have a scan of this page before I put those shadows in the middle panel. What do you think; do they look okay?
Also, dynamic entries are fun. :3

Script:
    [He arrives at a door marked "Engineering 2 -- Starboard Mid". When it opens, he is greeted by a blast of even colder air. Inside, the walls have thin layers of ice, and the occasional icicle hangs from the machines that fill the room. Shivering even harder, Kaleem begins to wander around the room, seeing no one.]
KALEEM: H-h-hello...?
    [No answer. Kaleem wanders farther in. Suddenly, an old man with frizzy hair wearing a parka swings down from above to pear at him upside down.]
ALWIN: Whatcha doing here?
KALEEM: GAH!

US Ch. 3 Page 4

Script:  
KALEEM: What! That's grunt work!
SAREN (while glancing, amused, at the crewmen working around him): The 'grunts' are busy. Get to it.
    [Kaleem leaves, followed by a few low chuckles from the bridge crew.]
KALEEM (to himself): Grr..! Freaking Admirals shouldn't have to... gah.

US Ch. 3 Page 3

I'm glad most of that negative space will be erased in the final version... so messy...
Script:

SAREN: What is it?
KALEEM: You know, for someone who keeps insisting he's not going to take over things here, you sure spend a lot of time on the bridge.
SAREN: It's just the night shift, Kaleem.
KALEEM: It's what?
SAREN: You're still on Chiron time, aren't you?
KALEEM (while glancing at his wrist-panel): Shoot, you're right... Anyway, why is it so damn cold on this ship?
SAREN: We're not sure; it looks like there's a problem with the environmental controls. Go down to the nearest engine room and ask them what's going on.

Even more characters

I seem to be on a character drawing/creating spree, so I thought I might as well get these guys out of my head too... given my interest in politics, I've always kinda wanted to do a spinoff of US set on Earth, focusing on the politics of the 101st century. :P It probably won't happen any time soon, but it's fun to think about.

So I got a new mouse today.

 

And in keeping with tradition, I gave it a greek letter for a name, and drew him as a human. Because why not. 

Also, this mouse works like a freakin' dream-- especially for gaming. Normally the buttons just do mundane things like back/forward/etc but hit one button, and suddenly they all do completely different things-- perfect for complicated games like EVE. I can now control the entire game with one hand. 

Well I suppose I always could. But this mouse makes it even more convenient. 

Also, this is the 100th post I've made on this blog since I started it ~7 months ago! Let's hope the next 7 months are equally productive.

US Ch. 3 Page 2

*sigh*
That last panel is what happens when I look at the clock and say, "only 1:30 am? I can keep going, no problem!"
At least I stopped before it got worse. Replacement panel is below.
Script:

KALEEM (under his breath): Why the fuck is it so cold...
HIKARU: Perhaps this is why gloves are part of the uniform.
KALEEM: No way. There's NO way it's like this every day.
    [Kaleem makes his way back to the main bridge, and walks in. Saren is sitting in the captain's chair, giving orders to a crewman by his side.]
KALEEM: Hey!
    [Saren's brow tightens slightly, but he keeps giving orders for a moment longer. He then turns slightly to look at his son.]

There, that's better. A bit better anyway. Might re-do it again at some point.
Also, I swear to god I'm trying to avoid smudging this time around, but it doesn't seem to be helping... maybe computer paper just isn't good enough for this sort of thing... if so, that's too bad. I have no intention to become reliant on a type of paper that isn't so easy to get.

US Ch. 3 Page 1

I know I said I'd start working on Ch. 3 the moment I finished Ch. 2... and I did, actually. But I was kinda fatigued from working on Ch. 2, and long story short, you DON'T want to know what the first draft of this page looked like. 'Twas awful.
But now I'm back in the mood, so here we go! Time for Ch. 3.

I wonder, should I post the script in the description, since I'm not writing the lines on the pages anymore? I might as well. Without the script, the pages can get kinda dull.
Bear in mind that stuff often gets changed/edited in the process of script -> draft -> final. Lots of the visual stuff gets made up on the fly-- Kaleem taking off his jacket during the conversation at the end of Ch. 2, for example. That wasn't in the script, but I wanted him to be doing something more interesting than just sitting there.
Anyway...

INT: Kal's Quarters

    [Kaleem wakes up shivering.]

KALEEM: Hey, Phil...

PHIL: Yes?

KALEEM: What's the temperature in here?

PHIL: Two degrees.   

KALEEM: Two...! Errg. Where is my father?

PHIL: Main Bridge.

    [Grumbling, Kaleem gets out of bed and pulls on his uniform. He slouches out into the corridor.]

In retrospect, that *yawn* isn't exactly appropriate. *groan* seems better... gonna go change that now...  

And yes, this is how one gets ready in the morning in the year 10007. There's nothing computers can't do... 

Misc. US Characters 3

Yes, the similar setup to an earlier character page is significant. These are the Nalghites-- aliens that act as translators and peacemakers. Every chosen representative of every race is paired with one. Their physical bodies-- their avatars-- are composed of thousands of tiny plates that bend to the Nalghite's will. In general, you can judge the age and experience of a Nalghite by how well it mimics the form of its chosen species (Ex. Hikaru and Akahoshi are young; Raijin and Kisame are old).

I'm starting to realize just how huge my cast is going to be... nine-ish representatives for each of 15 races, and a Nalghite for each representative... plus the REST of the cast... yikes. Good thing none of these guys will show up for a while.

Misc. US Characters 2

So. Yeah. Andersen's been around for a while. He's actually extremely old-- older than any other human characters, anyway. Medical technology has pretty much tripled his lifespan.
Also, I'm sorta retconning something here. In chapter 1, Kaleem and Saren wore these half-cloak things around their waists; they were meant to be a mark of rank that no one else had. Problem was, I could never get the damn things to look right. So now the special article of clothing reserved for high-ranking officers is the Officer's Coat, as seen on Andersen here. A bit more traditional, but a lot better at conveying the sense of... largeness that I was going for.

Misc. US Characters

Did a massive reorganization of my (physical) art today and came across some old character designs. Thought I might as well draw 'em again before I forget how. :P

*sigh*
I hate hands. Why couldn't humans have evolved tentacles or something else that's easier to draw? 

Edit: Would you look at that, it's been 7 months to the day since I started this blog. How about that. 

New American Syndicate 2

Speaking of NASY, here they are again. I keep seeing my last drawing of them in my folder and thinking, "I need to draw them again!" So I did. The idea this time was to draw them in a way that brought out another side of their personality-- or at least a different facial expression/angle. I think it worked out okay. I might end up digitally cleaning this one up at some point.

ISS Forster

I was out wandering along the beach; I looked down, saw a piece of driftwood, and thought, "you know, that would make a pretty cool ship."
And thus was born the Forster.
(P.S. The ISS stands for Independent Space Ship-- as in, not affiliated with any government.)

Random Scenery 2

This slightly-adorable-yet-creepy thing was sitting next to the lighthouse sculpture. You can see the top of the light in the last drawing, on the bottom right.

Random Scenery 1

So, I just got back from a 3-day vacation at a beach resort with my family. Not terribly exciting; it was very cloudy most of the time. But for some reason I had an urge to go out, sit down and just draw whatever I saw. The urge didn't last for long, lol, but here's the result. Outside our room, I found this sculpture-- it's a tree stump; the top half of it was carved into a lighthouse but the bottom half was left unchanged. I thought it was pretty damn cool.
(Also, I downsized it a bit because it's harder to tell what's going on if you look at it up close. Drawing nature does not come naturally to me.)

Chapter 2 Preview

UPDATE: Chapter Two is up!
Page 1: http://0mni42.deviantart.com/art/Under-Stars-Ch-2-Page-1-319098864?q=gallery%3A0mni42%2F10861395&qo=14
Or if you'd rather start at the beginning: http://0mni42.deviantart.com/art/Under-Stars-Act-1-Cover-217373729

IN 3-D!!!

Are your eyes hurting yet? :P
Long story short, I was hard at work on revising Under Stars, and I accidentally did this. :)

US Ch. 2 Pgs. 15.2 and 15.3

So, here are the replacement panels for page 15... wait a fucking minute, did I just draw Kaleem with the wrong uniform on? Goddammit... this chapter is not going quietly into the night. 
The top panel, by the way is a tracing of the first panel on page 1; having a Light Box really helps! :D I was thinking about copy/pasting that panel here digitally, but the original is about an inch too short. So tracing was the only option, really.

Here's the final final FINAL version. ^_^ I'll try to clean up this (and all the other pages) soon, so expect the finished product in... a week? Maybe.

US Ch. 2 Pg. 15.1

Ugh. This page. I'm so glad I can replace panels digitally, otherwise I'd have to start over. 

The top right panel was originally going to be a tracing of Ch. 1 Pg. 40, but then I realized: I went through hell, drawing all those tiny soldiers, and they still looked like crap. I'm never doing that again. But I wasn't sure what I was going to put in that panel, so I thought "hey, I'll come back to it later." 

The bottom right panel, well... I realized halfway through it that it was getting too smudged to work with, and that I would rather draw Kaleem with his jacket half on rather than slung over his shoulder. Much easier that way. :P 

US Ch. 2 Pg. 14

So... many... smudges...
Digitally cleaning this page is gonna be a bitch.

Starfield

And now I will never need to draw stars ever again. XD
Actually, this starfield (most of it, anyway) was created a long time ago. But until now, there were two big blobs of stars at the top and bottom. They looked cool, but they kinda detracted from the point of this project: to make a piece of stock art that I can digitally insert wherever I like. Having a big blob of stars in the sky meant it wouldn't make sense as a night sky on Earth-- and it limited the amount of space I had to work with. But I don't have that problem anymore now. ^_^

US Aliens 7: Stalghites

Hey. You know what's cooler than fighter jets? DRAGON FIGHTER JETS IN SPAAAAACE.

US Aliens 6: Atarans

This came out a little more humanoid than I wanted... I said there weren't going to be any humanoid aliens in US, and I meant it. But I've tried a bunch of variations on Ataran anatomy, and this design was my favorite... what do you think? Are they too much like humans?
On another note, the only thing I love as much as designing weird alien bodies is designing the weapons they would create.

US Ch. 2 Pg. 13

Guess what? Only two more pages left in this chapter! I told you it was short, lol.

US Ch. 2 Pg. 12

Finally getting back on track with Under Stars! Hooray!

Camo Armor

So I was looking through Manga Studio Debut 4's preset tones and backgrounds, and I noticed a Camouflage tone. I immediately thought of this old armor concept I did a while ago, so I whipped this up. The tone does seem to drown out my lineart a bit, but I think that's just because the lines were fairly rough and light to begin with. Any finished drawing will look much better. I think I rather like this effect.

Long Dreams

From left to right: Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting, Chakas, the Didact, and Riser. 
Well, at least two of these characters will be in Halo 4... how about the others? Place your bets, people!

...
That awkward moment when you realize you forgot to draw someone's nipples...

Facial Lighting Practice II

Facial Lighting Practice

Just a little foolin' about. I've wanted to do something like this for a long time... I'm not that great with lighting though. How did it turn out?

Fleet Command Interface

Remember those scenes in Iron Man where Stark is playing with his holographic blueprints and stuff? The Fleet Command Interface is pretty much just like that. As you might have guessed, though, the FCI has a very different purpose: coordinating fleets of starships.
If you want to imagine how this works, picture a cross between a real-time strategy game and EVE Online. Or hell, just imagine being able to control multiple ships in EVE.
Also on this page: some fun with lighting, hands, and explosions. I'm trying to draw space explosions as realistically as possible: that is to say, there aren't any, really. Just little flashes of light and a lot of shiny debris.
And finally, ships. I've been meaning to design some human ships for a while now, and I'm glad I finally did it. I'm picturing most human ships as having loads of little panels that pop off the hulls and fly around. Some have guns, some have shields, some attack, some defend, etc. I'm trying to avoid using a Standard Scifi Fleet for humans.

Extended Cut

Yayyyyyextendedcut!

US Aliens 5: Kranta

(I... sorta ran out of steam halfway through this one. In my defense, I did do all 5 of these in one sitting.)
And I know I said there wouldn't be any humanoid aliens in US, but let me clarify.
There are two alien races that can choose to appear humanoid (Petuchi and Nalghite), and there's these guys. And the fact that the Kranta have a fairly common mech that's humanoid is actually a plot point. So we'll get there when we get there, ok? :)

US Aliens 4: Petchi

Ah, Petuchi. The starfishiest of all the Starfish Aliens.
The sky really is the limit as to what these guys can look like. My favorite part about them--which is also the part that will be hardest to convey--is that their bodies are largely like puppets. But since they can mold their bodies however they like, they don't necessarily keep one form all the time. So, say a Petuchi wanted to grab a pen on a high shelf or something like that. It would just extend its arm further to get there, and it might not change it back. Skilled and mature Petuchi usually do maintain one form at a time, but there's no real rule saying they can't change things up when it's convenient. If they need an extra arm, no one will stop them from making one. :P 

US Aliens 3: Lleetchans

Another thing I didn't mention: both Lleetchans and Eureshans were given technology by the Britgotians. Neither are particularly aggressive species (I mean, Eureshans evolved from plants), so they all get along pretty well. Matter of fact, Britgotians are just about the only species on the planet that have emotions in the way we think of them.

US Aliens 2: Eureshans

 

One thing I didn't mention up there is that Eureshans are sort of the Asari of the US universe. In other words, nearly every species considers them stunningly beautiful and sensual. It's the filaments. Ooh la la.

So one option for poor young Eureshans that need to grow out their filaments is to put down roots in a bar or such a seedy place, and let people... play with them... until they reach maturity. Ahem.

US Aliens 1: Britgotians

(What I hope to be) one of the main draws of Under Stars is that there are at least a dozen alien races, many of which are central to the plot, all of which are actually alien. There are no Star Trek-ish-humanoid-substitute-for-a-real-world-culture aliens here. 

You heard me. Different customs, languages, mindsets, etc, for all of them. And none of them will look remotely human. 

...this might take a while. 

With that in mind, here's the first! As you can tell, Britgotians were obviously inspired by crabs-- the main difference being, as I noted, that they stand on only two of their legs. They've got crazy powerful muscles in those legs, lol. 

They also share a planet with three other sentient species, which will be posted next. Oddly enough, Britgotians are the most similar to human beings of these four species. You'll see what I mean. 

Incidentally, many of the aliens in US started out as silly-looking humanoid scribbles (when I was much younger), and all of them have now turned into Starfish Aliens. Britgotians were originally green-skinned horny midgets. Let that sink in for a minute. :P

Samus 7

I'm beginning to think this idea is going nowhere. Sure, I have a rough story; sure, I have the beginnings of a script, but... idk. I think this is a bit of a failed effort at this point. Especially this cover. Just goes to show, when I try really hard to make something epic, I usually end up trying too hard. You know?