deviantART: by:sinnyo http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:sinnyo&section=today deviantART RSS for by:sinnyo en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:06:24 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png Scaling Down http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/23037225/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/23037225/ Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:18:50 PST M-Thomson and wonder why everything's gone. It's not here yet, but the better parts of that graphic design which I have done under that alias and will do in future will be absorbed into this, my 'avatar' account. By that I just mean that 'Sinnyo' is what I go by, just about everywhere including Second Life, where my avatar takes proper form.

There's still no news on my website designing. It's something which has to plod along, receiving only a few hours of my attention per week at best. In the meantime I have been working at setting my dissertation blog up, and invite you to take a look, if the development of game-based tutorials for virtual worlds are your cup of tea.

]]> ~sinnyo Back on the Web Design Wagon http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/22867359/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/22867359/ Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:40:02 PST this spartan edition. Now that I've been browsing like old times, and have found nought but inspiration in Joshua Porter's Designing for the Social Web, I decided that I would like to do something ambitious with my 'site again.

Of course, fitting this work in around my in-tray is tricky, bulging as it is with obligations to my studies and preparations for contracted work. Still, I hope some day to manage a design worthy of this gallery.

In the meantime, I hope you're sat down somewhere as I actually submitted a piece of work here. Much of what I've done recently is either incomplete or written, and much of that is documentation, but I managed to cram two weekends of 3D work in towards ACG's Floaters (a working title). Enjoy.

Google Profile (social web links)

]]> ~sinnyo Good Grief... http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/20536539/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/20536539/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:19:22 PDT *Echo*

In coming back here and hitting that fateful login button, I think I just paid witness to a special brand of internet madness. I appear not to have used this account in at least a year, and had deviantART announcements going unread as far back as May 2007.

I have not been drawing.

I could launch into a self-indulgent and meandering blog post here, about why it is deviantART never tempted me back in, or why I haven't been drawing, but I think my conclusion would be simple: laziness.

So, never mind what happened. I try not to think about the past year for a number of reasons. What's happening now? I'm slowly clawing back my internet life; that's what's happening.

I left university last year in hopes of a placement and, despite my efforts, received none. I broadened the reach of my second life on the back of some quite degrading 'first life' activities, and found myself engaging in a stressful, sometimes depressing but ultimately enlightening exercises in fostering a virtual community, building its architecture. That continues, however a slow wake-up to activity in that life which matters has prompted me to give consideration once more to the real me's online profile. I'm not yet sure what this will entail, but as I face a busy year of finding my feet again I hope to make a real go of my amateurish environmental art.

First things first, though... this place needs some housekeeping. Erk.

The Digital Toybox
De.licio.us | Facebook | Flickr | Google Reader | Last.fm | LibraryThing | LinkedIn | ReelSocial | Tumblr

]]> ~sinnyo Starting Anew http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/14071724/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/14071724/ Wed, 08 Aug 2007 08:13:18 PDT very stale. I've become sick of it, and because of that, I am wiping the slate clean, here and at my other galleries. That'd be ~sonicfanatic and ~M-Thomson in case you didn't know.

It feels instantly refreshing to be able to do this, and going back to even the way I simply file my artworks away, I have done this out of inspiration from Masamune Shirow's ways. In his case, he compiled Intron Depot as a way to underscore his work from the 1980s.. to catalogue them, then put them aside never to be touched again. Of course, none ofmy work is good enough to even try doing this, but I feel that when I do come to pick a pencil or tablet up next time, it will be a new style, new way of thinking, and new scheme of work.

I'm reading more, watching more, playing more. It's hard not to when you still don't have a job and got granted a £130 Amazon gift certificate for work in Second Life. Sadly, inspiration for ideas still comes in spurts, but in my exploration of art styles I do still come back to work like that on Project Goldmine or Blue Watch; group projects that I know I could have put so much more work into, and yet coincidentally it's some of my best work, I feel.

So, expect a lot of rambling about. I hope very soon to be tied back into a daily schedule, and from there I hope to make a determined effort to draw more and better than I have before. If not, deviantART has really become rather useless to me.

]]> ~sinnyo Screeech http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/13601763/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/13601763/ Wed, 04 Jul 2007 03:38:45 PDT
Yyyeah, no work at all for quite some time. There's no real reason for updating this journal either; I just want rid of my now-irrelevant thoughts here. There's been nothing happening in that part of my brain which once was happy to spool out idea after idea, and I'm not sure I can pin it down but I've a feeling it's a general life thing.

Since leaving university I have been doing my reasonable best to find work in the industry, to tide me over for a sandwich year as part of my university placement scheme. Although some companies still have vacancies open, no-one has gotten back to me and I've now been forced to seek more temporary work in retail; work to perhaps even replace my planned year in QA. So, this all leaves me in a bit of a quandary, with nothing to occupy my day, no money to pay for those fun things that inspire me, and not a lot to aspire to.

On a few occassions I've sat with a blank Photoshop canvas or my sketch pad and tried to start doodling, mindlessly scrawling, drawing from life.. anything. But, nothing comes out. I'm thankful that Second Life continues to give me at least something to do, but even that is sporadic and I'm now running low on prim allocations on my land. My art deco hangout has stumbled somewhat.

It is my esteemed hope that I can use this year to start portfolio work again, but I'm perhaps not off to the best start. I'm also trying to get back into writing; maybe I'll finally get around to writing Spirit Guide: Adventure On Roost Island or some game scenarios to play around with. But, for now, I'm afraid that if anyone's looking (how likely is that?), you won't find any new goodies here for a little while yet. ]]> ~sinnyo C:/ Drive http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/12105260/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/12105260/ Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:04:24 PST Gwen's Downloads Store). There was a time that I might even churn out two fully-coloured pieces in as many days, but now... work pressure does a funny thing, especially when I need portfolio content most.

Eh, I just hope I'm not getting out of practice, and that I can find the moral justification to try drawing silly things again at the cost of time spent hammering out level designs and essays.

]]> ~sinnyo Portfolio Worries http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/11919334/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/11919334/ Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:44:18 PST
Blitz, developers of Sneak King (and, through their subsiduary Volatile Games) Reservoir Dogs, are opening up their studio to games design degree students in the next few months. Applications closed quite some time ago and I got mine in ahead of time, but while in the past weeks my friends and coursemates received the portfolio briefs to whittle applicants down, I received nothing. It was only when I received a hasty forwarded email from the head of department at university earlier this week that I realised just how much they expected to see in order to consider me for the level design segment of the open day.
Apart from the fact that slow work has made me give up all hope of meeting their deadline (tomorrow), it’s also made me realise just how stunted a portfolio mine is. To some degree, recent times have led me to question whether it’s my course content that shows me up with little architectural design, but the truth is that I’ve done little extracurricular practice too. So, where will this place me in May? Is it actually feasable for Sinnyo Studio to stretch itself over character design, modelling and animation, all superfluous to my core desire to be a level and environment designer? I get the impression that even a multiple-man team would struggle with this, let alone a single dumbfounded student.

As you may guess, asset creation and environment design for the Dreamcast shmup is not going especially well at the moment either.

]]> ~sinnyo OVERDOSE http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/11700265/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/11700265/ Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:48:55 PST
As of this minute, I'm balancing animation storyboards for my somewhat breakaway The Humble Wallet project, attempting to bring something so mundane to life through the combination of traditional animation and graphic design. It's wierd.

There's also Project NetRide artistry to be done, drawing up roughs of life in cyberspace as well as the more formal orthographics and maps that govern my attempt to model NetRide's HQ and the dreaded Hydra Den. Balancing footwork and actual content is a tricky balance here, I find.

On the backburner where they really shouldn't be are works like GDHU, or Games Design @ HU. Storyboarding hit the fan here, but modelling things like fighter jets and an expressive lead character are proving to be well beyond my ability at this time. Such things do little to boost my confidence in my portfolio and chances at working next year, indeed.

The Dreamcast shmup I was trying to tempt the world about has been untouched since before Christmas by these hands, though I'm still formulating ideas and working out what makes a good shmup level so that I may try another stab at it. Commercial releases = win.

When all that's done, I'm either found flaunting my PRO status on Wii Sports, curled up with a DVD or bashing away at something like Spirit Guide again.

Yeah, my work life's about as hectic as this journal is to read. The worst part, though, is that I'm getting paid for none of it. Bad news when my overdraft is now down to tens of pounds sterling.

Lean, mean and hopefully still keen by the end of all this. That's my motto for now.

]]> ~sinnyo Pencil or Poly? http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/10681829/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/10681829/ Fri, 10 Nov 2006 16:47:32 PST
My question to the invisible ether of experience is this: how do I motivate myself to draw amidst such deadlines and pressures to stay computer-bound? I've tried sapping up inspiration.. all that leads to is more modelling for my portfolio. I've tried doodling digitally, but that's never worked for me and just feels like a waste of time in the end. I've even tried forcing my sketchbook entries, and that carries its own apparent flaws.

Oh, how I long for my lost muse..

]]> ~sinnyo HOST 06 http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/10292054/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/10292054/ Thu, 05 Oct 2006 10:52:56 PDT
HOST06, or the Huddersfield Open Studio Tour, is a series of artistic events going on from the 17th to the 19th of November this year. The main bulk of the event lies in tours of the Kirkless area and its art institutions. One stop-off this year my own learning institution, as part of the tour takes in the University of Huddersfield's games and multimedia design projects. As a second-year games designer I'm expected to showcase an idea as part of a very small team. With a timescale that started only two weeks ago and such small teams, you can expect a pretty solid lack of completed game code. Nevertheless, from a theoretical point of view this does present a challenge.

Our brief is to present ideas for games that play on psychological and physical experiences through unconventional means. What that essentially boils down to is creating a game that doesn't rely on a console or TV-based interface, though the upshot of this seems to also be a justification for the university's LiveLab facility. In it, various hardware has been installed to allow locational immersion of the player. A stylus-led interactive table, projectors onto a coffee table, wall, ceiling and floor and state-of-the-art sound technology makes for an impressive platform.

The problem we as exhibitors face is that this sort of thing is completely new to us, and an eight-week cycle coupled with other work commitments means a lack of playable experiences. As game designers, does this present a serious handicap to the way we actually pitch our ideas? Sure, pitching an idea to a publisher can typically rely on some sense of imagination and experience of what can be done, but can the casual art-appreciating public be relied upon to understand gaming to a theoretical degree? In a way, it's events like this that make me realise why developers fall head over heels to get playable demos done for E3 and why such events even then are still not made available to the public.
Over the next few weeks I will be submitting my own thought processes and those of our group, as at some point it seems likely that the final idea will be represented online, with Sinnyo Studio the likely host. I guess I'll have to see.

Links:


]]> ~sinnyo Soundbite Advice http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/10020800/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/10020800/ Sat, 09 Sep 2006 15:52:32 PDT
air hockey | blue watch | cash machine | fallout | netride | raw online | scuba steve | second world | spirit guide

Mood: Drinking Thirsty
Reading: Edge
Watching: Family Guy season 3

This'll be a short and sweet journal, I'll admit. Solid, sound advice, no matter how amateur and unknowing I am. Okay, you ready?

Should doubt and confusion ever kick in, write a design document.

Seriously, those things are like gold. I've never been more glad of Sonic Cult's Sonic Mars script release, as having based my own framework for Spirit Guide on that I am not only more clear on what it is I'm doing, but I've also more direction in what I can draw for it to demonstrate such ideas.

W00t. W00t, I say.

EDIT: Yeah, um, I have done documents before, by the way - I just never had a full one to use as a style guide before. ^^;

]]> ~sinnyo ImagineFX is God http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/9910560/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/9910560/ Wed, 30 Aug 2006 17:12:21 PDT
air hockey | blue watch | cash machine | fallout | netride | raw online | scuba steve | second world | spirit guide

Mood: Reading Kicked Up
Listening to: 'Atomic Bird' by Yoko Kanno
Reading: ImagineFX
Watching: Family Guy season 2

Don't worry, this isn't some sort of epiphany, as I've known ImagineFX to be spiffingly good since day one, having subscribed since then (and missing issue 2 because of it.. grr). Still, with catching up with last month's issue I found just what I needed in this second emotional rut in commissions. The workshops in that issue in particular have taught me a lot that I'm itching to try out. *ANTIFAN-REAL's composition tips have been pretty decent to follow, there were some good pointers on looking at form instead of line in life drawing that I feel idiotic to have missed before, and lo and behold I just discovered CTRL + TAB. No more manually clicking tabs or going to 'Window' for my Photoshop files any more!

The most revelatory things came from browsing the DVD, though. Aside from the brilliant interactive life drawing files, rotating at a button click through a series of angled photographs, I'd never noticed the artworks there before. Some of the artists even slapped me in the face with the way their portfolios were made, even in the case of Mathias Verhasselt. Art that makes its own HTML layouts.

Well, I'm rambling here, but I needed to update with something and this is what has me buzzing at the moment. All of this made me realise that a lot needs to be done to make Sinnyo Studio anything near interesting. Disconnected character concepts, where characters are just being figured out a year and a half after I started on them? The grand total of around ten sketches that even hint at play environment or lifestyle in my most complete projects? I'm stuck in commission work at the moment and only have uni work and employed work to look forward to in a fortnight's time, but something does need to be done. At the moment I'm still just about clinging on to working near flat-out from 10-5, though I still need generous breaks just as I get used to the idea. That alone has meant I do all my forum and email checking from 5-6, and so I made a successful stab at curbing 'net addiction, but still somehow I'm not managing to do what I know I must if I'm to ever do anything artistic higher up in my games dev career.

So, change has been put in place. Hah, yeah, I managed to start major things in one day instead of the months it takes to do anything else I threaten, largely because those changes are meaningless. So, my art folders have been re-filed to put conceptual sketches away but together, keeping illustrations seperate. This means that if I want to make a character profile, I can pick all the better bits from one clump of drawings rather than disconnected files as before, while also seeing exactly which illustrations I could start on, finish or re-do if I have the time and willingness. I even have sticky labels.

More importantly though, I think I need an end to stagnation. I realise that before the internet, many people achieved great things on their own, but I see so much literature praising the likes of CGSociety, ConceptArt.org and, dare I say it, old-school deviantART. I still have hope that somewhere there's a community on dA servers that I can get real help from, but I think another stab at spreading my wares at the more professional and less wishy-washy ends of the artistic community might be just the kicking I need. I'm beginning to think that by Christmas I can make a decent stab of digital art, hopefully improve a lot on my own, but then just let my work have it with some people who know what they're talking about.

Right, time to stop typing and get sleep. I've work to do in the morning.



... ]]> ~sinnyo Visualising the Great Forest http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/9807019/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/9807019/ Mon, 21 Aug 2006 17:08:49 PDT
air hockey | blue watch | cash machine | fallout | netride | raw online | scuba steve | second world | spirit guide


Mood: Tired Tired
Listening to: 'Freedom Fields' by Seth Lakeman
Reading: 'The Art Of Discworld' by Paul Kidby
Watching: Mickey Blue Eyes

Today's efforts at trying to get good at traditional drawing failed miserably. Still, I realise now that a map to work from for the production of Spirit Guide would be of immense benefit. The idea immediately makes me realise a few main problems, however.

  • I have no experience of drawing world-level or country-level maps (as that's what scale the forest is on).

  • What mapping experience I do have is of metropolitan areas, the largest of which was Gatwick Airport - not the most forested of places, nor the biggest.

  • I can't think of a single proper tool for imagining such maps in my scant array of pencils and pads.. the A2 sketch pad I have for life drawing might be good though.

  • I seem to have the attention span of a dinner plate.



Anyone fancy sharing some worldly advice? *Sweat*

By the way, don't expect an immediate response - this is a break from hiatus, if you will, as I'm currently on computer withdrawal.

]]> ~sinnyo Wee Hiatus http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/9801120/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/9801120/ Mon, 21 Aug 2006 06:38:30 PDT
air hockey | blue watch | cash machine | fallout | netride | raw online | scuba steve | second world | spirit guide

Mood: Tired Tired
Listening to: 'Paranoia Agent' by Susumu Hirasawa
Reading: 'The Art Of Discworld' by Paul Kidby
Watching: 'Family Guy' season 2

Just a quick announcement, this. I apologise to those I'm undertaking work for and those perhaps waiting on me at forums and the like, but I feel a brief hiatus from the internet is in order. This comes not long after my holiday to an island in Scotland where the only internet café going has four PCs and 56K connection, I realise, but since coming back it literally has been a case of eight-hour shifts on the computer, most of the time attached to Photoshop and scribbling away at commissions. I'm very keen to get all this work finished on time to my deadlines, naturally, but tiring of my eyes even with regular breaks has told me that perhaps I should take it a bit more easy.

I probably won't be gone for longer than is necessary, and I intend to get some traditional artwork done in this time, to try and get back into the swing of creativity rather than art to a brief. Still, disappearance without explanation would be impolite, especially to those clients of mine who may not hear from me. ^^;

You can hopefully expect some completed work by the end of the week, both commissioned and of my own accord. My galleries could do with some freshening. ^^

]]> ~sinnyo Filler http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/9720411/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/9720411/ Mon, 14 Aug 2006 02:35:51 PDT
air hockey | blue watch | cash machine | fallout | netride | raw online | scuba steve | second world | spirit guide

Mood: Brainless Blank
Listening to: Ken Bruce on BBC Radio 2
Reading: The World According To Clarkson by Jeremy Clarkson
Watching: Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex volume 4

Ph33r my falling-apart journal. I offer this filler as I deleted a whole ream of my journals. Those that are left were posted at my Developer Diary, and those that are gone had horribly confusing titles and boring subject matter. By the end of this evening I plan to incorporate some proper images in here, and I held off doing so because I was neither subscribed nor totally used to the new look dA. Still, I've no excuse now and paid my £2-odd to subscribe, so I may as well use it.

If you want to amke use of my shoutbox and forum here somehow, please do so. Especially as I can't, for some reason, nor can I find the panel that lets me change what shows on there. Frustration.

Oh, and does anyone know why on this account and my ~M-Thomson alias, the message centre makes use of those cross marks, while my ~sonicfanatic account still uses check boxes?

]]> ~sinnyo Scuba Steve: A New Arrival! http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/5458279/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/5458279/ Wed, 25 May 2005 14:33:21 PDT
[link] DEVELOPER DIARIES | Now updated, the diaries have been consolidated into one journal and have had the Scuba Steve diary added to their ranks. This is the first foothold of the tentative 'Sinnyo Artworks' brand going as a sub-section of StudioMT, based at the main website. The journal features an RSS feed, so if you fancy receiving updates for new features of either Scuba Steve, NetRide or Spirit Guide, give it a try!

[link] SCUBA STEVE | This is the website where it will all kick off. Unlike NetRide and Spirit Guide's websites, which have gone unchanged throughout the website's renovation, Scuba Steve's site links directly with my StudioMT gallery to provide the whole range of artworks produced for the project, updated automatically. There is also further information about the narrative concept and general proposal of the game available here.

[link] STUDIOMT GALLERY | My updated gallery, now fully interfaced with the rest of my website, will play host to all of the artworks for the Scuba Steve project, as mentioned before. It is also still home to the artworks for Project NetRide and Spirit Guide, so it would be worth having a look around my other albums. Don't forget to leave comments if you so wish! I treat the comments received on my website with much higher regard than the ones here because there's just so much more work submitted on my own turf.

[link] GUESTBOOK | One of the newer additions to my site is this Guestbook, which can be used to leave comments on my projects if you so wish or can be used as a standing point to comment on the website in general. I always gratefully receive helpful comments about the rest of the artwork I do, whether it be in my =M-Thomson or * sonicfanatic gallery, or of course this one you're looking at now. ]]> ~sinnyo NetRide: Experimentations in Style and Genre http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/4555069/ http://sinnyo.deviantart.com/journal/4555069/ Fri, 11 Feb 2005 14:50:17 PST
[link] ]]> ~sinnyo