“… but just then the moon, sailing through the black clouds, appeared behind the jagged crest of a beetling, pine-clad rock, and by its light I saw around us a ring of wolves, with white teeth and lolling red tongues, with long, sinewy limbs and shaggy hair.” Dracula, Chapter One
The Good Stuff Poster (plus work in progress screenshots)
Off the back of my Wheezy Waiter poster, Craig kindly asked me to make a poster to use for their Subbable campaign! After a few sketches, we settled on the idea of a World of Stuff sort of thing. This was just a thumbnail sketch done in felt tips. I find felt tips really great for hashing out quick ideas. I do it for pretty much every design I make.
I blocked out the objects and things in Cinema 4D. These were just black and white to get everything in place first. Then once it was approved by the gang, I went ahead and started texturing. Cinema 4D is fantastic for quickly creating and editing textures. I’m used to working in Maya, and it can be quite difficult to easily make and edit lighting setups. Love it.
Then after that its using photoshop to build up the background and the layers of light a smoke. I used a Depth Map from C4D to mask out the several layers of the poster, so I didn’t end up erasing layers I might need later, or have to do any rotoscoping, or magic wand guff.
Thought I’d share a bit of process, as I rarely do that :)
You know what I’m a slut for? When a character visibly drops a ruse. Like, the way their face changes the moment they give up a facade and reveal themselves.
This applies to revealing love, apathy, anger, evil intent. I mcfuckin love it.
there’s something so compelling about stories where a character’s virtues intensify into flaws that lead to their downfall. loyalty and love becoming so all-consuming that compassion outside of them ceases to exist. duty overwhelming any moral compass until order becomes more important than justice. selflessness so intense it becomes self-destruction. let me watch while whatever saved the hero in the beginning destroys them. let me see them fall to their own worst impulses disguised as what once made them good.
the watermelons were 30% off, and i thought about buying one, and thought about the price of gas. watermelons are my favorite. my birthday is the first of july - for years now, instead of a cake, we stick candles in a chilled watermelon. since it’s not my birthday and i only get paid monthly: i open and close my budgeting app.
they’re going to restart student loan payments soon. did we ever get another stimulus check? it’s been hot in the northeast, hottest-on-record. it went up to 99 today, in may. droughts are coming.
but.
i get in my car and drive for two hours just to see my family. we share breakfast on small plates. later my mother and i fan ourselves on the couch while she watches a video i made.
one of my childhood friends just became an aunt. another one just got engaged. the stormfront is moving in and all the leaves are folding over themselves, impatient in the wind. the world is thirsty here, the birds are panting. i watch my neighbor come outside and set out plates of water for them, humming in her light way. two weeks ago, i sent out a text to my friends - wanna skive off work and come to the beach? and got oh fuck yes. i took my meetings from my car, blaming internet connectivity. we laughed around picnic foods and went in water too cold for feeling. i lost a scrunchie in the waves that crashed over me; spent the next week shaking sand out of my hair, giggling.
i pierced my ear again, just for fun. at a bar afterward, i tried to take pictures in the bathroom. a girl saw me and asked about it. she demanded i pose for her so she could get the right picture for me. there’s tumbleweeds here, and i keep picking ticks off of my fawn-colored greyhound. i’m babysitting an australian shepherd this week; the two of them are sitting side-by-side, faces turned to catch the wind of my single box fan that’s working overtime. i text people about swamp coolers because i grew up in the south. later i get a text saying oh before i forget, here’s that recipe you asked about.
i’m full of anger and fear and loathing. the air is sticky and there’s tornado conditions brewing. for weeks now i feel unfocused, lazy. too tired for sense and too awake for resting.
the bartender and i make fast friends. at the bottom of my check, he writes, “thank you for being kind. you were a bright spot on a hard night.”
