As per what I understand is good etiquette for the class, I took the liberty of completing my own created assignment.

Setup is simple. Open up the image editor of your choice (in my case, MS paint), set the properties of the image to be 16 pixels by 16 pixels, zoom in to the image, and use the pencil tool for good measure. I looked at animation sprites for 8-bit videogames, such as early Mario for inspiration.

I looked specifically at people since I knew I wanted to try my hand at a person. What I learned is that the sprites focus on two or three main features, it is alright to have goofy-looking appendages, since any person will understand that they are in fact arms and legs. Prominent in the Mario sprite are the mustache and the suspenders, while the arms and feet are somewhat out of proportion.

My result:

Here, I went for getting a visor, sword, shield featuring a red eagle emblem, and cape. Needless to say, I was surprised at how much detail I could cram into the image. In an ideal world, the eagle could use a few extra pixels, and I could put a little more detail into the sword, but constraints are constraints! I added the cape at the end, because I felt the right hand side of the sprite was a little bare pre-cape, and it suddenly hit me that a cape is appropriate garb for a cartoon character.

Overall, I am quite happy with how it turned out.

For this visual assignment I had to show what would be scary to see outside a window. I decided to use my friend’s host character, the Death Whisperer, because she is extremely scary.

I took the picture of the Death Whisperer from my friend’s blog and cut out the background from the picture. I then found a cool looking window and put the Death Whisperer in the window. This required a lot of changing of the size of the Death Whisperer because she was rather small to begin with. I enjoyed this assignment because I got to stray from Bloody Face for awhile, since I have been using him a lot.

For this visual assignment I had to create something out of 4 lines, 5 dots, and 1 curve. I decided to make this assignment about my host character’s older brother, Johnny, who becomes Bloody Face after following his father’s footsteps.

I used 1 dot as the face, 2 dots as the eye holes in the mask, and 2 dots as Johnny’s eyes behind the mask. I used the 4 lines as pieces of hair coming out of the mask. I used the 1 curve as the smile that is cut out of the mask. I decided to also make my friend’s host character. Bridget is a girl who was locked in Mr. Fogg’s mental asylum in Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

I used the 4 lines as the bars that kept her locked in the asylum. I used one dot as Bridget’s head, 1 dot as her body, 2 dots as her legs, and 1 as one of her arms. The curve is her bent arm as she tries to figure out how to escape. Overall, this assignment was very fun while also being challenging to figure out how to portray two characters in 4 lines, 5 dots, and 1 curve.

LJ and Alexis were strangers all through high school. Never a “hello”, wave or anything. They had a couple classes together yet still no communication between them. The reason for this was LJ was very shy. He thought that Alexis was the most beautiful girl in school, but he never spoke to her because he did not want to get embarrassed. He thought she would laugh at him and turn him down. So he kept his distance, until senior year came along. LJ had played basketball every year since he was a freshman, but this year something changed. Alexis his crush, became the boys’ basketball team manager. LJ was shocked and nervous because he knew now he would sometimes have to talk to her. But at the same time he thought to his self this is his chance, it was time to make his move! So he began to talk to her, they became amazing friends. LJ knew he had to tell her his feelings to he did, and shockingly she felt the same! They started to get closer and closer, and he finally asked her to be his girlfriend. Of course she said yes! They have been together since then and it’s now it’s coming up on 4 years and the couple couldn’t be happier with one another!

“Take/Find a picture of a couple who are obviously in love. Use the picture to tell a story. Give the story some background and maybe even create a dialogue between the two or tell the story from each point of view. Just give it some detail and create a background to your photo! It can be a true story or a completely made up one, just have fun with it!”

The year was 1863, during the middle of the civil war in America. The north and south were fighting over control of a beach in Virginia. After a long day of fighting on the beach, the nurses from the north came out to assist the wounded. One nurse in particular, whose name was Amy, was tending to the wounds of an injured northern soldier. Laying next to the northern soldier was a man who fought for the south. His name was Adam. While the nurse was taking care of the wounded, Adam opened his eyes and saw Amy next to him. He asked her to help him since the south had left all their wounded men on the beach because of their recent defeat. Amy, looking into Adam’s eyes, noticing the sincerity in his voice, couldn’t say no for an answer. After helping her own wounded, she tended to Adam’s wounds as well, even though he was form the opposite side. From there on, they both instantly knew they felt something for each other but knew they couldn’t be seen together because they were on opposing sides.

After caring for his wounds, Amy sent Adam on his way back towards the southern side. But every so often, they meet back up on the beach where they first met, under the veil of night, to express their forbidden love for each other.

I chose this photo to make the love story because I when I saw it, I knew instantly that I could make a story out of it. The two horses and the individuals coming from either side of the frame suggested that they came from opposite sides. The horses gave me the idea of a time when they didn’t have automobiles and the lighting gave me the idea of some sort of forbidden love since this picture wasn’t taken in the light of day where people might see. Putting all of that together, I came up with the idea of a forbidden love during the Civil War where a nurse from the north and a soldier from the south cross lives.

The process to complete this assignment started with finding the right picture. I decided to Google Image search “couples in love” and eventually stumbled upon this one and downloaded it onto my computer. To make the photo into a GIF I first had to download GIMP which is a photo editing software much like Photoshop. I started by opening up GIMP, then under the “File” menu on the top left of the window, I chose the option “Open as Layers…” and selected the image of the couple. Next, I duplicated the original layer by right clicking on the layer under the “Layers – Brushes” window, and then clicked duplicate image. Then for one of the layers, I selected the “Blur/Sharpen” tool, which looks like a teardrop, located in the “Toolbox – Tool Options” window of GIMP. Using this tool, I made my GIF by blurring one of the layers. Then, under the “Filters” menu at the top of the window, I clicked “Animation” and chose the “Optimize(for GIF)” option to optimize it for a GIF. Then from there, in the new window that popped up after optimizing it for a GIF, it was time to save it as a GIF file. I did this by clicking “Export As…” under the “File” menu in the window. Then I changed the file type to GIF image and exported it which saved my GIF.