Kori’s Stories

My blog for art and stories https://linktr.ee/koriwatson

[kori-stories]

Not me

- Lidar scanning this rat (mouse really) speaker at three different angles (that’s only counting the successful scans) to combine them to get the legs right

- Scaling it to accurate scale

- try and fail it bsurface retopology multiple times because I haven’t mastered how to seal off items while retopologising

- have it repeatedly crash blender and both of my retopology programs,

- scale it up incase it’s because they’re not calibrated for small items

- I’m finally able to retopologise it after slapping on a bunch of modifies to simplify the model and just as I went to get an older version of the model to be bake back on the speaker holes I remembered I got the IKEA ad on the other day and I just forgot to enable it in preferences.

There has been a fully made perfectly to scale model this whole time and also I’d accidentally made my version 13mm which is probably why the calculations where crashing my computer



It’s the exact right colour and had all those nodes I don’t understand yet to make it look pretty, I was literally just making the model to start my actual project of trying to make the rat have clothing 😭😭😭.

And that’s not even going into a bunch of my failed side quests I don’t have the energy to find and show rn

[kori-stories]

I was going back-and-forth on if I should go see the back rooms because I’m not really a horror person and don’t mind blood but everything else that should remain inside I don’t like seeing on the outside. I covered my eyes for anything about internals but the actual reason I slightly regret despite it being a well-made and thought provoking film is I’m currently trying to learn how to 3D model in Blender and now when I mess up I just be seeing the results as Still Lives. Like I’ve been told the original series he did was made in blender and that legit might explain some of his inspirations because I definitely see some of the results of accidentally causing a recursion of stretching or spinning is more horrifying when I did when hadn’t seen that film.

[kori-stories]

July is probably my busiest month this year, but I’m still gonna try participate in art fight for the first time

[kori-stories]

Nevermind even though all my designs are all digital art with no references the direction I’ve been moving in is the character being claymation and 3D art resembling claymation and art fight doesn’t seem to be allowing these or me using these as reference, additionally I just got a whole heap more work added to my July workload so I’ve cancelled my usual august commitments other than some summer school and that will be my month having time for of artistic exploration.

[kori-stories]

July is probably my busiest month this year, but I’m still gonna try participate in art fight for the first time

[kori-stories]

I doubt my project’s going to be done anytime soon because my studies are taking up a majority of my free time but with what time I have, I think I’m going to start transitioning from using CapCut as my main video editor to da Vinci resolve free version. I just don’t like CapCuts Growing baggage and might want to do a smidge of VFX in my upcoming project 

[kori-stories]

I just realised my poorly documented craft experiments do look funny outside of context

[kori-stories]

There’s a moment in Marina’s Venus Fly Trap video where the design and concept is so similar to some of my characters that it’s spooky but the character are so purposefully hyper a certain genre it makes sense how multiple people could come up with it

[kori-stories]

I don’t know if I’ll ever be good enough to be commercially viable, but I want to start making props and model boxes, the first model box I want to make is want to come up with a redesign for my house so I probably won’t be posting it on here

[kori-stories]

They have become interested in experimenting with different materials that could be used for making moulds as I feel like there must be more options than the ones being presented to me, but I should probably get experience with the standard ways before I start deviating from the norm. I’ve also considering bringing back my Instagram and using it mostly for stories is that seems lower stakes than posting was 

[kori-stories]

I have way too many projects to do it immediately but I just realised I could finally properly design my Monster High Dragon OC head as a kid.

I made her before Jinafire was introduced, but she’s more of a European dragon anyway, I might have to change her name haven’t decided yet,

[kori-stories]

Learning the thing I want to do is called Decoupage has been a very useful revelation 

[kori-stories]

So I’ve made decent progress on orginising art supplies and I’m also experimenting with modding clay because until now I’ve mostly been an air drying clay type but if I want to make this project I feel like I need more flexibility

[kori-stories]

So even with upcycling and buying budget supplies the budget for my mixed media is a lot for me as a student but I’m passionate enough about it and stable enough in my living situation that I’m going to go for it. Tomorrow my plan is to see if I’m going to do this professional light with storyboards, an animatic, a script and all that organised stuff or if I just wing it and curse my file management later,

I have already spent most of the money I’m going to seen and most of it can be reused for future projects but there are consumables that might go fast with trial and error. I’ve saved most of my receipts for future reference but as it’s my first time doing a solo project and I don’t have a long production window I’m probably going to get a few things wrong. I haven’t started a business because I know I’m not profiting from this as it’s based off and incorporating someone else’s copyrighted song so who knows if I’ll even be able to post it anywhere but I’m doing this for me more than anything because all my life I’ve had stories I want to tell and tried writing, drawing, sculpting, 3D animating, podcasting, blogging, and so much more and not been able to make significant progress. I’m now medicated for my ADHD and if that can get me throw even 1 major personal project I’ll be so happy, I can make stuff when it’s for other people or work but freeze up when it’s for myself. Since the moment I heard the song I’m going to feature I’ve been determined to make fan work of it even if it ended up being the jankyest animatic or completely made from cardboard. I’m in the position where I have the time and money to try and those don’t come around often. Even if I end up looking back one it as sub optimal I want to have something to look back at.

I’ve accepted it’s going to be janky and plan to mostly use procreate and stop motion studio pro because I paid for them years ago and have the most experience with them, then I’m going to decide if it’s fixed frame rate or not. I’m thinking no but with my experience lever hard to say if I’ll pull it off.

do have 2 other projects I want to get finished quickly for professional reasons but then I want to dive straight into things before I overthink my way into decision paralysis.

[kori-stories]

Currently, my 3-D printer is not an operation and I can’t afford a Lidar scanner so I’m about to get real creative with some of my upcoming projects some are for academic purposes so I won’t share here but at least 1 is shaping up to be epic by my standards

I was originally going to make an animatic but hove decided since I’m doing it for myself and not some commercial product or standards I’m gonna get mixed media up in this project. Don’t expect even basic working progress stuff any time soon because the academic stuff has to take priority unfortunately 

[kori-stories]

I’ve gotten very into sculpting and model boxing recently and I think if I can get my 3D printer up and running I might switch to working in 3D and 2.5D for a while( or whatever they call it when it’s an image with dimension.

[kori-stories]

I bought a canvas because painting in my notebook wasn’t causeing a lot of liking but now I feel like I need to do some design revisions, so I’m going to put that project on hold and see if I can make a piece for that Beetlejuice design contest I’ve been seeing on Instagram. Like I think my Instagram account may be private so I’d have to on private annoying me there’s only like a 20% chance I’ll even compete it in time but I really want to try and I so have an idea. If I accept it won’t be a masterpiece 

[kori-stories]

NAH I AM COOKED THE DEADLINE IS TOMORROW!!!

EVEN IF I CUT THE PAINTING STAGE I CAN BARELY DRAW HUMANS

[koriwatson]

I found the drafts and crunched the numbers, if I rely on 3D models and colour picking more than I ideally like to I can maybe make a mediocre version by the deadline, my main problem is I’ve already booked the cinema this evening so that gives me even less time.

[kori-stories]

I’ve only painted with Gouache once but i did grab acrylic yesterday and I don’t have time to colour mix so it’l do for a draft by deadline 

[kori-stories]

So I painted the only one with enough of an outline it’s just colouring in but I now realise I’m not capable of the level of detail I originally wanted with my ultra cheap brush and no idea how to do faces in gouache, may just have to lean into it looking creepy. The sandworm came out better than I expected, but I have to be clear it is traced and I forgot to trace the inner worm at first. Once I’m finished I will try to remember to credit the artist for the sand worm and photographer(s) for the two photos I traced. The rest of the base characters I made in MagicPoserin a rush and I was so rushed they don’t have outfits which seemed like a good idea at the time but not that I don’t have a deadline I may make them outfits digitally then trace of I may freestyle.

[kori-stories]

Ok I currently have a dilemma. I was going to make the two in the centre of my painting Beetlejuice and Lydia but now I’m considering making them Adam and barbra, I can take the loss of 1 beet juice because I currently have 5 but then I need a new slot for my only Lydia. She could take the slot of the Lady Beetlejuice/ Lydia and Beetlejuice merged character I was hpgoing to do but she is the least cannon but then she wouldn’t be framed near the centre which seems mean cause she is the main character so I think she will take the spot in the centre where I was going to put groom Beetlejuice which is kinda a bummer but a cur I’m willing to make.

Now I need to decide which Adam and Barbra to make them look like, I’m thinking tour Barbra and wing it on Adam because the sketch already does really match any of the existing ones.

I have ordered detail brushes and I hope that increases my odds of being able to do faces so tonight I will focus on making those changes digitally.

[kori-stories]

I feel like I’m at the stage of this painting where it’s gonna get worse before it gets better so I decided to take a scan in case there is no better.

Previously the main issue I was having was Lady Beetlejuice wasn’t working in a suit and I don’t know why I committed to painting so many striped suits at various angles, I may pushed my limits a little too far. I don’t tend to like Lady Beetlejuice costumes I see in costume shops and she’s not a real character anyway so I read a Playbill article about William Ivey Long the costume designer for Beetlejuice the musical.

Why William Ivey Long Crafted Multiple Beetlejuice Costumes By Hand

The 17-time Tony-nominated costume designer reveals the secrets behind his Tim Burton-inspired design.

It hit me that if executed right Delia’s dinner party dress would look really good with Tim Burton stripes. That might even be an outfit in the show at the curtain call I don’t know. I haven’t looked it up I went for white stripes to minimise giving myself another complicated design but maybe since reality doesn’t matter that much anyway I could’ve made the pattern lineup either more or less and optimised the placement.

I will probably have to make a few adjustments as currently it looks like if it wasn’t for Brad‘s hand she’d be underdressed.

I saw an Instagram reel today that had the clearest lighting I’ve seen on Lydia‘s outfit so I’ve saved it for if I go over the pattern again.

The character behind Miss Argentina was originally Lydia so I didn’t have to worry about Miss Argentina not standing out in front of a black dress but then I changed it to Barbara who had forgotten was wearing a green dress so I’ve already made Miss Argentina more teal and will make Barbara’s dress darker. i’m not adding detailed patterns or jewellery yet.

Now that the show is coming to London. I’ll get to see it in person and maybe then I’ll make another painting closer to reality. 

My next post, I’ll include my references so that later on I can reverse them and post the source 

[kori-stories]

Traced References

I do like how the sandworm came out, but I do wish it straight more from the reference and was incorporated more in different parts the piece but I feel like I’m having one of those perfect is the enemy of good moments, where I have to accept if I wanted to get done anytime soon between my hectic schedule okay? I have to build doors through and take the L on some things for now.

I wanted a lot of references of characters throwing their arms out in the show, cause I feel like it’s a very throw your arms out sort of show and the Internet delivered. Like a lot of the poses I found for Miss Argentina were very similar to the one I imagined but both the online one and the one in my mind were too complicated even with tracing for me right now. 

I wanted the Frey glasses in the popcorn, but I should’ve maybe change the popcorn bucket position more. He also wanted him jumping back more but space . I didn’t have time for a good composition and I wanted them to be kind of the same size as the others that they were in line with 

The rest were Magic Poser 3D Models.

Usually I’d put more effort into trying to make the poses dynamic and the lighting were consistent, but I decided that I wouldn’t actually be referencing for lighting that much and this was essentially to be a base for tracing when I thought I was trying to get it done within a few hours (I don’t know how I ever thought I could get this many characters done in half a day)

If I had more free time and understanding of copyright law, most of my work would probably be mixed media in someway

Lydia‘s outfit has a lot going on so I tried to simplify it as much as I know how to  for the outline. I will probably keep Miss Argentina‘s outfit simple as I did not know how to draw sequence. 

[kori-stories]

Beetlejuice — Connor Gallagher

The choreographers portfolio page is actually a pretty good resource

[kori-stories]

I learned that Beetlejuice Australia is doing a fan art contest so considering submitting it but idk cause I know less about the aus production and also the non cannon Lady Beetjuice might throw people off. Momentarily considered restarting from scratch but l'm trying to learn to focus on finishing the imperfect to have a final product

[kori-stories]

I want to do in October but with my current workload, I’d be lucky to get one piece done a week so that’s what I’m gonna aim for. No guarantees.