Got my book from Blurb

I got my book from Blurb and I am so happy with it! All the images came out really well and the colours are good too. I was worried that the colours would change but they came out perfect. I'm now less worried about how the business cards will turn out and I'm getting pretty excited for the degree showcase; its all coming together nicely. Now I just have to order a book display stand and get my poster printed off. My friend Connor had a few left over business card holders so he said he'd save one for me for the showcase.
Overall, I am excited for the showcase and I'm really happy that all my hard work is paying off. I'm excited for what I'll be developing next for these creatures and new ones after uni.

Degree showcase poster

Here is my idea of my poster for the degree showcase. The poster is A2 and we're meant to have it as a portrait but Claire said we could have it as a landscape if we asked which I will be doing on Monday. The poster is basically the same as my business card but with my project title. I'm not too sure about having the title on the poster but I have plenty of time to think it over. I really think this image visually explains what my project is about without the use of text.
On monday I will be doing some test prints at the copy shop, I wont be able to blog about it because that is the day my coursework is due in and I plan on handing in my work on the Sunday.

Overall, I'm excited to see my work at the showcase and this year has gone by really fast. I've worked really hard and I can't wait to relax a bit more.

Business cards

Above are tests/developments of some business card ideas. I knew I wanted to use the fully rendered Iratus Horn with the muscles and skeleton showing within my business card, because I thought it showed off this project and my skills really well. I played about with different images such as the final pieces of creature 2 and 3, and some inkblots.
Below is my final business card. I used the final piece of creature 3 because it showed my illustrative skills and it was a good contrast to the other side of the card. I've ordered 250 cards from Vista Print and should get them on the 27/04/16 so I wont be able to blog about it but they will be at the degree showcase. If the colours turnout really bad, I still have the time to change the images and order some more, but hopefully it wont have to come to that.    

Also, the white boarder is not part of the business cards, they are for Vista Print to use as a safe guideline while printing/cutting.

Supervisor Meeting

I had a short meeting with Lynn today, we just went over some questions I had about my dissertation, such as if I needed to print out a hard copy - which I do, as well as the file for blackboard. I do want to print two copies of my dissertation so I can keep one and have my parents read it as they don't really understand what my course is.
We also talked about preparing for the final presentation and the practice ones we're going to have on the 28th in room 3508. I'm pretty nervous about the presentation but with practice, I'm sure I'll do fine.

Overall, short meeting but I got the answers to my questions, we have another meeting same time next week.

Book sent for print

I finally got my book ordered for the degree showcase; above is the cover of the book. It is meant to arrive on the 27th so plenty of time to get here. The book included my final production pipeline and the development work of all three of my creatures. I did leave out the charcoal sketches stage of the pipeline as it didn't actually help me too much when creating these creatures. However, I didn't take it out of the pipeline as I think its better to encourage myself to sketch out designs more, rather than rush through to illustrative pieces etc. The book itself is 68 pages and I've created it in InDesign so I have a PDF version of my book. I will submit the PDF along with my other work for the 25th deadline as the book itself wont arrive till the 27th.
Overall, I am really happy that I got this done in time and I'm pleased with how my creatures turned out like. As I always say, I'm looking forward to continue on researching and learning about animals and creature design and put everything I learn into practice after uni.

Perspective of all creatures

Above are the final creatures beside a human standing at 6,1 to show what size they all are. The Laetus Squid lives in the ocean, I just have it floating there to show the size more easily.
Through this project I have learned so much about creature design and animals themselves. I have enjoyed my research and practical work immensely and plan to continue my learning of creature design after university. I want to push my designs further and start thinking about what type of creatures in a second tree of life would look and behave like.  

Naming my creatures

I did some research into Latin and how animals are named because I've been putting off naming my creatures because I thought it would be very cringe. Mostly Latin is used in a way where the animal is named after its most noticeable feature. It's basically just describing the creature. Then the common name for the animal are sometimes taken from the Latin name too. I decided to do this for my creatures and looked up words that best describe each of them.

Monkey - Simia
Large horn - Est cornu magnum
Light - Lux
Glowing light - Refulgens
Bait - Cibus
Trap - Captionem
Colour changer - Mutante Colores
Heavy foot - Magna pedis
Anger - ira
Angry - Iratus
Colourful - Laetus

Below are the Latin names and common names for each creature.

Creature One
Common name: Iratus Horn
Latin name: Iratus Cornu Magnum (meaning angry large horn)

Creature Two
Common name: Glowing Simia
Latin name: Captionem Refulgens (meaning glowing light trap)

Creature Three 
Common name: Laetus Squid
Latin name: Mutante Colores (meaning colour changer)