Michael’s Art Challenge Thread

[Finn]

That's freaking awesome!

I'd love to see ones with other Trek shows. Perhaps with an Odo going umph!

 

[Michael]

Thanks for the kind words, guys! Working on these was indeed a lot of fun. And yes, @Finn, I thought about doing ones for the other shows as well. Hopefully I’ll get to it soon.

I did find time today to create a last minute entry for January’s fan art contest. The theme is Transporter Malfunctions and I decided to go with one of the more famous canon transporter malfunctions instead of coming up with a new one. The likenesses are not perfect, but I think you’ll be able to recognize Tuvix, Tuvok, Neelix and a couple of orchids.

I also uploaded a timelapse video of me creating the piece for those who like watching stuff like that …

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[Cyfa]

This is lovely, Michael! Tuvix looks so content and happy, but I can't help but feel sad at his fate - a bittersweet piece, for sure.

The timelapse video is cool - it's great to see how you put this together. What program did you use to draw this?

 

[publiusr]

A lot of heart went into that.

 

[Michael]

This is lovely, Michael! Tuvix looks so content and happy, but I can't help but feel sad at his fate - a bittersweet piece, for sure.

The timelapse video is cool - it's great to see how you put this together. What program did you use to draw this?

A lot of heart went into that.

Aww, thanks for recognizing that, both of you. I admit I have a very soft spot for Tuvix, whose tragic short life was portrayed wonderfully by Tom Wright. I wanted him to look as content as possible in this piece, almost like the portrayal of a pure and otherworldly angel floating above everything and everyone. I’ll always remember Tuvix, and I like to think in-universe the characters do too.

I drew this in Adobe Fresco on an iPad. Fresco is basically Adobe’s clone of Procreate, which is still rather awesome, much more affordable and can do almost all the same things Fresco can. I only use Fresco because of its flawless integration into the Adobe Cloud, because I did the last finishing touches on this – like applying the heavy grain filter – over in Photoshop.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Haven’t posted something to this thread in quite a while. Here’s something I’ve been working on and off for the past couple of weeks: A set of Lower Decks emoticons, all fully animated and styled after the emoticons we’re using here on the Trek BBS. Each one directly or indirectly corresponds to one of the emoticons.

They presented an interesting challenge, mostly because of the limited pixel space and readability concerns. But also because of some of the custom animation I had to create, mostly for Migleemo, Kayshon and Peanut Hamper. I’d say some of them for sure work better than others. They were a ton of fun to do, but maybe some of you will actually want to use them in your posts, which you are of course welcome to do.

And yes, Rutherford as the love emoticon I pretty much did with @Cyfa in mind.

Here are the individual emoticons / GIFs in their original size …

… and here are the corresponding emoticons (save for Migleemo, Peanut Hamper and AGIMUS, which are completely original) …


An overview:

These things are freakin' awesome! What's even more amazing is that most of them really fit with their character personalities on the show. I don't know how you did it, but they look fantastic...

[Quickly runs off to download them into Imgur]

 

[Richard S. Ta]

4x size

I wish the forum allowed a 'love' reaction, rather than a 'like'.

Beautiful Bit-Art. Looks like all of them could be slotted straight into a SNES/Megadrive (Genesis) game.

Stunning, Michael. Stunning.

 

[Michael]

Thanks for the kind words, @137th Gebirg and @Richard S. Ta! These were the kind of reactions I was going for.

I’m definitely a child of the SNES era, so this kind of pixel art style very much feels like home to me. Still thinking about what emoticons I should do next. More Lower Decks ones, or go for another Trek show? Showing some love to the Prodigy characters could be nice. And since they are basically cartoons too, they might be a natural fit.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Thanks for the kind words, @137th Gebirg and @Richard S. Ta! These were the kind of reactions I was going for.

I’m definitely a child of the SNES era, so this kind of pixel art style very much feels like home to me. Still thinking about what emoticons I should do next. More Lower Decks ones, or go for another Trek show? Showing some love to the Prodigy characters could be nice. And since they are basically cartoons too, they might be a natural fit.

In fact, Michael, I had a happy hour going through the whole thread. Genuinely lovely stuff. On the 16-Bit subject, the SNES style DS9 Runabout is stunning. It puts me in mind of LucasArts point and click games, around the Monkey Island 2 era.

Can't believe I've been a member for years and never come across this.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Is it possible to make starships, too? (A flying ship would be a good emoji for "I'm outta here".)

 

[Finn]

With a wormhole....

 

[Michael]

Crossposting from this month’s fan art contest thread …

I’ve always been fascinated with Maya hieroglyphs, which tend to have this really iconographic look to them containing hunched over figures in a box, oddly modern in a way. So I combined them with my desire to do something with the characters from Strange New Worlds.

I realize some of the likenesses are not perfect, but I think from context clues you’ll be able to decipher each one of them. I call this “Uncovering a Strange New World” …

And also, here’s the raw sketches I made of each of the icons …

 

[Firebird]

I can picture the end of a SNW teaser with Pike stumbling upon these on an away mission, sighing in defeat, and saying "the department of temporal investigations is gonna kill me" right before the cut to opening credits.

 

[Michael]

I can picture the end of a SNW teaser with Pike stumbling upon these on an away mission, sighing in defeat, and saying "the department of temporal investigations is gonna kill me" right before the cut to opening credits.

Haha, yes! Something like that is what had in mind as the backstory for how these came about. It’s also funny, because there’s several Maya depictions of what many people like to believe are ancient “astronauts”. So my idea is to finally reveal just who these astronauts were.

 

[Finn]

I can picture the end of a SNW teaser with Pike stumbling upon these on an away mission, sighing in defeat, and saying "the department of temporal investigations is gonna kill me" right before the cut to opening credits.

Yes. The Discovery crew ought visit Hanon IV and find stone carvings of Baby Naomi..

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

 

[Tosk]

I love this so much. I can't even tell you.

 

[Michael]

I love this so much. I can't even tell you.

Thanks so much, @Tosk! This honestly means so much. Spent endless evenings and nights working on this back then and even though I don’t regret even a second of it, it’s just so nice to get this reaction from another Deep Space Nine fan.

I’ve been starting my work on this month’s Fan Art challenge “Inspired by Laura”, where we let ourselves get inspired by the designs coming from @Laura Cynthia Chambers’ mind.

I’m going about this in a similar fashion as @Cyfa in that I first started with some rough sketches trying to figure out which design(s) I’d like to continue refining. I’m leaning towards either #24 or #16 right now. Although I just realized that I probably drew #24 in the opposite direction than how it was meant.

 

[Tosk]

Thanks so much, @Tosk! This honestly means so much. Spent endless evenings and nights working on this back then and even though I don’t regret even a second of it, it’s just so nice to get this reaction from another Deep Space Nine fan.

I'll take that as my permission to gush a tiny bit, some of the details that I love about it...

Quark checking Odo's bucket, presumably to make sure he's not in there.
Brunt and Weyoun chilling together, most likely both thinking about how handsome the other is.
Nog and Jake reliving their childhood.
Rom's desperate attempt to get Miles' attention.
The smooshy timeframe that allows Jadzia and Ezri to both be there.
I'll even forgive you for leaning into the "shrew Keiko" angle.

Just so well done, and I'm glad you don't regret it.
I'll stop there, but only because otherwise I'll just end up listing every detail you made sure to include.

 

[Cyfa]

Oh, wow, @Michael - your sketches look good enough to be final images! I really like the asymmetry of #63.
In fact, I just really like your interpretation of #63 full stop! (or exclamation mark!)