Sif Savery

February update: Sesam's new design & a new project!

Added 2024-02-04 00:06:05 +0000 UTC

Dear Patrons,

Seems like we've already passed the first month of the year! It feels like it went by in a flash. I was really struggling with putting together the 2023 highlights for so long, I feel like I just finished that and now I'm back at it, writing another month's blog update. Things have been busy at work, but manageable. I've committed more mental focus to staying on top of things and making sure we're keeping all the deadlines on the current series we're working on, but it still all stays within the 9-17 - which gives me time to relax a bit and focus on other things.

TALES OF ZALE TV-SERIES:

Right this very moment I am working on a Danish dub of the pilot episode, so that we can show it to test viewers. So far, things are looking positive, but there's still a lot up in the air. We will be having an in-person meeting this month to discuss some details. Fingers crossed all goes well!

SESAM'S NEW DESIGN

It was only while writing the 2023 highlights that I realized that I hadn't even done a full break-down of Sesam's new design yet! Guess it got away from me - but better late than never. As you've probably seen already, this is how he has shaped up:

In terms of overall look, he's probably one of the characters that has changed the most from his web-series design:

Like with the other characters, I started out with some preliminary references - though I think he's definitely the character that I had the hardest time finding good references for. I think the most useful guide here is what stage of growth he is at. That sweet spot where the hatchling stops looking like and alien, but before the colored flight feathers come in. The fluffy stage!

In this early stage, we had Megan Babchuk do some preliminary explorations of Sesam. It was already during this time that his design started to change into something resembling the final. I really wanted to get rid of the long thin legs. I found that they were very troublesome to make readable and distinct from the lines of the environment, and I was afraid it'd cause too much trouble during a TV-series production to keep having to work around it. I also felt that he didn't really look like an owl (yes, I *may or may not* want Sesam to be adopted, but that should first show once his flight feathers come in).

Megan made a bunch of different expressions to show Sesam's range.

And I then picked out some of them and tidied them up in the style at the time:

That's where we left things off in 2020. Or was it 2021? Until we started the next development round with Sammy Torres' help on character design. I still knew that I wanted the design to be pretty close to the previous iteration, so we focused on making Sesam work stylistically in a line-up with Zale and Elva's designs, which were pretty far along at this point.

I circled out my favourites, and we explored further from there. PS: if Sesam was even younger, he'd probably look like that little fluff ball in the middle left.

We started refining the favourites:

I did some draw-overs to get them to just where I liked them:

We then explored colors. We needed to get his colors to a place where it could communicate as more-so down than feathers - but it still needed to be able to stand out from the background.

And in the end, this is what we ended up with:

At least for now!

NEW PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

Since I have a bit more time on my hands now, and Tales of Zale is on hold until we begin the next phase, I've picked back up another project that I left hanging last year. I think now is a good time for me to start to have another project ready for development, in case the right opportunity comes along. And it's also nice to stretch some entirely different muscles compared to what I work on with ToZ.

I basically want this one to draw from a lot of the action anime shows that I grew up with and loved, but grounded in a world closer to what I personally know. I'll spare you the full pitch for now, as it is still very much a work in progress.

Here you can see some preliminary color thumbnails. I want to go for something with pretty bold colors:

Right now, the goal for me is just to do a rough sketch bible that can be used as a foundation for further development. There are still plenty of blanks to fill out.

This is "Cecil", the main character. I shared some WIP sketches of her last year, but I think I've gotten closer to the right look with her now.

Here's a first sketch of Jay, "Cecil's" best friend. Right now, I think the designs are still slightly generic, but they serve their purpose for the time being.

And then there's Tato! If anyone asks, he's a pug.

Most people here follow me for Tales of Zale updates, but the general intent is to share anything that has to do with my journey as an artist and director, including other projects. Let me know if you find it interesting!

STREAM:

I also streamed this month! It was fun to finally be back at it, but also a bit challenging. Usually, we're around 20 people active at a time, which is manageable. I think I've had 40-50 people in the chat at most before. But this time around, we all the way up to 80+, with a lot of "diverse" comments. I found it even harder than usual to keep somewhat track of the chat, and draw at the same time.

So I think I came to a bit of a realization. I think if we reach that activity level another time, I'll either have to keep my eyes off the chat for long periods (which would be boring, because interaction is the whole point!) - or, I may have to invite some other artists along that can help ease the load of drawing and looking at the chat at the same time. I'll give it some thought.

Meanwhile, here's a moth fox:

EMOJIS:

My plan was to make discord emojis during the stream, but I realized that that'd be a bit boring to look at. So I've been chipping away at it on my own instead. I made a couple that I've put up on the server so far, but I am debating a bit with myself whether or not I like them, before I continue making more. My main goal has been to make the expressions more readable, and get the most out of the limited emoji space. So I've tried going for something lineless with big expressions. But I think some charm may be lost from the old ones.

New: