"Pink Laughter Kingdom"

Pink Laughter Kingdom is a world concept that I came up with about 5 or so years ago. I created a personal philosophy called Pink Laughter and decided to flesh it out into something design-oriented. It's essentially a fantasy world centered on a strong philosophy. Here is the philosophy:

Pink Laughter is: a visceral expression and entity of joy, creativity, fantasy, imagination, "surreality", childlike curiosity, wonder, elation, zanism and innovation. This is a state of being, a state of mind and an emotion. The magic and state of pink laughter can be invoked at any time. It satisfies deeply the inner spirit while reflecting it outward, filling up an otherwise emotional bottomless pit and creating an erupting volcano of hyper magic, iridescent moods and wild, arcane, joyful, cacophonous, perpetual echoes of laughter.

Whatever you gravitated towards or found fascinating as a child has to be tapped into again. It goes back to the core, the central plan and mother epiphany. The state of Pink Laughter makes this possible through invocation. It soothes the savage beast within and brings out the Alice (from Alice in Wonderland) in all of us.

The Pink Laughter philosophy permeates into the way I live life, create art and think. It's a magical realm that welcomes all.

I'd love to expand this world concept through a series of stories and character developments. I was initially attracted to developing the Pink Laughter Kingdom world concept not only because self-philosophy but also due to my fascination with languages and micronations...

I remember spending lots of time, when younger, trying to development my own language. I came up with the idea right before high school and I took action of coming up with a language once I had taken my first French class. I realized that creating a language was going to be quite a large feat and that it would take much of my time.

I always carried around this small but thick notebook. In it, I'd write lots of poetry, create drawings and jot down various phrases, words, ideas and fantasy make-believe names. I decided to use this notebook for developing the mechanics of my language. I named the language Jeoydo, which stands for I We Us. I based it off the English language and some Latin language grammar rules (for example, manner of conjugating verbs). I spent about 3 years taking the language into various stages of development, but shortly after I attended college, I found myself less involved in a lot of my creative pursuits and passions. This was truly when I lost focus in a deep and authentic sense...

However, this early involvement left a legacy of ideas, which as I mentioned before, was picked up on years later.

What came out of these ideas were some design pieces: The Road to Pink Laughter Kingdom (which displays the PLK Flag), Pink Laughter Kingdom Currency, Pink Laughter Kingdom Map and various character illustrations.

These illustrations were mainly created in Illustrator 10/CS2 and some were taken into Photoshop for digital painting enhancement.

I'd like to revamp some of these illustration ideas as well as expand other ones that have yet to be created or completed. And of course, I have plans to create a series of stories based on this world.

"Abstractis"

This piece was a mixture of modeling done in 3D Studio Max 6 and digital manipulation in Photoshop CS.

I first created an abstract land environment in 3D Studio max. This image is the original image with the blue sky background and the deep blue-green water flooring. After looking at it a bit more, I felt that more could be done with it, so I decided to render the image again and take it into Photoshop for further dressing.

I used various layer options, masking and digital painting as well as detailed text creation and treatment...and I came out with the magenta themed image. I felt the title Abstractis was appropriate and fitting.

"Moogle Room" and others

Moogle Room was one of my first big assignments with 3D Studio Max. The objective was to create a themed room. I've always liked the Moogle characters from the Final Fantasy series, so I felt inspired to create an elegant but sophisticated and playful room for individuals of Moogle size. I created a room and rendered it in various angles without lighting and then as a final touch, added lighting for the finished image.

When I first took a class in 3D Studio Max (version 6 was current at the time), I really didn't know what to expect. I had never taken a 3D Design class and I'd never done any modeling...however, I had been fascinated by animation and 3D artwork for the longest time.

I remember seeing 3D Studio Max's GUI back in 2002. A boyfriend, at the time, had the program and I would use his computer during visits. The program looked very complicated and intimidating. There were so many features and I couldn't make sense of them.

So when I took the 3D Studio Max course, I came in with this impression as well as a lack of experience actually using the program. I didn't know how I was going to do.

What happened is that I became obsessed with 3D Studio Max and found that I enjoyed it thoroughly. I wanted to know all that there was to know about it and I was especially fixated on lighting, materials and modeling. There were many nights I stayed up on my computer at home learning as much as I could about 3ds Max, doing online tutorials and experimenting with various designs.

I found that I learned very quickly and thus took to the program easily. This inspired me to contemplate on whether I wanted to explore animation professionally or stay with graphic design. I eventually decided to finish pursuing my degree in graphic design. I liked how versatile I could be in the learning process of this direction. As a result, I didn't invest myself in the program much further because I was so busy with other projects.

Learning 3D Studio Max opened my mind up to better ways of implementing chiaroscuro (use of light and shadow) in my 2D digital work. I found that using the program was a good way to train the eye in developing a better understanding of 3D perspective and effects. I'd like to get back to using it more often because when I visit sites such as 3DTotal, 3D Kingdom, CG Society and the like, I feel an urge to play around more in the program and see where I can take my skills...because I know there's potential there for more creative expression.