This journal contains two "sections": 1) info on the art class I'm presently taking, which will explain a lot of the pieces I'll be posting in the next few months, and 2) a STORY I made (OH BOY!) called The Second Seed, which is the tale all said art will be based upon. And who doesn't like reading stories, however blandly summarized? haha As per usual, I've made my journal reader-friendly with bold headers, so you may jump to what interests you.

Begin:

Intro to Entertainment Design (art class):

SUP Y'AAAAALL? SO! I ended my two community college art classes, and actually created some rather awesome things in them, which I will be posting in some grouped-dump capacity. AND I started my Art Center at Night class! WOOHOO! (Art Center at Night is a program run by Art Center College of Design, i.e. ACCD, i.e. the school I wish to attend). The class is Intro to Entertainment Design (Entertainment Design being my desired major at that school), so you'll be seeing me post a lot of work from that course. The silhouettes that are up right now were the first assignment. The class, and major in general, has 4 design elements to it: characters, environments, props, vehicles. Basically, after the character development portion of the class is done... it's gonna be all down hill quality-wise for me. LOL. I have NO idea how to design props and vehicles and am so-so on environments. But heyyo, I WILL LEARN and try my BESTEST. BTW, All of the Zareth/Minions art in my gallery is portfolio work I did for this major, so that will help give an idea of where I'm headed with all this.

The Second Seed

So what's the deal with what I'm creating in this class? The above 4 design elements, helpfully and necessarily, are all founded in a STORY. Our instructor gave us a generic plot, rather a' la Atlantis, with vague character titles like "an explorer crew leader" and "a merchant who betrays the explorer crew", and were told "INTERPRET THIS and make it UNIQUE and UNBORING." ha. We then have to hop-to and make characters, environments, props, and vehicles that will bring our interpretation of that story to life. My interpretation goes as follows:

Summary

200 years in our future, Earth is not what it once was. Human overuse and disregard left nearly all of it barren and unlivable, forcing its people to relocate into the sky. There, in the newly dubbed Rarefira, they live on hovering manmade solar-powered plots of land and travel to and fro on old seas ships refitted to accommodate the same solar-power technology. Yet one particular band of adventurers, led by Captain Quinn and his second in command Regin, refuse to believe that Rarefira is the only future left to them. After many years of searching, they at last stumble upon a necklace with the ability to lead them to the fabled underground world of Sottasodda, said to contain The Second Seed. According to legend, the First Seed started the Earth that was; the Second Seed would be able to return Earth to that former state.

After a harrowing journey plunging deep into the earth, Quinn and his team manage to find Sottasodda, a lush, thriving world resembling the above rainforests of two centuries earlier. This community draws much of its energy from the planet’s core, and its nutrients from the untainted soil surrounding it on all sides. The explorers are greeted to the world by Lady Jafra, the overseer of the land, who agrees to set them up with a guide for their quest. Their guide is an ancient merchant, Orynx, who knows almost more about Sottasodda than anyone still alive. With Orynx’s help, along with his young protégé, Pleable, the group heads out, combining all of their knowledge in search of the Second Seed. When at last the group finds it, Orynx and Pleable turn on Quinn and his crew, explaining the fact that Orynx has long sought the seed for himself. It had been his hope to hold it for ransom to the highest bidder and thereby attain the opulent life of power and riches he had forever been denied. With opposing goals now at hand, the two sides struggle for possession of the seed, at risk of destroying this ancient treasure altogether.

TA DA! And now you're up to speed. So yeah, you'll see many things from this story over the next few months, and hopefully on the art posts themselves, I'll be able to provide descriptions of the characters or pieces to better flesh them out for you.

The Second Seed © Amanda Garretson

Love!