New animation, which is the closest I should be allowed to doing karaoke.
Hope you’re having a great day!
Suzanne
Karaoke
Tag: Tacoma
Stickers
I ordered a test run of stickers and magnets through Stickermule, and they just arrived on Monday evening. I am happy with the results and can’t wait to order a larger run of stickers and buttons. In the meantime, I am looking at options for offering limited runs through indie comics, arts, and other stores. If you’re interested in selling No, Mine! Studios designs in your store, please feel free to email nominestudios@gmail.com.
Artists, if you have been thinking about getting some of your work printed through Stickermule, click here for a $10 credit. (Double check their site for limitations.) Their team was very responsive and easy to work with through the setup process.
As always, thank you for your support!
Suzanne
Spin
Ahoy there!
The last few weeks seemed to be a string of mechanical failures: from the car to multiple doctor visits by two members of the family, one also kind of caused by the car. (Annual reminder: the one time you don’t tell your kid to watch their fingers when shutting the car door will be the one time you need to rush them to the ER for X-rays. Nothing was broken, but it was still a very traumatic, expensive lesson.)
Thanks to my co-parent’s brother, the car/ a.k.a. “finger smasher” is working again. In an attempt to take a break from the chaos while also doing research for a few projects, I signed us up for a family trek on the Lady Washington.
This was the second time I have ever been on this ship. The first was during a Nisqually Middle School oceanography field trip to look for whales. I didn’t see any. As I recall, the trio of nerds of which I was a part spent much of the day struggling with sunburns and motion sickness. It was still such a cool experience, so when I found out the ship was docked in Tacoma, I wanted to share it with my daughter.
We didn’t tell her where we were going, but when she figured it out, she was excited, too. I came prepared with an OTC children’s motion sickness med, which she and her dad decided to take just in case. I also loaded my camera bag with snacks and cans of 7-Up. Although the ship didn’t leave Commencement Bay, the little one had a rough time up until right before came back to the dock. So in essence, I did share my experience with her, but not in the way I had hoped.
I need to accept that our Scandinavian ancestors were most likely landlocked farmers and not fearsome, seafaring Vikings.
The crew did their best to help make kiddo feel better and recommended hanging out in the back close to where the Captain was stationed in order to not minimize her seasickness.
In between juggling parenting duties and documenting the experience, the outing was a great chance to learn about history,
enjoy the sea and the sun before the Pacific Northwest heatwave hit,
and look at our city from a different perspective.
Kiddo said she enjoyed our day despite not feeling well, but our next adventure will be on a much smaller vessel: like a pedal boat.
Good News
I am pleased to announce that I have received a Tacoma Artist Initiative Program Award for the 2021-2022 cycle! I’m honored to be included as there are many great artists on the list. Thank you everyone for your support through this process. More details to come, including how to watch my artist talk later in the year.
Dino Game Update
Hi.
I started working on my first video game in June 2020. Progress is coming along nicely. I’m striving a balance between pushing forward and fleshing out the first game level’s overall layout while going back and refining existing work. The following trailer contains some new in-game scenes. Tacoma people might recognize a couple of shout outs.
Thank you for following along as I tackle my largest project to date!
If you haven’t yet done so, connect with No Mine! Studios on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and now even TikTok. I would love your support!
Suzanne
Tacoma Artists in Focus
I’m honored to be included in the City of Tacoma’s Artists in Focus. There are some amazing artists on this list. Please check it out and show them your support!
—Suzanne
Developer Diary: 4 Months
4 months ago I started developing a 2D pixel art game by myself: the artwork, the writing, the music, and building the project in Unity. I’m still in the early phases of my project timeline, but I wanted to share progress so far.
Thank you to everyone who has given advice and support. If you like what you see, please drop a line in the comments and/or share this with friends.
Onward!
Lunchtime Animation
A Photoshop lesson for the kiddo on the importance of layers and grouping inspired this.
Sometimes you just have to go where the work takes you.
Dinosaurs and other Updates
Summer has been fairly busy. On top of entertaining a kid during a pandemic and planning for homeschool, I’ve had other projects in the works. I was asked to submit work to a by invitation-only call for cyberpunk stories to a journal overseas. Regardless of whether my story gets picked up for publication, it was an honor to be asked, especially as I haven’t written in this genre before. I’ve been volunteering locally as I’ve been able. Remote meetings are a lifesaver for individuals with chronic illnesses/ conditions like migraines, arthritis, and motherhood (ahem), so I hope this trend continues after the pandemic. The ability to turn off the video and audio functions is especially appreciated. A laughing, streaking kid in the house did elicit momentary panic at one point.
In the relatively quiet moments and through the chaos, I have begun to make significant progress on my biggest project to date [Master’s thesis be damned]: an indie narrative game combining many of my favorite subjects.
Here is a peek at the main character:
My last programming class was in high school, more than 20 years ago, so I have been teaching myself Unity, a development platform which is free to users up to a certain revenue bracket. Brackeys tutorials on YouTube have been on repeat for months in the house. They are awesome: go check them out! Thanks to the site Beepbox, I have also been working on digital music composition for the first time. I first started using Audacity for podcasts a few years back, and it continues to be a great tool for artists. [While I’m not ready to share some of my serious attempts yet, my co-conspirator did willingly lend her vocals to this “parenting dance anthem.” It was created using Beepbox and Audacity.]
Other snippets of the game art are up on the No Mine! Studios Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook pages. I’ve set myself a soft deadline of December (6 months from when I started) to get basic art in place so I can focus on research, writing, and mechanics. This game is a one mother show. If you are on the above platforms, please follow for updates, like, and share. Your support means a lot!
No, Mine! Studios 