Emojis by Jessica

Meet Jessica! She works with instructor Matthew as part of Game-U’s Accelerate program. Since art plays an important role in game design, Matthew’s been using Gimp to help Jessica develop her art skills.

Just like words, facial expressions help people communicate with each other. Sometimes a person’s facial expressions or body language actually matters more than his words do! But Jessica’s concerned that her figures are too stiff, not communicating what she wants them to, so she asked Matthew to help her become better at expressions. The lesson began!

First, because it’s always a good idea to learn from the experts, Jessica and Matthew researched a variety of artists and their expression styles. Once they finished studying these examples, Matthew booted up Gimp, an open-source image manipulation/paint and drawing software, and challenged Jessica to draw different expressions on a series of spherical heads, each at a particular angle. (People don’t always face each other head on, after all.) Check out the results! Jessica drew a happy face, a sad face, a frightened face, and even a flirty face. By changing the shapes of different features, emphasizing or de-emphasizing the browline, and adding some tell-tale signs (like teardrops or question marks), Jessica effectively communicated a wide range of human emotions. She now has her own custom string of emojis! The only emotion Jessica didn’t get to is “triumph.” Any ideas for her? Post your drawing in the comments!

A pleasure (insert Jessica-style pleased emoji here) to meet you, Jessica! We love your emojis and we’re looking forward to sharing your progress as an artist and game designer. Keep us posted!