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PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, OCTOBER 5, 2018 Opinion Him vs. her Will that event in Washington, D.C. a few days ago along with its lin- gering implications rank as the worst in U.S. history? If so, will we ever get over it? Is our demise underway? The answers to these questions by this opinion writer are No! No! and No! Many events have transpired over the course of the last 230 years that could have led those who came before us to con- clude that the U.S. was fi nished. This list could include the day in 1804 when Vice President Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton, the day during the War of 1812 when the British burned our national capital, the fi ring on Fort Sumpter in 1861 launching the American Civil War, those days when American presidents were as- sassinated, the bombing of Pearl Har- bor in 1941, and the war in Vietnam. The point is many things have happened to cause Americans con- siderable concern over the nation’s fate and will probably happen again in one form or another. After all, our U.S. Constitution was written for moments like this. The framers made a good bet that we Americans would be making a mess now and then before getting this and that right and thereby prepared a navigational chart by which to proceed through the ages, the U.S. Constitution. Whatever the example, we’ve proven our resilience. We are now in another cultural moment where our people are reckoning with offenses to determine how we can improve our treatment of one another, specifi - cally our female members. We now witness in the Brett Kavanaugh pro- ceedings a battle in tribalism, where a fundamental instinct to believe in something because one’s fellow tribal members believe it...over an open- ness in search of the truth which has proven so far to avoid a fi rm grip. The world before our nation was in vertical mode or top-down, un- der the thumb of kings, princes and popes. The Declaration of Indepen- dence and, later, U.S. Constitution built a horizontal, new order where all humankind are cre- ated equal. Of course, there have been the inevitable bumps when many people held tightly to old beliefs and practices, such as when slavery and lack of rights for women held fi rm. Passion before rea- son was on display in D.C. the other day accompanied by one man’s word against a women’s in a case of sexual assault accuser and accused. Most Americans, it’s ventured, have taken sides and remain unmovable while a U.S. Senate confi rmation vote is pending. Thereafter, something like half the population will experi- ence vindication; the other half will be disappointed. As for a personal opinion on Kavanaugh, many of his statements regarding Dr. Ford have been proven untrue while his angry outbursts, temper tantrums, emo- tional immaturity, elitist demands, and close-minded partisanship make his temperament and character unfi t to serve as an associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. Opinion also offers that there is no better way to heed the U.S. citizenship each of us owns by our Constitution than by acting on our sovereign right to vote. What that means is that all of us have recourse when we disagree to assert our opin- ions in support of that we want saved, changed or discontinued. We do so by registering to vote, educating our- selves on ballot measures and can- didates, and, in Oregon, completing the ballot sent by mail and returning it to the county clerk ahead of the deadline. gene h. mcintyre (Gene H. McIntyre shares his opin- ion frequently in the Keizetimes.) KEIZERTIMES.COM Web Poll Results Have any of the following affected your support of NFL football? Protests – 33% Concussions – 10% Dom. Violence/other off-fi eld – 2% Rule changes – 5% All of the above – 12% I wasn’t a fan in the fi rst place – 21% I’m still a die hard fan – 17% Vote in a new poll every Thursday! GO TO KEIZERTIMES.COM Keizertimes Wheatland Publishing Corp. 142 Chemawa Road N • Keizer, Oregon 97303 Phone: 503.390.1051 • www.keizertimes.com SUBSCRIPTIONS One year: $25 in Marion County, $33 outside Marion County, $45 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Publication No: USPS 679-430 POSTMASTER Send address changes to: Keizertimes Circulation 142 Chemawa Road N. Keizer, OR 97303 EDITOR & PUBLISHER Lyndon Zaitz publisher@keizertimes.com facebook.com/keizertimes Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon twitter.com/keizertimes KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald Illustrator and character designer Mike Smith designed all the characters for the game Paperbound and has advice for young artists. . Keizer’s game character designer By ERIC A. HOWALD Of No Adults Allowed Mike Smith, a Keizer resident, is an illustrator and character design- er. His project for the past few years has been a video game, Paperbound. Mike designed all of the charac- ters from the original game, and it’s coming out for the Nintendo Switch soon. Ever since he started working on the game, seeing his characters on a Nintendo system has been something of a dream and he’s redesigned all of them and the game’s menus to get ready for the Nintendo reveal. No Adults Al- Around 2013, I found a website lowed talked with Mike about how where people were putting up their he got his start in art and in video work online and seeing if anybody games. This is what he had to say. wanted to hire them. I posted my How do you describe your profi le and said I wanted to work work? on a small thing. I got about two In my case, I don’t work in ani- dozen offers. There were people mation, but I make the characters who didn’t know what they were you get to play in Paperbound. It’s doing or the concept wasn’t strong very entertaining and incredibly enough or just not taking it seri- challenging. ously. I would research them all When did you start working online to try to fi gure out their on your drawing skills? I started with stick fi gures when commitment level. Dan Holbert, I was a kid and made a whole uni- the creator of Paperbound, replied to verse. I had notebook paper and I one of my comments and I went could unroll it like a scroll. I would through the same process. There have 60-70 pages and I just kept was YouTube video where he’d tak- building. I tried art classes in middle en the game to a local Gamestop, school, but I wasn’t good at what set up a kiosk and let people play it. they wanted me to do. I wanted to That was commitment unlike any draw the characters I saw in comic I’d seen before. How did you fi t into the game books, so I really started working design? on copying those. In high school, All the characters in Paperbound I got to do a comic for the school are based on char- paper. acters or creatures Did you go to from books. Dan school for art or had kind of set up design? this world where I tried, but I FREE SOFTWARE: those characters Sketchbook Pro ran into the same GIMP would fi ght, but I problem I had in Inkscape got to fi gure out middle school. The Manga Studio how all of them problem was there Krita looked. That was wasn’t anyone HARDWARE: both a blessing and teaching the type Wacom tablets a curse. Sometimes of work I wanted to (start with a small one I was running with do. All those teach- and work your way up) 50 or 60 ideas from ers lived in other ONLINE LESSONS: a single book. We places. The cool YouTube.com started with 10 Udemy.com thing now is there Skillshare.com characters in the is a computer ani- original game and I mation program in designed two more the Salem-Keizer for a downloadable expansion. School District [at CTEC]. I went What was the hardest one to there and got to see the types of do? technology they get to work with Journey to the Center of the Earth and they get to learn from someone was the hardest. In the book, all the who has actually worked in video characters were just kind of going games. I’ve also been a mentor to to the center of the world and the students at Chemeketa Commu- author would take like fi ve pages to nity College.There’s also lots of describe a fi sh. I came up with a places to learn online. rock creature and a turtle guy, but Has your job always been as a we ended up going with a mast- character designer? odon that lives in the dome at the I worked a lot of jobs when I center of the earth. He’s now one was younger and then my wife my favorite redesigned characters. went to work after we had kids. I What was it like seeing oth- stayed home and took care of them. er people working on the game The art was kind of a side thing. bring your characters to life? I wrote it off as a hobby when it That was amazing because the should have been a moneymaker. characters all start as a two-dimen- How did you get into video sional drawing that goes into my games? coolcareers cooltools portfolio. I don’t think much about life getting inserted into my sketch. There was a moment in July 2014 when I was stressed out and ready to quit. In the middle of that, the animator sent me a video of Nin- jeddy running all over one of the levels running and jumping and pulling out a sword. The timing was perfect because the stress fl ipped and I was energetic again. Seeing the characters come to life, when they come to life, is really reward- ing because everyone else on the team adds something a little differ- ent to their personality or the way they move. What’s been the best part of working to launch the game on the Nintendo Switch? Well, we thought it would be good to update the look of the menus because we were never re- ally happy with them. They just be- came part of the fi nal game when we ran out of energy. So, I started redesigning the menus and after I got fi nished with each part, I would work on redesigning the characters. I didn’t even tell Dan until I had redesigned fi ve of the 12, but he got really excited, too, once he saw them. What’s the hardest part of your job? I work with a team, but none of us are in the same place. If you’re going to try to do this, you have to be incredibly disciplined and com- mitted. It’s tempting to stop and play on the Playstation or watch a movie, and it can also feel very lonely. We found that we worked better when we had a way to com- municate quickly so I set up a Facebook group where we could post stuff quick and then get quick feedback from the other people on the team. That helped us all feel more connected and motivated. What’s your advice for young artists who might want to do what you do? Start a sketchbook. If you have a sketchbook and you work at it on a regular basis, you are going to be able to see how you improve. And your teachers are going to be able to see how you’ve improved. There’s also a lot of free software out there that you can get to help you try out different things (See the Cool Tools list).
