Illustration and Visual Narrative / Task 1

02/09/2021 - 23/09/2021
Esther Vanessa [0350751]
Illustration and Visual Narrative
Task 1

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LECTURE 

Introduction to Character Design

• Styling design so it stands out the most
• Iconic
• Created easily
• Profitable
• What makes it unieque?
• Is it cute
• Is it a reference
• Principles of character design
• Shapes
• It defines character's sillhouete 
• This sets the iconic look
• Stability in the shapes of the design makes it more solid

Figure 1.1 Character basic shapes creating silhouette

• Colors
• Important role at determining who are heroes/protagonists or villains
• Gives an impression on character, can cause certain emotions in poeple
• Color psychology 

Figure 1.2 Color study in color wheel

• Emphasis & Contrast
• Get to pick on a visual element and exaggerate it
• Can be a cultural element and adding it to a design
• Harmony
• All shapes, lines, colors, motives, patterns must be put together in a tasteful manner
• They must complement each other so it creates a balance of visual elements
• that has a visual hierarchy
• Expressions/poses
• Their behavior/quirks must be visually shown

Composition

• Utilize composition for your design, illustration and photography
• Visual Hierarchy
• Allow your viewers to focus on the most important subject
• Types of Shots/Composition

Figure 1.3 Types of Shots in Movies

• Establishing
• Very wide shot
• Bird's eyeview
• Looking down from the sky
• More dynamic than establishing
• Gives sense of height and movement
• Worm's eyeview
• More intimate than bird's eyeview
• Close-up
• Medium shot
• Framing
• Can be very romantic
• Type of shots can be mixed and match to our own liking
• Industry technique
• Find a balance of positives & negatives
• Visual Hierarchy
• More appeal factor to your designs, can be your composition, your character, colors, play of light or flow
• Remember to apply design principles

Composition (2) - Perspectives

• Important for environment/layout
• Without perspective, it would look lowkey dorky

Figure 1.4 Paintings before 14th century lacks perspective

• Fillipo the architect make use the linear perspective to create replica of the building in the painting, creating the first known picture to use perspective
• Gives form, volume, buildings recede into the distance
• He also played with light and shadow

Figure 1.5 Fillipo's artwork

Figure 1.6 Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper applies perspective

• 3 Planes Theory
• Foreground
• Midground
• Background
• This creates much more impactful image

Figure 1.7 Artwork applying 3 planes theory

• Manipulating depth and space by using the trick of perspective
• Makes you wonder what the story behind it

Figure 1.8 Las Meninas, known to be the most intriguing painting ever

• Perspective in art
• Create depth and space
• To create illusion
• Also gives representation of objects 
• from a 2d surface to 3d to create optical illusion
• Types of perspective
• 1 Point
• If every line joins into one point

Figure 1.9 One point perspective

• 2 point
• Two running lines that when connected to the horizon, creates two points

Figure 1.10 Two point perspective

• 3 point 
• Impactful view 

Figure 1.11 Three point view

• Impactful drawing has
• Good color scheme
• Good contrast
• Framing
• Good use of planes
• Parallax Effect
• Layers to depict depth without actually putting in perspective

Figure 1.12 Parallax Effect with layers

• As long as they mimic 3D, a sense of depth is created

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INSTRUCTION

TASK

We were asked to do Vormator Challenge and create our own unique character with a given set of shapes. The challenge also comes with rules,

• you’re allowed to rotate, flip and duplicate the shapes
  

• you are not obliged to use all the shapes
  

• scaling is allowed, but only proportionally, so no skewing or free transform, cannot alter the original shapes!

• you can add, subtract, intersect and group elements as you see fit

• the use of color is unrestricted, you can create your own color schemes

• you are allowed to use gradient
  

• background is not necessary

During our first week, we were asked to come up with sketches of several different characters, in which I made two.

Initially, the first character was made to look like an axolotl and a ghost. However, after some time I find the character design relatively too simple without much exploration, so I add the little hands and scales of what supposed to be now a fish and an axolotl.

Figure 2.1 First sketch of axolotl and fish (02/09/2021)

For the second character, I started with a very basic design. I wanted to give it a more cute devil/dracula vibe; hence the horns.

Figure 2.2 First sketch of the devil/dracula (02/09/2021)

After exploring more and more, I come up with a full set body of what I want to call is El Diablo, which means the Devil in Spanish. I create this character to look more cynical but is soft hearted and friendly.

Figure 2.3 Finished sketch of El Diablo (02/09/2021)

Sketches were all made in procreate. For this assignment, we are supposed to deliver the final product in Adobe Illustrator. I have never used Ai before so it is challenging for me at first.

So in Adobe Illustrator, we are supposed to trace the set of shapes using the pen tool. From then on, I started building my character.

Figure 2.4 Products from tracing of the vormator elements

According to Ms Anis, El diablo has more balance to it's character, hence the reason I'm going to use him for the project. I started building him and his body to be more taut.

Figure 2.5 First building of El Diablo

Along the way, I changed his base color to be tanner and added more to his horns. I also add a cool sunglasses for accessory. I add more to his body too so it does not look too boring.

Figure 2.6 Progress work of El Diablo

I also tried using the gradient tool. I had a hard time using it at first but after I get a hang of it I try experimenting with the tool, creating shadows and highlights so El diablo doesn't look too flat.

Figure 2.7 El Diablo Final Draft

We are supposed to create a backstory for our characters, so I try to come up with an interesting one.

El Diablo is a devil for the longest time he has lived. He never knew his mother, nor his father, or even siblings. Growing up, he has to fend off for himself. Despite that, he has a good heart and not to forget, a good fashion sense (look at that stylish sunglasses, he's ready to post for his Instagram followers). He is also a very caring character, friendly and an overall typical extrovert. When he passed his coming of age, he hopped from one world to another using a special portal. He usually stays just for a couple hundred years, but the human world entice him so much that he decided to stay for good. He now lives in the shadow of the deep forest of the earth.

After creating our characters, we need to place our character in their own environment, therefore, for our work we need to create a card game. 

Based on El Diablo's background story, I decided to create a forest environment for him to rest. Here is the first sketch up of my game card.

Figure 2.8 First Sketch of the game card (13/09/2021)

Afterwards, I move to Illustrator and started to play around with the colors. During this part, I genuinely have a hard time figuring out good color scheme that would not drown out El Diablo.

Figure 2.9 First sketch of the Illustrator (14/09/2021)

I also felt like it's lacking elements, so I tried adding more to it with bushes and plants to make it less empty

Figure 2.10 Adding elements to the front card (14/09/2021)

I also created the card to be an "attack" card with suitable description. As you can see I also created a different color scheme so the card would look more eerie. I also added drop shadow to the elements (most importantly El Diablo) in order to pop them out more. I also used gaussian blur tool that comes in very handy to gives a sense of perspective to the tree lines.

Figure 2.11 Adding El Diablo to the picture (18/09/2021)

So I decided to name the game to be Ruin of Assault, short as RA. I also started building the back of the card. I once again have a hard time to navigate around the design and coming up with a design that is not too different that it would remove the first card as the center of attention. I played around with adding more elements then I come up with the following,

Figure 2.12 Making the back of the card (20/09/2021)

I was still unsure about my work so I asked Ms. Anis about it to get a few remarks and based on it, I had to change a little bit of the colors since it was drowning out my character. With that said I changed El Diablo's color to pop out more. Here is what I come up for the final submission.

Few more final remarks from Ms. Anis and Ms. Jen, I changed up more of the card as the blur is not working to give perspective, instead I switched up according to their comments, that is to change the color of the trees, the further it is the lighter it will be.

Final Submission

Figure 2.13 Final Result of El Diablo after changes (20/09/2021)

Figure 2.14 Final Result of Game Card (front) (23/09/2021)

Figure 2.14 Final Result of Game Card (Back) (23/09/2021)

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FEEDBACK

Vormator

• Fish+axolotl color scheme is good
• El Diablo has better balance to the character
• Need to add more interesting feature for El Diablo

Game Card

• The motif and theme + layout + color fits the whole narrative but it drowns El Diablo
• Adjust red parts of the characters to be the colors of the flower, while the flowers are a bit more toned down
• Tree should give off more perspective if I play with the colors more

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REFLECTION

I learnt lots of things from this first task in this course. I find this course really really fun and educating. I have never really tried making characters prior to this project but I had so much fun in building one, and how important making the background story of the character too. I also realize I have quite a hard time choosing better color scheme for my art, so next time I will try my best to overcome this hurdle. Although I am proud of my work this time, I also believe I could grow and do so much better with more experience that Ms. Jen and Ms. Anis could provide in the class.