BA3a - Week 9 Summary

This week was independent study week, and I was focusing on finishing the two pet model sheets. Below is the model sheet and lineart for the fish pet. 

I decided to go back onto having orange and purples as the main colour scheme, but I also really liked how the blues contrasted with the fishes colour so I kept blue for the wiring idea on the body and a touch of it on the eye bubbles, and also the fish silhouettes in the pouches. I went with blue silhouettes for fish inside the bubbles after trying out a koi fish design first and I felt it had too much detail and it distracted from the fish itself. I am happy with the end result and feel like all the different elements I had to change worked out in the end.

These are the photos I used as reference for the fish:

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Below is the TV cat pet model sheet with lineart and final designs. 

I was making sure I kept the glitch/ sci fi aesthetic and the familiarity between the two pets whilst still having them as two separate creatures, similar to what you would find in an MMORPG with a strong theme. I wanted to also have some of the colours from the TV face be somewhere else on the body of the cat, so I had them on the paws and more wiring on the back. I felt like the cat would leave glitchy pawprints wherever it walked. I am happy with the result of this design and feel like it stays in touch with the aesthetic I am going for. I think for both of these model sheets I still need to work on the backgrounds to make them more interesting and make my creatures stand out more such as adding shadows.

Here are the photos I used as reference for the cat:

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BA3a - Week 8 Summary

This week I started working in more detail on the fish pet model sheet.

I'm having some difficulties with the colour scheme however so it's taking me longer than expected to reach this level. My original design is orange and a deep purple for the eye bubbles, so I may revisit it and see what issues I had with it. I also feel that the fish inside the bubbles may be too detailed, as I used koi fish as reference for the current fish inside.  It may work better with less realistic fish designs, so I will try it out.

I had a two slide Powerpoint presentation showing the work we've achieved so far and talking about what we've had to for example cut from the project in order to finish it on time. Below is my presentation.

I wanted to have mostly photos of my work on the presentation because I wanted to show each stage of my process with making a creature. I got feedback on my time management, as well as some of the designs I had on display. I was told that my boss had a pose that made it look like he was going to tip over, so I would do best to move the legs and body position. The colour scheme I used with the fish was also questioned as I had changed it from the purple and orange to this blue, so I will definitely revisit the purple and try and make it work. 

The tasks this week were separated into two parts. The first one we were given some concept art/photos that we had to analyse the values of. We had to identify the foreground, middleground and background, and look at how the colours worked in the pieces. Below is my take on three pieces I chose to work with.

The second task was to create an environment using all of the elements listed.

Below is what I created from the brief, with the thumbnails I sketched before making the final image. 

I think with this piece I felt very rushed, as the deadline was early in the morning the next day and the dissertation draft deadline was also that evening so I ended up panicking slightly and finishing it as quick as I could. I didn't use colour as I felt it would force me to think about what I learnt from the value studies we did before. I feel like with more time I could have created a better piece, but I like how it looks.

This week has been mostly about working on the dissertation draft, so that was more a focus and thus I didn't make as much work as I would have liked. 

BA3a - Week 7 Summary

This week I did some more work looking at the mounts, as I didn't feel satisfied with their final designs yet. My friend showed me a website called get mosh https://getmosh.io/ where you can put in images and add different glitch effects, so I tried that with my deer and came out with the top two seen in the image below using their 'RBG shifted' effect. I thought about the idea of the deer still having three heads, but they're three heads are glitchy RGB colours, as seen below in the bottom two deer. I haven't yet thrown down a sketch for the design but I now have a clearer idea of my design for the deer.

I also tried to work with the lion mount as its design also didn't feel right. I had tried to mosh it in the website but none of the glitch effects really worked for me, so I tried using brushes and trying different ideas as seen below. I ended up looking at some pixelation effect tools on Photoshop, and the bottom right one came from that. The pixel one is definitely the one that stands out the most for me, and this concept of manmade and natural combining with the large pixels is a good aesthetic.

I also worked further on the cat design, looking at how its head would appear in the television. I was also looking at different glitches and seeing which I found more pleasing as the cats head. The first row is using the SMPTE colour bars and the second one is using TV static. I also thought of the idea of the cats body becoming more and more glitched as it stood or sat still for too long. I like the first design the most, the colour bars.

I have also started working on both pet model sheets. I've decided due to how slowly I am taking this task, I will have to focus on only drawing the model sheets for each character and the character sheets will be the new stretch goal, especially due to also having to focus on the dissertation. Currently the fish has a view from the side, top and front, and the cat has a view from the side, front, top and bottom. If I feel like another area of the design needs to be shown I will add another view.

The monster designs also don't feel right to me still, so I started trying to redesign the dog-like design thinking about a black hole 'glitching'. Below are two ideas I tried. I'm having some difficulty with this design, as I already do really like the design for the dog monster but it feels like its too separate from the theme I currently have. I think the aesthetic I've taken after below is similar to the 'Heartless' From Kingdom Hearts.

Heartless (x)

The task for this week was to create an environment according to the brief below. We also had to make thumbnails using alchemy and the guideline also seen below, and then chose one to make into a final design.

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Below are my alchemy thumbnails. I had some difficulty with these as alchemy is a software that doesn't seem to like me so I had some glitch and lag issues. If I did it again I would put more time into each thumbnail and try to bring out more form in each one.

This is my final environment. I used the bottom left thumbnail as it struck me as the most unusual and the perspective I was imagining for the piece was interesting. I think my piece is somewhat abstract, as it doesn't make a huge amount of sense and the church building has a large strange form on it. I wanted to keep that because I liked how it brought the image together. The setting I was trying to bring across for this was a church in the middle, and two gravestones directly in front of you.  The only part of the brief I think isn't apparent at all is it being in a suburb, but other than that I think it hits most of the marks well, even if its pretty abstract in the way it does it. For drought I used vines that seem to be dying, and somber is the setting - a graveyard, and also the colour scheme with the dark colours contrasting with the red of the gun and 'blood' on the church. The weather is also not conventionally happy weather, seeming to be grey and dull day. Europe 18th Century can be seen with the gun, and so can deception as its been laid on a gravestone in that manner. The army is the gravestones, the aftermath of the war. Overall I'm pleased with this piece as it was difficult for me as I'm not a very competent environment artist.

BA3a - Week 6 Summary

This week was continuing working on the boss design. I decided to work with the deer-like boss design I had made with liquify as it was one of the more unusual designs and it felt like it would be more fun to work with. I tried out some colour schemes first.

I realised I liked the feeling of the blue antlers because they reminded me of electricity, so I pushed that further and tried having the antlers as actual electricity/lightning. I really like how it has turned out, though there are some areas such as the overall colour scheme and the feet for example that may need change as due to the weight of the creature it may not actually be able to stand, and its arms may need some work too. 

I also looked again at the monsters, trying to work on their final look. I first looked at the dog design, which was an immediate challenge as I hadn't thought about its design stood up with the large front feet. I started firstly working with dog anatomy and trying to make the front legs look overly large without making it look unrealistic. In the end I think it went well and I like the final result, though I had to reduce the size of the front paws. I was also looking at more colour schemes, with the Egyptian God Anubis as a loose inspiration for this creature. 

Anubis (x)

I also went with a different design for the second creature, the water droplet monster. I wanted it to have a different feel though and added a small character holding the water droplet. To keep with the theme I went with a robot-like design that is hidden by a sheet. Its a cuter design than some of my other ideas as I was thinking of it as an earlier level monster, potentially one of the first ones you fight. I may end up redesigning it again as my robot drawing skills aren't great, but I do like how cute it is.

Our task for this week was more material cubes but this time Halloween inspired. One had to be a square pumpkin that was both lit on the inside and the outside, and the other had to be a wax candle that had a wick and flame on top. They both had to be correctly lit and show subsurface scattering. Our deadline had also been moved up two days for this task, so we had to finish them quicker than other ones. For me the pumpkin was a big challenge, especially making it square and well lit. The candle I had more fun with and it was easier to make square and also still look like a candle. Overall I'm pleased with the results.