Speed Painting: Composition Practice

In this task we watched a video talking about composition and its importance in creating a good looking image. We learnt about focal points, structures, balance and how to incorporate these into practice. We demonstrated our knowledge of composition by speed-painting this picture of a house:

When repainting, we had to recompose the image into an A4 landscape size, and where encouraged to try and make something with it. I produced the following below:

Aside from the lack of high detail, I feel that the composition of this image isn't too bad, the structure involves a subtle use of the rule-of-thirds (although could be more aligned to the crossing points) and there are a couple of leading lines that guide the viewer towards the main focal point: the house. as well as this the house has the most contrast in the image, but is balanced by the shading of the mountains on the left. I am pleased with how this turned out, and if I where to attempt this again I would probably attempt another composition and maybe add more detail overall.

Design Task: Insectoid Character

 As with any design task, I start of with a moodboard of research relevant to the brief: an insectiod creature.

http://showkunz.deviantart.com/art/Insect-creature-362764549 (19/02/16)
http://funkydomo.deviantart.com/art/insect-creature-design-425633419 (19/02/16)
http://s650.photobucket.com/user/kitsunegunslinger/media/COW_humanoid_insect_v03_vi_s.jpg.html (19/02/16)
https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/521784306801872151/ (19/02/16)
https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/jaem/insect-crature/ (19/02/16)
http://l4w.wikia.com/wiki/PC:SoundofStone_%28rb780nm%29 (19/02/16)
http://www.cgfeedback.com/cgfeedback/showthread.php?t=3966 (19/02/16)
http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2013/07/03/creating-eso-the-kwama (19/02/16)
http://jamesngart.com/insectoidarmy.html (19/02/16)
http://carolzilla.deviantart.com/art/Bug-peeps-533025477 (21/02/16)

Then I attempted 3 ideas: 1st a scaley menacing creature, but I feel like I fell short of making it look intimidating. The 2nd idea was a more cartoony fly-esque creature that weilds four weapons, which doesn't look too bad. Lastly I went with the idea of making something that is inspired by a butterfly, and tried making an anthropmorphic creature that would appear elegant, just like a butterfly.

I like the potential of the butterfly lady, as I think they could appear elegant but also battle ready with their mask and sword. From this I produced a model sheet, similar to my 3D statue:

After this I produced a 3-quarter-view, in which I played a bit with shading and the background:

Princess Papillon

 An monarch from a kingdom in a faraway land on a rite of passage to become the next heir to the throne, where they must prove themself a worthy ruler. They are as dedicated, capable and understanding as they are swift and deadly. They also have a strong sense of justice, aiding those who are unfairly treated and punishes those who thinks they are above moral standards.

After some feedback I altered the 3-Quarter-View and adjusted the image to appear brighter, lowered the opacity of the wings to appear slightly transparent as well as altering the style to fit the character's graceful nature:

 

I enjoyed drawing this character in this pose, however I feel that the only part I dislike would be the head shape and highights. Despite this I feel that this concept image portrays their backstory well.

Life Drawing Task 15

As usual we warmed up with some sketches:

After this we drew the model withing a frame, at first this was difficult but I feel it got a bit easier to do, and that framing the model helped keep their proportions in check:

Lastly we practiced with hands again:

I felt this time my block method for hands ended up not working as well, however this could of just been down to the poses I drew.

Animating Sprites

One of the features of Photoshop that we've been introduced to can allow someone to easily sprite and animate assets, this is the timeline feature. First we had to animate a pig (sprites premade) and then give it glowing eyes using layers:

Select "Create Frame Animation"

In the menu to the right of the timeline select "Make Frames From Layers"

Using layer visibility I added a glowing eye per layer frame, and adjusted it to the pig's position.

Final animation.

Next we took a file with an animation, and added props of our choosing, I produced this

Lighting and Form on a Smooth Surface

In this session we looked in depth at how a round object is lit in a standard one light scene, finding out about the lightest and darkest points and the science behind it. To demonstrate this knowledge we shaded in one of Jordu Schell's monster design sketches, and added colour:

As seen you can feel a sense of depth with the monster, and the knowledge gained from this has helped me have a better understanding on how to achieve a realistic affect. However I feel their are some areas of detail that I feel I missed, and that perhaps next time I could take some time to add them.

Battle Arena Statue: Full Body

Since my last update, I have applied hair, the ears, markings (which may be altered later) and using a topology huide I created a body and the boots. I still need to add clothes and make the face more accurate to my model sheet.

Group Project: Alpha

This week we had our lecturer test an alpha build of our game, and gave feedback on what he liked and what could be improved, we also had a game design document and art bible that needs amending too. Here is some screenshots of the alpha:

Title Screen. Created by Mathias Holmes. There is an issue with scaling to the window size at the moment, but can easily be fixed later.

Background and rat character (called Reggie) also by Mathias. Not all assets are final.

The player can navigate the scene by clicking, as well as interact with objects. Marie's character art is by Ashlee Page.

Clicking on an enemy will bring up a menu, which will display monster stats and allow the player to choose their weapon. Since there is no battle system yet there is no stats. Monster art by Elzé Nel.

There was not enough time to sort out the compatibility issues with the fight scene demonstration, so it was displayed on another screen. Mathias programmed this scene.

What was critiqued by our peers was how awkward it was to navigate due to the objects covering the floor, and that it wasn't clear on what the interaction icons meant. In the next build I will attempt to make clicking on walls allow the player to approach the nearby location and add a sort of description to the assets that the player can see.

Life Drawing Task 14

Quick sketches as usual:

The next part was drawing the model with different perspectives in order to practice with scaling across distance:

In the last couple of minutes we drew hands again:

 

I feel that I delivered well on the hands again. But asides that with the perspective drawing the 2nd one has off proportions when it comes to the leg, and the first one is okay, but overall the last one has a nice subtle use of detail and the silhouette is accurate and demonstrates depth well.

Gameplay and Interactivity Group Project: Pre-Alpha

For this term we have been issued a task in which we gather in groups and develop a 2D game that involves no side-scrolling. After being assigned groups we decided that our game was going to be a point and click with RPG battle elements, and we came up with the idea that it would involve a Victorian doll navigating London's sewer on the way home to their owner.

For this we created a One Sheet, a Paper Prototype and an Art Bible that will constantly get updated. Below is the One Sheet:

So far I've developed a small room that the player can navigate and interact with some objects, I even have a basic inventory system set up at the moment:

Here are some completed assets so far, however this may change as we solidify our art style:

Last 5 are placeholders.

After some careful thought we have established what we plan to do for our artstyle:

Because of the setting we thought it would make sense to put the game in a sepia style, with key assets like the player, NPCs, objects and monsters having some desaturated colour.

Here are the blogs of my team members (Our team name is Barely Conscious):
Ashlee Page
Mathias Holmes
Elzé Nel