Creature Design Task: Using Silhouettes

This task involved having me design a monster/creature using the methods explained in FZDSCHOOL's tutorial here and here. Our monsters however, had to be based of crustaceans, like crabs, lobsters etc. So for this task I did some visual research and catalogued a few pictures that gave me inspiration.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31988721 (05/10/15)

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/top-ten-newly-discovered-species (05/10/15)

http://paleostories.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/gobe-great-ordovician.html (05/10/15)

https://icebergstraightahead.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/another-day-another-trawl/img_0771/ (05/10/15)

Based on these crustaceans, I drew up the following 3 silhouettes:

After this, I went in and filled out these shapes with shading and detail:

Finally I had to add some colour:

Here is the final result. I found this technique to be very interesting and useful for forming strange creature shapes that each look unique, it also helps with practicing digital painting and getting shading right. I did find it difficult to include colour however. I find the first design to be rather boring in terms of colour but I do find the bio-mechanical theme interesting. The 2nd design is my personal favourite, the colours work well and the shape is very unique, not to mention the shading work on this seems the best. The last design is my least favourite, the shape feels uninspired and the colours don't seem to work well together. I may try this technique again in the future if I attempt to draw creatures again.

3D Art Practice: Wooden Barrel

Our first class of learning 3D in Maya 2016 involved following a tutorial to create a barrel, and then alter it to however we want for an eventual battle arena. This is what I produced:

Using the Burn and Dodge tool in Photoshop, I added marks onto the metal and wood to make it seem more realistic, as well as mis-shaping the metal part. Despite this the appearance of the barrel still looks fairly cartoony, and the texture map is a little strange as there's a black mark on the barrel and some parts don't match smoothly. I suppose in future model's I'll improve upon my texture work.

Research Task: Ancient India

For this task, we have to show evidence of our research skills by picking a theme out at random, my theme was "Ancient India". Since I don't know a lot about this subject the research I did was essential, I went about this by googling for articles on the said theme, and chronicling the area I found interesting: the history of India leading to 1500 BC.

The first thing I found out was how the landmass we know as India actually collided with Asia back 50 million years ago, this collision lead to the two mountain landscapes of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. Nearby to the Hindu Kush was the Indus River, an essential part of the growth of early Indian civilization; evidence of homosapien life in the Indus valley suggest it being one of the earliest dating back to 70,000 years. Slowly this life settled into the Indus Valley civilization and began to trade with other ones such as Mesopotamia at around 3200 BC.

Indus Civilisation is perhaps one of the largest ancient civilizations, as large cities where planned and built out of hard bricks made from mud, that were heated in a kiln oven. These large cities were built in the form of a grid, and featured roads with dug out wells for transporting water. These roads where also used to build houses upon, some even having multiple stories and a water drain system. The most famous example of this is Mohenjo-daro.

Mohenjo-daro Excavation Site

At around 1700 BC, the activity and culture in the Indus valley began to decline, although there is no clear evidence as to why, there is a popular theory: some believe a natural disaster forced out the natives or even changed the landscape in such a way that they had no choice but to migrate like an earthquake or the flooding of the Indus River, another theory is that they were driven out by an invasion but there is not a lot of evidence of a military presence. It is also unknown as to what the social ladder was like for this ancient Indus Civilization, or what they believed in, however some texts have made some historians believe that they worshiped a goddess, but the lack of a translation for the ancient language has made this uncertain. By 1500 BC these giant cities had been abandoned, however it is suspected that when this happened the Indo-Europeans moved in and where known as the Aryans; the Aryans have been suspected to have brought the horse, their religion (some believe is early Hinduism) and culture.

I personally found this section of ancient India fascinating, as there is a lot of mystery behind the Indus Valley civilization and their cities, and why they declined. It also has puzzled many historians, and given a blurred picture on what that society was like. In regards to the task I feel I have met the requirements, and showed my ability to research a given subject.

Bibliography:

Web Articles Researched:

https://sites.google.com/site/1ancientcivilizationsforkids/ancient-india (Accessed 02/10/15)

http://www.ancient.eu/india/ (Accessed 02/10/15)

Photos Used:

"Mohenjo-daro Excavation site": http://www.ancient.eu/image/2130/ (02/10/15)

Life Drawing Task

For this task we had to draw a live model onto an easel with the use of a charcoal, at first I found it difficult to achieve the likeness but after focusing on the form it became easier. What was tricky for me was getting the size and proportions right, even after being taught a measuring technique involving using a pencil/charcoal my drawings kept resulting with uneven hand and head sizes. I can tell that overtime the drawings were coming out better, and I feel with enough practise I could capture more likeness, and apply the skills to later tasks.

Another thing we were instructed to attempt was drawing the model in 1 continuous line, which I found hard as I usually do the habit of sketching lines, I experimented with the technique by making a scribbled like version but it didn't come out too well. I believe with time this technique could help improve my line stability.

Robot Design Task (And Hello!)

Hello my name is Brandon Jackson and this blog is the home of my upcoming work that I'll be producing as a part of my university studies on the course: BA (Hons) Computer Games Arts.

My first solo task involves coming up with 3 robot ideas and a final design in colour, the first thing I started drawing was an old concept I've thought about: a robot made of stone

 Originally I was going to attempt multiple variations of each of my 3 concept ideas (which is why there is 2 designes for Stone Robots), unfortunately I didn't have enough time to do this, so this was the result. The first design is meant to be a cute robot with a stretchy arm and lights that showed when it needed to buffer, which don't appear as bulbs but carvings in the stone shell. The second idea is meant to be a colossal tank robot that would look almost like a building.

 I had done some research on robots I could remember from existing works of fiction, and found one with an appeal I hoped to replicate: My Life as a Teenage Robot. I love the cartoony way they creatively portay a teenage girl as a robot, and so I thought of a parallel; after cycling through ideas like a postman or princess I found myself going through another character concept I thought of, which involved witches. That was where ideas came together. The hat and robo-teye-glasses can portray emotion very well, and the shape can be used in a way to appear sleek and futuristic, just like a robot.

This is the final design, made green to show a bit of innocence as well as being the easiest colour I could use, overall I'm happy with it and I look forward to making more designs throughout my studies!