Reflection of Character Project, Week Twenty

To begin the character project I researched medieval bar maid and tavern themes, which I collected together the images I found and organised them into a mood board. I kept all my researched images organised in categories on one large mood board, so that I can easily view my  research and clearly access which part of my research I wish to use. 

From my mood board I developed my design and ideas into silhouettes, I produced a large quantity of silhouettes so that I had a lot of ideas to choose from, to make sure I chose them best ideas to develop and you can also clearly see where I developed my ideas from the mood board. I then moved onto developing value silhouettes from my first page, I did this to make each silhouette readable to the different elements of the character.

I used my silhouettes to develop my ideas further and narrow them down. In these character iterations I selected twelve silhouettes to develop, which I then began to use a technique called "photo bashing" where I take a mannequin and add elements from the mood board by "photo bashing" the images together. To do this I took a mannequin which I added a filter to blur out, then cut out elements from my mood board and applied them to each mannequin to recreate the silhouettes I chose, while creating my character iterations, I added a dry brush filter to blur out the images and paint over them. I had previously used this technique in the village building project to create a building block of ideas. 

I then chose three designs from my previous iterations and developed them further. To do this I copied elements I liked from each of the three designs, such as the apron, bags, fur, then added or removed them to create different iterations. I decided on iteration seventeen for my design to develop further, as it is the most aesthetically pleasing, as well as it being able to fit within the tri count, as the long layered skirt disguises the lower half of the body to reduce the tri count. the fur and layers are also accuate to the medieval theme and fits within the style guide. 

I then took this design and developed it further with value range, however first I decided to add back in the bad to the design, as I felt this improved the character design by adding more shapes to the silhouette. I developed my design further with value range to add readability to the character, by adding a gradient filter over to make the face more readable, also creating value patterns to make each element of the character readable from the rest.

 To develop my character design again I had to create iterations of face and hair designs based from myself. I chose to use iteration one as the simple hair style would fit well within the tri count, also as it is a personal favourite.

Next I moved onto developing my character further with colour iterations. First I needed to create a colour mood board to produce a collection of different colour palettes, which would be based on the images I had researched and used to colour pick from. While doing this I tried to pick different and bright colours to fit the style guide.

Once I had finished my colour mood board, I used then colour palette that I had created to produce colour iterations of my character design. On a layer over the top of my design, I used the colours from each colour palette to fill in areas of the clothing, then added a overlay filter.

Once I had lightened the colour iterations and painted over the top to add more detail and colour saturation, as the first page of iterations were too dark. I decided to develop my character with iteration ten, as the colours on the palette work well together as well as fitting with the style guide, I also chose this iteration as a personal favourite. however I still want to push the design further with colour values to develop the design more towards the style guide, as the colour are still a little desaturated therefore need to be made brighter and more vibrant. I also added and extra belt to the design as it looks more balanced and aesthetically pleasing, also adds to the silhouette.

 I then moved onto developing my design further with colour values, by increasing the brightness, adding more saturated colours and changing the colour balance in different iterations to push my design further towards the style guide. I also added a necklace and bucket. I decided to choose for my final design iteration two, as the colours fir the style guide, they are bright and aesthetically pleasing.

I then created a final development of my design with an orthographic. overall I am very pleased with my final design and how it has developed, you can clearly see my ideas from my mood board and how I have pushed it further. Now I need to move onto my modelling my character.

Reflection of game art, Week Nineteen

This week we received the first feedback from the village character project, for my initial concepts, which I produced a mood board, silhouettes, idea generations (with photo bashing) and refinement of ideas. The feedback I received denied approval for further concept development, as I did not annotate my work displaying my thoughts and ideas, therefore I was to deduce where I was going with my final design. I discussed with my tutor about how to develop my design and concluded a final design which I would progress with. I decided to use the with the long layered fur skirt and belt bags, I chose this design as the silhouette is interesting and recognizable, I also like the design for the fur lined layered skirt as people from this medieval time would have worn lots of layers and fur clothing for the cold. The low off the shoulder top and corset is recognizable for a medieval bar maid, you can also see how the character has developed from the mood board and where the ideas have come from. Now that I have a final design I can develop it further with values and colour. To do this I started with turning my design into Black and white, then duplicating my design and adding a gradient over the top of each layer, starting very light and gradually darkening the gradient over each one. I then added a overlay filter to each layer to blend the gradient with the design, I added a gradient iterations to my design, so that I make the character more readable by adding a focus on the face, also to decide the level of darkness and contrast on my design. After I created various iterations of pattern values, which I changed different elements of my character such as the skirt, apron, belts, so that they contrast with each other and are easier to read. Once I had finished the values, I collected together images of paintings with different colour palettes I like to create a mood board. I then used the images I had collected to colour pick from them and create a colour palette of five colours. I then used these colour palettes to create iterations of colour values for my design, by adding a colour filter over a certain area.

In life drawing this week we continued the theme of fabrics. We started with some warm up sketches then moved onto mid-tone paper and soft drawing materials to create tonal values, to capture the folds of the fabrics. 

In this drawing we had thirty five minutes to create a tonal value sketch of the figure and fabric, I used my time to sketch down a proportional drawing of the figure with lines, then used the rest of my time to focus on the fabric and rendering the values. Overall I think I achieved a proportional drawing, and good tonal values. However as I decided to used soft pencil to render, it did not blend enough to create tone and the fabric resulted it looking flat and too dark. To improve on this drawing, next time I would use softer materials such as charcoal, even though I still use white chalk in this drawing to highlight the drawing, it did not blend well with the pencil, leaving it looking very contrasted and not enough value range.  

 

Reflection of game art, week Eighteen

We began the start of the character project and the first stages of development. As I already had my mood board I could work on silhouettes, to quickly create character ideas. Then moved to developing these ideas using my mood boards, I copied some elements of the images I had collected, then arranged them onto a mannequin to recreate my Silhouette ideas. This technique of creating concepts is called 'photo bashing', I have used this technique previously in the village building project to create building block ideas. While using the photos collected from my mood board I added a dry brush filter to blur out the images and painted over the top. I also moved onto developing these ideas further and then created face iterations of my character from photos I had taken of myself, which I painted over the top to change the facial features and shape. The work I have produced so far will be handed in and assessed to find out if I am going in the right direction.

Life drawing this week, we did not have a life model, therefore we were split into groups and took turns to model for each other. We continued to focus on fabrics and folds, as everyone was wearing clothes this was a good chance to draw different clothing and how they fit different body shapes.

Reflection of game art, week Seventeen

This week we received the feedback from our village building project. Overall my feedback was excellent and I am very with this. Compared to how much I struggled with game production and trying to keep up with visual design last year, I feel I have improved so much and my feed back shows this. My work in both the design process and the final product showed excellent feedback , however I lacked enough research and good mood boards for the project. Which showed to be a problem with everyone else, as we had a lesson on how to properly create mood boards. We learnt how to create mood boards and now I know that I need to organize my research into section and keep all my research together in one large mood board. For example from my character mood board I have divided up my research into clothing, faces and hair, accessories and body types.

Mood board used for concepting.

I also learnt about clothing for my character, when modeling a character with clothing there is going to be folds in the clothing, which I learnt about the different folds needed to create a more interesting silhouette and realistic character.

In life drawing this week we continued the theme of clothing, fabrics and instead of concentrating on the figure, we focused on fabrics and the folds created when draped over the figure. To do this I used rendering to capture the creases and folds in the fabrics. Overall I feel I lacked in the final rendering of the fabrics, which I think I did not use enough contrast, therefore the folds were lost in the shading.

This week I also found out that we will be starting the character project properly next week, so I made a start of my character model. As the character model will be based on myself, I took orthographic photos of my head so that I could start modeling. As this will not affect the design process, if the character is based from myself, no matter what my head will be the same.

Reflection of game art, week sixteen

This week I learnt more about anatomy, but focused on gesture and posture. I will apply this knowledge to my character project, which I will produce some sketch studies. Also I learnt about face topology, the planes which make up the surface of the face. Which I had to plan out the polys that make up a face, on a photo of myself. I also worked on modeling a female head using the box method, I already had an idea of what I was doing, therefore I took the tutorial provided and completed the work on my own.

Life drawing this week continued with looking at anatomy and proportion, also our work produced during the lesson was to be handed in for reviews. Therefore I did not have photos of my work and will upload my work from this week with my thoughts of reflection, as soon as I get it back.