Use of Perspective

Reference Board

This week, I explored using Maya to render objects as a tool for making 2D illustrations. Our theme for this week's assignment was "transport". Initially I concepted an environment using a dinosaur as a mode of transportation, but due to lack of time, I had to scope down and settled for a stylized truck.

Beauty Render

After I finished modeling and lighting my scene, I moved on to set the following AOVs in the Arnold Render Settings: AO (ambient occlusion), ID (identify), N (normals), and Z (depth). Once the render was finished, I saved each map as a .exr to maintain high quality images. Then, I transferred the .exr files into Photoshop to assemble my illustration using solid color layers, blending mode layers, and filters.

Final Illustration v1

Final Illustration v2

Use of Composition

 

For this project, I used the classic rule-of-thirds composition and was inspired by Sparth as my target artist. Sparth does a lot of portrait framed environment concepts. I notice they like to split the horizon and make it very apparent. I tried the same technique and tilted the frame a bit to give a more dynamic view.

Reference: Sparth's "River" hue experiment

Use of Value & Contrast

This project taught me how to use value and contrast to help guide the viewer's eye through a composition. I always thought value and contrast was used to distinguish levels of shading and highlights, but I'm glad I learned its additional uses and design mechanics. I will definitely consider using these techniques when compositing future projects.

Use of Silhouettes

Initially I struggled a bit to design 8 unique silhouettes without just posing them slightly different. In order to begin, I had to distinguish the features that make Charizard's silhouette unique. Those features came down to: a long neck, two horns, wings, and of course the flaming tail. From there, I followed the advice of a quote to "start with a marker first" and brainstormed my ideas before going into Photoshop.

During the creative process, I was challenged to redesign an iconic character without taking away its identity. As for the results, I think my designs were successful in that regard. Overall, I'm proud of how my redesigns turned out and thoroughly enjoyed this assignment. Moving forward, I'm definitely going to continue using the marker trick more to thumbnail my ideas onto paper.

Creature Concepts Using Basic Forms & Shapes

 

The goal of this assignment was to create original creature concepts using basic forms and shapes: circle, square, and triangle. The circle creatures are intended to be cute-little-ghosts with the ability to evoke human-like emotions and have malleable bodies. The square one was inspired by the idea of a "lava alligator" for one of our class exercises, but I shifted the idea into an earth-dragon/dinosaur. Lastly, the triangle is a water dragon that is capable of diving-bombing into deep ocean waters from the skies. Overall, I think my project was successful in designing appealing, yet unique and distinct characters.

First Post

Testing