29/3/2022 - 26/4/2022 / Week 1 - Week 5
Tee Jia Ern / 0348512
Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Task 1: Exercise
LECTURES
WEEK 2: CHARACTER DESIGN
1. Shapes
- Experiment with different unique shapes to see what you can come up with for your design.
- The forms for your design should be based on your character's persona.
2. Colour
- Colors are crucial in establishing and distinguishing the essential traits of heroes, villains, and even supporting characters.
- Gives out various emotions and is easily relevant to the audience.
3. Emphasis & Contrast
A excellent character uses colours and shapes to emphasise the emphasis and contrast visual aspects to make the design stand out.
4. Harmony
Every aspect in your design should work together to create a harmonious whole. All shapes, lines, colours, themes, and patterns must be tastefully combined. It should be consistent with the characters' stories.
5. Expression & Poses
It's easier to appeal to your audience if you can visualise your characters' behaviours and personalities clearly.
WEEK 3: CHIAROSCURO
The use of light and dark to
create the illusion of three dimensional volume on a flat
surface.
An italian term meaning "light dark"
In paintings the technique refers to
clear tonal contrast, some artist that use this are Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio
increase the scene’s dramatic, create sensational effect, attract attention, make intriguing composition
Tenebrism
a panting method where significant details like faces and hands are illuminated by
highlights which are contrasted with a predominantly dark setting.
focus point or subject of a scene is brightly colored
Low-Key Lighting
Making some areas in shade while a light illuminate the shadow areas, controlling contrast
conveys emotions and impactful scenes
Positive Space
subject matter or object of interest in a visual
Negative Space
filled space or background that surround subject matter or object of interest in visual
WEEK 4: COMPOSITION
Composition
-The conscious decision for what items to include or exclude, and the arrangement in the frame
-Arrange the elements in a way that conveys meaning, making the focus stand out
1. Visual Narrative
-Complement your subject focus and reflect the narrative
-Get the emotion on the same page
2. Visual Flow
Determines the path a viewer's eye is going to take
3. Visual Balance
Nudging path a viewer's eye go through
4. Visual Hierarchy
The way one visualize and focus subject mater on a composition
Types of Shots
1. Establishing
-Wide shots
-portray spectacle and give audience a chance to take in all the splendor of a location.
-Gives them information to process what's going on.
2. Bird's Eye View
When the point of view is placed above the subject
3. Frame within a Frame
-Fracture screen space, add depth and create visual interest in cinematic composition
-Highlight underlying meanings in story and break up information in frame
4. Medium Shot
-Frames three quarters of the character
-Standard camera angles used to frame a character
5. Close Up
-Intimate moment, look into a character's mind
-Emphasize emotions and thoughts in a grander context
6. Worm's Eye View
When the point of view is placed below the subject
WEEK 5: FORE, MID AND BACKGROUND
Fore, Mid and Background
The way an image is put together is called composition. When applied correctly, it can grab the audience's attention
Foreground: Object nearest to the viewer
Middleground: Object between foreground and background
Background: Object that are furthest away from viewer
Design Flow
-Good arrangement composition to indicates a sense of movement, often known as design flow.
-Leads the eye through the layout, influence how the viewer processes the information.
INSTRUCTIONS
LECTURE REPORT
LECTURE REPORT 1: VISUAL STUDY
For my visual study I chose Charlie Morningstar from Hazbin Hotel, a recent internet animated series I watched. It is produced by Vivienne Medrano or VivziePop, and was produced solely by freelance animators and largely funded by Patreon followers. Charlie, is the Hellborn princess of Hell, the founder and protagonist of the Hazbin Hotel. Despite what the majority of Hell believes, she believes that all demons can be redeemed and hopes that it will aid the kingdom.
She recently had a redesign different from her pilot, who looks more like your average bubbly girl. I do think the new design is an improvement. The rounded features of eyes and hair show that she is compassionate and genuinely cares about others' well being. While still retaining some triangular features in the suit, like how she would not hesitate to start a fight with people who openly mock her ideals. She has a more typical proportion as she is both the protagonist and royalty.
She has both yellow and red contrasting each other. Yellow conveying she is optimistic, sees the good in people. While red alluding to her strong passion and determination to make her goal come true. It also plays into red being evil, she is born in hell after all. The mass usage of red on the suit makes the yellow eyes and hair pop out. Similar to her positive views of the world, and how her ideals stand out from the cynicism of hell.
The twice-banded ponytail fancy hairstyle helps show that she is of royalty. The white skin, red pupils with yellow eyes, non-human features convey that she is a demon. The red blush alludes to how she always has a smile on her face, to the point where it looks like the smile of a doll never changing. The suit is an homage to her love for musical theater, she conveys her ideals through song and dance.
LECTURE REPORT 2: CHIAROSCURO
When thinking about shows, Arcane is the immediate show that comes to mind. It was an animation action adventure series adaptation from a multiplayer online game League of Legends. It is a good show with breathtaking animations, compelling characters and tells the story of the conflict between the rich city Piltover and the oppressed undercity Zaun. It won 9 awards at Annie Awards 2022. Usage of Chiaroscuro is most apparent in the last episode, named The Monster You Created. In the final tea party scene, the main character Powder holds everyone in her life hostage, her father figure Silco, sister Vi and her sister’s law enforcer acquaintance Caitlyn. One seat is labeled “Jinx”, the other is labeled “Powder”. She is contemplating which seat is hers. Vi tries to talk Jinx by reminding her about their family, while it is the sole motivation for Vi, are traumatic memories for Powder. In the midst of chaos, Silco is shot dead by Powder. In his final breath he promises Jinx he never would have given her up for the peace treaty and calls her perfect. It is just what Jinx needs to completely embrace the Jinx persona and embark on this treacherous journey into villainy. She finally chooses to sit in the chair named Jinx.
The scene has usage of Chiaroscuro, and specifically Tenebrism. The background is completely dark and only the candles illuminate the surrounding faces and dining table, which are the focal point of the scene. In reality, even if the room is dark with only one light source, the surroundings would still not be a dark abyss. It is very much exaggerated to bring attention to the subject. The choice of lighting increases the scene’s dramatic tension, when all the characters are trying to influence the main character’s choosing of identity. The scene is also the emotional climax, 9 episodes of build up all led to this one final decision. It is also very impactful, it is the exact moment when Powder embraces the Jinx persona.
Chiaroscuro aids in visual narrative, telling the story through scenes as well. It increases dramatic tension, Vi still wanted her sister back, Silco cared a lot about her and Caitlyn wanted this arsonist to be captured but one of her close ones cares deeply about her. Lots of relationships are at stake with Powder’s decision of her identity. It also brings attention to focal points. The brightest lit objects are the character faces, then the tea party, followed by a black background. Establish visual hierarchy through the strength of lighting and highlighting the main point of the scene. It also makes for a more intriguing composition, as there is a strong silhouette fulfilling the role of positive space, contrasting with the background negative space. Solely the shape of positive space and negative space are interesting shapes to look at.
The usage of Chiaroscuro also makes the last scene very impactful and memorable. There is no background, only pitch black. With the character and the chair she chose being the sole object that receives colour. It is very impactful and perfectly encapsulates the story, Powder became Jinx. Solidifying her ultimate decision to her identity.
LECTURE REPORT 3: VISUAL TYPES AND SHOTS
Here's some tomatoes, plate, and a lemon, demonstrating shot types.
1. Establishing
2. Bird's Eye View
3. Frame within a Frame
4. Medium Shot
5. Close up
6. Worm's Eye View
LECTURE REPORT 4: FORE, MIDDLE & BACKGROUND
This scene is from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse leap of faith scene. Where the main character takes a leap of faith to truly test out his powers. The red outline foreground is Miles Morales, the yellow outline is the middleground of the city landscape and the green outline is the background night sky. The city skyscrapers are taller on the outside and shorter on the middle, indicating a sense of upwards movement, utilizing design flow well. The eye are lead to the center because of the indent, the person rising metaphorically through the sky is the main subject. The scale contrast of the enormous towers and a small silhouette of the person shows how big the leap was. Light and shadow were done well, as the subject is backlit against the sky, causing the silhouette to stand out.
EXERCISE
WEEK 5: CHIAROSCURO
These were done with the pen tool and references given. I find myself having a tendency to make it too close to realism. I am working on making the shapes more abstract for a minimalistic look.
TASK 1
VORMATOR CHALLENGE
I know I wanted to do something more minimalistic and contemporary, as the silhouettes would be cleaner. After thinking of some media that are similar, I ended up deciding the theme is a plant and apocalypse situation. The serenity atmosphere of Gris, the spooky element of Don't Starve Together and the contemporary element of Sky.
I wanted to give everyone a hat or mask because hats are fun. It also helps to be more relatable and immersive as they do not have a face. Not needing to render a face is also a plus. The outfits are also more fun with raincoats, shawls and more coats. I decided to choose the first design as it looks more general appealing, perfect for a mascot.
EXERCISE 2: VECTOR ILLUSTRATION
I wanted to go for a more traditional tabletop card. So I was inspired by Magic: The Gathering and Inscryption, a more creepy wildlife themed card game. An initial aspect I realised is if the character have to show full body, the bottom text box could not be too tall, as the space for the character would be reduced. Following information hierarchy and to have more contrast, he space for the character is significantly larger than the title and the information box.
FINAL SUBMISSION
FEEDBACK
WEEK 2
General Feedback:
Practicing pen tool by starting out with simple shapes. Alt can change direction of the pen tool so the curves would not be affected by the previous anchor.
Pathfinder can help create interesting shapes with the limited shapes provided. Shape builder can also achieve the same result.
Specific Feedback: Using colour palettes can make the job less daunting. Increase colour contrast by having colour accents.
WEEK 4
General Feedback:
Pen tool tracing real life images, making a solid silhouette. Knife tool or uniting curves can slice through shapes, kind of like a scissor in real life.
WEEK 5
General Feedback:
Finding an image that contains chiaroscuro mentioned in lecture 3, and using the pen tool to simplify the silhouette, can result in art deco poster esque piece.
REFLECTION
Experience:
I like that the lecture slides is uploaded earlier before the explanation. It allows us to read the slides first, and then listen to the lecture while knowing what will be talked about. Demonstration of what we need to do, helps make the software less daunting as we know where to start. And having an end product in the end makes it easier to visualise the outcome, and have more confidence in the process.
Observation:
Experimenting on the software is essential, because one can have an idea yet when making the thing looks different than the one envision. Or when you made it it looks better in your head. Ideas are important, and the making of it is equally important.
Findings:
Pathfinder can be used to make new more complex shapes out of basic shapes. The end results also looks very clean. It is a convenient way to create a specific shape, as long as one knows how to construct it through shapes. Adobe having their own colour schemes that can be plugged in a design immediately. That is really cool and convenient.
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