ILLUSTRATION & VISUAL NARRATIVE / TASK 1

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24.8.2021 
Angelyn Valencia / 0349573 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Illustration & Visual Narrative
Task 1 / Exercises

LECTURES

Week 1: Introduction

This week, Ms. Anis and Ms. Jennifer introduced us briefly about the topics they'll be teaching us for the next few months, as well as our future exercises and projects. We then were introduced to the Vormator challenge as it was gonna be our first exercise. We were assigned our first task which is sketching the character for the Vormator Challenge.

Figure 1.1 Vormator Elements

Week 2: Introduction to Character Design
Stylized designs are what stands out.
it has to be:
  • iconic
  • easily created
  • profitable
Principles of Character Design
  •  Shapes
    • Define the character's silhouette
    • This is what creates the iconic look 
  • Color
    • Plays an important role at determining who are the protagonist and antagonist.
    • Different choices of colors can give an impression on a character
  • Emphasis & Gestalt
    • Choose one visual element in a character and exaggerate it to make the character unforgettable.
    • Picking a cultural element and adding it to a design makes it uniquely authentic
  • Harmony
    • all shapes, lines, colour, motifs, and patterns must be placed together in a tasteful manner
    • Make sure the character is well-blend and has a great balance which has visual hierarchy
  • Expression/Poses
    • their behaviour/quirks/personalities to be visually shown
Week 3 : Composition
Figure 1.2 Example of visual hierarchy
Types of Shots/Composition
Figure 1.3 Movie shots
  • Establishing:
    • A very wide shot
  • Bird's eyeview: 
    • Shot taken from the sky looking down to the important things. 
    • more dynamic than establishing
    • gives sense of height and movement
  • Worm's eyeview: 
    • hot taken from a very low angle
    • more intimate
  • Close-up: 
    • shot taken from a very close position from the important objects.
  • Medium shot:
    • shot is taken from behind, between, or in the middle of two objects
  • Framing:  
    • romantic vibesss

Industry technique
  • Find a balance of positives and negatives
  • visual hierarchy
  • apply design principles
Figure 1.4 Industry Technique

Week 4 : Composition (2)
 Perspectives
  • very important in design
  • wihtout perspective looks dorky
3 Planes Theory
  • Foreground
  • Midground
  • Background
  • creates much more impactful image
Perspective in art
  • to create depth
  • an illusion
  • a representation of objects: from a 2D surface to create a 3D optical illusion.
Types of perspective
  • 1 Point
Figure 1.5 One point perspective
  • 2 Point
Figure 1.6 Two Point Perspective
  • 3 Point
Figure 1.7 Three Point Perspective
  • 4-5 Points (fisheye)
Impactful drawing has
  • good color scheme
  • good contrast
  • framing
  • good use of planes
Parallax Effect
Layers to depict depth without actually putting in perspective.
Figure 1.8 parallax effect

INSTRUCTIONS

TASK 1

1. Vormator Character Design 



Figure x.x Sketch Process Video

In my first sketch as you can see from the video above, I had a slightly different idea of the appearance of my character. But I was certain with the idea that I wanted to make a human-like creature. Then I tried to trace the vormator shapes and place them in my sketch to see if it works out. Unfortunately the hair didn't really work out because my sketch of the tentacle shape wasn't exactly accurate. I then played around with the shapes that I've already traced and it resulted in two versions of the same character.


Figure x.x Vormator Sketch Ver. 1
Figure x.x Vormator Sketch Ver. 2

There's not much of a difference, but it's mainly just the expression of the character. In the first version, I made the character look more fierce and almost mad to signify her power. I then also made a second version where the expression looks a bit more soft, almost sad and vulnerable to signify her personality.



 2. Digitializing in AI

Figure x.x Tracing Vormator Shapes

Since I only use 5 shapes out of the 8 Vormator shapes, I only traced the 5 which is the drop, badge, wurst, cobra, and tentacle using the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator.


Figure x.x Color Planning Process Video

In this video, I tried several color combinations by coloring the layer below the sketch I made on Procreate. I didn't particularly use any reference for the color combinations, I sort of just played around and experimented with the colors to see what looks best. 
Figure x.x Digitalizing Process in AI

This is actually only my second time using Adobe Illustrator as the first one was in week 2 where we practiced using the pen tool with Ms. Jennifer. So I was struggling at first but I eventually got used to it and tried using other features in Illustrator such as gradients to create more depth in my illustration. 

Figure x.x Final Outcome of The Vormator Character Design

Character Backstory
    This is Harmione. She is a healer. She's mainly made of sunlight. She's almost invisible during the day as she kind of merges with the sun rays, so she's only visible at night illuminating in the forest as she's one source of a light herself.  But when the day is gloomy, she doesn't really glow at night and her healing abilities are weak as she doesn't get enough sun during the day.     
    Originally, she was a creation of a witch named Hermione, in which she wanted to create a creature that can help heal animals, especially endangered species in the forest. Using the energies in nature and sunlight and combining their energies together, she created a creature who she named 'Harmione'. 
   Harmione's main purpose was to heal animals but humans would often go lost in the forest and Harmione would help guide their way out of the forest with her light. As Harmione grew bond with humans, their energies eventually form a magical ability for Harmione to heal humans mentally. Humans would often go to the forest at night and search for Harmione to seek healing for their trauma. But Harmione is a moody creature and seeing humans cut down trees in the forest really upsets her, which causes her to hide all night. So it's becoming very rare that humans can successfully find Harmione as more trees gets cut down.

The idea behind the name 'Harmione' is the combination of the name 'Hermione' from Harry Potter and Harmony, mainly because with that hat and hair she reminds me of Hermione and because she was made by the combination of nature energies that creates some sort of harmony.

3. Game Card Design

Figure x.x Game Card Inspiration

I searched for inspirations through Pinterest and found this set of game cards. I was particularly interested with the top right card design, so I decided to make a similar design, with slightly different colors and elements.

  •  Front side

Figure x.x Game Card Sketch

I started out by sketching the design roughly on procreate, below the layer of my character sketch. I chose to do a tree because Harmione is very connected with nature since she is made of the harmony of nature itself.

Figure x.x Process

I started by making trees with the pen tool in adobe illustrator and using radial gradient for the background. I also was constantly checking if it suits my character by turning on and off the character layer.

figure x.x process

I then continued on by making the tree as well as the lines on them with pen tool. Then I added a border to the overall card. I originally wanted to put a number on the corners of the card, but it doesn't really make sense with the game that I was intending to make. The game doesn't use any numbers, rather characters. I also originally used a different font for her name and I felt like it doesn't really go with the overall design.

Figure x.x Final Outcome of front side 

I changed the typeface and changed the corners into sun instead because the character is made of sunlight. I also changed the drop shadow of the tree to a dark color because I wanted to make the character more contrast. 

  • Back side
Figure x.x First draft of back cover

As for the other side of the card, I originally wanted to do sun, but I felt like it was too general and basic. I wanted it to be more specific about the character in this game card without actually revealing her. So i decided to do something different and more about the character's personality. 


Figure x.x Second draft of back side

I decided to do a tree with a tiny opening in the middle like a door to signify the place that the character likes to hide. But I felt like the arangement is a bit off and it doesn't really portray the story and the  personality I was intending to show. It just looks like a fancy tree.

Figure x.x Final Outcome Back Cover

I also thought about putting the character's silhouette but i don't want to reveal too much. So i placed the character's hat instead and played around with the composition. I decided to put the sun and H in the bottom right corner because I feel like it doesn't always have to be in the middle.  


4. Final Outcome:
Figure x.x Final Outcome 

Figure x.x shows the final outcome of the game card design. When using this card, we can heal or revive a dead teammate because Harmione is a healer. For the other side of the game card,  I chose to do a tree with a small opening to signify her hiding because of her moody personality (More explanation on: Character Backstory) . Also a sun in the right corner with an H from 'Harmione'.



FEEDBACK

The vormator character design is already good, just have to make sure my game card design resonates with the character.

REFLECTION

Experience: I had a lot of fun learning and doing the task this particular topic. I may have struggled a bit at first because I wasn't familiar with Adobe Illustrator, but Miss Jennifer's tutorial session and some additional youtube videos really helped. I learned a lot from Ms. Anis and Ms. Jennifer not only from the lectures but also the tutorial sessions as well.
Observations: I see that having limitations in designing is really a good way to educate and challenge ourselves. That limitation was brought on our first task which is the vormator challenge where we can only use 8 different shapes to create a character. 
Findings: I find that I am indecisive when choosing a color scheme and deciding the final piece. I find that I'm not confident enough in some of the choices I have to make, so I will definitely learn not only about designing but also learn to be more confident in my work throughout this course.


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