1/4/2021 - 15/4/2021 / Week 1 - Week 3
Lui Hsiao Hui (Tressa) / 0342003
Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Exercise 1: Vormator Challenge (Project 1)
LECTURES
WEEK 1
Introduction to the module, assignments and to Exercise 1. We are to first start sketching our character ideas in preparation for week 2.
WEEK 2
Lecture - Ms. Anis
Introduction to Character Design. We were taught the principles of character design, which are shapes, colour, emphasis, contrast, harmony, expression/poses, and also what makes a good character design. Stylisation gives a unique look to the character and makes them stand out, be memorable and iconic, easy to digest.
Shapes can show stability. It creates impressions. A combination of shapes can create interesting designs. As such most villains are designed with triangular shapes to make viewers feel uneasy. Besides that, colours can indicate if the character is a villain or a hero. Though that is not always applicable for all cartoons or animated films. Furthermore, exaggeration of proportions or visual elements creates emphasis on the character design. For example, Toothless's eyes and mouth (the main dragon character from How to Train Your Dragon).
Practical - Mr. Kannan
Mr. Kannan taught us the basics of Adobe Illustrator during our practical. Specifically, we focused on mastering the pen tool, gradient, knife tool while creating a chiaroscuro pear.
Fig. 1.1 Pear chiaroscuro, Week 2 (8/4/2021) Practical
Fig. 1.2 Pear chiaroscuro - sliced, Week 2 (8/4/2021) Practical
WEEK 3
Practical - Mr. Kannan
Fig. 2.1 Clipping mask demonstration in Adobe Illustrator
Fig. 2.2 Textured circle - clipping mask demo, Week 3 (15/4/2021) Practical
Fig. 2.4 Pear chiaroscuro - textured, Week 3 (15/4/2021) Practical
Textured using the full silhouette clipping mask method.
VISUAL RESEARCH
Character Design
Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon
Fig. 3.1 & 3.2 Toothless
Most dragon designs are very angular, with triangles and squares as the primary shape. However, Toothless mostly consists of circular shapes. This portrays his cute personality unlike other dragons in the film. Besides that, there's still a bit of triangle in his design - the wings, back scales, tail and ears. Toothless's proportions are also exaggerated to convey his cute personality to the audience. His eyes are pretty large to create an innocent look, along with the wide smile and his stubby round feet. What makes this character so outstanding is also the strong contrast in colour against the character's personality. Black is usually associated with villains and a symbol of evil. Although he is the 'feared' Night Fury, this juxtaposes Toothless's demeanour, making him appear unique. The scale of Toothless compared to other dragons is small, enhancing the fact of Toothless's adorable nature. The expression of this character also derives from a cat, which makes this character relatable to viewers, as they are familiar with the way cats act. Example: the way Toothless's eyes narrow into slits when he's aggressive, and when he's playful his pupils dilate. Lastly, he has a distinct silhouette which can be seen in the many flying scenes in the films. They are very memorable and viewers will immediately be able to pinpoint which dragon is Toothless because he is so different from the rest of the dragons in the film.
Hades from Hercules (Disney 1997)
Fig. 3.3 and 3.4 Hades
Hades is another one of my favourite characters, primarily because he's very relatable. He's very iconic and memorable, the way he was portrayed in the film brought out so much personality to his character design. Looking at his design, his colours are dull, dark and on the cold spectrum. This indicates that he has a cold personality, and it also shows a contrast between him and the other gods in Olympus who are vibrant in colour. Hades's flame changes from blue to red/orange when he gets angry, which is an effective design choice for comedic purposes. The sudden change in colour creates strong contrast and effectively communicates the change of emotions, making his character easy to digest. It also makes his angry moments funnier that way. To add on, he has exaggerated proportions. For example, his elongated face, fingers, and mouth. His silhouette is tall, suggesting authority and power. The use of sharp edges (fingers, teeth, flame) along with circles (wispy smoke on the bottom of his toga) adds to the personality of Hades - cunning and swift in what he does.
Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty (Disney 1959)
Fig. 3.5 - 3.7 Maleficent
Disney's Maleficent consists of strong triangles which allow the audience to immediately pinpoint that she's the villain. Sharp edges on a character depict a harsh personality, perhaps indicating that this is a dangerous character as well. Maleficent's colours in this adaptation are green, purple and black, most commonly used as the 'evil' colours as they resemble magic, power and greed. As seen in Hades, villains often are designed with cool colours instead of warm colours, because warm colours give off a sense of safety and warmth, while the cool colours the opposite. She has a slim and tall silhouette, again portraying status and power. Furthermore, her cloak flaring around her creates a symbolism for control, showing a sense of stability in her evil deeds. What makes Maleficent unique and iconic is her tall and slim silhouette, with her horns and triangular face shape. Her design is very easy to recognise and she is such a classic Disney character.
INSTRUCTIONS
Exercise 1: Vormator Challenge
1. Sketches
Beginning with a few sketches, the idea I had was to create a dragon-like creature that looks airy and elegant, with a large head and flowy body. For the head and eyes, I drew inspiration from the character Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon.
During the rough sketches stage, I was struggling a lot because the assignment limits us to using only vormator shapes. I wasn't happy with how the sketches were turning out which was affecting my motivation and ability to come up with various creature designs. It also hindered me in designing the creature I had in mind. So I decided to try another way - instead of forming a creature I want with the shapes themselves, why don't I design the creature first before using vormator shapes to form it. After trying this out, I was finally satisfied with the design (top refined sketch). To make the vormator shapes accurate, I decided to create a mockup of the creature in Photoshop. There is still some tweaking to do with the fins, body and head to make it match the refined sketch. I decided to proceed with the top refined sketch because that was my initial idea for my creature and I think it looks cuter than the bottom design.
Character Design
Fig. 4.2 Refined sketch of design #1, Week 2 (7/4/2021)
For my character design, I wanted my creature to have a distinct head silhouette and a flowy body. Hence why I went for a large head and horns, with a body that is reminiscent of an aquatic animal. I also added fins, to add to the airiness of my creature. Although it looks to be an aquatic creature, it is actually an airborne creature. It flies (or rather floats) around as a way of travelling. The silhouette of this creature consists of many different shapes - sharp yet curved horns, and a curved body. I decided upon this pose for my character because I want to portray the airiness and elegance of this creature. The way it sort of posed upright suggests that it is confident and is a character of status.
2. Digitalisation Progress
Fig. 5.1 First draft in Adobe Illustrator, Week 3 (12/4/2021)
Once I received feedback from Ms. Anis, I proceeded to develop my final character design in Adobe Illustrator. First I traced the vormator shapes in Illustrator with the pen tool and then moved on to assembling the shape of my character. Fig. 3 shows the base shape of my character and the rough colour scheme idea I had in mind. I wanted my character to look ghost-like, hence I chose to use white/off-white. The red would be an accent colour.
This would be my final creature shape with its details. As I progressed further, I added more line detailing with the pen tool because it was lacking in details. I used various widths and styles for the lines to create interest and so it doesn't look mechanical. The colours are changed from cool grays to warm grays because they looked too 'unlively' to me. Fig. 3.2 shows the start of my colour explorations. I began to explore with gradients in Fig. 4 below.
3. Colour Study
Once I finalised my character's shape and details to moved on to colour variations. For the colouring, I used the gradient tool and surprisingly it creates a cool effect for the eyes. These tools were taught to us by Mr. Kannan during our practical session in week 2. For variation #1 (red), the colours used are black, red, ivory and pale yellow. Variation #2 is a pastel rendition, the colours being lilac, mint, salmon pink and ivory. The left shows the vormator shapes used and the arrangement of them.
The red version is my style and my initial idea of how I wanted my character to look. I wanted my creature to look elegant, with a hint of mystery to it. The reason I decided to use red is that it suggests a different side to the character, and also because it is one of my favourite colours. I wanted to create a character that is neutral, good in nature, but will become vicious when agitated or threatened. So the ivory represents the creature's kind and friendly nature, while the red and black being its threatened state. Sort of like yin and yang. Compared to the pastel version, this version has a stronger contrast. Because of the strong contrast and the lack of colour difference in the lower part of the creature's body, the immediate focus would be on the head - the head becomes the emphasis. There are more details and colour contrast there.
The pastel version is more for 'eye candy' and most pleasing to most audiences. The colours in this are also my favourite colour combinations hence why I tried them out to see how my creature would look. It looks like the red version is a demon while the pastel version is a fairy, complete opposite moods. I quite like this version and I'm happy with how it turned out. It definitely portrays elegance, airiness and a cute side of the creature which is also one of the characteristics I wanted my creature to have. Though it doesn't really suggest a vicious side of the creature, and it wasn't what I initially pictured my character to look like. Compared to the red version, this colour variation creates a more balanced look, because the colours are evenly distributed and blended with the use of the gradient tool. There is not much of an emphasis, unlike the red version.
4. Revised Character Design
Fig. 6.2 Revising progress, Week 3 (17/4/2021)
In week 3, I received Ms Anis's feedback indicating that no line art is allowed. So I removed all lines and re-designed my character. I chose the pastel version to revise because I prefer having more gradients for the body instead of just plain ivory. Once I removed the line art, it became really bland without any strong contrast. The character looked unfinished, so I used the vormator shape "drop" to create scales. Repetition and overlaying of the scales gave the character design more depth and interest. I also messed with the opacity, trying to create the effect of iridescent scales. The markings around the eyes are formed with the "tentacle" vormator shape.
Fig. 6.3 Arrangement of vormator shapes in the revised character design, Week 3 (17/4/2021)
5. Final Character Design
Fig. 7 Final vormator character "Xyraen", Week 3 (17/4/2021)
Tweaked the colours to be more vibrant so the character stands out when placed in the vector landscape in Exercise 2.
FEEDBACK
Week 2: May start colour studies. Explore different colour variations. Good show of gesture in the shape of the character. The portrayal of the airiness and elegance shows well.
Week 3: Line art is not allowed.
REFLECTION
In the beginning, I struggled with my sketches and ideas because I disliked being limited to creating a creature with just the given shapes. Eventually, I overcame it and enjoyed digitalising my character, until I found out we're not allowed to use lines. It made me a little frustrated as I spent a lot of time perfecting the lines with the pen tool, and I liked the look it gave to my character. Having to scrap it and stick to just shapes did not give me the look I wanted my character to have, which is hard for me because I always have a specific look I want my designs to have.
It was quite challenging to create a character this way, though it is a good practice and effective way of training designers to make use of limited resources - in this case, shapes. I found that using a limited set of shapes can actually make interesting and unique characters, it just takes a lot of thinking (brain damage) and messing around. Overall, it is a good experience. I might not have had much fun during the beginning stage but I learned how to make do with limited shapes, try out other ideas and ways that I personally disliked and start familiarising myself with Adobe Illustrator.
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be nice