Three Point Perspective Scene Part 3 - Digital Art Practice Week 26

 This week I finished my perspective scene. I first started with deciding my light sources. Since this is a bunker, I initially wanted to go for some red lights, but then I decided that that was a bad idea. I decided to utilize the fact that this location is on the darker size. I used the light sources to point the player in the direction they would need to go. As you can see below, I decided on four distinctive points of interest in my scene to light up.

The main door could either be an exit or a passage to a new area, although since this is a hub area I am leaning towards it being an exit. The second light source would be a bunch of handmade lights put up to create a working area which could be a crafting station or a trader. The third light could light up either some collectable item on the shelf or the ventilation shaft. Maybe a secret passage? The last lights would just show a resting area. I further decorated the rest area with some nice posters and other personal items.

I cleaned up the edges on everything and made the shadows more uniform. I added some very basic highlights to where it made sense. With this, my perspective scene was complete.

For this project I didn't exactly struggle with anything as I usually work exactly on this kind of stuff, but I would like to point out some parts that could have been better. I could have created an elevated platform or an alcove in the walls which would break up the monotony. (although I covered all the walls up with objects anyways). I could have also gone with a brighter light, like a flood light in one of my thumnails. This would however diminish the way I used lighting to provide points of interest. Overall however this turned out to be to my liking and I am happy with the final product. 

Three Point Perspective Scene Part 2 - Digital Art Practice Week 25

 This week I worked mostly on my three point scene and also assembled my materials. I started first by making my sketch bigger and checking the perspective setup. Everything was in order, and after resizing and rotating I was ready for the lineart.

I went though 3 stages of lineart, same as my character in order to get all the details that I wanted. This took a long time as I had to account for the perspective lines at the same time. 

After completing my lineart stage, I blocked everything in and started with the flat colors. I decided to use the workflow from the past project since it provided a clear path of where to go step by step. I blocked in the elements individually and masked everything.

I started adding some texture to the materials without modifying the value too much as I would make shadows on a separate layer later anyways. This structured workflow allow me to quickly get through the process.

This week also marked the end of my material studies as I assembled what I had created in a psd file. I touched up some of the materials at the end. I would like to say that doing these studies was probably my favorite part of this module this year. These improved basically every part of my artwork, and I started creating better personal work as well thanks to these. I plan on making these studies a part of my regular art routine.

Three Point Perspective Scene 1 - Digital Art Practice Week 24

 This week I worked on my three point perspective scene. I first started with some different ideas, although I knew from the start the kind of scene that I wanted to create. It was to be an underground bunker, maybe connected to the military base I made for my first project. I decided to go for it and just make different designs with that as a foundation.

For my thumbnails, I experimented with different lighting setups in my scene. It was really fun making these as always and I actually came up with a couple new ideas that I could use in a later project. The first thumbnail in particular is inspired by the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games and the second one is from a scene in Disco Elysium. 

I gathered a bunch of references, and sketched out everything by hand just for practice. The game screenshots are from Shadow of Chernobyl, with one particular section that inspired my entire design. I mostly looked at references of only Soviet bunkers in order to not to pick up wrong design elements.

This is my brainstorm stage. Basically, the initial design had a large open space in the middle that I really didn't like. So I made a couple new thumbnails and combined elements of them together to create a better scene.The final concept scene was surprisingly not the final concept as I further modified it later.

This is the final design that I went with, along with my rationalizations for the changes I made. I also did some experimentation with lighting here. The location in Shadow of Chernobyl actually has overhead lighting, but I decided against using it in my scene since it would make some areas way too dark.

I experimented with different lighting setups to figure out what I really wanted.

After the lighting and values were figured out, I went on to sketch out some of the elements I would use in my scene. I was a bit rusty on all the environment details from working on the tribal character for so long so this was a nice wake me up. I also utilized most of these colors and designs in my final scene.

Two Point Perspective Scene - Digital Art Practice Week 23

 

This week I completed my two point perspective thumbnails and scene. This was really fun to make and I used some new brushes while making the scene. Out of my initial designs I decided to go for the last one as it had jus the right amount of details and variety of objects. I didn't want to make a scene that would be too dark or one that wouldn't have many different materials.

I created the lineart through iteration and filled in the individual elements with different layers. I took care to ensure there were different values in the materials present in the scene as I usually tend to make everything too grey.

I shaded with a multiply layer and added highlights with overlay. I made sure not to overdo either but now that I look at it it could have been a little more washed out. Maybe the harsh sun created these dark shadows.

I also made a little bronze pot as a material. It fit with the general theme of the scene as well. This material was particularly enjoyable to paint since I utilized a combination of the non destructive workflow first and then used a super destructive workflow to overpaint what I felt needed it.

One Point Perspective Scene - Digital Art Practice Week 22

This week I made my one point scene as well as some more material studies. For my one point thumbnails, I did the following four. I decided not to go for the first and last ones since those didn't have natural lighting. I decided to go for the second design which is a sort of hallway. I initially imagined it to be some sort of museum, but the top lighting really didn't work with what I wanted for the scene as the lights kept overlaying and cancelling the effect.

This is my final one point perspective scene. I added sharper lighting in order to convey how dark the hallway really is under normal circumstances as there are literally no other light sources. I added some reflections on the walls across and some highlights where the light contacts directly. I added shadows for the window frames and shadows around the windows in general since that's how light works.

 

Perspective Thumbnails - Digital Art Practice Week 21

  This week I got started with my perspective project. Since I didn't have a lot of work to do in particular, I instead made some more materials. I first started with creating some sketches which would eventually be used for my thumbnails. I made one point and two point thumbnails since I had quite a bit of time.

I came up with a lot of interesting ideas for one point. My favorite was the last one which is a submarine torpedo room, but I decided on doing the simpler castle hallway design since I wanted to spend my time on making materials instead. 

For my two point scene, I decided to go for a small outdoors scene that would allow me to experiment with different values and materials.

Out of the materials I made, this leather material was my favorite. I worked from value into color and this allowed me to have interesting gradients which I wouldn't bother with otherwise. The slight highlights were also really fun to paint. I added some additional detail in form of stiches as well since it made sense to me.

Tribal Character Finish - Digital Art Practice Week 20

 This week I finalized my tribal character all though the lineart stage to the end. It was a lot of work but I am really proud with the result. I first started with making three layers of lineart, improving it each time. I copy pasted some elements that I liked into the next layers while remaking the ones that needed fixing. This ended up with a very nice lineart that I could work with.

This is the final lineart. I decided to make the backpack separate from the main base. I added all the previous design elements that I had sketched last week. 

For coloring I used a combination of photos and game screenshots. I started by blocking out the values as seen on the back view of the character. I kept everything separate and this allowed me to render the elements separately. Losing the ability to blend things together was a challenge for me as I usually utilize that in my own work.

I decided to go for a similar workflow to what we learned in 3D, by doing a base color first and adding lighting separately. This would allow me to utilize the separate layers workflow to it's fullest potential. I also added some dirt and wear as a separate layer. I avoided adding too much shading with this layer as well.

With my base color layers complete, I could proceed to adding the color layers. Doing the painting this way presented a totally different way from how I usually work and was a pleasant change of perspective to the way I paint.

I put the backpack in perspective. I added one new element that wasn't there before which is just a microwave. This simple addition would be a great help at identifying what the backpack actually was.

I put the backpack on a separate layer to preserve the non destructive workflow. I developed the lineart to finalization and then masked the thing. I would be using my own painting style here.

The finished product looked something like this. I was very pleased with the way my character turned out. 

My biggest challenge in this project was definitely my lack of character design experience as I usually work with environments and props. I also usually work with a much more loose style resembling traditional oils or gouache so this painting style was challenging. I had much less trouble compared with my orthographic scene from the first semester though, which I feel is an improvement.

Equipment and Anatomy - Digital Art Practice Week 19

 This week I finalized all the designs for the individual objects. I also made an anatomical base for my character. I used this to get used to working with masking characters, as usually I would never do this in my own work.

I took a bunch of references which I used to paint the anatomy base of my character. This was really fun to paint and I hope to paint more of these in the future. The anatomy is not perfect and there are a number of mistakes, but this would have to do as this was not a priority by any means for the final design.

I finally decided on how the backpack would look like. Combining every element together created a much better design of what I had before and I was pleased with the result.

I finalized the clothing design as well. I added some little elements as seen below that didn't exist before.

Further detailing on how the character could look like. I had a lot of fun doing these.

Color Iterations and Lineart - Digital Art Practice Week 18

 This week I worked on color iterations for my character. I decided to go for earthy colors since the character lives in an arid area without much vegetation. Red and blue colors had to go despite being a huge part of the Ainu clothing culture. Due to the design decisions I made previously I didn't have to take much creative liberties after this, thankfully. 

I decided to finalize my design ideas before starting on the lineart. I developed the general ideas of the individual elements.

I also made some materials this week. My favorite of these is this cloth material which I am really proud of. I incorporated the initial lineart I made in this one even though I usually just paint over it. I feel like the lines really improve the feel of little folds and ambient occlusion shadows created in the creases.

Tribal Character Silhouettes - Digital Art Practice Week 17

This week I finalized my design and silhouettes. After making silhouettes with only one color, I moved on to more values in order to experiment with more things. I had a lot of fun making these silhouettes. I decided to bring some of the robotic elements back in order to improve my design a little.

I experimented with developing some of these a little further in the final three quarters view. I dialed down some of the more unreasonable design choices such as giant arms. I also didn't want to remove the negative space between the arm and torso and between the legs.

After developing some more of my designs a little further, I decided to work on my final design.

I combined my previous sketches to create something that I liked. I removed most of the armor since my character was not really a warrior. I added all the previously mentioned design choices such as the sword, the head band and the backpack. I also added some pipes because they look cool.

Tribal Character 2 - Digital Art Practice Week 16

This week I focused on designing my tribal character. I started with silhouettes to get interesting ideas. Not being able to exaggerate proportions really challenged me as I usually work with non human creatures. I had to come up with new ways to create visual interest.

I started with one color only in order not to complicate things. I stuck to the general idea of a larger framed male character when designing the silhouettes. I decided not to rely on weapons or capes and instead to focus on clothing. I went through a couple different ideas at first with cables and robotic components but then realized that those designs didn't make sense for a person living in the middle of a desert. I then decided to intead make my designs reminiscent of something like Rust or early Fallout titles. I then experiment with a more Mad Max type design as well.

Separately from the silhouettes I did some concept sketching in order to get a general idea of what the Ainu were like. This page specifically is important since I came with my final idea of a cook/hunter type of character here. 

For my references I did two boards, one for Ainu and Japanese as well as one for futuristic elements. I decided to keep the main elements and just modified elements whenever it made sense. The biggest example of this is the headgear piece, which is just a band with a symbol of either a bear or some animal. The bear is the main adversary of the Ainu and is a sacred animal to them. In my design, I decided to make the Ainu live in a different environment and the symbol on the headgear piece is now the head of a giant insectoid.

I came with the idea of a portable homemade cooker backpack here, and gathered references in form of field kitchens from around the world. I combined the elements of these to make a my final design. 

Tribal Character Project Intro- Digital Art Practice Week 15

 This week I got started with my tribal character design. For my tribal character I decided to go for the Japanese Ainu tribe. They are a hunter culture bound to deep traditions. There is also a lot of samurai influence in their equipment such as swords, which I can utilize for my final design. 

I also got back on working on materials this week. I made two materials with a similar theme. I experimented with a different workflow which involved painting color directly. This allowed me to get a much more convincing color scheme and i was especially pleased with these two.

For this tomato I used a painting as reference, with which I ended up making the skin a little too dark. There could also have been subsurface scattering but I couldn't properly implement it due to the workflow that I had utilized.

This is another material that I really enjoyed making. Specifically adding little bits and pieces of roots was really fun to do. I utilized masking to make the grass which allowed me to add some nice gradients to them easily.