Easter Break: Digi-painting & CoD.

I thought I'd do a quick write up of what I've done during the Easter break as I've put some good, quality time into practising digital painting and I think I'm beginning to make progress. I also managed to jump back onto the Xbox One, where I played Call of Duty: Ghosts and... I actually... enjoyed it but more on than later, first the important stuff!

Drawing & Digital Painting

Whenever I have a spare hour I normally just like to grab a pencil and some paper and do some Bridgman studies, below are a couple of sheets that I've done during this holiday. I find something really enjoyable about doing these sort of studies and its a much better way to spend an hour instead of staring at the TV.

During this break I wanted to spend some time just playing with Photoshop as a painting program and that is exactly what I've done. I messed about with the brushes and tried to get a rhythm going while working, and most importantly done it all in colour. To help with all this I watched plenty of Feng Zhu videos.

I thought I'd keep the reference image next to them so you can see what I have been working with. I done all these without any line drawing and jumping straight in with colour, I really threw myself out of my comfort zone. The time limit on these are around 2 hours, but as I improved I wanted to spend more time on them.

I still think my choice of colours can be bolder and I'd also say my values could be pushed in certain areas, as I still feel my painting lack a certain punch.

When I completed the top 2 images of this set I could notice an improvement over the first few I done and because of this I was enthused to do more, so I did!

I still know that these image are far from perfect but if I can keep us this sort of pace and enthusiasm I'm sure I'll reach my ideal skill level. My next step is to begin looking into the old master's, hopefully these will be more beneficial to me than simple photographs.

Xbox One: Updated Impressions

Being back home I managed to play some Xbox One, where I was greeted with huge updated for everything I tried to play. Considering I completed Dead Rising 3 I didn't play that this time but I did play everything else, including Call of Duty *gasps*. The one thing I have missed is the controller, I had completely forgot how nice it feels, anyway, onto the games!

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

I got really into ACIV at Christmas so I was really looking forward to picking it back up again. The whole pirate thing had worn off a little this time around, and the story wasn't really doing much for me either but i was still having fun exploring and swashbuckling. 

Towards the final hours of the game you're given some actual assassinations to do, which felt fantastic, and Ubi try and wrap up the story in some meaningful way which I think was all a bit too late. Kenway (The protagonist) could have been propelled to the levels of Ezio in sense of story arc and the entire pirate-assassination theme could have been overall merged better, as it stands now you're 95% pirate. Despite some small hiccups ACIV is a well made and fun pirate game, I definitely recommend it!

Call of Duty: Ghosts

The Call of Duty franchise has now become so big it has started to collapse in on it self, where playing it will cause groans and the internet will grab pitchforks if you even mention it but I played Ghosts and enjoyed it. I wanted to blow crap up and not think for a few hours, while the ridiculous story plays out in front of me like a Michael Bay movie.

Infinity Ward tried to make the story reach the highs of Call of Duty 4, but sadly they never hit it, as the story's gripping sections came off more funny than emotional. It is also sad that the core gameplay hasn't changed much since I last played a CoD game but the different explosive set pieces made me want to ride the rollercoaster to the end. As I don't have Gold I couldn't try out the multi-player so it's very difficult to recommend Ghosts off the campaign alone but I imagine it's solid, like the campaign, if not feeling very similar to previous entries. 

Forza 5

None of the problems I had when I first played Forza 5 have been fixed unfortunately, the AI still bounces from hilarious to infuriating, the menu flow is ropey and the storefront still seems completely missing. There was however a free new track that Turn 10 have released, which has been slotted nicely into the original single player.

Taken in-game, using the Photomode

As I've played more it is becoming increasingly clear that eventually the game will lead to a grind to be able to compete in every race type due to the pitiful amount of money you are rewarded. Even with the external Forza Rewards system that gives you heaps of cash for basically nothing I probably won't be able to afford all the top tier cars I need. I will play the game for as long as I can, because I am still enjoying the racing, but if a grind becomes clear I'll probably stop, which is a shame.

I'm still waiting for a couple more games to come out on the One to make it feel like a true, next gen console, as it's stuck in that awkward bridging-between-generations stage at the moment. Hopefully this E3 will reveal some killer first-party titles.

Art Direction: A Fighting Man of Mars.

This blog post will cover another critical studies task of looking at art direction. We need to select an image that we like, this could be a piece of art or a screenshot from a game and then we should discuss the image, what we like about it and what we think could be improved.

I've picked one of my favourite pieces by Frank Frazetta, a hugely influential artist for me and arguably the father of high-quality fantasy art. Frazetta has a countless number of great paintings so it is tough to pick a favourite but I went for this one below, a piece painted for the John Carter of Mars series. This image has probably already appeared on my blog more than once but that won't stop me!

Frank Frazetta - A Fighting Man of Mars

Compositionally this piece has been designed for a book cover, like many of Frazetta's paintings, which leads to the figure being centred with large areas around it being left quite plain. This leaves the overall image feeling very stark without any text over it but I think this adds a certain mood to the painting. The whole centralised figure composition for covers has seen a resurgence lately too, below are a few examples with the A Fighting Man of Mars book cover in the top left.

Comparing the images above, just look at the colour differences between the modern game covers and Frazetta's painting. The game art covers are all near enough the same colour, with only the Mass Effect cover having contrast because of the orange sun flare, yet they are still rather safe, probably because they were designed by a board meeting to maximise sales.

Frazetta's painting on the other hand uses a wide range colours subtlety, the greens of the atmosphere, the reds and blues of the mountains and rocks, all of these colours feature within the skin of the characters too, which really helps in placing the figures into the scene.

The form and lighting are in my opinion the two strongest things about this piece, and overall one of Frazetta's strongest areas. The figures are lit with plenty of contrast, especially the male around the head which shrouds him in mystery. The lighting I think resembles a comic book style, yet by keeping the heavy contrast around the figures the attention is kept entirely on them. The actual form of the figures are exaggerated too but it again doesn't distract from the overall image.

I think one of the best things about this painting is the careful balance Frazetta has used to exaggerate certain features, to direct the viewers attention, without making the image wildly unbelievable. Every area has had careful thought placed over it of when to push or when to tone down and this is something I would like to bring over to my art, especially with my use of colour and line quality.

Looking over this painting in more depth has actually been more beneficial than I thought it would be. I've looked at Frazetta's painting many times before but because I have studied this one for a longer period of time I began to notice things I've never seen before. Some things that should be quite obvious, like the warrior is actually wearing leopard skin pants (Who knew?!) or the more subtle, like Frazzeta's use of colour, notably around the skin. I will probably start looking into the old master paintings in more depth as I begin to paint more myself, because this task has shown me that many of subtleties will be missed if you just glance over it and these are the things that can really make your work next level. 

Reef Character.

The next character project was to create a character based off the word Reef, the character also had to be a humanoid but apart from them 2 criteria we had free reign.

Reef

1. a ridge of rocks or sand, often of coral debris, at or near the surface of the water.
2. Mining. a lode or vein.

I had no idea that the word Reef was also the name for a lode or vein, so already I should have researched the word at the start of the project, because my mind went straight to the coral reefs. Luckily I learnt a lot during the previous character project so I made fewer mistakes overall and had a much more enjoyable experience this time around.

Research

We started by looking at existing work and also by doing our own research into the subject. After an hour or 2 I had gathered a good selection of inspiration, a whole range of sea characters and interesting marine life. The main thing I think about when I think of a reef is colour, with all the vibrant coral and fish, so I really wanted to try and get some of that in my mood boards.

Silhouettes

I had a good starting point with all the reference but I needed to turn this into some actual ideas, the way to do this is with silhouettes but before I started my own I looked for some examples online and I found a Feng Zhu video which really helped me.

Once I had done a few the ideas really started to flow, not all of them are great but at this point it doesn't matter, they only take a few minutes each. I'm not sure why but I gave most of them weapons, when I could have imagined them in any situation possible, which is something I should consider for any future open briefs.

Still following the Feng Zhu video I selected a few of my favourites and worked into them more, looking back I could have selected a few more, like number 4 or 11 as they both stand out from the others.

Design Iterations

Working into the silhouettes was again quite a quick process, as half the work was done. I do think I made these images a little dark, they could have used a levels adjustment but they definitely flesh out the original silhouettes effectively. Off these I chose what character to push forward with, I really liked the idea of the semi-opaque, jellyfish oracle. I didn't move forward with the oracle because of the difficulties of painting the transparent material, and her having to be underwater. I was not confident with painting this so I went with the middle-left, a sea serpent warrior.

Using some quick reference to make sure my anatomy was correct (I hope!) I sketched out variations for this sea serpent warrior. My idea was that these creatures wouldn't be able to craft metal due to being underwater, therefore the majority of their weapons and armor would be scavenged from us or from the environment.

I merged my favourite parts into a final design and added values so I could get ready to play with some colour choices. Colour theory is a huge weakness of mine but I think I have just enough of an understanding to have a go at making a good selection of colours, without making them seem ridiculous. With the final design done I could also complete the orthographics for this character.

The only thing left for me to do now was to create the final piece, I am still not comfortable with my digital painting abilities but I've done as much as I can to make the process easier. I made sure to do some quick thumbs before I started the final and gather reference if I needed, below is a quick WIP of my Photoshop file, showing some of the reference I used.

I started my image with values and added the colour later as I am not confident enough with painting straight in colour. Overall I think this is my best digital painting I've done but I think it lacks some of the expressiveness and mystery of a more professional painting, at the moment I think I am painting far too clinically. To finish off this painting I adjusted the saturation, levels and added a subtle texture in hopes of binding it all together.

Sculpture

Like the 2D side of this project, I learnt from my mistakes during the last character creation task for the sculpting too. This time I made sure to make a sturdier frame so my model could stand up, unfortunately it was still slightly unbalanced but I didn't need to man-handle the model as much.

This time I had to attempt to sculpt some anatomy, and I couldn't hide the facial features behind a beard. I found this a real challenge and it really put my anatomy knowledge to the test.

Compared to the "Interesting Character" project I had a lot more fun with this task, I think this is because I made sure to not repeat the mistakes I made and I also done research to help me improve in the areas that I needed. I found the final 2D piece a little annoying but this is because of a lack of practice I think, something no amount research can improve. I must do more paintings!

Interesting Character Design.

The course has now shifted into looking for at the creative processes involved in making good designs, the first project was to create an interesting character using the people of Leicester as inspiration. The end results would be an orthographic and a clay sculpture.

To begin with I went out into Leicester again and sketched the different people, I'm use to this now after doing so many for one of the previous assignments. I was on the look out for anyone who looked a bit different, and I know for certain Leicester has a few characters who like to roam about.

After spending a few hours drawing across a couple of different days I definitely found a good selection of people, the wet weather didn't help though, most people were in coats.

During one of the nights I also gathered reference from the internet of characters. To me an interesting character doesn't need an over the top outfit or suit of armor, instead they could be plain clothed. Look at Brad Pitt & Edward Norton in Fight Club, both have every day cloths on yet their characters are fantastic, or there's the main character from Memento, again a normal looking guy yet his various tattoos tell a completely different story.

The next thing I did was take a small selection of my quick sketches and reproduced them to a higher quality. Maybe this was a bad idea because this could have cornered my mind into thinking about these characters too safely which will be apparent soon, but I had fun doing these nonetheless.

Out of these sketches I then tried to shape them into an interesting character but I feel I didn't push them far enough. I thought about turning a homeless looking guy into an almost The Last of Us survivor [1] but looking back this was way to easy. I really should have played around more to see if anything more unique could have been done, obviously I did not want to throw tentacles on him but I could have pushed it a lot further. 

I tried another character, this time a Big Issue seller and the idea of a Rorschach like person came to mind, hiding in plain sight with his costume in his bag but I quickly ditched this idea as I felt I was really bringing anything new to the design. Towards the end of the project I saw something in one of the sketches I done, the large coat collar around one of the women reminded me of some of the crazy neck ornaments some the African tribes wear and this sparked the design below of a Village Priestess or something, turning the handbag into a basket of shrunken heads. I only wish I had thought of this early.

In the interest of time I pushed forward with the Apocalypse survivor guy, thinking of various outfits. I again don't think I explored this enough, with my characters looking more like he's gained a new piece of equipment rather than a different design entirely. I tried to think of what it would be like to survive during an apocalypse, clothes would be torn or broken, things would be missing and as for weapons, they'd probably be rare, especially guns and ammo. I also should have used reference for base figure!

I dived straight into doing the orthographic without trying any colour variations and again I should have used reference for the figure.

The entire process of designing a character is a new thing for me and I without a doubt made a number of mistakes through out this project. The next character project that I've already done (I'm slow at posting this stuff!) has benefited from these mistakes and I'm much happier with the whole work flow and I think this has without a doubt improved the quality of my work. Next up though is the sculpture for this character!

My experience with sculpting is very limited so being asked to make an entire character was a bit scary. The only thing I knew was that I needed Sculpey and some modelling wire for the frame. I looked for videos on creating a frame because I have never actually created one.

As you can see my frame wasn't the best as it couldn't stand up by itself, this was a huge problem later on when it came to doing finer details. I now understand the importance of a good solid frame and won't be making the same mistake again!

Once I got to use how the Sculpey handled i really enjoyed modelling, if my model could stand up I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more. Adding nice details then to only flatten them out a few minutes later was a real pain. I am about to make another sculpture and again the mistakes I made with this character will help improve it, I will be making a good solid frame so I don't have to man-handle my model every 10 seconds.

This entire project was a huge learning process for me, learning about designing characters in the 2D space and 3D. I am pleased with the final outcome of both but I feel the design could have had more thought put into it but I think this is to do with my process more than anything. The best thing I have taken from this project are the mistakes that I made, because for the next character project I didn't make them again, leading to a much better end result, I'll post up the other character soon (hopefully)!

References & Notes
[1] http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/screenshots/TheLastofUs/TLOU_Gamescom_ConceptArt_1.jpg

Road Map: Concept Artist.

Our last Critical Studies sessions had us look at applying for jobs across the industry and what various skills we would need to attain the jobs, we also looked at the sort of things we would see from the applications themselves and this post will compare a job application's requirements to my current skills. Once done this will also serve as a road map to help me achieve my ideal job role.

My ideal job at the end of the course would be a Concept Artist, being a Concept Artist has been a dream job for a long time now. The first thing I noticed is that there are basically no Junior potions going, I found a Senior CA job role, and 2 middle-weight roles, one of them being from Remedy, the creators of Max Payne and Alan Wake.

I will break down this job application and compare my skills to the required skills.

"Do you have a playful mind accompanied by a high degree of artistic skills? Are you able to produce inspiring and mood setting concept art for projects regardless of their visual style? If so, we would like to hear from you!"

I certainly have a playful mind but this is the only thing in this paragraph I am certain of, my artistic skills are good but they certainly need improving.

• Minimum of 2-3 years of experience in creating concept artwork for animation, film, or videogames

This requirement is the only one that is completely out of my reach at the moment and that's because this isn't a Junior role position, this would be more than likely replaced with a grade requirement which is realistically more attainable.

• Good understanding of color, composition, architecture and human anatomy

I have some knowledge of each of these but I would not be confident in them, especially my colour theory. All these need work!  

•  Ability to create believable character concepts from stylized to realistic

I'm confident in my character creation abilities, as I always like to base my designs on reality while trying to avoid the clichés (I hope anyway), however the creation process and the artistic skills required to visualize these ideas are an area I need to improve on.

• Thorough understanding of 2D paint packages

My understanding of Photoshop is quite good, my digital painting ability on the other hand isn't but hopefully this will improve as I do more paintings.

• Clear verbal and written communication in English

I am happy with my ability to communicate my ideas to people, but obviously this can always be improved on!

• Great looking online portfolio

A great looking online portfolio is something I am missing, which is really, really bad. I have a small portfolio from my previous job but it is rather simple hasn't been updated since I came to Uni.

• A bachelor’s degree in arts or relative field (Applications from self-taught candidates will also be accepted)

If I complete the course I'll have this done, +1 to me!

After going through this I now realize how much work I need to do, all my 2D skills need improving in practically every way as well as the process of creating 2D work. Thankfully I've got over 2 years left to improve and I certainly think that's enough time if I use it well. I also need to set up a new online portfolio that can showcase all of the different work I've done which will improve the chance of me getting a job. This will certainly be a tough road map to follow and complete but I really don't know how to give up so there's only one way forward!