LECTURES
Week 1
In the beginning of our meeting, naturally the lecturers Ms. Noranis and Ms. Jennifer introduced themselves. It had very relaxed vibes and they welcomed us with their morning chats. After everyone gathered together, we had our attendance taken. We were given a walkthrough of the module information booklet and all information was fairly detailed. Even though it's not until weeks later, I'm super excited to start on all the tasks.
Week 2
This week's class started with a tutorial for Adobe Illustrator since we will be using it often to digitize our tasks. Tutorial was given to us before the lecture as Ms. Jennifer unfortunately had to leave early. We were taught step by step how to stylize our characters to fit the Vormator challenge shapes. It was fairly simple, and I hoped using it would be as easy as it seems.
Skipping ahead to our lecture, Ms. Noranis introduced us to good elements in character design. Good character design uses shapes, colors, emphasis and contrast, harmony, and expression or poses.
Characters generally needs a recognizable shape, so the audience can remember them by their defining shapes. An example Ms. Noranis gave us was based on the characters from Disney's 2009 Aladdin.
She explains that it was clear to viewers that Aladdin, Jasmine, and the genie are grouped as the good guys while Jafar is the villain because of their shapes. Aladdin and Jafar's dominant shapes may be similar, but Aladdin's give the viewers a more stable shape while Jafar has a 'heavier' top which unsettles the viewers. Jasmine's shape is unbalanced, but these shapes accentuates her feminine features.
The second most important detail for character designing is their colors. Using the right colors help viewers understand their personality, and overall makes it pleasing to the eye. An interesting trick for two characters, like friendships or a couple, people have been using contrasting colors which creates a sense that they belong together. This counts as emphasis and contrast as well.
Based on my understanding, harmony is applied by the shapes and colors we use on a character, which is why characters usually have a color palette used, and if one part of the shapes are sharp, the rest of them follow. Lastly, even if expressions and poses are most used in character reference sheets or stills, they contribute a lot to their personality and how people would first perceive them.
Week three started with a brief tutorial by Ms. Jennifer of how to use Adobe Illustrator pathfinder and knife tool for our vormator character's card design. She always makes it look so much easier than it actually is.
Once the tutorial was over, we switched to the lecture. In the lecture we were informed of design principles. We were asked what made the images appealing to the audience, while several images were displayed for us to guess. Colors, contrast, and size was all mentioned, and we were told that a trick to find out whether or not our images are good is by filtering the image in grayscale, or if it's already in grayscale, then add colors.
After that section passed, Ms. Noranis revealed that the answer was all in the composition. That's why, we moved on to the topic of compositions. There was six types of composition shots used in movies; establishing, bird's eye view, framing, medium shot, close-up, and worm's eye view.
If we want to see the scene from above, we use bird's eye view, and worm's eye view is the opposite. Medium shots are use to focus on a character from a respectable distance, and if we want to see more details we can use close-ups. We were explained how there’s no right or wrong in compositions, only bad or tasteful ones.
Week 4
In the fourth week we continued the composition lecture (composition 2). In other words, we learned about perspective. Perspective is important for environments or layouts, which is what creates a sense of immersion and depth in visual design. Failing to use perspective doesn't automatically result in a bad design, however it takes away the immersion and really messes up the view.
Examples taken from the presentation is Byzantine, Gothic, and Medieval art. There's an attempt in using three dimensional spaces, but little to no application of perspective, which ruins the immersion of the artwork.
There are different type of perspective, which are simplified by using ' vanishing points' in art. Vanishing points are when the view looks like it's fading.
An example of two point perspective with vanishing points on the right and left of the image.
An example of four-five point perspective with multiple vanishing points. The image will most likely look warped.
Week 5
Continuing the composition lessons, we learned about 'Chiaroscuro'. Chiaroscuro is "the use of light and dark to create the illusion of three dimensional volume on a flat surface".
To break it down, 'chiaro' means bright and 'scuro' means dark. Chiaroscuro is used in everything, and is necessary to create that "three-dimensional" feel. On top of that, lighting is often used to dramatize a design.
Next, we were introduced to rhythm and movement. I covered this in my design principles blog, but to summarize rhythm and movement in visual design is exactly as it sounds. If we imagine an artwork as a sound, we can feel if it's boring or exciting. Adding movement to a design helps accentuate that rhythm as well. Movement can be achieved by manipulating lines and shapes.
INSTRUCTIONS
Task 1-E1: Vormator Challenge
Our first exercise is to create a character from a limited amount of shapes.
I personally have never heard of this challenge before, but it's called the 'Vormator Challenge'. I didn't have a lot of ideas at first, but just like any other time I want to make a new character, my first step is to collect basic personality by asking my friend to choose their preferred personality, my own favorite fictional traits, or base it off of a randomized online generator.
The next one I made has the traits adventurous, judgemental, and inspirational. When I think of those three I get reminded of a camp counselor, or a sort of survivor you'll see in reality TV shows. I feel that since I didn't explore the possibilities well with the last character I wanted to go wilder with this one.
I did end up continuing the vormator challenge the next day. I didn't think too much about how I will document it, so I went straight into the experimenting. Giving personalities were a fun bit, but I couldn't give myself that limit anymore and just... tried what I liked doing most.
Once that was done, we had a meeting and I was given the 'go ahead' with this character. Excitedly, I started to make Pikey in Adobe Illustrator. First off, I searched for references of what I had originally wanted to make. We were asked to provide a color palette, and I chose one that are on the lines of red and teal colored.
After the shapes were placed I separated the legs and body parts by giving an estimate color that I was originally going to give her.
Once the colors were chosen I decorated her and recreated the shadows using the shapes as well. a crown was placed as there was too much empty space on her head.
Even though I was finished, I felt like her pose wasn't interesting enough, and showed almost no character other than her expression. So, while everyone else started on their card I decided to restart her character design.
Placing Araxi's former version on the right, and a lower opacity of the sketch behind, I worked on Araxi's design. The process is fairly similar to Pikey, so I took little screenshots of what I did.
As seen above, I duplicated the groups of shapes and placed them outside the artboard so you can see what was used. Originally I didn't know excessive duplication was okay, which is why I didn't use as much.
Finally, I came to a character I actually really liked. Next thing I had to do was design her card.
Originally I was planning on creating a background that filled almost the entire card, and sketched three of them. However, none of them really seemed to fit the perspective or made any sense, except for the one with webs involved. Since I based Araxi off of a jumping spider, I tried to avoid using webs, so I tried alternatives first to decide.
The first idea was seen in fig.2.18 on the left, however Ms. Noranis pointed out that the text space was too big compared to the character itself, and suggested I go smaller. I did exactly that, and minded the front of the card later, as I had an idea in my head for the back card.
After finalizing it, I realized that it felt too crowded and that I didn't actually like it. I asked around with my friends and they agreed that it wasn't the best, and I reminded myself that I didn't want to have webs as a part of the design. Unfortunately at the time, I had no other Ideas so I asked my IVN classmate, Shao of what I should do.
Luckily, the kindness showed really helped. Shao came up with the idea that I should try creating a maze for the back card and make it as if it was made from flowers. Shao sketched what was trying to be said.
Seeing the sketch, I took Shao's advice and attempted the flower maze illustration.
I can't find the progress shots for the front of the card other than figure 2.24. I made it as I was calling with my friends from middle school while we all did assignments together. From researching about jumping spiders, I know now that though they don't make webs, they can dance! I loved that so much and combined it with the fact that they are usually found living in flowers or leaves, hence why I titled her power move 'Flower Frolic'.
When I presented it to class at Friday, Ms. Noranis pointed out that the character was really small compared to the card, and had me make some adjustments. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't able to finish it in time since I had the character design completely remade, but I was lucky to have an understanding facilitator and extended the deadline for two more days.
As the front was no longer needed much adjustments, I started on the back.
I tried the flower maze idea Shao told me of, and created a teardrop version of it. My original idea is to have a plain version of the maze placed on a circle next to the main maze to create a flower symbol.
I finished the flower maze after a day, but realized the pink color didn't do so well.
I changed the entire color of the flowers to white, and it looked much better. My friends agreed and I proceeded with the rest of the card back.
I added spikes to the image and kept the 'flower' idea by surrounding the main maze with plain circles.
After that was done, I added gradient to the card. Unfortunately, doing so felt off. Something didn't belong, and I felt it was the spikes and extra petals. So, I just enlarged the original maze to fill the whole card.
After doing so, I figured out that I liked it much better, and kept it that way. However, it looked too simple now after I removed the gradient, so I added it back in and it looked better.
FINAL CARD DESIGN
Feedbacks
General Feedback
Our Facilitator called us one by one to show our work and Ms. Noranis said the best way we should do our work if the shapes are limited is by making a sketch first, then stylize it as much as possible to make the vormator challenge easier to us. She also advised us to start using the right apps and tools. Each week we were reminded to keep learning and applying what we learned to the character.
Specific Feedback
A specific feedback I earned from Ms. Noranis is that i had alright colors but I needed more in it, and also to start using Adobe Illustrator as soon as possible, because before this I have been using Autodesk for all concepts.
The second time I presented my work, Ms told me to fill the empty space on Araxi's head with a crown. The next time I presented it, it had already been remade and the card was all I needed feedback on. Ms. Noranis and Ms. Jennifer said to enlarge the character and change the sizes of the drops next to the text, and to change the color of the text to something else.
Reflections
I always liked charging into experiments, and it wasn't any different with creating a vormator character. However, doing so without taking breaks has drained all my energy and instead I had to take a longer rest from it than I would have if I weren't so focused on finishing it in one day. When I continued the next day, I made one I genuinely liked.
I saw l that I have been holding myself back from creating what I enjoy, which results in little enjoyment and a lot more stress. Unfortunately for me, that meant the quality of my work isn't up to my own standards either. When I remade the character instead of starting the card design I made a mistake and screwed up the submission, but I was lucky to have my request for extension approved. I realize now to work quicker.
After learning the different compositions and layering combined with the Illustrator tutorials, I found that now I have been more observant of the designs made around me, and slowly but surely applying the knowledge of rules and guides in my normal day-to-day sketches.
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