Week 25 - Spaceship Assignment

Our break assignment was to create a spaceship design for the near future.

During the lesson we practiced designing spaceship shapes using the curved or straight lined rule. Keeping with one sort of line movement makes the designs look more realistic and make more sense. Personally I found drawing curved lines easier as that is what I'm used to and I feel there is more that can be done that way.

I wanted to keep the design for the assignment as similar and accurate to the current spaceships as possible so I compiled a mindmap of just real spaceships and more official designs.

Using a fine liner as it was easier to sketch roughly with, I created some shapes for a spaceship. I wanted to stick with the more airplane looking design so that it looks more reasonable and feasible.

 Next I made a model of my favourite design in Maya. I wanted this spaceship to look like the shuttles that exist right now but with a bit extra. I added an extra sort of greenhouse part to add a bit of life to it.

The render I made in maya was very bad quality and didn't have the right sort of look so I downloaded RenderMan for some better quality renders.

Week 21 - Tree With Character

For this week's assignment we have been asked to create a tree with character. This is different than making a character as adding character without a face is more complicated and requires a lot more thought.

I looked at some interesting tree concepts to give me an idea on how to make a scene more intriguing as the character would be easier to portray through the rest of the image and it's composition instead of just the tree.

I sketched out a very rough scene so that I could get down the rough composition I wanted.

I really liked the more twisty trees from the mindmap so started working on top of the sketch and built up more of the form of the tree.

Week 21 - Insectoid Character Assignment

Similar to the frog character, this time we were asked to draw an insectoid character.

I wasn't entirely sure with what sort of insect to go with as there is such a large variety which all look massively different. I made a mind-map of some of the most interesting looking insects I found.

I tried doing what I had done with the crustacean as I really liked the style they came out in but the silhouette technique didn't work very well for this, maybe because I needed some more human features which was a bit harder this way.

I went back to my mind-map and noticed many of the insects look quite long and especially liked the proportions on the stick insect. I wrote down some words, such as "tall" and "adviser" to give the character more of a personality and a story.

Week 17 - Steampunk Design Assignment

I have always been a large fan of the steampunk genre despite how cliche it is so I was excited for this assignment.

I already knew I wanted to design a female character as I love the style and clothes. I looked up some typical accessories and fashions to give me something to go off, though I already have a lot in my mind as well as lots of my own steampunk style corsets and clothes to inspire me.

In a small sketchbook I drew a stereotypical character with a large dress, similar to the sketch on the left. I decided I wanted to try something a little different so designed another two in a more battle/rugged style.

I really like the design in the middle so bought it into Photoshop to colour it in. Using layers on the multiply setting, I added some base colours. I tried to minimize the saturation and variety of colours as steampunk designs usually use similar shades.

I built up slowly and added texture to the materials and skin. I'm still getting used to Photoshop so this all took a very long time.

Eventually I adjusted the eye as it looked wonky and changed up some inaccurate parts. I ran out of time at the end so some parts are very rough but overall I am happy with the design. I think I added the steampunk style without having to rely on cogs and gears and large dresses.

Week 14 - Statue Concepts

As I already knew we would be making a statue this term, I made a podium in the fountain of my battle arena. On this podium I wanted a  statue that would fit the image. I decided on a regal looking dwarf as the placement looks quite important anyway.

I had a style in mind and the words regal, Celtic, Dwarven and warrior. I looked online to find some ideas and found some statues with interesting patterns. I also knew I wanted a weapon incorporated in the statue so looked at some good designs.

I began by doing some pencil sketches. I really like the face design and think it can be interesting to model.

I wanted to get an anatomy reference picture but it was almost impossible to find any decent ones for dwarf proportions.

Although this isn't exactly the proportions I had in mind for my character, I used it a base, though I couldn't find any which I liked facing forward.

Using images I found online and cropping them, I patched together an idea for my character.

I then went over and sketched my version to use for my model.

I then searched for a 3D model with it's wireframe showing to help me actually model though this. I can't just make a taller male's body and shrink it as the proportions are different but this picture is also different to what I had planned so I'm not sure how this will turn out.

Week 14 - Anatomy Study - Muscles

After the skeleton assignment, we did a similar thing with muscles.

I made a sketch page of zoomed in sections of the body. This was very useful for me as I struggle with the correct build when drawing.

I drew back and front of the full body. I couldn't add as much detail as I would have liked but this was good practice and a good way to help me remember where each muscle is.

Week 12 - Anatomy Study - Bones

Over the break our assignment was to research human bone anatomy. I draw humans often but almost never use any reference so this activity was very useful for me.

I looked at lots of different images as each one was slightly different. I found pictures of real bones more useful as I could see every indent. I also found an app which allowed me to move around the bone and get a better image of it. I tried sketching the more important and detailed parts.

Drawing the full skeleton was difficult as there are many very small bones and everything has very specific measurements.

After this assignment I found sketching people easier as I now have a basic understanding of proportions and structure.

Week 10 - Anthropomorphic Character/Creature Design

This week's assignment was to design an anthropomorphic character. We have done some character designs before but anthropomorphic designs are different as the way you incorporate an animals features must be more realistic but subtle.

I kind of already had an idea of the sort of character I wanted to design. I wanted to make some sort of  seller/trader amphibian character so I sketched some looks on paper to start off with.

I then went and made a quick mindmap of frogs, there colours and features to help make my character more realistic.

In the lesson I began sketching the face and basic body shape, skinny with long legs. I added some block colour. I saw how most frogs have patches and wanted to add vitiligo to the skin as a more human version of the dark skin.

I tried to fully paint the concept but couldn't get the right textures on the skin.

I couldn't quite get the right depth in the painted version so I put the sketch layer on top. I much prefer how this looks. It has all the details that just the paint doesn't have.

I am happy with how the character looks, I think it has a good balance of both human and frog features while still having enough character to hold up. I would like to add more details to the clothes or more wares attached to the backpack which is more like the character I first imagined as well as I would like a slimier texture to the skin.

Week 09 - Value, Form and Lighting - Armored Tank

During this week's lesson we watched a video on lighting.

We were given a blank image of these boxes where we used what we learned from the video to colour them in. This was really useful as I'd never learned these rules before.

Our assignment was to create an armored tank to show what we learned. I created a mindmap of some tanks to help with my design as I'm not good at machinery.

Using features from different tanks in the mindmap I made a sketch of a tank.

 Next I made the lineart. As I made most of the lines straight, I held down shift on Photoshop to ensure a neat image.

 I used fill to colour each section as the lineart was already neat enough to use.

 Without the black lines it is easier to see the form of the tank.I made lots of slanted and odd ledges so it was difficult to work out what shade each part needed.

Although I didn't fully paint it this was good practice as I had to keep in mind which direction the light was coming from and work it out as I went along.