Research and development
Previous project feedback reflection and improvements
The feedback I got for the previous project was that I will need to research how to bring my character to life, and avoid them looking flat, as well as experimenting with different colours and studying colour theory would also help improve future artworks. Therefore, in this project, I will be making sure that advice is followed so I am able to create pieces to the best of my ability.
Expanding on summer research (3X3)
To continue on from my summer research in my PDF…
INITIAL CONCEPT IDEA 1 EXTRA DETAILS:
name – Lilah
powers – control of the elements
personality – stubborn and blunt but kind hearted
age – 21
social class –
race – human (advanced)
INITIAL CONCEPT IDEA 2 EXTRA DETAILS:
name – Lia
powers – communication with sea creatures, divine magic/healing
personality – bubbly and kind-hearted
age -21
social class – sacred class
race – half human, half siren
INITIAL CONCEPT IDEA 3 EXTRA DETAILS:
name – Xena
powers – super strength, speed, prediction powers
personality – blunt and impulsive
age -21
social class – sacred class
race – alien species (unknown)
Throughout the summer, I did experimental sketches after having drawn 3 concept ideas. As we got closer to the academic year, I then started to sway more towards the Afrofuturism concept as I was developing a lot more sketches and getting a lot more ideas from that concept. I also just like this idea a lot more compared to the others.
I did think the other 2 concept ideas had a lot of potential. For example, I had an idea to do an underwater animation for the second concept idea, which would have been a lot of fun and would have also helped me develop my animation skills and for the 3rd concept, I had the idea of doing a more environment-focused project, as I thought I could use the environment from Avatar as inspiration this idea would have helped me develop/advance my environment design skills as I feel I am a bit lacking in this area. But, overall, the first concept idea stuck with me as I had a plan to add my own personal twist to it by including my own culture.
The sketches above are some of the many sketches I had done over the summer.
Mind Map
This mind map was for the concept ideas of my final major project. this helped me get closer to finalising what idea I will be going with.
Plot visualiser mood boards
Plot 1
ANNOTATION
Plot 2
ANNOTATION VERSION BELOW
Plot 3
ANNOTATION VERSION BELOW
Aesthetic inspiration
This is the type of aesthetic I want my final art pieces to give off: a mix of culture, futurism and Shibuya punk.
EXTRA RESEARCH – CHARACTER PLAN
Makeup, hair and accessories
Hairstyles – cultural
A lot of braided hairstyles are used in all African and Caribbean countries as protective styles.
Makeup – otherworldly
Otherworldly face pain or makeup could make the character more eye-catching and unique.
face paint – cultural
White face paint is seen as very African tribal and isn’t seen as much as it used to be back in the day.
Accessories – Gold jewellery
In many cultures, gold jewellery represents wealth, power and spirituality. but in modern days, it isn’t seen as such representation, more like a part of a person’s style and aesthetic.
Why is it important to research the history of Afro-futurism?
To gain a better understanding of what I am basing my character and my entire project on. I dived into the history and origin of Afro futurism by researching the Harlem Renaissance ( the origin of Afro futurism) in my official PDF. I feel it is only right that I do this, as it would be fair for me to reference something that has no meaning or backing. also, I could end up confusing something for something else that doesn’t fit with the theme.
Researching into the history of Afro futurism will also make things like my design more accurate as they will have backing and an actual story to them instead of just a random design or a random theme.
Side characters mood board
This mood board had pose inspiration, character design inspiration for when I am creating the final designs.
All character asset mood board
These are all of the most important assets for all of the characters. generating a mood board for it will help me remember the most important assets when doing the final designs.
WHO,WHY,WHEN, WHERE?
- WHO – characters – Aaliyah(main character), Yves, Lucien, Raven (side characters)
- WHY – Uncovering the truth behind the mysterious power source on their planet/city
- WHEN – In the future
- WHERE – Afro futuristic city called Neowea
- WHAT IS THE MAIN INSPIRATION – Afro futurism
What will connect my characters?
I am thinking of a way I can connect all the characters in my art book. I will make a bullet point list of ideas, then pick from that list and expand on the idea, hopefully resulting in me finalising a way to connect the characters.
- tattoos
- gang biker jackets
- jewellery
- colour coded accessories
- same colour pallet
- face paint or makeup
- custom stitches symbol on clothing
the ones highlighted in bold are the ideas I like the most, which are tattoos and jewellery. I think tattoos would be the easiest and most common way to connect all the characters. I also think that this idea is pretty cool, as I can experiment with some tattoo designs for them. I also think jewellery is a good idea as it is a subtle thing that connects them, but what I want to go for is a much bolder connected representation; therefore, I will be going for the tattoo idea.
How am I going to futurise the characters designs?
I will be constantly trying to futurise the character by experimentation and research throughout the whole project, as this will help me constantly advance the character to the best of my ability.
Culture research – west indies
To continue on from my cultural research about the West Indies, I thought it would be a good idea to use some of the patterns seen on some of the cultural dresses and apply that onto my character design. As it would be a futuristic design, I can present some of these patterns in the forms of potentially bandanas, drapes, tops, etc.
below is a mood board of potential things from my culture that I would take inspiration from:
Material Research
Net – cotton
As I wanted to bring some aspects of my culture into my character design, I thought that maybe one of the characters could wear a net vest with my country’s flag on it. in my country, this vest is very popular, so using this item of clothing, I can add it into one of my character designs with a more modern/futurist twist to it, either by adding a lot of heavy gold jewellery, which I think would fit or having it as some sort of throwover.
Silk
As I would like my side character 1 to be portrayed as an ethereal character, I think the material silk is very befitting. people tend to associate this type of material with ethereal fantasy creatures like fairies or mermaids.
Leather
For a gang/crew, it would make sense for at least one of them to be wearing a heavy-looking leather jacket with equipment equipped on it. people tend to associate heavy leather jackets with biker gangs or just gangs in general, which is what I want to go for.
Latex
For the character I have in mind, I think that having their outfit with some latex features to it adds to the character building. As this character ( side character 3) is an assassin-type character, this type of clothing material would fit well for the character, as people would tend to associate an assassin and a full body latex suit together.
An all black latex suit for an assassin would be a good idea, as it helps them blend in.
Denim
Just like leather, I would say a lot of people associate denim shorts or jackets with rebellion. and with my character designs, I want their clothing to represent rebellion. I also think that there are some good opportunities to incorporate some unique design on things like denim shorts shown in the image above. this can make the character design more unique. I also chose denim shorts and a visual representation here, as it is a very popular modern-day item of clothing worn by a lot of teens/young adults.
Materials on character sketches annotation
Looking at some of my sketches and thumbnails, I chose some to annotate and explain the materials (the ones that were obvious).
Experimentation – 3D ( more screenshots)
DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT BLOCK OUT
With this different blockout, I was trying to go for a close-up of a street with futuristic buildings on it.
Character 3D blockout experimentation – unfinished
Using the art style inspiration (low poly), I experimented with the art style by creating a blockout of a character in the style. As I didn’t have enough time, this blockout remains unfinished.
Colour scheme inspiration
For my final outcome pieces, I want to go for a futuristic colour palette throughout, even in the art book. therefore, I will be using a lot of neon colourful colours as people tend to associate colours like that with something futuristic.
Pinterest and Art station
I will be using both Pinterest and ArtStation to help find inspiration during the research process of this project. I will mostly be using ArtStation for artist research and more professional concept art, and I will be using Pinterest for things like asset research, character design inspiration.
Environment perspective ideas
Birds eye
This would be a good perspective for a character/characters. it would be a lot more unique compared to an ordinary perspective, as there would only be one main focus point, which is the character, so exaggerating the perspective can make it look a lot better. an ordinary perspective would be good for an environment, as there would be more than one focus point in there.
Eye level
I think this perspective can give the viewer a wider look at what is in the environment. this would be a good perspective to use for a city, as in a city, there tends to be a lot going on.
Over the shoulder view
This could be a good perspective for a shot where the character is overlooking the city from a high distance, maybe on top of a building.
Hip Hop Magazine covers
I like the look of the 90s/200s magazine cover as it fits in with the art style I want to use, which is Shibuya punk. The art style as a whole takes inspiration from hip hop culture, so they would go well if the cover of my art book looked like a 90s/200s magazine and the characters inside are Shibuya punk-inspired.
Character I associate with rebellion that could relate to my characters
Spider punk
Spider-Punk is a well-known character who is very anti-government and rebellious, which is what my characters are. throughout the whole movie he is in he makes statements that are very clearly rebellious and anti-government. even looking at his character design as a whole, he is a very rebellious character.
Rudo
I would say Rudo could relate to my character as a character that is mainly seen as a rebellious character, would be the fact that his whole purpose is to uncover the truth on how his father was murdered. this is similar to how my characters are trying to uncover the mysterious power source on their planet/ in their city.
Reference images for cover inspiration
I decided to use this image as one of my mock-ups as it best represented what I wanted. Even though I changed some small things about this image, it is the same; therefore, I will be referencing it. If I were to choose this image as inspiration for the front and back cover, I would credit it in the book as well as change it completely art-wise. The reason I chose this as inspiration is that I like the pose. Unfortunately, I cannot Harvard reference it as it was found on Pinterest, but I will continue to search for the artist.
Unique selling point
Taking into consideration the plot of the concept the USP would be a visual development project centred around the character Aaliyah, a rare Luma mage born over a vanished energy bubble, exploring how this origin influences her powers, visual identity, and narrative role in Neowea, but not only her, how Luma physically and symbolically shapes all the characters, environments, their abilities, and the culture of Neowea.
Project asset list
I will be making a project asset list just so I know what I need to do for this project. it makes it a lot more chaotic and more organised.
- All character turn arounds
- all character close up shots
- all character assets
- 2-4 environments
- art book front and back cover design
- background page design
MVP – Minimum viable product
My MVP would be the pre-production sketches I had, some of which are shown in my PDF, as well as anything that shows the early stages of my concept design, so that could range from mind maps to mood boards.
Art style comparison
The art style on the left is very different to the one on the right as I used different techniques to achieve the level they are at. the one on the right took me less time to do, as I used a technique where I block out using the shape tool and lasso tool, as well as the paint bucket tool. the one on the left was all hand-drawn shapes and details, but took me a lot longer.
I prefer the detail of the one on the left and the quickness and cleanliness of the one on the right, so in my experimentation in E2, I will be trying to merge both.
In class workshops
In class, we looked at how we can improve our artistic ability. the video above was one that was shown in class, and I find it very helpful as it has resulted in my line art, for example, being a lot cleaner than it usually would be.
Why will I be focusing on my environment more than characters?
As I would like my portfolio to be more of an environment based portfolio I think I will focus more of my time on the environments than the characters I terms of how detailed they ill be and how much more time I will eb spending on it as I would like to perfect my environment design as I would say I am more lacking on this compared to character design.
What do I need to change about my current idea?
Based on my feedback on my PDF, I will need to do more research and experimentation for my character designs and environment designs. This will result in my idea being more interesting and unique.
Final outcome – why I chose what I chose
For my final outcome, I chose to do an art book as I think it would be the best outcome for what I want to create. I want to create a mix of characters, environments, and a few assets, as well as some splash arts; therefore, an art book would be the perfect way to showcase this. Initially, I was thinking of doing an animation, but I think that workload would be too much, resulting in me not being able to produce anything to the best of my artistic ability.
Management tools used in project
. Teams – I used Teams to communicate with tutors on things like feedback on my PDF and my designs.
. Puref – I mostly used Puref to generate mood boards more quickly and efficiently, as well as annotating them with text, as this is also a feature on this software.
. Padlet – To get in-class feedback, we were asked to upload to Padlet so the tutors and other students in the class are able to see.
Current skillset list
- organisation
- time management
- paint over skills
- 3D design
- Iteration and ideation skills
- quick sketching
- experimentation skill
- 2D concepting
- environment design
- perspective sketching
- thumbnailing and silhouetting
- communication
File management
So far for this half of the project, this is what my file organisation looks like. I want to keep it as organised as possible so it is easier to find this, as well as saving backups of my work.
Grading criteria breakdown
For the enquiry part of the grading criteria, I would say I was successful in this as the experimentation and research I carried out resulted in me developing advanced techniques and sketches.
For the knowledge part of the grading criteria, I would say I was successful in this part, as I applied external critiques to the development of my work.
For the communication part of the grading criteria, I would say I was successful in this, as I was able to communicate my strengths and weaknesses throughout the project, as well as being critical and reflective in my annotations of things like mood boards and any additional text I added throughout my PDF.
For the realisation part of the grading criteria, I would say I was also successful in this, as I was able to showcase my pre-production sketches that came from all the research and development I had to do throughout the project.
Overall, I would say I have successfully added each part of the grading criteria into my work.
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