25/09/24 - 11/10/24 / Week 1-Week 3
Brendan Fedya / 0376283
Illustration
and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task
1 Vormator Challenge
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. LECTURES & PRACTICALS
➼ Week 1: Introduction
In our first meeting, we were given lecture materials and tutorials on how
to set up Adobe Illustrator in our Google Classroom, because we are going to
do a vormator challenge in the following week.
➼ Week 2: Bezier Game & Reference Board
For this week, Mr. Hafiz introduced us to a game called the Bézier Game. Basically, it is a tool for us beginners to familiarize
ourselves with the pen tool for applications like Adobe Illustrator,
eventually enhancing our skills in using vectors.
In addition, we were also given information about including our reference
board in our e-portfolio, because it will be very crucial for the
presentation of the artwork.
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Figure 1.2. Reference Board.
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➼ Week 3: Logo Tracing & Shape
Psychology
Mr. Hafiz provided us a tracing video of Twitter's logo. Surprisingly, it
could be made by using the ellipse tool to create circles and the
pathfinder tool, forming the logo itself. Then we are tasked to use
pathfinder and shape builder to trace another logo, which is the Adidas logo.
‣ Pathfinder (Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+F9) = Combine, subtract, intersect, or exclude objects, allowing you to
create complex shapes, cut shapes into new forms, or merge multiple
objects into a single shape (Webdew).
‣ Shape Builder (Shift+M) = Create new shapes by
combining and erasing parts of simpler ones (Adobe).
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Figure 1.3. Twitter logo tracing.
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Figure 1.4. Adidas logo tracing.
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Shape psychology is also emphasized, it is stated that we can define a
character's personality through their shape language principles, even
color theory is not as effective. This concept is widely practiced by many
well-known animation studios (ex. Disney).
II. INSTRUCTIONS
III. TASKS
➼ Exploration
At first, I tried to imagine the shapes being used on any fictional
characters I can think of, and the tentacle shape really caught my
attention. I suppose people using that shape will also make tentacles for
their own character designs, so I tried a different approach. I applied the
tentacle shape to create vines and roots, inspired by Groot from "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise.
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Figure 3.1. Original Vormator Elements.
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After I went through my idea, I still think it's a bit plain and I need to
maintain my design originality without referring to the reference
character too much. So I added some elements which will make my design
more unique. I found the shape Badge, Tentacle, and Wurst could portray a
jester's mask very accurately, which I will implement on my design later
on.
➼ Sketch
When I started my sketch, I initially wanted to go for a sinister-looking
character, but instead of making it monstrous, I wanted to make it
more of a human-like appearance. However, after finishing it, I realized
that it didn’t fit the menacing vibe as well as I expected.
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Figure 3.4. Character design sketch.
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For the additional elements, I chose to use the mask on the head of the
character later for the digitalization, because the head part looks very
bland. The mask will add depth to the character, giving it a sense of
mystery.
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Figure 3.5. Character accessory sketch.
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➼ Digitization
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Figure 3.6. Silhouette creation in Adobe Illustrator.
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Here's a breakdown of my process:
1. I usually always start my drawing with the face first, because I
believe that is the most important feature of a figure. Also, I find it
easier to shape the body once the face has been done.
2. Secondly, I constructed the arms to be like a tree trunk, creating brunching
segments as the details.
3. Then for the body posture, I changed the original pose of the
character from my sketch because it was too stiff. Hence, in this
revised version, I visualize the character doing a high one leg kick.
Also, I added many vine details to the body using the tentacle shape.
4. Doing the signature accessory, I merely did a simple looking jester
mask, but it completely looks like how I visualized it in my sketch.
5. Because I seem to not be able to construct the head part very
well, so I stacked all of the masks on top of the character's head. It
synchronizes very well with the hairstyle.
6. I merged the tree arm I made with the whole body, making it look like a
striking lance stance.
7. For the legs and feet, I still stayed to the concept of viney patterns,
while using muscular shapes to resemble strongness.
For the final result, I'm quite satisfied on how it turns out:
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Figure 3.7. Finalized silhouette.
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➼ Coloring and Shading
Based on the silhouette, my design looks like it's related to nature, having
wood and vines as the main elements that basically mimics a tree. So, I used
2 main colors for the character, which is dark brown and lush green with
some additional shades so it wouldn't look very flat and boring.
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Figure 3.8. Body coloring.
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After coloring, I still felt it was somewhat plain, so I added another
element, a heart, to give more texture to the character design. In this
step, I used the gradient tool on "The Badge" shape to create a seemingly
glowing effect for the heart.
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Figure 3.9. Heart illustration and coloring.
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For the head, I used beige to create an analogous color relationship
with the character's earth tone palette. Additionally, the masks are in
neon red, which acts as a complementary color towards the overall
design, making it pop out more. As the final touch, the eyes are in a
contrasting yellow shade to symbolize life energy and also to act as
a focal point. Hence making the
completed layout even appealing.
‣ To know more about color theory, I will refer to a
website by Copic.
‣ To know more about focal point , I will refer to
my Digital Photography & Imaging module lecture material
by Mr. Fauzi.
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Figure 3.10. Head coloring.
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As for the outcome, this is how it looks like, and I also gave the character
a name: Meino. It is derived from the Japanese word 芽 (mei), meaning
'bud' or 'sprout', which it also aligns very well with the character's
personal nature trait. Also in our next project we are going to turn this
into a Pokémon card, and 'Meino' sounds very fitting for a Pokémon.
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Figure 3.11. 'Meino' colored.
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IV. REFLECTIONS
At first, I was so overwhelmed when I came into class. My classmates were very experienced at using the apps given, while me myself didn't even know the basics of utilizing the software. Because of it, I figured out that maybe I should try harder, so that I could catch up with my fellow peers.
As time goes by, I started to get a foothold of the fundamentals and I found the learning process was pretty much enjoyable. At first, I got into design school because I liked it, and I felt like it's my obligation to be good at the field that I pursue.
Learning using a vormator challenge is a fresh start to me, as we are not drawing from scratch, we have shapes given and it's like were playing a building game. I quite prefer this way of working because even if my drawing skills are quite bad, I could create a character that could still be aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, and actually I'm quite surprised on how mine turns out because I expected it to be worse.
Watching my work gradually evolve by time, I realized that creativity isn’t something you're born with, but it's something developed through persistence, leading to better results.
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