Week Thirteen 30th May 2007

Well Well, this would be our last week of teaching. It's good though that we can go back to uni and kep doing concept art. I'm really enjoying this. It feels like we've just scratched the surface of concept art. I'm really enjoying it. And although sometimes I feel inadequate in my drawing abilities, I like to think it's more about the message being conveyed.

We looked at more of Ian McCraig and the little mermaid tutorial. It was amusing to watch how he thinks as he draws. It's really good though because every little detail adds to the artwork. One of the things he said which was interesting was: " Ask questions, and find visual answers."

Week Twelve 23rd May 2007

Main points I re-learnt today was: 1. keep in mind your horizon line; 2. use a range of shapes; 3. create variety; and lastly paint in the foreground darker and the background lighter (as darker colours advance more).

The abstract environment DVD was great. I really enjoyed how you could get random shapes, layer them, and then play with the layer styles (multiply, saturation etc.) to make even more amazing shapes. It was really good to get great compositions out of it. And a lot of the compositions weren't generic or stereotypical in any way, because they were made by 'accident'. I really want to try that. I also learnt that the background has much less saturation of colour.

We also looked at a creatures DVD. It was Ian McCraig (correct me if I'm wrong), who was taking us through the sketch of the sea king. His artwork is great. It's strange but good to see how animated and passionate he is about his concept art.

Week Eleven 16th May 2007

Group work was the agenda for today. We all showed our sketches and drawings. It was really helpful to see how each member in our group addressed certain parts of the story. I am in awe of Jason's work. Even his sketches are amazing. He left our group quite speechless. It's great to work with such a talent. I did some more sketches, quite a few more sketches of imps and I also worked on one of the beasts. I originally made the beast out of plastecine and then took a photo and drew and painted over it. I really enjoyed this technique.

Week Ten 9th May 2007

I realise that i haven't uploaded my blogs for a while. I've written notes on the lessons, just never updated it.

Today we watched a DVD tutorial by Gnomon Workshop on digital painting. It was a futuristic city. The original linework was amazing. I learnt more about layers and opacity and brushes. I'de never really used a multiply layer, but they're really effective. I also realised the importance of light and darkness, and if there is too much light towards the edge of the frame your eye will go there. So make the edges a bit darker.

Grimms Fairytale

I did some research for the Grimms fairytale. The group was happy with 'The King's Son Who Feared Nothing' as a storyline for the assessment. We looked at the scipt and did a breakdown of the design elements. At home I did some sketches. Here are some of them

Week Nine 2nd March 2007

Back to colour theory and psychology. This was much more indepth and quite helpful. I shall be sure to get the notes off the net! I didn't realise how much colour was used within the film genre. I know colours are important obviously, but the example of the girl running from the safety of the subtle blue light to the subtle red light, represented her moving from safety to danger. Another part I found helpful was that colours can build up in intensity over the course of the film. This is great, because colours can tell not only the emotion, but also the narrative structure.

Week Eight 25th April 2007

Today we got into groups for the Grimms fairytale assessment. I like my group. Although I've never worked with any of them, I think it should be good. I spent a lot of the lesson going through Grimms fairytales. I shortlisted a few, and my favourite was 'The King's Son Who Feared Nothing'. It was a great fairytale, unlike some of the others that have either 1. No point, or 2. Really abrupt and unclimatic endings. This story's got it all! From giant's, castles and princes, to beasts, demons and fair maidens. It's a great fantasy story. I think the group will like it hopefully. There's a lot to design. Better get to it!

Week Seven 18th April 2007

Colour and Value! One of the best things I learnt from this lesson was about doing the value before you play with the colour. Recently I had drawn a character and put this into action. I still haven't coloured it in, but adding in the tones and values first helped me visualise the way in which the colour could be applied. I also had a look on the net at some speed paintings in photoshop. Man those guys are unreal. They always start off with the value before adding any colour using the colour balances and hues. I also liked the way that value can be used to lead the eye. I think I'll try employing the technique of darkening the edges so the eye is lead into the picture.

Week Six 11th April 2007

Well it was ANZAC Day today. So class was not on. Thanks Mark for pushing the assessment date back a bit. Gave me time to add a few things. I'll be sure to add some more pictures soon to my blog.

Week Five 28th Mar 07

Well Well Well, I didn't take any notes today. I hope my memory is sharp. Today was really just watching how it was all done. Mainly did a lot of work on my thumbnails for my storyboard. I've almost finished it, but I need to make sure I haven't broken the 180 degree rule. I'll need to check it again.

Using the black plastic card to view the storyboard is really good. It's so much easier to visualise the action, and imagine it animated/filmed when you can see it by itself. I just need to photocopy heaps of storyboard panels now. I'm using two panels per page for the storyboard because I'll be able to scan and edit much easier in flash for the animatic.

Week Four 21st Mar 07

This lesson covered most of the layout processes. It was a refresher course of what I had learnt from last year, but also what I had forgotten. I don't really like field guides, but I guess I've gotta learn to love them. I need to make them my friend. CONVERGING LINES - a big NO. Never draw background or foreground lines that intersect the eyeline or the mouthline. But use lines instead to lead the eye towards the focal point. I also learnt a really great way of doing linework, looking ahead and letting the pencil follow the eye. It's so simple, but it's great!

Anyways, as promised here is the concept sketch I did for the CGI assessment.

Week Three 14th Mar 07

Where do I begin.Overall the week was good. The storyboarding section was re-emphasised to me. I've seen so many things on composition and layout etc. , but it always helps when it is revisited. I want those techniques and unwritten laws to be second nature to me. So when i'm designing a layout or even drawing concept art I've got the rules in my head. I think this can only be achieved by me revisiting it.

I really want to see Deep Rising (the film formely known as 'tentacle'). I think it would be good to see how the storyboard and film was actually done and see if it matches up with my storyboard. Also giant squids amuse me, they're so cool.

I've done some concept artwork for the CGI modelling subject. I'll be sure to scan it up soon! May put it in my next post.

Week Two 7th Mar 07

Well the Inn concept drawings were good. I found it a little difficult finding interiors of inns. What helped a bit was a videogame of mine called ‘Oblivion’. It is a medieval fantasy style game so a lot of the architecture and décor of the rooms helped me visualise inns. I think that’s a process too, learning and researching so that your knowledge increases and you observe much more of your surroundings and how things look and work. The colour coding system seems like a good idea to organise the elements to design. I think I’m going to do that soon to the script. So I will be going now to do that!

Below are some of the concepts for the inn. I chose the largest one for clarity.

Week One 28th Feb 07

Well, it’s another year. Pre-production seems like a fun course, particularly the concept art. I find some of the concept or ‘inspirational’ art so amazing. Some of the basic ideas are artworks in themselves. One thing that stuck in my mind from the first lecture was that when doing concept art, you have to make it believable. The mechanics actually have to work, the entire universe of the world in which the story is set in has to be created and understood. Maybe this is why Lord of the Rings was such a huge success, because Tolkien had constructed such an amazingly well-thought-out world, in which believable characters existed. I think a great concept design adds a whole new level of depth to an artwork, and creates a world and story that is never ‘flat’.