Illustration and Visual Narrative - Task 1/Exercises
01/04/2022 - 22/04/2022 (Week 1- 5)
Yong Kai Yi (0352826)
Illustration and Visual Narrative
Task1 /Exercises
Yong Kai Yi (0352826)
Illustration and Visual Narrative
Task1 /Exercises
Lectures:
Week 1: 01/04/2022
During the first week, our lecturer briefed us about the task we will be doing
by next week. She also introduced to us what we will learn in this module. We
also get to learn how to use the pen tool by playing the Bezier game.
Module information booklet:
Week 2: 08/04/2022
Lecture Report 1: Character Design Basics
Fig xx: Carl Fredricksen from animated movie UP
The overall shape of Mr. Fredricksen is in square shape and kind of match
his ‘boring’ ‘cranky ‘personality. Since his wife passed away, Mr.
Fredricksen shut himself out of the world, being lonely and stubborn.
The square box shape face with the rectangular spectacles, and the big nose
is iconic, it represents Mr. Fredricksen personality well. The small eyes
and big round nose show how stubborn and cranky he is, a typical ‘old man
type’.
His thick white eyebrow also gives him a ‘angry’ and ‘cranky’ looking, we
can see his eyebrow is going upwards at the edge.
His nasolabial fold forms a triangle shape with his lip, makes his face
more iconic, showing how ‘cranky’ and impatient he is. His face had the
combination of three different shapes, square shape (the main element),round
shape and triangle shape, which represents different feelings. The overall
image is mainly in square because of his main characteristic is ‘cranky’ and
‘boring’.
In the perspective of color psychology, his overall color is in
dark brown, which gives us feelings of loneliness and isolation. He
definitely isolating himself after the death of this wife. Besides, he also
gives a sense of reliability. Although his overall image and personality is
a bit negative, but in the story after the appearance of Russell, he
actually being nice to him but with limits in patience. Mr. Fredricksen is
an adventurous and shy boy when he is little, after meeting his wife, they
explore more together.
Fig xx: young Carl Fredricksen from animated movie UP
We can see the difference between grown up Carl and little Carl, when he is little, he basically is in a round shape with big curious eyes. His overall clothing is more like a nerdy adventurous boy. The brown color tone does make his character feels more stable and reliable. Besides, brown color also is the typical color which symbolize ‘adventure’.
Week 3: 15/04/2022
Lecture Report 2: Chiaroscuro
Fig xx: Coco movie scene
This is the scene when Miguel playing his handmade guitar and watching
his favorite musician, De la Cruz's film.
Miguel's family is the only family in Santa Cecilia who do not sing and
play music, because his great-great-grandmother, Imelda was married to a
man who left her and their daughter Coco to pursue his dream in music.
Thus, Imelda strictly forbids everyone in the family to play music and
starting a shoemaking business.
Although the family tradition still continues until Miguel’s generation,
Miguel still very obsessed with music, and dreams to become a musician
just like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz. Miguel secretly made a guitar
for himself and keep all the tapes in a secret storeroom. He hid all his
music related collections in the room, and secretly practice singing and
playing guitar in there, to prevent being scold or forbid from his
family.
The room is quite dark, and only have a few candles lighting up the
room, shows how deep Miguel hid all his passion in but still full of
dreams and hopes in it. The television in the scene hits the light on
Miguel’s face, emphasize how happy and passionate he is. The scene is
dark enough to give us the air of secrecy and the slight warm tone
lighting gave us a calm and safe vibe.
Miguel was so inspired by his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz, he also learned
to sing and plays guitar by watching the films and imitates his idol.
Besides the skills, he also inspired by one of the de la Cruz's famous
line "Seize your moment, which he had a flyer/ poster on his wall too.
All these inspiration made Miguel even more determine to become a
successful musician just like Ernesto de la Cruz.
In conclusion, this scene emphasizes well how passionate Miguel is by
using the lighting from the television, in contrast of the dark secret
room. This is one of the most important scene in the movie because it
shows the character development which leads to the story happens
afterwards.
Exercises:
Week 4:
Exercise: Chiaroscuro
During the tutorial and practical session, Mr. Hafiz taught us how to do tracing and adding shadows using knife tool, pathfinder divide and so on.
Fig xx: final exercise outcome (22/04/2022)
Fig xx: final exercise outcome (22/04/2022)
Instructions:
Week 2 - 5: Illustrator Introduction & Character Design Basics
Week 2:
Task 1.1: Vormator Challenge
Tracing shapes given for Vormator challenge in Adobe Illustrator:
Fig xx: the given shapes for Vormator challenge
Mr. Hafiz guided us how to use pen tools and also other tools to
trace the shapes given.
Fig xx: the final outcome traced shapes (08/04/2022)
I used mostly pen tool to trace the shapes, but I also tried using
rectangle tool and curvature tool for some of the shapes
too.
Creating character silhouette using the traced shapes:
Mr. Hafiz demonstrated how to copy and paste the shapes, and also taught
us how to use the pathfinder tool while creating the characters. After the
tutorial we should explore ourselves how to create our own character with
these tools and skills.
1st attempt:
Fig xx: first character design silhouette (08/04/2022)
Exploring how the Adobe Illustrator works for this task. The character
above is my first design ,a concept combining flowers and roots as a monster look.
Fig xx: second character design silhouette (08/04/2022)
This character is my second design, inspired by the character 'Groot' from Marvel. It is a
plant like strong boy look.
Lecturer's feedback:
The first silhouette will be more interesting because of the face expressions, but the leg is too pointy, try more girly look to fits the hand of the character. Second silhouette is like a strong guy, the leg is too square, try rounded it.
Week 3:
Task 1.1: Vormator Challenge
2nd attempt after feedbacks:
Fig xx: third design silhouette (15/04/2022)
I tried using the elements from 1st attempt and duplicated them, to create a multi-headed monster plant. The shapes I mostly used are the wurst, the bar, the cobra, the drop and so on.
Fig xx: fourth character design silhouette (15/04/2022)
This is silhouette is based on animals, such as chimpanzee and octopus.
Lecturer's feedbacks:
The third silhouette, advisable to add more leaves to make the silhouette more interesting. The neck (stem of the plant) also is quite small, thus makes the monster overall looks quite unbalance.
3rd attempt after feedbacks:
Fig xx: final character design silhouettes (15/04/2022)
The silhouettes above is the final 3 designs I chose, I mainly used the cobra as their arms, the first one is like a proud looking character, the second is like a hyperactive hip-hop guy, the last one is the tall chimpanzee manager look. They all have different vibes, but the middle one will be the one I will like to explore more.
Lecturer's feedback:
The character on the center can make it as a hip-hop guy, can add sunglasses on it.
Week 4:
Coloring, Shadow, Background settings progressions:
Fig xx: elements exploration (22/04/2022)
Fig xx: shape explorations for the mouth (22/04/2022)
Fig xx: exploration for facial expressions elements (22/04/2022)
Fig xx: shadow and coloring (22/04/2022)
Fig xx: background setting 1 (22/04/2022)
Fig xx: background setting 2 (22/04/2022)
Fig xx: final background setting (22/04/2022)
1st vormator character attempt:
Fig xx: 1st vormator attempt (22/04/2022)
This is the final outcome I created. It is a rock and roll vibe hip hop boy. That's why he had the 'dancey' pose with the dope sunglasses. I named him Baxie, as I love the combination of letter 'B' and 'X'.
Baxie is a passionate boy, he loves to dance. Although he looks fierce and bad, but he actually very kind hearted and dumb. He often breaks things accidentally, everything passes his hand will be broken. But he never fails to help others who in needs too. Flexibility is his strength, he can stretch his hand so long until he reaches the thing he wanted to grab.
1st game card attempt:
Fig xx: 1st game card attempt (22/04/2022)
Although he looks like a troublemaker, but he is very kind hearted and hardworking. He loves to laugh, and makes his friends laugh too.
Lecturer's feedback:
The character looks like a troublemaker, but the outfit is too simple, lack of details. Can add some graphic elements on the t-shirt and bandages on his feet, to show that he is a troublemaker.
Week 5:
Task 1.2: Vector Illustration
Final vormator character outcome after feedbacks:
Fig xx: final vormator character outcome (29/04/2022)
I added some elements on his t-shirt and also a gold chain on it, as it is a quite symbolic accessories for a hip-hop boy. I also added some bandages on his feet and arms to emphasize his troublemaker personality. Furthermore, I also added a tattoo on his arm, it is a fish cut in half, as fish is Baxie's favorite food.
Fig xx: final game card outcome (29/04/2022)
The play card design layout remains the same, I changed the character only after adding details on it.
Reflections:
Throughout the week, I have learned a lot of Adobe Illustrator skills. I found it very challenging yet interesting for this project: Vormator Challenge. This challenge also requires a lot of brainstorming for me, as we can only use the given shapes to create a character. There are a few obstacles during the progression, I am a newbie in Adobe softwares, so it takes even more time for me to catch up during the tutorial and practical session. Overall, I. learned a lot and gained some new skills too.
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