Evaluation

For my project I wanted to make some form of landscape concept art for a game. When I first started out the project I didn't really know where to start as I had no brief for the artwork. Usually if your working for a company they will tell you what they want in the artwork, or at least ideas, or a brief which I didn't have. So I decided to make a questionnaire which I would get my class mates to fill out. The questionnaire would cover several things such as the setting/ environment, weather, race and time of day etc.

After receiving  the results, 2 things had the same results so I decided to go with the one I felt most comfortable with which was a fantasy forest. The other option was an elvish mountainous setting. The reason I chose the forest was because I haven't had much experience painting mountain ranges.

I started out looking for reference images of forests and plants and the things you would expect to be in a forest. I also looked at other artists work on this topic and put together a mood board of images which I used while I was painting to refer to different colors and ideas.

Then I jumped into sketching and thumb nailing to generate different ideas and compositions for my painting. This process didnt take to long as I found a setup I really liked. Once I had the idea I went in to start refining where objects would be and getting all the forms while making sure I had an interesting composition. Then it was just a matter of putting in colour and details. I used several colors from my mood board using the color picker in Photoshop. In this painting I used several texture techniques I've never used before. They were techniques used by some of the artists I researched, one of them even had a tutorial on how to do it which I find very helpful. I think using this method added a very nice sense of realism to my image, it gave it just that bit more depth to it.

Altogether I spent roughly 6 -7 hours on this piece which I'm quite happy about because its probably the most detail I've ever put into a concept. One thing I wish I did was paint it at A2 resolution because I printed it out on A2, whereas I only painted it on A3 which meant I had to scale it up when printing it which would result in less quality. I did print it out in A3 as well for my portfolio.
I didnt feel this painting was that challenging as it was very similar to what I'm used to painting. but I did learn a few things from it which I'm really happy about.

I also finished this painting early, so I decided to go back to my questionnaire and do a painting relating to what got the 2nd most results, the elvish mountain range.

For this painting I didn't really do any thumbnails which isnt really a good method of working, but I had a rough idea of the layout in my head and wanted to start painting straight away. This actually effected me in the long run as I found the composition and colors very hard to get right. I ended up using the color balance a lot to change the color of the image. Once I had my forms and composition fixed I started applying the same techniques used in the forest painting. I found painting this image was much harder as I wasn't used to it, I had to push myself a lot more to get what I wanted, which I think is a good way to learn.

In the end the painting took roughly 4 -5 hours, it isn't as detailed as the forest painting but I prefer it because I feel it has a much better mood to the image and a really dramatic on the edge feel to it.

If I was to change anything about my project I think I would of done more research into the mountain range setting as I think it would've saved loads more time painting it. Also I would look into changing the program I used to render my speed painting videos because the one I currently kept on making my computer crash.

Other than those things I'm really happy how the project went, I feel like I've learned a lot of new techniques for my paintings which I will now adapt into other projects. I also liked looking into the pre production phase as I've never really experienced it for concept art, which is what I want to do as a job in the future. I also think these techniques will help me in a few upcoming projects/ commissions I have over the summer holidays.

Final Pieces

Below are work in progress screenshots of my final image.

The final image took around 5 -6 hours to complete using photoshop. I used a lot of different techniques I've never used before, for example a lot of photo textures were used as im starting to get more confident using that method. I also learned a few tips about doing it through this video ---- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQvDl0TkLKc I think this is one of the most detailed concepts I've ever done which I'm quite pleased with as sometimes I find it difficult to take paintings further. Overall I am really pleased how this has turned out I really like the detail I managed to put into it and all the photo textures give it a really realistic feel to it. I also like the pools of light I added onto the foreground tree and vegetation. The thing I found most challenging about this painting was painting it in a close up view, like you were actually in the forest where as I'm used to painting more open landscapes on a more epic scale instead of close ups. 

I managed to finish my final image with a lot of spare time left, so I decided to paint a 2nd image.

As on the questionnaire I created the settings forest and mountainous get the same votes, so originally I chose forest, so for 2nd piece I decided to keep to my questionnaire and do a mountainous image. This image was more of a challenge than the forest painting because I dont have much experience painting mountain ranges. I wanted to get a real sense of mood in this image so I spent a lot of time working on the clouds to give a really dramatic effect on the image. Painting the image as the sun sets helps with this also. 

I tried to embed an elvish feeling into it as that was in my questionnaire, I decided to go for an elvish ruins look with the architecture as I think it feels really mysterious and suits the setting.

Below are the work in progress screenshots.

I actually found this image really hard to paint. I found it quite difficult to determine the colors so i ended up using the color balance a lot. I also couldnt get the right composition I wanted so I spent a long time trying to fix it and figure it out. Flipping your image often helps with this. Once I had everything in place and was happy I could then start detailing, to do this I used the same techniques used in my other painting; which involved a lot of texture brushes and photo textures as well as applying basic drawing fundamentals. 

Overall I'm really pleased how this image turned out, I felt like I learned a bit from painting this and had to overcome problems which I never really faced before. I prefer this painting to my other one because I think this has a much better mood and setting to my previous one. I think the forest painting is more for details and not so much setting and mood.

Presentation

Time Plan

10th May

this part really consists of researching that I want to create. So for me this was looking into forests and vegetation and how they look in certain lighting, the different colours, scaling etc. I'll also look at other artists work on this topic to see there different techniques and how they create there image.

17th May

This is part is similar to the image referencing as I would still be doing that. But on the side I would be starting to create quick sketches and thumbnails to try and get some ideas down. I would also be thinking about my colour palette and how my scene is going to be set up.

24th May

Here I would be well into doing my thumbnails and sketches trying to generate different ideas and also combining ideas into the same image. This part is critical in my process because without doing this it would take much longer to find out what I want to paint for my final image. This is a good and quick way to generate ideas.

31st May

Here I am coming to an end of thumbnail drawings and beginning work on my final image.

7th June

Now I am only working on my final image. I'm going to allow myself around 4 - 5 hours to complete this I would already have the thumbnail with rough detail in so there would be no need to try and think about all the forms, composition and how things are set up as this would already be done. Therefore It wont take me as long as possible.

14th June

Now I'm making some finishing touches on my final image while getting the recordings together and editing them in Sony Vegas. Rendering time for each clip would be about an 40 mins then the final render will take around half an hour.

21st June

Now I am setting up how I will present my work at the summer show. I was thinking of using a computer screen to present my speed painting and then print out the final image of my art work on A3. I will also have some work in progress images hanging up. I thought about having a second computer next to everything with Photoshop open and a tablet for people to try out on the day, so they can see how I create my paintings.

Comments

This blog has been monitored by various tutors and you have responded to the verbal feedback give..,. e.g. research into film visual construction.

Task 3

Time - Half Hour

Here is a quick painting I did from reference. The reference was a screenshot taken in game of 'Skyrim'. I wanted to do this because I really liked the colours used in this particular area of the game, I think they have a really big impact on the mood. Also the time of day used in the game was morning which created long shadows and pools of light coming through which is one of the things I wanted to practice trying to paint.

Here is some quick thumbnails I started creating to generate ideas for my final piece. I did like these but felt they were to open spaced to be set in a forest, apart from the bottom right which is more what I wanted to head towards.

I thought I would try to add colour to these as I feel that's something I'm lacking in and from researching artists, they all say adding colour to black and white images is easier than painting straight from colour.

To do this I create a layer above my black and white painting, then change the blending mode to colour or overlay and start laying down some colours.

This is an image I painted using all the techniques and processes I learnt from my research. I used the same brushes as the artists I looked into, they have some really useful brushes which consist of various textures fro rocks plants and trees. I'm also still experimenting turning a black and white painting into colour as a lot of artist say that its a lot easier this way.

Presentation Blueprint

PRESENTATION BLUEPRINT

SLIDE 1: INTRODUCTION

Name: Will Roberts

Course: Interactive Media in Game Arts

 

Project Title: Fantasy Landscape Concept

Date:02/05/2013

Engine/Software: Photoshop Cs5 Extende

 

 

 

SLIDE 2: IDEA

Idea:

Stand Alone Game Environment / Level Design/Character Design etc..

Concept art for a fantasy MMO RPG game landscape set in an ancient elven forest. 

Software: Photoshop CS5 Extended

Description: I chose this program because it is one professionals use and recommend. As well being able to paint in it there are many different editing tools you can use. Also I have more experience in Photoshop as I've been using it for several years now to do my own paintings.

SLIDE 3: SETTINGS, THEME AND LOCATION

Environment Setting:

*   Fantasy

*   Forest

*   Riverside

Theme:

*   Elven

*  Ruins

*  highly detailed

*   Style of Blinck (Jorge Jacinto)

*   Nice mood and Lighting

SLIDE 4: PROJECT PURPOSE/TARGET AUDIENCE

What do you want to create?: 

I want to create a fantasy elvish forest with massive trees and over grown vegetation with rivers/ streams and waterfalls running through it. 

What do you want to Learn or Improve?:

 I want to learn the whole production process for creating concept art as I have never experienced this before. I think it would be god for me because this is something I want to get into as a job in the future.

What do you want to the Player/Viewer to Experience?:

 I want the viewer to experience a really heavily fantasy setting which has nice cool colours and a great mood and feeling to the image.

 

SLIDE 5: FEATURES

Features/Content List:

Big trees 

Overgrown plants

Oversized plants

Waterfalls

Streams

Rivers

Ruins

Sketches

Thumnails

Final Piece

Final Piece printed

Speed Painting

 

SLIDE 6: PHOTO/REFERENCE AND INSPIRATION

Photo Reference:

Research:

 I looked into different artists work. Tried using the same styles and techniques as them using there brushes provided on there websites. Looked into a bit of film development. 

Researched different art works that are in the same style for what I want to achieve.

Looked into what colour palette I want to use.

The architecture

SLIDE 7: STORY (as a Game point of view)

Story:

How?
How did the player arrive in the environment? What were the events that brought them here?

Why?

Why is the character here? What purpose or what goal are they to achieve?

What?

What happened to the environment prior to the player arriving here?

 

SLIDE 8: UNIQUENESS&ORIGINALITY

§  What would make your Concept/environment/Animation stand out?

§  How will the player remember the environment?

§  What would make your location interesting? Aesthetically, visually and architecturally?

SLIDE  9: VISUAL DEVELOPMENT

Color Palette:  Cold/ warm Colours, blue's greens, yellows and orange tones.

Environment Colors: Cold/ warm Colours, blue's greens, yellows and orange tones.

Lighting: orange, yellows, sunset colours

 

SLIDE  10: TIMESCALE

Is your project achievable in the given timescale?

Tell us how and why!

Week 1

Image referencing,

architecture

forest's

things that are in forest's

finding what colours to use/ colour palette

Week 2

Rough sketches

Thumbnails

image referencing

Week 3 

Sketches 

Thumbnails

Final Painting

Week 4

Final painting

Finishing touches

Put together speedpainting

Print out of final image

Week 5

set up presentation 

printed out image and speedpainting

Week 6

Hand in

I think I'll manage with this timescale because once I have idea set of what I want to paint I can usually produce the painting in a few hours. I think the thing that will take the longest would be the referencing of images but when it comes down the final painting I have allowed myself 2 weeks which should be fine.

 Show, Don't Tell

Rehearsing and Timing your presentation

Consider creating handout

Spell Check