Digital Art

Project Analysis - Materials Project

Throughout this project I have learned so much about both the properties of different materials and the tools available to me in Photoshop to help communicate them. I am pleased with how the majority of these materials turned out but in retrospect I wish I had tackled this project with a bit less perfectionism in the early stages. For example, the first three materials took me the entirety of term one to complete because I kept going back and making small changes to improve them. This helped them turn out really well but as a result they are incredibly overdone compared to the later materials which are still accurate but more simple in scope overall. I definitely see the benefit of this project and I'm actually planning to keep it up in spirit after submission. Studying materials and their properties is key to conveying them accurately and seeing as I want to pursue technical art in the future, making sure I understand the fundamental applications of specularity and subsurface scattering is key.

The material I am least impressed by is probably my marshmallow. I still don't quite know the best way to fix it but I'm wondering if a gradient map might have been the wrong approach. I stuck to gradient maps pretty strictly in almost all the materials, starting off in value and adding colour afterwards, but for some materials maybe this was less appropriate. I think if I had the chance to do it again I would just paint the marshmallow from scratch in colour as if I was using real paints and see if this made a difference, and then try and reverse engineer that into a less destructive approach.

I'm really glad I took the time to go back and edit my carbon fibre material at the last minute because I think it was massively improved by the changes to the way the surface responds to light. I've learnt from this that going forwards a material is only going to look as good as it's reference and if I choose inaccurate reference the quality will suffer. I stuck to real images for all my references rather than images of other people's studies or in-engine materials because doing this meant that I could abstract the detail for myself.

Overall I'm satisfied with how these materials turned out although they aren't perfect. Seeing as at the start of the year I hadn't used photoshop for anything other than editing photos for my GCSE Art project I think I've come really far in my understanding of the software. For future reference I have compiled a list of things I wish I knew earlier when working in Photoshop:

Holding the Shift key and drawing will draw a straight line on the fixed axes, but drawing a dot then holding shift and drawing another dot will join those two points in to a straight line at any angle.
Alt+Scroll will zoom in and out wherever the mouse is pointing.
V selects the move tool and if random stuff that you don't want is being moved it's because auto-select is enabled.
Masks filled with black and white using the paint bucket tool do not translate when moving the same as masks deleted so they're empty and then filled using white. Some masks will have a black canvas and white all around the outside meaning if you drag it a new active area will be added around the edge. This made arranging the materials very confusing for about 5 minutes until I figured that out. In the future I will just select the area I want to have white in the mask and then create the mask to avoid this.

My resolution for over the summer is to learn how to make my own brushes for Photoshop. Having worked with these basic materials I now have a good idea of what kind of brushes would be useful and I think creating my own custom ones is going to be the most efficient way of achieving that.

Project Analysis - 3pt Environment

Final unlit scene.

This project was really interesting. After the relative simplicity of the isometric project having to draw in perspective made thing a lot more complicated. In isometric drawings the camera and point of view is fixed and not something to worry about but in this project suddenly there were fewer constraints. I ended up defaulting to a similar top down angle anyway simply because it is the most effective for showing off a scene in terms of concepting for reference, but I think it still warrants enough interest to be a good viewpoint artistically as well. I spent so long on this project coming up with ideas in isolation and I really wish I had used mood boards and looked at real life reference and other peoples art earlier in the process. I likely would have come up with something much more creative if I had done.

One thing I've noticed is that across my projects I seem to start with a really cool idea and then slowly reduce it back into a safe semi-realistic and somewhat more boring place by the end of it. For example in the Cubeworld project I was really intent on going for an art deco theme but by the end it had been so diluted it was barely relevant. In the character, she went from looking futuristic to plausibly current, and with this environment the fantasy elements are so downplayed that it just looks like it could be a real place but just a bit odd. I'm not sure why I do this and my only theory is that I spent so long studying fine art that I just feel like everything should default to it like a strange artistic comfort zone. Now that I'm keenly aware of this I want to overcome it just so I know that if I ever need to, I do have the capability to create weird and wonderful stuff.

Over the summer I'm hoping to take part in a game-jam (albeit as a writer/programmer more than an artist) as well as an Alien Race project run by Chris Wright in the Drawing Centre at DMU and I'm hoping these two non-academic projects will help me branch out into new territory a bit more.

Final scene with lighting. The full drawing and rendering of this piece took just over half the time of the time which I spent on the Cubeworld which I think it a combination of my increased efficiency and the need to spend time on the other two projects for this component. As a result this piece isn't as refined as the Cubeworld but I have made peace with that as I worked with all the time I had available.

Overall I think that this environment turned out in a satisfactory way. It definitely feels like a traversable location, and the auto-generated alt-text for this image in PowerPoint decided it looked like a scene from a video-game so I'll take that as a seal of approval. The mood is definitely conveyed well, I think this environment would be well suited to a Mystery RPG, which makes sense as that was the tone of my D&D campaign I used as inspiration for it.

Project Analysis - Future Tribes Character

Initially when I finished this project I wasn't very happy with it but now reflecting analytically my opinion has changed. While I do still lament slightly that this character lacks the outlandish elements a lot of my classmates have gone for I don't think that makes it a bad design at all. At some point in my career I'm sure my overly-logical and practical designs will be useful to someone. I decided to harken back to the projects roots and fill in the silhouette of my final design so I can judge its composition and general interest level and I think it's not perfect but pretty good in some areas. A lot of the details I included, such as the folds in the trousers as they tuck into the boot and the satchel hanging at the hip as well as the even smaller inclusions the hair pieces falling around the edge of the face and goggles, or the buckles on the boot all help to break up the otherwise very smooth silhouette. This kind of interest seems subtle in the coloured image but in the silhouette I can really appreciate how much these aspects help break up the form a bit.

In terms of the anatomy I made quite a few last minute changes after I received feedback and analyzed the image myself. For example I shifted the position of the feet so that the heels aligned on the same plane. This really helped the character feel more grounded and less off balance. Once I'd changed it the floating foot became really visible in all the previous iterations. I also noticed the missing sleeve tape on the back view so I added that as well as increasing the size of that hand to better align with the front view. After that I also added the piece of loose hair to the back view of the character.

The final silhouette of my character. I think it's clear and distinct - simple enough that it's easy to read but with enough shapes breaking the flow that it's still interesting to look at.

I think I could have played up the goggles a bit more and maybe made the overalls even baggier to further differentiate the forms but the areas of rest as they are feel balanced in the composition.

Overall the proportions of the face itself are fairly well aligned. The ears are aligned on the vertical properly and the eyes are 1/2 way down the head which I think are the two least variable aspects of a face. The majority of other ideal proportions change from person to person, but I think this face suits the type character I was going for.

The face is about 5 eyes wide. It's difficult to apply this rule in a 3/4 view as I'm not sure how much of the ear should be included, but given this angle isn't too foreshortened I think this proportion is roughly appropriate.

The character design with proportion and anatomy analysis. There are a few issues I couldn't easily rectify in the remaining time, such as the shortened upper arms and narrow calves but overall I think it still reads as correct overall and there's no massively distorted areas which take away from the final design. If I did this project again I would probably check this kind of thing more often rather than just during the initial sketch and at the end now so that I could avoid some more of these issues, but overall I think it's passable.

I received feedback at this point that i needed to fix the forwards pointing foot as it looked strange and I agreed. I also needed to add some better form shading in areas to help it feel less flat.

I've learnt a lot from this project, not just about character design but also about iteration and project management. In the early phases of the project I think I wasted too much time trying to come up wit good silhouettes that I didn't get down as many ideas as I could have. Towards the end of the project I started reading a book which explained this principle in a really different way which helped me understand it better. The book The Art of Direction by Ron Ashtiani describes the "convergence funnel" method. In industry where multiple artists have to work together, many different ideas are generated and then combined and swapped throughout the design process. This approach makes more sense to me and I understand more why this was part of the task now. I initially found it so hard to come up with multiple good ideas when really I just needed a combination of ok ideas with interesting aspects which I could combine into the final piece, which is eventually, after too many weeks, where I got to.

The part I'm most pleased with on this project is the pose of the character. I knew that even if my design wasn't the best I wanted to present it well and communicate an aspect of their character while still making it easy for a potential 3D artist to read the forms as they would in a real game project. I used the idea of contrapposto - giving the hips and shoulders a opposing angles of slant to add variety while still leaving the overall posture feeling balanced. I think this was achieved and in combination with the facial expression really helps convey the character as a person.

The final design with added gloves, and minor dirt and wear to the clothing.

Week 30 - Materials Marathon

Due to my neglect of the materials during term 1 and over the last few weeks, where I chose to focus on the character and environment projects, I had 8 to do in a fairly short amount of time. Is that ideal? No, but documenting it accurately is honest and that has to be worth something. My plan was to do 8 Materials in 8 hours and then use whatever time is left after completing the other two projects to get feedback and refine them to bring them up to a standard I'm happy with.

Plastic Ball Material:

Initially this plastic was just a perfectly smooth ball, but after feedback I decided to include some surface scratches and dirt. Even though the plastic balls in a ballpit look clean at first glance, up close they are grimy, gross and damaged.

I added some grime and light coloured scratches before placing a gradient map.

Here I chose to add some red to the shadow of the ball on the far side as a ball as brightly coloured as this would likely reflect some of that colour onto the surface it was placed on when viewed from this angle, due to the Fresnel effect.

Beetle Chitin Material:

I started by placing the values which matched the form of the material correctly, including the seams where the plates join.

For this material I hand coloured it rather than use a gradient map as it seemed more appropriate given that it isn't just one uniform colour pattern.

Here I refined the initial colours I had placed to imply reflections to show the shiny nature of the material. I also added some darker areas to the seams to increase the contrast.

I used a colour and greyscale reference for this so I could break down the form separately. After receiving feedback that the material looked a bit too perfect for a wild bug I went back and looked closer at the material and decided to add some grunge and micro-scratches like I could see in the reference images.

Here is the finished bug material after acting on feedback.

Denim Material:

In the initial greyscale version I was only using references I found online of people wearing jeans - as a result I forgot that the inside of denim isn't as dark as the outside.

I decided to use my own jeans as reference after feedback and so added the turnups to the bottom to help it feel more like denim.

For the final details I added the stitching and seams to the inside and outside of the material. I also desaturated the whole image as the blue seemed to vibrant and not slightly faded like most jeans.

Brushed Copper Material:

For this metal I started by adding some variation in the value of the surface around the terminator where the light meets the shadow, to show that the surface is dented and not perfectly smooth.

I got feedback and discovered that the striations were too straight and parallel for the curved surface they needed to be on, so in the next pass I fixed this to show them deforming more.

My feedback also highlighted the need for Fresnel so I added a healthy orange glow to the shadow where the copper would have easily reflected light, in addition to redrawing the striations.

Canvas (fabric) Material:

For this material I started by adding the small bumps to indicate where the weave rises.

I then added a distorted version of this pattern in the perpendicular direction to show the overlap of stitching.

In addition to a standard gradient map I decided to add a subtle orange light as this material is next to the copper meaning it could likely pick up some of that orange light on the surface of the fabric as they are so close.

Tarmac Material:

For this material I started out by using a low opacity brush to build up the impression of lots of little pieces melting together in the same way tarmac is formed.

I added a paint line to help imply the road material and lightened the dark side as the contrast seemed too strong in the initial texture.

I used a layer filter to emboss some small areas of stones to make them seem set into the surface like the beginnings of potholes.

Looking back on this material I think I should have increased the size of the painted line and implied that this was a smaller sample so that I could add more detail. I think overall it looks quite blurred because adding more detail at such small scale gets lost. This is something I will remember when studying things in the future as up until this point the scale of the object I was studying hadn't really crossed my mind, I was instead just focused on making it fit the primitive form I had selected.

Beach Sand Material:

This material started similarly to the road material albeit in a lighter value. Sand itself is also made of tiny crushed up pieces so I thought it was a good base to work from.

I then shrunk that texture and overlayed it in multiple areas as sand is made of irregular sediment which isn't all the same size or material.

I noticed in my reference image where ocean waves had caused sand to build into peaks and valleys so I added this to my material study by varying the value in wave-like forms. I also added some small dots for darker areas and shells to further imply a sandy beach.

At this point I went for feedback and discovered that the edges were too sharp to imply sand and was told to use sandcastles as reference to understand this.

After looking at sandcastles I softened the edges to a more rounded form - the sand would just collapse if it tried to form into a sharp point as there wouldn't be enough friction with itself at such a small surface area to keep it together. This wasn't a massive change but it was the most practical way I could think of to act on the feedback with minimal time remaining.

Carbon Fibre:

This was my second attempt at this material as the first one was terrible. I decided to start by tracing out the form of the sphere to try and gauge how the pattern would distort across the surface.

I started with a flat weave pattern drawn with a square brush and then used the warp tool to distort it over the surface of the sphere. I think this works quite well and is a technique I wish I had learned many spherical materials ago.

One thing I found really difficult about this material was finding good reference material. A lot of the images I found were of cars and car parts, a lot of which are coated and polished. As a result I think my material demonstrates more of those properties than the properties of actual CF.

I did discover that the reason CF is coated (typically in epoxy or PU resin if you were curious) is to prevent weathering. So carbon fibre is a super strong material of the future but it still needs to be covered in plastic to last long enough to be practical. Reflecting on this now I have decided I really don't like it. I have decided to go back and get rid of the resin-coated look because it is unrealistic and looks tacky.

For this revised version, I instead looked at un-coated carbon fibre weaves and noticed the way alternate rows of the weave catch the light differently so I highlighted that and then added individual highlights to the peaks of the strands under the direct light. I think this looks far better overall.

Week 29 - Lighting the Character & Environment

Lighting the Character:

The overall design - still has some small issues to rectify

I used a combination of overlay and soft light layers to add a subtle amount of depth to the character. I knew I didn't want to add too much dramatic lighting because the purpose of this piece is still to demonstrate a character clearly and funky lighting would obfuscate that. I think the rim lighting especially though actually helps the character pop out from the background.

I also used a technique we learnt in class towards the beginning of the year where adding a block behind the character can help it stand out or help balance the composition. I think it was a good choice in this case.

Overall I'm satisfied with how this character looks but it isn't as camp or dramatic as it could have been. I was initially inspired by 80's retrofuturism and classical pirate looks but I think I lost some of that during the design process. Sometimes less is more, and I that I could have been more adventurous with my initial concept. However, for what it is I think this design works. It may edge more towards the realm of background character in certain aspects, but some of the best character designs are relatively simple.

Lighting the Environment:

Lighting pass #1 while very dramatic was strange and unrealistic which was not the tone I was aiming for. After feedback I decided it would be better to restrict the window to lighting up just the upper desk and relying on the firelight to light the downstairs portion.

This version felt much cozier and realistic. While it is dark overall that suits the narrative better I think. I did a lot of research into the intensity and falloff of firelight as well as candles and all I have to say is I'm glad lightbulbs exist now as they are way more practical. I used overlay and soft light layers to create the lighting effects and then a very low opacity colour dodge to emphasise the moonlight upstairs which is something I learned from painting the cubeworld rooftop.

Week 28 - Adding narrative elements to the Character & Environment

Character:

Narrative considerations mood board - I knew I wanted this character to look like a scrapper in a desertified wasteland setting which up to this point in the design it was lacking.

Based off my initial silhouette I wanted to add and exaggerate a satchel full of scrap as well as some kind of armband/shoulder piece.

At first the satchel felt too empty.

Using the liquify tool to inflate the bag helped it feel more full.

Finally I added the impression of some objects poking through to make it feel more used.

I think the bag blends in with the body too much, I might need to lighten its overall value or add some other lighter detail to help it stand out. It's also lacking any kind of texture right now, but I think the colour would convey to anyone looking that it is a leather-like material.

I might add some worn out areas, or sun-bleach the satchel slightly, or include some little badges like any cool person would have on their bag.

Here I added the armband/shoulder piece. I decided to have it used as a futuristic portable ammeter/multitool. If this character is the scrapper/mechanic I intend her to be then it would make sense for her to carry a futuristic version of this tool.

Is it wise to wear electrical equipment around your arm? Probably not, but I imagine that's not the biggest concern of someone living in a desertified wasteland.

At this point I also decided to reposition the goggles to a more suitable place above the forehead based off some feedback I had received.

Environment:

Here is the image with all narrative elements and miscellaneous props added.

I decided to include the lute resting on the piano rather than where it was previously hanging on the wall because it should seem like it's used regularly not hung as decoration.
I added a cat sleeping by the fire. I used my cat Hawke in real life as reference because she is very pretty and also likes curling up by the fire.
I added sheet music to the piano top and plenty of books to the bookshelf.
Two people use this cabin but only one is currently staying there, hence two bedrolls, two instrument and two coat hooks, but only one in use.
One resident is left handed and the other is right handed. This is really pushing the limit of realistic interpretation but the quill is to the left of the writing desk but the tools are to the right of the fire. I did this on purpose, therefore even though incredibly subtle it's still adding to the narrative. If you look even closer you can tell the right handed person is currently in, as the rapier is hung to the right of the coat and that's something you would want to grab with the correct hand in a hurry.
By barring the door I have unintentionally implied that the cat shut itself in somehow. I thought this was funny so I kept it. Maybe the current resident is the cat, who knows.

After feedback I was told that I could still add some small details such as nails to the wood which would catch the firelight nicely, so I will add these with the lighting next week.

Week 27 - Rendering the Environment

Setting down the initial values. I kept the values of the floors consistent as they would be nicely broken up by the lower wall and piano. This will definitely be the lightest area overall but as a lot of it will be rest space and dimly lit I'm hoping it wont be too overpowering.

I used the technique I learned during the cubeworld project of how to render wood, i.e scribble, sharpen, blur. I think it works quite well and sets a good base for me to go and refine manually later if I need to.

I really need to make mood boards earlier in the project, it would really help with the idea generation stage. I tend to leave them until rendering because I'm overly wary of being derivative but for next year when I will want to work faster I think I'm going to have to get over my fear and trust that I wont accidentally plagiarize just by having a mood board next to me while I work. For this piece I knew I wanted to focus on a muted colour scheme of majority blue and beige because this scene is a setting ripped straight out of my d&d campaign and those are the inverse colours of the house this location is associated with. As well as having these be the dominant colours I know that at some point I want to add some narrative assets that don't fit the colour scheme to show that an outsider to this place is currently staying in it. Specifically I think having the characters green coat wither hanging behind the door or over the bannister in some way would show this well.

After rendering everything out in value I redid the classic squint-test to make sure it was all reading well. The floor and walls remain well differentiated and the piano stands out as the key area due to its high contrast which is exactly what I wanted, so I think I am okay to move on to applying colour.

Here is the colour test for all the fixture assets. I think the colours work well but the placement of the bedroll, basket, cushion and books seems to be too weighted to the bottom corner so I might adjust these to spread stuff out a bit. I was told at this point that the wood panels on the walls seemed oversized but as this is a fantasy setting I think that it is okay. The lack of hand rails however is a health and safety violation that would transcend all realities so I did decide to add a bannister going forwards.

Week 26 - Rendering the Character + Environment Line Art

Material considerations mood board - I wanted to make sure I rendered the folds in the fabric accurately as this plays a big part in the clothes reading correctly.

Rendering the Character:

Before rendering properly I used the basic values from my initial silhouette and used a colour layer to test out some general ideas for colour schemes. I think leaning to heavily into browns and greens gives the character the effect of looking more like a miner than a scavenger/mechanic, so sticking to traditional blue overalls and the connotations that come with it will be useful. However I think that based on #2 the blue will need to be contrasted with some warmer tones in the skin, hair or undershirt because currently it looks quite overpowering.

The face was looking slightly skewed. I know I have a habit of drawing noses slightly long so that was the first thing I tried changing to fix it.

I moved the eyes down slightly and shortened the nose to make the face feel more balanced. I think this version looks much better.

With the basic colours in place and the sketch cleaned up I needed to differentiate the materials more clearly.

I added a grunge texture to imply dusty dirt on the overalls, and a ribbed texture to the fabric of the sleeves.

Flat colours beneath the sketch.

Basic value render over the sketch.

Colour Scheme #1. I think the top blends into the overalls too much in this version. More differentiation between areas is needed.

Colour scheme #2. I went back to the red overalls. I like the colour but I think it needs to be reduced in presence to be appropriate for this character.

Colour scheme #3. I moved the red tones to the hair which I felt worked well, and opted for a less saturated cooler tones for the rest of the outfit. The overwhelming use of brown in this outfit does lead it to feel a bit boring despite the fact it would fit the desert setting quite well.

Colour scheme #4

This is my favourite attempts so far. I still feel like it's lacking something - it's really flat. At this stage though I think it's likely due to the lack of lighting and relatively plain design. I'm going to work with this as a base and add the rest of the narrative elements.

I think the overalls may be too dark. Its suppressing the detail and making it hard to differentiate the folds. I think lightening this might improve the overall impression.

Environment Line Art:

After all my initial ideas I decided to take a week break from the environment and focus on the character to try and even out the point I was at in each project in hopes of making my workflow more efficient.

In order to reduce the distortion when trying to draw the room in perspective I decided to draw it more like a set sliced out and separate rather than from the pov of a character or camera inside the room. This sketch was really helpful as it gave me a basis to reference from when drawing onto the accurate 3pt grid.

Here is the line art in correct perspective. At this point I wanted to spend more time drawing in the details but after receiving feedback I was told it would be wise to instead focus on rendering the basics first and then add the smaller props and details afterwards.

Research - The Fresnel Effect

This was a buzzword I kept hearing so I decided to actually figure out what it meant. As it turns out I already knew! I just didn't know this was the name for it. When studying optics during my Physics A Level we studied reflections and some basic material properties such as how surface roughness affected the clarity of a reflection. The Fresnel effect occurs regardless of material (albeit to varying degrees) based on the angle you are viewing a surface from. If that incident angle is shallow (i.e you're closer to looking along the surface than down on it - tangential) then you will see a clearer reflection than if the viewing angle is steep (i.e you're line of sight is perpendicular to the surface you're looking at - normal). This is why images of objects reflected in the surface they're placed on seem to fade out - the closer the reflection's surface gets to you, the steeper the angle, the more it fades.

However it's not just objects reflections in the environment that this affects, it also has an impact on how the environment is reflected onto the object. For example, the edges of a cylinder or sphere will be more reflective and therefore lighter if in a light environment when compared to the centre of the object. Alternatively the edges may take on the colour of an environment more towards it's edges.

The reason why this happens is more complex. From what I can understand at a glance, it's to do with polarization (or the plane which the transverse wave of light is oscillating in) of light and partial reflections as a result of that and I'm not sure in my brief research that I understand it well enough to explain it here but I'm going to keep looking into it because I find optics and the equations which relate to it interesting.

My very basic illustration of the effect.

Week 25 - Sketching the Character

My first pass at the pose relied too much on the initial silhouette - I needed to prioritize structure so I recreated the pose focusing on the skeleton and basic forms first.

I also added a slant to the shoulders and hips in order to create a more interesting contrapposto stance.

The second pose was much more successful, the midriff was better placed but the hands were still too small.

I increased the size of the hands (seen on only the forwards facing model here for comparison) and traced over my sketch to form a basic body shape for the characters outfit to be built off of.

I began to build up the outfit design for the character. I knew based of my silhouette that she was going to wear overalls with an undershirt, and have one boot duct-taped up to keep it together. I think the hands need to be increased in size even more.

Week 23 - 3pt Perspective Idea Generation

I wanted to approach this project differently than I have previous ones by using what I learned from the Future Tribes iteration. I used the throwing-spaghetti-at-the-wall method to just get down a bunch of different ideas and perspectives which I could then pick and choose from for my final piece.

For my first few iterations I tried to just focus on different scales of rooms. For #4 I copied a more complex layout to get a feel for the way a room can be more than just a square box.

For the next four iterations I wanted to focus more on narrative and trying to communicate a specific type of room with a purpose such as the inside of a clock tower, or a shop.

I think these four iterations are where I started to come up with somewhat good ideas. I started to think of specific rooms I could visualise such as settings from my old D&D campaign or classrooms I spent time in during school.

The final 4 warm-up iterations were my favourite. I initially wanted to move forwards with the magical tailor shop (#3) but when trying to draw it out in accurate perspective I decided that I wouldn't be able to match the scope of the project with the detail I would have liked to convey so rather than compromise and be unhappy with it I decided to sketch out a new idea.

Week 22 - 2pt Perspective Studies

The two point perspective task was to create an outdoor temple. This was much more challenging than the one point task. I liked my first thumbnail the most in terms of aesthetics, it used a loose steelyard composition but the perspective wasn't as interesting as in the other scenes.

This early version of my 3rd thumbnail had a lot of issues. The stilts weren't aligned, there were several issues with tangents and the horizon line and the islands themselves look skewed in relation to each other because they didn't abide by consistent vanishing points. When moving between machines and using the same photoshop file the rulers I was using to place the vanishing points would disappear and I wasn't lining them up exactly each time as a result which lead to the skewing.

For the final version I made sure to try and avoid tangents and added clouds to the sky to break up the flat tone. I decided to incorporate the pathways from the fourth thumbnail to increase the emphasis on the perspective.

I used a simple gradient map of purple orange and blue to colour the scene. I think in order to improve it I would add some detail like the impression of paving stones or some doorframes and pillars to add depth to the individual buildings.

Marshmallow Material:

I decided to study marshmallows because I had some on my desk whilst working. I didn't think they would be a challenging material but they are definitely the hardest so far.

I warped the shape to make it feel less regular and more organic like a marshmallow. I also added some surface cracks and variations in tone that would help break up the regularity of the surface when adding a gradient map.

I added some roughness using a grunge brush to the surface of the marshmallow and then used a pink gradient map. The colour was challenging to get right and I ended up using a Level adjustment layer to fix the contrast between the lit and shadow areas.

This is not the most appetizing marshmallow in the world but everyone who has seen it has been able to tell what it is supposed to be straight away so if that's a measure of success I have done okay. I found getting the colour right to be the most challenging part. I also thing the shape may be slightly too regular and not fluffy looking enough, but I don't want to stray too far from the basic forms we are supposed to be working on.

Week 20 - 1pt Perspective Studies

My notan thumbnails.

The prompt for these pieces was to create a sci-fi corridor using 1 point perspective. During the third iteration I discovered the magic of the straight line keyboard shortcut in photoshop which made this significantly quicker. My understanding of 1pt perspective has definitely improved over this practice. I think the seventh iteration was definitely the best in terms of interesting perspective but the value and narrative in the second was strongest, so in my final piece I combined those two aspects and added some more interesting lighting.

I think I could improve this piece by emphasizing the lighting more such as by adding some edge highlighting to the rim of the tank and the railing further down the corridor.

My final 1 point piece.

Orange Material:

After the hard surfaces of sci-fi corridors I decided to choose a softer organic material to study. Oranges have a cool skin texture so I went with that.

I started off with a similar base to the frogskin texture, but with a slight blur and reduced opacity.

The most important thing I added here in addition to the extra surface detail is the roughness around the edge. No organic form is going to be perfectly smooth and spherical so this texture really helped make it feel less artificial.

I used gradient maps for colour yet again because they're so easy to alter. I also recieved feedback that the highlights at the top were too blurry so I added some sharpness to them to help it seem clearer.

Week 19 - Refined Iterations

#9 was the variant I have chosen to take further after feedback. While it's significantly different to the initial more traditional pirate design I think those original designs were still helpful in getting me to this point. I think the phrase kill your darlings makes more sense to me in that aspect. As much as I liked the design of the skirt the overall design made more practical sense. Hopefully it will also allow for some really interesting fabric folds whereas the skirt wouldn't have.

As cool as I thought #10 looked I think the helmet looked too Anakin and the coat mainly just obscured the underlying design. I do want to include some more tonal range in the final design as it's currently looking a bit flat and grey.

My next step will be sketching the base of the character and making sure the proportions are accurate.

Glass Material:

Rendering glass is all about internal reflections. Due to the distinct lack of an environment in my material studies this one is going to present a challenge in that I'm going to have to communicate a lot about the material with very little available information. I think the key will be to place the initial surface highlight and its internally reflected counterpart as well as the shadows that compliment it.

Fun fact some people think glass orbs or "crystal balls" are commonly associated with seers and scrying because they lack the edge of a conventional lens and therefore their reflections are omni-directional.

Initial shadow pass.

Normally placing the darkest tones at the edge is a bad thing but glass is a special case due to its transparency.

The final material with added highlights and light passing through to the shadow.

Week 18 - Research & Planning

This week I wanted to focus on widening my pool of references to make it easier to continue iterating without my ideas becoming too repetitive and flat. In order to do this I have mainly used books and I am using them to gather reference to create a mood board in two parts - one for silhouette and one for material/texture.

The first book I thought to look at is Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel, a long dead and notoriously problematic artist who's work I studied years ago for GCSE Art. This book contains a variety of detailed illustrations of odd sea creatures, the majority of which I have always thought looked like futuristic aliens, therefore it would be a great fit for reference in this project.

The second book I thought of was The Natural History Book: The Ultimate Visual Guide to Everything on Earth which has over 5000 illustrations of land and sea creatures alike, as well as rocks, microbes and plants. I've had this book since Christmas of 2011 and still haven't seen every page but I think the sea creature and microbe sections will be especially useful in this project.

The final book I thought of is actually The Art of Sea of Thieves. This one is more about getting a feel for pirates in video games overall. I remember one of my favourite things about Sea of Thieves was it's character generation system and the wide range of body types and cosmetic items available. I would like to use some of these as inspiration without straight up copying or making my character too derivative. I don't think it's a particularly big risk though as Sea of Thieves has a very stylized art direction, where as for this project I'm definitely planning to take my final character down a much more grounded and realistic aesthetic path.

Frogskin Material:

I thought this would be a really challenging material to stufy and I was right. It has both subsurface properties and a lot of surface reflection and trying to get these both right was really difficult.

My approach for this material was essentially a small circular texture over the shaded sphere base. Most of the material properties would be communicated in the surface highlights, or so I thought. I received feedback that the highlights were too harsh for an organic shape and so I decided to soften them.

This is the first material where I didn't like the outcome even after making changes to the highlight after feedback. However, while I will come back and fix it if I have time it's important not to get caught up in failiure and keep moving forward. I might learn something in a future material that will help me come back and fix this one.

Week 17 - The First 20 Iterations

Sometimes the best idea is the simplest so I've decided to focus on my Future Pirate idea for my first 20 design iterations. I was concerned about my idea seeming too generic but I think as long as I focus on making my final design interesting the initial concept itself is secondary.

My first pass at the 20 silhouettes.

My issue with these silhouettes is that they look really generic and plain. There isn't much implying theyre future pirates they all look like regular fantasy pirate designs.

I realised this was due to the fact that my idea was too generic. I needed to focus in and develop my setting and the lore of the pirate tribe so that I had more context to draw on for my silhouettes.

The basic rules I decided on:

These pirates search for sunken scrap not buried treasure.
They have shape language (and later tertiary texture detail) based off of sea creatures.
They sail and fly around on hybrid ships made of a combination of old sailing boats and futuristic junk and scraps.
They fight other pirates and giant mutant sea creatures to survive.

The refined silhouettes now with more narrative focus.

The main improvements I made was improving the silhouette of #7 so it was less plain, fixing the pose of #12 to make it clearer and more neutral, as well as creating #22 after receiving the feedback that my silhouettes could be less literal - just because he resembles the shape of a hammerhead shark doesn't mean it has to use that specifically. He could just have a funky shaped but perfectly normal leather hat, etc.

I also added some crustacean armour plating to #16, and the detail of the skirt of #15 being tied around an old boat propellor which are both ideas I really like and think would be fun to draw. My next step is going to be choosing the silhouette I want to develop and iterating the next 10 or so silhouettes. In order to choose I think I'm going to choose my top 5 designs and create a basic story and character outline for each of them and then pick the one that is giving me the most ideas to build on.

Scale Material:

I began this material by creating a flat pattern of scales and then used the liquify tool (as shown to me by my friend) to warp it into a spherical shape.

I added colour and some harsh highlights but something was still missing from this material. I looked back at my reference and saw that because the scales are a smooth material they actually pick up a lot of light reflected from the surface beneath them.

I darkened the core shadow and added some faint reflected light to all of the scales on the underside. This really made a difference and overall helps the form feel less flat and more spherical.

Week 16 - Anatomy Basics & Skin Material

Anatomy Basics:

After going through the basic ways to break down the body into idealized proportions these were the main things I learned I should aim for using the head size as a unit of measurement:

7.5 heads tall and 2 heads wide
chin to collar bone is roughly 1/3 of a head
hands roughly the size of the face
hands reach down to mis thigh
arms are 3 heads long from shoulder to finger tip
knee to floor is 2 heads
hip to knee is 2 heads
ears should align with the middle of the feet for balance

As a result of this I have started on the initial 20 silhouettes. Once I have finished them I will reflect here before moving on to the more refined iterations.

Skin Material:

Seeing as I now knew I would be going to be rendering a character soon it seemed like a good ideal to study skin and how it reacts to light. I knew that subsurface properties would be important here as skin is slightly translucent and light does pass through it in thin areas such as the ears. I also noted that the border between where light and shadow meet on the skin often is more saturated than the colours either side of it.

Here you can see the skin looks warmer or more red at the boundary of where the light coming from the left hits.

Without that warmth this is what the material looks like - it seems to be to lack life and feel more like rubber than skin.

here it is with that warmth and I think it makes a massive difference to how the material reads.

I added some standard skin texture details, pores, follicles and surface dimples. After feedback though this material was still lacking and as a pale skin it would likely have visible veins there the light hits the surface.

I used a darken layer on a low opacity to add the veins this way as the surface got more in shadow the veins became less visible as they would in real life as well.

Week 15 - Future Tribes Project

My Tribe Ideas:

Nomadic Explorers with the aesthetics of a 1950s Housewife
Futuristic Pirates
Scrappers/Junkers with designs inspired by "American Dream" aesthetic

Based off the brief I know my focus is going to be on anatomy and narrative. My first task will be to create a focused mood board of reference and then study anatomy before starting my silhouettes. I've borrowed the book Anatomy for Sculptors from the library and plan to use it as my main source of reference for the proportion and structure of the character. I will also look at the photo series of male and female Olympians as these will provide great examples of the limits and extremes of human form. Studying the typical or "ideal" form is really useful for gaining a basic understanding, but no real person fits it perfectly and it will be good to get an idea of potential variations my character could have.

Wood & Metal & Brick Materials:

These two are very foundational materials in both real life and video game environments so I knew I wanted to tackle them early on.

For the wood I chose to do wooden planks and so started with a rough sketch with the layout I wanted to achieve. I received feedback that the darkest face needed to be lighter as it was creating too much of a contrast and would lead to lost detail later on in rendering.

I painted over the sketch layer to add the wood texture. Something I learned during term 1's cart project in 3D is that the value range of wood grain is NOT wide, if the contrast is too high it ends up looking like porch decking rather than planed wood.

To finish it off I used a gradient map for colour and added some small details like bent nails sticking out of the planks to really help bring it to life. This has been my favourite material to draw so far and I think it has turned out the best too.

In rendering the metal I chose a basic steel rod form as this would give both a soft curve and hard edge to demonstrate how light reacts to a metalic surface.

In the first image I had condensed the core shadow and left the darkness too close to the edge. Here I corrected it after feedback and also lightened the back edge as it is further away from us.

Here I added some roughness to the texture and the brushed effect to the top. There is a strange effect that happens on the top of metal cylinders that creates these odd segments of light that I couldn't find a name for.

You can see this effect here in this royalty free vector image (note I did not use this as material reference I'm just using it to illustrate my point). The light reacts strangely to the top of the cylinder, I'm not sure if it's just environmental reflections or if it's due to the radial construction of the material but either way it was something I noticed was important to conveying the material in my study. If there is a name for this effect and you know it please tell me.

After spending Christmas at home in a damp cottage with no plaster on the walls, I'd seen a lot of exposed brick, so I knew that would be one of my next material studies. I knew the most important thing about bricks is that no two are exactly the same, all have roughly the same dimensions but other than that they're very different in terms of colour and texture pattern. However I thought it would be most practical to start with a regular base and build up differentiation afterwards

The regular brick base with only average values laid down.

Adding variation to surface texture and making the mortar less consistent in width.

I used a gradient map to add the basic colour and then a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to change individual bricks to help them stand out.

I ended up choosing to go for a more modern looking brick compared to the handmade bricks of an old cottage simply because they're more commonly seen in architecture today and are more iconic overall.

Cube World - Wrap Up & Analysis

It was suggested to me by my tutor to upload the close-ups of the bar as a separate video as it would make sense to display them on their own, so here is that video.

I'm really pleased with how my Cube World turned out but the following points are what I have thought about during my critical analysis:

While the lighting overall is effective, the bar itself is not lit as well as I'd like. This is the natural focal point of the image due to it having the most detail and contrast so it would make sense to light it as such. However, this would interfere with the spot light on the stage, so despite making more technical sense it may not make as much narrative sense.
The textures of the smaller building are very flat and repetitive. It is not the focal point so I wouldn't want to add too much detail, but maybe a street light or adding the skylights originally planned to be in the roof may have helped balance the composition better.
Next time I would try and stylize my rendering more. The mainly-realistic style is effective but not efficient, especially at such small scales.
The exposed brick texture becomes very repetitive and draining so I would have liked to add some posters or cheesy hotel wall-art to break it up a bit more.
I would also change the texture of the road surface to look more wet, as if it has just rained. The only visible evidence is the singular puddle under the sign and I didn't draw any grills so I cant say it's just excellent road drainage. I think this would pair well with the street light idea, adding the opportunity for more reflections which add interest and a sense of realism.

[Length 12:08] The timelapse above shows the rendering process for my cube world.

Week 14 - Animation and After Effects

[Length 0:16] - Just for fun I decided to do a little animation of the environment to bring it to life. The flickering of the sign was done in procreate and the rain overlay effect was done in Adobe After Effects.

Initially I tried to hand draw the raindrops in procreate and animate them as a layer and export it with transparency. That didn't work and took too long even after downloading various rain effect brushes. So I researched how to achieve a rain overlay effect and found out that there is an adobe CC asset for After Effects which does exactly that. I followed a tutorial and just created a single layer of rain to overlay the whole thing. The drops are too small to see unless the video is being watched in a super high resolution so if I did it again I'd definitely try and adjust that setting more as it's not something I considered, but I think it is effective at adding to the mood in the scene.

As for the sign I used the animation timeline in procreate and created three keyframes one with the sign off, one all the way on, and one in between which I created by reducing the opacity of the sign layer slightly. I did the same with the puddle reflection but because I had already merged the layers in the puddle I used a soft brush set to the background colour to dull the reflection as best I could without interfering with the rest of the reflection.

I then added the sound of the sign flickering and the rain. Initially I tried to do this in Powerpoint but trying to get multiple sounds to play at once wasn't working so I recorded the audio using Powerpoint slide recording and then applied that to the video. In retrospect I could have just imported it to iMovie and used multiple audio channels so I will do that if I ever do anything like this again to save time.

Weeks 11-13 - Painting the Cube World (continued)

I wanted to develop a reasonably consistent shape language for my furniture and props, pulling from both traditional art-deco and modern aesthetics like those in my mood board. I knew I wanted some industrial looking aspects - this cube world shouldn't seem overtly opulent and ostentatious - I wanted it too feel a bit rustic and ramshackle like a B-movie motel set except this looks cheap on purpose. I think this was best achieved with the stage made of pallets and MDF sheets. This also led me down the idea of an industrial aesthetic which I think I emulated in the exposed bricks, stools, windows and railing.

I also used hotel logic when designing the furniture for the rooms. All the surfaces should be easy to clean and all items should look fairly generic, i.e easily replaced if damaged, just like in a real hotel. Ironically this meant I put a lot of thought it to making my items look simple, but simple and interesting at the same time was a challenge.

Here I chose the second bed design because it offered the most visual interest in the form of varying levels.

The other designs would rely more heavily on texture rendering for interest which at such a small size I think would have a reduced impact.

For the sheet colours I needed something plain and washed out, again due to the limited size, but also because generally hotel bed sheets are pretty plain. I used a basic gradient map to iterate the colours and then tested them all in the scene - immediately the green wasn't at all harmonious, and I opted for the purple. The purple will blend well with the current colour scheme but also show a nice contrast with the orange/yellow light of the lamp.

The piano was the first prop I thought of, so in my head that means the most important to get right. I started with a really simple basic design to get the proportions I wanted and then built up complexity from there.

I chose not to have the sheet music on display because there is no musician sat at the piano and I didn't think it felt right to have an abandoned piece left on the stand.

For the microphone the hardest part was getting the isometric perspective of the receiver correct. I kept the overall design fairly simple; this bar has a stage made of wooden pallets so it's not going to have a bedazzled mic stand. I opted to use a de-saturated gradient map for both. The piano uses the same map as the wooden floor, helping it seem harmonious in the scene, and the mic uses the same as the other metal in the scene, primarily the stair supports and bar detailing.

Due to the range of colours on display I knew the bar would be the real focal point of the image and so for the bar stool I wanted to make sure I used an easily readable but interesting design. My first pass was overly complex, and the second too simple. The final design makes use of the best aspects of both, and through iterating on the colours I decided a warm toned metal and red seat cushion would look suitably vibrant to draw the attention of the viewer.

In the final piece I also added detailing to individual seats such as tears in fabric and stains to show the seats as pieces of furniture which have been used and lived on not just displayed.

My plan for stocking the bar was to create a variety of different shaped glass bottles, some with visible liquid in and then apply multiple gradient maps in various iterations to create a variety of items to pull from. This was a really effective method but I found the colours didn't all look great next to each other so to fix this I applied a hue shifting overlay layer to the bottles once I had combined them all so they appeared more harmonious in the finished piece.

Week 10 - Painting the Cube World

The quickest way I could think of to render bricks was to make myself a basic grid then duplicate, offset and erase every other vertical line. It took less than 5 minutes to set up, so I think that's fairly efficient.

I brought in a reference image and it was notable that not all the bricks are perfectly identical in size, but this is something I'll address as I'm painting them.

These bricks will be tiny in the finished piece so my only hope of conveying the material texture is in the way it reacts to light (which yes is technically all texture is anyway). Basically, bricks aren't shiny. Any highlights here would need to be diffuse, and the most important thing to convey would be the difference in depth and value between brick and mortar.

In the interest of efficiency I only painted a small sample of bricks and then duplicated them across the wall and then went back and refined any repetitive elements.

Basic brick coloured gradient map.

Colour Dodge for cold moonlight effect.

Darken overlay for the final look.

Week 9 - Developing a style for the Cube World

I knew that I wanted to go for a painterly style, reminiscent primarily of the isometric game Disco Elysium, as well as the hand painted assets of games like League of Legends and it's spin-off show Arcane. An important point of reference for me from Arcane is that all the backgrounds are 2D hand painted images in contrast to the 3D props and characters, so bringing a flat setting to life in this style was something clear to work towards. Plus I specialized in oil painting for my A-Levels and I really miss it.

My first step way to lay the base colour and texture of the material and the implied lighting in a complimentary colour.

Neatening up the texture and starting to differentiate the directions of faces.

My tutor recommended that I increase the contrast between the different faces to communicate the 3D form better, so I used an overlay layer with a mask to make the side faces darker ind order to give the object more depth.

I used a screen and colour dodge layer to lighten the metal surface and give it the effect of being lit by moonlight.

Week 8 - Feedback & Fixing the Cube World

I broke the geometry of my world. I removed the initial basement-like design because it wasn't adding anything to the scene; unfortunately in doing so the building no longer made physical sense. I love impossible geometry but not when it's in my work by accident. Interestingly this led me on a research tangent which reinforced the importance of correct values for communicating form.

In addition to this, at some point I distorted the isometric grid without realizing it. I tried using the warp tool to fix the incorrect lines but I decided the quickest way to fix this would be to just start on a fresh layer with new guidelines, working off the incorrect drawing as a rough sketch.

As I was redrawing the scene I realized that removing the basement reduced the vertical space I had to work with in the interior. This lead to the bar, staircase and piano either being occluded by other important aspects of the scene or being placed in a way that made no logical sense. I didn't want a piano blocking a staircase or the bar, which I deemed the focal point of the image, hidden beneath the balcony. Ergo I changed the layout slightly, moving the stage, bar and staircase to more suitable locations. I also changed the staircase from a solid one to a more modern sleek design because it saved on space and added another interesting aspect of depth to the scene.

I fixed the overall shape but was getting stuck trying to populate the bar and upper floor so I decided to do a rough sketch.

I knew I wanted some simple hotel rooms so I began researching motel rooms sets from American movies for furniture inspiration. From this I decided each room needed a bed of some size, a side table, a dresser and a window. Old lamps were also really common and I had the idea to contrast their warm yellow light with the cold light of an old tube TV, inspired by movies like Poltergeist from the 80s.

In this iteration a lot of the upstairs furniture is obscured or hidden by walls, doors and other furniture. I asked my tutor for help with the layout and he also suggested duplicating some of the furniture to improve my efficiency.

Notably here I added beams to the staircase after I received feedback saying it looked like it was floating unsupported. This addition definitely helps ground the scene and helps the two floors feel more robustly connected.

At this point the main critique I was given was the lack of information being communicated by the values. I needed to show the changes in face direction more clearly. I think Initially I focused too much on the material value rather than how the lighting would work in the space.

I have decided to move on to painting the world rather than getting caught up in drawing out all the small props and details - I think this will be more time efficient and allow me to understand the composition of the whole scene before I bring it to life.

Week 7 - Ice Material Study

The top middle image was my master reference for the texture- I wanted a slightly cloudier ice, plus this made sure I wasn't accidentally using a fake plastic ice-cube as a reference as they tend to look more glassy.

However this reference isn't perfect, the background has been cut out and the shadow removed so I have used other supplementary images to help develop this study.

I started with a basic sphere with a core shadow and contact shadow. I learned from he feedback in previous weeks that developing the form before the texture is really important.

Developing the subsurface structure. I have since had feedback and a remider that ice is a crystalised structure so I might lean into that when I come back to touch this material up.

Here I added some surface detail on a semi-transparent layer above the previous layers.

Here I wanted to develop the transparency further so I added some diffuse highlights to emphasize the smooth surface in front of the texture and cracks inside.

I wanted to add a simple de-saturated blue gradient map just to help emphasize the coldness of the surface. I know that technically the ice isn't blue, in the same way water isn't blue and it only looks that way when reflecting the blue of the sky, but I think in this context it actually makes the material look more realistic.

Week 6 - Developing the Cube World

These were my three initial sketches. After the first piano bar sketch I realized if I wanted any chance of drawing details I needed to learn how to change brush settings so I fashioned myself a pencil-esque brush to use for the rest of my drawings. My second idea was a harbour as I thought the shipping containers would be easy to replicate, but I decided to go back to the bar idea after realizing that I wanted to draw more than just rusty metal and concrete.

After deciding to pursue the bar theme I decided to gather some reference material for the overall theme I wanted to go for. I really liked the colour scheme of the pixel-art game The Red Strings Club by Devolver Digital, I think that kind of warmth is something I really want to convey in my scene. The bottom left image is a snapshot of Disco Elysium by ZA/UM, a game which has an amazing washed out, grimy oil-paint aesthetic to it. I'm honestly not sure how combining these two ideas will work, I will have to trial it in order to see which aspects marry well together.

I extended the bar to add multiple levels - but strange things were happening with the perspective because of tangents where the balcony joins the inside railing. I had to adjust the design to account for this Penrose-style optical illusion.

I added some more detail to build up the narrative. Downstairs is the bar, upstairs is a hotel and on the ground floor is a cafe/kitchen hidden inside the walls. I also added some damage to the neighbouring building. I need to fix the rough blocking of the windows on the rear wall and decide where the rear staircase goes because currently it doesn't make sense or lead to anywhere.

Week 5 - A New Material

Reference Gallery & notable characteristics:

the fur flows following the form
the shadows of red fur are purpleish

I can break it down into tufts of different values, there's a geometric pattern to it

the more coarse the fur the harsher the highlights are - they show individual hairs

fur is organic; it is not all uniform in length and direction

Final Version

The key to this was building up layers and layers of texture like fur is built in layers in reality. I toned down the saturation from my initial gradient map for a more natural look.

I do like the overall effect but I'm not sure if the individual strands offer too much visual information and make the texture look too busy. I have to use fur in my Treasure chest project for the Game Production module so I will use what I've learned here and perhaps try for a more stylized look by grouping strands together into average tones for a softer fur effect than this which was based on a more realistic, coarse fur.

Week 4 - Gradient Maps for the leather material

My first pass (1) is on the left, and a second attempt (2) after adjustments is on the right.

This week I experimented with gradient maps. This material is taking the longest because I'm still getting used to the program but I'm confident my pace will improve with experience.

(1) is passable - it looks leather-ish - but the piece comes off as washed out and lacks impact. I also had feedback that the cast shadow was too dark and similar in value to the object casting it which interfered with readability.
(2) is an improvement but now appears over-saturated and artificial.

My final version of the leather.

This is my final version and I'm quite happy with it. I toned down the saturation and added a new gradient map too cool down the shadows and warm up the highlights. I also added a bit of lightness along the right hand edge which was 100% intentional and not an accidental addition because of my messy lassoing. I think it adds a really nice impression of the subsurface properties in the fairly thin leather.

I may come back to this material before the final submission because I'm sure as I improve I'll think of ways to make it better, but for now I think it's a fairly accurate study.

Week 3 - Non-Destructive Workflow

This was really helpful - I understand how to organize my work in Photoshop a lot more efficiently now by naming and ordering the layers. I also learnt the basics of gradient mapping which I will use to apply colour to the leather in my first material study. I also got some good feedback on the leather, so my next steps for that will be to add bounce light as well as changing the blending options on the texture layer to help it fade in the shadows as less information is available where there's less light. Then I will add the highlights like I originally planned and review it again.

Week 2 - The Materials Project

This week was the launch of the materials project, which will last for the remainder of the year. I need to produce 20 different textures on primitives in Photoshop. The goal of this project is to improve my rendering and presentation skills as well as learning how to use Photoshop to create different textures to use on in-game assets.

My first port of call for references was the book How to Render by Scott Robinson. I briefly scanned the pages for inspiration before deciding that the first material I will try is a new, unweathered leather. I could have and probably should have picked a slightly easier material to start with, or at least one I already knew but I wanted to challenge myself right off the bat so I could learn faster.

I started by selecting a sphere as the primitive I was going to use; leather is an organic material and trying to make it cube shaped would be a different kind of challenge.
I refined this shape by giving it a slightly more asymmetrical silhouette like that of the pouches I was using as reference.

Next I built up the basic shadows and highlights on separate layers so that the overall form would start to have depth. I also added some seam detailing where the darkest points would be.

I added a new layer set to multiply where I created a porous texture by drawing small uneven diamonds and circles. Initially it was way too harsh and made the texture look more like reptile skin so I decreased the opacity to 60%.
Next I want to add some smaller highlights to emphasize the texture, and then I will assess to see if I think it is successful overall.

Week 1

I annotated the key areas on the sphere - before this I only knew the basic terms shadow and highlight.

An Introduction to Photoshop

This week was an introduction to the module and the first program we will be using - Photoshop. I have previously only used Photoshop for basic photo editing in GCSE art, so all the drawing features are new to me.

I wrote down all the keyboard shortcuts I encountered to help me remember them so I can improve my efficiency in the long term.

Our first task was to practice blending the full range of values, followed by shading a simple sphere. The hardest thing about this was getting used to drawing directly onto the screen tablet and not defaulting to the mouse. I think overall while the variation in tone is good I need to work on my blending - the different bands and separation of tone are still very distinct in some areas. I think the main way I will improve on this is by experimenting with the different brushes and opacity settings for them. These are all new tools and so I expect it will take some time to adapt.

Thumbnails and Notan

Building on from the initial activity we began creating some basic thumbnails of landscapes, focusing on the distinction of the different planes using value to add depth. I was introduced to the Japanese design concept of Notan, which involves the use of light and dark contrasting to show silhouettes and bold shapes. Based on my own research it seems to make really good use of negative space, producing a really clear and readable final image. Relating it to my background in fine art it seems like a more graphical version of Chiaroscuro - the using of extreme light and shadow to emphasize composition.

I used several values in my thumbnails to show the many planes that can exist in a landscape but I tried to limit myself to 3-5 main values in order to keep things simple. The point of making these images, in addition to familiarizing myself with the software, was to try and make small images which are still clearly readable - the emphasis was on good composition. For me this meant avoiding any confusing tangents/kissing of lines, and keeping the values consistent with the distance of the object from the viewer. I found out that the further away an object is, the more value it loses due to atmospheric perspective, i.e the dust, moisture and air particles in the atmosphere getting in the way of the object and making it appear faded. I have a passion for physics since studying it for A-level, particularly astrophysics, and so after learning this I went on a tangent researching how the rate of diffusion of light would vary on other planets. For some reason not many people seem to have conducted analysis of how landscape art on other planets would look, but I am assuming the greater the density of the atmosphere, the greater the change in value over the same distance. This presents an interesting principle for Game Artists working on games set on other planets - be accurate to the atmosphere of the world the player is on or keep it consistent with Earth's atmosphere regardless so it feels familiar.

For my thumbnails I assumed all scenes were in an Earth-like atmosphere :)

My priority was getting the lightest and darkest tones in first.
I used the custom shape tool to create the ships.
The feedback I received helped me to realize that totally enclosing the foreground shape is confusing visually so I know to avoid this now.

I wanted to make sure no shapes were fully enclosed by others.
While reflecting now I can see again that the middle shape still doesn't read clearly - I should have added another stalagmite to give it a more distinct outline.
My other critique of this landscape was that it isn't very interesting. The lack of texture makes it feel disconnected so in my next iteration I wanted to prioritize cohesion.

Here I wanted to try out the brushes because up until now I had been using only the polygonal lasso tool and fill bucket for the main shapes.
The result of this was some much smoother outlines which help the landscape feel more organic.
I also adjusted the opacity and used a softer airbrush to add some mist. My intention with this was to help further emphasize the distance to the further hills. I like the effect but I think that in the case of these thumbnails it interferes with the clarity and readability too much to be used again.
I somehow made the whole scene translucent, which isn't noticeable with the opaque background but is definitely something I need to be careful of because in a pipeline that kind of mistake could be disastrous.

For my final iteration I wanted the foreground to be the most interesting point as I had neglected that in previous iterations.
I used a combination of the lasso and brush techniques this time, and didn't use any of the custom shapes.
I think that I have communicated the different planes well - the island in the sea is really effective, I can feel the depth. The only thing lacking overall is detail/texture but for quick thumbnails it wasn't my priority.

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