It Begins

The brief is to draw 100 thumbnails of environments or vehicles that are experimental, the way to draw them is to not spend a lot of time and just to progress one after another. For example to do some lines then find a shape and think that you could turn that into a vehicle with four wheels. Then progress it further by giving it 6 wheels, or no wheels ect...

Then choose 4 or 5 of those thumbnails and progress the drawings further, a rough concept of each will suffice.

Then I plane to do 2 final pieces of the same drawing.

Thumbnails

I have created approximately 40 thumbnails and am happy with my progress. I am starting to struggle from now as I find my game has a simple plot and design to it so that limits me in some ways with what I can draw that will be relevant to my concept.

I am therefore going to begin to do random thumbnails that will not be used or have relevance to my idea but will allow me to be more experimental with my drawings and give me a chance to find a thumbnail or draw an object that I would not originally have thought of.

Thumbnails

The two images above and some quick thumbnails done of what some clouds could possibly look like during either gameplay or cutscenes.

I have tried to be more experimental as you can see in the last two, by using random tools to create the first and then using the shape created in the middle but edit it again. I like the style of the second but would not incorporate either of these into my concept.

Thumbnails

Thumbnails 1

The first set of thumbnails were created in 10 minutes and were the first few things that popped into my head when thinking of environments. At first I started to think of objects that were with the theme of my Game Design Document but found that this was stifling my creativity.

Thumbnails 2

On this set of thumbnails I decided to stick to buildings and tried to use the strong lines in buildings to create some more experimental thumbnails. There are some I feel that work and others that don't, these took around 20 minutes.

Thumbnails 3

The first image is similar to a piece I created in a program called Alchemy, I then quickly drew it into photoshop and began to work from that, soon I had created a small flower but that quickly progressed into 15 small thumbnails. The last ones are quick sketches that were more random. These took around 10 minutes.

Thumbnails 4

At first I designed these thumbnails around plants and flowers trying to stick to a nature theme, I then progressed onto suns and moons just to progress and change things up. I keep coming back to drawing buildings for some reason, I feel this is because I enjoy drawing buildings due to their strong lines and distinctive shape. These took around 15 minutes.

Thumbnails 5

These are the last of the thumbnails, again I found myself continuing with buildings as soon as my pen hit the tablet.. My favourite drawing is in this final set, I tried to be creative and think of picturesque scenes in places that I have been or had thought of. These took around 25 minutes.

Light and Composition

Below are some notes taken from a lecture about Light with Nigel Potter on 18/01/2011

Without light there would be no colour, no form, no distance.

What is light?

Electromagnetic radiation

Point lights - the sun is the biggest point light, an uncovered light bulb

Linear parallel rays, such as a spotlight

How does light work?

Absorption

Black absorbs all colours, White reflects all colours as they are

Reflection

Diffused reflection, at the slightest angle the light will change dramatically and change it's reflection

Refraction - translucent/transparent

The further around the curve the light gets the more dramatic the refraction

Shadows made up of 3 things

Light intensity

Distance from source

Dynamic occlusion - Moving form a tight dark shadow into a blurred light shadow

Sub surface scattering - such as skin, leaves, ears and orange peels, some light is reflected off it but at the same time some is allowed to pass through.

Colour - green next to a red then the red will look more red because it is next to a green! And vice versa. Below is an image to further understand what I mean:

Stare at the dot then switch photos but continue staring at the photo. The black and White photo looks as though it has colour but after a few seconds your eyes adjust and you see the black and white, look below for link to example:

http://www.johnsadowski.com/big_spanish_castle.html

Here is an example of my own:

It does work but I did not pick the greatest of images to do this to, the larger the image and the more vibrant colours in it the better it works.

Frank Hong

http://www.3dtotal.com/tutorial/photoshop/digital_city_painting_city_of_angels/images/main_00.jpg

The image above has reflective light on the top and sides of the buildings, this is coming from the sun behind the angel building in the centre which is the pin light and one source of light. There is also absorption in the clouds and also more reflection of the water at the bottom of the image.

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs31/i/2008/198/f/a/Concept_Package_Town_Square_by_frankhong.jpg

The above image is another good example of how light can push an image even further, there is pin light coming from the right hand side of the image which is coming from the sky again but the floor is reflecting the light. You can see light on the two windows on the left due to the refraction from the glass above and the same with the archway on the left. The top of the buildings are also reflecting the light.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiakIPmoY2NVmbSvTVqdZvLVos1WbOxyDd5K2OlhXG5qV-rtItXYLqNHPXLAEKufUPr7jqCSKUHhYwX6OUCXoWyt6iw-eeRG1Blbezj4TpYY-67oFvJMT-SFG8KeKi4e8m1awFjc3DZTME/s1600-h/uncharted_waters_Post_Final_web720.jpg

The image above has pin light coming from the sky again which will be the sun beaming down and due to the shadow under the arches on the right you can tell that the sun must be behind them. The rocks on the right have some absorption where the sun is hitting them as do the clouds in the background, the waterfall at the back has reflection which is also hitting the water at the bottom. Because the water is quite still you can see that the water is clearer due to the sun hitting it and refracting through it. There is sub surface scattering with the plant life on the left hand side of the image.

Composition

Rule of Thirds

Take a canvas and divide into it into thirds horizontally and vertically and you will have nine squares in which the rule of thirds apply. Inside the squares is also the focal point, basically the best way I can describe it is to say that there should only be one focal point and if there are more then they should not take focus away from the one definitive focal point. Good composition allows the image to flow as one and make it successful.

As you can see in the above image there is clearly the Rule of Thirds composition working, the focal point is the bottom right with the blade edging out and the image itself works well alongside the composition.

I believe the above image works well in some ways but in others it fails, it is unclear as to wear the focal point is and the image therefore conflicts itself. I believe that the focal point is the boot that hits the bottom left corner. This works well in the sense that this is wear the human eye automatically first see's, this is due to us learning to read left to right. At the same time the fist at the top right is also another focal point, as well as the girl hitting the right focal point. Therefore I feel that this is a bad example of composition.

The above image uses The Radii method, a connection of lines meeting in the center and also coming from the center of an image or focal point. this automatically makes the view focus to the one point of interest.

There are more methods to do with composition such as The Cross, The Circle, The Triangle, The L and The Iconic. Every image whether it is from a phone book, famous painting, album cover, book cover or even concept art must fall into one of these theories or else it does not work. You can see examples of this in all of the above. Now that I have a better understanding of how composition works I will try to make sure that my concepts follow these theories. For more information about the theories behind Composition follow this link:

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3275&page=1

Close ups

Below are some close ups of some thumbnails that I feel worked well:

City

I feel this one works really well, by using a simple brush for the sky that feels like the sun penetrating through the clouds and then creating a quick city landscape by outlining buildings then filling with black. I then copied and pasted the buildings, turned down the opacity and tuck that in the background to add depth.

Rose

This flower was one of the Alchemy progression pieces that I done, coming from just a few lines and into a full picture that only took approximately 60 seconds I felt really happy with how this turned out and could easily transist into a full concept.

Petal

This one I like because of the petals, the stem took all of two seconds to add but the petals were a quick sketch with the pen and then turned into petals quickly, I did not know what I was drawing until I had finished and then by quickly adding some grey in there to bring out the bud.

Sunset

This is the most creative of the thumbnails that I created and came from a small drawing of a mast. I began with a line and then created the boat but decided that water would not be enough to add some depth to the image. I then created a coast and with a simply circle along side a horizon the image was changed dramatically.

Concept Ideas

For my final concepts I have come up with some ideas of what I want to emulate. I would like to do a landscape with heavy rain beating on the landscape. I am not sure how much colour I will add to this as I want the image to be dark and moody to give the feel that the world is in peril.

Here are some quick rough sketches to show what it is that I will try and create:

Attempt 1

So here is some progress shots of my first attempt at a dark moody hotel being rained on quite heavily, I like the HOTEL sign being illuminated throughout the rain to show how dark it is however I feel that the overall image is not what I wanted it to be so will try and change the idea slightly but keep the rain.

Images:

I feel as though it works well, the hotel sign being illuminated definitely shows the darkness to the image but feel as though it is not enough for what I want to portray. This is showing a building submerged in rain, I would like to show a city in rain so have decided to leave this concept and move forward onto a horizon styled concept.

Attempt 2

Here are some more progress shots but of a different idea, using the same premises for a dark moody landscape I took one of the images I had from a New York trip and outlined it, I then coloured in with black to give the feel that they are far off and dark. From here I am going to experiment with what I can place in the foreground and/or background.

Progress Shots:

I began using an image I had taken in New York back in 2007 as a reference and then outlined a rough building horizon and then simply filled it black. I then added in a quick fog to show the mood of the piece, I feel that this is working closer to my final concept idea and will continue to progress this further.

Reference Photo:

As you can see I took out the bridge and concentrated on the layout of the buildings but did not want to work straight off the image. I wanted to create my own versatile world and simply used this as a reference for the size and shape of the buildings.

Progress

Some more progress shots for my final concept for Droplets:

With this I used the original fog image but manipulated it and replaced the colour, then used the smudge tool. I feel this is working well as a lighter piece than the other two. I fell that the smudging of the light is too pointed but once blurred it loses its feeling so will try and work around this.

This is another fog image but with a different colour and rain added to it, I feel this piece is close to what I want as a final piece as it has the rain that I need, the darkness to it but with light and depth at the same time how ever I still feel as though it is missing something so will work on it some more.

The final shot of my progress, with this image I simply cropped and erased around the fog to create a moon effect then by using the brush to create deep lines as rain and lighting to create atmosphere. I feel that this is another one closer to my original design but again is lacking something.

More Progress

Final Concepts

I refined the building landscape by using the original as a template and then used more finer lines to create a more creative landscape, I feel that this was the problem with the original images. Also I have added a motion blur to the background and have gotten the feel that I wanted. It feels as though the whole world is collapsing into itself and the heavens have opened up.

Another of my final concepts, I have added in the refined landscape but kept the original in the background to add distance into the image. I love the bold lines in this piece of work and feel it adds to the image perfectly. The bold lines representing heavy rain falling down onto the city with the city gradually being engulfed by the thick rain and fog.

Final

This is my chosen final piece, I have added some rain at a slight angle as I feel the light works better as the moon illuminating the buildings and rain. I am happy with this as a concept for Droplets, I feel it gives the mood that I was after from the beginning and also the depth. For the next assignment I will not focus on my Game Design as I felt restricted in what I could design.