alexmodule2

[alexmodule2]

Process

Decided to focus on the process of Mike Yamada and began with a few small quick thumbnail sketches. The only elements I had in mind for the character were they were a woman, and wielded an axe. Was much more difficult than I expected and I struggled quite alot with this small rough style of drawing. But it's an interesting way of exploring ideas and I may use it in the future.

I next went on to draw a few sillhouettes, some based on certain thumbnail sketches and some largely original, aswell as some combining elements of different sketches. Was surprised to enjoy this way of drawing quite alot and found it to be a good way of exploring the shape of a character without commiting to a full drawing, focusing only on the outer sillhouette.

I then chose the sillhouette I liked the best to develop into a few different sketches exploring different directions to take the character, building off of the sillouette. I had some difficulty with coming up with unique outfits with minimal research but I found it to be a good way of exploring the design.

This is the final design I decided on. Quite happy with the result given my skill level I think the sillouette step definitely had a big impact on the final design. Ended up going with a scifi armor look.

[alexmodule2]

Maya UV Unwrapping

I spent a session learning how to UV unwrap the wrench in maya. I first did most of the unwrapping automatically and then went in and began cutting up the object and moving seams to less visible places and cutting to relieve pressure so the textures were not stretched. I also used to transformation tools to fix some areas where the textures were stretching. I was overall reasonabley pleased with the result, though there may have been a couple of places where I could have placed the seams in a more hidden position.

[alexmodule2]

Week 3

Now is the time to put into practice all the research I have done into various artist's and their creative process. I have decided to use and attempt the character design process denoted my Mike Yamada in The Skillful Huntsman. I have never drawn sillhouettes or even thumbnail sketches and I think it will provide an interesting new experience which I can use for my future creations.

[alexmodule2]

The Skillful Huntsman

The Skillful Huntsman is a 2005 art book by Scott Robertson and his three students at the Art Centre College of Design: Khang Le, Felix Yoon and Mike Yamada. It denotes their design process based on the Grimm Brothers tale 'The Skillful Huntsman'. Within the book they explore process of designing the main character, world and supporting characters. I have decided to focus on the character design part of the book.

Mike and Felix begin with many quick thumbnail sketches exploring potential design ideas and shapes. By drawing without focusing on details, proportion or realism this allows the artist to devlop the more important aspects of the design early in the idea's developement. Felix makes strong use of the lost line technique where instead of being drawn lines are instead suggested by blank spaces. Khang begins with somewhat more detailed pencil sketches which allow him to deveop specific parts of the design such as drawing several iterations of the character's headpiece.

Mike then goes on to, instead of drawing from the inside to draw from the outside focusing only on the character's sillouette. He mentions that when interior design is omitted it 'frees your mind and pen to create things that you would not do when building from the inside out. The first impression given by a sillouette is an extremely important area of character design and working on it early on in the developement of an idea ensures that the final product will have a strong sillouette and readability.

Then developing on the sillouettes, he takes the best ones and sketches various forms that the interior design coculd take. He does several iterations of multiple sillouettes to ensure that a broad range of design spaces is explored.

Khang and Felix do a more standard process of choosing a thumbnail and then moving on to more detailed sketches exploring different outfits and equipment, even exploring different settings and time periods at the same time. Khang notes that 'Story suggests design, and design can also spark new ideas for story.' going on to describe how different small details suggest things about the world and life that the character lives in.

Mike then selects one base sillouette and goes on to use different drawing techniques to explore the sillouette in bigger detail. As well as a more standard line drawing he also builds on the sillouette directly with white and grey values. He expresses that different approaches lead him to different results and explores a wider breadth of design. Scott notes how by working directly off the sketch he doesn't lose the dynamism of the original sketch.

Finally he progresses onto selecting on final sillouette and developing it in high detail with colours. This is when the design really comes together.

Khang and Felix also progress onto high detail sketches and colour roughs, finalizing the design. Khang talks about striking the correct balance of combining familiar elements with alien ones when creating a fantastical design. Scott notes that 'it's easy to create different-looking designs for the sake of being different but it is difficult to do different and better-looking designs.

[alexmodule2]

Maya

Spent the past few tech sessions learning basic operations in Maya. Started off with this simple robot. Wasn't too difficult but have no idea how I would create more complicated and organic shapes. Reasonabley pleased with the result.

Tried to make a simple pair of pliers and struggled with the more complicated curves on the handle, but think I have some idea of how I could improve it.

Made this wrench and lightly beveled most of the shapes. Managed to add some details but struggled with some of the more complicated changes I thought of. Quite happy with the result however it's much better than anything I thought I could make, though it's definitely on the easier side as it's mostly made out of basic shapes.

[alexmodule2]

Kinu Nishimura

Kinu Nishimura. ca 1992-2002

Kinu Nishimura is an illustrator that worked for Capcom between 1992 and 2008 and independantly since then. Her work included character design, promotional artwork, concept art and in game graphics. She joined capcom after being impressed by their promotional art in magazines. She played a large part in defining the aesthetic of 90s/2000s capcom arcade games.

Her style is very bright and colourful, taking elements from manga aswell as from traditional watercolour painting which she has a background in. Some of her biggest influences are the realist fantasy paintings of Jun Sueimi who drew promotional and concept art for the Wizardry series in Japan, and AKIMAN the capcom artists which predated her and designed all of the original street fighter characters. She works on manga manuscript paper in liquitex, building on her prior experience in watercolours, or when she wants a lighter touch she'll work with markers.

She's excels at drawing bright cheerful characters and she admits that because of that she struggles with drawing villains, but as a result of that her drawings are incredibly appealing and full of energy. Very noticeabley in a fighting game she renders the character's muscles with incredible detail and energy. While she doesn't often design the characters she draws she very often creates the most defining vision of that character and plays a huge part in how those characters are remembered by players.

1995. Capcom Illustrations. Translated by shmuplations.com. Available at https://shmuplations.com/capcomdesignroom1995/.

2001. Capcom Design Works. Translated by shmuplations.com. Available at https://shmuplations.com/kinunishimura/.

[alexmodule2]

Yoh Yoshinari

Yoh Yoshinari. ca. 2006-2022.

Yoh Yoshinari is an extremely accomplished director, artist and animator, known for his work keyframing in various anime such as Neon Genesis Evangelion and Panty and Stocking, for Mecha Designs in Gurren Lagann and for directing BNA and the Little Witch Academia series of shorts and anime. He got pulled into animation by his brother and got his start drawing in betweens on the 1991 OVA Bousou Sangokushi: Specter Tanjou. After school he formally joined Gainax after a brief time in Madhouse.

He is especially known for his intensely animated action scenes or 'sakuga'. He's a huge fan of both western and japanese animation and that has a great influence on his work, in a style described as ''a thick feeling like he is trying to condense all of the best animation he’s seen in the past into one work'' by Hiroyuki Imaishi. A term has even arissen in the anime community, ''Yoshinari Cuts'' for intense action cuts with powerful movement and composition, though the man himself says he would like to try more new things.

He stresses the importance of simplistic and appealing designs in anime saying that ''drawing them in close-up requires to add details to it, so the more we add details, the more it collapses''. His use of forms is very unique, and noticeable in all of his work, he describes it in his own words as ''It looks simple, but it contains intangible forms which leave us wondering about its actual shape. Like an overlap of very complex curves.''. He also notes that drawings should be relevant to the work and to always think of the viewer's enjoyment and to not be selfish in enjoyment of a drawing.

issue 003 of Animestyle. 03/2013 translated by @NohAcro. wavemotioncannon.com. Available at https://wavemotioncannon.com/2016/12/19/yoh-yoshinari-interview-animestyle-032013-part-13/.

[alexmodule2]

Alex Ahad

Alex Ahad. ca 2009-2019.

Alex Ahad is the Art Director for the 2012 independant fighting game Skullgirls as well as Lead Concept Artist for the 2019 game Indivisible. He created all the pre production art for both games such as model sheets and general concept art. And was also responsible for overseeing the animators and clean-up artists.

His art style takes various elements from both western cartoons and japanese anime with some of his main sources of inspiration being 'Roger Rabbit, Batman: The Animated Series, FLCL and Gurren Laggan'. His art uses large anime style eyes, but cute rounded cartoony noses. His art often combines and contrasts cute or sexy character traits which grotesque and monstrous ones, which was a core part of Skullgirls' art direction. The character designs for the characters of skullgirls were something he built up over many years even going back as far as 2007 before finally getting a chance to use them when he joined the team for skullgirls.

In his words ''Knowing your fundamentals will always be crucial for any art career. In terms of game art, the more familiar you are with the other aspects of the process (programming, design, animation, story, etc), the easier it would be to help in those parts or at least be able to communicate with those in charge of those processes.'' He emphasizes the importance of managing and communicating with people and also being confident in your decisions. he worked with quite a large team for an independant game involving lots of contractors.

Specifically in terms of art for video games he says ''Gameplay always comes first, so that has to be the top priority when creating art for games. This could mean anything from having to push the pose further for readability, cutting frames from an animation to make it more practical, or even just cutting something out entirely.'' He would even go in and draw keyframes himself when he felt like it was important.

Team Deviantart. 19/05/2022. 'Focus Artist Interview: Alex Ahad (oh8)' deviantart.com. Available at https://www.deviantart.com/team/journal/Focus-Artist-Interview-Alex-Ahad-oh8-916633727 .

RUSCHER, Wesley. 2011. 'Interview: Alex Ahad’s inspirations behind Skullgirls' destructoid.com. Available at https://www.destructoid.com/interview-alex-ahads-inspirations-behind-skullgirls/

[alexmodule2]

Week 2 : Research

For this week we've been asked to research several practicioners in the industry that we look up to. I already have some ideas for ones I'm already interested in but I'm excited to research new ones aswell, to inform my future work.

[alexmodule2]

Knolling Image

Above is a small knolling collection of all the items I feel like most represent me as a person. As well as technology I use every day there's also a game controller reflecting my interests. My drawing materials both physical and digital. A Brazilian drink from my home country, a caffeine addiction I'm struggling to resist, my glasses, a book I picked up recently and other things I carry on a day to day basis.

These items reflect on me in various different ways from my interests to my hobbies or my daily consumption. And they form a strong image of me just from objects I collected from my room. The value I place varies from almost nothing (the monster can) to a great deal (my laptop). Though the items I place the most value in are largely because of sentimental attachment to what is contained within them or the memories I made with them, rather than their material value.

[alexmodule2]

Knolling

The term 'knolling' was coined in 1987 by Andrew Kromelow, a man working at a furniture making shop who after every day would neatly organize all the tools in the shop at right angles. He dubbed it knolling because it reminded him of angular work of furniture designer Florence Knoll. The style of photography was later popularized by artist Tom Sachs who included it in his training film for his studio.

One popular form of knolling online is laying out one's survival kit either for recreation or as a last resort in the event of a crisis. These photos offer more than just a practical collection of survival tools but also a look into the person's values and expectations for their upcoming excursion. Packing lightly or heavily, taking a firearm or not, choosing whether or not to take unnescessary sentimental items are all offer key insight into the personality of the packers.

While not strictly knolling, Chinese photographer Ma Honjie has for years been photographing his series 'The Family Belongings of Chinese People'. He traveled around the country asking ordinary Chinese People if they would be willing to lay out their possesions infront of their home for a photo. Interestingly he notes that wealthy people were much less accepting of his offer than the less wealthy. Even the lone decision to take the time and effort to display one's property to a stranger says something about the personality of their owners. Not only that but what objects, and how the objects are laid out says a great deal about what the homeowners value and a little bit about their personality, are the items organized together or strewn out randomly, are large items shown or only the smallest and easiest to transport, are items important to the owners shown or only the most generic ones. By going out and photographing these people and their possessions the artist is also showing the lives of these people and a piece of their experience to the world.

[alexmodule2]

Value

What do I value? What objects do I value? I find that most of the things I value are ones that carry the experiences and time spent with them and not their intrinsic value. For instance I value an old laptop full of memories much more than a brand new expensive one. I place great value in images I've collected over the years with memories of friends and experiences attached to them. For years I've collected memes in a digital folder and while I might not browse it regularly, I take great value in being able to recall an image or video from the past and having it safely stored.

I don't place too much value in physical objects in general however and recently when I've been faced with the challenge of throwing things I've been easily able to throw things away that don't have strong vivid memories attached to them. When I came to the UK the only sentimental item I took with me was a first world war bullet attached to a necklace. Somewhat breaking tradition I didn't have any specific strong memories attached to it but at the time I just felt like it was important and would help me in the future and I needed it. The value I placed in it much like the value we place in many things was entirely arbitrary and based on how I was feeling at the time. But I don't think that makes it any less important.

However one area in which I place great logical value is in the work I produce. I place little to no value in things that don't turn out the way I wanted, and I place greater value in the things that filled my expectations. However much more than that I place great value in the ideas behind the things I produce and I try to record them when possible so I can iterate on them and carry them into the future.

[alexmodule2]

My Identity

I'm male, white and straight, born in Brazil with British parents but none of those things have ever felt particularly core to my identity. Rather what feels more intrinsic to my identity is what I choose to spend my time on this earth with.

A large chunk of my time is spent with media, especially video games. I greatly enjoy them both as a piece of media but also as an activity. I love challenging games and my willingness to stick with a virtual challenge and push myself is a big part of what I consider me. Other than video games I also love film and graphic novels which I spend alot of time experiencing, my love of them is definitely an identifying factor and they push me and inspire my goals as a producer of art. I find common ground with other people largely from comparing and contrasting media we enjoy and I genuinely think that what you enjoy makes up a large portion of who we are. Instead of identifiying myself from nationality, a stronger part of my identity is what communities and what kinds of people I choose to spend my time with.

I also have an identity as a creator/producer largely shaped by the things I enjoy but also my life and the things around me. While I'm still at the start of my journey and my technical skills are still at a very low level, the kinds of characters I want to create and the kinds of stories I want to tell make up a large part of how I identify myself. The hope that I can improve my technical and creative skills is also the hope that I can improve as an overall human being. A large piece of my identity is where my skills are at now and where I aspire to take them. From an extremely low level up to being able to realize the ideas I have that are shaped by my experience.

However, that being said I do identify myself with some more intrinsic things such as health issues I have struggled with in the past and still shape my life in the present. Like it or not my past shapes the person I am today and i relate stronger to people with whom I share similar experiences.

[alexmodule2]

Week 1 Identity

Brief received, this week we are to reflect about our identity and current skills, what we value and our future goals. Culminating in a knolling piece. Will research more into knolling in preparation.