Wk 4 Character Design

   This week in Art Ⅱ was all about character design. This is a topic that is near and dear to me. It's been sort of like a hobby of mine to design characters and come up with plots for a long time so I really enjoyed the material we had to do for this week. We was tasked with the job of creating a character but what I found so great about doing this was that it wasn't just about coming up with a design for the character but also a background for them. I thought that  including that part the character was pivotal because it plays such a important role in who that character is and why he is.

   The assignments consisted of many useful lessons ranging from the character description to concepts  to canon changes and expressions. What I found most  rewarding about these assignments is how they can help to shape your character. Once you decided which concept you wanted to go with and finalized the character's look you had to complete a turn-around sheet. This is an important sheet to have so all involved with your character's creation can see every inch of your design. I ended up very pleased with the result.

    The next Competency assignment was to create a construction shape form and to figure out the measurements for that form. This is done in order to help you successfully maintain good proportion and accuracy of your character. This assignment was also meant to serve as assistance in your last Competency. This was to create three proportionally correct, dynamic silhouetted staging poses.

I really feel like got a lot out this class and really enjoyed it. I feel my understanding of art fundamentals and their importance to computer animation have never been more clearer. This class was a refreshing reminder of why I fell in love with art in the first place.

WK 3: Animal Anatomy and Texture

 I know I'm a little late getting this post up but I've really busy. Always, last week in Art Ⅱ was really fun. We explored animal anatomy and texture by experimenting with two animals in particular and combining  them into a brand new one. Mostly all the assignments this was centered around this objective. The two animals I decided to combine were a peacock and a rabbit.

   We had to do several assignments in preparation for the creation of this new animal, ranging from animal studies to texture studies to image references but the most beneficial and interesting by far was coming up with creature concepts. The goal of this assignment was to come up with three very varied creature designs for your combined animal. This was great lesson because it reinforced the importance of the exploration of one's subject matter. Not limiting yourself to  just your initial concept can lead to unexpected, surprising results, and it did.

After we came up three creature concepts, the next step was for us to decide on one to complete with a full range of value, a skeletal study and a construction shapes form. I ended up choosing the concept on the top left.

Ultimately, this was a great week. I learned a lot about the mechanics of animals a why it is so important to remember when designing creatures. There are a lot of real world factors that I would have never considered had not learned this lesson in animal anatomy and texture.

Wk 2 Human Anatomy and Proportion

  This week in Art 2 we  learned about how to illustrate the body and it's parts accurately. As someone you has somewhat struggled with proportions in my drawings I thought this was a extremely helpful topic to learn. One of the most helpful techniques I learned was gesture drawing. I had never done this before  and it took me a while to get the hang of it but I find that it really helps to accurately established proportions. Normally when I  draw, I tackle the body little by little, causing me to measure the length of certain parts of the body differently. What gesture drawing does is allow me to layout a blueprint of the whole body before getting too far in my drawing and adding detail.

 The next assignment I did reinforced our knowledge of gesture drawing but introduced construction shape drawing. This technique adds depth and volume to the gesture by using shapes.  For this assignment we were to do a gesture image, construction shape image, and a refined rendering with a full range of value. The proportions on this drawing came out perfectly thanks to the gesture and construction shape phases that was done before the refined form.

 
   The final assignment I want to talk about was to gesture three sequential poses of one action showing clear weight and anticipation. Successful completion of this assignment meant that you were able to realistically convey weight and anticipation on paper. I personally think I nailed this assignment.

Overall, I got a lot out of this week's lesson. I intend to keep using what I learned from this week, onward to continue to improve upon my human anatomy.

Fundamentals of Art 2: Wk 1 Atmospheric Perspective

   I have finished my first week in Fundamentals of Art 2. This week I learned all about atmospheric perspective and relearned the importance  of linear perspective. When I learned about linear perspective back in Art 1, it wasn't my favorite exercise to work on. I just wasn't that into the analytical approach that comes with understanding 1, 2, and 3 point perspective. However, I enjoyed learning about atmospheric perspective a lot more.  I've always been really good at effectively using value to portray a sense of depth in my work but I never really utilized or even knew about the various ways you can create depth such as using line weight, placement, color, and saturation.

   An assignment that I really learn a lot from about creating depth was this one. We were instructed to create depth by using only line weight. I didn't know that line alone could be so effective at simulating depth.
 

  This next assignment I really enjoyed. Our task was to manipulate images in Photoshop in order to create depth by using placement, scale, contrast and saturation. This assignment really expanded my knowledge of Photoshop and reinforced the importance of placement and scale in regards to depth.
The last assignment I wanted to talk about was supposed to encompass what we learned about both atmospheric perspective and linear perspective. I was pretty please with the work I produced.

Atmospheric perspective wise, I thought it was perfect but in hindsight, I do think this image was sorta lacking in the linear department. Then again, linear perspective was never my strong point. Always, I really learned a lot from my first week in Art 2 and look forward to what I will learn in the weeks to come.