Forester Goes Hunting.

There's a line in Fundevogel:

"There was once a forester who went into the forest to hunt."

This one line is so ambiguous and open that it allows the visual development artist (in this case - me), to brainstorm scenario ideas. Below are some of the ideas I came up with.

The Forester surveys his forest barriers.

Valley Treck, Hut in the Trees, Running from Danger

Entrance to Grotto

But it was this design below...

which interested me the most. I liked the idea of the Forester having to sail for miles to find the ideal fishing/hunting spot, and camp for weeks, sort of like how real fisherman/hunters do. Then, just to add some mystery to it, I thought of the Forester taking a wrong turn and ending up in this valley of oddly constructed rock formations. 

So I took that one further and spent a few hours rendering it. If you open in a New Tab you'll be able to see all the little details. 

In this render I really tried to push the scale between the Forester and the Structures. I pictured this scene in my head almost over-whelming for the character, and I think the contract in scale helps illustrate this.

I also used a middle VP. This is in attempt to draw the eyes directly ahead of the Forester/through the rock, and emphasise the length of his journey and the size of this Forest.

Learning Contract.

Learning Contract

Module Code: AG1084A 

Module Title: Honours Project

Student Name: Rory Erskine-Jobson

Student Number: 0900772

Telephone Number: 

Email Address:

Project Title:

A Study of Appropriate Design: Visual Development for Story Adaptation

Project Aim:

To explore the visual development process surrounding story adaptation and gain a solid understanding of how design principles are harnessed to create appealing and appropriate compositions for story art. 

Objectives:

• To scrutinise existing visual development processes of adaptation projects. 
• To establish a critical framework supported by evaluation of industry practice and relevant literature, which serves to allow the production of effective illustrative designs.
• Develop a large collection of compelling visuals for a story. 

Major Tasks:

• Examining and researching (adaptation) visuals, considering the principles of design.
• Establishing a connection between aesthetic qualities and story aspects in relative concept artwork.
• Devising a framework which can effectively vehicle, and also allow the iteration of story visuals.  
• Establishing the character and environment designs for a story, while referring to the established framework. 

Submission Deliverables:

Learning Contract, Project Blog, Dissertation, Project Artwork (Digital & Sketchbook), Meeting Diaries. 

Resources:

Sketchbooks, Adobe Photoshop & Premiere. Autodesk Maya. 

How I Paint over my Sketches.

In this visual development process it can often help to have a very distinct illustrative style. Illustrators and Visual Development artists often use their quick sketches as a base layer for their character and environment designs. This lends the designs a very organic feel, and when done well, can add charisma and appeal to a character design.

I know most people will know how to do this, but if anyone happens to be interested, then this might help out. And that would be awesome.

Steps:

1. Scan Sketch and open in Photoshop.

2. Change Sketch layer to "Multiply".

3. Create "New Layer" under Sketch, and paint on this.

4. to add whites (like the eyes here), just add a New Layer over the sketch layer.

You can merge all the layers after this step if you want to go on and create a clean render free of sketch  lines. But for these early development sketches, I think leaving it at this stage gives it a much more appealing illustrative style.

Did anyone find this was useful or interesting? How do you paint over your sketches?

 I quite enjoyed making this. I know it's insanely basic, but for my first "tutorial" I didn't want to do anything complex.

Revised Final Character Designs.

So I decided to return to my orignal design for Fundevogel's design. It worked so much better as a main character. The bright hair, the exaggerated proportions, the fact that he pretty much looks like a flame lantern. (Which actually makes it pretty cool that they escape from The Cook at night time.) 

So here I thought I'd just do a rough line-up and compare to the original line-up I sketched in photoshop back in September. It's crazy to think how much I've learned since then. And it just feels like 10 minutes ago that I wrote my first blog post on this. 

I also sent away for my book tonight (46 pages!), so I'm really excited for that to arrive. Should be a really unique addition to my exposition area. 

Sketch Line-up "Fundevogel" - September 2012

Final Line-up "Fundevogel" - May 2013

Fundevogel | Digital

Fundevogel's Lagoon Take 2.

Should have uploaded this before now, but better late than never. 

Basically, I went back and pushed the design of my original design for Fundevogel's lagoon (which can be seen here). Although to be honest, I never finished the painting. I always knew I could do more to it, but I just couldn't decide what, or how. 

So, Ryan suggested thumb nailing designs on top of the original painting. I sort of kicked myself for not already trying that technique, as it seems like such an obvious thing to do.

One of the things that we decided should be more apparent in the scene is the indication of human presence, wether past or present. 

Because the Lagoon is a very intimate and untouched place, besides the main character, I figured that the only indication should therefore be by Fundevogel's hand. So I added some footprints and a little make-shift pier, made out of a few small planks of wood by the water's edge. 

(This actually lead on to the idea of having Fundevogel catching certain kinds of magic fish which can't be found anywhere else in the forest, and thus becomes the envy of the cook/etc. This would allow the adaptation unique animals which would cement the idea of the "Fundevogel world" as viewers would only see these species here - sort of like how Avatar creatures are now thought of) So I'm currently working on that, but back to the painting...

I also strived to the give the environment a sense of age. In Hercules, The Lord of the Rings, Brave, and countless films and adaptations this is a big part of environments appeal or mood, as it suggests a time BEFORE the story you're currently watching, and that just adds to the suspension of disbelief that you're actually watching a real living world in front of you. 

In Hercules you can see the remnants of once towering statues spilled across the grounds of Philoctetes. This adds such a great atmosphere/mood to the scene when Hercules first goes there and it really drills the idea into the viewer that this guy has trained A LOT of different people over A LONG space of time. 

The same points are also mentioned in the Art of Tangled in relation to the "Snuggly Duckling" pub. 

Because the viewer can see that the building has been here so long that the tree has grown around it and though it, it instantly tells them that this place is OLD.

After deciding I couldn't make the pathway out of the lagoon work to any great effect, I therefore decided to just work with suggestions rather than details. In the finished painting below you can see that I've added some strange rock formations in the mid/background which slightly hint that a structure or building or something, has once been in this area, (but has long since fell apart). I think the contrast in size of Fundevogel's little pier and the large rock formations creates a great atmosphere, and certainly adds an interesting scale to the environment.

Making a Book's worth of Art.

The layout for my book will be similar to the "Art of" books that accompany many of the feature films, animations, and games released today. By this I mean it will have a clear design process concerning the Fundevogel adaptation - (characters, environments, etc.)

 However, because the book needs to cover all of the practice-based research I've undergone over the course of the project, the Fundevogel section will just be the "main" section, or chapter, of the book. 

I'm still drafting up the layout of the book. However, I'll need to have the book ordered by the end of next week for it to arrive in time for the showcase, so that's the main urgency at the moment. 

Here's some examples of illustrative styling tests I did for Fundevogel. In "The Art of Brave" the foliage/terrain section of the visual development really interested me. Basically the artists add a bit of charm or uniqueness to mundane designs such as a rock or a tree. The additions or alterations are usually small, but certainly plant the designs in the world of "Brave", and reminds the audience that they're not just in "any old woods", but rather, "the woods of BRAVE!" 

I went and visited the McManus to do some snooping on the stone carvings they have there. Nothing like seeing the real thing to inspire the crap out of you. 

This one's my favourite. Shame about the scrapes.

This idea of connecting the environment visuals with the characters or the story (or both) harks back to the idea of visual harmony seen in films such as Tangled or Hercules, which again, despite being small details, exist to serve a certain visual style and support the story.

My Work:

Final Characters.

The colours are off on these because for some reason it won't let me upload tiff's. The only parts that needs refined on these are the costume designs. Which I'm still trying to pin down. 

I also think I'm going to flip them so that it goes Thumbnails/Silhouettes > Final Design. 

Showreel

I also created a showreel for the BFX animation competition this year, which I'm applying to. Fingers crossed.

May also use it in the showcase somehow.

(best viewed in 1080p.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn5NBXYHjZQ

The seldom discussed sketchbook.

I sketch in my sketchbook every day, but i very rarely put anything on this blog. i guess i thought of it more as a final hand in than something to keep explaining on here. anyway, here's some sketches.

and i quite liked this one ^ so i did a paint over of the sketch. 

I thought my sketchbook this year would revolve around my adaptation designs. however, throughout, it's just hundreds of personal development designs as warm ups and tests (proportions etc) before i go into digital, which is where i've created my adaptation designs (moodboard > silhouettes/thumbnails > refine > render > lighting etc.)

I quite like using my sketchbook freely just to "draw what i feel". I've found it often leads down much more interesting paths. 

Lina Final + Costume Applied.

Step-by-step

New Tab for High-Res

Quick Rock Studies from Imagination.

What it says on the tin. Will be working on the foliage/rocks/terrain of the story soon, so just warming up with some quick paints, looking for interesting formations.

Finished Lina Detail and Costume.

I've mentioned the design decisions behind Lina before so I won't say too much here.

I have also started experimenting with the design for Lina's costume. As I mentioned before both Lina and Fundevogel are very familiar with nature, and thus prompted me to create Lina from the silhouette of a tree. I wanted to reinforce this idea with her outfit. The result to the left was inspired by a pine tree. I think this really supports her character and promotes a very outdoors-y aesthetic. The visible stitching also gives it a rather rustic/home-made feel, which again adds to this idea. The design on the right was somewhat inspired by pocahontas. This design I feel lacks any flair: Nothing stands out. When adapting a fairytale for an animation, there usually aren't many (main) characters. Therefore, you want the characters that are key to the story to stand out, be memorable and, ultimately, interesting.

I'm going to refine the Fundavogel design again, and then I'll be able to create a full line-up of my final designs, which should provide a nice example of the contrast in design in response to their different personalities and backgrounds.

I've made a list of assets which should be complete within the next 2-3 weeks. The list is huge, but if I want my book to be worth looking at, then these must be explored.

Entire List of Art assets needed for Fundevogel. 

(Key - First Draft (✓) Completed (✓ ✓) )

Characters

Fundevogel 

Silhouettes ✓✓

Sketchbook Roughs ✓✓

Costume Designs ✓

Final Design Bust ✓✓

Poses

Lina

Silhouettes ✓✓

Sketchbook Roughs ✓✓

Costume Designs ✓✓

Final Design Bust ✓✓

Poses

The Forester

Silhouettes ✓✓

Sketchbook Roughs ✓✓

Costume Designs✓✓

Final Design Bust ✓✓

Poses

The Cook

Silhouettes ✓✓

Sketchbook Roughs ✓✓

Costume Designs (N/A)

Final Design Bust ✓✓

Poses

All Character

Full Lineup derived from Bust Renders✓✓

Environments

Forester’s Hut✓✓

Overview

Main Room

Kitchen

Grounds

The Woods

The Escape ✓ ✓

Fundevogel’s Grotto ✓ ✓

Scenarios

The Eagle ✓✓
Forester Hunting ✓✓

Foliage

Trees ✓✓

Rocks/Moss✓✓

Flowers (Scale)

Animals (Maybe)

Glowing Insects

YAY.

The Escape.

For today's piece of practice-based research I wanted to create a literal adaptation of one of the scenes mentioned in the fairytale.

In the story, Lina has just informed Fundevogel that the Cook plans to boil him in the morning. Whereafter, the two quickly escape from the house to the forest, which leads on to the transformation chase - which just happens to be the core element of the Fundevogel tale.

Still a W.I.P

To explain the theory and composition behind this, I shall use some of the sections of my critical framework.

Mood.

Obviously the escape is on the hush-hush, so the desired mood was one that emphasised the cold of the night and the still in the woods.

Scale.

The scene I pictured in my head when I began thinking about how this could be done, was one from Disney's "Beauty & The Beast". Right after The Beast has let Belle go from the castle to save her father. The viewer see's her gallop over the screen and then the camera pans up from the foot of the castle. It gives this nice perspective from the ground plane, as opposed to from the castle. I felt this angle, rather than an angle from the hut would emphasise the distance better.

Composition.

By filling up half the page with fog or darkness, this lack of detail to the rest of the painting allows a double focus point. First, on the Forester's hut in the background, and then on the two main characters in the mid ground. I also used a very minimal palette of colours to help with this. Again, the warm orange/brown colours in the Forester's hut show the warmth and snugness they've left behind. This contrasts with the cool blues, and greens in the mid/foreground, which represent the cold night.

This scene also gave me the chance to put my Forester hut designs from a few months back:

...into practice.

Symbolism

I haven't really attempted to make symbolism a part of this painting, however, while I was creating it, the light coming from the window almost reminded me of The Iron Giant's eyes. This light being the only focal point in the top half of the painting creates this creepy, watched over feel, like the two are being watched by the hut as they escape. I think this actually adds quite a sinister feel to the painting as a whole, and actually adds to the whole feeling of trepidation and worry of the two characters.

Fundevogel's Lagoon.

Yesterday I spent a few hours working on some more visual development work for Fundevogel. Namely, an environment piece.

Now, the environment is not mentioned in the folk tale, but rather something that came about through my visual development silhouettes, when I was generating scenario ideas.

This idea was originally just based around him at the edge of a pond in the tale's location - the forest. But then I thought: Wouldn't it be cool if Fundevogel was really in touch with nature, (he's found in a tree after all), and had an area where he sort of went to escape, and be alone, and all jolly, and dance around? etc, etc. Think - Ariel's cave in "The Little Mermaid".

Land-lover.

So I decided I was going to design Fundevogel a mysterious, secret grotto/lagoon getaway.

Still a W.I.P

I went into the painting with a strong shape and composition theory layout to enforce the design. I wanted the painting to promote that idea of seclusion or detachment from the rest of the world, that I had read so much about in the Art of Tangled.

Yesterday morning I also just happened to stumble across this blog post on CB. It's all about "The Golden Ratio". Great website in general.

Now obviously I had heard of this before, but I'd never actually applied it to a painting or to anything. So I used the golden spiral as an overlay for the painting on low opacity, and just hid it and unhid it as I needed.

I should also mention, I actually made a mood board before I painted this. Something I hadn't done before, (at least too seriously, I normally just have reference images open). But it actually was really helpful. I put together 4 pieces that I felt, combined, gave off the vibe that I wanted to grasp with this painting. 

Various artists.