Illustration and Visual Narrative Task 1 / Exercise 1 & 2

April 02, 2022

Illustration and Visual Narrative Task 1 / Exercise 1 & 2

1.4.2022 - 29.4.2022 (Week 1 - Week 5)

Takuto Hozumi / 0354047 / Bachelor Of Design (Hons) In Creative Media

Illustration and Visual Narrative

Task 1 / Exercises

LECTURES

Week 1 / Subject outline & expectations

The content of this lectures was mainly an explanation of the curriculum structure for this module. In particular for practical, we learned the basics of drawing shapes with the pen tool (Adobe Illustrator) using a website "Bezier game". And lecturers told to set up a blog called "e-Portfolio". This blog will be used to accumulate the learning process of all modules, and it will be utilized submit assignments including image data of my work, drawings, photos, designs etc.

Week 2 / Instraction of the pen tool & Character Design Basics

Instraction of the pen tool (in Illustrator)

Illustrator is often used primarily to create vector images. There are two types of images: raster images and vector images.

Raster images - An image in which each pixel has a specified color and is displayed by an aggregation. (ex. jpeg, png, gif)
Vector images - A figure consisting of points and a calculation for the lines connecting them. The color, gradation, transparency etc. within the range is specified. (ex. ai, eps, gif, svg)

Fig.1-1: Pen tool operating the handles

In Illustrator, the elements that make up a shape are called "path". A path is composed of anchor points (end points) connected by segments (lines). In the case of a curve, a direction line extends from the anchor point (handles), and the shape of the segments can be adjusted by the direction point at the tip.

Fig.1-2: Tracing elements

Tools used for depiction and deformation of figures

Pen Tool
Anchor Point Tool
Curvature Tool
Rectangle Tool
Polygon Tool

Character Design Basics

Fig.1-3: Samples of Character Design

The character represented by Disney has three principles as below.

ICONIC - Stylized designed characters are often iconic that you can immediately recognize them even in black silhouettes.
SIMPLICITY - This is because the simplicity of the design allows viewers to digest and understand the purpose of the characters easily.
UNIQUE - In return makes them unique characters that are not only memorable, but makes an impact on the viewers.

Fig.1-4: Stylized Design "ICONIC", "SIMPLICITY" and " UNIQUE"

©藤子プロ・小学館　©藤子プロ・小学館・テレビ朝日・シンエイ・ADK

These principles can make the character more memorable. Furthermore, they have the advantage of being easy to commercialize when sold as character goods.

Fig.1-5: Shapes of Famous Characters

Monsters, Inc. © Pixar 2001

These characters are designed to symbolize characterization. Circular characters basically represent goodness, etc.

From a psychological point of view, color governs imagery. Red for anger, yellow for joy, blue for sadness, etc. However, impressions consisting of a single color include both positive and negative.

Ex. Impressions from "Red": love, affection, devil, revolutionary, lively, active, danger, intense, excitement, tension, cruelty, assertiveness, hot, victory, passion, passionate, emotional, aggressive, hell, angry, explosion, courage

Fig.1-6: Characterization and coloring

Inside Out © Pixar 2015

Clear visualization of your characters behaviors, quirks, personalities make it easier to appeal to your viewers.

Week 3 / Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro is a technique that emphasizes three-dimensionality through light and shadow. The Matchmaker (Gerard van Honthorst) is a typical example.

Fig.1-7: The Matshmaker

Gerard van Honthorst

The majority of the canvas is a backlit composition of a human being and a candle in the center illuminates the characters.

The woman in the back is illuminated by light, and her makeup and musical instruments are visible. The interesting thing about the drawing is that the woman in the foreground appears almost dark. It enhances the audience's imagination.

Fig.1-8: Still Life with Fruits

Caravaggio

"Clear Tonal Contrast" emphasizes three-dimensionality, here is an example: Still Life with fruit (Caravaggio). Clear tonal contrast emphasizes three-dimensionality

Caravaggio's Still Life with fruit, it emphasizes the strong colors of each other. The vivid red and light of the apples contrast with the background behind them.

The scenes which the Chiaroscuro is used have the effect of creating itself more dramatic.

Fig.1-9: The calling of St Matthew

Caravaggio

Predominantly cast in light

People are illuminated, but the direction of the light points out points of interest in the picture: The calling of St Matthew (Caravaggio). People pointing out St Matthew, the light further illuminating heighten that scene.

Tenebrism technique - Predominantly dark setting

Highlights, significantly detail faces, etc.

Majority of the space is dark

Fig.1-9: Girl with a Pearl Earring

Johannes Vermeer

The in-focus area or subject contrasts with light colors or a dark background. Or contrasting with a dark background.

Low-key lighting

Main light and shadows to create contrast.

In the example: Barry Lyndon (Kubrick, 1975), People, pajamas, paper, pillows, etc. surrounding the corpse are white draws attention to the subject. Conversely, doors and walls are in shadow.

Chiaroscuro is composed of positive and negative spaces.

Positive space - The main content or object

Negative space - The space for less important objects, backgrounds or muted color

Week 4-1 / Exercise (Illustrator practical) - Chiaroscuro 1

Fig.1-10: Pear (Chiaroscuro)

Through this exercise we learned the functions of Illustrator.

There are multiple tracing methods. The most common method is to use 'Pen tool' and trace the shape directly with Bezier curves. Alternatively, you can draw a circle, rectangle, or other shape first and then use 'Curve tool' to shape it.

Fig.1-11: Various Pear

The upper left pear in the Fig.1-11 above is the base. Then there are some ways to divide a figure. The method using 'Slice tool' is the easiest way, and involves decorating the cut pear with seeds and cross-sections, resulting in the pear in the upper center. We also learned other techniques such as how to specify the color of multiple shapes and change them all at once, grayscale conversion, and compositing a skull traced from another photograph.

Week 4-2 / Composition Theory 1

Visual Types and Shots

In the previous lecture (Composition Theory / Visual Types and Shots), the following six compositions were explained.

Establishing

Wide shots were often used to establish not just the setting, but to portray spectacle and give audiences the chance to take in all the splendor and grandeur of a location, while still giving them enough information to process what's going on."

Also known as: Long Shot

Bird's Eyeview

When the point of view is placed directly above the subject. It's somewhere around a 90-degree angle above the scene taking place.

Also known as: Overhead shot

Frame within a Frame

A well-composed frame within a frame can fracture screen space, add depth, and create visual interest in your cinematic compositions.

Whether you choose to use foreground or backgrounds shapes to create this effect, the technique of cinematic frame within a frame can emphasize and highlight the underlying meanings within your story and break up the information in your frame for maximum impact."

Medium Shot

The shot is also called a three-quarters shot - which, obviously, frames three-quarters of the character.

This is one of the standard camera angles used to frame a character. It's the shot in between a close-up and a long shot.

Close-Up

The close-up is an intimate moment, a look into a character's mind. It cause us to "catch" emotions, so as the rest of the scene plays out, we're already invested in the characters' well being. Therefore, this type of shots the should emphasize emotions and thoughts within a grander context.

Worm's Eyeview

The close-up is an intimate moment, a look into a character's mind. It cause us to "catch" emotions, so as the rest of the scene plays out, we're already invested in the characters' well being. Therefore, this type of shots the should emphasize emotions and thoughts within a grander context.

Week 5-1 / Exercise (Illustrator practical) - Chiaroscuro 2

In this exercise, we learned graphic design to extract silhouette from humans in an image and composite textures in the shadow areas.

Fig.1-12: Original image for Exercise Chiaroscuro 2

Fig.1-13: Tracing Silhouette

From Fig.1-12 and 13, trace the silhouette first.

Fig.1-14: The boundary between light and shadow

Then, the boundary line between light and shadow is traced. This line is used to divide the figure.

Fig.1-15: Monochromatization

Assign the color to the split image. This is only for clarity.

Fig.1-16: Texture Composition

The shadow colored images are merged as 'Compound Path' and the imported texture image is clipped with clipping mask.

Fig.1-17: 3 Final Examples

Fig.1-18: Exercise Chiaroscuro 2 Final

Week 5-2 / Fore, Mid and Background

Composition essentially refers to how your image is put together, and there are tricks you can keep in mind that, if used in the right way, can take your art to the next level and make a piece really grab your audience's attention.

Fig.1-19: Fore, Mid and Background

foreground - close to the viewer
middle-ground - middle between Fore and Background
background - far away from the viewer

Foreground

When a painting is intended to express a space with depth, the composition is based on three depth stages: foreground, middle ground, and background. The foreground is the part of the foreground closest to the painter, and is usually most emphasized in the painting.

Middle-ground

The main subject is often placed in the foreground, but occasionally it may be in the middle ground. To express something large in scale, you can use a composition in which the subject is placed in the middle ground.

Background

Basically an area used as a staging. Descriptions are included to show the scene setting.

INSTRUCTION

Week 1 - Week 3: Vormator Challenge

Fig.2-1: Samples of Vormator challenge

Vormator challenge is the ultimate challenge of your creativity: the aim of project is to give each student the chance to show their ability to create a stunning piece with limited means.

Fig.2-2: The Shapes for Vormator challenge

These shapes are combined to create a character.

Fig.2-3: My first challenge (7/4/2022)

I love dogs, so I decided to create a dog character. I painted a very figurative illustration, but I noticed that the purpose of the assignment was a little different after the feedback. It is needed to simplify the form a bit more.

Fig.2-4: Path data of my first challenge

And I did not use the Pathfinder feature in my first challenge. And I will try to make it iconic character design utilizing various functions and brush up next time.

Character Research

Western characters have large eyes and rich facial expressions (emotional expressions), whereas in Asian countries, including my home country of Japan, characters' faces are often expressionless or smiling without eyes.

Fig.2-5: Sumikko Gurashi (Japanese Character)

Fig.2-6: Rilakkuma (Japanese Character)

Fig.2-7: 乖巧宝宝 - 1 (Chinese Character)

Fig.2-8: 乖巧宝宝 - 2 (Chinese Character)

Fig.2-9: 乖巧宝宝 - 3 (Chinese Character)

I set to work on my sketches, trying not to lose the atmosphere of the character design that Asia is known for.

Fig.2-10: Idea sketch

I decided not to change the dog motif, but to intensify the deformation. the design sketches by hand-drawing, and digitalized the best ones (Lower left).

Fig.2-11: My second challenge (Final ver., 10/4/2022)

I took advantage of new functions such as Divide, masks, and merging of shapes to recreate from the sketch. During the digitize process, the shape of the eyebrows and the fatness of the body were adjusted to be thicker, to make him prettier.

Fig.2-12: Color scheme (13/4/2022)

Only the eyes use K100; the body is gray, almost black. Because if the entire body were pure black, it would give too strong an impression as a character. The color code (#121210 / Second from left on Fig.2-7) is obtained from a photo of an actual dog.

The characters background is as follows;

Name: Nero

Group: Extraterrestrial being (Looks like a dog)

Likes: Chocolate, Ball playing, Invasion of the Earth

When I make a trading card design in the next assessment, just a cute dog character will not be interesting enough. Then specific settings were added. It could be used as a background motif.

Final Submission

Vormator Challenge Final Outcome JPEG 600 x 600 px (27/4/2022)

Documentation of Artwork Progress

Week 4 - Week 5: Vector Illustration

Fig.2-13: Shadow by Pathfinder (26/4/2022)

Added shadows to the character I have created. Once in Pathfinder, all of the character's shapes are combined into a single shape. Then divided the shape so that the area to be shadowed remains, and place it on the character as a multiply layer.

Fig.2-14: Background (26/4/2022)

The background was created according to the character settings. Adjust the center where the character will be placed, so that there are not too many objects in the center.

Fig.2-15: Typography (26/4/2022)

Placed and designed the necessary information (ATK, DEX, etc.) to become a trading card for a card game. The design is inspired by Pokémon cards.

Fig.2-16: Gradient for reflected light (27/4/2022)

Reflections with soft light layers were inserted to represent rare cards. It is originally expressed by printed material, but since it is not printed in this case, it is used as a substitute.

Fig.2-17: Final Ver. (27/4/2022)

Final Submission

Vector Illustration Final Outcome JPEG 750 x 1050px (27/4/2022)

Documentation of Artwork Progress

REFLECTIONS

Experiences

Vormator Challenge, the first assignment in my Illustration and Visual Narrative class, made me realize how difficult it is to design under certain conditions. It was a good opportunity to learn character design while learning basic software operations, such as illustrator.

Observation

In terms of shape, it was not so difficult to create an ideal shape because I had the Pathfinder function at my disposal. However, it was difficult to create an impressive face and figure as a character, which required research on existing characters. East Asian characters are often expressionless, or have only their mouths smiling, whereas Western characters have very flamboyant and expressive facial parts.

Findings

We can see that many famous characters have silhouettes and facial parts made from simple shapes so that we can instantly recognize them when we see that they are that character. And also found that trading card designs tend to be more ornate and flamboyant than general graphic design, with fine gradations and bold typefaces.

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Takuto Hozumi (0354047)

Illustration and Visual Narrative Task 1 / Exercise 1 & 2