Fully Textured and Rendered Vending Machine

This was challenging initially but the photoshop help and understanding from the CDDA module was extremely beneficial to the final texture.  

My thoughts on the first semester of CGMA:CDDA

I feel as though the module was very overwhelming at first. I studied Art at A-Level and I was fairly confident in my drawing/painting ability. However transferring that ability into digital applications such as Photoshop was a difficult experience as techniques were no longer physical, every medium I could possibly have access to was under a different name in one program. At first I had problems adapting to a tablet and usually used only one brush but as the weeks went on I was introduced to different methods of painting in Photoshop. It started with the introduction of layers, something that I can no longer paint without. Then creating your own brushes and then photo - manipulation, overlaying textures and adjusting the color values.
The inclusion of Life Drawing to stand aside the model was one of the most useful things I have done. Human figures are far less of a challenge and I can recognize in my own sketches when a pose is incorrect or when limbs or features are out of proportion.
I feel I have made leaps and bounds of progress with a program that before I was too scared to use. I feel I still make a lot of mistakes and still do not know enough about Photoshop but I plan to learn more and understand how make paintings look that little bit better. I really want to continue improving so texturing will look more real on 3D models and my concept art will contain all the relevant information such as the things I provided for this module.

Potential Environment that my character could be placed in. I feel as though this environment would need to be much darker and have some lamps surrounding the doorway. It could be the outer view of his lab and could have a padlocked gateway to show some secrecy. 

Life Model placed into images projected behind them. 

I had to adjust the proportions of the life model to fit within the projected images, which was slightly difficult as it was in fact the model that was larger in perspective than the projection. I was happy with the result. the second image from the bottom was the bottom images imprint on the paper I placed in front of it. I did find it had more of an impact on me when i saw it than the actual piece which is why I chose to include it.

Front + Back Character sheet. 

I was relatively happy with how these turned out, I felt I managed to add shade and use a light source correctly when painting these. I felt I could of used more textures within the pieces as I need to start using photo-manipulation in my work in order to help the realism. For instance underlaying a cloth texture where the cloak was placed would have added depth. This is something I would look back on and practice with to see whether it improves my image. 

Character Side View.

 I found the side view to be very important as one of the key features of my character is the mask. The shape of the mask was the defining look to my character when looking researching various medieval doctor masks they would have different styles, some would droop, some stayed completely straight and some only covered the top half of the face leaving the mouth exposed. I shortened the beak from my initial concepts and raised it so it was completely straight as I felt it presented my character more seriously. 

Character Beauty Shot.
This for me was the longest piece I worked on but it was the one I enjoyed the most. With the size of my character in the shot it allowed me to get quite close with detail and shading. I was very happy with the outcome although there are a few mistakes I would like to go back and focus on at some point. Namely the skin tones of the leg and the lack of a definitive light source. However thematically it suited my character as he is a Doctor - Assassin figure that would tend to the ill, only to then 'off' them and loot the remains. I went for a 'Joker - esque'  personality as he doesn't see it as morally wrong he simply gets a kick out of what he does. 

Environment.

For the environment unlike my other shots I used various textures to create things, I used a cats fur for the rug and lowered the saturation and darkened it, then used the clone stamp tool to extend it. I did a similar thing for the blackboard and the wall behind. In the scene there is a tank, two creatures within the tank fuel the idea of the prop as the toxins they release are contained within the canisters on the syringe - shotgun. 

Prop Beauty Shot.

I was extremely happy with my prop beauty shot as it emphasizes the characters personality. The prop is actually a melee weapon as it lacks a trigger but I felt a standard syringe would just be too polite - even with dangerous toxins. I needed the pump which I referenced from many shotguns to show a vicious amount of force went into the injection. I used references from Bioshock to help me get an idea of how to present the fluid within the syringe.

Prop Sheet.

These are representations of how my prop would look from various angles. it shows the side that the fuel tube would cross over to connect to the toxin canisters and insert into the chamber to be pumped into one of Dr. Morbiam's helpless victims. 

Facial Expressions. 

Despite my character wearing a mask he would need a face to show his emotions, this could also be represented through his stance but I felt it was easier to show emotion through the faces. I used two contrasting faces here with happy + sad to show the differences with various features. This is where life drawing helped immensely as I had been working hard on perfecting faces as it was one of the more difficult areas of the human body to get correct. 

I felt these two shots didnt go as well as my previous ones but I was still happy regardless. I really wanted to show how i developed the skin tones from life drawing as I often used the medium of dark colours with chalk highlights. I applied this method to photoshop and despite it being a little different I felt my style of presenting light on skin shifted over to digital art quite nicely. 

My attempt at Photo-manipulation. I tried to turn the daylight setting into night, I just used the magic wand tool to select the white sky in the light picture and copied it onto a new layer and reduced the opacity then placed an image behind it so it would seep through. Then I darkened the surroundings with a soft brush.

Chess Pieces: Concept for two sides of a chess game, Moon Warriors Vs Sun Warriors. 

Texturing of an Orc. I decided to go a little comical with my texturing, replacing his thematic props with a supermarket carrier bag and a giant carrot. I could definitely have overlayed a fabric texture though to make the coat believable, however this was early on when my knowledge of Photoshop was far more limited than it is now towards the end of the semester. 

Concept Artists

Kekai Kotaki --> http://kekai.blogspot.co.uk/

This concept artist did a large amount of the Guild wars 2 artwork and has worked at Bungie. His work is pretty amazing (and i'm very envious of it). This artists work was the first that came to mind when asked to present three artists that I look up to.




Its hard to express how highly I think of his work because for me its right at the top and I would seriously recommend anyone even vaguely interested in artwork to view his work. His work is highly detailed and shows vibrancy while still managing to make the colour overpower the image. Something I personally have had trouble with.

Viktor Antonov --> http://www.vulkanbros.com/intro.html

This artist worked on Dishonored, a game with an art style that I really favored. Just looking at real concept art makes me realize how far ahead these people are with their art and imagination. One thing that I find goes under-appreciated is the eye for a definitive light source and the correct proportion that is held throughout their work.




You can really capture the life (or lack of for these) of the characters, the digital painting presents the mood of the characters without them even being real or able to show personality. This is an attribute that I really appreciate as you can how these characters would act from just looking at them.

Yoji-Shinkawa --> https://www.pinterest.com/lucasche/yoji-shinkawa/

This concept artist has such an unique style compared to other artists, he was responsible for the Metal Gear Solid Artwork. He makes incredibly detailed pieces using a very limited range of colours but manages to present them in a way that makes them believable.

I look up to this artist greatly as he manages to really grasp every bit of detail on a person with very little colour. It isnt hard to tell where the lighter parts of the characters are or where he wants you to look on the character, the focus points are clear.