Illustration & Visual Narrative/ Task 1: Exercises

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01.04.2022 - 01.05.2022 [Week 1 - Week 5] 
Janaan Ahmed (0353333) / B'Des Creative Media
Illustration & Visual Narrative

Task 1: Exercises

Lectures

WEEK 1 

INTRO
We were introduced to the module by the very cheerful and bubbly Ms. Anis, and briefed on some of the expectations and assessment criteria of it. She also walked us through some of the resources on Times and explained to us the physical class week divisions (to keep up with current SOP's). We were also later joined by Mr. Hafiz who will be taking our Practical classes for this module.


PRACTICAL
To familiarise ourselves with the pen tool, we were tasked with completing all the levels of the Bezier Game.

Funnily enough, we also did the same in the DPI class. I have already documented my struggles with playing the Bezier Game for the first try in that post aha. 

However, since I've already got somewhat of a grip of it from my earlier meltdown efforts, I managed to make it through with a lot more nodes left to spare.

Fig.1.1: Bezier Game Results

I will however most probably go back practicing so that the results are not only efficient but also more polished in appearance. (Admittedly some of them looked very wonky this time...).

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WEEK 2

CHARACTER DESIGN BASICS
Stylised design (in conjunction with good lore and narrative) is what more often than not makes a character appealing.

3 Principles for Stylised Design

Fig. 2.1: Doraemon, an example of good character design

  1. Iconic: so that it is recognisable from even just a dark silhouette (e.g. Mickey Mouse)
  2. Simplicity: so that it allows viewer to easily digest and understand purpose + narrative of character easily
  3. Unique: memorable + has impact on viewer and is able to stand on their own among other characters

Principles of Character Design
1. SHAPE: 

Fig. 2.2: Breakdown of characters into basic shapes

  • Shape language helps reflect role in narrative. 
  • Rectangles are often used for protagonists because of its sturdiness, strength, perceived stability (e.g Sully from Monsters Inc.)
  • Circles- lack of sharp edges -> perceived as non-threatening + often feel soft and friendly
  • Triangles often used for antagonists (especially inverted triangles) since the imbalance provokes a sense of uneasiness. 
  • Adds weight to PERSONALITY of character
  • Make many sketches and explore different possibilities + combos of shapes :D

2. COLOURS: 
  • Helps establish basic role of characters (e.g. dark clothing often associated with evil/ bad characters)
  • Consider colour psychology (e.g. blueness often quite literally represented by blue like in the case of Sadness from Inside Out).

3. EMPHASIS + CONTRAST: 

Fig. 2.3: Character Design of Anger
  • Often paired in terms of design. 
  • There can be emphasis + contrast of shapes, colours
  • Exaggerate features to memorate

4. HARMONY: 
  • Everything is put together in a tasteful manner i.e. it is pleasing to the eye, and elements work together. 
  • Consider visual hierarchy - is there a specific element to focus on? e.g. a scarf
  • All elements should complement each other in the way they reflect and relate to the character

5. EXPRESSIONS & POSES: 
  • expressive emotive characters win the audience
  • clear visualisation of behaviour, quirks and personalities often make character more appealing to viewer

LECTURE REPORT 1:

Fig. 2.4: Instructions for Lecture Report 1

DARWIN FROM THE AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL
Darwin is one of the main characters in The Amazing World of Gumball. He is the pet goldfish/ adopted younger brother of Gumball. 

One of the key characteristics of Darwin in relation to the rest of the Wattersons which point to his background is the saturated orange. This not only points to his obvious identity of being a goldfish (lol) but importantly establishes the fact that he is adopted. In terms of colour psychology, the bright orange used also expresses his optimistic and sunny nature quite effectively. Moreover, it also compliments his counterpart Gumball’s blue colour. This is quite significant as Gumball and Darwin are seen to have an inseparable bond and the iconic duo is almost always featured together, which really helps create the type of contrast that  focuses the viewer’s attention on them when placed alongside other more minor background characters. 

Fig. 2.5: Gumball and Darwin

Looking at his facial features and expressions, we see that they are large and rounded, much like the rest of the Wattersons, which also quite nicely ties him up with the rest of the family, despite his contrasting colour in relation to the others. Additionally, his naïve childlike wonder, sensitivity and overall bubbly personality is also reflected in his rounded shape which points to his easy-going, approachable and harmless nature*. (Okay maybe the word ‘harmless’ is not completely accurate seeing as how the entire Watterson family is notorious for causing havoc in Elmore ha-ha. I meant this in the context that he is not inherently evil.) 

Fig. 2.6: The Wattersons in their habitat

Having grown legs out of the sheer will of making his way back to Gumball in his origin episode, he also comically has no upper body to link his legs to his head. Additionally, Darwin is rarely ever seen without his sneakers, which makes sense seeing as how the show funnily references his lack of an upper body by blurring his feet in scenes where nudity is depicted. The green and white sneakers also helps make his character pop when used alongside the orange. Overall, his rounded head, fins and tail in conjunction with his long legs make for quite a unique silhouette. 

To sum up, Darwin’s character design while being quite simple, is not only effective in expressing his personality and role in the series, but is also very memorable. 

[380 words]

PRACTICAL
Today, Mr.Hafiz demonstrated how to trace the basic shapes that would be used for our Vormator Challenge (Task 1) on Illustrator. 

Fig. 2.7: My result of the tracing exercise

We were to follow along using the template provided on Google Classroom, and ask any questions if any came up - whether it be about the interface or shortcuts.

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WEEK 3

CHIAROSCURO
Miss Anis kindly told us that we didn't have to make elaborate notes of our lecture slides. Instead our knowledge of the topic would be tested and applied in the lecture report of the week.


LECTURE REPORT 2:

Fig. 3.1: Instructions for Lecture Report 2

THE LIGHTHOUSE (2019 FILM)  

Fig 3.2: Cast of The Lighthouse; (left) Willem Dafoe, (right) Robert Pattinson

The Lighthouse is a movie that really left an impression on me. Its memorable black & white aesthetic is very much reminiscent of film-noir, which makes it a gold mine for our topic of Chiaroscuro! 

Brought to life by the duo Robert Eggers (director) and Jarin Blaschke (cinematographer), The Lighthouse is a thriller which follows veteran lightkeeper Thomas Wake and his subordinate Ephriam Winslow in their descent to madness  when an abrupt storm strands them on a remote island. 

As told by Eggers and Blaschke themselves, the entire film-making process was a long and strenuous effort to best capture and deliver something atmospheric, confined, and mystifying. In fact, the story itself blossomed from the atmosphere and mood that director Eggers first decided on. As the story focuses on two characters, it was also decided to use a boxier aspect of 1:1:9 to really capture a dark sense of claustrophobia. 

Visual inspiration was taken from several sources, notably Fritz Lang’s M (1931), which left quite an impression on Blaschke in terms of camera movement. In particular, he highlighted the importance of the exclusion of elements within a frame, over inclusion. This stood out to me because we can definitely see several influences from M translated onto The Lighthouse. 

To best capture some of these requirements, the film equipment used was a mix of antique with modern adjustments. An array of the brightest lights in Canada was also used to accommodate the film’s exposure sensitivity to best create the high contrast scenes we see in the movie. Funnily enough most of the crew on-set even had to wear glasses! Anyways I digress, let’s have a look at one the scenes now:

Fig 3.3: Ephriam Winslow vengefully looks up at the tightly locked lightroom (The Lighthouse, 2019)

This shot is taken from somewhere in the middle of the film, where Winslow (Robert Pattinson) is seen vengefully looking up at the main lightroom of the lighthouse. Some context: he is inexplicably not allowed to tend to the light, and is often treated poorly by his superior, Wake (Willem Dafoe). Wake is quite insistent on tending to the light himself, often referring to something along the lines of ‘the light, she’s mine’. Wake tends to the night shift and locks himself up there with a key that is exclusively his– out of sight from Winslow. 

Anyhow, this scene is taken post-strand where the pair have begun to lose patience with each other. I believe this is quite evident in Winslow’s expression which the lighting plays an integral role capturing. Winslow’s internal rage is brilliantly and subtly captured by obscuring half his face, and deliberately shining on one of his eyes. The rest of his body dissolves into the much darker background, and can be an allude to Winslow losing himself into the ‘darker’ parts of his psyche. We also see that the contrast created is intentional in pointing to our focal point– the audience is immediately drawn to Winslow’s spiteful look, pointed towards Wake and his association with the lightroom.  The entire purpose of the scene I believe is to silently (but loudly) portray the whirring anger within Winslow. It is essentially used as a window in to understanding his state of mind.  

Fig 3.4: A shot of Winslow in the lighthouse from the early parts of the movie

This is even more evident when compared side-by-side to an earlier scene in the movie within the same setting. We see that the contrast is relatively not as high. Here we see Winslow looking almost hopeful, with a more wistful attitude towards the lightroom (as portrayed by the more diffused lighting on his face).

Fig 3.5: Close-up of our scene of analysis

Compare this to a close-up of our scene, where Winslow’s deathly glare is quite literally highlighted as the main focal point. In conclusion, while Rob’s acting is brilliant, it is definitely enhanced and supported by the lighting to further elevate the heavy emotion being portrayed. 

(621 words)


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WEEK 4

COMPOSITION THEORY 1
Composition simply refers to the arrangement of the elements in your visual. It is crucial for good storytelling, and involves making conscious decisions of what to include and exclude to build what fits the narrative of your piece best.

We then studied some scenes from The Grand Budapest Hotel. Who doesn't love Wes Anderson's compositions? 

Fig 4.1: Shots from The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson 2014)

What we learned from this was that the composition of each shot should be arranged consciously to allow the focus of the scene to stand to stand out even in the subtlest manner. 

BASIC COMPOSITION VISUAL RULES

Fig 4.2: screencap from lecture slides

We once again studied some scenes from film and animation to get a better understanding of how these were applied.

Generally, visual hierarchy is achieved if the other 3 are achieved. Having all 4 constitutes a successful scene!


DIFFERENT TYPES OF SHOTS (& HOW TO APPLY THEM)

1. Establishing
  • Often wide shots that capture the horizon 
  • Helps set the scene - giving audience just enough info to process what's going on
  • Portrays spectacle & grandeur of location to audience

2. Bird's Eye View
  • On top of focus i.e. overhead
  • good for action sequence

3. Frame Within a Frame
  • Frame can fracture screen space
  • Adds depth and creates visual interest

4. Medium Shot (3/4 shot)
  • Standard camera angle
  • generally used between conversing characters
  • between long and close shot
  • "What are they doing?"

5. Closeup
  • Good at capturing intimate moments/ portray detail on character
  • Captures emotion and peak into character's mind, helping audience empathise with characters (to better connect with them)
  • "What are they thinking/feeling?"

6. Worm's Eye View
  • Viewer on the ground
  • Same as closeup but can help establish context of scene


LECTURE REPORT 3 :

Fig 4.3: Instructions for lecture report 3

1. Establishing

Fig 4.4: View from sea (01.04.22)


2. Bird's Eye View

Fig 4.5: Cheery duckies on New Year's Day (01.01.22)


3. Frame Within a Frame

Fig 4.6: Enroute to Male' (01.05.22)


4. Medium Shot (3/4 shot)

Fig 4.7: End of trip (sometime around 2019)

5. Closeup

FIg 4.8: Somewhere in USJ (03.05.22)


6. Worm's Eye View

Fig 4.9: U-Residence Plant Column? (05.05.22)

PRACTICAL
This week's practical involved a chiaroscuro image to practice different ways of tracing, building shapes, adding colour within Illustrator. We were given a picture of a pear as a template for our work.

Fig 4.10: Chiaroscuro Pear Template Image

Mr Hafiz demonstrated several ways of tracing the pear, some of which included:
  • using the pen tool alone
  • the pen with curvature tool
  • the shape builder tool
  • adjusting curves using direct selection tool
  • etc.
Ultimately it is up to us to use whatever works best for our individual work flow :)

We also learned about the knife tool as an alternative to the pen tool, which can be used to create more shapes. After 'cutting' up our shape, we use the pathfinder (divide) or shape builder tool.
Fig 4.11: Different outcomes achieved by different tools

We were also taught to adjust the colour balance of selections. In the figure above, I've adjusted the colour of the selections made from cutting up the pear with knife tool.

Fig 4.12: Using the colour balance setting

For the 4th one, we further built upon the previous pear to make something new. The inner 'flesh' was drawn using the pen tool and 'sent to the back'. The seeds were referenced from our vormator exercise shape toolbox.
Fig 4.13: The 4th pear 

For the 5th pear, we were given an image of a skull as reference to trace over some details. The pear used as an outline of the shape.

Fig 4.14: Provided skull reference image

Fig 4.15: Demo from Mr.Hafiz's screen recording

After tracing the shapes, we use the pathfinder to divide up our pieces for separating colour.

Fig 4.16: My progress of pear 5

Mr. Hafiz had an 'aha' light bulb moment and encouraged us to follow any creative intuitions that pop up during our work process. I replicated his idea to practice using Illustrator.

Fig 4.17: Experimenting with 'aha' moments

As a cute finishing touch (and further Illustrator practice) I created a stem and duplicated it for each pear. And with that done, we then arrange everything so it looks presentable. 

Fig 4.18: Pear stem 

Anyway, here's the outcome:

Fig 4.19: Outcome of Practical

NOTE: Had to re-do this exercise from scratch because Illustrator crashed and didn't recover my file :'( 

On the plus side, re-doing it helped develop muscle memory of the tools I use most.


Instructions

Ex 1: Vormator Challenge

We are tasked to create a character of our choice and go wild with our imagination, the only condition being that we are restricted to only using the 8 shapes provided (hence the challenge part).

VISUAL RESEARCH
Before sketching, I searched through Pinterest to study some character design silhouettes. Personally, I quite like the silhouettes used in Steven Universe characters, particularly in Garnet.

Fig 5.1: The Crystal Gems, Steven Universe

FIg 5.2: Garnet's character design

I already had a general idea of making a very cute blobby character, so further looked at more simpler character designs and silhouettes on Pinterest to get an idea of how to best utilise our Vormator shapes.

Fig 5.3: Characters with simple shape language

I also personally really like the character designs of Twitter artist Maniani:

Fig 5.4: Characters by @maniani0122

SKETCHES
Fig 5.5: Initial Character sketches

In all honesty I started with a random character (top left) and decided to come up with a story later on.

The first one (top left) is meant to be one of a series of a killer weapon-of-war robots (designed to initially confuse unsuspecting victims with its cutesy appearance- quite a sadistic way to kill). A defect in its coding allowed it to  develop a fondness towards preserving life and hence being employed at a flower shop (hence the apron).

The next series of sketches are mainly just cats- (bottom left a wrestler cat), and a space cat (centre). The space cat was a development from the first robot design, and its backstory also involves preserving life (very akin to Wall-E's story).

Fig 5.6: Wall-E & Eva with the sapling
I then suddenly was reminded of Luci from Disenchantment, who is the 'personal demon' of main character Princess Bean. This is mainly because throughout the series the supposed creature of evil is often confused with being a cat. 

Fig 5.7: (left) Luci, (right) Bean
This is what lead me to the design on the bottom left, which is also shown in the figure below:

Fig 5.8: character sketch #4
I personally ended up liking this design the most since it had the most personality from the rest of the sketches. This one's meant to be mischievous (but mostly harmless) demon who crossed dimensions out of pure boredom, and found work as a barista at a local cafe'.

The last sketch on the top right diverges from the rest of my ideas, and is simply a play on the notorious Karens of society. Yeah I had no reason for making this except that I found it amusing to think up of superpowers on a trading card for her. 

DIGITISATION

CREATING THE BASE
First I transferred my sketch image to Illustrator, and turned it into a template layer. I reduced the opacity to about 25% to see better when tracing the shapes.

Fig 5.9: Making a template layer (05/05/22)

I also made my workspace easier by copying the vormator shapes onto my artboard. Then it was like picking colours from a palette.

Fig 5.10: Setting up the shape palette (05/05/22)

Pretty sure I used the drop, wurst, and badge shapes the most because I found them to be the most versatile.

Fig 5.11: Making the horn using the drop shapes + pathfinder tool (06/05/22)

Fig 5.12: Progress so far (06/05/22)

Some shapes in the sketch were quite complex, so I combined several of our given shapes and used the pathfinder and shape builder tool to remove, and add. 

Fig 5.13: Using complex shapes to create more shapes (06/05/22)

I saved some of these newer complex shapes to be used later if needed.

Fig 5.14: Progress of the apron (06/05/22)


Fig 5.15: Progress so far (06/05/22)

After getting some of the main parts down, slight adjustments had to be made to allow for a less stiff pose.

Fig 5.16: Workspace and progress (06/05/22)

After a lot of work getting the proportions and pose right, here's the base sketch I came up with, along with its outline view.

Fig 5.17: Refined vector base (06/05/22)

Fig 5.18: Outline View of character base (06/05/22)

COLOUR EXPLORATION
Having a somewhat clear idea of the values in my vector sketch made picking colours a lot easier. I tried to stick to a minimum palette, keeping in mind the character's backstory.

Fig 5.19: Colour Explorations (07/05/22)

There were 3 particular designs that I liked best. I made some more explorations with two of them, mainly changing up the apron colours.

Fig 5.20: Further colour exploration (07/05/22)

After much deliberation, I managed to narrow down my options to a total of 4 designs.

Fig 5.21: Narrowed down palettes (07/05/22)

In the end I decided to select palette 1, since the balance of complementary colours looked the most striking and 'memorable' to me from the four. 

LIGHTING & DETAILS
To add more depth, I began to add some shadows to my character, some of which are shown below:

Fig 5.22: Closeup of scarf details (07/05/22)

Fig 5.23: Closeup of gem details (07/05/22)

I also thought to add some props, mainly a tea/coffee tray for our little barista. These were also made using the shapes provided and the help of the pathfinder + shape builder tools.

FIg 5.24: Outline View of Coffee Set (07/05/22)
Fig 5.25: Character with props (07/05/22)

For the finishing touch, I played around with the colour balance to make all elements cohesive.

Fig 5.26: Adjusting the colour balance (07/05/22)

FINAL OUTCOME :
For my outcome, I decided not to include the coffee set since it was distracting from the character (maybe I'll include it in the card design instead).

Fig 5.27: Final Outcome in JPEG (07/05/22)


Fig 5.28: Final Outcome Outline View (07/05/22)

Fig 5.29: Final Outcome in PDF (07/05/22)

Ex 2: Game Card Design

With our character design set, we are now to create a game card for them! For this exercise, we are:
  • not bound to the Vormator shapes
  • free to trace card templates online or create our own
  • to decide on a colour scheme with a moodboard & palette selection
VISUAL RESEARCH
From tarot cards to trading cards, here are some ideas +  from Pinterest that I really liked for the aesthetic I had in mind.
 
Fig 6.1: Reference 

Fig 6.2: Reference from Layton 7
                


Fig 6.3: Reference from Hidden Leaders                     

Fig 6.4: Reference from Card Wars

LAYOUT
I wanted to create something simple since my character design is also quite simple. I tried to emulate the shine on a card by using gradients but I didn't really feel like it matched my character. I really wanted to keep things flat.

Fig 6.5: Initial Stages

I then tried to create a background setting in my character's world, and tried adding the props as well. I also created a little flame symbol to signify my character's element.

Fig 6.6: Variations in first design
To not overcomplicate things, I settled on a flat colour background, and added a card number to the layout.

Fig 6.7: Without background

Feeling like the red was a little too 'in-your-face' I toned down the bg colour to a deep plum, and also changed the layout of the character info.

Fig 6.8: With and without props

Made several more variations, all of which are shown below in fig 6.9.

Fig 6.9: All variations

I narrowed down my choices and ended up liking the red background since my character was blending in too much with the purple backgrounds.

Fig 6.10: Slight layout differences

While I liked the name with the flames (left of fig. 6.10), the flames were now blending in with the background! So I removed them to see how it looked.

Fig 6.11: Name without the flame border

Personally without the flames, I felt like my design lacked that little 'oomph', so I changed the background colour again.

Fig 6.12: Revised design with lighter purple background

FINAL OUTCOME :
At the end of the day I couldn't decide between two designs so I included both of them as variations (which now that I think about is quite fitting for trading cards!).

Fig 6.13: Final Outcome (V.1) in JPEG

Fig 6.14: Final Outcome (V.2) in JPEG

Fig 6.15: Final Outcome in PDF
            
CHARACTER INFO:
Fifi is a mischievous demon who out of boredom crossed dimensions from its homeworld to seek adventure. While exploring Earth's realm it found a job opening at a cafe' in a rundown town called Maywille, and decided to take up on it (again for the experience of it). While not inherently evil or malicious, Fifi is known to playfully tease customers and pull the occasional prank on them, again nothing done with harm. Despite any troubles, Fifi's charm and cat-like appearance makes it quite popular among children and your average cat-lover.


Feedback

Due to some personal setbacks, for this task I regrettably did not have the time to ask for feedback.

Reflections

This task overall was a bit challenging for me at first because I was still getting used to Illustrator's interface. However, I was very excited to do it since I found the concept of it very fun and interesting! Game cards are of course very reminiscent of a lot of our childhoods afterall.  I did sadly struggle later on in finding the time to complete it, and at some point was very frustrated not being able to make progress on my work. It also didn't help that lllustrator kept crashing on me, sometimes not recovering my work file. There was a lot of double work because of this :') Needless to say, doing the double work kinda helped me get used to things on Illustrator so I guess that's a plus. I shall change the autosave settings in the future and try to make my workflow more efficient (seriously need to do this).

All things considered, I'm quite satisfied with my end result and I've learned a lot from this experience. I've realised that a lot of work goes into making deliberate decisions that make any game/tarot card pleasing to the eye and relevant to the character. 

References






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