Creative Cogs are Turning Again...

Hey Guys,

Apologies for the silence, but to be honest i needed a little time to recuperate after a busy two Semesters!

Needless to say this doesn't mean i have not been doing anything! I have been set my scary dissertation over the Summer 'break' so have found myself immersed in books for a chunk of the time. Luckily the weather has been pants this Summer (just for a change) so it hasn't been too painful.

However with this and various camping trips and a lucky escape on a jet plane i have spared a thought or two for the busy 5 months i have ahead of me... Semester 3.

I have several thoughts in the pipe line including a 'field guide' style book of an uninhabited, undiscovered island filled with new species just waiting to be recorded for the first time, but my most exciting idea and biggest challenge so far is to replicate one of my designs in the form of a Sculpture...
Yes i may be getting ahead of myself but i have accepted the challenge!

The idea sparked as i wanted to be able to show off my designs on a GRAND scale - the kind of wow factor when you first set eyes on that dinosaur skeleton hanging from the roof of a museum! WOW!
Also what better way for me to display my design skills, knowledge of anatomy and musculature gained from this course and my ability to accept a new challenge and a new angle on creature design for games!

As a student money is scarce, however with research over the summer i have discovered/rediscovered Paper Mache. My initial thoughts of paper mache where covering balloons in sticky paper gunk however, with research i discovered it has a lot to offer. (I will be creating a SM3 research section to this blog with my inspiring discoveries shortly).

I have also been in contact with various paper mache artists who have kindly offered their advice on the subject. I also have several bin bags full of newspapers in preparation for this challenge... and counting!

Excited? Much! As always i'll keep you posted!
(also if you are in contact with me please help me by saving your newspapers and passing them on to moi :) cheers!)

Semester 2 Evaluation

This Semester has seen me grow as a Creature Designer. I have learnt to consider facts and science to support my design process to ensure believability. I have always aspired to achieve new levels of believability both as a designer and an artist and i feel this Semester has played a vital role in helping me achieve that.

My traditional art skills using pen, pencil and paper has have improved further using light and dark pencil on brown paper enabling me to create rendering techniques, this i also carried through into my digital art, using new grey scale and texturing techniques which enabled me to achieve new levels of realism i hadn't discovered before. I believe the use of textures i made myself using Maya software dramatically changed the look of my final concepts as well as saving me time i would have spent individually painting each hair as i have been known to do in the past. As a result of the discovery of these techniques i am very happy and comfortable using them within my future artworks.

I have also learnt to identify flaws in other creature designs and how i would personally alter that design to achieve a greater realism with consideration to natural history. I realise how important it is to look to creatures in existence in the world today for inspirations as it is surprising what can be achieved in a creature design when combining and using aspects of nature.

I feel this Semester has taught me so much and i have improved greatly as a Creature Designer from this Semester alone, and my discoveries and achievements will continue to flourish in my future works which i believe is a very exciting concept!

So as this exciting Semester 2 draws to a close, below is a list of potential plans and ideas for the 3rd and final Semester starting in September 2012, but between now and then i will be updating this blog with any thoughts, inspirations and works i arrive at over the summer... 'break'.

• To produce a Creature filled book, either in the style of a Field guide and discovery of a new found island, or in the style of a 'Art of' book.
• To experiment with a new found technique i read about in Junes issue of ImagineFX, where artist James Gurney uses Maquettes (Wire frame and Sculpey models) to help understand rendering techniques. (see below images).
• To come up with an effective method of displaying my Natural History knowledge in my show, possibly using either; a life sized model of a creature design using Wire Frame and Sculpey and/or a technique of showing off skeletal, musculature and skin with inspirations from both Terryl Whitlatch and ROA (see INSPIRATION section of this Blog).
• Possible use of Maya to model one of my creatures (or ask a 'Maya whizz' to do this for me) and i will texture and attempt to animate... This is a huge challenge for myself but one i have always aspired to do for as long as i care to remember!

So... busy times ahead to say the least! Summer? What Summer? I'll be doing what i do best... 

Designing Creatures! ;)

Above: Two of Six pages from the ImagineFX June 2012 Magazine (see all in Inspiration Section of this blog).

Above: Rough idea for 'Art of' Style book. Left shows brief progression, Right shows Final Design.

Final Analysis & Theory of Creature Design

During the course of Semester 2 i have worked specifically to create believable creatures. I believe throughout my workings i have discovered a successful Method of Believable Creature Design.
Below are the steps i have arrived at during my creature design processes which i believe have helped me design successful believable creatures.

1. Initial Idea/Inspiration - this can be in the form of visual inspirations and/or experiences and/or a spark of creativity in the mind.
2. Looking at nature and using the 'Cut&Paste' method to create a potential creature starting point.
3. Selecting an initial 'Cut&Paste' design.
4. Using facts from Natural History appropriate to the design - decide which factors of the design are achievable based on Scientific proof and alter accordingly those which couldn't physically work.
5. Facts and Design Decisions create and shape the creatures final design.
6. Decide which techniques best to use in Photoshop to compliment the creature designs believability.
7. Consider the Final Concept in a snap shot of its environment and include environmental shadowing and lighting effects to tie the concept together.
8. Design Complete.

This method has purely come about as a result of my own personal experimentation's and design process. I believe it is a logical place to start by looking to existing natural life today, whether that be animals or plants. I will continue to use and perfect this newly discovered method until i discover new ways of achieving believability within my field.

Completed C02 - Experimenting with Grey Scale

Above: Final experimental piece.

For this creature design i went about the same design process as before, initially combining existing creatures and eventually altering the design to represent fact. This flying lizard has the rotating eyes like a chameleon enabling it to spot predators more effectively and identify prey with ease. Hyoid bone in the throat can be erected to display the spiny bones and skin to both attract a mate and make them look less desirable as a meal to a predator. It has a streamlined light weight body for gliding on the wind and flying. The spines on its back protrude out of the body making it look further less desirable as a meal and helps it look more like a thorny foliage. It has an independent finger on each arm which as evolved to support the wing and is hinged so it can be folded back against the body, and most importantly it has a helmet like structure upon its head which like the veiled chameleon can pick up on infra sound, this enables it to detect movements of heavy footed approaching predators and analysis weather more specifically wind conditions for it to glide upon.

The main purpose of this exercise was to use a new techniques of grey scaling the piece initially to add depth then adding colour and detailing later, which i found to be a useful method of working as it didn't seem to take as long as it would getting straight in with the colours. I also used my existing knowledge of applying textures to further enhance this concepts believability. The full working process is available to view in the CREATURE DEVELOPMENT section of this blog.

I also tried to incorporate this creature in part of a scene as apposed to my previous creature which had a small snap shot. I think these scenes are best for setting the mood and type of environment the creature lives in but for the actual creature design and showing it off as a design i prefer the smaller snap shot. I intent to attempt a looser approach to 'Scene Concepts' as a quick way of displaying my ideas, but keeping the perfectionist style in the 'Snap Shot Concepts'.

Adding more Realism to C01 (Creature01)!!!

Above: Final C01 Design.

In my previous post about this Creature i thought i was happy with its outcome and the discovery of using a basic environment setting. Although i was very happy with the result, myself and my tutor knew there was something still missing. We decided this Realistic, Believable design could be pushed even further into a whole new level of believability. 

As this creatures environment would be to climb, scurry and glide through the forest canopy, we thought about testing the idea of introducing tree shadows which cast onto both the creature and the bark tying the piece further together. Making the piece look photo realistic and the creature and the bark now look like they belong as opposed to randomly placed together. 

Finally, this time i truly believe this creature design and its concept is fully COMPLETE :D ... This whole design process of this creature alone has taught me so much in terms of its design, use of true life facts to support the design and the texturing process which was a whole new world for me and its safe to say i am happy to have discovered it! Down to the final shadowing detail i believe this creature has been designed well, it looks good and is designed to do what it looks like it should do... Glide, Climb, Balance, Appeal to a mate and feed successfully with its specially adapted independently hinged snout.

Overall this has been a huge learning curve for me, i have tackled new ways of thinking in terms of design and new ways of working in terms of art. I feel my concept art skills are constantly improving as a result, also is the believability of my creatures. This was my first attempt at new methods and design processes... i can only improve and i am excited to see what i will produce in the future.

Check out the CREATURE DEVELOPMENT section of this blog to see how i added those essential shadowing details.

'Fapping' Lizard Creature

Above: Flying Lizard creature mid concept.

The next creature i have progressed to is a creature with inspirations from Chameleons, in particular the Veiled Chameleon and Bats. 

These creatures sleep clinging to the undersides of tree branches, but by day they fly down to low level foliage, usually open air places to absorb much need sunlight to warm their cold blooded bodies. Their wings act as solar panels absorbing most of the heat. To conserve energy they tend to leap or glide on the winds from plant to plant where they feed upon insects and small fruit berries. 

They are small creatures, bodies similar in size to small bird like a Sparrow, although their wing span is from 30-50cm and their tails are an impressive 60cm, this giving them the ability to wrap the tail around tree branches for balance and it also gives the wings extra surface area as it stretches down the tail.

These creatures are seen in large numbers in the day time and can be targeted as an easy meal to predators, but these guys have a startling trick up their sleeves. The large leaf like structure on the creatures head enables infra sound, helping the creature pick up on vibrations travelling through the air and also changes in wind direction. If a predator comes to close the creature will 'FAP!' it will launch its self as high as possible spreading its wings and will glide away, the underside of the wings on full display showing off bright startling colours which would appear from nowhere in front of the predator causing confusion. They also have the fully rotating eyes of a Chameleon to further assist the spotting of predators.

As before with my previous creature designs i will update the design process in the CREATURE DEVELOPMENT section of this blog shortly. This piece is still a long way from completion but will hopefully be a success. Colours and patterns for beneath the wings are yet to be decided, and further research must take place.

Experimenting with Backgrounds

Above: My Creature on textured surface test.

After the completion of my creature below i really didn't like its plain white background, i felt it didn't show of my creatures potential.

I have never been a big landscape person so this was a mini venture into the unknown and a foundation to build upon. Using the textures technique i learnt from the Alien Apple Studio's visit i applied a tree bark texture and worked into it on an overlay layer, adding highlights and shadows, moss and scratch marks and also a beak scraped area between the creatures front limbs.

I think using the textures is a great method of amplifying believability in a piece and i will use them in the future when appropriate.

I still think the background looks bare, but i am a perfectionist and i am not happy until everything is finished to the same standard. Which is good as usually the final product looks good but bad as i feel like this is unfinished. Although introducing a full background may take away the the importance of the creature. Environments is something i must practice.