ILLUSTRATION AND VISUAL NARRATIVE / PROJECT 1 / Task 2

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7/10/2024 - 3/11/2024 / Week 3 - Week 6

Aricia Man Yi Xuan / 0375026

Illustration and Visual Narrative

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Project 1 / Task 2: Composition 

Google Drive Link

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Lectures
3. Exercise 2 : Composition
    3.1 Character Design
    3.2 Visual Research
    3.3 Sketches
    3.4 Digitalized
    4.1 Final Outcome
5. Feedback 

1. LECTURES

Week 4:
This week (14/10/2024), we need to place our Vormator character into a Pokémon card composition, incorporating foreground, midground, and background elements. We can create a new shape not bound by the Vormator rules or shaped. Besides, Mr. Hafiz taught us to use http://color.adobe.com/ to recolour and choose the theme colour of our artwork. This website provided various types of colour palettes for us, we can also search the keywords of colour that we want.

Fig.1.1.1 Color.adobe website

Apart from that, Mr. Hafiz taught us to use gradient effect and shape builder in our character design Illustrator.

Week 5: 
In this week (22/10/2024), we have an online lecture with Mr. Hafiz. He provided a pdf of composition which relative to our task 2. Before we start to do the task, we can refer to these perspective as a references to draw our landscape composition.

Fig.1.1.2 Compositions - pdf

2. INSTRUCTIONS

Fig.2.1.1 Instructions - pdf

Tools to Use: 
Pathfinders, Shape Builder tool, Knife tool, other warping tools

Steps:
1. Apply color and shadow to your Vormator character to enhance its visual appeal
2. Design composition that effectively uses foreground, midground, and background to tall a soft narrative about your character.
3. Create a Pokémon card layout featuring your character, including its name, powers, and ability ratings.
4. Write a brief description of your Pokémon, explaining its abilities and characteristics.


3. Exercise 2: Composition

3.1 Character Design

Fig.3.1.1 Original character design

Fig.3.1.2 New character design / (Week 4, 20/10/2024)

This is my new final character design to put into the Pokémon card.

Changes I've made: 
1. Colour Palette - The new design has brighter, softer colours, especially in the wings, creating a more ethereal, magical feel.

2. Details and texture - The new design incorporates more detailed shading and gradient effects, especially the wings and hair.

3. Wings and tail - I removed her tail and changed the mantle to a wing.


3.2 Visual Research (Landscape)

Fig.3.2.1 Pinterest board and little red book / (Week 5, 21/10/2024)

For my character environment landscape, I wanted to create a mystical forest in the night version, with my character, Curellon, glowing with magic. Thus, I went to Pinterest and Little Red Book to find some composition ideas and colour scene examples for my environment.

Fig.3.2.2 Main resources / (Week 5, 21/10/2024)

3.3 Sketch

Fig.3.3.1 Sketch with pencil / (Week 5, 21/10/2024)

Fig.3.3.2 One-Point Perspective / (Week 5, 21/10/2024)


Fig.3.3.3 Rule of thirds

Fig.3.3.4 Sketch, Rationale, Reference Board / (Week 5, 21/10/2024)


3.4 Digitalized

Fig.3.4.1 Progress of Digitizing vector landscape / (Week 5, 22-23/10/2024)

Steps of Progress: Using Adobe Illustrator

1. Initial Concept and Composition
I drew a forest to be the basic concept of my environment, including elements like trees, rocks, branches, and paths. 
Tools: Pen Tool - draw the shapes.

2. Basic Shape and fill in colour
There are three parts of landscape, which are foreground, middle ground, and background, and the colours are from dark to brighter. For the colour, I used mostly desaturated colours like blues for distant trees, and brown/green for the grass, branches, and rocks, and the ground is purple.
Tools: Live Paint Bucket - fill in the colours.

3. Texture Creation
Create texture to the grass, adding realism to the environment.
Tools: Ellipse (duplicate), Gradient, Effect (Distort & Transform > Roughen > Size: 70% > Details: 96 > Points: Smooth)

4. Applying texture to the scene
The bushes and trees start to gain texture, making the scene feel more natural and detailed. I also added shadow of the grass (transform > reflect).

5. Sky colour and adding branches
I changed the sky colour using radial gradient to present the one-point perspective. Plus, I drew the branches following the reference image I have and added to the scene.
Tools: Pen Tool - draw branches
           Gradient - sky 
           Effect - glowing branches (effect > stylize > outer glow)

6. Middle ground and background
I draw the trees in middle ground and background, adding branches and details to it.
Tools: Pen Tool & Curvature - draw the shape

7. Adding natural elements
Adding elements like plants and flower to give the environment a more lush feel.
Tools: Ellipse & Pen Tool - draw the plants
           Live Paint Bucket - fill in the colours

8. Adding leaves
Adding different colour levels of trees' leaves; it's the same steps of drawing the grass.

9. Glowing Butterflies
Design glowing butterflies to emphasize the magical nature of the forest.
Tools: Pen tool & Curvature - trace the shape
           Gradient - Fill in colour
           Effect - glowing (effect > stylize > outer glow)

10. Final Touches
Add final lighting adjustments (branches, grass, rocks, trees).
Tools: Gradient - Fill in colour

11. Shadows
Adding shadows to the branches and the character.
Tools: Pen tool & Curvature - trace the shape

12. Final Outcome
Adding the character to the environment. Curellon is releasing her healing magic from the symbol on her body —— a glowing, floral-like mark that signifies her healing power, causing the broken branches to slowly repair and reattach themselves to their original forms.
Tools: Pen Tool - draw the magic light (opacity: 50%)
           Effect - Blur > Gaussian Blur 

3.5 Final Outcome - Vector Landscape

Fig.3.5.1 Final Vector Landscape Illustrator (without character) - png / (Week 5, 24/10/2024)

3.4 Final Outcome - Vector Landscape with character

Fig.3.5.2 Final Vector Landscape Illustrator (with character) - png / (Week 5, 24/10/2024)

4. POKEMON CARD

Fig.4.1.1 Reference information and logo of original Pokémon card / (Week 6, 30/10/2024)

Before I started to do my Pokémon card, I did some research online for reference of my design. I found the logo of the ability and type of Pokémon in the traditional Pokémon card. I decided to have a slight change to the design and create my own logo.

Fig.4.1.2 Progress of Pokémon card / (Week 6, 30/10/2024)
Process:
Starting with the layout design, I decided to use the same colours from Curellon's landscape image as the background for the card, which are purple and pink. It made the overall look unify and brought consistency, making the card look cohesive. I used the Eyedropper tool to sample colour directly from the image and the gradient tool for the background.

Once the background was set, I draw frames to placed the elements like the name, HP, type symbols, weakness, resistance, flavor text and description into it. 

After that, I added minor effects such as outer glow and gaussian blur to the symbols, image, and frames as well.


FINAL OUTCOME

Front
Fig.4.1.3 Final Character Card - front - png / (Week 6, 30/10/2024)

Back
Fig.4.1.4 Final Character Card - back - png / (Week 6, 30/10/2024)

Fig.4.1.5 Final Character Card - front & back - pdf / (Week 6, 30/10/2024)
This is my final character card with front and back design. Here's are the description of my design.

Name: Curellon
Type: Fairy
Length: 2'4''
Weight: 48lbs
Stage: Basic Pokémon
HP: 90

Description: Known as the "Healing Whisperer", Curellon thrives in mystical forest, uses her pink magic to restore life and nurture those in need. 

Power: Healing Aura - Heals the surrounding area and restores 10 HP to all your Pokémon. (Energy cost: Grass)

Attacks: Nature's embrace - Deals 40 damage. Gains 20 additional damage if in a forest.
(Energy cost: Grass, Fairy, Colourless)

Weakness: Fire ×2
Resistance: Water -30 (Fairy Pokémon typically have a natural affinity for resisting water-type attacks)
Retreat cost: 2 (Curellon is light and agile)

Flavor text: "I'll heal your wounds, just as I heal the forest."

5. FEEDBACK

Week 5:
Today (23/10/2024), I sent my sketch to Mr. Hafiz in WhatsApp and received his feedback. He said my sketch looks good, other than the forest background, what else does this creature have? Does it like to nest? What's in the nest ? Does it burrow? How do you communicate all or most of this info with the environment in visually? Do remember that the aim of task 2 is to communicate your characters backstory through the environment that you create for it. Please also use the Framed Ink PDF that I provided in the lectures section as it can also provide you a technical/artistic direction rational.

6. REFLECTION

Experiences:
I'm satisfied with the final outcome of my landscape design and my Pokémon card design. I've almost used a day to create my landscape, but it doesn't feet tired because I love to do this kind of design. I did a lot of technical research on how to create the effect I wanted in my mind, and I learned a lot of different tools in Illustrator, like using distort & transform to make the texture of the grass and stylize to make an outer glow of an element. Additionally, I was very enjoying the progress of the Pokémon card, as I love to design the layout and the composition because it enhanced my creativity and imagination. It was interesting and challenging to plan how to fit Curellon's personality, abilities, and backstory into a card format that felt authentic. 

Observations:
I noticed that the colour scheme and type selection strongly influence how the card feels. By using soft and mystical visuals, I could enhance Curellon's Fairy-type qualities and healing nature.

Findings:
Through this process, I discovered that creating a Pokémon card is about more than just designing a visually appealing illustration; it also requires thinking critically about the character's role in the world.




Thanks for you reading :)









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