Final

So I desaturated the picture because the last ones were a bit overly saturated, however I left the apple off the adjustment layer so that it'd pop out more.  I added a foggy effect to the back and part of her face to bring it away from the apple.  The position is a more slanted version of the previous 2nd version and mixed with text from 3rd version.
I used copy merged (first time using this, I used to always just save out PSD's an JPEGS then import them in as layer if I ever needed it, but copy merge is a lot faster.  The downside is that it isn't really forgiving to transparencies).  I also added vignette and iris blur.

Bitten: Final Progress

Okay, so I changed the forest background.  I couldn't find a place in the city that complemented my composition well so I ended up just building the background myself.  I cropped out trunks and fidgeted with size and value.  Then I cropped out a picture of a hill I had taken, meshed it with the forest trunks.  Then I colored in the sky so it blended in with the rest of the picture. 

Then I retook a pic of an apple (which I may have to redo because I should have taken the red side) and masked it around her hand.  I added shadow and highlights so it wouldn't be as flat.  

I fixed up the leaves a bit.  Actually, I tried a different texture at first because this one felt a bit flat.  However, during this season, all leaves look DEAD and ugly and that didn't really fit the creepy, yet enchanting feel of the composition.  So, I went back to my previous leaves.  I cut a few out to make then pop up and for a few to fall onto her body. 

Then I changed the leaves in the back by applying a texture instead of using PS brushes because they didn't quite fit well together.  I added a bit of shadow.  Then I blended the color in.   

I added shadow all over where they should be, I darkened her hair.  Then I changed the logo and text just a bit.  

Here's a slightly slanted version just for experimenting.  I used content aware fill to extend her body.  At first, I just rotated the girl (my friend) and not the background but it didn't look right, so I rotated the background as well.  It kinda makes things more interesting but her face and the apple is right in the middle :X.  I'm not really sure though, maybe I need a short break from this just to catch some obvious mistakes.      

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Forgot to mention, this is NOT finished yet.  I still need to do things like blurring things which CS6 has a lot more than older versions so I'll try to use that instead.

Then this one which I added menu and dramatic tilt.  Obviously if this were the comp I'm using things need to be fixed - like her hand, and background and leaves.  I would probably have to change the ground of the bkgrd layer because you can see a line and the brightness of it is bringing my eye to it.  However, I think this one works a bit more with rule of thirds.  But again, I need to go away from this project for a while then come back to it.

Bitten:Thumbnails and Potential Composition

Bitten follows a story about an innocent dancer who gets bitten by a vampire and turns into a vampire herself.  Not wanting to harm any of her loved ones, she ventures out into the forest and make peace from feeding on wildlife. 

As the story progresses she meets two other vampires, including her own reflection.  A witch tells the trio that in order to turn back into humans, they must find the vampire who bit them and feed on his blood. 

Bitten is a very story driven game.  Apple is a motif often used to represent the lost of innocence and soul.

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Of course I still have a lot of work to do.  The red may be too saturated but I can't tell with my laptop so I'll have to check.  The leaves have to be fixed as well, the ones underneath her look flat and the back are too painter-like.  I'm trying to find leaf piles to make layers of leaves.

I still have other poses that I'm interested in comping out but this one was my favorite because it fits my theme and story well.

w/o the red:

Title Screen Thumbnails, Photographic Compositions

Acorn Planet

Acorn Planet takes place at a floating island that is shaped like an Acorn.  The player role-plays as, Tutu, the hungry squirrel.  The player must jump from one area to another to collect treats such as nuts, grapes, and cereal.  Acorns give bonus points.  Meeting up with other squirrels will create bonds, increase the duration of energy, and will make collecting food easier.  On the other hand, the player must avoid predators such as eagles.  Every night the player must collect enough food as the stated goal to move on to the next level. 

The game is very simple and made with very simple graphics, including bright hues.   

Misinterpreted professor's H/w Assignment and started comping out this composition.  I think I will morph the 2nd and 3rd thumbnails on the left to create a final one.

I had many versions of the Final Comp but I choose this one the day of because the glowy color was working well with the computer monitors at school.  I changed a few things from the green one I had before. I darkened the posts to look more attached to the gates and lightened the building.  I added haze and clouds to add to add a creepy tone.  I added details to the buildings including windows and rails.  Then I added texture to the post, road, and the lighter parts of the building.  Lastly, I added a shadow of the building.

Thumbnails Midterm

 
After some editing here are my midterm thumbnails.  I added some texture, details, shading, etc to them.  The first one, I just kinda half redid because there was so much to fix anyway.  The depth is better now, I think.  The haunted house one though has a depth issue though, maybe I over shaded on the house.  It was really hard shaded at first, then I softened it.  It kinda looks maybe too dark?  But it looks weird lighter too.  The way the moon is, I think it's supposed to be dark.  Obviously, there's still room for improvement, that's why I'm in school.  For finals, I'm going to aim to try more perspectives and to shade better.

Pray for the east coast to be safe!  #staystrong

Thumbnails, Thumbnails, OH MORE THUMBNAILS. Whatcha expect?

Just changed up some various things.  Added light to some areas.  Got rid of the black sky that was "killing" my depth.  Here, the smoke is incorrectly drawn in.  The color seems very saturated on some computer as well.  

I made the gates' value different from the tree so that the tree gets more attention.  Also changed up the colors a bit.

Giant, distorted, ancient, haunted house

Tried different perspectives and this one seemed most interesting.  I guess it's the Halloween spirit striking so I ended up doing a haunted house.  I really wanted to do a castle but I wanted to save it for finals or winter break when I have more time to fool around and have fun with the compositions.

Tall, wide, antique, magnificent ship

At first I was really trying to go for a ship...something abandoned like titanic.  Er, but I have issues with details like the small windows and I really wasn't feel it.  I ended up looking at dragon references, which when I try to draw looks like a seahorse.  Haha.  I really like the color I chose here though. 

Thumbnails & Objects

1. Huge, Angular, Futuristic, War Torn, Buildings

Fog and smoke engulf the city like a hungry beast.  Metal melt into nothingness.  The only signs of life – or death is that of a cross, placed to commemorate the deceased – someone had to be alive, or once alive to have placed it there.  In the distance, a fire is still not yet extinguished from a recent suicide bombing.  All that is left of the once city are ruins and rubble.  

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We're supposed to fix up our things from last week but I decided to start over because I didn't like them.  Here I focused more on silhouettes first.  Man, I started out trying to make this kinda of a low level perspective but the scene just makes everything look like it's collapsing xD so I just ended up making it a normal perspective.  I used a ugly green and brownish-orange-red color because I wanted a murky feel.  

1. Large, Wide, Ancient, Spooky, Tree in Forest

It only makes sense for a dead forest to have a large dead tree.  Its branches guard the makeshift graveyard like gates.  Large gates accompany the lonely tree.  The only way to enter is through the tree itself.  A wolf stands, hesitant on whether to enter or not.  At midnight, reawakened corpse’s hand could be seen popping out of the ground. 

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So last week I overly used dark colors, I think that might have dimmed me a bit because I stuck with only the lighter shades and now it looks kinda like there's not enough values?  I had so much trouble with the light/shadow layers we were supposed to use because for some reason they kept making my brushes have transparency so it looks muddy?? o_o??  I used blue and green/turquoise because I was looking at horror movie shots and those were the colors used.  Funny, I am getting a more mysterious, enchanting feeling.  Fail.  

Um, I spent A LOT of time with line weight - too much that I got so tired and didn't do such a good job with shading.  I did this assignment first so this was really nothing serious, I was trying to test the light/shadow masking layers...which I still don't really get.  

Idk, let's bring back some old shading stuff I had to do

^^oh, those cubes are wrong though.  

Err...idk but must move on with life and other homework. 

Enlarged Detailed Thumbnails

1. Huge, Angular, Futuristic, War Torn, Buildings

Seriously, I didn't like any of my thumbnails and I was ready to scrape ALL of them.  In the end I just picked the last thumbnail and tried fixing it up.  I know there's conflicting styles here because the buildings have clean lines while the scenery is "dirtier".  I'll keep that in mind for future works.  

2. Large, Wide, Ancient, Spooky, Tree in Forest

I picked this thumbnail because I liked the angle the tree was bent at.  I cleaned up the branches.  Well, I basically cleaned up everything.  I added that slime thing at the upper right hand corner because it looked a bit blank without it.  I had my friends choose between the two and they like this one better.  I don't know, I feel like maybe I over did it though because the slime is colliding with the tree a bit.  

Sum up lessons learned:

1. Don't wait until last minute (well, my last minute is two days before assignment is due) but don't start assignments the day they are assigned either.

2. Don't use so much black/ use a more neutral gray background.

3. SILHOUETTES!  Does Character Viz have to smack you in the head again?

4. DON'T ever get frustrated and continue.  Step away.  Go drink a glass of orange juice or something and come back.  

5. Conflicting styles are killers.  Use one and stick with it throughout composition.

#staystrong

Thumbnail Briefs

1. Huge, Angular, Futuristic, War Torn, Buildings

Okay I feel stupid for forgetting these are thumbnails because I got too carried away with drawing digital.  I should have focused more on the silhouettes and not on detail, but I was so stressed out over the the small things that these turned into crap.  Yes, crap.  I got so frustrated with these that I threw up.  Okay, part of that was because I'm still sick but seriously I took so long on these that they kept getting worse and worse.  

On another note, I'm kinda tired of space/futuristic theme.  It's like every class we focus on those, even my fashion class had freakin' metallic leggings.  I know it's because there's so many space/futuristic games but I feel like I'm not going to know how to draw anything else.

The smoke airbrush doesn't fit the rest of the composition.  I realized it after I stepped away and went back to look at it.  I kept reminding myself to make one with low angle or dutch tilt but I completely forgot.  

2. Large, Wide, Ancient, Spooky, Tree in Forest

Too much black, I know.  The background gray I used is probably too dark because white, lightest gray, and the gray next to it didn't show up so I wasn't getting much value.  For the record, I spent less time with these but had more fun.  For trees, I tried looking at willow trees and forest paintings.  Then I tried making creepy poses with my hands for silhouette ideas.   

Tangled Thumbnails, Studying Camera Shots and Angles

1. Established Shot

I was so darn excited going into this assignment, until I paused & started drawing the first thumbnail.  Let's all agree on one point: Tangled has tremendously beautiful art and I was ready to butcher it all up with my rendition.  Since everything was so high quality and there were so many values used (I had w1,w3,w5,w7,w9,black, white = 7 values) so I seriously had to dumb/thumb down the image (no pun intended :p).  

For established shot, I chose the scene where they introduce Rapunzel's tower.  At first I rendered the tower with a bunch of values but it did not pop out at all so I filled it in with black.   

2. Extreme Close Up/Close Up

So I think there was only one Extreme Close Up shot in Tangled and it was of Rapunzel's eyes after she realized she was the princess.  Unfortunately, I found the shot after I drew this close up one.  Oh well, this angle is so much more dramatic than the one of Rapunzel's eyes.   

3. Over the Shoulder (turned into Two Shot, don't worry, I have another over the shoulder thumbnail)

Okay, I butchered the perspective here.  This shot wasn't really a clear over the shoulder to begin with though but I was dying to do something related to the lantern scene.  Unfortunately, I ran into a bind because I couldn't decide what values to use.  If I used black for the sky then I would only be able to draw the lanterns with my white gel pen or my prisma color and that wasn't going to look right.  Gosh, I am dying to draw the lantern scene digitally!!  Anyway, I was focused on the lanterns so much that I messed up on the shot.     

4. Dutch Tilt

This shot wasn't easy to find in the movie, however it had to be the easiest one to draw because of the low details.  This was during the flood after Maximus kicked that log down.  

5. High Angle

Baby Rapunzel is a cutie.  High Angles are typically used to show submission and there's a scene where High Angle/Low Angles are used really well but I had already drawn these.  I guess the hardest about this angle is that I had to erased what I knew beforehand.  

6. Low Angle

This is the shot following the previous one.  Something's funky about the rendering on the wall I think.  It was fun rendering the Queen.  

7. Medium Close Up

That black thing is a part of the boat.  I might have shrunk Rapunzel a bit because in this shot, the subject takes more of the frame.  This was when I realized I really enjoy rendering characters xD.  Maybe I just miss Character Design.  

8. Wide Shot

Oh gosh, this one wasn't the best.  Something looks wrong with the perspective.  I think the rug is really off.  

9. Over the Shoulder (extra because I butchered the other one)

There's a lack of OTS shots in Tangled because during conversations two shot is used a lot.  When Eugene and Rapunzel talk, they don't really look eye to eye because they are shy haha.  Anyway, here I ran into the same problem I did with the lantern scene.  The background is made up of dark values in the actually shot.  However, if I added the black background I feel like both characters would just blend into the background o_o.  

Okay, I just can't wait to do these digitally so I can lay down my colors with confidence, especially the black! xD 

I really liked this week's assignment!

Concept Thumbnails

1. Sci Fi, Spaceship, Space

I think I need to fill in the background a lot more.  They look plain and when you squirt, there's not enough values, especially not enough black that pops out.

2. Western, Horse, Saloon

Drawing a horse in a saloon takes a lot of creativity.  Obviously, creativity did not stop by this weekend while I was doing these thumbnails.  Again, I don't think I have enough black that pops out.  There's also not enough objects in the background.  

3. Fantasy, Fairy, Forest

Maybe I liked the rules for these thumbnails more but I felt less clueless drawing these.  Of course, they're still not all that great but I was more confident about laying down the black ink.  I also thought about the rule of thirds more here.  

I'm not too proud of these.  I struggled with them a lot.  Oh well, it's better to make mistakes now than later.  I'm still learning!  I think the knowledge from this week's lessons (about camera angles) may have been helped a bit.  

10 Two-Point Perspective Objects

This exercise was pretty fun.  The last time I purposely used horizon lines and vanishing points was probably back in freshmen year of high school!  This made me realize how badly I've been drawing perspective views.  I'll have to start practicing without the lines and points though.  This also helped me with reviewing box rendering as well.

Class Exercise - Week 1

Haha this was really, really fun!  During first week we did some timed exercises.  Michaelangelo's David in 5 seconds was hilarious.  I probably should have focused more on the key features of the sculpture though - like his hair.  Still, I thought this was the funnest class exercise I've ever had!

Random Objects - Week 1

40 Rendered objects.  This was fun and relaxing especially since I've been extremely ill lately.  It was difficult to think of objects to draw so I took a walk out to the park that week.  It was refreshing and I was happy to be doodling by hand again.  I've been doing some digital work last semester and during the summer so I neglected my sketch book a bit.     

I'm still not sure how to render glass.  I know glass has reflections.  I guess I'll look into it one of these days.