Illustration and Visual Narrative / Task 1 & 2

24/4/2024 - 29/5/2024 / Week 1 - Week 6

Tay Yue Chern / 0373215

Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

Task 1 & 2: Vormator Challenge & Pokemon Card

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. LECTURES

2. INSTRUCTIONS

3. PROCESS WORK

    TASK 1 - VORMATOR CHALLENGE

    EXERCISE - CHIAROSCURO

    TASK 2 - POKEMON CARD

4. REFLECTIONS

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1. LECTURES

Lecture 1: Character Design Basics
Lecture 2: Chiaroscuro
Lecture 3: Composition Theory 1
Lecture 4: Composition Theory 2
Lecture 5: Composition Theory 3

Lecture 1 / Character Design Basics

Fig 1.1.1 Stylized Design

Fig 1.1.2 Stylized Design

Fig 1.1.3 Principles of Character Design

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Lecture 2 / Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro - An Italian term which means 'light-dark'.

It's basically the use of light and dark to create the illusion of three-dimensional volume on a flat surface.

Fig 1.2.1 Still Life with Fruit (Caravaggio, 1601)

The purpose of chiaroscuro - to increase the scene’s dramatic tension by exaggerating the subject’s importance using colour or light contrast.

In other application of chiaroscuro for visual artworks such as comic, film, digital works - this is an artistic lighting choice which the focus point or subject of a scene is brightly coloured or contrasted with a dark

background.

Fig 1.2.2 Girl With A Pearl Earing (Movie, 2003) and (Vermeer, 1665)

Chiaroscuro is commonly used in visual narrative as it is a great lighting choice to differentiate positive and negative spaces.

Positive space - subject matter or object of interest in a visual

Negative space - the filled space or background that surround subject matter or object of interest in visual

Fig 1.2.3 Positive and Negative spaces

Fig 1.2.4 Why chiaroscuro is used in visual narrative

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Lecture 3 / Composition Theory 1

Visual Types and Shots

Composition in design simply means the arrangement of the elements in your visual.

To arrange the elements in your visual effectively, we need to arrange them in a way that brings out meaning.

Fig 1.3.1 The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)

Your composed shots should consciously arranged the focus of the scene to stand out, even in the subtlest manner.

Fig 1.3.2 Basic Composition Visual Rules

Fig 1.3.3 Types of shots

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Lecture 4 / Composition Theory 2

Perspective

The art of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other.

Fig 1.4.1 Construct Perspective

Fig 1.4.2 One-point perspective, Taken from 21-Draw (2016)

Fig 1.4.3 One-point perspective (Attack On Titan)

Fig 1.4.4 Two-point perspective, Taken from 21-Draw (2016)

Fig 1.4.5 Three-point perspective, Taken from 21-Draw (2016)

Fig 1.4.6 Isometric View

Fig 1.4.7 Dynamic Application

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Lecture 5 / Composition Theory 3

Fore, mid and background

When composing a scene, creating an effective sense of the space is very important.

Illustrating elements of:

• Foreground (close to the viewer)
• Middle-ground
• Background (far away)

within your image will immediately communicate a sense of scale to the viewer.

Fig 1.5.1 Example

Fig 1.5.2 Different types of planes

You can arrange the subject matter to be at the foreground, by using size differences and colour contrast to highlight foreground as main focus.

Fig 1.5.3 Adventure Time (Cartoon Network, 2010)

Or arrange the focus to be in the middle-ground, by using size differences and light / shadow contrast to highlight the main focus.

Fig 1.5.4 Adventure Time (Cartoon Network, 2010)

Or in the furthest view of the visual in the background, by using shapes and light/shadow contrast to highlight the main focus

Fig 1.5.4 Adventure Time (Cartoon Network, 2010)

Design Flow

Good arrangement of visual focus using foreground, middle-ground and background should also indicate a sense of movement, and rhythm in your design.

Design flow is the way that your eye moves or is led around a composition. A design with good flow will lead the viewers’ eye throughout the layout, moving from element to element with ease.

Fig 1.5.5 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train (UFOTABLE, 2020)

Fig 1.5.6 Turning Red (Disney, 2021)

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2. INSTRUCTIONS

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3. PROCESS WORK

1. Task 1 - Vormator Challenge

Vormator is the ultimate challenge of your creativity: the aim of project is to give each student the chance to show their ability to create a stunning piece with limited means.

Each person will get the exact same set of shapes. With these shapes you are challenged to create your own unique design, within the limitations provided in the Rulebook. Designers are thus challenged to create a unique piece within a strict set of rules. It all comes down to pure skills and creativity in this project.

- Rotating, flipping and duplicating the elements are allowed

- All elements must be used

- Scaling is allowed but must be proportional; skewing or free transforming is not allowed

- Adding, subtracting, intersecting and grouping elements are allowed

- The use of color is unrestricted; you can create your own color schemes (e.g. use adobe Color)

- The use of gradients is allowed

- The elements may be filled

- the use of strokes is allowed

- Filters or effects (e.g. drop shadows) are allowed

Fig 3.1.1 The shapes given

Fig 3.1.2 Vormator final work

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2. Exercise - Chiaroscuro

Fig 3.2.1 Working process

Fig 3.2.2 Part 1 Final work

Fig 3.2.3 Working process

Fig 3.2.4 Part 2 Final work with clipping mask

Fig 3.2.5 Part 2 Final work

Fig 3.2.6 Part 2 Final work

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3. Task 2 - Pokemon Card

Overview

In this task, you will be combining your technical skills in Adobe Illustrator with your understanding of visual narrative to create a unique Pokemon card featuring your own Vormator character.

Pokemon Card Composition

Objective: Place your Vormator character into a Pokemon card composition, incorporating foreground, midground, and background elements. You may also create a new shape not bound by the vormator rules or shapes.

Tools to Use: Pathfinder, Shape Builder tool, Knife tool. You may also use other warping tools that will be introduced in the following weeks.

Steps:

1. Apply color and shadow to your Vormator character to enhance its visual appeal.

2. Design a composition that effectively uses foreground, midground, and background to tell a soft narrative about your character.

3. Create a Pokemon card layout featuring your character, including its name, powers, and ability ratings.

4. Write a brief description of your Pokemon, explaining its abilities and characteristics.

Fig 3.3.1 Initial Sketches

Fig 3.3.2 Working process

Fig 3.3.3 Pokemon Composition Design

Fig 3.3.4 Final Pokemon Card

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4. REFLECTIONS

Overall, my experience throughout the tasks and exercises was great. It was my first time using Adobe Illustrator, and I'm pretty happy with the final results.

Task 1 - Vormator

Since I only received my Adobe License on 9/5/2024 (Week 3), I had to do my Vormator work in the Library Mac lab. This was somewhat inconvenient as I preferred using my own laptop to do the work, but luckily I still managed to finish the work before the deadline.

Chiaroscuro exercise

It was interesting, and I got to explore a lot of tools and features in Illustrator, especially while doing the pears exercise. I particularly like the Fig 3.2.4 work with the texture applied using clipping mask, and I found this technique quite useful while creating artworks.

Task 2 Pokemon Card

It was definitely my favourite part out of the three tasks. At first, I didn't have much inspiration or ideas about what to do. Mr Hafiz mentioned that we could either use our Vormator creation from Task 1 or create a new character. I wanted to try to create another character with a brand new story, so I started brainstorming for ideas while walking around.

Initially, I thought of several themes: dream, ocean and emotions. I also thought of the story and skills for each Pokemon: for dream, it's exactly what my final design represents, I incorporated all my ideas; for ocean, I was thinking to have a twin Pokemon, one acting as a attacker and the other as a protector, with a contrast in appearance and size (one being cute and tiny, the other fierce and huge); for emotions, I was inspired by the movie 'Inside Out', where the Pokemon's power could negatively affect the opponent's team and positively enhance its own team.

In the end, I chose 'dream' as my theme, and wanted to include elements of jellyfish, brain nervous system, and sleeping hat in the design, which I did incorporate into my final design. I truly enjoyed the process of developing ideas and experimenting with ways to visually and effectively convey the story.

However, I think there is still room for improvement in my final designs, as I also need to learn more and practice more on using Illustrator. Despite this, I'm still quite satisfied with the outcome at this moment.

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