ILLUSTRATION & VISUAL NARRATIVE - TASK 1

27/9/2033- 3/11/2023 (Week 01-05)

Chan Suet Yee 0358427

Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media

Illustration and Visual Narrative | COM61304 | Section 01

Task 01 Exercises

Lectures

WEEK 01

Following our class briefing, Mr Hafiz assigned us to play a game called Bezier. After a few practice runs, I was able to complete it with 12 nodes. Overall, playing this game for the first time is quite interesting for me as well as challenging. However, I did have a better understanding on how to use the pen tool after this practice.

Fig 1.0 The Bezier Game - Car stage (Week 01)

WEEK 02 CHARACTER DESIGN BASIC : :

2.1 Stylised design

• Simplicity
• Unique
• Iconic

2.2 Principles of character design

• Shapes
• Explore the possibility of combining different shapes to create a character
• Makes the designs shapes based on the persona of the character

Fig 1.1 Example of shapes

• Colour
• Has a significant impact on recognising and differentiating between the character's fundamental traits
• Different colour gave different impressions of emotions

Fig 1.2 Example of Colour

•  Emphasis & Contrast
•  Make design stand out
•  By sharp combinations of colour or enlarge a particular part of the character

Fig 1.3 Example of emphasis & contrast

• Harmony
• All of the design's components must to work well with each other

Fig 1.4 Example of harmony

• Expression & poses
• Clear visualisations of the character's behaviours, quirks and personalities make it easier to appeal to the viewer

Fig 1.5 Example of expression & poses

WEEK 03 - CHIAROSCURO

3.1 What is chiaroscuro ?

• Italian term - light-dark
• Use of light and dark to create the illusion of three-dimensional volume on a flat surface
• Contrasted with a dark background 

Fig 1.6 Example of Chiaroscuro

3.2 Purposes of chiaroscuro

• Increase the scene's dramatic tension
• Create emotional and impactful scene

Fig 1.7 Example of chiaroscuro 

3.3 Why chiaroscuro is used in visual narrative?

• To differentiate positive and negative space

3.3.1 What is positive space and negative space?

• Positive space
• subject matter/ object of interest in a visual

• Negative space
• Filled space/ background that surround subject matter

Fig 1.8 Example of positive & negative space

3.3.2 Impacts of chiaroscuro on visual narrative

• Increase dramatic tension
• Provide a thrilling emotional depth to the scene's appearance and atmosphere

Fig 1.9 Example of increase dramatic tension

• Create sensational effects
• Help in elevating the fanciful point of view to highlight the story

Fig 2.0 Example of create sensational effects

• Attract attention
• Establish the scene's primary point and visual hierarchy

Fig 2.1 Example of attract attention

• Make tasteful composition
• Contrasting positive and negative spaces creates visual appealing scenes

Fig 2.2 Example of make tasteful composition

Week 04 - Composition theory 1

Visual Types and Shots

4.1 What is composition?

• Arrangement of the elements in our visual
• Decides how to arrange the objects that are in the frame

Fig 2.3 Example of composition 

4.2 Basic composition visual rules

• Visual narrative
• The composition ought to align the chosen subject matter and convey the story
• Consider the scene's appearance and atmosphere, sync their feeling together

Fig 2.4 Example of visual narrative

• Visual flow
• Composition determines the path of viewer's eye through the visual

Fig 2.5 Example of visual flow

• Visual balance
• Influence the directions even though i might not able to predict exactly the viewer's eye path.

Fig 2.6 Example of visual balance

• Visual hierarchy
• The way to visualise and concentrate on the subject matter can have a significant impact on the composition created, it can even change the course of history in certain case.

Fig 2.7 Example of visual hierarchy

4.3 Types of shots

• Establishing
• Wide shots
• Depicts spectacle, set the scene and allows viewer appreciate the beauty and grandeur of a place
• Provides enough information to understand what's happening at the same time

Fig 2.8 Example of establishing

• Bird's eye view
• Overhead shots
• POV place directly above the subject
• Around 90 degree angle above the scene taking place

Fig 2.9 Example of bird's eye view

• Frame within a frame
• Can break up the screen, provide depth and highlight specific scenes in the cinematic compositions

Fig 3.0 Example of frame within a frame

• Medium shots
• AKA three-quarter shot
• Frame three quarters of the character 
• Between a close-up and a long shot

Fig 3.1 Example of medium shots 

• Close-up
• Intimate moment
• Emphasise an emotions and thought within a grander context

Fig 3.2 Example of close up

• Worm's eye view
• Intimate moment
• Emphasise an emotions and thought within a grander context

Fig 3.3 Worm's eye view

WEEK 05 - COMPOSITION THEORY 2

Perspective

5.1 What is perspective?

• Art of representing a 3D object on 2D surface
• To give the right impressions of their height, width, depth and position in relation to each other

5.2 Types of perspective

• One-point perspective 
• Most simple method
• The closer the images to the vanishing point the smaller they become

Fig 3.4 Example of one-point perspective

• Two-point perspective
• Objects in the scene are drawn to both of the vanishing points which located on either side of the horizon
• Allowing more dynamic view than one point

Fig 3.5 Example of two-point perspective

• Three-point perspective
• Consists of two vanishing point on opposites side of a horizon with another vanishing point high above or below horizon 
• Achieve a sense of drama and scale
• Show more objects in a single scene
• The further the vanishing point from the horizon the lesser the intensity of the angle, vice versa.

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Fig 3.6 Example of three-point perspective

• Isometric view
• Able to avoid the design present without distorting perspective or obscuring details

Fig 3.7 Isometric view

• Dynamic application
• Mixing different perspective methods

Fig 3.8 Example of Dynamic application

INSTRUCTIONS

Tasks/ Projects

Project 01

In the second week, Mr Hafiz gave us instructions on how to use the shapes he gave us to use our creativity to create a character. The Vormator challenge is the tittle of this tasks. In this challenge, we are allowed to rotate, flip and duplicate the shapes provided in order to form a character. The elements can also be intersected, subtracted or added to. Moreover, We are not limited by colour so we are free to create our own colour schemes. Lastly, additional elements like gradients, strokes, filters, and effects are also permitted.

When I first started this task, I practised tracing the shapes that Mr. Hafiz had provided. After that, explored through how to combine and arrange different shapes to create characters. As you can see from the image below, I was able to make a character for this exercise.

Fig 3.9 Design process of vormator challenge

Final work 

For this design, I drew inspiration from the adorable Cinnamon Roll character from Sanrio, with a style which influenced by the current ballet core fashion trend. In basic terms, ballet core is an idealised version of the ballerina look with pastel colour elements. When people dress in this way, I frequently see ribbon in used. As a result, you can see my design uses pastel colours, and my character's ribbon serves as one of its primary characteristic. I purposely gave the character a pose rather than having it stand upright so that it would help the viewer visualise the character's behaviours and personality.

  Fig 4.0 My final design, Ruru 

Fig 4.1 Example of ballet core 

Fig 4.2 Picture of Cinnamon Roll

Pokecard

I made a background for Ruru before I put my design on the poke card template that Mr. Hafiz gave me. As you can see, I wanted to highlight one of Ruru's characteristics—playfulness—through the colourful background design. Furthermore, the background is dark to create contrast for the focal point and help the viewer focuses on Ruru. 

Fig 4.3 Final design of Ruru with background 

Fig 4.4 Final design of poke card 

Tasks 2 - Chiaroscuro 

We learned how to use the knife and pathfinder tools in week 3. The goal of this task is to improve our comprehension of light and shadow so that we can use it to further enhance the 3D appearance of our Vormator character. Mr. Hafiz first instructed us to use an image of a pear and trace its shapes to create a two-dimensional pear. We were then told to cut the pear into slices using a knife tool. Finally, in order for it to have volume and appear three-dimensional, we must add shadows to it. On my second attempt, I attempted to maintain the pear shapes while altering them to look like oranges. I changed the pear's colour to orange and yellow, then added some elements to give it an orange appearance to achieve this. 

Fig 4.5 Final outcome , pear

We then resume the chiaroscuro exercise in week four, but with more detail this time. This week, we learned how to use the clipping path tool and how to add textures to the chiaroscuro. Initially, we were instructed to trace out a person from a given image and add light and shadow to it, just like we did in the previous exercise. As the 2 image shown below, I did 2 with different combinations of colour.

Fig 4.5 Final outcome, a guy

Lastly, we were taught to add textures to the shading part.

Fig 4.6 Final outcome, a guy with different textures

Reflection

I've learned over the last five weeks that studying this subject is engaging and enjoyable. I had a great time working through the Vormator challenge, and I particularly enjoyed figuring out how to arrange the provided shapes in order to combine them to create the desired shapes. I felt that, after completing all of the exercises, I was beginning to become comfortable with Adobe Illustrator. I was pleased to acquire all of these new abilities.