Final NextGen Blog Post

The Synoptic Project has proved to be challenging for me as I have had to learn new techniques in both style, perspective, and colouring to get my concepts to look how I wanted. I do see this as being positive for me, pushing me out of my comfort zone with art, focusing on the things I would typically have left out of my drawings (i.e. almost the entire background). I drew furniture, wallpaper, environments, and textures; rather than characters, with bold outlines and quick designs. I had to think about theme, time period, matching, technicality of my designs and more.

I of course didn’t do all of the artwork as a lot of the 3D artists also have a talent in 2D. Their art and mine made my art book look more interesting, including more styles, ideas, and perspectives, and allowed for more designs to be done.

Marc, Adam, Caitlin, and Nikki all did stunning models, and Kelly brought the entire project together as a clever, playable game, and was our leader. I think we accomplished what we set out to do, and I was partnered with very talented students who I can see going off to do amazing things. People put in a lot of hours and effort to make the game in such a short space of time. Nobody was demanding of others and there has been a lot of praise.

It was very different working on a game to a VFX project. Since Planet A I have pushed myself to improve on lighting, structure, texture and overall appeal of my art. I have had feedback from lecturers, friends, peers and people in the industry, and uni. I took everything people said to me on board and used it to set goals. I have had a year to learn so much about digital art and I think I can surprise myself sometimes.

Thank you to my group for having me be part of such an awesome game.

I have had a lot to focus on this year- in my life and in my work- and feel so proud of the things I have done. I can’t believe Next Gen is coming to an end so soon. I have experienced and learnt so much in these past 2 years. I can give all of my new friends and each lecturer thanks for what they have taught me. I hated to miss a day. I never expected to love college so much.

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Pirate

Today I finished a drawing I didn’t expect to. I first started this as a little drawing experiment, but when I was putting together my portfolio I realised the character looked interesting and different to the rest of my art, so decided to finish the whole drawing. All I had before now was the character and a grey floor.

I really like the turnout, it reminds me of my old GCSE art as I did a topic where the person in focus was looking out at their dream world.

I liked the difference in colour and style to my other college work and the use of different techniques I’ve practised over the year that I have slipped in.

Gamora Completed

Today I finished my drawing of Gamora, one of my all time favourite Marvel characters. She is super interesting to watch because of her character and appearance. I thought it would be fun to draw a picture of her; including her colourful skin and hair, and line work.

I think it turned out as fun and colourful as I wanted. I didn’t intend to copy Zoe’s face but to exaggerate her features a bit and make it more stylised/cartoon-ish. I still went in on detail, though.

Reflecting

Today is our last day of scheduled lessons in Next Gen. It doesn’t feel like it, and these 2 years have flown over.

I didn’t intend to join the course as I was told I wasn’t going to be good at it since first year included a lot of technical and mathematical work, and I didn’t do computer science in school; but the second I realised A levels wouldn’t be right for me I tried this course and am so happy I did.

This year has been less about learning, and more about applying our skills. For me, this was concept art. I have used it to develop skills and techniques in digital art, as well as decide what I want to do in university. I have made great friends and memories during this time and think going with my gut was the right thing to do.

As well as that, I made great stuff too- being a part of people’s group projects made me feel as though my art was needed. I am still learning a lot about how to achieve what is in my head on the screen in front of me.

I am beginning to get excited about what is ahead of me now, university, jobs and experiences. I hope to have as much fun there.

Background at Night – 7 Deadly Sins

Today I transformed my background for the 7 Deadly Sins game into a night-time scene as the team requested it. I used the same scene of the mountain on the water but created a colourful midnight scene.

It is definitely exaggerated, but I remember the pitch for the game included anime inspirations and they are colourful and exaggerated a lot.

The northern light- type colour in the sky really finished it up and hopefully will look aesthetically pleasing in game.

I do hope this helps out the team a lot as their group are very small so me and Caitlin have pitched in with game art to help complete their game. I think it looks like a good project.

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Background – 7 Deadly Sins

I did a background for a group who made a game based on the 7 Deadly Sins. They needed a long background for a side scroller platformer game. I made it very colourful and stuck to the same shade greens as the platforms’ grass and trees.

The group wanted a serene background possibly including mountains. I also am planning to adapt this picture to create a night-time scene for them.

Art Book Completed – Bleak Manor

Yesterday I fully completed the art book for my synoptic project. I am still working on a couple of pieces related to it for my portfolio, but these are completed pages showing where the models were developed from.

I included everyone’s artistic contributions, focussing on 2D, including my own to show the variety of styles and ideas that went into the project. I think it has turned out nicely. I made the background format a brown page with blue ink splatters and handwritten titles and commentary. I then layered pictures and shadows to accompany them, and asked the group to make sure they had their favourite renders done with no backgrounds and with shadows.

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Overall I am happy with how it turned out and think it looks quite professional (hopefully); showing off as much of the art as I could in our ten pages.

The Keys are Locked Down – Bleak Manor

These key concepts I did for the project have been modelled and are in Engine! Nikki took on the keys and did two beautiful models of my key designs and one key of her own because she had ideas of her own. Kelly then placed these keys hidden around the room waiting to be discovered through clues and answers.

They even work to open the door locks, and there are some keys not coded as decoys.

Gamora

I am some way through a fan art piece of Gamora from Marvel. I thought I’d post my progress as I have completed her face and am working on the shoulder/bust now. I am still practicing the technique of not blending the colours, rather layering them. I thought gamora would be good practice for this as she is green.

First Official Art Book Page (& MVP) – Bleak Manor

Going by my practice page, this is the first completed art book page showing the development of the lamp between Caitlin and Adam. I am following my designs from my draft for every page to keep them in a theme. I am happy with how it turned out, and will use my handwriting to copy and paste onto other pages so it looks slightly neater than rewriting it each time; it is meant to look handwritten but I’d like it to keep uniform.

Today we had our MVP check, it went great. Everybody’s Models were looking great in the room and Gary managed to play all of Kelly’s game so overall it is technically a working product. A few of my drawings are framed in it also and the walls are together now. It looks like a real manor room and it has been interesting seeing it build up over time.

We have a few weeks before the final deadline where modellers are completing stretch tasks, I am working on the art book and may draw some final concepts (though they are not very necessary at this point) for portfolio purposes. We are in the final stretch now.