Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Project Hiroshi - Fourth Panel/Complete set

Thesis:

My goal for this class is to complete a short animation by the end of the semester, with that in mind I chose to a four-panel mural including the four characters I've created for the animation against a constant, or shared background. Essentially, I am using the Hiroshi Project as a visual development or pre-production method for the animation to come.


For the first three panels I drew my characters and their individual backgrounds with Micron pen on a full page of my sketch book. 




For the final; however, the line work for it actually came from a thumbnail pencil sketch (1 inch x 4 inches) which gave it a more "sketchy", less "clean" look that I kind of liked. I then painted in some lights and darks in Photoshop. Finally, I painted and re-painted and re-painted it until it came out as it was displayed above. Finally, I brought in the characters themselves (some with slight adjustments) and meshed them with the lighting in the scene.  I decided to push the chroma more in the final piece.  

The final mural (aka. "CHROMA BLAST"):



Ta. Da.

The final panel:




I have mixed feelings about the end result. On the one hand, the time spent working on the characters and finding a color scheme/painting the background in Photoshop have been undeniably valuable; on the other hand, I had hoped to feel better about the end result than I do. I like it, but it is not the final look I want for the animation. I started out with a look in mind, a sort of "Le Illusioniste" meets "Le Royame" and I don't feel that I've quite married the two to my satisfaction. 


Here are a couple of process shots:



Unfortunately, I have not answered all the visual questions to my own satisfaction ... yet. But I do feel the process has been beneficial. The end result of the Hiroshi Project is that I have collected a great deal of building blocks for the final look of the piece if not the exact aesthetic. 









7 comments:

  1. Definitely an excellent sense of warmth in your final panel. Your contrasting warms and cools set your scene perfectly. The only thing that threw me off was the dark outlines on the squirrel that seem to not occur anywhere else. "Unhelpful" comment or not, I really dig this piece so far.

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  2. I agree, I really like the end result!! It looks really good. I like your final panel with the deer, he looks so bored haha. The only thing that I saw that didn't fit to me was the HUGE amount of yellow in the image. That would have to be some REALLY intense sunlight to light the scene that much. With the background slightly muted, I would think that the yellow would have been more subtle than it is. I don't know if this was helpful or not. Overall I really like the final mural :)

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  3. I strongly agree with the excellent sense of warmth in your final panel, but I kinda thought the deer did not pop out as much even though it's the main figure in the picture. But I love the whole color scheme of your final mural :)

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  4. I get that this might not be exactly where you want it to be--but, you made great strides in your technical and artist chops. Comparing the final panel with your cool-tone thumbnail (last image in the post), the final panel background is too chromatic. Tint the colors in your panel to let the characters "pop" a bit more.

    And give that buck the most ridiculous antlers ever seen! Like this Classic Photoshoped Buck!

    For the artist's / these statement, make it relate directly to the content of your images. (No need to say it is for a class) Tell us why we should care about the characters… how will the audience identify with them?

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  5. The background is great, I'm impressed.

    Your characters feel like they're floating around, though, I'm not sure if that's a look you're going for. The buck's legs are cut off, which bothers be a little.

    A++++++++++++++++

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  6. Thanks, guys! I appreciate the positive feedback/agree that there is work left to be done. Getting comments is awesome!

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  7. The final mural of CHROMA BLAST may be my favorite piece. I don't know if it's the color tones or the characters, this work reminds me of Jamie Hewlett a bit. Kind of evokes the same type of emotion. Love it!

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