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.
