Storyboards

Been working on storyboards the past few weeks.  I've only done about half of my short film as each panel is taking me between 1-3 hours to paint.  But i'm still glad i'm doing it this way since it's good practice to improve my painting skills.  These aren't all of them; i only selected the ones i liked most.  Currently up to No. 48 :p

A Vagrant's Story...

A young man journeying to save what matters most to him.  selfless to a fault, he would lay down his life for her's without second thought.

Finalised concept of my protagonist, he is known as 'The Vagrant'.  though born a slave, he was raised in the art of combat akin to the level of a Spartan.  the tribal markings around his arms signify this, though unlike his 'slave collar' tattoo around his neck, the marks on his arms and chest aren't just inked into his skin; they're burnt on.  the bandages represent his rebellion against his upbringing, an attempt to hide his unsightly 'scars'.  he wields a standard falchion, worn and rusted, but otherwise still deadly.

The design was inspired by many characters:  Ashley Riot from Vagrant Story and Wander from Shadow of the Colossus were my main sources for the overall look.  Raiden from the Metal Gear Solid Series was my inspiration for the face.  in terms of character and personality though, Princess Mononoke's Ashitaka was what i was going for; a strong willed warrior who's altruistic in nature.

The picture itself underwent many face lifts, but it turned out rather surprisingly in the end.  the colours were once again a product of my 'keep experimenting until it looks decent' process, using Photoshop's adjustment settings.  it's over-exposed, but it looks better this way compared to my bland initial colours.  Here's the mockups i started off with:

Overall, i'm quite happy with how it turned out.  gonna start storyboarding now...

Dragons & Dragons

A little something unrelated to my shortfilm.  it's the first painting i did in Painter without doing any line art.  took about 5-6 hours to paint.  i believe i used an oil brush for this.  the concept was intended for an intern i was helping teach 3DS Max to.  we ended up modeling it after we worked on the turnarounds.

Here's the finished low poly 3D model clocking in at 3356 polys. spent about 2 days modeling it.  did a simple 3 point lighting setup with the point light having ray-traced shadows.  also turned on light tracer and exposure for some ambient lighting and additional highlights for the render.  i might rig and give it a proper texture one day.

The Eye in the Sky

They looked up and saw it:  a piercing gaze.  a great expanse.  a size too imaginable to fathom.  what they saw was but a fraction.  there and then did they know that they could only be staring at the eye of God.

An unknown entity that appeared in the skies centuries ago, the local people worship it as a God of malevolence and chaos.  it goes by many names, but is more commonly known as the Blood God or Blood Eye, for only sacrifices made in blood are enough to quell its fury.

The idea came about from 'the eye in the sky', a term relating to God.  i also remember being in the library when i was in primary school and seeing a book by the same name, with the cover art being exactly that: an eye in the sky.  the moment i saw it i thought, "woah...what an awesome idea!".  the peacock feathers were accidental, but i'm glad i threw it in since it adds to the whole 'eye' concept.  that, and i love repetition :)

The line art took quite a while to finish.  i swear those squigly bits took forever.  the colours worked well with the lines this time around.  i stuck with yellows and reds, with subtle hints of violet and blue for the colours.  i realized i couldn't do a rush job after my first few attempts at colouring turned out mediocre.  an adjustment layer in Photoshop for contrast made the lines and colours blend rather well, saving me time to have to colour my lines.

A Sacrifice to be Made...

A young woman born as a living sacrifice.  the tribal tattoos on her neck, wrists and ankles are quite significant; they represent the burden she must carry, like shackles on a slave.  the mark above her chest is a covenant that binds her to this burden.  another victim of circumstance...

The design was originally inspired by Yorda from Ico, but was later influenced by Nina from Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter as she too is a prisoner with this beautiful glow of naive purity that i was looking for.  unlike Nina, i chose a more healthy look.  she's a sacrifice, therefore she's meant to look presentable and not dressed in rags.  a prisoner of a different sense.

Honestly...this pic gave me massive 'tunnel vision'.  i spent hours adjusting the face cos it looked too young to begin with.  ever the perfectionist, eh?

Cannon Fodder

Finished working on my guard concept just last week.  i was experimenting with a different painting style this time round.  the idea behind the colours is to apply them quickly without sacrificing the detail in my line art.

Whenever i do lines, i have a tendency to do the shading with it, adding more detail.  this is all fine and dandy...until i start colouring.  a lot of the work i put into the shading through my lines is undone the moment i add values through colour.  the two then start working against each other to the point of canceling the other out.  well, in some respects.  that's why i'm always concerned when doing detailed lineart and painting it after.  but no more!  in a way :p

The idea is simple: colour with base colours and quick shadow/highlight passes (i did mine in a few minutes), then bleach the crap outta it by adjusting the curves and exposure levels.  exposure in photoshop made the whites brighter while messing with curves created this nice strong contrast of dark values right next to the hightlights.  i then added a sepia wash over the whole thing cos i didn't like the colours at the time, and lightly painted the blues in.  the graininess is cos i used a filter...not sure which one tho.  didn't turn out too bad, but it's definitely something i'm willing to develop.

Here's the original line art and some early concept sketches:

Sunrise...Sunset

Final concept for my environment.  i always seem to gravitate towards oranges and reds, and complimenting it with blues.  it originally looked a lot duller, but i upped the saturation level and added a bit of exposure to intensify the horizon.  i'm quite happy with how it turned out :)

Environment Art

I finally got around to concepting the environment.  did a few mockups in Painter before switching to Photoshop when i got serious about the detail.  i find Painter rather difficult since colour is something i have trouble dealing with at times.  choosing the right colours can be tedious for me.  with Photoshop, i can always make adjustments to contrast/exposure/curves/saturation/etc much more easily, and it tends to give me surprising results and colours i never would have thought of using.

Here's some isometric layouts of the bridge and altar.  i always feel safer doing line art.

Chasing a Moon

Considering that i've still a few more concepts to post up here, i might as well do another post.  that, and it's late and i'm still awake :s

The steed of my protagonist.  i came up with an idea to have a mount for the main character, much like in Shadow of the Colossus, but rather a horse, i decided to make a warg (i.e. giant wolf) instead.

So i came up with this: an almost extinct species of Greater Warg called a Sabre Hound.  it turned out to look less like a wolf, but i kinda like it that way; makes it look more distinct.  it's roughly the size of a horse, but fully matured adults can grow 2-3 times larger with their tails splitting to form two and the hairs on their forelegs doubling in length.  its tail and maine can be hardened when the creature is aggravated, creating blades (hence the name).

I decided to call the creature 'Hati', which stems from Norse Mythology about a wolf that chases the moon.  i believe the word literally translates to mean 'hate'.

Though primarily hostile, the one in my film is very loyal to the protagonist.  the relationship between the two is one of master and servant, but only in the eyes of the creature.  the protagonist sees it more as a partner he can rely on and treats it as a friend than a servant.

Short Film Project: The Offering

I've finally started concepting my short film for my final year of animation at uni.  it's called 'The Offering', and is a tale of a young man journeying to save a damsel in distress.  ok, it's not as straight forward as that, but i've been wanting to make this for quite some time now.  Fumito Ueda's Shadow of the Colossus will be a huge source of inspiration for the setting, characters and story.  actually, a lot of the work from Team Ico inspires me.  another source of inspiration is Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, prince Ashitaka in particular...such a kick ass character.

Here's the first set of concepts for my film.  this is a rough version of my Colossal Beast; one of the main antagonists the hero must face.  i did this last year to jump-start my ideas and story.  used an assortment of 5H - 5B pencils on an A3 sheet of paper.  many of the design elements were inspired by the various colossus fan art by an artist named Cristian Penas (his deviantART page is http://cristianpenas.deviantart.com/).  awesome artist.

This one's the finished line art i did in Photoshop about a month ago, which i based on my rough concept.  took almost 2 weeks to finish; working on it a few hours each day.  so far, it's the largest digital image i've ever done (8575x13416 pixels).  i was a bit scared of colouring it, so i'm leaving the colours for later.  wat i love most when concepting is creating repetition, especially when making patterns.  i guess you can say this is the best i can do as far as line art goes ;)

Always gotta keep pushing it.  more stuff coming soon!

In The Beginning...

Ok, so i've finally started an art blog to showcase my developmental process and post random stuff every now and then.  A friend of mine, Sir Daimon Hall, suggested i give it a whirl.  So far so good ;)

To kick start, i should probably introduce and describe my current situation...

The name's Al Dayan, and at the moment i'm working at an independent game studio called Valhalla Studios as a part-time artist and animator.  The place also doubles as a training facility for high school students learning a Cert III in IT.  The little buggers can be noisy at times, but some of them are great once you get to know em, especially the artistic ones; they're quite talented for their age. I'm originally from a trade background since i used to be a trade assistant for my Dad and did labour work at a factory for a local cabinet maker.  I guess i've always been a worker...must be in my blood ;)

I'm also studying full-time at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), doing a Bachelor's in Fine Art: Animation.  In my 3rd year at the moment, so it's the big one!  My only previous tertiary level education is my Diploma in Multimedia from Southbank Institute of Technology, where i first got introduced to 3D.

I've always been an artist, though my love for animation has slowly grown to the point of being my main professional focus.  Texturing and 3D modeling are other stuff i can do, but i'd rather pursue animation and concept art, particularly towards characters and creatures.  I've also done a bit of programming...which is odd for an artist to be able to do.  It was fun, but i'm keeping well away from it now as art's my main passion...at least, that's what i tell myself.

My ultimate professional goal?  To own my own studio.  I'd probably call it something similar to this blog.  We'll see, eh?  We'll see.

Anyway, that's it for now.  Hope that was a good read for ya.  Be on the lookout for me constantly using an 'ellipsis' ===> '...' i use em all the time...no idea why.    I'm a bit late with starting these sorta things, but i'm gonna see how it goes updating periodically.  Should be fun :)