Weekly Photoshop assignment - Halloween!

After a weekend of playing many games with special Halloween events (Guild wars being the main culprit here) I should be full of ideas, candy corn, pumpkins and anything else spooky in-between  I like the idea of maybe creatures dressing up as there real counterpart. 

I first sketched up some deigns, i wanted to work more on the character. i tried to get a good pose or a character that i would be happy with. I liked the main two designs on this one and is defiantly the design i would like to base my final design on. 

Here are a few more character designs that i wasn't too happy with.

Here are a few Photoshop sketches that elaborate more on my ideas i drew earlier. One of these designs is what i would of liked to do my final piece on but unfortunately didn't have enough time. This is defiantly something that i would like to attempt again in the future. 

Weekly Photoshop assignment - Tree!

They come in all shapes and sizes and believe it or not also have their own proportions and sizes much like humans do. All week i've been staring at trees wondering what my final piece should look like, how hard can it be, trees are trees right?

I first gathered research and deigns of what sort of sign i would like to do. I realised after that the brief was trees with character, the moodboard here is showing tree as character..mostly.

I liked the idea of a giant woodland creature, friendly of course. Got a few ideas here but like i said i realised trees with character are not allowed. 

Going back i first i tried out going to bare basics of drawing a pine tree (Simple trees because they go straight up and have a pattern in branches) then fleshed it out with some leafs and finally beefed it out a bit more.

Here are a few silhouette, exploring different shapes and sizes, dead trees and tropical trees. I liked the design of most of these so i decided to work on some of my favour designs more and try different colours.

 After i did these, i felt a little stumped. 

I was quite happy with the final design, i liked the actual tree and the spirally roots and branches. I feel i might have ruined the final outcome by adding the little white house, at the time it was to add more character and fantasy. I think i could of also worked more on the background/foreground, added more to give it depth and a better overall picture. 

Weekly Photoshop assignment - Surreal!

When we first got this assignment i was super excited, surrealism.. How can you go wrong! The strange, the weird and the wacky, with surrealism, anything goes and because of this it felt like we had a lot more freedom with this. The more i realised how open and broad this could go the less and less ideas i got, until some time over the weekend a dash of ideas sprang to mind, all triggered when i saw a man walking a dog in a pushy trolley looking thing. Swapped heads? Dogs with human characteristics? the possibilities are endless.  

Once i had a few things flowing (Time and a teapot in this case) i decided to do your typical surreal-desert-dream state-messed up-doesn't really make sense-sorta thing and quite liked the result, need to work out and design what that cluster of arms and legs are doing in the middle but if i can perfect a few things with this then i might go ahead with this for my final idea. 

Same sorta idea again with this one, just trying out different techniques. White noise and faulty tv signals were my main goal and effect for this one, mainly just a test to see what could be done. 

I liked my original idea so decided to work more on that. The aim was a digital surreal time driven cyber desert of strange-ness. Yeah chucked all my ideas together really and this was the result. I guess i am pleased with it, could've been painted more i guess and worked more on the body but hey, it's surreal right?

This was my more 'final' version, felt it was a little cluttered. I was quite happy with the actual design because it is pretty much exactly how i pictured it, i only wish i spent more time actually painting the details and shadows, obviously the main focus here is quite flat. Other then that, this weeks task was interesting and a pleasure to research.

Glitched out world, binary and missingno, shaken not stirred. 

Weekly Photoshop assignment - Robots!

Here i found various artists and designs that really gave me some great ideas. I liked the idea of an industrial styled robot, used for helping man with daily tasks. Junkyard robot? JCB Machine?

While searches the net for inspiration and ideas i found a great artist called Anthony Jones. He has a great style that is so clean and crisp, the detail and tones really do make it stand out. Stunning composition and really good use of the colour white ha. Something like this would be what i would love to do for my final piece, but hey we'll see.

First off i started designing robot parts and different designs, like i stated above i liked the idea of an industrial robot used by humans or for humans. One of my man ideas was a giant machine used to pick up 'junk' by having a hydraulic arms.On the other page i also decided to try doing Anthony Jones styled robot, futuristic and clean mechanical design.

Here are various silhouettes that i touched up and designed to help me decide the overall shape and to help me choose what was more of a solid design.

I wasn't too happy with the final result, the lighting and shadows are weak and could of worked much more on the composition. Lowering the horizon line and lowering the camera to look up to the robot would of maybe made him actually look giant. Figureing out more detail and other designs that could go on top would of help too, where it stands the current design is bland, plain and in the future i must remember to add more imperfections and detail. 

Weekly Photoshop assignment - Tentacles!

Before jumping to sketching some designs, i did standard research on various artist to gather ideas.
I was excited to do this as there are many different routes and loads of design possibilities. 

Octopus, squids and the like are pretty fun to draw, suckers, spikes, goo and many arms.I tried by thinking what creatures would have tentacles and how that would affect the way the tentacle looks.

Here is where i started designing different compositions and page layouts, quite a few designs here that i wish i did instead of my final. 

Here i tried several techniques and colour schemes that i might use in my final design. Sketching some suckers and wrapped around tentacles. 

The first main rough stage i got too, most of the values and shadows are in place. My vision was to try and produce a cartoon with realism, defining extra detail and gore that wouldn't normally fit with a cartoon styled design.

I felt after the initial stage that i had trouble colouring on top of the greyed version i had before. Using Photoshop techniques like using an overlay layer, seemed to give it a washed out look. Wasn't sure where else to go with it other then add more detail, i think the main thing i need to learn is using a wider range of colours to bring out the contrasting values more. I think in the future i will try going straight in with colour and see if i achieve desired effect. 

The house that god built.

Here are some of the uvw maps that i started to do. This is when things were going okay.

Yup, going okay so far.

Slap on some textures.

...then the house died.

I literally crashed, burned, raged and died inside. Eventually i gave up due to time contrants also. 

Demonstrating basic lighting skills.

Here is an example of three point lighting, the model was already provided but that task was  to set more of a scene using a Key light, Fill light and a back light. 

Quite enjoyed fiddling around to get desired effect. 

This took me a little longer to get the hang of, getting the lighting right behind the archway was most annoying. Maybe bit more practice to get it right but i was okay with this version. 

Low poly sci-fi gun - 1500 Triangles.

Under 1500 triangles? Mission complete!

After i done the model i wish i spent more time using up those extra polys to add more detail. Would of enjoyed spending more time on this.

Side view.

Somehow along the way, alot of quality was lost.

Penasaur, texturing/mapping.

This is my finished dinosaur map, was quite happy with finally outcome but had a lot of fun. I started having fun with it once i could distinguish what goes where. I could of spent many more hours polishing it up but in the end i was chuffed with it like this. 

He is happy to see you.

Textured/painted underbelly and nails.

Side view

Screenshot of Photoshop and 3ds max, working in perfect matrimony.

Somehow along the way, quality was left behind. (Was better before, i swear) 

Go, water type!

Once again, just a little mess around on Photoshop. Not that great, could add loads more to it to be honest.
Was just mainly to see if i still 'had' it, obviously i barely have.

Note to self: Should really try and finish a full piece!