Illustration & Visual Narrative - Project 1: Exercises
07.04.23 - 19.05.23 / Week 1 - Week 7
Ilhan Rayan bin Khairul Anwar / 0361205
Illustration & Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Project 1 - Exercises
LECTURES
Week 1: Introduction
We were introduced to the syllabus and went through a slideshow showing what we would be working
on during the semester. After he introduced himself and the syllabus he introduced to us Adobe Illustrator which would be the primary application we would be using for this class. Adobe Illustrator is commonly used by graphic designers to create the art seen on advertisements as it uses vector graphics comprised of nodes, lines, shapes and curves using a formula that allows for it to be scaled in any size without losing quality. We also a game called the "Bezier Game," which introduced us to the pen tool used in Adobe's applications and how to use it by having us recreate specific shapes using only the pen tool.
Week 2: Character Design
We began work on our Vormator assignment and practiced recreating the eight shapes on our own using the pen tool. We were also introduced to the Basics and Principals of Character Design and how they can be used to create effective and unique character designs.
Week 3: Colour
We continued working on Exercise 1 and learned how to add colour, gradient, pattern, and texture to our vormator shapes via a video provided on Microsoft Teams as we were on a public holiday for this week. We were also provided with Adobe Colour, a website that could provide us with custom generated colour palettes that we could use as well as other palettes created by other users.
Week 4: Illustrated Type
We submitted our vormator character exercise and started working on our illustrated typography exercise for this project and were introduced to a new set of tools that we can use to create our designs. Those tools being:
- Text Tool: Creates a box that allows for text to be written inside of it.
- Create Outline: Converts text into paths that can be edited.
- Pencil Tool: Draws paths on the canvas that can be edited.
- Smooth Tool: Smoothens the edges of a path or outline.
- Shape Tool: Creates basic shapes (rectangle, circle, polygon, star) that can be altered to suit the user's needs.
Week 5: Image Trace & 3D
We were introduced to Image Trace, a tool that scans and converts rasterised images into editable vector graphics as well as how to create 3D objects using 2D shapes that we created.
INSTRUCTIONS
PRACTICAL
Exercise 1: Vormator Character (Week 1 - Week 4)
Our first exercise for this project was to create a unique character using a set of given shapes in Adobe Illustrator, the shapes can be seen in the figure below.
Figure 1.1: Vormator Shapes
We were also given a set of rules, those being:
Can rotate, flip and duplicate the shapes
Not obliged to use all the shapes
Can scale size, but only proportionally
No skewing or free transform
No altering the original shapes
Can add, subtract, intersect and group elements as you see fit
Unlimited colour use
Can use gradients and texture
NO OUTLINE STROKES!
No background
After I recreated the shapes in Illustrator I started planning the design for my vormator character, I already had a preconceived idea for the character I wanted to create so I went straight to work on illustrator without making a sketch.
Figure 1.2: First Character Silhouette
Figure 1.3: Spiritomb
When redesigning the vormator character my main inspiration for both the elements and colour scheme was the Pokemon Spiritomb from the fourth generation of Pokemon games. I wanted to try and recreate the effect of a ghost being trapped inside of a stone so I started adding in additional elements to fit this. It was also during this stage where I decided to redesign the mouth as well as the mouth I originally had felt unoriginal since I based it off of the example vormator design provided to us.
Figure 1.4: Updated Silhouette
After adding in the smaller rock to the design, removing the spine and adding in a bit more weight, I moved onto adding in the colours and armour pieces to create my desired effect.
Final Vormator Character
Figure 1.5: Final Vormator Design (JPG)I recreated the colour scheme for this design using Adobe Colour as you can select five points on an image and create a custom palette using those points which is then saved to your Adobe account, allowing for me to use it on Illustrator. I chose to add in the armour pieces to give the character additional weight to it as make the design feel less naked. I was originally going to have the flames be green in colour but I decided against it as I didn't want to fully copy the colour scheme of my inspiration.
Final Vormator Character Outline
Figure 1.6: Final Vormator Design Outline Screenshot
Figure 1.7: Final Vormator Design (PDF)
Concept Explanation
The character I created is meant to be a sort of cursed voodoo-esque spirit trapped in a small stone that releases the larger figure when threatened as a way self-defence mechanism, using stone segments and chunks to create an armour for itself. I was heavily inspired by the Pokemon franchise as their ghost designs are incredible and have so much variety.
Exercise 2: Illustrated Typography (Week 5 - Week 7)
In this exercise, we used a website provided for us to generate two random words that we would then use for our assignment. Fortunately we were allowed to regenerate as many times as we wanted until we got two words that suited our interests.
Figure 2.1: Pictionary Generated Words
The three challengers we were given for this assignment were:
- The illustrations and words complement each other
- The design makes sense
- Use non-decorative fonts as the base of the design
Once the rules were set in place, I started generating sets until I got one pair that I really liked.
Figure 2.2: Generated Words (Muscle / Blue Jeans)
Figure 2.3: Generated Words (Nut / Rocket)
Figure 2.4: Generated Words (Rainbow / Umbrella)
The figures above are some of the sets of words that I generated that were my personal favourites, though the pair that I chose to do in the end was "Rainbow Umbrella." I was really happy with what I got as these two words complemented each other really well and I had an idea of what I could do.
Because I got lucky with the two words and because we were allowed to use characters in our illustration, I wanted to utilise a character called "Blackmore" from a manga series called "Steel Ball Run." His character in the manga could walk on rain, used an umbrella as a weapon and had a rainbow on his mask. Additionally his character was based off of the guitarist Ritchie Blackmore known primarily for his work in the bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. While this would have been an interesting idea to recreate, I felt that I didn't have enough experience with illustrator to pull this off since we were still early into the semester. I also didn't want to have both texts be presented in one canvas as I felt that it would be too cramped for both of them.
Rainbow Sketch
Figure 2.5: Rainbow Sketch
I wanted to have a rainbow arch be present in the sketch in some way, but looking back this was an incredibly basic design that I made and I definitely could have done better.
Umbrella Sketch
Figure 2.6: Umbrella Sketch
This was the first sketch that I made for the word Umbrella, I knew I wanted to create this sort of design but I was thinking about how I could make it work well. I originally created this using texts and then rasterised the text so that I could edit it. I asked my lecturer Mr. Hafiz for feedback and he told me that I should sketch it out first before attempting to use text.
Figure 2.7: Updated Umbrella Sketch
This was my updated sketch that I made for the word Umbrella which he liked a lot more as it more closely resembled the shape of an umbrella while still having the whole word be present. Once I had my two sketches done, I moved to recreating them on Illustrator.
Figure 2.8: Digitised Sketches
I decided to recreate the umbrella illustration first since I felt that one required more editing and altering than the Rainbow illustration, where I used a video tutorial provided on how to quickly create a rainbow in Adobe Illustrator. From that I then wrapped the text around a circle and positioned it so that it would fit nicely on the rainbow while not clumping together. Once I had them digitised, I started experimenting with some ideas that I had as well as ideas that my classmates had, one of which was to try and use the intersect function on Illustrator to have parts of the rainbow move through the text.
Figure 2.9: Rainbow Intersected
While this ideas sounds interesting conceptually, I felt that it didn't really encapsulate the idea of a rainbow that well and the technically issues that I had to go through to create this were very tedious. In the end I decided to go back to my original design and keep it as it is. One other idea that was recommended to me by my classmate was to create a background for the umbrella illustration since it looks empty on its own.
Figure 2.10: Umbrella Background
Following this, I decided to angle the umbrella on its side so that it would match with the rain droplets in the illustration. One idea that I thought up of was to include the rainbow within this piece as well either by having it be above the clouds or directly above the umbrella itself. While I liked the idea, I didn't want to have to edit the umbrella illustration again just to fit it all within one canvas since we also had a specific requirement for the size.
Final Illustrated Typography - Umbrella
Figure 2.11: Umbrella Illustrated Typography Final (JPG)
Figure 2.12: Umbrella Illustrated Typography Outline View
Figure 2.13: Umbrella Illustrated Typography Final (PDF)
Final Illustrated Typography - Rainbow
Figure 2.14: Rainbow Illustrated Typography Final (JPG)
Figure 2.16: Rainbow Illustrated Typography Final (PDF)
REFLECTION
I had a lot of fun with this project, especially since this is the beginning of our Illustration & Visual Narrative course. Learning how to use Adobe Illustrator was interesting as I actually had never heard of it before this class, I was only familiar with Photoshop and Premiere Pro since those were the only two applications I had ever used in the past.
The Vormator exercise was my favourite of the two exercises we did for this project, it was fun being able to create a visually unique character as I had a lot of ideas in my head for what I could do. I definitely could have done something simpler but I really like what I submitted here, especially since I was able to base the design off of something I really liked. The challenge of having to use exclusively the vormator shapes was also interesting as it forced me to think outside of the box of how I could manipulate the shapes to become what I wanted, especially since some of them didn't work the way I wanted them to.
The Illustrated Typography exercise was interesting to say the least, I enjoyed coming up with the ideas but actually working on it was rather tame. I feel that I definitely didn't put as much effort into my Rainbow illustration as my Umbrella illustration and you can tell visually. I definitely could have put in more effort into making the rainbow art more appealing, such as turning it 3D or combining it with the Umbrella illustration to make something interesting.
Overall, I enjoyed this exercise and am looking forward to what we do next for this class.
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