Leonie’s small blog island says hullo! (: Are you cozy? I hope you are cozy for another week of updates!
Let’s go crazy! Journal Time!
1st Wed
train adventuuures
Drawing tired/bored people when they’re not looking and before they move off!
Environment studies: these are from last week’s update but I was generally taking things at a slower pace today as I did some more. I have narrowed my moodboard and references down to something more manageable but I won’t have time to draw studies from them.
Average sized tree studies some from Burning safari concept art and most from Google images photos; trying explore interesting shapes and variety and keep the focus on jungle-like plantlife!
Rocks, vines, foliage/leaves and waterfalls isolated and in focus
Plantlife studies suitable for mid ground to foreground elements I have in mind. I isolated these elements as I figure out what can be modular in either 2D or 3D form.
Studies from environment art and photos I like (The Croods’ concept art being one of them)
Environment photo studies!
2nd Thurs
train adventures
I was barely managing to hide what I was drawing; it was cramped in the train today.
Environment design for CwR (Cooking with Rex project): Picked out plantlife with Will and Victor then spent the morning honing on composing background elements (otherwise I could be making environment studies forever!).
I found figuring what suitable kind of plants to use was taking me longer than figuring out how I want to frame the shot; it was mostly experimentation and what was meant to be a thumbnail became a fully planned sketch! Still I did have a general idea in my head how I want it to be composed but mid ground elements were the unknown for me. I got feedback from the encouraging Heath and generous Brendan for approval so that Will could start modeling the 3D elements for the environment.
It seems like Will’s going to be 3D modeling everything after all while I don’t have to 3D model a thing, and luckily I’ve been able focus into concepting, character/prop/environment/shot designing and co-art directing throughout this whole project! I am very glad I was able to just focus on my area of specialisation so far! I’m slowly going to move onto matte painting for the backgrounds next and maybe texture painting depending on whether time allows.
My composition thumb (now a sketch) for the one camera shot where the coloured plant life are the 3D modeled elements for Will to refer to. Clearly I am not going to paint every leaf when I matte paint this, but at this moment in time, it helps me to show more of what plants I want to depict in sketch form. Note that the position/angle of the oven and the table have been changed since this image was made, thanks to Brendan’s composition advice. **Disclaimer: although the Oven design is by me, the 3D Oven model shown is modeled by Will.
Environment blocking-in: starting to finalise with the concepts and design for the matte painted backgrounds but I’ve developed a headache (Will probably passed on his headache!) and had to take a break for the rest of the night.
3rd Fri
train adventuuures
It wasn’t intentional buuuuuut she’s apparently sitting on her head.
More heads and a random hand. I had to use ninja skills as I had to make sure people didn’t see me looking at and drawing them! No shady sunglasses this time!
After nutting out the film sequence with Victor once again, I drew placeholder Title and End screens for him to put into his 3D animatic. Victor came up with the ideas and I drew them.
The layout needs improvement but the placeholder suffices for now! I plan to design this thing properly after the matte paintings. Hat versus Head ratio not consistent here.
Ignore the tongue. Now that you’re looking at the tongue, yes it’s clearly not as tangled as I would have liked but I will redraw and redesign this placeholder image! *insert groovy elevator music*
Drew a sprite for a 2D smoke effect test (been figuring it out with Victor and Callum showed us the way in Nuke) and looked for meteor references
Environment blocking in: I got a bit more time but still working at it
4th Sat
Rough lighting thumb for the environment
Environment blocking in individual plants and composing these as I go. It’s taking me a longer while (the whole day with breaks of course) as I haven’t done this before and I’ve been keeping the elements as flexible as possible.
As you will discover below, currently it has lineart to help clarify what plants are there but it is making it look too busy/realistic rather than stylised. This is so that Will would be able to distinguish how to model the 3D plants and for me to know what I am painting. In the final version it will all be painted over without any lines for the matte paintings and it would be more washed out in details as well. I’ve distinguished the plants now, blocked in the composition so far (and I’ve taken out a handful of plants too) where the coloured plants are 3D plants for Will to model. It is vibrantly colour coded (so it’s not the final colours!) so that the bluer the plant is, the farther it is away from the camera, relative to nearby plants. All the greyed out parts are the matte painting sections. There might be little basic 3d cube-like rocks scattered on the jungle floor to add some attention to detail too.
I know matte paintings aren’t usually approached this way as this is time consuming, but I’ve been able to move each plant around as I keep nitpicking and refine the composition by having the plants clearly defined and flexible. It allowed me to experiment like one does when playing with lego!
Environment block in: Have the colours blinded your eyes yet? Awaiting feedback from my group the next day but I think I might make changes to the matte painting sections, now that I look at this.
Changed the composition for the grey areas a bit once again. Spot the difference!
5th Sun
Environment colour block in: got Will’s feedback and a basic colour plan was needed for basic texturing to take place. Colours will still be subject to change as the lighting needs to be taken to account. I guess the following colours are placeholders (as lighting is not taken into consideration and some things are too saturated in places). I didn’t expect that making these placeholder colours would take such a while!
3D elements only for Will to block in colour appropriately. I forgot to include the side plant
The whole background in blocked in colours (too saturated/bright)
Placeholder colours now complete with Rex, table and food props
6th Mon
Environment lighting plan: painting time! Now I am pushed into defining what I’ve drawn. I have learned that I need to paint rocks more! Actually, I need to paint more in general (looks around shamefully).
7th Tues
Environment lighting painting continued as I hope I’m going at it in the right direction
Just a preview on how I’m going so far for my team members Will and Victor to see. I had fun with the rock patterns (managed to put my name in there too as a personal easter egg)! This mountain almost done but it’s not supposed to make sense as I was aiming for interesting shapes and uneven staircases rather than realistic and feasible rocks. Still, 1/3 of it is going to be covered up so let me have my fun! (:
Brief team meeting on the Cooking with Rex project
Finally I have decided to post art updates over at my personal facebook instead of my facebook page since Tuesday. Feel free to hit the “follow” button to keep up to date with this blog if you’re the facebook kind of person. (: Funny that I seemed set in keeping the facebook page running a few weeks ago but upon realising that since I don’t use my personal facebook anyway, I might as well manage updates over there instead and possibly get some feedback from friends I know.
Reflection for the Week
Overall been working at doing my first “proper” environment design and matte painting and am learning as I go. The Cooking with Rex project only has a week left and it’s going to be even crazier in the coming months!
To readers of my blog: Hopefully the way I’ve laid out my posts make sense to you, the way I write is easy to read and that I’ve ironed out almost all grammar mistakes, otherwise let me know with some helpful feedback.
What a leafy week! Thanks for looking! (:
Until next time, Leonie (UUUinfinity/TripleUinfinity)
