Fundamentals of Drawing III

These are scans of three of the final drawings, all on paper.

This a pencil/graphite drawing with one main vanishing point. There are actually a few minor ones for the slanted edges of the buildings.



This is a two point perspective inked on paper.


Another colour pencil sketch done on black paper to bring out the play in lighting.


This character concept is purely pencil on paper. One vanishing point and a strong light source.

Principles of Design II

And there was also another crash course in Adobe Photoshop. The assignment required me to create a collage, that is, a picture with different elements brought together in a unique way to convey a certain meaning. My collage is special, in that it is to be viewed from two perspectives is shown below. The accompanying essay is attached below.

This essay will present the concept, inspiration, elements and important features, as well as the experimentation carried out in the process of creating my collage.

The concept behind my collage is to show that the Earth is in turmoil. This is the result of intelligence used for wrong purposes. Mankind has so used his intellect to plunder resources from the Earth. Henceforth, there now seems to be a rejection of what is right, good and proper, to embrace that which is wicked or corrupt.

I was inspired by the book of Genesis, of the Bible, specifically, chapter 2 verse 17, which states “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (BibleGateway.com 2007). There are perhaps several versions of interpreting what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is. My understanding is that the tree represents perverse knowledge. It is the knowledge of that which seems good but is evil. It is this cunning tree that mankind chose to partake of, that is killing the Earth.

The collage is made up of six elements. The first two elements are made from the same tree, albeit being finished differently. The blue tree represents knowledge (the good) and the orange one, the evil thereof. They are connected via the tips of the branches to show their unity. The mountain-meadow landscape and dark clouds form the basis of peace and conflict. There is an empty rift between them with the stars of the universe for the background. A solar eclipse forms a pupil and iris in the middle; God is watching. The overall round shape of the terrain and clouds thus represent the Earth. The important thing you need to comprehend about this collage is that it can and should also be viewed upside down, that is, by rotating the collage by 180 degrees. Only then, will the full message of the collage be understood as the feelings and emotions are different from both view points. One view feels more harmonious and the other, more discordant.

Much experimentation with the elements yielded positive results for my collage. My initial idea was to use lightning instead of a tree to represent the evil but it seemed out of place with the other elements. I tried using the same tree I used for the good and through texturing, changing the hue, saturating it for style, applying some FX, with dodge and burn, it worked better than I expected. I experimented with masks to produce the rift and the once white clouds became sinister dark clouds after trying the blending modes. Some blurring was also added for depth. The elements were originally square and I decided that masking it to a circle would enhance its depiction of the Earth along with a little radial blurring of the stars.

In conclusion, I have created a collage that can be viewed from two angles and along with its elements; symbolize the good and evil of perverted knowledge. I have also shown its concept, source of inspiration, elements, important features and the experimental processes for its creation.

Principles of Design

The module synopsis says this is a foundation course in the application of design principles and elements that is fundamental to all design activities. We were given a crash course in Adobe Illustrator and then had to create an advertising poster of a redesigned product. So, I redesigned the A380 commercial aircraft into a biplane... ha ha ha.

Like my poster? Its done entirely using vector graphics in Illustrator

Principles of 3D Modelling III

A game unit. That was one of our assignments. I modeled what I call a "Mach Chariot". It is pretty much akin to the Star Wars Pod Racer. Having learnt to do the texturing process, here I had to apply it to my model.




And the beautiful final render done with ray-tracing.

Fundamentals of Drawing II

This is the first of two drawing presentations that I had to do. The five fully rendered drawings had to be of the same theme or story and I decided to do a space theme, like Star Wars, less the aliens. I was told to use some different types of media and I went with charcoal, colour pencils and ink. I think my colour pencil skills on black paper looks fine, but not too good on white paper. Charcoal is always messy so I try not to use it much, at least I attempted it =).

I would say that the best of my hand drawing skills is the ability to do perspective drawings, be it one or two or even three and more disappearing points.

Fundamentals of Drawing

This module, though so named as fundamental, didn't seem so basic. It felt like an acceleration from zero to concept artist in a matter of 13 weeks. I did well enough and this was the toughest class for just about all of us. Just going to show some of the earlier sketches first. Most drawings had a time limit, anywhere from 1 to 10 minutes. The lessons mostly consisted of replicating a picture that was shown to me. I had become a human photocopy machine.

Is that George Harrison?

Principles of 3d Modelling II

We had to do an individual model and I did a Space Shuttle. At this stage, I was still struggling with MAX, having only learnt its use for 2 or 3 weeks...

Principles of 3d Modelling

This module for 3d taught me quite a bit... no... a lot... lol. I learnt modeling, texturing, rigging, and very basic animation. The application used is 3dsMax 9 under WinXP.


First model I've ever done in Max. A basic biped of our own with all the joints linked properly. I did not want one too simple so I created one similar to the game Toribash.

A basic snail done using the mesh smooth technique.

It was in this exercise that I understood how to use the extrusion tool to create a model. You have to do it right or risk starting over again.

A nice castle... With this, I learnt how to do simple texturing, so that the castle looks like it is made of stone.

Chess pieces using the spline and lathe method. The knight was the hardest piece but getting the shape right was fun.

















I am having a hard time taming blogger. So the words and the pictures may look out of place.

Genesis

Hello! Aloha! Hola! שלום! 你好! Salut Bonjour! Guten Tag! 今日は! Haj!

I started my Bachelors Degree in Interactive Entertainment (Animation Major) Sept 2007. The degree is from Qantm College in Australia, well known for producing graduates for the gaming and animation industry. In this blog, I shall express my experiences, in my journey to the gaming/animation industry. It shall also serve as my personal portfolio of sorts.

A little bit about me. I am a Singaporean. For those who do not know where Singapore is, it is NOT in China, not part of it, or anywhere near it. We are an island nation located near the equator in South East Asia. Surely you have heard of Singapore Airlines being the first to fly the A380 commercially... I have a Diploma in Electronics and Computer Engineering and after graduation, I served in the Air Force for 8 good years; an avionics technician for the F16. For two of those years, I was deployed in the USA. I left the Air Force in 2004 and did a stint as a computer techie and then a test engineer for a couple of years.

I've always loved playing computer games and admiring the graphics. Now, I've found a new passion other than fixing fighter jets. I decided that the time and opportunity has come for me, not to only play the games but, to one day be involved in making them. And so, I am in the first batch in Singapore pursuing a Qantm degree via SAE Institute Singapore. Its was an exciting first trimester and I shall be documenting my rite of passage as I go along. Stay tuned!