Immature Design

crossing of flesh

2010-06-21T17:15:00.001-07:00

No color banding

2010-06-10T08:54:00.001-07:00

Thumbs up!

2010-06-02T03:32:00.001-07:00

Thumbs up!

Friends in need.

2010-03-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

So for the moment i'm putting a hold on my own project. I need some time to think, about how I want to blend and mix things up anyway. Two friends are both in need of some character designs.

One is for characters that will appear in a graphic novel. The other is for a 3D animation, that my friend is hoping to make as a series of episodes. (web based i'm guessing) The latter is both design and modeling of claymation style characters.

Once designs are finallized I'll post the rejected ones, and the approved ones. (once I have permissions)

Cheers

Work work work.

2010-03-17T15:26:00.001-07:00

Today we're getting ready for fire inspection at work. But I'm taking a short break, and figured I would post something here.

A good practice for design and creativity, is to take one thing, and make it into another. For example, taking a car and making it into a toaster. We don't want to make a toaster that looks like a car, but we do want to incorporate the overall design, into something else. We see this regularly in retro designs, the difference is we are getting the feel for say, a early model roadster in a modern design.

Coming up with items is as easy as naming two different items. Searching them on Google for reference. Preferably find a design you like to be modified into the new object. This will help keep you interested when you come to a challenge.

Cheers

Early Part References for Guns

2010-03-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a collection of parts i'd like to use. The parts that are labeled unknown are ones that I do not yet have an idea of what they would be in the design or where it may fit in. Labeled parts simply show either my original thought of what it could be, or how I would like to use it.

This early in design several parts may be changed, redesigned to better fit, or used for something else entirely. There are no plans to use all of these parts in a single weapon, but some will likely show up in multiple designs. The scope lens and scope eye piece would look nice on a rifle, but probably wouldn't work well on a revolver. The flip sight and barrel housing would probably work well together.

For those interested.

I've been a big fan of the old west (hate the movies though) and I've always liked the style of the 50's, some very nice and fluid designs came about during this era. So for a while I've been trying to figure out how to combined the two fluidly. One night as i was drifting to sleep it hit me. Gas propelled bullets, spark plug firing mechanism. At this point it's the idea that instead of cars being the main focus of design as it was in the 50's, guns are the main focus. Did I mention I hate guns, and refuse to ever own one. At the same time, the mechanical design, simple yet sophisticated has always drawn me to them, especially the revolver.

There are still many things to work out, like blending clothing of the 50's with those of the old west. Working out the problem of horse vs motorcycle vs car. This is actually a biggie do you make futuristic horses? style them into a vehicle? (example Firefly ship serenity is horse like in shape) motorcycles are the iron horse of modern times, but cars were the big thing of the 50's. It's a very tough design problem, especially when you don't have a client telling you what they want LOL. Even though there are more times when you may wish they let you have more freedom with a design.

Well I think that I've talked enough for one day.

Cheers

New name and direction.

2010-03-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

I've decided to expand on design, instead of just focusing on characters and creatures.

I'm currently working on building items for a world that is a mix of 2 eras.

So in the coming weeks I'll be showing my references and how they are used to create concept art.

From the concept art 3D models will be created and design problems will be tackled.

Cheers

2010-03-13T10:48:00.000-08:00

Here's a little creature design I whipped up this morning with a neat little application.
Checking posts on sites for opensource software like Blender and Wings3D has an advantage. Many other users looking for interesting programs that won't likely catch the attention of professionals, applications like Alchemy. Alchemy is not your average paint application, it's designed to help create ideas. At first look it seems like an odd vector art app, but there is no editing, undo, layers, ect.. So what is the point? Simple, almost every tool and modifier is designed to help create shapes that will aid our design. I can not count the number of times that I was drawing thumbnails and found I had made the same silhouette more than once. Alchemy helps keep you from doing this, and helps insure that each design is unique. We don't need a full list or tutorial here as the site has many pages explaining in greater detail, but one feature I would like to mention is a feature only found in 2 other applications that I'm aware of. Active mirroring, this is a great tool for character design artists as it allows us to quickly sketch out both halves at the same time and allow us to focus more on the design. The image above was created using nothing but the mirror and pressure shapes (essentially an ink brush).

So hit the site, read some info, and play with Alchemy

Cheers

Creature Design Natural Solution

2010-02-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

When it comes to creature design our only limits are our imagination. From simple blob organisms that consume simply to live, to advance robots that have become self aware. With so many possibilities it can quickly become overwhelming. We may have a simple idea for the overall shape of a creature, but struggle when it comes to fleshing out the details. Or the opposite of having a great detail like really narly teeth but can't seem to put together the rest.

This is where nature comes to our rescue. Almost any problem we can come up with has in most cases been solved by nature. In some of these cases it has been solved in many ways. For example, how would a biped move. I know that may seem silly but it's a very complex thing that we as humans take for granted. Other things like how a creature that hunts only by heat has been solved by snakes. (yes, some have special glands that can detect heat sources) One creature I recently ran across actually has iron plates for protection! I feel it must be said again, nature is an amazing problem solver.

Not only is nature a good way for us to solve problems, it's also a great place to find shapes, details, and ideas for our own creation. Let's take a look at one of Hollywood's bad boys of the big screen. The Predator, here we have lasers, advanced technology, alien medicine, and nature. The most notable feature is easily the face. Here we have a spider/worm type mouth. Almost porcupine like fine hairs, and tentacle like hairs around the crown of the head. The crown is almost crab like, and let's not forget that scream, even sound adds to creatures.

In the next post we'll begin examining some different methods for creating character and creature designs.

Mixed up sexes.

2010-02-23T09:49:00.000-08:00

Today while looking for some reference material an image stuck out like a sore thumb.

The first thing I thought was a man in drag?! But why?

1. The shoulders are very wide

2. The muscles and bones of the arm are quite large.

3. Large hands. (the fingers on the right are also larger than the ones closer to us)

4. Angular jaw line.

5. Slanted forehead and suggestion of heavy brow.

6. Very straight nose and pronounced bridge.

I'm sure some will read this and think I'm saying that women can't be beautiful with these features. Far from it, but when we have this many masculine features it takes away from the feminine features and we end up with a drag queen.

When we draw from our brains instead of a reference, we tend to use the shapes we know best.

Male artists will tend to draw more masculine/angular characters. Female artist will tend to draw softer more rounded characters.

As long as we are aware of our imperfections and tendencies we are better prepared as artists to spot these problems and correct the imbalances more easily. For there is nothing unattractive about a man or woman having the opposite sexes qualities, just as long as it's balanced.

Cheers

Welcome

2010-02-23T09:41:00.001-08:00

Hello, and welcome to my blog. This is my first blog so please bare with me. :)

My plans for this blog are to show my character/creature designs.

To give examples and different methods for creating designs.

And to exam problems in mine and others art and to see how we can improve them.

Hope you find this blog entertaining and informative