Portfolio Class- Character Development!

[PTimm]

hey everyone, love the designs going on here!

thomasmahon-pic looks killer! and i feel ur pain about the merlin pic situation, i had worked on a painting all week only to have it get destroyed by photoshop

BenFlores-I like where ur going with the arthur, looks really good, can't wait to see it finished

DavidFisher- I'm diggin ur merlin design a lot, especially with the swirling snow, the face paint is really cool too

and lastly here's my russian merlin, had the week from insanity hell so i couldn't spend as much time as i would have liked on it, but im just happy that i landed on a design that i was happy with. also some quick bear studies

[ImSkeptical]

Wanted to work on it way more but i have a feeling its due if i want a crit? :(

Anyway, kept trying to push the jaguar theme i mentioned in my research/planning post. I think i managed to get the silhouette to read as such, which is what i was mostly worried about, but i think i screwed up the lighting. Also i couldn't seem to work out a good design for his basket. This one was much harder that i initially thought it would be, will defiantly have to work on it more later.

[JakeB]

Just been noodling around with this now. Gonna have to call it done. Think it's as far as I can push it. Learning tons though :).



EDIT: Hi-Res http://blog.ohbullocks.com/image/36001029291

[Zipfelzeus]

It's almost finished. sorry guys... but there are just a few details missing I'm working on that now. But I didn't want to miss the stream :(

[DavidFisher]

@Thomas: Thanks for the comments man i really want to see yours hope your computer problems has been resolved and you got a chance to work on it more.

@Zipfelzeus: Wow i really like the design and the sweet stache

Looking good guys, Im still not done but heres where Im at for now looking forward to doing the next character!

[Dan Warren]

so heres the deal..Looking through im seeing lots of awesome developments and progress, but Im not getting a sense that anyones really pushing their work to finish to a portfolio level of quality. As we move forward, im seeing some momentum being lost here and there and for me, this is a shame since youve all worked so hard on these and tried to do your best with all the feedback from myself and others. We may be moving too fast for some of you, or you may have other commitments getting in the way, and Thats totally understandable. With that in mind, Im giving a special circumstance 1 WEEK FREE PERIOD for all of you to tighten up your merlins and your unfinished arthurs. Im uncomfortable moving forward to Morgane, who I think will be the hardest for everyone, without a really solid foundation with the first two characters completed. That being said, Ill pop on here sometime this week to look at the Merlins and offer feedback and paintover, but I dont want to yet, since Im not seeing anything thats really at a finished level. Take a week, and take it seriously! you owe it to yourselves to make these look as good as you can.

Best,

Dan <3

[KyTran]

ImSkeptical: I really like your Merlin, it's got this silliness to it and i really like the exaggerated hunched over position. i would consider making the staff taller so it doesn't line up with the top the satchel, just to break up that line.

Zipfelzeus: Wow that's awesome, the The green and yellow staff head seems a bit out of place to me though, just because that saturated green and yellow isn't seen anywhere else in the design. not sure but maybe working in those colors in other parts of the design or changing the color of the staff head might jell it to the character better.

[Thomas Mahon]

thanks so much Dan!

I've had some setbacks time wise this week, with the crash and some personal stuff over the weekend, so this free week is exactly what I needed. The tortoise shell and its clothing is no where near done, neither are the hands and face of merlin. Everything else I tried to get near finish.

[malan]

Oh Dan, that week will definitely be very very useful! Like Thomas, I really need it!
But, what will happen with today's class?

[Tadas]

This is where I'm at right now.
Yeah, that extra week will be really useful

[malan]

Ok, here's my Merlin progress, It's not finished yet... also had some time issues.
I am trying what Dan told me about color, and his help has been really useful. I'm using more vibrant colors, and for now, focusing a lot on the skin, trying to make it more real and "alive".
So, I will get this finished soon :)




Hi Res here --> http://bit.ly/10aQSI5

[Dan Warren]

all really good. heres some tips for this week before i get to streaming.

Thomas- looking good. youre getting a bit of a 'grayscaled colors' effect in the values where they all sit in a similar range. This is a dangeroud pitfall of the wes burt coloring method so many people try to use, and you have to nip it early on. Try using some adjustment or special layers on top to get a little more punch with lighter values in areas of focus. I might even recommend a normal layer with some direct paintover. Id also maybe shift the colors to cooler ones. If hes of the woods and theres a mist theme, lighter blues or aqua kind of greens might work better with the white robe. they would also compliment the gold discs and set them off. the last thing is the eyes- with that hat, making the eyes glow pushes him a little too close to raiden. as cool as glowing eyes are, id get rid of that. he could have really bright irises, or his eyes could be in shadow with little bright dots for pupils inside the shadow (to keep the glowing idea but kill the raiden). And, as always, the design elements in his robe could be played up a little bit more. Its still very much a normal man in a normal robe, just with glowing eyes. good stuff tho, push it!


Tadas- this is looking good! you really ran with the crits and I think they helped. the big thing to fix in this the anatomy. please get a camera and have someone pose, or pose yourself, and look at the relationship between the arms, legs, and torso. the anatomy is going to make or break this- at the moment its breaking it, but you can turn it around! downplay the deep black shadow lines in that segmented belt hanging between his legs. its way too dark and becomes an eyesore. Really good colors for the culture, but it needs a little more punch in the value range like Thomas. add some little hits of bright bright color in areas of focus. if that masks made of gold, it neds some really bright specular highlights. in this rare instance, Id actually recommend using the cliche king tut mask to look at how the values should work on a shiny gold mask like this. the last thing, Like thomas, kill the glowing eye. Its clearly a human wearing a mask, so giving him a glowing eye is a cop out at trying to make it cooler for cools sake. awesome progress tho! i see some major improvement from the arthur. ANATOMY, ANATOMY, ANATOMY!

Malan- gratz on really pulling back with the rendering to focus on big areas of simpler, more vibrant color. I hope you see how much more effective this is in comparison to the highly rendered, blown out grayish arthur from a couple weeks ago. you can still push the colors a bit more in terms of vibrance and saturation, but this is leaps and bounds from the last character and rome wasnt built in a day. A challenge for you this week is to try and integrate your patterns instead of isolating them. By this im talking specifically about the smoke vs the character. Rather than just ending the character where the smoke begins, Id like to see you try and warp his design into the smokes and have it fade gradually into it. Smoke and mist are transparent, and whats more, if hes forming FROM it, I think it would be really cool to see that happening as the smoke rises and begins to solidify into patterns and eventually shapes. the simple, clean rendering blending your drawing to the colors in the chest and arm is working well. Dont push it much farther than that until youve done it everywhere else first (the face, his hair, the smoke). Bring everything to the rendered level of where the chest is now, and then we can selectively push certain areas even further- but not yet. youre doing very well reignin g in the bad habits from the last character, so dont get too ahead of yourself. really good work! push what i mentioned and then show me for the next steps!

Remember- I gave you guys an EXTENSION- not a break. These are extremely rare in the professional world, and any AD who gives one out expects HUGE progress when the new deadline lands. Use this week to really play with that you have and get it up to where it neds to be. Theres no reason this shouldnt be the best character in your portfolio if you take it seriously.

Try and have some progress with the things ive mentioned to show by tuesday or wednesday and Ill get on the stream with advice for the finish. good luck.

Best,

Dan

[emooi]

Hey guys,

Here's an update so far. The only thing i need to do is to make some magic thingy above his hand.
I already planed my schedule for this week for Merlin. I'm going to make some smoke strokes like in the WOW Panderia cinematic trailer. The smoke clouds that wraps around the panda bear. And make his cloths blown in the same direction so there will be some movement in the piece :)

BTW, i took the letters from an Japanese poster were Tengu was spelled. So if it's not, please let me know and i don't want to offend anybody. Simply, i cant read Japanese/Chinese letters :D

[Zipfelzeus]

@DavidFisher: Thank you and this merlin you doing looks so badass. I love that you went with the beast look. I just don't want to meet him in the dark, that's for sure.
@KyTran: Hey man big thanks for the advice. You're totally right with the staff. I don't know where I was going with these colours. I guess I lost track.
@emooi: The design came out real nice man. The nose and the shoulderpad are my favourite parts. Just be careful with his boobs they seem a bit asymetrical.
Here is how far I've come. Suggestions and crits are very much appreciated :)

[KyTran]

Emooi: awesome progress, a few technical issues that stick out though. I made a few changes to show you what I mean since it seemed easier than explaining it. The main thing is just to remember to not mix black and dark grey in to get darker colors. It will kill the liveliness of your painting immediately. I know you wanted the skin to feel red but you also have to balance that with believably. Also keep light source in mind, in the original the metal was suggesting that there were to very hard light sources when the rest of the painting suggested there was only one light source. There are some other things that could be changed but those thing will come with time and study. Anyways I'm not very good but i hope that helped a little.

---

Zipfel: of course! we're here to help each other learn. I'm still very much a novice though so forgive me if i ever give bad advice.

Hey guys, Been pretty busy with life and environment design so i haven't had had much time to work on Merlin but here's where i am with it. I still need to add cast shadows, more clothing/ornaments, and finish up the mask. I'm sure its lacking so any advice would be appreciated!

[emooi]

@Kytran pose wise, move his hands away from his feet, or put something in his hands. Now it looks like he's pulling a splinter out of his foot ;) Maybe give him some tattoo's and more of that rope stuff that's on his back for bracelets. And search for some voodoo pictures you can get a ton of inspiration from that.

Hey guys,
First off, thanks Kytran and Zipfelzeus for taking the time to crit my Merlin.
I applied the feedback and correct some mistakes like the boobs and his feet! Was really struggling with his left foot. Also i want to mention that his color scheme is not the scheme i wanted in the first place. Because he's an old forest spirit i wanted to give him "old" green colors for the cloths. But it backfired like a funky st. Patricks day leprechaun :D

Anyways, here's what i'm been doing the last days.
- Blowing wind through the cloths from the magical crow that builds up from smoke (makes the piece come to life and more dynamic rather than every piece of clothing is hanging straight)
- Added ring's to his staff (like the original Japanese priest staff)
- Added more highlights and shadows

Points of interest: I'm not very happy whit his haircut, trough the long nose his appearance is less Japanese. I think the haircut could change that. Last but not lease, should i add more accessory?



hope you guys like it,

Erik

[KyTran]

Thanks Emooi, I plan to put a bowl thing and grinding tool in his hands, like he's grinding up some reagents to make medicine.

Your latest update seems to have really high contrast and many of the shadows are pure black. even if they are dark there's almost always a little bounce light and ambient light going around so I think black is a little to dark.

Also the rings on the staff are placed a little strangely. here is what i mean.

[emooi]

Hahahaha thanks KyTran, didn't even noticed that the rings were out off the loop.
The thing about the contrast for Merlin is, if you take a look at my first Merlin i posted. It looks really flat, color wise. Like there is no dept and the piece doesn't pop. Then i experimented with the exposure filter and it looks way better. Now to find something for the black shadow :) i will draw my ass of till it's perfect! go go gadget pencil :p

[Dan Warren]

THERE BETTER BE SOME REALLY GOOD FINISHED WORK ON SUNDAY SINCE IM NOT SEEING WIPS ON WEDNESDAY.

[malan]

Big, big sorry for not posting a WIP earlier today... I was struggling with the smoke the past days, but finally I got it, it was a bit hard to get the shapes as I wanted, but I hope it works. I didn't want to post it without the full smoke, so, that's why I am doing it right now :S
Cheers!

Hi Res: http://bit.ly/TgBgkP