Project Planning - Semester 2's Study

Semester 2 Project - Fantasy to Science Fiction - Source Material: Terry Pratchett's Jingo


Aim is to practice as many skills as possible that are relevant to the concept artist. The problem now is to get a sense of exactly what these skills are so that I can compile a list.

My initial list of things I think I should tackle:

• Characters
• anatomy
• expression
• clothing/costume
• Locations
• organic environments
• architectural/urban design
• room plans
• Inanimates
• Weapons
• Vehicles
• Furniture
• etc
• Shot Design
• Storytelling and storyboarding
• lighting, colour, mood, etc
• camera angles
• matching specific lenses (research link)
• Various skills
• Design processes
• Design theory - colour, composition, form, etc
• Design language/style matching and development
• Production painting

Researching around this problem:

Posted the above list on the Conceptart.org forums (as well as the community Facebook page) for feedback. No useful replies just yet.


Started looking at the timeline for the Feng Zhu Design School's one year Advanced Diploma program.
A 3-term year with 15 weeks in each term (45 weeks total compared to our 24 weeks).
Modules that they complete during this diploma are as follows:

Term1

Design Sketching 1 - design basics, thumbnails, research, shape regocnition, proportions, balance, audience focus.
Visual Communications 1
Perspective
Digital Painting 1

Term2

Design Intro
Visual Communications 2
Design Sketching 2
Digital Painting 2

Term3

3D Visualisation
Digital Painting 3
Entertainment Design

A more visual version of the above (with examples) is here.


From this article on Creativeskillset.org:

"They must also be conversant with film imagery and have a good understanding of what Directors, Directors of Photography and Editors require from a scene." 

From an article that featured an interview of four practicing concept artists:

Per Haagensen: You need a good foundation of traditional art skills and an understanding of different styles. You should always be open to exploring new designs and ideas through proper research and experimentation.

Devon Cady-Lee: Draftsmanship, the ability to understand forms in space and being able to illustrate them for others. A keen sense of design and problem-solving skills help in making believable artwork.

Discussion:


Weekly:

1. One topic for visual library studies - landscapes, materials/surfaces, colour studies (theory of colour on objects, colour palettes, etc), camera lenses and cinematography, weather conditions, skies
2. Perspective practice
3. Anatomy practice
4. Design theory study
5. Project research and development

Making sure to work the list of skills I want to look at far above into this system.

An open list of design theory stuff to look at

• 'mood boards'
• 
  

when is it appropriate to use different methods - superclean line drawings, painterly drawings, etc

Project Planning - Semester 2, Initial Thoughts

Composition practice done over the break

Thoughts on last Semester:

• Was often initially unsure of the purpose of an design step until a little way into it. Perhaps better to know the goal of a particular exercise before beginning.
• Sometimes an iteration exercise designed to produce several variations would just be a series of developments to a final design. Keep an eye on this if the aim is to produce several outcomes.
• Is it important to know how other designers use references in their actual daily process?
• How much do I need to adhere to a specific way of working? 
• How important is it to be designing 'the right way'? And how much time and thought should I dedicate to this?

Thoughts on this Semester:

• Perhaps good to plan my weeks with a solid structure - this day is for one thing, this evening is for another thing, etc.
• I want to study a broad range of topics in terms of sketching and world research - buildings, trees, anatomy, animals, rocks, cultures, costume, weapons, vehicles, etc. This needs to be worked in to my week.
• I want to get regular artist research done as well - this needs to be worked into my week as well.
• I want to get regular developmental work done on the project.
• I want to research specific design techniques and processes.
• I want to research artistic technique - line weight, composition, colour, light, etc.
• Picked a single Discworld novel to be the focus of my project - this will give priority and a sense of hierarchy of effort to each location.

Thoughts on the Break and Yukfoo Internship:

I've been doing a full-time and somewhat informal work experience at Yukfoo Animation for the past two weeks. It's been interesting, and it's put a couple of things in perspective for me.

It's important for me to pick a Discworld novel and design for that novel specifically rather than designing for the fictional world without any direction. I need to know which locations, characters, vehicles, etc, are seen most often in the story so that these can be top priority. Then work on other locations (etc) based on their importance to the story.