Sunday, January 29, 2012

Monday, January 23, 2012

Character Design Pt. 2

Still a bit further to go!

 Before I create the armor, I work out the colors and trim of clothing and skin tones.


Armor is put in, with thought toward shapes and lighting.


Armor textures and reflections are layered on top.


Lastly, the straps are given the same treatment, and color is added to them, and reflected in the armor.


Final touch ups next!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Character Design Part 1

Working on characters lately, and I chose one of the Napoleon's Cuirassiers to riff off of.

We start with a minimal background, determine my light source and rough in some basic features. Keeping it b/w to work on value patters first.


Next I put in some rough outlines of where I want his uniform and armor plating to be. Textures are added to the face and first round of hair is blocked in. Specular highlights are started in they eyes.


Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Ice Battle

Debating on Dark vs Light when it comes to composition. Hmmm.



And ultimately went with light. However, I got ahead of myself and went to color too early. Value first, color later. Edit the shapes and positions, keeping to my original composition elements and the scene takes shape. Speaking of shapes, I turned the right soldier inwards to have him gazing back into the composition. This also forms a diamond with the creatures blade, our hero and the bright event in the sky.


NOW is the time for color, so I put down a couple of Hue/Saturation layers to get the overall look and feel. We're in an snowy area with golden light.






The main color and textures come in now. Our hero has a red uniform since red is a power color, and is as strong as the blood on the blade. If I didn't, then the eye would get stuck on the blade and have a hard time going anywhere else (although it makes a nice anchor in the middle of the piece). Textures and saturation layers were added to the creatures to give them an old metal or bruised flesh tone, and to kill off most of the black in the piece.





Lastly I add a photo adjustment layer to sculpt the blues back in and globally take down some of the yellow. Details are added on top of that and we have a finished piece!