Leviathan progress report

Well, I tried to work on this image as it probably is the one most promising. The perspective is wrong but I did not manage to fix this. I tried working on this and tried to get the whole image seem somehow integrated. Usually when I concentrate on one thing then the rest seems too different and that breaks the image. So this hopefully looks coherent.

The colors were a problem too. The original colors were a bit different and I used different hues of each color in the process. In the end I came up with this (not too much red - that was a problem). Now the colors look more vivid and more pleasing to the eye (hopefully at least from my point of view).

Now I'm stuck as I don't know what else could be done to help the image. Shadings/Lights that's something completely incomprehensible for me in such a 'drawing'. It needs more detail, but it's much better than from what I started.

BTW it's a low res image (as I couldn't work with the original files, my computer was gone.) Still I think it is a good exercise. I know that working in high resolution is better and it gives much better results, but first I need to learn how to draw and color something in low res and make it coherent. If I manage this I can continue adding details (thus having bigger resolution as well).

Particle Playground

I tried to mess up with AE for a while. I tried to create a fire coming from my hands. It could have looked better but at least I have an idea how to actually do it. o_O
This application is a mystery to me...



EDIT: I fixed the flames a bit.

Cloud tutorial^_~

On Saturday we went to visit my grandmother in Valasske Mezirici. During our trip it was mostly clouded and we encountered few storms. I was amazed by the clouds (I always am when the clouds are low in the sky and moving fast). I stared at the clouds and was comparing the colors I usually use to paint the sky and the colors my eye perceived. I realized that the colors are somewhere between dark gray (greenish) and light blue (but cold tones). When I was younger I couldn't draw a cloud and usually my clouds ended up blue and the sky was white with tint of white. When I started painting on magic cards I realized that clouds are usually gray/white with tints of tan (in the magic illustrations). I had to match the colors right and make the clouds look as clouds. My nightmare was finishing Doom Blade as I couldn't figure out the colors and I couldn't make the big cloud look right. But it helped me realize some things. Other cards showed me that clouds are 3d objects and should get the depth and many colors are used when painting them.

Today I woke up around 6am and couldn't fall asleep once again. So I got up and decided a small cloud tutorial. I kept in mind my painting process I use for the cards and tried to copy a scene from Saturday's trip to Valmez. I used shades of dark green, dark blue (greenish but not that 'warm blue' I used to use...) and tan as that is the color that makes wonders^^. (at least while painting with real paint).

After 'finishing' many layers of the sky I added mountains in and some trees. Then I wanted to add some living creatures but couldn't come up with anything so I just drew a frostwind invoker (it was pain to draw!). Now it seems that I should have placed the sun further right on the image and keep the invoker at the same spot. That would probably work better.

I know it looks as two different people would draw this image but well that's my usual problem. When I concentrate on one thing it usually ends up looking good in some way and the elements I add later never fit in. I will try working on this later.

Progress Report #3

I've spent some time drawing and sketching some scenes and perspectives and even though that I have an idea what I would want I just couldn't apply it to what I was drawing (someone coming out of a cavern in a trolley/ the leviathan/ lynx on a tree... )

In the end I tried just a slight change of perspective on my leviathan picture from last report. It seems to be better in my eyes. In my sketches having the upper part more 'big' or closer is something that has a bigger impact. But I couldn't really get to doing it right. I still have a long way to go. The two in comparison.

Keying exercise - AE

In our Post Production classes our teacher is trying to show us all the tricks we can do in After Effects. I have to say that I struggle a lot with this software but it is a really powerful tool to edit and produce videos.

We shot some footage in front of a green screen last week and today we had to key it and get some good results. That also required some mask usage and other stuff. It worked for me as well^_^. Tutorial on changing the video speed and color overlays/silhouette look followed.

Progress Report #2

This week I made few doodles. Some better, some worse. In all there was a creature and a background. I tried to work with the space but I miss the main points most probably as everything I draw seems to be close and the idea of space cannot really be seen.

Here I present you my two best sketches. In the first picture to achieve a better result I should change the perspective it should be a view probably from the shoreline or sea level. That way it might have much bigger impact on the viewer. In the second one the viewer is somewhere between the ground and first level. Maybe the viewer should be standing somewhere behind the samurai's running to intercept that whatever being. I'll try to figure out what I should do with those.

Well the first thing is to realize something and then learn from the mistakes. I will try to think about this when drawing another sketches.



I also tried finding out what's wrong with my previous images and I slightly changed one of them and I think I achieved a better result.