Illustration and Visual Narrative: Vormator

Week 2 (4/10/2023) - Week 6 (1/11/2023)

ALTAIFI, LEEN MAAN A (0367698)

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media, Taylor's University

Illustration and Visual Narrative

---

Task 1: Vormator (Week 2-6): 

The aim of project is to give each student the chance to show their ability to create a stunning piece with limited means. Each person will get the exact same set of shapes. With these shapes you are challenged to create your own unique design, within the limitations provided in the Rulebook. Designers are thus challenged to create a unique piece within a strict set of rules. It all comes down to pure skills and creativity in this project.

In order to familiarize ourselves with the tools first, we were asked to trace the set of shapes from the provided image.

Fig. 2.0: Tracing the Shapes

Fig. 2.1: Silhouette Design 1

 

Afterwards, we were asked to create our own silhouette design limited to only these shapes without distorting the proportions. At this point, I was just getting started to the challenge and figuring out ways that this could be done. So I played around and practiced. 

Fig. 2.2: Silhouette Design 2

 After practicing and getting the hang of it, I decided to officially design my character for the final design. It was both challenging and fun thinking of ways to construct designs from limited shapes; especially when it came to finding out if it was even possible to achieve the same design as the sketch. 

Fig. 2.3: Character Designing and Coloring

The first step was to shape the silhouette. The details did not matter, all I needed to achieve was the overall shape of the character. Below, are all the dismantled shapes used to make up the silhouette, the silhouette in full black, and the line-art of the shapes before and after adding the character details. Adding the character details required more shapes and more accuracy; like the face, clothes, and hands. Layering was also important in this phase; paying attention to the order of what should be in front and behind in order for the illusion of making more dynamic shapes out of the simple ones could work. 

Fig. 2.4: Final Silhouette Design

Since the design was made out of overlapping shapes, merging the shapes was necessary for the coloring and shading process. I joined the shapes that had the same fill colors using "Shift + M" and that made coloring using the gradient tool more smooth. After that, I added texture to some parts of the character by using clipping masks and changing the blending mode to "Multiply" over the existing shading.   

Fig. 2.5: Adding Shading and Textures, 19/10/2023

I illustrated a background for the character so I can put it in the Pokemon card template. it's a simple background made mostly by shapes and the gradient tool. I chose those red colors to compliment the character's eyes and the dark energy it encapsulates.

 I added a ripple effect to the background for more depth and atmosphere, along with the smoke shapes I drew with the pencil tool and turned the opacity down. To achieve the glow effect of the moon, I copied the circle layer and blurred it so it seems as if it it's glowing. 

Fig. 2.6: Vormator Final Character Design 31/10/2023

Lastly, I put the character illustration onto the Pokémon card, and added some stats about the character. I named the character "Celeritas" because its main power is speed, and celeritas is speed in Latin. 

Fig. 2.7: Pokémon Card Final Design 31/10/2023

Fig. 2.7: Full Character Design Submission 31/10/2023