Plan for Craig Fortune
by Craig Fortune · 01/13/2005 (12:46 pm) · 4 comments
This is a .plan for all the artists or wanna be artists out there. I just thought I'd like to chat a bit about how your traditional art skills (or lack of them maybe?) can be used to influence and better your digital art skills. By using the term digital art I'm including modelling and animating not just 2d.
So what brought this thinking about?
Curiously enough it was a Christmas present of mine that got this ball rolling around in my head, a new watercolour art set. Now you may be questioning just how on earth that can have any influence on digital art. Well to tell you the truth it doesn't, but it does have an effect on my overall art skills, specifically in the furthering of my "artist's eye."
Artists Eye
A crucial thing that we all must have to produce good quality artwork. Being able to look at things in terms of shape, colour, texture etc instead of simply as an object.
For instance we need to use shape extensively when trying to create a memorable character. One of the most important parts of a character is their silhouette, think of all the most famous characters from past years: Sonic has spikes, Mario is portly with a hat, Lara Croft has... well you get the picture right?
Getting in a mess isn't always bad...
A lot of people who are new to texturing etc try to be too neat and try to control their work too rigidly. Let stuff just flow, be messy with your textures. A lot of the best textures I've seen have been using a lot of rather "strong" colours in them, look at Timothy Aste's textures and see what they look like - They are "messy", like real life yes? ;)
I'd like to point out here that being messy is a good thing in this respect :)
People tend to want to keep everything around the same general hue and tone, NOT GOOD. This will just give you drab and dull textures. Scrutinise objects closely and notice that white is not white most of the time, black is certainly not black a lot of the time, and there's definitely more then one shade of grey ;) You'll start realising that all those colours in carpet catalogs are actually different. :D
Well I've feel I've written enough for one day, and I'm proud of myself for managing to do an entire .plan about art with zero pictures included. Lol.
TO BE CONTINUED...
So what brought this thinking about?
Curiously enough it was a Christmas present of mine that got this ball rolling around in my head, a new watercolour art set. Now you may be questioning just how on earth that can have any influence on digital art. Well to tell you the truth it doesn't, but it does have an effect on my overall art skills, specifically in the furthering of my "artist's eye."
Artists Eye
A crucial thing that we all must have to produce good quality artwork. Being able to look at things in terms of shape, colour, texture etc instead of simply as an object.
For instance we need to use shape extensively when trying to create a memorable character. One of the most important parts of a character is their silhouette, think of all the most famous characters from past years: Sonic has spikes, Mario is portly with a hat, Lara Croft has... well you get the picture right?
Getting in a mess isn't always bad...
A lot of people who are new to texturing etc try to be too neat and try to control their work too rigidly. Let stuff just flow, be messy with your textures. A lot of the best textures I've seen have been using a lot of rather "strong" colours in them, look at Timothy Aste's textures and see what they look like - They are "messy", like real life yes? ;)
I'd like to point out here that being messy is a good thing in this respect :)
People tend to want to keep everything around the same general hue and tone, NOT GOOD. This will just give you drab and dull textures. Scrutinise objects closely and notice that white is not white most of the time, black is certainly not black a lot of the time, and there's definitely more then one shade of grey ;) You'll start realising that all those colours in carpet catalogs are actually different. :D
Well I've feel I've written enough for one day, and I'm proud of myself for managing to do an entire .plan about art with zero pictures included. Lol.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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#2
The result is that texture gains some vague chaotic quality, it has something i most likely would not had created myself conscieously or had created too neatly, unconvincignly. They are not really noticable, but somewhere deep your brain gives the right signal, texture has become more interesting.
So, Kaos is a power plugin - moreso - it is aviable for all the graphic apps, on all the platforms :) use it.
01/13/2005 (1:06 pm)
btw, a little "trick' i use for textures (well, not a trick as such, but kind of part of process) - I often sketch some weird shapes in layer over the actual base texture, or use some completely unrelated fragment of a photo, use (pretty random) distortion effects on it, toy around with layer effects sometimes (or not, depending on mood) and finally make it so, that those chaotic shapes are just barely visible. The result is that texture gains some vague chaotic quality, it has something i most likely would not had created myself conscieously or had created too neatly, unconvincignly. They are not really noticable, but somewhere deep your brain gives the right signal, texture has become more interesting.
So, Kaos is a power plugin - moreso - it is aviable for all the graphic apps, on all the platforms :) use it.
#3
Traditonal art has a huge impact on digital art. I have no prior 3D experience (especially games) before starting on my content packs except for a few years of AutoCAD in high school and a lifetime of gaming. However, I was a graphic designer and traditionally trained artist, so being an artist is something that is universal really, you can always learn new tools on the computer or outside it, but the basis of art really remains the same.
Great plan!
01/13/2005 (2:32 pm)
AmenTraditonal art has a huge impact on digital art. I have no prior 3D experience (especially games) before starting on my content packs except for a few years of AutoCAD in high school and a lifetime of gaming. However, I was a graphic designer and traditionally trained artist, so being an artist is something that is universal really, you can always learn new tools on the computer or outside it, but the basis of art really remains the same.
Great plan!
#4
Traditional art is valuable indeed!
01/14/2005 (11:40 am)
Indeed. An important aspect of the artistic eye in traditional art is the ability to make your design, visual improvements, and corrections without the ability to 'edit/undo,' and I might add, also improves your ability to repair work that would otherwise seem worthy of the dumpster, though that is not the goal. Woodcarving has increased my 'artistic accuracy,' which in turn, speeds up problem solving and the overall artistic process. I mention this, because it has been my goal in the last few months to increase the speed and efficiency at which I work. I make efforts to incorporate new techniques and time frames in order to bring my work to a more comfortable speed; and I would suggest this to any other serious artist out there.Traditional art is valuable indeed!
Torque Owner Nauris Krauze
I really like the "chaotic approach", it somehow comes naturally and makes things flow. I actually found how interesting it is to watch documental video footage, amateur photos or anything for that matter, that has not specifically chosen and "spiced up" locations - you will not get such a crazy collection of colors in movie where each shot is handpicked, lighted ,carefully staged. And thats what makes those environments "tick" - that chaotic mess, that feeling that environment was formed by series of unrelated events, over long period of time.
It most likely wouldnt work well in movie, but in games its completely different.