Illustration & Visual Narrative // Project 1
Ibrahim Fazal Ahmad / 0337423
Illustration & Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylors University / Project 1
WEEK 1
Vormator: Create a character using only the 8 shapes below, we cannot stretch them we must keep their original scale.
Figure 1: The shapes for Vormator
Inspirations & Ideas:
Week 1:
Figure 1.1: Left to right, Cyndaquil, Fennekin, Charmander.
I chose a few fire Pokemon starters to analyse their silhouettes and colour palettes. They all very a few things in common other than being fire Pokemon, being:
- Easily recognisable not complex with a few colours being used.
- Rather large heads to look cute and appealing for us.
- Warm colour palettes, heavy usage of orange especially, blue is also seen but very rarely.
- All have some resembling "fire"
Cyndaquil has the huge fire on its back, Charmander has the little bulb of fire on its tail and Fennekin has the tufts of fur resembling fire in its ear.
Silhouette Study:
Figure 1.2: Left to right, Torchic, Litten, Fennekin.
For these starters I noticed that "The Drop" was used a lot, you can see it used in Fennekins ears and Torchics little tuft of feathers on its head. The usage of sharp and curved lines to contrast and also resemble fire. There are a lot of sharp edges used though, in comparison to the other type starters. They're all extremely unique and easy to recognise.
TASKS
Week 1:
Figure 1.3:Vormator 1
Figure 1.4: Vormator 2
Figure 1.5: Vormator 3
Figure 1.7: Vormator 5
FEEDBACK:
Week 1: I was told they're all interesting silhouettes, in specifics; Vormator 2 is well recognisable due to the little "fireballs" that are floating around it. Vormator 4 is too simplistic and basic. Vormator 5 is too much of a "blob" in its silhouettes as there is so much going on and it is hard to read. I was told that Vormator 3 had the most potential and was the most interesting design. Due to this I chose Vormator 3.
WEEK 2
Inspirations & Ideas:
Figure 2: Left to right; Milotic, Serperior, Rayquaza and Dragonair.
I studied "snake like" Pokemon, and I noticed a few things in common between most of them. They're all very simplistic in terms of their colour palette usually having only 3-4 colours on them. There are also unique adornments on them to have more distinguishable silhouettes from each other, for example; Milotic has the huge ear/antenna like piece on its head, while Dragonair has the little wings on its head. They also have rather sharp eyes, except Dragonair and look regal and intimidating. Using this I tweaked my Vormator to match the characteristics of these snake like Pokemon more.
Figure 2.1: Vormator variations.
With these I made the fire like fins on it larger in a few variations. In the bottom left design I also changed the eyes and made the tail significantly smaller than the rest. I wanted all of them to look aggressive and ready to attack.
WEEK 2 FEEDBACK: Bottom right design is the best, just change the tail so it looks like it is hanging down with gravity instead of floating in the air as it looks a bit unnatural. Experiment with colour schemes and compositions of the Pokemon card.
I changed the tail to hang down and added a gradient to differentiate between the body and tail with it doesnt blend together. Lastly I added a few stripes on the end of its body. I wanted to think of it as a real Pokemon, that could indicate its emotions using the three stripes. They change colour depending on the mood and can be used to scare off unwanted guests.
Figure 2.2: Final Variation Vormator
Next I did some colour experimentation on the Vormator using some concept art I found.
Figure 2.3: Colour Experimentation.
WEEK 3:
Ms Yvonne chose the green design and the purple and orange design. Out of the both of them, I felt like the fire type was more expressed through the purple and orange design.
Figure 3: Vormator Final Design
I decided to name the Vormator, Serpilios. Roughly means sun snake. "Serpent" is snake while "Ilios" means sun in Greek. The pre-evolution is named Solphi. "Sol" being Sun and "Ophidia" is a name for specific types of snakes. I was facing an issue being, Serpilios looked rather awkward in a card format. It is quite a bit wider than tall, so in a card it is left looking empty and weird. Ms Yvonne and Mr Kannan gave the idea to use layers to separate Serpilios and be able to give it a better composition. I ended up using the "Parallax Effect" to create depth and separate Serpilios.
Figure: Serpilios parallax effect and card background
Figure: Card used for reference.
Next I did each one of the details on different layers and added to the card until it was finished. I experimented with the background a bit, Ms Yvonne advised me to change it from the purple/orange to a more blue dominant one. As it would increase the level of contrast and it make Serpilios really pop out in comparison to the background.
Figure: Previous backgrounds
After choosing a final background colour, I added a few more details and finished the card. Vormator, done!
Figure: Final card
REFLECTION:
Experience: My experience doing this project was super fun. It wasn't like any other project I had done and doing a project that is centred around making your own character and bringing them to life was the first of its kind for me. I really enjoyed the design process and I learned a lot more about design and illustration. It was also my first time using Adobe Illustrator and it was most definitely a difficult experience. I wasn't used to the tools at all and it was a really different program than I was expecting. I already had experience in Photoshop but the two were not really similar so that was definitely a bit of a struggle for me. However I got the hang of it and it became less difficult to use over time.
Observation: One observation I made was the growth between the old Pokemon cards to the newer GX designs. The old ones were much more static and closed into a small box while the newer designs are very in your face and interesting to look at, the composition really breaks past the borders of the card almost. I also realised that snake like Pokemon are usually foreshortened a lot in these cards especially. There is probably no snake like Pokemon with a direct side view as the card since it wouldn't be super dynamic.
Findings: Something I found about myself in particular was that I tend to stick with my first designs too easily, to Ms Yvonne it looks like I'll choose one design and show it to her and that's usually it. I need to have more variations in my designs and need to push myself to see if what I'm going to show is the best I could have done in the time and stop settling with one design just because I think it's already good enough. Overall this project was really interesting and I enjoyed it a lot! I'm excited for the upcoming projects.
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