The reflections unit was based around the question “Who am I?”, challenging us to learn about and reflect on ourselves. We mostly did this in English through the personal essay project, where we focused on topics which allowed us to do so through different methods. In animation and digital media, we focused more on refamiliarizing ourselves with topics from last year and learning skills for future projects.
Digital Media Projects
Mandala
Black and White Mandala
For our first digital media project of the school year, we used Adobe Illustrator to make our own personal mandalas, which are repeating configurations of symbols usually holding personal or spiritual significance. Before making our mandalas, we had to create separate templates which would allow us to easily create the mandala by reflecting one “piece” throughout the rest of the circle; the templates we made had 8, 10, 12, and 16 pieces. I chose to use the 16 piece template to create my mandala.
For this project, I came with basically no ideas as to what I wanted my mandala to be based on, so initially I just started making random designs I liked the look of. As the process went on, I started to notice the resemblance of the inner circles to the sun or rays of sunlight. Since I have a lot of fond memories of my family’s garden, and since sunlight is obviously needed for plants to grow, I decided to incorporate plantlike designs into the mandala, as well as larger, more vague shapes somewhat similar to flower petals. Essentially, the idea is that the sun’s vital role in these plants’ survival places it in the center, with different sorts of plants growing out from its light.
This is in part why I called it Photosynthesis. The other reason for the title is that the process and the plants themselves offered me inspiration for this project, as well as offering people in general inspiration for their art, similar to the sun literally providing nutrients to plants in the form of light.
After creating the mandala in Illustrator, we chose a material to print it on–I chose wood.
Colored Mandala
After creating the black and white mandala, we had to create a colored version. We could either color the black and white mandala or create a new one, which I chose.
We didn’t have much time to do this project in class, especially since I decided to make a new mandala instead of coloring my black and white one, and the computer I use at home doesn’t handle Illustrator well, so I didn’t really put any thought into this. I just chose a color scheme I liked and applied it to the mandala using live paint, usually starting with lighter colors turning into darker ones as they went towards the outer sections. It ended up reminding me of stained glass, especially with the spiky, sunbeam-like designs in it which made me think of sunlight colored by stained glass, hence the title.
Mandala Build Reveal Video
Finally, we had to create a video revealing the layers of our black and white mandala, creating the effect of it being “built”.
Photoshop Projects
Photoshop Pastel Painting
The purpose of this project was to get us used to the process of digital painting, specifically using brushes made to mimic real life pastels.
Going into this project, I knew I didn’t want to do a portrait, since Photoshop painting was already new to me and I didn’t want to have to worry about proportions as well. Instead, I decided to paint a still life. I already had hundreds of good reference photos for this, since still lifes were my main focus in photography. I ended up using one of the final prints from that year for reference. The photo was the fifth one from the shoot edited on December seventh, hence the title (that was the title of the original file).
During the project, I only used a few pastel brushes, as well as a blender. I first swatched some colors from the original photo for reference, since I turned down the opacity for the photo reference. After getting down the basic shapes, I switched off the photo layer and mostly did the rest without reference.
Photoshop Watercolor Painting
Like the pastel painting, the purpose of this project was to get us used to the process of digital painting, this time using brushes made to mimic real life watercolor paints.
I had a lot more work days than I usually would have during the week I worked on the painting, which meant I was able to do a lot of the painting on the Cintiq instead of with a regular tablet. Directly using the Cintiq is a lot easier for me for sketching, since you draw directly on it, so I decided to take the opportunity to do a portrait instead.
There wasn’t really any particular inspiration behind the character–I just wanted to make something easy to draw that I could quickly get to painting over. For the painting process, I first made a solid bottom layer for the skin, then, under the sketch layer with its opacity turned down, built up the shading. Originally, I had a palette on another layer, but that became too restrictive and was quickly abandoned. I didn’t actually originally have a sketch for the hair, so I made a quick one on top of the painting and made it using the same process I had for the skin. For the finishing touch, I chose a random brush and decorated the background with some vaguely flower-like shapes.
Photoshop Watercolor Painting Effect
In this project, we chose 3 photos and, using Photoshop, applied effects to them to make them look like watercolor paintings. This was first done through simply applying the watercolor effect to the photo using smart filters. After that, we used the “find edge” tool to sharpen edges in the photo, mimicking the way the pigment watercolor paint builds up at its edges on paper, used the “difference clouds” effect to add color variation in the photo, added a loose border using a watercolor, and finally added a paper texture overlay on top. After that, we put all of the photos together into one Photoshop file next to one another.
This didn’t really require any creativity for me, so it’s kind of difficult to express what exactly I was thinking from an artist’s perspective. I chose three photos I liked that I had taken in photography class a couple years ago, and just followed the instructions of the assignment. I made sure to choose high contrast photos that I thought would translate well to watercolor. In hindsight, I probably should have chosen at least one that didn’t have a black background, so there would be a bit more variety in how the blended, colored vignettes looked, but I still like how they all look together and by themselves.
Photoshop Composites
For our next Photoshop project, we learned how to join images together to make a convincing final image. After following some tutorials and learning how to do this, we made two composites of our own, one joining 2 photos and another joining 3 photos.
Photoshop Surreal Composition
This was the final goal of learning how to make Photoshop composites. We had to join at least 6 images together and create a surreal final image related to our worldbuilding project in English.
I struggled with thinking about what to do for this project for a bit, but in the end decided to go the easy route and just throw together some imagery I liked (that being dark, vaguely foreboding stuff). For the background image, I knew I wanted a forest, since it fit the aesthetic I was going for, and it would be easy to “hide” other images in. After choosing the background, all I really had to do was find some smaller images that I could work into the composition. I did this mostly through the automatic selection tool and layer masks, but I also added light beams and glowing effects with the soft brush.
Animation
This year, instead of of 2D animation, we’re focusing on 3D animation. The entire first part of this year has been focused mainly on creating 3D character models. We first started out using Maya, a 3D modeling program, to make simple models before starting any animation or making anything very detailed. After that, we expanded to using Zbrush, a digital sculpting program capable of adding more detail, and Substance Painter, where color can be added to models.
Fire Hydrant, Temple, Environment Models, & Table Scene (Maya)
These were our first projects in Maya, and our first 3D projects. To make the fire hydrant and temple models, we learned how to import images in order to model on top of, how to duplicate parts of a model, and how to expand and change surfaces on models. When we were done modeling the temple, we had to create a quick landscape using multi-component selection mode and place the temple in the landscape. Finally, we learned how to render out single images.
Afterwards, using what we had learned, we created a table scene with various objects of our own choice throughout the scene.
Skull & Face Models (Zbrush)
These projects focused on digital sculpting, which similarly deals with (essentially) 3D shapes but is high-poly and more detailed. To learn this, we first created a skull, and then a face. Like in Maya, I used a photo reference for the skull, and sculpted on top of it following the guidelines.
Weapon Model
After making the fire hydrant, temple, and table scene in Maya, we moved on to creating weapons based on concept art we had either created or found online. I struggled a bit at the beginning choosing what to make, since our models couldn’t be too detailed or have too sharp edges, but ultimately decided I would make a scythe.
When I finished the model in Maya, I imported them into Zbrush to smooth the models and add detail.
Finally, I brought the Zbrush model into Substance Painter and colored it.
Character Model
This was the main focus of this part of the year, and everything we were learning at the time served the purpose of helping us make our characters later. The first step was making character concept art to base the model off of.
Afterwards, we went into Maya and made low-poly models using the concept art.
When I finished the low-poly Maya model, I brought it into Zbrush. First, I divided it, which made it higher quality and smoother. Then, I began sculpting, refining the basic shapes and creating a face, while dividing more along the way to make it higher quality.
When that was done, before I brought the model into Substance Painter for coloring, I had to unwrap the model to create a map of it for easier coloring in Substance Painter, and export out two different versions of the model: one low-poly and one high-poly. I imported all of those files into Substance Painter, and baked the high-poly model onto the low-poly based, which essentially makes the model look high-poly without being as hefty and slow to load as the actual high-poly model.
With the model finished, all that was left to do was render it in Substance Painter and add a name and description for the character next to an image of the render.
