- Building on one of your value sketches, propose at least 3 design and colour variations
- Again you will probably end up doing more ideas but be selective about which ones you include
- In this stage you should refine the design a bit more from the sketches last week. Doesn’t need to be super clean line art but the design should be clear enough at this point that the second read details are all there.
- Present your variations clearly on a boardDesign Variations
- Refine Idea to get a better design solution
- Go deeper into thinking about your design and the function of it
- Explore creative solutions
- Help you and the client/director sync
- Great for folios
- Shows deeper design skills and critical thinking
- Problem solver
- Helps to differentiate a concept artist/designer from an illustrator
- Shows progression
- Helps to visually communicate how you arrive at the final design
- Depending on how specific the brief is, sometimes the initial thumbnails are already just variations on a specific design
- Really push for a wide range of variety in the thumbnails if possible to give yourself the best chance of finding something interesting
- Time constraints
- How many variations and how many passes you do is really dependent on how much time you have
- Larger shape variations
- Generally inspired by the initial thumbnail and the connection should be recognisable
- After the initial thumbnail, this is the step when you start to hone in on the direction you want to take but you are still exploring ideas
- At this stage you can still make some changes to the first read
- Here you can be still proposing different function ideas, e.g. extra limbs for different purposes
- Think of this process as narrowing your brief where you have started to make decisions about those initial design questions
- This can also be the stage where you start to hone in on the feel that you want with the design, e.g. more scary or more cute
- Detail variations
- After doing the larger variations, this step has changes which at first glance almost appear to be the same design meaning they should have the same first read
- By this stage the feeling and intent of the design should be clear
- E.g. same head but with different eye/mouth designs
- Most changes to second and third read for variations
- Different textures
- Still proposing more ideas for mechanics and functions
- Different placement of internal shapes
- Changes can be made to the silhouette, don’t restrict yourself too much
- Clarity is particularly important at this stage as the designs will need to stand out clearly from one another to show the differences
- Simple background
- Organised
- Size consistency
- Be selective
- Dependent on your client, presenting all your variations with elements just slightly moved is usually not wanted so just like with your thumbnails, make your own creative choices in what you think worksbest
- NUMBER YOUR THUMBNAILS
- Colours for Creatures
- Context
- Camouflage
- Display
- Threat
- Practical uses, e.g. black to attract sunlight
- Use colours to help distinguish different areas and make them read better, e.g. a very common thing we see in nature is a darker back and lighter underside which also has practical uses
- Materials and Textures
- Scales, Skin, Fur, Bone, etc.
- Specular quality will really help to sell the material read
- Is it wet or dry? Does this make sense in the environment?
- Ratios
- Avoid 50-50 ratio, Generally we go for one primary, one secondary and one accent colour
- Contrast
- Use contrast to attract attention to specific areas
- Sound
- Don't forget about sound when you design. I can really help to amplify your design and make it feel more alive. If you can, try to implement some design elements that suggest how the creature makes sounds and perhaps if it has a practical use. e.g. rattlesnake
- Artist we looked at:
- Rael Lyra
- Anna Podedworna
- Max Duran
- Gabriel McAlpine
- Sui YangYang
- Alex Figini
- Neville Page's Hengrauggi from Star Trek
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