Wacom development

Wacom Drawings

So the next aspect of developing my character design Gifs is so start to focus on the digital Gif.

I thought I would try translating my coloured pencil drawings into Wacom drawings, straight onto photoshop.

I haven't used a Wacom very much so it is quite difficult getting my head around drawing but seeing it in a different place.  Also I don't think that my Wacom is properly calibrated as sometimes the marks pop up in the wrong place which can be frustrating but also makes it less tight which is a good thing as well. It also has different line qualities than those I am used to while drawing analogue. I also think that it helps my character design development turning it digital as it takes another step away from what I am used to and realistic sketches due to its nature.

I quite like this image. I think it is very playful. It is not a perfectly drawn image, there are gaps and wobbly lines but I think this adds to the aesthetic. I also have not fussed to much over the fact that her feet and hands are like a monsters but I think this makes it a more interesting and less life like image. I like the use of the same colour because it therefore remains quite a simple image whilst still having different tones. I also quite like the chunky lines for the outlines of the figure. I also like how intense the colour is and think that adds energy to the image. It took me a while to figure out how the layering works again but think it works quite nicely with all the different layers once they were in the right place.

 I then tried to draw my other leading figure of my Gifs and noticed that there was a coloured pencil tool on photoshop and thought I would try this out to see how it translates because my sketchbook drawings were done in coloured pencil. It has a different aesthetic to the orange figure as it is more opaque, softer and less dense. I am not sure that I prefer this to the orange fountain pen tool drawing.
I chose to use blue because it is the complimentary colour of orange and as I have learnt from my research, darker colours show masculinity better.

I then thought I would try to draw just the figures head because I don't have to draw all the figures in full. I again used the softer coloured pencil tool. This added a strange quality to the hair because they almost started bending together because the lines are so soft and opaque. This hair looks a lot more life like than the first figure in orange. I am not sure that I like is as much as the full figures and think that her eyes look quite scary here.

I then decided to try and draw another position of the same girl to try and capture motion. Unfortunately I now appreciate how difficult this task is going to be. This looks like a totally different person. I couldn't figure out how I did the hair the first time! I also couldn't find out which proportions of colours I had originally used for the first image to try and make them look the same. Therefore this image is a lot darker. The outline is a lot thinner as well. Over all these elements make her look older.

I did however import my first image (and tone the opacity down) to try and use this as a way of keeping them the same size and in proportion.

 I then had the bright idea that I would turn it into a simple 3 image Gif to figure out how to make it. This was easier said than done because although I had been taught how to do it this morning and I thought I understood, I started following the stages and then I just couldn't make it happen. This is slightly worrying because I need to do this x3 for the real things but I have time, chill out Alex. Rather than giving up totally  I thought it would be interesting to see what they look like as images overlapping each other. This was brought up in my feedback session where my motion drawings had over laps and they looked quite interesting. This looks like 2 friends dancing together so I need to work on how to make them look the same- making the colouring/tones, line thickness and the hair would be a good start!

Before I start creating my final drawings for the Gif I need to dress my friend up in girly innocent clothes to make her look like the character I am trying to portray (rather than a girl dancing in her Pyjamas).

I also need to plan what the 3 Gifs are going to be:

1) Analogue- I am considering having the girls eyes just moving slightly as she is so excited, just looking up and her shoulders coming up too. I think this would be in coloured pencil because I quite like the drawings I had done of heads in my sketch book BUT I really like these dancing images because they are just such excitable dance positions!

2) Digital- The guy who inspired blue man is already a very excitable person and he has some very exciting dance positions as well so maybe I could have one Gif of the girl dancing because she has had her first kiss and the second Gif of the guy dancing because he has had his first kiss so summatively the third Gif explains what has happened.

3) Model-I think because my characters are human I think the best thing to do is take motion photographs of the real people dressed as the characters and acting out the scenario. I am aware that there is going to be a fine line between it looking like 2 people but if I consider the stage and costumes and body language I think it will portray what I want. Hopefully my scene will be the guy in Blue (dressed win blue) running down the road to greet his first love at the other end (where my friend will be standing in a dress)