Tuesday, May 3, 2011

FInal Project: Unwanted Visitor

In order to view this flash, please direct yourself to my Deviantart link:

http://plaid-pichu.deviantart.com/art/Unwanted-Visitor-FLASH-207468605

Picture on the side: Blue Forest

A picture done, again, for a friends birthday.
Cloud the Vir'voli is Kristins character.
Made with a pencil sketch and photoshop

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Chapter 3 Response


In the third chapter, themes of digital art were discussed. Digital art, with its many techniques open to artists, produces many themes. It is up to the art of which path to take for their project, from animation, to mapping, or combinations.
            One such example deals with creating artificial life concepts. Christa and Laurent made a website program called “Life Spacies”, dealing with the idea of both actually and artificial life. The “player” can alter the pool of evolution, letting them experience the idea of manipulated evolution on a virtual scale. It is only achievable to a viewer through computer, and so is a digital theme.
            One of the more popular ideas of digital art is through robots, with technical engineering and possibly screen displays. Artists and engineers alike can be fascinated heavily by the idea of artificial robot life, and so continue to build the most realistic, the more helpful, the best. In this way is has become an art form, through the engineering and outside design. The can be helpful to elderly patients, or smash each other to pieces in robot demolition tournaments. Or, they can be an artistic sculpture, used for movies or haunted houses.
            Meanwhile, some artists devote attention to online chatting, the actions of people online and how  they communicate through text and video chat, whether talking to a close friend, meeting strangers in a fast paced chat roulette, or dating people found on the internet. With this, many artists have made their own artistic pieces using screenshots and web recordings.
            Digital art has many themes, but for the most part they stick with technology based subjects. For this, art exhibits have changed, galleries themselves can exist solely on the internet, and art can be taken to whole new levels.
           

Friday, April 22, 2011

Emboar Revamped

Alright, time to post some GEEKY FANART. D8
Well, this creature is not of my design, it is actually a Pokemon, and I drew it for a collab on www.deviantart.com
This is my drawing of it:

And this is the original design, I DID NOT DRAW IT:

Most people (including me) don't like it for the lack of neck and proper tusks, however since I love boars so much I decided with a bit of tweaking it would be adorable. 

For more digital art by me, here is a link to my deviantart: www.plaid-pichu.deviantart.com
PLEASE BE WARNED, not only is it overflowing with mostly fanart, the comics make no sense/are inside jokes, so please don't look at them if you do click the link. Readers have been warned.

Storyboard for final project: animation


 The classic tale of adorable exploding animals. Plus a muscley bald guy in a wifebeater.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Project 3: Pixel Life

For our third project of embracing something with the digital aesthetic, I chose to pixelate everyday life with my friends, in a video game style. Doing what we usually do, taking a walk with our dogs, and mine with his stubby legs growing tired too quickly. Pictured is me, Scotty (my dog) the chihuahua, Zach (the one talking), my brother John, and Zach's Australian Shepard Cosmo. I feel guilty to point out Zach doesn't really say stuff like that about Scotty, but it was funnier that way. Scotty really does make weird quacking sounds when he's excited.

First, I started with an initial sketch of me, my friends, the dogs and the background.
Then, I started to do each pixel individually to make up the line art on all the main subjects, finally filling them in and pixeling in further details with color. The background are three rows of houses going back into the landscape. Originally they were only a slight blue, mostly grey, but it made Scotty's word bubble hard to read, so I changed it to a brighter blue. The sidewalk also has three layers as it melts into the landscape. First is the one the characters stand on, then in the background it gets lighter. Clouds were also added to the sky. Zach's character also has a dialogue box to show what he's saying. Often, pixelated games will have a more detailed facial expression with the text, to show what the character's mood is. This serves a great importance in games with more of a storyline. A border of blue was added to emphasize it clearer.
 I cannot say that I pixelated the text, instead I downloaded the font "DisposableDroidBB", made by www.blambot.com

I kept the background simple to show the characters more attention, though I do feel a bit more detail could've gone into it. Overall, I am happy with the result. 

 Heavy inspiration for this comes from the game Cave Story, as I loved the pixelated art style very much so:
Pictures of the characters Pixelated:






John, my younger brother








Cosmo the Australian Shepard, Zach's dog




Zach







 And my Chihuahua, Scotty




Concept sketches for project:

At first I thought of actual drawings of the pixelated characters from cave story, but that doesn't really fit the criteria, plus I do stuff like that all the time, so it wasn't challenging. Then I thought of making things look like video game characters, and instantly thought of my friends for making a real life video game setting.








Sunday, April 10, 2011

Chapter 2 Response


Digital art has become quite a popular medium in the last 50 years. When most people picture it, they think of animated movies, or 3D cartoons. In reality, there are tens of hundreds of digital art methods out there, and most combine different qualities in their work, whether its manipulating photography or painting over a 3D background. A quick examination can begin to show just what kinds are out there, from the simple to the obscure.
            Some digital art forms thrive off of recorded video. A method that consists of taking regular clips, and turning them into something puzzling and intriguing. From our classes, we have observed one man’s video, where he cut out everyone but the one basketball player. Instead of a stadium full of cheering and celebration, the player skipped and yelled in an empty room. This created a confusing yet interesting feel for the people that looked upon it. Another example is the artist that drew with sidewalk chalk, and by taking pictures with only one frame, he was able to edit it into a video, making the pictures seem like they were moving.
            Another form is more common practices, such as animation in 2D and 3D. Both are tipically created on the computer, leaving claymation and traditional 2D collecting dust in their once popular field. Though, occasionally movies such as “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “Lilo and Stitch” come out, using the old methods. These two mediums can be used from character design, to major movies, to short “flashes” on the internet, by lesser known artists.
            There is the form, now, of digital painting, quite popular especially among websites like DeviantArt.com, as millions own and update accounts consisting of this form, whether its fan art or their own characters. It usually takes place on Photoshop, though other popular programs consist of Sai, Manga Studio, and Corell Painter. In this medium, people can use the paintbrush tool with a wide variety of brushes, combined with layers and effects, to create.
            Photo manipulation also takes place now more than ever. With Photoshop, the user can cut out a deer, paste it to a background of a different photo, add weird effects and lightings, or paint on top of it. As such, many photographers frequentl take advantage of its “quick touchups”.
            From what we can see, digital art isn’t going anywhere for quite some time, destined to evolve and improve rapidly. Very year new technology is developed, some take mere months. But as such, older traditionally oriented artists have noticed such, and taken hold of the tablet pen. Where the art industry blows us next, we are awaiting.