Capstone Proposal - Design Boot Camp

Design Boot Camp

My project is simple, to do a series of design workshops to produce a larger body of professional quality work for my portfolio.

For my Capstone project I will be doing individual studies for various aspects of entertainment design. I will be working from tutorials and books to strengthen my foundation in drawing and digital painting techniques. Areas of focus will be developing dynamic characters, mastering perspective, using color.
Techniques I will practice are visual storytelling, speedpainting, matte painting, portraiture, industrial design, anatomy, and Art Direction.
I chose not concentrate this project on a single idea like a game or film because I didn't want to restrict the range of my concepts. I want to produce a variety of genres and styles, I really want to use this project to experiment and improve my skills.

My products of study will include character sheets, creature sketches, colored renderings, digital matte paintings, interior and exterior environment scenes, key art illustrations, vehicle designs, robot and machinery, storyboards, and so on.
To be more precise I'll list specifics for each area.
Character: Silhouettes, Costumes, Portraits, Animated Poses, Detailed Sketches, Turnarounds
Creatures: Animal Anatomy, Single creature variations, Animated Poses
Environments: 1pt/2pt/3pt Perspective, Single location various shots, Interiors, Exteriors, Landscapes, Architecture, Lighting, Color Studies, Implementation of Life
Vehicles/Robots/Weapons: Designs drawn in perspective, Silhouettes, Presented in layout sheets, Textures
Storyboards: Script writing, Thumbnails, Animatics,
Key Art: Storytelling Illustrations fully rendered with color, Marketing Art, High Concept Illustrations

Some visual research of other artists:

Nicholas Kole

James Paick

Feng Zhu

Kekai Kotaki

Treatment Visuals (Personal Work):

I believe my strength lies in the "idea" stage of my designs; I have plenty of ideas to work on. My weakness would have to be a lack of polish to my art. I need to work on a solid work flow as well, developing concept art from abstraction to production. I also want to work on advance digital techniques that will speed up my process and help make the final products higher quality.

My goal is simple, to achieve a level of skill that will prepare me for the professional field. I want a body of work that will make potential clients want to hire me.

Timeline: (Tentative / Don't know the dates)

• 1st critique - Foundations Complete
• 2nd critique - Characters / Creatures
• 3rd critique - Environments
• 4th critique - Vehicles / Robots / Weapons
• 5th critique - Storyboards
• Final -  Illustrations and Key Art

Final Project idea refined

After thinking it over for a bit I decided to stick with my original final project idea. The sci-fi western game I'm calling Project Nomad. I just have the most ideas running through my head when it comes to this idea, and it will still be fun to work on. I'll still do some personal work on the side for the internship portfolio.

For my goals I realized that the biggest one I have is to get back to a good work flow that fits me. Working on fundamentals (ie. composition, perspective, color, etc.) is still important to me; and I'll try to find a way I can incorporate these practices with my project. Third I think I want to fiddle with some of the story, and do some storyboards.

Since it looks like we have just 3 weeks to work on this project, I need to set a realistic goal for what I will produce. That way it won't kill me.

• A couple character designs (2-3) w/turnarounds (Hero, Villain, Civilian?).
• A couple creature designs because they are really the most fun to create.
• Some Environment stuff
• 1 exterior set w/perspective
• 1 interior set w/perspective
• OPTIONAL: 1-2 Landscape paintings w/color
• Some vehicle designs w/textures (Amount doesn't matter, have fun and experiment).
• Some weapon designs w/textures (Amount doesn't matter, have fun and experiment).

The Timeline. This is difficult because I often multitask and will jump between areas.

(Assuming) Week of

• Feb 25  - Characters & Creatures
• Mar 4   - Environments
• Mar 11 - Vehicles & Weapons
• Finals    - Document concepts for professional portfolio and presentation.

Research to be done. First I think I'll do some fun research and watch some western and post-apocalyptic stuff, for things like the story, sets, culture, and the mood. Second I'll do some costume and equipment research for the character stuff. I'll also study wildlife, the animals and plants for more realistic creature and environment design. Lastly I'll research real life weapons and vehicles to learn how they work, which will help me create fake but believable designs; if they look like they would work then job done.

Concept Art 348: Final Project

For my final project I want to work on creating concept art for a Science-Fiction Western. This idea is primarily focused towards being a AAA video game title; but could also be used for Cinema, Television, or a Graphic Novel. For this project I will be concentrating on designing the look and feel of the world for a brand new IP. I will NOT be using my time to concern myself with any game design or mechanics. This is a project I may want to carry on with for my Capstone.

I don't have a title yet, but for now I'm calling it NOMAD. There isn't a story yet as well.

What I do know is that it will follow a male protagonist who is either a Cowboy, Outlaw, or Bounty Hunter. Something like that; he uses lots of guns.
The setting is the future, after our era has been forgotten. The world is more or less all desert and rock now, with lots of advanced technology that still looks industrial. Life is harsh and everything is dirty. It's not really post-apocalyptic; It's more of a post-civilization setting, where government has fallen and anarchy rules. On top of that in order to survive the barren wasteland that is the world, wildlife has evolved; Giant Sandworms, Lizards large enough to ride, Buzzards the size of jets and are no longer just scavengers. There is a constant struggle between Man and nature.

Some examples I draw inspiration from.

Currently reading the book, not the comic.

One of my favorite series.

Things to work on:

• Character Designs
• Protagonist, Antagonist, Enemies, Non-Players
• Creature Designs
• Monsters, Wildlife
• Environments
• Landscapes, Sets (Interior/Exterior), Color/Mood studies, Modeling schematics
• Vehicles
• Mounts, Transports, Ships
• Props
• Weapons, Items, Misc stuff

My Goals:

• Biggest goal is to tackle perspective, especially when doing environment set designs.
• Increase my technical drawing skill when doing weapon and vehicle designs.
• Obtain a life-like quality in my character and creature designs.
• Get better with digital in general.