Cubeworld Brief: Finalising Process
·
After taking
a break from the project and coming back to it, I decided to redesign the
centre to be a more harmonious building that made more narrative sense and drew
more from the concepts I was most interested in from Marby Kwong.
Foliage Moodboard:
·
As
mentioned previously in the conclusion in my previous post, I looked at a load
of images relating to real life swamps and their foliage.
·
This
helped inform my decisions in the foliage later – for instance, most swamps do
not have water lilies prominent so the water lilies I drew were removed, and
the primary foliage became cattail plants. These have a very iconic design
signature to swamps, so this helped sell the scenery greatly.
·
I also looked
more into the structure of dead trees and discovered more shapes I wanted to go
with. In the sketch I also experimented with mimicking the curls on the roof,
however this feature did not stay
·
I also informed
myself on how marsh islands look in greater detail, however I believe my
current islands represent them well enough already and are cohesive to my style.
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Foliage Moodboard |
Sketch V.2:
·
The
previous sketch was having many issues in terms of composition – I really
thought the environment worked but the more I worked at the centre features the
more I realized it made less sense, so I went back to sketching
·
This
sketch was more interesting overall – it featured more elements drawn from my
concept and made the central house more of a focal point, while still holding
the original feel of the previous house in form and theme.
·
This
sketch would not prove to be final, but it would be a much more positive
direction to take the project after experimenting previously
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Second sketch |
Background element sketches:
· I even went a step further, developing a background for the design that would update the environment. I noticed after peer feedback that this background had the issue of not being a part of the isometric grid, so while this might work on a different project it was a temporary addition in this project.
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Sketch version with background elements |
Colour block-outs:
·
I blocked
out the colours once again, using the same scheme as before however changing
the tree to a more complementary brown so it would not detract from the final
full composition like the white tree did before.
·
The wheel
was very complicated to get to look right in isometric, so I decided I would
push a less developed swamp hut. A waterwheel seemed strange for a witch to
have anyway, it seemed too industrial and the hut was so small it did not make
sense.
·
The shape
language of the scene was also very derelict and not uniform, so a very uniform
water wheel went against all other shape language.
·
I was
still feeling like the overall scene was missing something, so I transformed it
into a more complete scene with framing and background elements and received
some peer feedback on elements
·
I tried
to get these elements to work, and changes like extending the pier and the
bones did stay, however because the framing was not isometric it detracted a
lot from the image, so I removed it after being critiqued that the frame made
it look less like a “cube” world and flatter/ in perspective.
·
I also
changed the bones to be less contrasted in value with the rest of the scene
since it had a similar issue to the tree in the previous version.
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Block out with sketch on old environment |
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Blockout with new environment elements  Environment with some value added after peer feedback |
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Focus on value work:
·
After taking a step back from the project and looking at it with
squinted eyes, I realised that the hut was not the area with the most
contrast; it blended too well with the background elements. ·
To fix this issue and to solve issues I was having with colouring, I
applied a gradient map in grey scale on a fully duplicated and flattened version
and saw what the image’s values consisted of. ·
I realised a few things seeing it in greyscale: o The side of the house is a big,
open space that could fit a light source o The roof, even though it is an
area of lighter value, is the same value as the bones and so is not bright enough
to draw the eye o The windows could be made to
glow to make a lot of small, logical light sources to make the building the
focus of the scene ·
And so, I set about on a set of screen and colour dodge layers to mask
off areas of high intensity light coming from a small campfire and the
windows, so the building looked both lived in and the area of highest contrast. 
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Value edits – addition of camp fire + window glow |
Colour gradient considerations:
·
The
benefit of working non-destructively and seeing values in this way is that I
could set up gradient maps that would make a cohesive colour scheme for me, so
I made a series of colour scheme both keeping to the twilight theme and experimenting
with other themes like ice, fire, and a traditional green swamp.
·
This
helped me see the scene in many other lights- the fiery one especially was
quite effective and the eerie purple with green accents one also seemed very
strong, however I still was attached to and thought that the purple – pink gradient
map worked best for the scene and theme.
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Colour Gradient Considerations |
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Chosen Final |
Final Conclusions:
·
The
overall image captures the eerie, mystical atmosphere I originally wanted, and thought
witch huts would have. For my first proper venture into a digital painting/project,
I am quite proud of my progress and have learnt a lot such as focussing on
values much earlier on in the process to avoid wasting time worrying about
backgrounds when the main composition needs help.
·
If I were
to redo this project again, I would give the image could include more intricate
details or create a larger composition to show the surrounding area better and
have more flow through the scene as I think the narrative movement is a fairly
limited C shape which works in composition but looks very plain.
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