This assignment was our Final Major Project; the last assignment of the year. We were able to freely choose a topic of our liking, and we were able to create something from that topic in an area of media that we chose. If we wanted to, we could mix the subjects that we chose. As we were able to pick from anything of our choice for our theme, it made the decision really hard to make.
For my FMP, I chose to create a character design. I decided to loosely base the theme on idols in order to create my character. I decided to only base my character and their design loosely on idols, as I had an idea prepared for my character's synopsis. I chose this theme as it is something that I am knowledgeable in; I play mobile games and console games that focus on idols. It is an area that I wanted to be able to explore more, with a character that I had created myself.
My initial idea was to create a character turnaround sheet, along with a game concept and poster to go along with this; these are the ideas I have outlined in my proposal. I wanted to have a turnaround sheet that would show off my character from the front and back, along with some key facial expressions that they made. I hoped to create a poster that would be an illustration piece to promote the game concept that I would create alongside that. However, with the amount of time I had to complete everything, I eventually decided to just create a character, as well as write up a synopsis on my character. I chose to write up a synopsis as well in the hopes that I could convey some of the game concept that I had thought up.
I carried out a lot of research for this final project. For my primary research, I devised a survey in order to find out what other people thought; I made it available for both my class and friends on a social networking site. Finding out others opinions and thoughts is very important in order to find out who your target audience is and what they like and think. I based my questions mostly on character design, with a question at the end that was based on the setting of a game.
I also carried out some photographic research as primary research. Whilst attending the London MCM Expo in May of this year, I had the opportunity of seeing a favourite artist of mine live. While I was there, I thought that it would be highly beneficial to both me and my project if I managed to get some pictures to add to my research. This went very well, and I got some very nice pictures from it. It helped my research and my design a lot.
For my secondary research, I decided to look further into concept art and illustrations. This was because I wanted to be able to fully understand what I was creating. Despite knowing that my final piece isn't exactly how a character turnaround sheet would be, I like how my final design turned out. I also looked in different books that were about drawing in order to try to understand proportions more. I looked at a book that was purely realistic art, and I feel as though this was very helpful when I was creating my own design.
I also researched a couple of artists as secondary research. I researched Akira Amano, a creator of manga who was the lead character designer for 'Psycho-Pass', an original anime series. I found that my research into Akira Amano was very helpful, as I was able to look at her character concept art for the series. That is something similar to what I wanted to initially create. I also looked into Yoshitaka Amano, a character designer and illustrator known mainly for his works in the 'Final Fantasy' series. I looked into Yoshitaka Amano as, with my original idea, I hoped to create a piece of character illustration. Even though I didn't have the time to go through with this idea, I still found that the research I did on Yoshitaka Amano was extremely helpful.
Out of all of the research that I did, I found that my primary research was more helpful to me in the long run. My survey results were very beneficial to me whilst creating my character design and synopsis, and my photographic research was extremely useful whilst I was creating my final design. My photographic research allowed me to create the outfit that I did in the end.
I produced a frontal full body drawing of my original character and outfit design. I drew and produced everything that appears on my final piece; however, the font I used for my character's name is one that was installed on Photoshop.
Initially, I was unsure of my target audience; however, I eventually decided that my work was aimed at people 16 and over, and especially those interested in gaming, character design or animation. I feel as though my work would have a lot of appeal to people that worked or were interested in these areas.
I didn't use a wide variety of tools in Photoshop; I mostly used different variations of the brush tool in order to create my piece. However, I did learn how to use the blending options in order to properly create the gradient overlay for a part of my piece.
My time management for this assignment wasn't the best. I fell behind multiple times and it was very difficult for me to catch up with where I should have been at a specific time. It also wasn't possible for me to complete the idea that I had originally planned to do. Nevertheless, I am happy with how my final piece turned out.
Even though it isn't what I originally hoped to create, I'm pleased with my final piece and how it turned out. I chose not to add too many fine details, as I didn't want to ruin what I had already created by overcrowding my piece. Even though I didn't get to accomplish what I had set out in my proposal, I'm glad that I focused more on this one piece, as it allowed me to work more on it and make it a lot better than it would have been otherwise.
I did encounter a few problems during the creation of my final piece with my computer occasionally turning off, causing me to have to re-do parts of my piece a few times. However, despite this, I still managed to finish it to a standard that I was happy with.
If I were to do this project again, I would do my best to get my time management sorted out so that I was on track every week. If I were to do this, I feel as though I would be able to complete my work to be more true to my proposal. I would also attempt to make my character design more detailed, as I only used the block colours for my final piece. I would add shading to my piece, too. I think I would also attempt to solidify my game concept and concept art piece. I think this would be a fun project to re-do.
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