Destin Draws

Assignment: Painting the Polygons

Tools: iPad, Apple Pencil Pro, Procreate, Unity

Feedback:

I approached texturing the top cereal box and the bottom box differently, and not necessarily trying to fit within the same theme. The process of texturing in-game assets was new to me, so I sorta didn't put any pressure on myself to make anything good, and just to use this assignment as a learning experience. I definitely could have tried a little bit harder on the cereal box in retrospect, but I at least thought the whole process of painting 3D models was super cool. For the cereal box I opted to make "Tide Pods Cereal" just to be a little tongue-in-cheek (and also because they look so edible). For the bottom box, I modeled it after a cardboard box but I was sort of experimenting with intentionally creating a cartoony vibe. Even though the texture is simplistic, I actually really liked how the cardboard box turned out and now I kind've want to explore texturing more object in a cartoony-simplistic style. Because I did these assignments on Procreate and then transitioned the textures to my computer, I didn’t have the advantage of seeing the texture update in real time as I saved it, and I had realized I made a few spots on the cereal box in the wrong direction. Now I know to pay attention to those arrows!

Assignment: In-Game Scene

Tools: ProCreate, iPadPro, Apple Pencil Pro, GameMaker Studio 2

Description: Cae sleeps amongst rolling green hills just outside a long-abandoned castle, a little ways away from the Academy of Alchemy. The serene landscape looks infrequently visited, providing a nice escape for a sorcery student overloaded with his studies.

Feedback: I definitely view this piece as an extension of my key art, in which I explored what the world might look like naturally. I've decided between these two pieces that the world is mostly vacant in the countryside, but is sprinkled with buildings (both active and abandoned) throughout. But, mostly - at least for non populated areas - I really want to get an idyllic sense across. The process of building this in a game scene didn't really offer any unique insight, other than it was easier to move some things around and experiment with different placements very quickly.

https://destin715.itch.io/in-game-scene-2d-art

Tools: iPad, Procreate, Apple Pencil Pro

Feedback: This was the assignment I by far spent the most time running up against a brick wall in. Initially I had chosen to do the key art blockout that focused more on the character, but no matter what I tried, I just could not draw the character's body and proportions correctly in the perspective I wanted to, especially struggling with a detailed facial expression. I tried for hours, got burnt out trying different things, and had to put the assignment down for a few days just to recoup my energy. After some more struggle, I finally decided to try my other composition -- the one that focused more on the world. I do love this composition for it's characterization of Cae (my protagonist) as this small force on a journey in this much larger fantasy world, but I just had a hunch that I could make this blockout work a lot better for my skill level and, sure enough, I made rapid progress after I switched to working on it. I still struggled to draw the dragon and Cae, but I think I really gave a nice texture to the world and started to explore some very basic shading, which I think helped make the world feel a bit more like a page out of a strorybook. After all that hardship, I really like the final result but wish I had the skill to draw what I had originally wanted to.

Assignment: Key Art Comnpositions, Sketchbook

Tools: iPad, Procreate, Apple Pencil Pro

Feedback: For this assignment I wanted one bit of key art that focused on the character, and one that focused on the world. In the first bit of key art, my intention is to have Cae in a battle pose, ready to cast a spell (the green glow around his hand) in the library of the Academy of Alchemy. What's not clear in this sketch but what I intend to make clear if I make it into a full key art is the shocked, yet determined expression on his face - almost as if the Academy is under siege, but he's determined to protect it.

Assignment: Character Design, Pt. 2

Tools: iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro, Procreate

Description:

1. This is Cae passed out and sleeping on the job. As part of studying at the Academy of Alchemy, students of later years are required to have a weekly shift guarding one of the buildings on campus, but Cae has decided that nobody would be stupid enough to attack a stronghold of sorcery, so he takes a nap instead and hopes nobody notices.

2. This is Cae joking around with friends - except, in this instance, the punchline didn’t land as well as he intended it to, so he’s left awkwardly waiting for laughter that never comes.

3. This is Cae levitating out of bed in the morning. Starting the day is a lot easier when you don’t have to feel the weight of gravity on your feet as soon as you step out of bed. Cae probably shouldn’t be using sorcery for such mundane purposes (some sorcery traditional might scoff at what they perceive to be a sign of disrespect for the craft), but everybody does anyway. So he’s not losing any sleep over it.

Feedback:

Assignment: Character Profile Views Sketchbook

Tools: Procreate, Apple Pencil Pro, iPad Pro

Production Notes:

1. Default state, full of glee, trusts the world, is a person that others want to be around.

2. Determined, feels challenged but has a steady optimism that he’ll succeed in the trial ahead of him. Takes every fight seriously, underestimates no opponent.

3. Silly, hat pulled way down his face. Wants to have fun and make even life’s smallest moments enjoyable.

4. The face of someone who has succeeded but paid the price. He lost so much on his journey, but is optimistic that the future holds more beauty than tragedy.

Feedback:

Tools: Procreate, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro

Description: Cae is a 17 year old sorcerer-in-training. Studying at the Academy of Alchemy, his life got upended two years ago when masters of dark sorcery came to his small, idyllic village searching for an ancient artifact that was said to be buried beneath it. Losing his father in the initial attack, Cae cursed sorcery forever - until ambassadors from the Academy visited in the attack’s aftermath. Convinced that sorcery could be used for good, Cae hopes to one day protect innocent civilians against the peril of dark magic.

Feedback:

I have an immense amount of trouble wrapping my head around drawing the human figure, so this assignment was a nightmare for me. Still, I did my best. I initially tried to follow an anime proportion style guide, but eventually ditched it for my own figure as I found it somehow harder to dress. I must have redrawn the initial figure outline seven or so times, and, as you can see, I really just can’t come up with anything presentable. I also really made some pretty critical mistakes with keeping my layers clean, which really made the palette switch difficult for me.

From my silhouettes, I chose the figure without a cloak: Upon reflection, while I liked the cloak visually, I think it gave the impression of a very closed-off person, which is very much not Cae. There’s a sense of optimism, adventure, as casualness to Cae - and I wanted his clothes to reflect that. Just because he’s going down more ambitious a path than he ever thought he would even come close to traveling doesn’t mean he wants to fit the typical mold of what a sorcerer might be.

While I think there’s something visually compelling about the red variant (I think black would be a good secondary color for the red too but I didn’t want to try something totally different from the blue variant), I think the blue variant is an overall warmer and friendlier color, and I think that’s the version I imagine s being “canon.”

Tools: Procreate, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro

Assignment: Environmental Art

Tool: iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro

Description: The Academy of Alchemy is at the forefront of magical and scientific achievement. Being the premiere academic institution for all seeking to learn the ways of both fantastical sorcery and the mechanisms of the natural world (science). The shown room is one of many study lounges for hardworking spell casters to read the texts of wisdom passed down from sorcerers of old.

Production Notes:

Tree in the center needs to have a lighting effect that illuminates the shelves and dirt around it. The three main colors of the tree's leaves (bright green, pink, and teal) should combine in the environment around it.

The table lamp on the studying table should also illuminate the table. Books in the library can only be read under such lamps (to protect knowledge) - bringing the green text on the page to light when it meets the light under the lamp.

The books on the shelves should be a range of colors. The color on the walls should contrast with the blandness of the floor - this should be a place of personality, reflecting how both sorcery and science is treated in this world (as things to be excited about).

Feedback: One of the struggles I had in translating the blockout to color is figuring out how to depict magical balls of light in a way that makes it clear that the balls of light are, in fact, luminated. I tried to do this (with the light attached to the tree) by changing my brush and adding very spacious filters underneath the main color, as well as blending that bottom layer with layer effects. On the whole, though, in translating the piece into color, I wanted to make sure to fill the space with colors of all types. This concept piece's main purpose is to communicate that this should be a space with personality. It's really easy for libraries/studies to be places of formality, but I wanted this to be a welcoming space - a space that students of the academy WANT to spend time in. The magical elements consist of bright pink, green, and blue, but the books give a wider gamut of color to fill out the background. I struggled mostly with adding detail to the props, or frankly, even drawing what I had in my mind for them.

Assignment: Dual Props Sketchbook

Tools: iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro, Procreate

Assignment: Environment Design

Tools: Procreate, iPad, Apple Pencil Pro, Minecraft, Desktop PC

Description: The Academy of Alchemy is at the forefront of magical and scientific achievement. Being the premiere academic institution for all seeking to learn the ways of both fantastical sorcery and the mechanisms of the natural world (science). The shown room is one of many study lounges for hardworking spell casters to read the texts of wisdom passed down from sorcerers of old.

Feedback: This room is really inspired by the library in Hollow Bastion from Kingdom Hearts, although I intentionally tried not to look at gameplay as to not be too directed towards what that game has already done (although I’m sure this vibe is still pretty similar to what’s featured in that game). At the same time, I was really also thinking about NYU’s Bobst library. I remember getting some work done in one of the reading rooms that had gigantic windows, and I wanted to incorporate that into my aesthetic. Of course, I also looked at other references. While I had some references of grand libraries in France, I also found someone’s personal library that gave me a nice cozy feel I also wanted to incorporate.

I started mocking up two floor plans, which I featured above. Then, I went into Minecraft to block out both versions of the room. While I initially used Minecraft in the hopes of having a little bit of fun with the assignment, I quickly found that the aesthetics of Minecraft kindve naturally matched what I was going for, especially when it came to the actual walls and shelves of the room. Naturally, though, Minecraft is pretty rigid otherwise, and I struggled getting the tables and chairs to feel inspired due to my limited toolset. Still, Minecraft was really useful even on the simple level of blocking stuff out. I initially didn’t intend to make the room so large (height-wise), but seeing the room in Minecraft got me excited about bookshelves towering above someone standing on the floor - so the blockout helped me make creative decisions in the moment.

I wanted both versions of the room to have something really awe-inspiring about them, so I included a tree in one version of the room, and floor-to-ceiling windows in the other. I think it might be nice to tribute something magical to the tree in further iterations - make it a tree with magic swirling around it, for example.

Finally, after I blocked out the rooms, I rendered both of them with a PoV. This was a huge struggle for me. First, I had to render the room in POV. Then I had to render props in POV. I think I might have fallen apart a little here, and really struggled with the rendering - but, at the very least, I hopefully got the hierarchy of objects across.

Here is the blockout and rendering for room one (3 Minecraft pictures, one procreate picture), room two (3 Minecraft pictures, one procreate picture), and my references:

Assignment: Flag Sketchbook

Description: This is the flag of Dinum, a serene coastal region marked by large swaths of grassy fields in which windmills quietly spin, clear or mildly cloudy blue skies, and a shimmering blue ocean. The clouds (white), ocean/sky (blue) and fields (green) are all represented here - the blue and white on the bottom represents the ocean and its shimmer, while the same colors on the top represent the sky and the dreamy clouds that cover it.

Assignment: Sketchbook

Tools: ProCreate, iPad, Apple Pencil Pro

Assignment: Making Many from Few

Tools: GameMaker Studio 2 Sprite Editor, Procreate (for the final image)

Description: Halloween “monsters” dressed in some snazzy apparel.

Feedback: I wanted to continue to explore pixel art as it’s an interest of mine, and it looks like I’ll be doing some for some upcoming assignments in other classes. I chose to center around Halloween monster faces as my foundation as I wanted each fundamental he’d to look unique, and I thought the three monsters chosen (Frankenstein, a ghost, and a mummy) each offered a unique challenge and foundation. Admittedly, I struggled representing bandages on the mummy in such a low resolution - I think it looks good on its own, but the grey shadows on the bandages can conflict with the rest of the face. I even had to remove a pattern I liked on the bandana just because it was adding too much visual clutter when the mummy had it equipped. But besides that, I also wanted to challenge myself to make all accessories applicable on each head without moving — I managed to accomplish that for all except the bandana on the ghost, which I had to move up one pixel to cover the ghosts mouth, which was higher than the other faces.

References:

Assignment: Patterns from Particles

Tools: iPad, Procreate, Apple Pencil Pro

Feedback:

Assignment: Fantastical Packaging

Tools: Procreate, iPad, Apple Pencil Pro

Description: A glass, darkly tinted, crystalline sculpture contains and safeguards the element of fire. The yellow patch in the center is a swivel that opens up to expose the burning element. The glass is darkly tinted to not emit a bright light, making it friendly to common household areas like bedrooms that may not want unexpected brightness during the night time.

Pepperoni pizza served with glittery, Christmas ornament crust.

Ingredients:

Christmas ornament flour,

Yeast,

Salt,

Pepper,

Mozzarella cheese,

Pepperoni slices

Tools: Procreate, iPad, Apple Pencil Pro

Feedback