MIDTERM

Make it awesome... That means every corner of your piece has had some love and is thought out as far as perspective, lighting and reads. Finishing this would take ME two days of work, that means most of you have a lot of work ahead of you. Based on what I saw last week most people have some a lot work to do to avoid failing the midterm. Now is the time to really step it up if you are serious about becoming a concept artist.

Last week we discussed custom brushes and textures. The gist of it was, make custom brushes for leaves rock textures etc and try experimenting with them. Subscribe to "Lynda.com" for a month if you want detailed info on how to make and use custom brushes. A very worthwhile subscription.

Also use textures from CGtextures.com to overlay onto your images. Remember you are not looking for a rock texture to exactly match your rocks, you're just looking for something to apply as an "overlay" or any other different kind of layer "hard-light," "lighten" etc.. to give your image some tooth.

CG textures lets you download 15megs of hi rez images for free so be careful what you grab in a 24 hour period unless you want to subscribe (I subscribe, it's worth it)

The final image should be 3000 pixels wide.
-Good Luck!

WEEK-5-HOMEWORK

A FINISHED value study. That means the lighting, perspective are CLEARLY worked out in black and white. The main things to pay attention to:

1. Keep your values grouped within a given area. Watch your contrast to make sure that if something is far off in the distance it stays within a small range of value.

2. Draw out your perspective to actual vanishing points and make it accurate.

3. Pick your lighting direction and make sure you look at photo reference that has the SAME lighting conditions so you can observe what is happening.

4. Be aware of all the types of light, Sunlight, Bounce, Diffuse Sky Light, Direct Reflection, Diffuse Reflections.

5. Find good photo reference for everything in your image, from lighting to characters to rocks.

6. Be aware of the scale of things as they go off into the distance. If something is far off or close up, try to make that image have the right scale detail by examining the reference.

7. Do some goddamn work:)... I would need at least 8 hours to get mine to a passable point, So set aside some time this week or weekend and get' er done.

WEEK-4 SAMPLE

I want something about this level of detail. It's not important that the little shape details are accurate but the values (dark and lightness of things) should be exactly how you want them. In addition your eye should go right to where you want your viewer to look.

WEEK-4 HOMEWORK

A finished value study that shows a clear understanding of the forms and incorporates many of the different types of light happenings we observed outside.

1. Direct Natural Sunlight
2. Diffuse Sky dome light
3. Bounced Light
4. Direct Reflections
5. Diffuse Reflections

Look at your photo reference... don't just glance but REALLY look at it. All the information you need are happening in the world around you every day, you just need to notice it.