Professional Trajectories - Developing Final Concept For Computer Arts Comp

After experimenting with the type I realised I needed to put - 'New Talent' within the design. I referred back to my initial research into last years winners and tried to get inspiration for colour combinations. I took the render into photoshop and started to continue the "glitching" aspect of my initial experimentation. I produced multiple outcomes by fiddling with the hue graph and distorting the data within the image. I was not too keen in the end with this idea as it did not seem to have that 'pizaz'!

With that I reverted back to the original render and just adjusted the colour accordingly, rather than distorting it.

By doing so I had another light bulb moment where as a new designer, you're the new one in the studio = New kid on the block. And people being nosey want to know who it is, hence why it made perfect sense to put it as a magazine cover. Because people want to know about the new talent that awaits inside as articles.

However, because I referred to the 'New Talent - on the block" who and what am I referring to? I realised I needed to create a character to be the 'The New Designer on the block'.

To create the character I used references found on Behance and Linkedin:

The character was developed with heavy influence from César Pelizers characters. I really like the simplified aspect of his work and the fun oversized element. The simplicity is what really drew me to it as I could see how he possibly made them. So I took inspiration from these when constructing my own.

I also researched another project called google partners. I really like the quirky nature of this project. It was a big named client but it was also a really cool project by Leo Natsume. I was influenced by the fun nature of this project and reminded myself to try and inject humour into the final outcomes. It also made me think about adding animated elements to my idea as extras to include in my portfolio, it also creates a dynamic element so if Computer Arts Magazine wanted to share the design on their profiles it would ad that extra 10% and helps to differentiate it from other projects.

Another project I found really interesting and could have been more influential in the design if I had seen it sooner was the creative types by anyways (its nice that/ lecture in progress) creative for adobe. I found this project really interesting how they created the CGI characters but also in the production of the different motion pieces to break in-between questions and transitional elements. The way they created them was intriguing as it proved how you can create beautiful pieces of content that looked like they were produced in computer software like cinema 4d.

Developing my characters:

To try and develop the characters I thought about trialing out a new app I have been thinking about buying and this was the perfect excuse. I have wanted to use Z-brush but that software is so expensive and they do not currently offer a student version. However, I found the next best thing. I saw an instagrammer creating characters on his ipad and wondered what he was using to do it. I private message him, asking what he was using to do it, and its an app called Forger £4.99. You can see the outcome is the first image below. I was quite tricky to get the hang of it. I had to watch a few tutorials to really understand how to use it but I managed to get the hang of it but I couldnt figure out the painting aspect of it. So fo the sake of the deadline I had to abandon this route as I would spend a lot of time trying to learn the software and not be sure its the outcome I would be looking for. As the next best thing I experimented in Cinema 4 d trying to construct a character using basic shapes.

I was really proud that I was able to figure out the construction, however, I needed to give it my spin on it as the design would not be my own. I also didnt like the fact the character didn't have hands. To combat this I watched countless videos and tutorials and found a nice quick and simple tutorial that allowed me to create the hands I wanted.

From here I added in bends to contort and animate sections of the character. I wanted to make an animation exploring the concept of university churning out new creatives and the idea of creatives on a conveyor belt ready to be mould in picked by those already within industry and to get their break. I also wanted to explore the struggles as a junior designer of coming up with new ideas and what it can physically look like.

I then began creating the conveyor belt and learning how to create that,

And then I was combining everything together to start forming 'the new talent on the block' concept.

It was at this point I began to refine the design and started adding in more typography works linking to all types of designers - copywriters, animators, illustrators and freelancers. I also created a couple more characters with different skin tones as I wanted to show that new talent is diverse and that its exiting to see where the industry is going and how its changing with a new generation entering it.

As you can see I took the raw render from cinema 4d and placed the image sequence into after effects. This then allows me to edit the footage further and I am able to add in post effects.

I found there were a few issues with the render as the light seemed to glitch. I didn’t know if this was the fact I added in the conveyor belt into the project which then affect the lights with shadow and reflection of the materials I chose.