#8 "Storyboard" (Part 3)

This time, yet again, there's another new storyboard to draw. But this time, it is one of my own creation. I wrote down a quick little 6 scene segment to storyboard

#1. A person is walking through a forested area
#2. They turn to spot something unusual in one of the trees
#3. Camera zooms in, and it's a perfectly shaped apple, sitting in the crevasse between two branches
#4. Person, up in front of the tree, is desperately trying to take the apple, jumping up and down to get a chance of grabbing it.
#5. Close up of a bird flying nearby, which suddenly swoops downwards...
#6. ... and it picks up the apple and flies away again. The person looks at the bird as it flies away with the prize...

So, after creating this little story, I did a rough thumbnail sketch for it

I gave the person a baseball cap, as in this monochrome style, it wasn't clear which way their head was pointing.


Now, the next thing to do, is create full colour versions of these frames. I will be showing the step by step process for frame 1
The first step, like last time, is to fill the background layer with a nice light blue colour.

And then the second step, also like last time, is to draw in the green ground, making sure that it gets darker the closer to the foreground it gets

Next part of the background, are the trees. I use a"sketchy" brush type to block in the tree's shape, and then use darker colours to give it shape and shading
I do two different types of trees initially...

 ... and then use various stretching, skewing, and distorting methods to create a whole bunch of these trees

Next step, is to draw the man walking. In order to get the proportions just correct, I find a photo reference to use as a base

While I got the basic shape down, now I need to use the photo reference again in order to add more shading and detail to the man

The final step for this frame, is to add shadows underneath all the trees, which makes the whole scene look more like the trees are actually on the ground, and not hovering above it

The process is pretty much the same for the later frames, just with altering the sizes and positions of the trees, changing the man's pose, and re-doing the shadows when everything is in place.

Since storyboards have to be completed quickly, I did as much asset re-using as I possibly could in order to save time. With the exceptions of frames 3 and 5, all the trees are the same ones in each frame, just with altered positions to go with the view changing slightly. Even the man gets re-used in several frames, thanks to a combination of the eraser tool, minor re-drawing, and the Puppet Wrap feature.
After a little clean up around the image edges, the 6 frame storyboard is ready!

That's all, for now

#7 "Storyboard" (Part 2)

Last time, I created a basic 4 frame storyboard for a commercial concept. However, now the concept has been expanded for a 10 frame storyboard with more details. The revised storyboard involves
- Death hiding behind a tree. They are watching someone on a park bench
- The camera turns around, showing a woman sitting at the bench, eating a banana
- Death starts creeping out from behind the tree and towards the woman
- The woman, having finished her banana, throws the peel behind her, oblivious to Death's presence
- Close up shot of the banana peel flying through the air
- Death slips on the banana peel and is sent falling
- Death is lying on the ground, with the woman (still oblivious) jogging away in the background
- Screen change to a hand pressing the "ON" button on a blender
- Another hand picks up a pair of sneakers
- Logo and slogan for the organization appears on screen

So with this new outline, I started a new storyboard, but...

Roughly half-way through the new storyboard, I felt I was taking way too long with this, especially considering it is supposed to just be a rough outline and not an actual finished piece, so I decided to try out a new method for doing the storyboard

This more "paint-like" storyboard style doesn't have much detail, and is rather scribbly, but it IS meant to be a rough outline. It uses basic shapes and shades of grey to VERY roughly set up the scenes, with the removed detail and shading based on distance making it potentially much clearer than the previous approach. With this style, instead of starting from the foreground and working back like I had done previously, I instead start at the background and work forwards. This makes it easier to do it quickly as I don't have to worry about drawing in a background carefully after drawing in the main foreground. I think I may use this style for thumbnail sketching a lot in the future.

The next step, is to create a full colour version. Like last time, I will focus on one panel
First, a larger greyscale sketch

Using this sketch, I start a new full colour, while still looking "painterly", but including details
Starting with the background, I use a blurrier and sketchied brush for the background elements

 Next, the figures. I use a rounder, more solid brush for them

The next step is, of course, the shading. I also add outlines and such to the two figures (and the bench) in order to add a bit more detail to them

The final little step is to put shadows underneath each tree and the bench, and the thumbnail is finished

Next post... more storyboards

#6 "Storyboard" (Part 1)

For this posting, I will be trying to create a four panel "storyboard" for a short scene
The scene involves the Grim Reaper themselves having a lovely stroll down the street, when suddenly, a banana peel comes out of nowhere and they trip on it.

PART 1

First was a quick little sketch. It's not particularly good, but it gets the job done
Now, I enlarge and re-draw each panel separately in order to get better images

PART 2

For the second half of this post, I will take one of these panels and further refine it in full colour!

First things first, is to re-draw the scene entirely to be neater, starting with the background. This is still meant to be just a storyboard, so there is still some roughness to it

Now, on a separate layer, I have to draw Death. Rather than just drawing a cartoony one from scratch, I find a realistically proportioned Death to use as a base

With Death on his own separate layer, I don't have to worry about them interfering with the background, and I am able to move them around later on if I wish to do so
Next is the background colour, which will be its own layer behind everything in order to not interfere with the details when I add them. I use a slightly transparent brush, allowing the strokes to overlap each other, and help the background colour look more like the sky instead of just a solid blue void

Next step, I do flat colours for the actual background and Death. The background's colours and Death's colours are both on separate layers to make changes after its finished if I need to

For the last few steps, I add shading and highlights to the image, with the highlights being Screen layers, and the shading being Multiply layers. Additionally, the background and Death once again each have their own set of shading and highlights layers

And with that finished, now Death can have a lovely stroll down the street

#5 "Olympics" (Part 2)

For this posting, I'm going to be continuing the Olympic poster from last post and turning it into a full colour illustration
First things first, I start with the comp I drew last post

 Using the same photo reference I used for the original sketch, I add some shading to the image, using various shades of grey, and a little white for some additional highlights

 Considering the photo reference images get in the way of the shading, I have also included an additional screenshot of just the shading without the photos

After the shading comes the colour. The shading layer uses a Multiply effect so that it will blend with the colour below as opposed to just being a layer of greys on top of the colour.

 Since it is the winter olympics, I wanted to have somewhat of a wintery background, so I did a basic background that resembles mountains, since those are generally associated with the winter olympics

 And below is my inspiration for said mountains

The final part of the image is, of course, the text. The majority of the fonts I chose due to looking "sporty", with big bold styles and angular letters usually being in many sports advertisements and promotional materials. The "Home of Team Canada" slogan uses a more "fancy" font, as it seems advertising slogans often go for something similar to that kind of look for their chosen fonts

With every element in place, my design is finished!

Until next time!

#4 "Olympics" (Part 1)

This post's theme is "Olympics". I decided to design a poster based on one Canadian athlete in the recent Winter Olympics. I started with some quick sketches of basic layout ideas. The poster would have one large portrait of the athlete, and then a smaller full body image of the athlete doing their sport. I ended up deciding on a design that is a combination of the top-left, and bottom-right layouts, using the figure layout of the bottom-right, and the text layout of the top-left.

 Considering I would have to draw portraits of an actual person for this exercise, I went to look for some photo references of my athlete of choice that would fit my idea. Luckily, there were several

Using these, I was able to create a much more refined comp for my poster, as well as a base file for the final poster

The design idea to have a large portrait in the background with a smaller figure next to it is a rather common design that I have seen in many things. Here is one example of such a layout

For next time... I'll be turning this poster design into a full colour image