Finally! All compositions are completed. Here is long awaited breakdown of the final project:
Overall Concept: A milestones based on my Visual Effects artist timeline.
Style: From digital art works to traditional mediums or vice versa.
1. 3D ARTIST
This composition is based off my secondary school days, as I was quite lucky to be the pioneer batch that took 3D Animation as an GCE ‘O’ Level Subject – where I learnt and used Cinema 4D. The idea of using low-poly art, made from a few simple polygons, was also to show that I started from something basic.
This composition is made up of 2 layers, 1 transparency and 1 printed artwork.
Originally, as a 3D Artist, I wanted to incorporate a popup element in the design but the design was too complex. Hence, I have experimented with layers of transparencies, and it was an accidental success with these 2 layers, when overlayed, creates an illusion that the name “pops-up”.
2. LOVE DETAILS
For this concept, it is based on my Poly days, when I was interning and was tasked to primarily texture paint. My colleagues then taught me well – to observe any single details of the textures around me and even study some of the physics involved.
For this design, I have used a thumbprint as the background as it represents the macro details that can be found. I have modified a script font by using illustrator and painfully incorporated it to fit the lines of the thumbprint. Also, the medium for this was paper cutting as I felt that paper cutting is an intricate and delicate process that will truly bring out the concept of intricate details.
3. ART STUDENT
With Secondary and Poly days aside, this piece is based on my current status of an Art Student in ADM. This was originally a hand drawn handmade font done with graphite, then scanned and digitized and painted in Photoshop. This was to show that at this stage, I am trying my best to do things in both digital and traditional mediums. The coffee stain was added as a representation of the long late nights students spends doing studying or doing their assignments.
4. VISUAL EFFECTS ARTIST
Last but not least, being a Visual Effects Artist is the GOAL. Whenever someone asks me “what course are you in” or “what do you do”, I usually tell them visual effects, but some of them still does not know what is visual effects. So I usually use Iron Man as an example, and with that, I have decided to go for a HUD (Heads-Up-Display) style based digital “holograms” for my typeface.
Just like the breakdown video of the Swedish Idol Title sequence in my previous post, many layers are needed to create realistic visuals. With this concept in mind, I have created my typeface in 3 layers, with 1 background layer:
On the topmost layer, I have added a bunch of text on the right corner, of the programs that most vfx artists will use, to complement the balance of the composition of the bold and heavy typeface of my name. Also, with 4 layers in total, I have decided to give it a little depth, in z-space, to create an illusion that the text is in 3D. (from the parallax differences)
Last but not least, with all goals in mind, the ultimate goal is to see my work on a big screen.
So to start small, I have incorporated the last effect, the “negative filter”. Due to the some limitations (access to white ink, etc), I could not create the same effect in print, therefore I have thought of going back to digital – through the phone camera.
Creating this piece was a real challenge as I had to design this while looking through the camera filter, tweaking it in a way that the “positive” image will still look good.
Also, to create the depth, I had to find a transparent alternative to foam tape so after much thought, I have finally came up with using transparent straws and I have spent 2-3 hours gluing them onto the transparencies.
If you noticed, my compositions are also arranged (my opinion) from the most basic to the most intricate:
digital 3D < papercut < drawing < multi-layered “3D”
Overall I really enjoyed pushing my boundaries of sticking to digital work and experimenting with transparencies, tracing paper, papercuts and other traditional mediums for this project – some which was rather tedious as compared to doing purely in digital. I hoped you enjoyed it as much as I did!!