MAJOR PROJECT

28.08.2023 -  04.12.2023
Haura Laiqa Naznin / 0345050 / Bachelors of Design in Creative Media
Major Project

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INSTRUCTIONS

 

WEEK 1-3

 

For our final year project, we were given two choices: one was to either base it off of our dissertation or to do something entirely new. For me, I decided to have it related to my dissertation which was about representation. My main idea was to have a protagonist that other animated movies seem to lack, specifically hijabi representation. This made me think about including my culture into the idea and representing it through the characters and environment. After having some more thought I landed on creating an animation story concept for my final year project.

For the first feedback session, I was consulted by Mr. Asrizal and he gave me some pointers to be more specific about what I wanted to represent from my culture. Was it the creatures? The people? I had to think more about that before proceeding with my idea, which he seemed fine with. He then suggested I start consulting with Mr. Kannan as he specializes in entertainment design just like I am. I then got to work on some initial character concepts to show for next time.

 

Concept for the protagonist

Concept for the sidekicks

In the second week I showed these sketches with Mr Kannan, who told me that I jumped in too quick when it came to designing. I had all these details figured out before I even had the story laid out which was very true.

 

My very bare story idea was that the protagonist was just a regular human girl who attended university who, after messing around, transports to a different world that mirrors her own except that it's full of magic and adventure.

The feedback he gave me was to explore story elements more before I could finalize anything quite yet, so I did my very best at attempting that for the following weeks.

WEEK 4-6

 

I continued to solidify what sort of personalities my characters had by sketching them in different poses that they'd make. I also played around more with clothes and colour palettes for each and made expression sheets to highlight their personality more.

These were the sketches I made for the protagonist, who at this point was not named yet. She has an outgoing and determined personality, someone who doesn't give up easily and will find ways to solve her problems. She's also very studious and does her best in her school life. I tried to have that confidence and friendliness shine through.

These were the sketches for one of the sidekicks, the sister to the twin pair. Initially I didn't have a personality nailed down for her but after getting to draw her expressions, I settled on someone who was serious and the one they call the 'brains' of the pair. She is irritated easily and won't let others step all over her. Very formidable in battle as well!

The other sidekick who is the brother to the one previously shown. His personality was easier to develop as I had ideas on how he would turn out already. He is the more sillier sibling and will mess around whenever he feels like it. Definitely the 'brawn' of the pair - he thinks more with his muscles than with his head. Still, he's someone you can very much depend on in times of need as he is quite loyal to his friends.

At this time, I had a few villain concepts floating around in my head. I knew I wanted to base his design off of shadow puppets found in Indonesia as their shapes were very peculiar and interesting. It was quite difficult to find that balance between my own style and the ones that shadow puppets have. The basic idea behind the villain is that this form isn't even his true one, as he has a more humanoid appearance later down the line once he is freed from the prison he was sealed in.

 

I also began to concept some props that the protagonist and sidekicks would use.

 

 

This was an amulet design that the protagonist would wear that was passed down to her through generations. It is considered a family heirloom. There is history to this amulet however, which shall be revealed in the story...

 

This is the tote bag that the protagonist would use in her day to day activities, especially when she's attending her university classes. It's a good size that would fit her laptop or tablet as well as other necessities.

 

These designs are for a book that the protagonist finds either in a library or at her family home. Upon opening it, it reveals an unknown language and if she were to read it, it would be the reason why she was transported to another world. Turns out it's a spell that is activated only by those who carry the bloodline of her family!

These weapons belong to the twins, the bow is wielded by the sister and the sword by the brother. The sister prefers to be in the back-lines and support from the shadows whereas the brother likes to be up close and personal with the enemy. His sword is inspired by Indonesian weaponry, mainly the keris sword that has that wavy shape to it. There is a sun and moon motif to them to reflect the siblings.

WEEK 7-9

 

The previous weeks I only had a few meetings with Mr. Kannan as I dedicated all of my time solely to this project. His feedback was pretty much the same - that I had to explore more storytelling narratives in my work because I am trying to sell this story.

I continued to create some more characters for this project, moving onto designing some creatures that are based off of real life animals. I started off by sketching the animal first to get an understanding of their anatomy.

The animals I chose are the tiger, komodo dragon, heron and a deer. The first two are animals iconic to the country of Indonesia, hence why I chose them. The other two I thought would fit in the environment that I planned for them to be in. The idea is that these would be the guardians of the land in the mirror world, each would protect a specific biome such as the forest or the snowy tundra area.

After sketching these out, I went on to try and design them so they could match a more fantasy-like setting.

 

These were the first concepts I came up with, but then I developed them more as I progressed through the project. They are supposed to represent the biome that they protect, so the komodo dragon will have jagged rocks and a fiery appearance to reflect the desert and the tiger will have plants and moss growing on the surface of its skin to mimic the forest and so on so forth.

These were the final colors and designs for the guardians, however there were slight changes to some of them later on as I cleaned it up and made a finished version. During this time, I have mostly finished the designs for the protagonist and other characters.

However, I quickly realized how I was not following my initial plans to have them relate to my culture, meaning they didn't quite fit the appearance of a Southeast Asian person. This was directed mostly at the twins, as the protagonist was getting close to how I envisioned her. Although she still needed some changes as I thought the colour palette was a little too convenient to match the amulet.

And so, I began to rework the twins.

At first, I thought to change the colour palette so their clothes and hair were now different. I went for black for their hair to relate to most Southeast Asians today. As for their clothes, I tried to incorporate elements from the kebaya onto the girl's dress with the lace and intricate designs. For the brother, I wanted to add a sarung to his design whilst still mixing in the modern styling of their world. After doing this however, I didn't quite like how they ended up. I missed their earlier designs so I wanted to go back to that and work from the start again.

The protagonist's colour palette also changed and I took inspiration from existing fashion to put it together. Now her hijab is the only colour that pops out and matches with her amulet, where everything else is a more natural colour.

During this week I presented my idea to the other lecturers and I was given the feedback to simplify the designs of these two, so this is what I came up with. I thought it was too plain though and decided to re-add some elements from their first design to give them more interest.

And so, these were the final designs I went for. I got rid of the fishnets as they would be too complicated to replicate. The sister got her jacket back and the brother has his old style back, with the removal of his bracelets and fishnets too. He has fingerless gloves to match along with his sister now. Ultimately, I wanted to simplify them while also making them interesting. I realized I struggled to add elements from my country's traditional clothes into a more modern design so I didn't force it in the end. I would much rather be happy with any design than be unhappy, yet still following a certain theme. I did slightly alter their colour scheme and kept to the theme of sun and moon for them.

WEEK 10-14

 

During the final weeks of the project, I have finished most of the characters and have begun to finish the props as well as some environment designs for this story.

These were the final designs for the twins' weapons. In the feedback I gained from the previous weeks, I was told that they did not appear functional, especially the bow with the clouds in the way. I still wanted to keep the moon design so I did and got rid of the clouds so it has a much sleeker design. The sword did not gain much feedback except for the handle which I changed to give the holder more grip area.

This is the finalized tote bag design for the protagonist. I added pin and badge designs to her that reflect her interests in cute things.

This is the amulet's final design, a mixture of both beauty and mystery as it doesn't seem like a product from the real world that jewelers would make.

I have finalized the creature designs during these weeks as well.

Alongside them, I began working on exploring different types of plants that could be seen in the different environments. I started with the tundra region, where everything is all ice and snow and sunlight barely passes through.

The main idea I wanted to convey was how even the flowers would look gloomy, hence the colour palettes mainly focusing on the colder tones with some being a rare brighter colour. They all seem to have some sort of fuzzy texture as well, appearing to be shielding themselves from the cold. I also tried to make them droop a little to evoke that glum feeling.

 

Moving on, I worked on the types of plants that you'd see in the forest region. Of course, they would be more full of life and vibrant compared to the tundra. The trees come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and the flowers are all unique. There are even ginormous tree mushrooms that can be found! Very mossy and overgrown, yet beautiful. Coming up with different variations of trees was actually quite difficult as I didn't want to go too overboard with it, yet still wanted them to be distinct compared to real life trees. I took inspiration from games such as Ori and The Will of the Wisps and shows such as The Dragon Prince.

The next region I explored was the coastal side, where the beaches can be found and plenty of sunshine is around. I thought of more interesting looking trees for this particular region because I thought it'd show more of the fantasy side of the realm. Some of them are based off of sea creatures like a squid or jellyfish. The colours have a lot of range compared to the first two regions. However, these did not make it into the final environment art unfortunately, as I found it difficult to fit it into a composition that I liked.

Last but not least, the desert region. This one was relatively easy and simple to explore as I just came up with different shapes of cactuses. Like the coastal region, these didn't make it into the final artwork but it was fun to come up with plant designs for all of the regions. It helped in world building and developing it even further.

Once I was done exploring and sketching out plant concepts I moved on to come up with different compositions for the environments. I knew I wanted to include the guardians in it so I added them into the composition, attempting to find what was the best way to showcase them in their natural element. I wanted to highlight their size in comparison with their surroundings as they are actually very large when standing next to an average sized person.

I then chose my favorite sketches for each animal and environment. It was then time to place down base colors which was a very difficult task. That alone took about an hour or two just to find a palette that was harmonious and looked pleasing to the eye.

I had trouble with the colors for a bit when working on the tundra artwork in particular. I wanted a mostly blue/purple palette and balancing it was quite tricky as I didn't want everything to blend together. I messed around with more colours before I was satisfied and gave finishing touches by applying filters and effects over it to make the colours harmonize even further.

In the last two weeks I hyper-focused on trying to get these done. I had to endure lots of de-motivation and procrastination, but eventually I managed to get it all done and still had time before the exhibition to buy all the required items to help me display my work as well as help my group in getting the decoration they needed for the event. It was a whirlwind of stress and sleepless nights yet it was all worth it in the end.

Finally, all the artwork I had planned for my project was done.

REFLECTION 

At the start I was definitely very nervous about the journey I would have to go through during this project. I couldn't treat it like any other assignment or group project - this was supposed to be the culmination of all the skills I learnt over the years I studied at Taylor's University! I have to admit, my ideas became a little cluttered and I swayed from what they were supposed to be as I continued to work on it. I wasn't quite in the right mindset and followed what I mostly wanted to do, which isn't discouraged of course but I also had a goal that needed to be met. I feel that I failed to incorporate enough elements from my culture into the designs of the character, their initial concepts were a better representation of it but I just wasn't as happy with it hence why I went a different direction. I know now that I shouldn't have, since I can't always do what I want in the industry. I have to listen to clients' needs after all. I'm glad I made that mistake now than later though.

As for the workload I had to endure, well, it was certainly one hell of a semester. So many hours spent thinking, sketching, coloring and then repeating that process all over again for several weeks. I had to even take some days completely off otherwise I would be burnt out fast. I wish I had done more with the characters such as orthographics or exploring more outfits for them, but I just couldn't squeeze it in when I realized there were many other things I had to draw. I also wished I explored more when it came to their world, such as architecture or vehicle design. Concept art has a lot that goes in it and I am just one person juggling that entire responsibility.

Ultimately, I am content with what I managed to produce in the time I was given. I know I could do better, but I'm proud regardless. There are many things I can reflect on and learn from this experience especially as I see my peers around me have incredible work that I can take inspiration from. It was an awesome 14 weeks even though I was stressed throughout it but the exhibition was truly the icing on the cake.