2.1 Line Art / Composition

So, in the previous course, we talked about creating thumbnails for environments. And we did these three thumbnails As you can see. So, in this course, we're going to talk about taking one of these thumbnails and adding more detail. So, I think the one we're gonna do today is probably number two. I think this one has some interesting ideas here. And I think this will be a cool one to kind of take to a color render. So, that's what we're going to do today. So, I think, but also one of the cool things about this is that, though these didn't take that long, we're not necessarily married to this idea that we have to do this exactly the way that we see it in the thumbnail. We can actually make some changes. And hopefully those changes will make the thumbnail better. So, as i look at this, I'm thinking of some changes that we can probably make to it. Maybe adding some more perspective. Maybe adding something interesting in the middle. And maybe even messing with the composition a little bit. To make it more appealing. And that's why we do these thumbnails is so that when we finally pick one, we do it in a more rendered state. And then as we do it, usually what will happen is some ideas will come to us. And usually we'll figure out ways to make it better. So,this has this ancient ruin feel to it and so, I've got some reference online that I just gathered. And these will try to help me explain, just ideas of texture and design, and things of that nature. So, these are things from Cambodia. The Angkor Wat, if I'm pronouncing that correctly. And then some cool things that we We can see that will help us explain texture. The grit, the detail. These little things will help inspire us a little bit as we begin to design a full painting. So, again in this scenario we're coming from the the viewpoint of, we're an artist. We show these to a client. The client picks one and says hey, I like where you're going with this, let's flush it out even further and let's see what we can do. So, that's what we're going to do here. So, I'm going to drag this off to the side here just because on my other screen, so we use all the screen space that we have. To get the party started here. So, what we're going to do is we're going to look at this guy on the other side of the screen. And what I'd like to do here is, I'd like to start with some basic line art in terms of composition. So, while I'm looking at it, I feel like the composition wasn't that strong. And I feel like it could be a little bit better. It's a little bit too centered for my taste. So, I think actually for this one, I'll leave it right here and I want to stay zoomed out here. So we're only zoomed out like 25, 16%. So we can really go in there, you see the numbers increase. But what I want to do, is I just want to make a new layer here. I'm just going to get a reddish line. It can be any color that you want. I just like a dark red line for whatever reason. And we're going to use the Line tool here. And the Line tool is an interesting tool that most people don't use. Make sure you're on pixels here. And what we're going to do, is we're going to establish the horizon line. And we're going to establish some things in terms of composition. So, you are going to see me drag these out here. And we're going to use these here. So, the idea is, that we have this center point. And we talked about composition a little bit before. Earlier on in the last course, and so I want to avoid these. Go to my brush here. Some reason it's not working. There you go. So I want to avoid the center point and these halfway marks. So I want to avoid these points. If at all possible. So, that's the game plan. So, I want to change the composition here a little bit. So, that way we don't have to worry about that. So, I'll lower that, or actually, you know what? I'll just hit undo, so you get rid of the dots. The dots are a little distracting. But what I'm going to do is, I'm going to make a new layer. And I want to start drawing some lines that mimic the composition that we have. This is a great way because you're not really focusing on. You're not focusing on the drawing part. You're strictly focusing on the composition. And that's the reason why I like it. So, there's a couple of ways we can do this. I'm going to draw a line right, that's a little bit to much. So, I see. I'm going to go over this a little bit, so we have a little bit more screen space here. So, I want the area to go to here. So, these kind of lines will help us establish a little bit of a rhythm to the environment. And that's what I'm trying to do here. So, you're going to see me make some of these changes. Make some of these calls in terms of composition. And I'm hoping that these will lay down the foundation for me to draw this environment. So, and the reason why I'd like to do this is because it's very simple. So, it's not really worrying about how pretty it is in a sense. It's more so, does it work? Looking at it at a very simple bare bones composition. Is it interesting? And that's what I'm looking for here. So, I'm just drawing these lines here and I'm hoping that as I begin to develop this, this will answer some questions for me. So,I think we're going to have that pillar go straight up a little bit. So you can see that pillar. I think we'll make it a little bit bigger here. I think that would be cool. Maybe we can move this over just a tad bit to the right. I think we probably want a little bit more space. And so, you can see how I'm developing the shot out. And as I'm doing that I really am thinking about all this stuff right here. But I want tp try to keep the essence of that thumbnail. But I want to make it a little bit more interesting. If at all possible. So, that's what I'm trying to do here. And I'm thinking maybe I can have a little more space here. So, I want that to be parallel if at all possible. And so, it's very, very simple. But it's also very important to try to be able to think of something in a very kind of, I would say simple nature. We are trying get that graphic read. Because if we don't get that graphic read it doesn't really matter how much we put detail into it. It's just not gonna help. And so,that's what we are trying to do here. So, I'm doing some background imagery and I was thinking of having something very circular. Kind of floating here, and I'm gooing to use the marquee tool here. I'm going to right-click. I'm going to go to Stroke. We can just make this maybe five. Four, we'll make it four pixels. I'm sure that should be good enough. And there you go. So, I'm thinking of something like that, and that's pretty much this composition that I'm looking at. And I'm just trying to make sure that everything indeed looks interesting. Looks cool and is going towards this little bit of perspective. So, the perspective on the original one was a little bit flat for my taste. And I'm thinking we could probably add just a tad bit more, to just make that sing. You know what I mean? So, we're trying to do something right there and we have the foliage. We're going to have to definitely play with that. So, I'm just going to try to block in what I think the foliage shape would take. And so this is where having that reference can kind of help. Because it can help you answer some of those questions in terms of, what does the foliage look like. What kind of shape is it taking? What kind of foliage? All these questions can help out here. So, I'm just drawing these triangle shapes. That's what those leaves take anyway. And so, I'm hoping this will again, make my job a lot easier in the long run. So, I think we're good for now. We'll just drag this off the screen because we've been looking at it a lot. I'll still go back to it and that's the reason why you do these thumbnails. Again, it's problem solving and I think when you begin to do that, if you get lost, this helps you with that a little bit. So, it's what we have now that we have blown it up a little bit. And we could probably make this a little bit bigger. I would say. Sometimes I want these little zig zag patterns there to make it look really interesting. So, what I might do too, as well is, draw it a little bit bigger. And just draw the zig-zag patterns straight on. And then i'll just distort it. And that can make things a little bit interesting here. So, if i take that and now i say, you know what, this is going to be in this perspective. So, the horizon line is probably right here and now i can take that and do something like that. And you can see what's happening now, is now we're getting those lines in perspective. Which is great for us because now it helps show that depth. So, you can see a little bit that those lines got a little bit super, super distorted there. And we don't want that. So, we want to be able to see the lines. So, maybe I might have to reel that back. Just a tad bit and we'll see what happens. So, we do that and so that's probably good enough. And then if you want to thicken some lines a little bit, we can do that. But at least there, we can understand the correct angle. So, we're getting a lot of those lines up and down and stuff like that. So, the cracks can really go into perspective. I think it's what we want to go for there. If at all possible. So, I'm going to drag this off and keep having this guy. I'm going to look at him again in a little bit. And there might be some changes, of course. So I'm not too worried about it. But if I do it to make changes, that's totally fine. That's part of the game here. But that's what I'm looking for. If at all possible. So, I want to play with some height variation here. So, I might take some of these guys and make them a little bit thicker. A little bit, as if it's going above that thing. And these will serve as where I can put my dark lines. Because there's definitely going to be some cracks, obviously in this area. And my job is to figure that stuff out. If at all possible. So, we're going to do something like that. And I think that will be good enough. I think we're erasing too much here. And at that point, then that means I'm noodling. And that means, I'm not really sure. And I don't want to do that. If it all possible. So, we're going to go right here. Let's see here. So, we're going to make this little but thicker, so we can see that a little bit. And then we'll put some little pieces all throughout And then maybe, we'll have another piece going in that direction. So, I want a lot of overlap here. I think that's pretty much the biggest thing I could probably want to take from this is, give me the overlap. That's what, the overlap helps convey distance, helps convey perspective. So, that's what I'm doing here. And so, you can see how quickly this solves my problems and in terms of composition. So, it's very, very stiff for the most part and I wouldn't argue with that. But this is going to be our blue print here, that's really going to help us figure some things out. And so this is where we can start to begin figuring that piece out. And we'll flip the canvas. And I have my hot key put to F1 to flip the canvas a little bit quicker. Otherwise you'd have to go back. Let me go back and show you how you do that. Hit F, you go to image, and you just go to image rotation. And go to flip canvas horizontally. Okay, so I'm just going to flip it here. Take a look at it and just see what's happening. See if I can make some changes, if at all possible. This guy probably has to be a lot bigger just because it's going to be a little closer in the foreground. Which I'm totally cool with. That's going to help out. And then maybe, now that I'm looking at it, maybe we're going to have a little bit of foliage here. That point to this guy and then this guy will have some foliage here.. So again, its very, very abstract little bit. It's very, very polygonal but this way of thinking really helps me out when I'm trying to figure out the composition. So again, we're taking a look at this guy right here. We're trying to figure out, how do we take it to the next level and that's where we're going from here. So, we took a look at this guy and we're like okay, how do we make that more interesting? And already you can see it, it's beginning to change a little bit. In terms of what we're doing. In terms of the idea but that's the point. You know what I mean? When we're doing this, if I had to do this by itself the very, very first time without doing these sketches, I probably wouldn't have gotten this in terms of quality. I probably would have made a lot of mistakes. So, that's why in the previous course, we talk about being really, really free and just doing whatever we want. And this loose, rough sketching environment phase. So, that way when we get to this phase, we've solved some problems. We've figured out some things. And now we can go into just having fun, which is a rendering phase. So, we're going to save this file here. And then what we're going to do is, we're going go on to the next part. And we're going to talk about refining the composition a little bit and blocking and color. Which we'll do at the same time. Because I would think as we kind of put the color in, we'll get a really good feel of what's happening. And then we can go from there and then refine the composition if we need to, okay? So I'll see you in the next video, okay, peace out.