CDDA - Prop beauty shot edit

After showing my previous version of this beauty shot to my lecturer she showed me a few parts of the beauty shot that could use improving which I hadn't really noticed until after having them pointed out for me. The most major change was the gold shading.There wasn't enough contrast between light and dark to give a real 3D feel for the image. I've gone through and added much heavier shadow on the left side using a mix of brown and a mustardy green colour. The other change was only minor being that the hammer and pickaxe were more or less grey scale. I have added hints of blue, mainly to the darker areas to make the shapes more interesting to the eye and more realistic. I intend to leave this image alone now unless I happen to have spare time once all my work is finished (which is unlikely). 

CDDA - Hammerpick beauty shot

Today I finished my beauty shot of my prop, the hammer pick. It was quite fun to do and taught me a lit about metal textures, specifically gold, and photo overlays. I ended up making the gold quite dirty because I didn't really like how it looked when it was clean. 

CDDA - Photo Manipulation

So today I did a photo manipulation to give an example of some of the things that might go in my environment. It was quite a new experience to me which I found tricky at first, taking me a long time to put my first item into the environment and feeling that it didn't really fit. Once I started adding light and shadows to the objects they began to sit a lot better in the environment. Also changing the hue to a more orange colour helped them fit in too. I think that I may do something along this line of track when drawing my final environment to sketch over as it could be really useful for getting perspective and shapes right. Overall I enjoyed making this and think it's a viable way of developing ideas for environments. 

CDDA - Character full body

I finished off a digital colour render of my character today. I'm happy with what I ended up with at the end for the most part and it has helped me define who he is but I also came across a few issues that I would like to fix in future art. One of these is his belt. I've simply been drawing a belt that you can buy in town in the real world which is not fitting for a Dwarf blacksmith in my opinion so I redesigned that. I also have come up with a range of different shapes for the top of the apron as I struggled to decide what it looked like. The shape of him is a little too tall and thin as well, I need to make him more Dwarf like. Lastly, I would like to experiment with different colour schemes which I may simple overlay on this picture at a later date. As for the current colours, I like the red shirt and black trousers but am not too sure of the apron or boots. The boots seem a little too clean for someone who lives in a mountain whilst I'm just not sure if I like the apron or not. But overall I'm happy with what I got. 

Below are a few quick sketches of different shaped apron neck hole things. I like the 3rd from the left design on both rows, a simple round neck hole. I also like the bottom right design but don't think it suits an apron really. I think that I will probably use the bottom row, 3rd from the left design but I am not sure for now. 

Below are my belt designs. I wanted something more intricate and 'Dwarfly' for his belt. First of all, I dislike the bottom right design, it's boring and not intricate. The top left design is better than my original belt but still not what I'm really looking for. I really like both of the other designs. The bottom left looks really cool yet the top right seems practical, intricate and has hard edges, something I believe to give quite a 'Dwarfly' look. I will probably use the top right design but may end up using the bottom left if it looks better.

CDDA - Prop thumbnails

Today I started further development on my prop. Out of my three previous hammer picks the one I preferred the most was the war hammer design yet I wanted to change it slightly as it was a quite boring design. I took the design and made some thumbnail sketches messing with different shapes and sizes whilst keeping the idea reasonably similar and two handed. Out of the designs I like the top left thumbnail and the 3rd from the the left on the top row most. I think I will mix my initial design with these two thumbnails to make a hammer pick out of these.  

CDDA - Prop - The Hammerpick V3

This is my third prop design, this time in the form of a two handed warhammer. I like the shape of this design and the head has a nice shape too yet I'm not sure I'm fond of the handle decorations. Overall, this is my favourite design of the three I've created and the one I would like to develop. I think that the next step forward with this design will be to redesign the handle similarly to the second designs handle. Following that I will move on to detailing colours and engravings on the hammers head. 

CDDA - Prop - The Hammerpick V2

After researching areas of my previous weapon today I was ready to make a new design that featured the same key idea of a hammer and a pickaxe. I want to try and get a variety of shapes for the weapon on my initial designs before I choose a shape to define in more detail. My previous weapon was shaped very much like a pickaxe apart from the head of the weapon. This is much more like a 2 handed warhammer in looks. I like how the head of the weapon came out, more so than my first weapon, yet I am not sure about the handle. If I choose to further this design I will most likely change the handle and add more decoration to the center of the weapon's head. 

CDDA - Prop reference images

Having come up with an idea for my prop design yesterday, I decided to research the prop by collecting images today. I looked up different kinds of weapon grips, the sizes of hammers and their shapes, pickaxes and what people believe Dwarf writing to look like. 

CDDA - Prop idea - The Hammerpick

I came up with an idea for the prop that I would design today. I wanted something that would be appropriate for a Dwarf who lived in a cave and was a blacksmith and came up with this. It is essentially half hammer half pickaxe. I like the design and think that I would like to develop it and use as my final prop. 

CDDA - Character costume

Yesterday I finished off creating a history for my character, giving me an idea of what and who he is. My starting point is that he is a smith, not in the best of places, at war with the Elves and is among others of his race. With these ideas (and others in the history) I had started getting an idea of what he would look like. I decided to start off by coming up with clothing first. I was quite happy with the ideas I came up to start with. My initial sketch of a top seemed too much of an unnecessary piece of clothing, something a poor community at war would not use. I redesigned it as something similar to an apron, something with functionality and purpose. I wanted to give him some sleeves as well so I gave him an undershirt too. Boots wise I wanted something heavy and quite elaborate as a smith would need hard boots anyway so they may as well be nice! I came up with boots that have layers on them which I though looked good. I then came up with a rough design for his hammer as every smith would need one.

Next I decided to stay with the same design and try to take it forward, give it more of a finished look. I gave the apron a belt to keep it tight to the body, keeping it out of the way of my characters work. I also added pockets onto the legs and the chest for tools to sit in. I decided to make trousers and shirt out of the same material, something light like cotton so that it would be breathable. The apron was also extended to cover the top of Dwarfs legs, stopping burns. I kept the same boot design as originally drawn. I then drew the costume in a pose that would be commonly seen in a smithy. I quite like how it sits on a worker but would like to add something to the upper apron but I do not know yet. Once I am happy with the apron I will probably start to work on faces and facial hair.