HOW TO DESIGN SOURCE CODE FOR YOUR CREATIVE PROJECT
Today I wanted to talk about something special.
First of all this entry is going to be helpful for people who want to create their own Digital Design project.
And also for people who would like then to create opportunities for people around the world in order to work on this project.
As the sandbox type of experience.
Meaning you would both be able to create the project and build the design studio based on the core studio project.
That is always the foundational establishment in any design studio formation.
RECIPIE
It starts literally with developing a body of work. That may take a year or two and sometimes longer to cultivate.
But what we want to focus on is on creating a series of practices in your particular field that would lead you to the idea of making the overall framework put in place.
And you want to leave the work in the UNFINISHED state.
So you only look at it at the highest level as being a Creative Director of the Artwork.
And then leaving the hard remains or collecting everything into a polished output for the later years.
By also then establishing the on-going type of practice for your life’s project.
So this is how we start …
By the way you can start anywhere. But I got this special PDF document that holds the structure of the project called White Storm. A Digital Interactive Narrative about the Artificial Intelligence and the human conversation within one character expressed by the means of Digital Human technology.
That has evolved along the years.
For me this PDF holds the structure that will outline the order for this post. But in reality you keep developing the elements of this source code for your Design project at the different stages of your project’s journey.
And for me at the later stages this digital product has became a source code for opportunities:
- Finishing the Academic Design Degree in Digital Design at the Post Graduate Level
- Creating an Advanced Level of Practice
- Elevating my Skillset
- Contributing to the Field of Creative Art & Design by writing the blog posts
- Creating Job opportunities for other creatives in the world to help with the project
- Establish a Core Studio for the Acute Line Design Studio as to be the foundational project
- Opportunity to Create the Kickstarter Campaign
So here are just some of the derivatives to where this source PDF can be taken to.
Of course I will not share this PDF here, but this is not just all about the good old PDF file. And rather all about the structure for the studio source.
Where in the structured form I will show you what it consist of and how this helped me along the way.
I also wanted to clearly state here that this is specific to Digital Design project. And applicable to the 3D Design. But also specifically with the focus on Facial Animation technology and making Digital Characters for screen industries now called Digital Humans.
And this entry has nothing to do with the way project has originated and sparked out of nowhere. For this you want to look at and check out my post on Writing the Proposal for Your Digital Design project.
And you want to see at this structure as the result of where this can be taken to. Your project. As the established form of the framework to have yourself to make the world a better place. Give others creative work and the opportunity to work on something exciting. By providing them with the financial value. And finding the fans who would support your vision. For example the crowdfunding campaign.
If you wanted you could then transform these sources into the business as the core research foundation or take it to the computer graphics festivals, animation or other events including the interactive. Depending on the field of design in which you are operating within by your core practice.
Sweet!
Let’s look at the brand first.
THE BRAND
Not so much I wanted to talk about how this was created and why. You can see the motion capture aspect in it.
And the idea here is to give GFX / VFX animators in motion graphics a chance to create an animated version of the logotype / brand for the video sequence and in-render environments interactive experience. Because the eye is of course a live sequence of frames. The typeface design can also be an established task.
So let’s look at what comes out of this source:
- Project Awareness and Brand
- Recognition and Familiarity of the Project
- Animated Eye Animation by Motion Graphics technology
- Typeface Design
- Merchandising Production Range
CONCEPT ART FOR VECTOR ARTWORK
Now these images are actually not part of the PDF and the actual sources and they rather tell a story how that has led to the main next source asset called the VECTOR ARTWORK:
And it is highly important to see how it has evolved into the final stage.
A massive piece of line work that is highly detailed. Accurate and digitally proficient for 3D design. And this main document in the illustrator format or other form that holds the integrity of the vector graphics and allowing the following future opportunities:
- Colouring Freelance work for Other Illustrators around the world as the form of Paid Work
- Poster Design and Distribution
- 3D Design Source for 3D modelling
- Apparel Design
- Animation Sources
NARRATIVE THE #1 KEY
Any Design project whether it is fashion design or graphic including digital design must have a story in place. This is what we call Narratology of your Design Project.
And it is HIGHLY important to note this is the CORE foundation of the entire project. If I would not follow the order of the PDF I would put this first above everything else.
This story has been in my heart many times before I had the final visuals. This is the main source. And a driving force for making this project to happen. To travel the world with it, change jobs, creating design studios, collaborating with others, meeting other people.
If I would give you one advice how to get success in Design or if you like in other fields as well. This would be to create a Narrative, a Story that would drive the entire process forward. Because my passion for making it to happen was so powerful at all times giving me the power to pull through challenges and hit the next milestone.
This is 1 page script of 01:40 minute animation sequence. And it is designed as the self dialogue within one person telling the story that would allow a great deal of facial expression.
I have specifically designed this script so it is simple and so I could rather focus on the quality of the facial animation.
I would suggest to keep everything simple and packaged in your life. Where there is just one or just five pages of your core story. And find that simplicity by reducing everything to the most important elements of the story.
Creative writing is one of the most exciting things you can do. But you have to be able to close the eyes and see your film, or animation piece or a video game, or the theatrical performance or anything you do or dream about bringing into the world. And then creating a written script for it.
And this is a license to practice.
Not just for your creative practice. Because your practice is just the Vehicle for your life. A driving force to wake up each day. And make your mark in the world.
But the license to live with meaning.
This is very important because I have met a lot of people in life who do not know what they want to achieve in life. Or what they want to create but do carry that creative passion within themselves. And the story is the great way of placing the structure at the core of your practice.
Now, just for you to understand this is not the only one way to give yourself a structure. There are things like research methodologies that will give you the answer. Things like action research model, heuristics, statistical analysis, quantitative and qualitative research models. And other models. This one is the narratology model.
And for simplicity you do not want to even think this is the research methodology. As the creative you simply want to make something amazing in life. But you want to give that art the meaning as well as for your life to have the significance in the world to practice and create. And see the characters in the settings, backgrounds and other elements. No matter what the medium is or whether you will go into business, become the independent artist or work as part of the larger group this will be at the core of what you do. And it is so Universal that it does not matter what you do. As long as you are telling the story.
Opportunities out of this source material:
- Motivation to Keep the Project when it breaks
- Graphic Design
- Digital Design
- 3D Design
- Creating Video Game, Interactive Experience, Film, Animation and the Online Experience
- Working with Professional Actors
- Creative Direction
- Meet new people in the world and have the thematic discussion
- Entering University Degree
- Living knowing you have the idea
- Living the meaningful Life
- Concept Art
- And everything else …
As you can see this source does not even cover the entire scope of opportunities where this can go. Because at this point it is so open ended that it can become anything. Even the theatrical play. Or a visual effects sequence or the realistic facial animation.
Sure you have to be focused to make this a targeted vehicle also and balance it with the purpose of the project. For me it is a framework of the facial animation that is told within one minute or two. But it was so powerful once I have wrote the script it has always given me the motivation to keep on making the project and push through challenges.This source may not be applicable to everyone but essentially it is designed to colourise the 3D world in the unique approach to production design.
May be slightly more advanced and specific for you but I will draw out for you how this source gives me the opportunity to create something that is standing out from the entire world of digital computer graphics-driven narrative experiences online.
This is just the angle of the Digital Design research that has provided the project with the source for the ongoing investigation for further practice and projects for others to do in order to contribute to the overall framework.
TRADITIONAL ARTISTIC PAINTING
This source may not be applicable to everyone but essentially it is designed to colourise the 3D world in the unique approach to production design.
May be slightly more advanced and specific for you but I will draw out for you how this source gives me the opportunity to create something that is standing out from the entire world of digital computer graphics-driven narrative experiences online.
This is just the angle of the Digital Design research that has provided the project with the source for the ongoing investigation for further practice and projects for others to do in order to contribute to the overall framework.
Without going too deep into explaining what this source is for. I wanted to show you this image to clearly illustrate how the 3D model will be painted by the means of the traditional artistic painting.
And this is how the final result will look like:
And is available for preview here:
I was working with the talented artist Lorenzo Penco who has helped to bring the artistic painting into the world of 3D modelling.
And the way it was done is I have taken this large piece of the SOURCE puzzle here:
And this is the Mental Ray rendering of the very large 3D scene that has evolved out of the Vector Art. And rendered with the ambient occlusion material just to give the sense of the 3D world from the frontal camera.
And it is highly detailed in terms of resolution. If you like to see some of the smaller samples of the image:
And you can see how these sources start work together into one pipeline or framework of the making of a digital artefact.
I did print the 3D rendering image on the 12 pieces of the large A2 boards and nailed them to a wall. And then I have used the acrylic paint to paint the art work. It was a great experience and I remember I was doing surfing for the first time with my friends at a time.
But then I have used the A2 scanner to scan the image with the highest resolution possible of about 2400 dpi. [ dots per inch ].
And to preserve the quality of the original brush strokes. And this has given the 3D Artist the opportunity to work with the 3D models and have a great source point to project the painting onto the 3D model to create a unique design of the digital set.
We only did a small sample at the moment and wanted to bring the entire digital set painted. But the opportunities out of the last two sources mentioned are:
- Massive Digital Scanned Flat Artwork Painted with Acrylic Paint:
- Texture the 3D Set Fast
- Unique Feel and Look of the Animation
- Authentic and Natural Style of the 3D Surfaces
- Comics and Painted Artwork Design of the Digital Set
- Opportunity for other 3D Artist to work on the 3D Sandbox called White Storm
- Source point for the Illustrator to work on the Vector Illustration to direct their idea for colour
- Proven approach and method to paint 3D models with the real paint, acrylic, oil or water colour
2. 3D Digital Set
- Core 3D supporting environment for the Compute Generated Image’s focused project
- Making not just a floating head Story
- Character Development and Production Design
- Opportunity to Design and Model the Character with 360 angle
- For the Character to be placed in the Video Game or a Digital Film
- To create a turn-table of the character
- Create Cinematic Experience for telling the story
- Given the ability to create secondary animations
- Such as Body Motion capture
- Creature Animation
- Texture painting environment to project the painting on
- Core Environment for the Digital Film
- Print Media and Merchandise Sources for Rendering high resolution still images
