Dev Learning to Art - CC Always Needed

Archduke

Hey all, I'm a game dev that's been working on a solo project for a year (nights/weekends). My systems prototyping is finally done, so it's time for me to work on art. Since I have absolutely no art experience, I'm planning on spending 3+ months practicing before tackling my actual animations and backgrounds. That's certainly nothing compared to what all of you have devoted to your skills, but my art style is fairly simple so I'm hoping that I'll be able to get away with it.

I'm aiming to use a style similar to the Amiga game Another World/Out of This World (vector, rotoscoped). It had a remake that reinterpreted the pixelated art into smoother shapes, which I'm using as my starting point.

I just learned the basic concepts of 1 point perspectives last night, so I started working on this piece to get used to Illustrator's perspective tool. I'm also using it to test color palettes for my main character. All CC is welcome, especially in regard to the perspective.

Eric Chadwick

This is a great start.

If you're not using references, you should. Gather photos of interiors in the style you're interested in emulating. Then keep referring back to them while you work. 

Use reference to figure out what architectural details to add. Is there ceiling molding where the walls meet the ceiling? What kind of flooring is there? What does the furniture look like? Are there light fixtures?

I love those games, great style and beautiful animation (roto was only for the human, most was hand-animated).

For a similar art style, check out Guy Billout. His conceptual minimalism might give you some inspiration.
http://visualmelt.com/Guy-Billout

Archduke

Eric Chadwick said:

Thanks for the feedback and the link! His stuff is really interesting, definitely inspiring.

Here's another iteration on the previous post. I scaled it down in Illustrator and couldn't get the perspective tool to line back up, so I scrapped it and did it again. Focused on the countertops and cabinets, but they still feel a little awkward. Going to work on the ceiling, molding, and floor next I think.



I feel like it would benefit from me doing more thinking on what I'm trying to communicate and how I'm doing it, but the nuts and bolts are new enough to me that I'm not worrying about it.

Archduke

Starting to hit stuff that's giving me more trouble, but still feeling okay about it. Any CC is appreciated, but I have a specific question down below.



So, I haven't learned how to do lighting and shading yet and the faucet seems like a good opportunity to do so. Before I start, does the silhouette look right? Here's my reference:

Archduke

Think I've gotten to a good point with this one, happy to get any crits. Going to make a thread in the sketchbook forum as I get into my next piece.

zachvance

It's a bit  of a tough piece to critique, being such a symbolic/graphical representation of a scene... but considering you said you're going for visuals like Another World, I'd say you nailed it.

Archduke

zachvance said:

It's a bit  of a tough piece to critique, being such a symbolic/graphical representation of a scene... but considering you said you're going for visuals like Another World, I'd say you nailed it.

Thanks! That makes sense that it'd be hard to critique. My upcoming work will be backgrounds and enemy design, so I expect it will lend better to feedback.