This assignment will be focused on creating a character sheet for a design. Character artists have to create a template for a character so that animators and other artists know how to draw/paint that character. The template usually consists many different angles, including a front view, a side view, a 3/4 view, and a back view of the character. The character is usually cell shaded and not painted. Cell shading is when you shade with just one color without blending (100% opacity). The color of the cell shading is a darker color compared to your base color of your character. (example: Your dragon is red (base color) so the shadows will be a darker red (cell shade color).
For this assignment, we will be creating a dragon design for a fantasy game. Here are a list of the requirements for the assignment.
For this assignment, we will be creating a dragon design for a fantasy game. Here are a list of the requirements for the assignment.
- The dragon character sheet has to have a front and side view of the character.
- The dragon has to have a certain element or theme. (fire dragon, ice dragon, water dragon, etc)
- The dragon has to be colored and cell shaded. The colors are within the lines and the shading is smooth and not messy.
- 3+ colors have to be used for your dragon. One will be the base color, one will be the cell shading color, and you have to figure out the last one. If you look at the example below, the fluffy dragon is tan with purple cell shading and blue highlights. The other example is a yellow dragon with a gold shading color and blue highlights in the eyes/claws. You are allowed to have more than 3 colors.
- The dragon has to has to have all 4 legs, 2 wings, a face, a tail, and horns/spikes of some kind.
- Lineart has to be clean and smooth, without hairy strokes making it messy.
- Sketch layer is provided.
- Sketch, lineart, and color layers are labeled correctly.
- Time was used appropriately and students participated the entire class period.
- Canvas size is Height: 1800 and Width: 3245 pixels. Both the front and side view fit nicely in the canvas. The designs aren't too big or small.
Step 1: Sketch phase. This is the step where you are allowed to make messy lines and strokes. Choose a lighter color for your sketch and create your design. Make sure all parts of the dragon are in the canvas.
Step 2: Line Art. On a new layer, create the lineart. The lineart needs to be black and 100% opacity. When creating the line art, try to create smooth and consistent stokes. Making short and small strokes creates messy and unreadable lineart. When illustrating a character sheet, you want your lines to be very clean so the image makes sense. Many professionals will always have their fingers on CTRL+Z (hot key for undo) and create many lines and undo many lines until they have the perfect smooth stroke. After you finish with your lineart, you will turn off the visibility of your sketch layer.
Step 3: Colors. You will create a layer and drag it under your lineart layer. This layer will be the color layer. You will color inside the lines. Start by choosing a base color for your dragon and fill your dragon in. Afterwards, choose a darker color for your cell shading. It looks good to take your base color and get a darker color of your base. Make sure you have 3+ colors for your dragon. The dragon above (her name is Blueberry) has blue highlights and multiple colors that makes it interesting. When you finish with coloring and your cellshading you are finished. Make sure you check it off with me though before turning it in!
This is Pangolion, a gold dragon. He is an idiot. That's it. Pangolion is an example of 'soft cell shading'. Soft cell shading is when you cell shade but then you add a little bit of shading in places or a gradient. We will not be doing soft cell shading for this assignment, but I wanted to introduce you to the term.
Points: 50 (25 for each dragon view)
We will take as long as we need for this assignment, but try to get 1 dragon done each week.
Points: 50 (25 for each dragon view)
We will take as long as we need for this assignment, but try to get 1 dragon done each week.