ART-32900-Concept Design
This was one of my first online art classes at Lindenwood University. Lindenwood's catalog described this class as:
Throughout this class we were instructed to imagine ourselves as members of the original design team for James Cameron's Avatar, to create a new design for a weapon, character, and environment that would fit into this stylized world.
Unlike the description for the class we were not allowed to paint or draw any of these concepts. We were requested to only use found google images and kit-bash with photomanipulation the requested designs.
Weapon Design
For this assignment we were requested to do the following:
You design must be of a new and novel Sec Ops weapon. Do not create a new version of a sec ops weapon already shown in the movie. The Sec Ops weapon you will create will be a small arms ranged weapon. Do not create a vehicle mounted weapon or a “mech” or a crew served weapon. This weapon would be large enough to be wielded by an individual Sec Ops soldier. This isn’t an exercise in digital painting but rather in the use of Photoshop’s digital manipulation tools. Please pay close attention to the instructional videos provided for guidance on how to manipulate source photography to create your Sec Ops weapon. You are to use source photography to create your composite image, but you may not borrow liberally from existing Sec Ops weapon reference material.
Using photos from google I produced the following weapon.
Character Design
For this assignment we were requested to do the following:
Your design must be of a Naavi character, male or female. You can select what "role" your character plays for example the character might be a warrior or a shaman or some other role that would appropriately fit in the movie or the Avatar universe. Make sure the costume is consistent with the Naavi costumes shown in the style guide and should make sense relative to the "role" the character plays. Regarding pose, the character can be standing, but you can place the character in a more action oriented pose if you wish. This isn’t an exercise in digital painting but rather in the use of Photoshop’s digital manipulation tools. Please pay close attention to the instructional videos provided for guidance on how to manipulate source photography to create your Naavi character.
Using photos from google I produced the following weapon.
The background image in this photo I took at a local conservation area. I used a total of 13+ images to produce this kitbashed Naavi.
Though the professor didn't except it I also attempted a version of this character in Fuse CC, which for a fast and simple concept layout was enjoyable to produce. I hope this program becomes one of the industry's standards in the near future.
Environment Design
For this assignment we were requested to do the following:
Create a visually similar Mobile Lab type building that accurately matches style guide reference. Create an accurate representation of a Pandoran forest environment. The environment does not have to necessarily be tropical, but it does have to be heavily forested.Place Mobile Lab type building in the foreground in proper perspective. Your environment design must display a sense of deep depth of field, said differently you need to create a landscape the provides the illusion of extreme distance. You will also need to ensure that the 3d model you use as a template for your building design matches the perspective of the background image you create.
I was able to test out Adobe's newest program Dimension CC to produce the Mobile Lab, which allowed me to add the proper lighting onto the model. Once the Mobile Lab was rendered I imported the Dimension CC file into Photoshop CC and added some more elements to the final design.
