Today in MGA, I finished my digital graphics version of my retro hero called P, using Photoshop. I am very pleased with my work and finished character, and followed the brief which was to produce a Retro hero using digital graphics.

I first started by using an image of the final sketch which was imported into Photoshop. I then chose an appropriate colour scheme and used the pen tool to colour the characters main boy. A darker colour was used to paint and define certain parts including knee & arm pads and the cape.

 

I decided to use a carbon fibre pattern to finish the armour plates and helmet as I personally feel it’s an interesting looking material. It is also possible to use in real life, therefore making the design more realistic. When doing this, I used the same carbon fibre pattern on 10 different layers and quick masked each one, allowing me to re-shape the original square pattern into the shape of the armour plates.

 

The characters helmet and cape were the last parts of the overall design that I had to input into Photoshop. This was also the only part of the design which had not been sketched previously and I initially found it difficult to come up with ideas. After gaining inspiration from my mood board, I created the helmet using the pen and circular shape tool. I also covered the helmets frame with the carbon fibre pattern. The cape was much simpler to create as I only needed to use the pen tool to draw a shape. I then used the same colour to fill it in, using the paint bucket tool.