IVN - Weekly Lectures & Exercises

5.4.2023 - 5.7.2023 (Week 1 - Week 14)

Chong Hui Yi / 0363195

Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bechelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media

Weekly Lectures & Exercises

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Lectures

Week 1 (Intro Vormator Tracing): 

After introducing us to the course content for the first semester, Mr. Hafiz had us play 'The Bezier Game.' It was my first time using a mouse to draw shapes, and the game was very suitable for beginners. However, despite encountering several difficulties while drawing, it was enjoyable, and the various odd curves added to the game's challenge. Afterwards, Mr. Hafiz taught us how to use the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator to draw Vormator shapes, but some people, including myself, had not activated their accounts, so we couldn't access Ai. I'm looking forward to the next class when we can finally use Ai!

Fig. 1.0 Vormator elements

Week 2 (Vormator): 

In the second lectures, we watched a video in which Ms. Anis introduced to us how to design a character that is considered a good character.

Stylized Design Principles: (exp: Doraemon)

• Iconic: Use recognizable shapes to create memorable characters.
• Simplicity: Keep the design simple with minimal details.
• Unique: Aim for originality and distinctiveness in the character design.

Principles of Character Design:

• Shape: Use stable shapes (exp: circle/rectangle) for good guys, and unbalanced shapes (combinations of shapes) for bad guys.
• Color: For example, use light colors for good guys, and dark colors for bad guys.
• Emphasis & Contrast: Use variations in size, shape, and color to create visual interest.
• Harmony: Ensure that all elements of the design work together cohesively.
• Expressions & Poses: Capturing the audience's attention and engagement.

Week 3 (Colour):

This week, Mr. Hafiz taught us about colour and gradient in Adobe Illustrator, and we learned a lot of helpful information for our character designs. Especially useful was the website "https://color.adobe.com/" which made selecting color themes much more convenient.

Week 4 (Illustrated Type):

Today, Ms. Anis briefed us on our project 1, which is illustrated typography, and project 2, the MyTIGER Values Art Competition 2023. We need to select one of the 12 SDG goals as the theme for the competition. We started by using the Pictionary Generator to generate two words as the basis for our illustrated typography, and then we researched the 12 SDG goals, which I recorded in a Google document. At 10 a.m., Mr. Hafiz taught us how to use the Text Tool, Create Outline, Pencil and Smooth Tool, Shaper Tool, Joining Paths, Width Tool/Converting a Line to a Path.

• Paths: Composed of anchor points and line segments.
• Shapes: Closed paths. 
• Curves: Controlled by anchor points and direction handles.
• Create a straight path: Hold Alt/Option while dragging to.
• Curvature tool: Create curved paths by default. Click to add new ones when a plus (+) appears.
• Selection tool: Select entire paths
• Direct Selection tool: Edit individual anchor points. 
• Join paths (Ctrl+J) : Select two paths > Object > Path > Join (join the ends closest to each other)

Week 5 (3D):

This week, we learned how to turn 2D into 3D using Adobe Illustrator. I found it to be a very interesting class, and I learned a lot. It was most enjoyable when I tried different techniques on my own. When I finally created something, it felt very rewarding, and I couldn't wait to try it with different designs. The only drawback was that the computer would slow down, especially when working with complex graphics. I encountered this issue when working on illustrated typography, and it took a long time to process. As a result, I eventually gave up on turning it into 3D.

https://substance3d.adobe.com/assets
This website provides a wide range of Substance material assets, including textures, materials, and presets

Convert an image to a vector image:
image trace>  expand > ungroup > clean up > simplify > three  colour > same > fill colour 

Fig. 2.0 3D rainbow exersice

Fig. 2.1 Different between Scale (left) & Offset Path (right) 

• Offset Path is used to create parallel paths around a shape。
• Transform > Scale is used to uniformly scale the size of the path.

Fig. 2.2 3D sushi exercise

Fig. 2.3 3D Text Flora exercise

Week 10 (Light & Shadow) :  

This week, Mr. Hafiz taught us about Light & Shadow and had us practice drawing the dark and light areas of pears and human figures. 

Fig. 3.0 Three different tools for drawing a pear

Mr. Hafiz introduced us to three tools, namely the pen tool, pencil tool, and knife tool, for drawing a pear. I found that the pen tool allows for the most intricate drawings, but it's challenging to control every curve and straight line. In comparison, the pencil tool and knife tool are simpler to use, as you can directly control the lines by dragging the mouse. Additionally, the pencil tool allows for continuous adjustments to the existing lines. The knife tool is especially convenient when it comes to cutting irregular shapes.

Fig. 3.1 Sliced Pear

Fig. 3.2 Skull image trace

Fig. 3.4 Light and shadow of the character

Fig. 3.3 Steps to create a clipping mask

I learned that if there are multiple paths, I need to use Object > Compound Path before creating a clipping mask. The clipping mask functions in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop are slightly different, so I had been struggling to create a clipping mask in Ai previously.

Week 10 (Ornaments) :

When you use "Transform > Scale > 80%" and press "Ctrl+D" (Windows) or "Command+D" (Mac) to REPEAT the operation, it will apply the previous scaling operation repeatedly. This will result in further scaling down the object relative to the previous scale each time.

Fig. 4.0 Scaling Comparison (100% vs. 80%)

"Move Tile with Art": Tiles in the pattern move or transform in sync with the artwork, maintaining their relative position.

"Size Tile to Art": Tiles in the pattern automatically resize to match the dimensions of the artwork.

Fig. 4.1 Make pattern

Fig. 4.2 Comparison of "Without Transform Patterns" & "With Transform Patterns"

The "Width Tool" is used to adjust the width of paths or shapes by creating and manipulating width points along the path, allowing for customized variations in line thickness or shape width.

Fig. 4.3 Width Tool

• Paint Brush Tool: Hand-drawn-style lines on paths.
• Blob Brush Tool: Closed shapes, fillable and editable.

Fig. 4.4 Two different brush tool

Fig. 4.5 Draw Inside

"Draw Inside" enables drawing and editing within a selected object, facilitating the creation of artwork confined to its boundaries. This feature is particularly useful for adding decorations, textures, or pattern fills that are specific to a particular shape or object.