Canopy, shining ever brilliant
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Good evening, dear readers! This week has been a rather strange one. Being the week leading up to the Beta deadline, it would make sense for it to be a crunch-week, no? And yet, this is the calmest week I have had in two months. Sure, there is still work to be done, but almost all remaining tasks are code-related. As the environmental artist, I can now count the tasks left in this entire project for me to do on one hand, and none are left that are at Beta priority. So, this week I have mostly been working on stuff for the 2D2 course that I have been lagging behind on. Making progress on those things have been alleviating that stress somewhat. Alas, as I am still not properly registered on the course, I cannot actually access the hgo course page, where the assignments are posted, it is very difficult to progress at full efficiency even on those matters. Something I have done for the project this week is looking for ambient sound effects, but considering that I have not been doing any modification work on them, it leaves me with very little to talk about on that front. What I can show off stuff about that would be, ah, a bit more on the side of the photogenetic, would be one of the plant assets I started making, even if they are at Final priority. It looks like this:
To make this, I started by sketching out the thin tree limbs in a mid-dark shade of brown. I wanted the tree to be thin, sprawling and a bit askew, as if leaning off from the edge of a cliff, which would make the most sense in the cavernous setting.
Working off from these limbs, I drew out a dotty canopy in yellow so as to further shape the tree silhouette.
My team have been pretty strict with me in regards to my production speed, so as I went on to shading, I decided to keep it very simple. A quick lining and a mere hint of texture on the thin tree limbs, and as for the canopy, I decided to, instead of shading individual leaves, layer the canopy. Having looked at a number of reference pictures on how tree canopies look like when the sun shines through them for a different assignment in the past, I have found that this is usually how it looks like.
And finally, the finishing touch that of an airbrush-wrought glow. Because bioluminecent plants are cool, and this tree is supposed to glow. I used the same general technique for this as I did with the crystals from last week, but to a less smoky effect.
The group will be having a proper meeting tomorrow, at which point we will properly distribute the remaining tasks for the project. As pleasant as it has been to have this lowered pressure upon me this week, it has also been very frustrating to be so aimless. I suppose I can only blame myself for not being direct enough in my queries.  |
