For this phase, I was tasked with “Obtaining a clear direction from your mentor regarding which ideas to refine, and level of polish etc..”
My mentor and I did this process a little bit differently, as we’ve been refining ever since day 1 with new concepts for characters and different ways to design things.
At first I was tasked with creating characters with unique designs, then we narrowed it down to specific designs based on the first character premise we chose. When I designed these characters initially, I came up with general silhouettes and started to refine them, then I came up with their stories and started to bring in different references to support their stories.
Usually you would be tasked with creating a character from a story, but instead I decided to reverse engineer the process to make it more efficient. Eventually we decided on a character, which will be viewable through the pdf linked within this blog.
What did I learn?
My mentor taught me about the importance of design objectives, silhouettes, and form. I learned a lot about the inner workings of character design and how the process would usually go in a regular working day for freelancers. To put it simply, characters designs usually have a objective that you want to accomplish, and depending on what you do for your design, the choices made could either steer you on or away from the initial design objective you set out. We also went over other basics, but learning about design objectives was a fresh perspective in my eyes.
What was most rewarding?
I’d have to say being in a professional workflow and being able to draw things that I enjoy were the most rewarding parts of this phase. Learning theories and industry tips is always appreciated, however spending time to actually flush out a project that you’re excited about is definitely the most rewarding thing out of anything.
What was the most challenging?
I’d definitely have to say the weekly workload was the most challenging! Balancing the demands for this project with quality and other projects was something that I struggled with a bit, I often found myself working on schoolwork or mentorship work all day without finding time to work on personal projects.
Self-Grade
I think for the amount of work I’ve put within this phase and the time spent to develop these characters to the polish they are, I deserve a 9/10 for my efforts. A lot of research, chrome tabs, and time was spent refining and developing the character to their final design.
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