The game that I chose for this unit was Botz, but with my own personal twist. Instead of being a collection/pet simulation game, i decided to make it a crudely themed turn based RPG where you customise your own robot to fight with.
I chose this particular concept because a mature game using a graphic style normally aimed at a younger audience is such a wide contrast, a similar concept is the cartoon web series Happy Tree Friends, which presents itself as a typical kids show but with blood and gore.
When i started this unit with the logos task, I experienced difficulty in using the pen tool whilst attempting to draw my initials for a logo concept, and I kept trying to start the idea from scratch over and over again until I gave up, when I decided to concentrate on picture logos rather than text.
Next, I experimented with the preset shapes and came up with several ideas using a wide variety of options available. In addition, I made my own custom brushes by importing images from the internet into Photoshop on a new document, cropping them with the magic wand tool and colouring the sections that I wanted to be outlined in black, whilst using lighter shades of grey for everything else.
For several of my logos that used stamps, I kept changing colours whilst stamping in the same place to give an almost 3d look, such as my skull logo, in which I used a combination of dark grey and red shades to achieve the effect I was going for. Also, I used shape tools such as the Polygon tool, which I primarily used to create triangles and pentagons for a number of my logos.
Eventually I would attempt at a text based logo one last time, and decided to use an existing font in order to make it less stressful for me to do. I used the horizontal type tool for the base text, flipped the "A" in HEARD and created a red ring around the letter via the eclipse tool. I decided upon that concept to by my final logo design.
Overall I feel that I could have potentially have produced more logos, but I am still happy with the ones that i came up with. When we were introduced to the drawing tablets, I struggled to use them - potentially due to my dyspraxia.
Due to my own fault, I misunderstood task 3 and thought that we needed to use the tablets to get a high grade on the task. Because of this, I will be submitting task 3 at a later date, as I have decided to use the basic shape tools to create my concept art. I plan to create concept art of robot heads which then could be used for in game icons so the gamer can choose how to customize their robot.
I based my first robot head on Bender from Futurama. I used the rectangle, eclipse and line tools to create the basic shapes. Then using the blending options I set a centred 5 pixel stroke around the base head to give it some depth. I then used a colour overlay with a colour burn blend mode with with a grey colour at 49% opacity.In addition, I set a normal blend mode for the gradient overlay, with a 45 degree angle.
For the eyes and mouth I used an inner bevel with a chisel hard technique, centred 5 pixel stroke, and a normal gradient overlay blend mode at 100% opacity, as well as a lightly shaded gradient at a 45 degree angle.
My second edit of robot head 1 (head 5) involved changing the blending options. I used the blue glass style and a smooth inner bevel for the base head. I added an inner glow with a multiply blend mode, with a softer technique. I used a dark red colour overlay with a multiply blend mode. and 100% opacity. I used a normal gradient overlay with a Radial style and 117 degree angle. For the eyes and mouth I used a grey granite texture.
I based my second robot head on C3P0 from Star Wars. I used the Eclipse, line and rounded rectangle tools to create the basic shapes. Using the blending options, I gave the head base a smooth inner bevel, a multiply inner glow, a multiply blend colour overlay of brass with 100% opacity, and a 117 degree normal gradient overlay. I used the same eyes as robot head 1.
My second edit of robot head 2 (head 6) involved changing the blending options. I used the smooth pillow emboss, added a multiply inner shadow at 75% opacity, and a multiply satin. The eyes gained a multiply inner shadow, multiply satin, a dark grey colour overlay,
I based my third robot head on female robots (specifically from Futurama). I used the rounded rectangle, eclipse and line tools for the basic shapes with a base purple colour. For the blending options I gave the design a 3 pixel stroke, a sun faded photo style, an orange colour burn colour overlay and a 90 degree angle gradient overlay. For the eyes I coloured them a light shade of blue.
My second edit of robot head 3 (head 7) involved changing the blending options. I changed the colour overlay of the base head to bright red with a linear blend. For the eyes and mouth I used the colour target style, with a smooth inner bevel, 5 pixel stroke (13 on the mouth), yellow, red and blue gradient overlay and a multiply drop shadow
I based my fourth head on R2D2 from star wars, but i used a pentagon for a base head instead. I used the polygon, eclipse, rectangle, and rounded rectangle tools for the basic shapes with a base grey colour. For the blending options I gave the base a 3 pixel stroke. For the eyes I gave them a chisel hard inner bevel, a normal black colour overlay (red for the smaller one), and a normal gradient overlay at an angle of -90 degrees.
My second edit of robot head 4 (head 8) involved changing the blending options. I added a satin with a dissolve blend mode on the base. For the eyes I added a smooth inner bevel. For the remaining shapes I used a default blue glass style.
Overall I really enjoyed using the blending options for my concept art, as it enabled me to explore photoshop in more creative ways than before. I could have improved further by designing more robot head concepts.
In conclusion, I feel that I have not dedicated myself fully to this unit as much as I could have done due to my poor time management. In order to improve in the future I will have to ask my tutor for more advice on the work set to ensure that I fully understand what is expected of me.
