Assignment Attack: April 2012

Illustration Assignment 1: Metamorphosis

The basic idea of Metamorphosis is the change of something into something else~

The first thing I did when I got this assignment was MINDMAPPING!

After much contemplation I decided to go to the theme "blurring the line between fantasy and reality"

I came up with several basic idea's

1st: Comatose patient > Dragon (Psychological approach)

2nd: Human > Cyborg > Pixels (Too much technology)

3rd: Human> Shadow transforms (In this case a dancer to a bird)

I went with #1. Then started researching on how the transformation could occur. Should it be psychological means or radiation means?

I started researching about the Radiation means first.

1st: Thermal Evolution by S. Yabushita

2nd:How Evolution Works by Marshall Brain

From these two links I understood much more about radiation. Radiation leads to MUTATION!

Many things can cause Mutations! For example
1. X-rays
2. Cosmic rays
3. Nuclear radiation
4. Cellular chemical reactions.

Thats when I came up with the idea of a COMET. The comet rays would hit a random bystander and he would go comatose! When he wakes up he slowly transforms into a dragon. Apparently comet rays have a lot of radiation properties.

Radioactive rays (from comet) > DNA infected-change in DNA that triggers metamorphosis > Human metamorphosis > Shredding of skin (eg: caterpillar > COCOON > Butterfly)

Prototype 1!

This was the basic sketch of my idea~

I then did some research on Dragons (most of the pictures are from DEVIANTART artists)

Dragon head by ~eic

dragon by !Dokuro

Dragon Mage by ~kerembeyit

From these pictures I got a better picture in my head on how my hybrid dragon human should look like~

Horns/wing-like ears/spinal horns/devilish wings.

Prototype 2!

New sketch of composition~

But sadly when I showed my idea to Mr Hafiz, he said it was too 'complicated'

He did this little sketch on the side:

It was an idea of a catalyst causing an egg to crack. The transformation of an egg if you will.

An Egg. This got me researching.

All information is from this site:
Egg to Chicken transformation by harishnair86

Look at the metamorphosis!! but what really catches my interest is what is going on in that egg.

New idea!!

New idea, new compostion.

This new idea is psychological. It mainly has to do with the effects of bullying.
Because he's a freak at his school, he gets bullied. The stress gets to his head. And inside that head of his, he starts metamorphosing into something fierce, something to protect himself. In the end everyone is afraid of him.
(still sticking to the Dragon idea)
The main keyword here is CORRUPTION

Stress can affect the mind to the point of no return , it can cause delusions, depression and memory loss! Sometimes the stress affects our body in a way that can cause us to BREAK DOWN.

Information is from here
How Stress Affects the Brain by Courtney Ramirez

When I showed this to Mr Hafiz he said the idea was alright but he didn't like the back turning composition. Because of that I came up with 2 other poses!

1. Freak pose

2. Hands covering ears trying to silence their insults.

Emailed these two to le Hafiz and he chose the first one

OKAY time to digitalize it.
Here are some screenshots of the process!

Texture used!

Old paper 33 stock by ~ofruin-stock

Old paper texture HUGE 03 by ~Ayelie-stock

Reptile Skin Texture Pack by =prolificstock

FINAL 4 pieces!!

Being an outcast at his school, being a freak he was always picked on. Others threw names at him until he could not take it anymore. His mind was breaking down from the overdose. So to protect himself, his brain built an egg as a barrier around him. He began to lose touch with reality, when the egg finally hatched a personification of a dragon was born. A dragon is signified as a fearsome menacing creature. In reality, everyone is afraid of what he had become. The background for the last 3 pieces is supposed to be paper.

"When a paper is crumpled up, it can't be perfect again"

Look at how crumpled up it is in the last panel, symbolizing he is already damaged BEYOND repair.

And in the end he becomes the very thing he hated.

Time taken: 20 hours +

Also the pose remains the same to show the outer transformation. You can see by the expression:

At first the pose looks like he's grabbing his face out of frustration but as he evolved to a dragon he's doing it more to mock the people around him. It's as if saying "You still wanna mess with me?"

The pose being the same was completely intentional.

Finale

This is how it looks like AFTER the updates. Fixed the drippyness and made the signboard less dominant. I also changed the background for a more murky-like feeling.

LAYER EXPLANATION!

Starting from the bottom layers to the top

1. The sky layer

For this layer I took a picture of the sky and painted over it with the airbrush. The main reason I painted over it was because the original picture was pixelated (taken by my phone camera)

2. Hue/Saturation // Brightness & Contrast

I played around with these to give the sky a murkier feeling to it.

3. Group Layer

All the Buildings are in this layer including the flyovers and the signboards. The drippiness effect was first done by using the 'liquify tool' in the filters then I used the brush tool to enhance the drippiness. This was done for each of the building/flyover/signboard layers. For the signboard layer I made it semi translucent by reducing the opacity.

4. Overall Layer

In this layer I duplicated the whole image then merged it together (To be exact I duplicated it 3 times)

- 1st duplicate (left at the bottom, no changes)

-2nd duplicate (Used gaussian blur/ intensity 8.0)

-3rd duplicate (Hard light layer mask)

I then merged these 3 layers and played with the opacity. This method was used to intensify the colors

5. Photo filter/ Exposure/Vibrance/Color Balance

These filters were used to intensify the effect to its fullest.

CONCEPT EXPLANATION

For my theme I wanted to portray an Alice in Wonderland-like feel to it. Whenever I go to a new city I feel so confused and lost. In my mind everything is dripping into nothingness as if time itself is melting. I main theme is CONFUSION. The roads seem to lead to nowhere and the flyovers seem to resemble a roller coaster. I imagine this is how some people feel like when they enter Subang Jaya. Honestly, the roads in Subang are VERY confusing. Newcomers will most definitely get lost.

I chose Subang Jaya as my city because it is where I lived since I was young. It is my home, and it is the place I am most familiar with.

And this is it. I AM DONE!

More Screenshots!

Showed my prototype to Mr Adam, he told me to make it more 'rollercoaster-y'

Added some more stuff

Took a picture of a cloudy sky then used the brush tool to paint over it (the original picture was pixelated, only using phone camera)

Tried out different colors for the background, figured this one was kinda cool.

Showed this to Mr Jefferey he said that the drippy-ness of the flyover (right side) was leaning too much towards the left (Never noticed it until he pointed it out). He also said that the road and the signboard were fighting for domination.

*Needs to fix that*