Schedule:
- Principles of Design:
- Balance
- In-Progress Critique: Project 1
- Work Session: Project 1
- Finalizing Project 1 and Dropbox
Assignments:
Announcements:
- Next Week: COaC Sponsored Diversity Forum: pARTicipate! - Oct 16-20
Time Wasters:
Principles of Design
Balance
Balance - a way of combining elements to add a feeling of equilibrium or stability to a work of art. Major types are symmetrical and asymmetrical.
Because balance refers to how the arrangements of parts of a design or visual composition, artists and designers create a sense of a balance through different techniques. In our class a visual composition could refer to a character design or to the design of an environment or scene. It is important to consider balance at multiple levels. Early in the semester we created some compositional studies that explored different kinds of balance and symmetry using only black circles. The principle of balance can be explored though simplified means and then developed with more complex visual elements.
Project 1 In-Progress Critique
Share your work with other people in the class. This will include your sketches, drawings, and digital work. You will be moving around the room and will need to have your work open and ready to share. This is an opportunity to express both visually and verbally what you are hoping to do with your work for the project. We are in a middle stage of the project and it should be helpful to get feedback as you begin finalizing your work. To get information from as many people as possible, you will meet one-on-one. Each person will share their project. Then, after a few minutes, you will rotate to meet with another person. The format will be similar to Speed Dating or Elevator Pitches.
Project 1 Versions and "Sprite Sheet"
To finalize your work, you will need to generate multiple views of your "character". The goal for this portion of the project is not to have to start over from scratch for each additional view. Use operations like copy/paste in the same way you did when developing different versions of the illustration. If you have general shapes - as layers at the bottom - then you can reuse those and focus your attention on making adjustments to the location/perspective of the details. Our alternate views will simulate simple animation like rotation, movement (walk, jump, etc), or other basic state changes. These different animation-like versions are meant as adaptations of the original design. They will be included in the final version of your project.
Project 1 Layout
There is a template file that can be used for preparing your project for printing. Ideally you should copy/paste or move your character designs into the template to prepare a print presentation. During Class 11 we will collect work and talk about preparing the other images for submissions.
Project 1 Templates ZIP Download
Project 1 Final Work Session and Submission
Submit your work in the formats PDF and PNG.
- Your work file was an Illustrator Document (extension '.ai')
- File -> Save As
- Choose PDF
- Name file : 'lastname_project1_title'
- Choose PDF settings starting with 'High Quality Print'
- Uncheck 'Preserve Editing Capabilities'
- Then Save
- PDF will be generated from the Illustrator Document
- PDF will be a file you submit, and also the version that is to be printed
- You also need to create a 'Web Safe' version
- You should hide the layer with the grid before making websafe version
- Add layer for a white background
- File -> Export -> Export For Screens
- Choose PNG-24
- Name file : 'lastname_project1_title'
- Then Save
- This file should be named the same as the other, they will have different file extensions because you've used different file formats
After exporting both images, put them in the D2L dropbox. It is expected that you will turn in two images online in order to complete Project 1. All work will be collected prior to the beginning of Class 12.