Cerys Ford Computer animation arts

 For the dragons, I had a clear image for my starting point. I wanted them to be a mix of Bat, Reptile and Bird. Here I've done some early concepts based off of that. Similar with the sentient species, these guys have a long way to go, but it's definetly a good starting point. I think I need to do a bit more research into Birds and Bats, specifically how their wings work with the rest of their anatomy. 

 Here are the early concepts for the sentient species. There's still a long way to go with them, but I think I'm getting on the right track. I think it might be worth doing some studies of reptiles to also get a better understanding of their anatomy, specifically their heads.

 For the sentient species, it seemed to make sense to make them an Arboreal species of reptile, and as such I've done a lot of research into different species of reptile. I liked the idea of them having a prehensile tail, so I started by researching into reptile species that have one. I also want this species to be cute rather than scary, so I tried to look at cute species of reptile for ispiration. I also thought it would be interesting to include morphs into the species, which are genetic differences that result in the reptile looking different from normal. I may also incorporate some elements of these reptiles into the dragon species.

 Similar to the environment, I have a pretty clear image in my head of what I wanted the architecture of my village to be like. I want the majority of buildings to be carved into the cliff faces, with some buildings being built on the water. So, a majority of my inspiration is coming from The city of Petra in Jordan, caves in Turkey - particularly the Dalaman Caves, and Machu Picchu. For Machu Picchu, I liked the clearly defined tiers in the landscape, which I want to incorporate. You'll notice that all of these places are monocromatic, so I'm thinking that some of my buildings will be painted in some way. I'm also thinking that the details of the buildings in my village will be influenced by aspects of the sentient species and the dragon species- feathers, swirls, scale like carvings, etc.  

 I had a very specific type of terrain/environment in mind for my project, as a majority of elements only work in an extreme, vertical environment. I want the buildings of my village to be built into the cliffs in big valleys and basins, with large jungles stretching beyond those. Luckily, there are environments in real life, with the one I've taken the most inspiration from being the Piltvice lakes in Croatia.  As you can see, Plitvice matches what I have in mind really well. Croatia also has a similar climate to what I intend to base my project in, which makes it an even better source of inspiration. Another place I've gotten a lot of inspiration from is Calanques park in france. The main element I'm looking at here is the cliffs, although I do quite like the secluded cove that leads out to sea. It could be interesting to have a fishing village in a similar sort of terrain in my project.

Sentient species  After discussing my project with Justin on Friday, I decided that the Sentient species should also be reptilians, as this not only makes more sense with the environment they live in, being able to cling to the cliff walls and possibly having vestigial wings, but also will allow me to go out of my comfort zone when it comes to designing them and their culture. By having the species be Reptiles, I can play around with certain features like tails, body types, markings etc. which I wouldn't be able to do if the sentient species were just standard humans. I will need to put more work into the culture and society though, as these things would work differently with reptiles as they do with humans. I'm thinking that they'll be semi-aquatic, relying heavily on the fish in the rivers and lakes for survival. I'll need to think about the distinguishing features between genders, as there aren't as many differences between Males and Females in reptiles as there

 I've been finding myself struggling with digital painting lately, finding that my style is underdeveloped and, for a lack of a better word, safe. After talking about this with Simon, I decided to look up some digital artists who's style I like, and look at what aspects of their style I'm drawn to in order to try and incorporate those elements into my own work. I decided to put this here to document my development. Artist 1: Lok du Link: https://www.artstation.com/lokdu Elements I like: Use of colour, how they create texture, how they tie different elements of their paintings together, especially in their building designs Artist 2: Anthony Avon Link: https://www.artstation.com/anthonyavon what I like: The way they create atmosphere in their environment pieces, the way they create texture, how they create detail   Artist 3: Katerina Kirkach Link: https://www.artstation.com/kirkat What I like: The way they paint light, the way they capture detail in each piece, their brush ma

 After talking with both Simon and Justin about my Dragon idea, I realised that trying to incorporate high levels of intelligence and sentience in a dragon-like creature who lives alongside humans would be very difficult, and would take me away from the core of what I want to achieve with my project, which is character/creature and environment design. As such, I have decided to scrap the sentient element, and instead focus on a 'dragon village', where a sentient, humanoid species (I haven't decided if the sentient species is going to be human or not yet) and a dragon-like creature (Will be a mix of Reptile, Bird and flying Mammal Features) that have evolved alongside each other, forming a symbiotic relationship to survive. This is the first piece of concept art I drew for this idea:  My thoughts about this are that these two species live in a very extreme environment, with vast jungles stretching over cliffs carved out by rushing rivers. The main place that has inspired thi

 As I was struggling to decide between 'The fae' project and the dragon project, I decided to work a little bit more into the Fae to hopefully help me decide on which project I wanted to do more. Before I even started drawing, I found myself procrastinating when getting around to drawing. Eventually, I created these loose concept drawings from the ideas I had in my head: I'm really happy with how these turned out, and I feel like I captured my ideas sourrounding this project in my head, but after I had completed these drawings, I found that I just didn't want to continue with the project further. Because of this, I decided to go with the other project, which was involving the dragons. It will be slightly modified to make it more unique and more manageable.

 When I first got the premise brief, the first thing I did was come up with some project ideas that interested me. Two of those ideas I've already written about, but these are two that I came up with, but quickly scrapped, but I thiught it would be wise to document them here anyway.  Idea 3: "Witches" This idea could  revolve around: -a familiar tamer/ witch, who would visit other witches (such as elemental witches, a necromancer, a potion maker, a Lunar witch, etc.) giving them their familiars. This could lead to comedy where she gives the wrong familiar to a witch.  -a young witch who is visiting the other witches, trying to find her style of magic. This theme would focus around character design, environment design and creature design, as each witch would have to be unique and have both a matching environment and familiar. While I like the idea of this project, it's simply too large for me to produce all of it to a good standard in the time scale I have. Idea 4: Myt