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Photoshop has various different tools and windows you can use. For digital painting, you’ll need only a small part of the tools available. In the next video, we’ll go through the essential tools you need to work with and the basic windows you should keep open.
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Warm-up in drawing and painting is similar to (other) physical activities like sports. By doing some warm-up exercises or doodling, you can prepare your eye-hand coordination for digital painting. When working with a graphics tablet, the warm-up session is even more important since the hand draws on the tablet, but the image appears on the screen. If you paint on a daily basis, you may not need warm-up exercises as much, but you’ll probably notice they are useful even if you only have a few days break from painting or drawing.
Ultimately, it’s a matter of personal preference whether you choose to do warm-up exercises or not.
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I painted this building entirely in Procreate App for iPad on top of an isometric grid (the building is in isometric perspective). The workflow was:
1. Drawing the outline
2. Painting the base colors
3. Painting the shadows
4. Painting the highlights
5. Adding details
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I continued working in Photoshop. I imported the sketch into Photoshop and started working over it. Ideally the workflow should be:
1. Blocking out the tower shape with pen tool
2. Painting the base colors
3. Painting the shadows
4. Painting the highlights
5. Painting the details
6. Double checking and adjusting the colors
As you can see in the video, the reality is not always so simple and straight forward. There is a lot going forth and back. The work has to be observed as a whole entity, because every brush stroke you add, affects to all other parts of the art work.
Basically you should start from large areas of color, and begin to work big scale impression. And only when the big picture starts to feel right, move to details. There is a point, when you might feel the work will not be good, but just keep painting and it starts to make sense!
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Watch this quick tutorial on how to paint rocks! The workflow is the same as before:
1. sketching
2. painting the base colors
3. painting shadows
4. painting highlights
5. painting the details
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This is a quick painting tutorial of a bush. This art consists of foliage only. I use four shades of green throughout the work. This helps keep the work consistent and clear.
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Watch the video to see how shades, tints, and tones are related to each other on Photoshop's color wheel.
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In the video below, you can see me sketching the Funny Waiter in the Procreate app on iPad. I start with the outline, using a pencil and eraser. Once I have finalized the form, I choose the right colors, and finally add a final touch with the soft airbrush.
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I continue my work in Photoshop. I import the sketch into Photoshop before starting the final character.
1. Blocking out the body parts
The first phase is to block out each body part with the pen tool. This way, I will get all the parts I want to animate on separate and editable layers. This character's form is very geometric, and a vector-based pen tool works well for the purpose.
If a body part has more than one layers (like the head and body), I insert the layers in a folder to keep things organized.
The sketch has nice colors, so I simply select them with the eyedropper tool. To adjust a shade, I use the color wheel.
2. Final touch
Most of the character's coloring is flat. There are no shadows or highlights. To make the waiter's skin tone richer, I use a large round brush tool with 0% hardness and 10% opacity. I also put some red on the waiter's cheek and hands.
3. Exporting the art
The final art has to be exported to png files so that it can be used in an animation. All the body parts have to be in separate png files which will be put together in an animation software or a game engine.
Method 1:
In Photoshop, choose File > Export > Layers to Files
Photoshop will create a separate png file for each layer. In the dialogue box, remember to tick the transparent box!
Method 2:
Some game engines, like Unity, read Photoshop's .psb file format and import the layers and their position directly to the game scene.
In Photoshop, choose File > Save As > Large Document Format
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Steps:
1. Line skeleton
I sketch the mouse's pose with a couple of quick lines that represent the most important bones.
2. Body masses
I sketch the body masses according to the 'stick skeleton', using round basic shapes (remember the design principles!).
3. Outline
I use a hard brown brush for the outline to create an impression of a drawn cartoon.
4. Base color
The outline forms a closed shape, there are no open gaps between the lines.
A) I select the area outside of the mouse with the Magic Wand tool and invert the selection: Select > Inverse. Now, I have the mouse selected.
B) I create a new layer for the base color.
C) I fill the selected area with the Paint Bucket tool (pink for skin).
5. Painting the body
I continue the painting using Layer clipping masks. This feature allows me to paint over an existing layer, using the 'parent layer' as a mask so that the stroke does not go over the boundaries of the original layer.
A) Select the base color layer and then select: Layer > New Layer > in the dialog box, tick the box 'Use Previous Layer to create Clipping Mask'.
B) Paint on the new layer. The brush strokes aren't visible outside of the boundaries of the original (previous) layer.
6. Painting highlights and shadows
I create a new Clipping Mask Layer for highlights and shadows. I paint highlights for the mouse's belly and cheeks and slight shadows on its ears and nose.
7. Painting the eyes
Finally, I paint the eyes on a separate Clipping Mask Layer.
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I made the sketch in Procrate App for iPad. This time I wanted to make quite detailed sketch which I can make use of when making the final piece of art.
1. I start with sketching the pose with a couple of quick lines and make 'a stick skeleton'.
2. Then I build the body masses around the stick figure. At this stage the character already starts to get its final form.
3. Next I complete the outline with clothes and other accessories.
4. When the form is completed, I check once more if the silhouette works.
5. Once the silhouette is confirmed, I start coloring the character. I keep observing the whole entity, and if needed (and I did!), try different colors and combinations. I am also not happy with the head pose so I change it a little bit.
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The first steps of the workflow are similar to Funny Waiter character. Once I have blocked out the main shapes into separate layers, I continue painting into the sub layers.
<h3>1. Block out the shapes with Pen tool</h3>
I carefully go through the sketch's outline with Pen tool and block out each shape into separate vector layers. At this phase I fill the vector shapes with appropriate base colors.
<h3>2. Name layers – Keep organized</h3>
This piece of art has a huge number of layers. I need to name them according to their subject (head, hair, collar...) rather than leave them as default names (Layer1, Layer2...). This saves a lot of my time when jumping from one layer to another.
<h3>3. Use Layer Clipping Masks</h3>
Once all the separate shapes are isolated to vector shapes, I use them as Layer Clipping Masks. I can freely paint on the layers beneath the clipping masks without worrying painting over the boundaries of outline.
<h3>4. Block out shadows with Selection tool and Paint Bucket tool</h3>
I use the Lasso tool to quickly select shadow areas and fill them with Paint Bucket tool.
<h3>5. Paint with Brush tool, soften edges with Smudge tool</h3>
When I go more detailed painting I use the Brush tool. I use the Smudge tool to blend colors to acquire soft 3D rendered-like impression.
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I made the line sketch using Procreate App for iPad. I draw the image over an isometric grid (the art is in isometric perspective) using pencil and eraser tools in Procreate.
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Welcome to Narrative in Games! In this course we take a dive into storytelling and how we can use games as a medium for our stories. Combining theoretical with the practical, this course aims to create a basis from which you can build your skills in storytelling and narrative design.
The focus of this course is around one big assignment, with a few tasks sprinkled in for exercise and fun. No one is expected to be an affluent writer to participate. The focus is on developing ideas into stories, and incorporating them into game concepts.
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In games plot isn’t necessarily always a huge part of storytelling. Sometimes the narrative design in games will focus on all other aspects more, depending on the format of the game. But when a plot is involved, it is often the core that ties our story together. Therefore it’s important to learn about plots and how to craft them.
A plot is how we arrange the events of our story. How we pace and structure a plot has a huge impact on how engaging our story becomes. To make a plot engaging, we need to build up interest and tension, resolve that tension and somehow bring everything to a rewarding ending.
In games we want to make sure that the plot introduces interesting playable content and rewards the player. While a rewarding ending is very important, those feelings of reward need to come throughout the game. They don’t need to be moments of happiness and sunshine, but they need to include the feeling of achievement and progress. A rewarding moment can also be a surprising plot twist, or something else that makes the story enjoyable and interesting to follow.
But let’s forget for a moment that we are working on games, and focus on a linear plot structure. This way we can learn about plot arcs and character journeys, and take what we learn into our nonlinear storytelling.
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It’s pretty difficult to create a story without having a character to steer you through it. A character can be anything from an avatar that symbolizes our actions and progress in a game, to a fully fleshed out concept with backstory, characteristics, motivations, conflicts and an arc to fulfill in the story. Sometimes we see the character on screen, sometimes we are the character on screen.
An avatar, something we see a lot in mobile games, isn’t necessarily anything but a visual representation of a player's own presence and progress in the game. But even an avatar requires visual storytelling through character design, which in turn is something we consider narrative design. It’s part of the world and story you’re telling.
A character is what brings all the elements of design together in a game: story, world, gameplay, levels, everything. A character needs to make sense for all of these.
Let’s take a look at the insides of a good character. Metaphorically.
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Great Job!
If you are here, this means you’ve completed the Final Assignment and it its either accepted or pending grading.
To complete this course as a whole, there is still one final task to be done. In this Step 6, I will walk you trough the process of reflecting on your work. A Post Mortem of sorts often composed after a big project is complete.
I want for you to give feedback on this introduction course to Board Game Basics that honestly was a bit of a generalist introduction to the design process of games as a whole.
But most importantly I would like to hear how you feel You did. Timetables, circumstances and things happen and change in our daily life and learning amidst these changes can be hard but also rewarding.
This is a remotely completed course that in itself creates new challenges on top of everything else. So give yourself a pat on the back and sit down with me to reflect and summarize. At times this might feel redundant- but trust me. A proper debrief can work wonders.
----------------
Debrief questions
Next you will see a set of six questions.
Give yourself ample time to think about them and your answer. This is not a test and there are no right or wrong answers to any of the questions. But do write them down as they will be submitted at the end.
The point is to reflect and analyze in peace. If you are not familiar with this habit, you may find it hard to come up with anything to say.
That in itself is a good indication this will be useful to you, for the skill you are practicing just now is self awareness and the ability to analyze. Both are crucial skills as you move forward into Game Development.
Often in Game Development when a project is “done” , usually some time after publication, the Dev Team will gather to analyze how the project was accomplished and if the goals set were met. This will be documented for future use in another project.
This practice allows the developer to learn from their mistakes and successes.
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The Game Design Concept Document