Hello! Welcome to ‘Creating Stylized Environments’ chapter of drawing camp, ‘The worlds our characters lives in and interacts with is ‘one of most important aspects of storytelling. The ‘environment speaks a lot about the story and the situations the characters are in. And in some cases, they are even defined by the qualities of a character. ‘Take for example, the pride rock in ion king, the farm superman grows up in, the lab from dexters laboratory or the lush world of pandora from Avatar. ‘These environments and “Backgrounds” adds character, to the character. They tell us the kind of stories we are about to experience and the worlds that we going to inhabit through these characters. ‘And In this chapter, we are going to learn how to design these Stylized Enviconments and worlds for comics and animation. Many courses focuses on showing you how to draw these environments but neglects how to come up. with one from scratch and DESIGN them.What if | told you that you already know how to Draw environments. You already possess the necessary knowledge todo so. If you know the fundamentals of drawing, like shapes, forms and perspective, you know how to draw them. But the problem isn’t that is it? You don’t know HOW to draw them. Le, when someone says that they don’t know how to draw environments, what they are really saying is, “I don’t know how to DESIGN them.” Like I've mentioned before in previous chapters, Design is making DECISIONS. Make good decisions, you have good designs. ‘And how do you make good decisions? Have good principles. ‘And that’s what we are going to cover in the first part ofthis, chapter,So we are focusing on - learning various ways to come up with your own, ‘environment ideas from scratch, = design them using solid design principle, - practices to learn and study real life environments and - the systematic process one can use to always come Lp with lush, beautiful looking worlds all the time. ‘And for our final project, we'll be making our ‘environment illustration from start to finish to solidify all the knowledge that we have learned on this Sketeh FinalEnvironment Design Principles1.Nature How do you know What to draw? For your Environment. ? P Design Breifs are written words that specify the the kind of ‘enviconment you want. Example “A Forest with Gaint trees and Flora, that holds an ancient structure. The structure seems to contain something valuable but it’s accessibility restricts people form reaching it or even knowing about it, ‘This is @ small brief that contains the information that we need to include in our design. You specify what you want so you have something to work with, The act of simply saying out loud what is that you are aiming to draw/design is the first solution that comes to my mind when I hear people say " I don’t know what to draw” ‘A Design Breifs something that you can create for your self or have your client give it for you. WHY DO WE NEED THIS? ‘And what does this have to de with this principle? DESIGN BREF gives US the “What is its Nature?” Isa common question that you might have come across. Forests are unpredictable, dangerous and chaotic. Cities are orderly, organised and less dangerous, Carnivores are aggressive and herbivores are passive John is calm and David is loud, table lamps are illuminating and stl Nature gives the inherent trait of a person, place or a thing,THE NATURE THEN GIVES US THE FUNCTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT . "Function inthis context means, what does the envionment DO. And if we know what the environment does, we can idiate how does it LOOK like. orta lke our ‘Principle of Story’ in character design, where we try to derive the ‘Purpose’ of the character, in ‘order to determine the looks. Environments don't have a ‘purpose’ per se, because they are not sentient beings. So we are searching for its nature. For example, le’s take the design brief specified in the previous page and see how this principle applies. Here's the info that we have on Nature of our environment based on our brief. + Forest (chaotic) + Gaint Trees (Large in size, massive) = Remote, unaceseable + Invisible, unknown. - Hard to get to These are some natural traits | got from our brief, now | can decide how our environment looks Function and Nature together informs the looks of the: ‘environment, which in turn helps our design process. Note that these variables - Nature, Function and Looks are individual and you don’t have to have all of it figured out to design your Environment. ‘The more info we have about the thing that we are designing, the more it will be easier for us.Using the Design brief that we have, here is how we build the ‘look’ of the environment ‘+ An Island which is remote and inaccessible ‘+ Hidden, unknown and hard to get to * Aforest with lush, green, giant trees ‘gHow!How do you show ‘Scale’ in your Environment? Differentiating and showing the size of various objects in an environment can be achieved by adding in a ‘Point of Reference’ like inthe example below, “Pom oF Rerenect! ‘hp, which na norma situations mach larger than a huran being, look ty when potrest to thie gant ree Using another abject 2 ‘pint of reference” isa good way to estabich the sale of things n So this is how the design process for creating an environment works, You have a basic design brief, You get the nature of the environment from it and The inherent traits which will help you design the look of it However, before you start creating your own stylized environments, you will have to learn to draw from real life environments, Doing thumbnail studies will help you understand the perspective and the look of different environments which in ‘urn will help you to design your own environments.2.POV Hf there's one key principle in Environment Design that. plays a majority role in your end outcome, i's this Point Of View. Decide your Point of view and the ‘perspective’ it has, you have solved 50% of your problem, Think about it, one of the variables that makes up for {8 good environment is it's perspective, aka it's POV. All the things that comes on top of that are just add cons, lke the cream that goes on top of the cake. Get the cake right, add the eream later on. Take for example, this environment - Ifyou dissect this environment and bring it down to its essentials, which gives us most of the results, It boils down tots perspective, template, and the point of view. (The Base Template){Bose template with things that add story tot), ‘The base template that you design gives you a structure to, work on and decide the visual aesthetics of the environment. But the things that you add on top of it, gives you the story, the final look and emotion that you are trying to convey. Perspective Templates ‘You need to master Perspective Basics if you wanna draw {900d looking, stylised environments, That's a given, Refer back to parepective lesen in CH 3 you ar feng 2B off ‘Acommon problem | often see people suffering from ‘when it comes to environments is ‘what angle/perspective’ should one go with This often stems from a lack of not having enough content in their mental library to draw from. ‘And a simple way to solve that is by studying interesting perspectives. Study different ‘Perspectives’, so that {you'll have a range of basic templates to draw from for your designs.(One simple exercise that | often do is, Whenever | observe an environment, | temove all the details from it, and wonder, "What is the basic perspective here that makes this, environment look interesting?" ‘And onee | figure that out, the next question would be, "What are the elements that are on top of the base that ‘adds story to this?” ‘And your brain being the pressue cooker itis, adds these up ‘and comes up with new ideas. Studying basic perspective templates will help you add new things to your mental/visual library. Use these reference images to do the base perspective exercises Exercise: Here are 2 variations of how you can change this tran using the base template dessert3.Simplicity/Exaggeration Alrighty! We covered 2 key principles 1. Nature - Determining the Core Traits of the Environment ( which decides the look) 2, POV Deciding the 'BASE" for our Environment design. It's Perspective Now, we are on to Stylzation. Style is nothing but a myriad of individual, unique design decisions put together, 2 Artists could draw the same environment completely differently because of the decisions they've made. becasue that is their STYLE” With that said, | see style as a ‘Spectrum’, with ‘Complete abstract renditions on one end and realistic depictions on the other, Iustration by Yog Jesh on Ar StationABSTRACT REAUSM The Style that we are trying to focus on leans slightly to the left of the spectrum, which is cartoany and animated looking. ‘You can take this spectrum with a grain of salt, since the way you look at this depends from person to person. ‘An example for this can be seen in Disney or Pixar films where ‘the environment is slightly closer to realism than its to abstraction Likewise, f you take another example from the cartoon series ‘Adventure time, or Inside job, these shows lean more towards abstraction‘There is a reason we are discussing this spectrum. ‘Stylisation, inthe context of Comics and Animations has certain key principles within it that helps us to design the kind of environments we want. Here's the First one. "PRINCIPLE OF SIMPLICITY’ If there's one principle that | see as a constant in good character and environment designs, its this. ‘The act of using less things in the most efficient way to convey the ideas we want visually. 20% of the things we draw convey 80% of the visual information we want to communicate. And sticking with just that, without cluttering up our piece with way too much detail is a beauty in and off itself. So, Keep it Simple, Here's how it applies to Environments Lets take the Environment Reference we took yesterday and the thumbnail we drew from it, where: we introduced new elements like a castle and an wehbeBefore you start, you'll have to lay down the base perspective template. Now, there are 2 important pieces in this environment that | want to get communicated. Which are, 1. There is a castle or a town and. 2. i's going to be invaded. Showing that alone would convey most of the information that we want. ‘This's simplicity of information, where, we are condensing the amount of information and keeping things to its essentials. We can also simplify an environment in terms of shapes, Like in the image below, What are the key features of thishouse? =iton higher ground itt made out of wood thas alt of windows ‘andi you spit by aking futthe extra windows and ‘Smpliving fs basement, ew lok something ike this Going even further, you tke out the perepectina ad sk othe basic shapes, i resemble simple doodle that you ‘ten s60 ona chicrew's BookYou take out the perspective, and play with the shapes and forms while adding a few elements of your own (like the food items on top of the buildings) (Here's an example of turning an environment that’ realistic into a full Blown abstracted drawing)Exercise: Using the Principle of Simplicity different ways by using the principle of simplicity and the ints exercise wel be pacing ering thishous in principle of exaggeration, distortion and modification. l N\ Blu Version 1 Version 2 Using the Principle of Exaggeration, Distortion, and ModificationBonus: Here is @ bonus drawing practice of the ho: Principle of Exaggeration, Distortion and M4. Shapes/Shape Language We've discussed about the Principle of Shapes and Shape ‘The basic shapes, which are the cicle, square and the Language inthe ‘Character Design Principles’ Chapter of triangle, has end gives outa unique sense of emotion Drawing Camp ‘And these key shapes can be used as a la ‘Which says that, you have to base your design on a communicate cert key foundational shape. juage to temotions in your drawings. ‘An example would be, And when you do that, each shape emotes a certain sense of variable that people resonate with. OHA AND OTHER SHAPES .Acdesign such as this, with the major shape language being the circle, gives off something that is very ‘calming, cuddly and cozy. That is why, the most friendly and approachable characters have a very rounded design ‘At the same time, you have to keep in mind that these things are not set in stone, and are just the ic traits of the specific shapes.Here's an exemple of an environment with the shape language of a square or a box which gives out the sense of stability and groundedness. Every aspect of thisillustration has a sense of a boxiness to it, right from the mountains, the rocks, and even to the clouds which has jagged square lke edges,Just lke the example from the ‘square" landscape in the previous page, every aspect of this illustration is ‘made with the sharpness of a triangle in mind. The mountains, the ground, and yes, even the clouds, You need to keep in mind that not every illustration that you make should be ofa very specific shape language (lke the cree, square, or a triangle) Rather, these are just spectrums that you play with, where you use this knowledge to meet your particular needs, Which could be a combination of different shape languages.‘And that was the case for me while | was designing this piece. Although this is not a dedicated environment illustration, this is a good example where | mixed a lot of contrasting elements. The environment behind the character is more triangular based, but I've made it rounder by softening the edges. Which makes it approachable and friendly, but at the same time contrasts it withthe other elements in the illustration, ‘Such as the major rounder shapes, which in this case, is from the main character. ‘Showing variation not justin size, but rather in the shape language, helps your illustration stand out. And using a combination of these languages with your own twist to them brings out the emotion that you want to communicate to others effectively, Colbe OF DAFFERNT ‘SHARES 4 coneExercise: In this exercise, we'll be drawing one environment in diferent shape languages. Which are the Cirle, Square and the Tangle. — {You can practice this exercise using a lot of real life environments too) ANA | Shape Language: Circle Shape Language: Square5. COMPOSITION Imagine yourself to be ‘Composer’ of an orchestra You have the entire band in front of you ready to play with The flutes, trumpets, violins and the Sax! Each member who play cone instrument ready to listen to your instructions. Now it's your job to create a masterpiece. The same goes with Composition in enironments You have diferent laments olay with such t «the penpectve “placements of subjects & objets “lou argh How you ‘compose’ them is the art of 'Compesition’ Just like music, there a few guiding principles that will help you create good composition But going beyond these guidelines and getting creative with them is all up to you. Here's my simplified approach towards composition. | mostly think of composition as a ‘balancing act’ of diferent subjects/objects within the piece. You can voluntarily create ‘balance’ or ‘imbalance’ within the piece to evoke certain emotions | mostly see this balancing actin two different categories,EQUALS INEQUAL (symmetRy) CAsyMmetRY) Here are some more examples- Equal - Diving the Frame in EVEN numbers that create Symmetry. Unequal - Diving the Frame in ODD numbers that creates ‘asymmetry. ‘The second one of often used in good designs and is @ common But there are rare occasions where the first one can be put to good ‘These are just tools in your tool box as to how you can divide the space in your fram and place subjects/objects accordingly ‘And know that each would give a different Emotion to the piRule of Thirds ‘Rule of Thirds! is a simple concept used in Framing that can make up good designs. Just divide your frame in 3 (odd number) parts horizontally and vertically ‘And use the intersections to place your subjects of importance. Note that, it doesn’t have to be EXACTLY at that intersection point, rather a somewhere near it or around it. Use it as a ‘guideline.Exampleshich I've made by dividing the nd 4 pars,Exercise:Flow of Attention The ‘Flow of Attention’ in an environment (or any illustration for that matter is something that | always. keep in mind. How does your ‘Attention’ flow through the piece. You play with this attention by placing a ‘hook’ in The piece which captures the viewers. ‘And then you literally hold the hand of the viewer’ and guide them through the piece. You need to control where their ‘eye’ goes.wen SECOND‘And then there's the secret ‘Attention Shapes! | sometimes place in my environment which | feel Brings more coherence to the piece. | often use these shapes as an ‘invisible guide’ for my design process.Another composition trick is to vary the values in your Environment to drive attention to the places you want. ‘And this also creates a sense of contrast and depth in your pieces DARK LUGQHT DARK You can use the variation in values as a separation tool for your areas of focus.The Final Project: 1. Sketch 3. Flats 4. ShadowsThe Final IllustrationBRAW/a5. CAMP