great mood, I can sort of feel what you’re trying to get. 
some sort of a mysterious, mythical environment, no?
I couldn’t bear with it anymore, check your inbox.
Yes, you’re quite right. I am glad I could somehow convey my intentions with this first color test.
More progress with the color tests.
I spent some time investigating useful techniques with the GIMP brush settings to get the colors the way I want them to be.
I have done one environment in more detail now but still have to decide about the complementing color from the abyss.
Any feedback is highly appreciated.
Right now I have two versions, see the attached images. As mentioned before I will have to use a specific storyboard shots to test the colors, especially including the dragon the get a good result.
current status:
15:35 Concept Art
1:16 Research
1:16 2d-art
4:30 Script
22:41 Storyboard
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42:46 Total
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i think you need to inject some aerial perspective into your coloured painting to add more depth to your painting and perharps more contrast between the light and shadows will add more punch to it.
These are valid points. To make this a good painting one had to do much more work. My problem right now is to find the right balance between too much detailing on the color sketches and not doing enough.
From my viewpoint in terms of colors I am starting to get happy and getting a round picture of the whole undertaking. In terms of how the rock walls look I am not convinced, as I imagine them differently textured. The texture is more like in the drawings, so I should have already covered this aspect.
But I just feel not quite there yet. But I am getting there … eventually 
After some more color tests, this time adding the dragon, I feel that this is going the wrong direction in terms of priorities.
I will leave the color/mood design for the time being as it is now and revisit it once the texturing and lighting phase starts.
I feel its now more important to work on the actual design of Ara and the dragon, and parallel to this I will start with some 3d animatics to get the shots/camera moves done.
So here are two images with the dragon added.
Current status
18:35 Concept Art
1:16 Research
1:16 2d-art
4:30 Script
21:25 Storyboard
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45:46 Total
Attachments
hi loramel, just wanted to Photoshop one of my favorite shots that you did. Just some lighting values, hope you don’t mind. I’ve never been very good at colors or backgrounds, so I just wanted to give a little ‘spin’ on it because it really inspired me to give my two cents. There’s something about black and white that I can’t quite put into words.
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@gally: Oh I sure don’t mind, quite on the contrary. Its a very interesting and satisfying way to communicate.
And as your drawing skills - especially your beautiful pencil drawings - are far beyond my current level I feel quite flattered.
You could be a superb concept artist. If you don’t mind me asking, what is your background in arts ?
@loramel: Thanks again for your encouragement. When you say ‘background in arts’, if you mean schooling then I have to say none. But a few years back I worked for Image comics coloring the line art, that didn’t even last a year but I did pick up the Photoshop experience which is why I had an itch to color guide (in black and white) your image. I did want to mention that I thought your storyboards are really strong. Some people just seem to have that directors eye.
@gally: seems like you are a natural then :). And good to know you like the storyboard ( at least what I chose to show ).
A small update.
I started playing around with my idea of the dragon - proportions, style, but not yet so much the details.
I do not want to have a stocky 4 legged european type of dragon. I aim for a more elegant sinuous, streamlined form, borrowing some aspects from snakes or even swans. I also want the dragon to have 2 legs and 2 wings, bringing it more in line with the typical morphology for vertebrates on our earth. Also the hind legs shouldn’t be too dominating.
I show here an unedited sketch of this work in progress.
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I like the fact you’re going for a chinese dragon.
anyway, I got this feeling you’re gonna make use of A LOT of particles :p.
I’ll look up some good tutorials on that.
in post #26 in the first image the left wing of the dragon should be way more dark. since it’s hiding the only real light source. (unless he has real thin wings ofcourse) how much time are you actually planning to spend on these paintings? I won’t put to much work in that 
you can do color/mood tests without even shaping your image. just roughly positioning the overall colors of the objects should be as good.
oh, yes, there will be some heavy use of particles. I already know how to do the dragon particles. But to do all the mist/smoke effects I will have to do some serious research later on. If I am lucky by the time I get to the fx work blender 2.5 is ready with its smoke integration
In fact I wanted the wings to be translucent.
I have now canceled the color/mood tests and will concentrate on the character design and in parallel the 3d animatics.
To be more specific I plan to do the dragon and then start the animatics and after that I will try to tackle Ara.
More detailed update on the dragon design. I might make the neck a little bit longer.
current status:
23:05 Concept Art
18:35 Color Tests
4:30 Dragon Design
1:16 Research
1:16 2d-art
4:30 Script
21:25 Storyboard
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50:16 Total
Attachments
I love the style you’re going for. I think the dragon body should be a little bit longer, the proportions look kind of wierd with the body and head. Hope this gets finished, can’t wait to see it.
@mcguinnessdr: yes, as I said alreaady I think I will make the body a bit longer.
I hope it gets finished too :). I also hope you have enough patience …
next update.
I concentrated on the dragon’s head and I am getting there. Right now I have 2 versions over which I have to sleep a night and have an more unbiased look at to decide which one is better.
Maybe you can comment on the two versions to get additional input.
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I really like that idea. As far as your dragon sketches, I like the first one with the two horns. What do you think about a ‘reversed curve’ for the horns. I’ll try to attach a sketch. Also, I thought the teeth showing on the outside of the mouth was kinda’ cool too. It’s on one of your storyboard pics. Stay motivated.
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Thanks a lot Gally !
I already had the idea with the reversed curve, but it just didn’t really work for me.
Your dragon sketch is again so elegant, and if I may say so seems more ‘female’ than mine. I am again taken aback at how easy you seem to take on ideas and bring them to paper. If I ever do a short again, I would love to have your help for the concept phase.
I did incorporate the teeth though …
update:
I spent the most of my available time today to do a correct correlating top view from the ‘final’ side view to have a good reference, once the modelling starts. And now as soon as I had to draw ‘exact’ it took me quite a while to get it right.
This time with some crude shading.
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Your dedication, and cool concepts are an inspiration I actually started a blog recently to document the creation of my own short as well. I should probably be doing more concepting than i am… Anyways… Looking forward to your updates! Best of luck
Wow. What a difference your shading makes. That looks really good. I’m glad you added the teeth, they make him look much more fear inspiring. And yeah, I can’t seem to escape the ‘female’ look to all my stuff. Thanks for posting more.
@Fuzatron: I wish you the best of luck (and endurance) for your short. Care to tell us your blog address ?
@Gally: Thanks Gally, nowhere as elegant as your shading, but its showing better what I mean.
I had not much time the last days as I am preparing for my vacation, which will stall this project as well at least for the next couple of weeks.
I did manage to start the 3d animatics though and want to show you the current results.
I am using Roland Hess’ ( harkyman) book ‘Animating with blender’ as guide line but recognized, that I had to make adjustments for my project.
I also wanted to have actual movement in my animatics, as I wanted to test if the camera movements and angles I imagined really work.
One thing I got quite horribly wrong was the length for my short. From my storyboard based storyreel ( and playing it through) I ended up with 1:30 min. As there is no dialogue it was hard to exactly do a matching with a audio track, even more so as the music will be an integral and important part of the stoty itself and therefore no score is yet finished.
RIght now it seems that the actual length will be more like 4 min.
I also begin to grasp the huge amount of animation work which will be necessary, but i think it will be fun.
I uploaded a animatic preview for the first 1:30 min to vimeo, so you can have a first glimpse at what to expect.
Also see attached a small comparison of storyboard drawings and the corresponding animatic frames.
I guess there will be no more updates for the next 2,5 weeks. I plan to do Ara concept drawings during my vacation - with real paper and pencil :eek:.
So stay tuned.
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There will hopefully be more to see soon, but you can check it out at http://rivetfish.blogspot.com. Thanks for asking
Some very nice cinematic shots in there And really closely follows your storyboard… I will be looking forward to your update! Enjoy your vacation, and have fun with the Ara concepts.