Art Workshop(s) planning thread (postponed for a bit ^^; )

[Deji]

In the spirit of this: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =4&t=17741 I was thinking what kind of workshop/course could I put together in the art department to help people out over here... and I realized I need help sorting the topics out!
Also it'd be nice for other experienced (at least mildly) artists to jump on board and offer some workshops if they have the time, I think (:

So!

I started with this list http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 46&t=17296 I made last time (which honestly I wanted to turn into a course/strings-of-tutorials at some point) and started off with the Basics of Sprites and them moved to the intermediate.

The Courses/Workshops I came up with are the following:

Sprites 101:

• Introduction to sprites.
  • What are sprites and what are they used for?
  • Characteristic of sprites
  • Different kinds of sprites.
  • Examples and analysis of sprites from JVN and WVN.
• Sprite making basics: step-by-step.
  • Determining your game resolution.
  • Sketching your character.
  • Layers and their uses
  • Inking/lineart for Photoshop and Sai
  • Simple coloring
  • Giving your character simple expressions
  • Saving/Exporting and naming.

Drawing for VNs:

• Basic Human Anatomy for drawing.
  • Introduction.
  • The skeleton.
  • The muscles.
  • Creating a basic structure mannequin.
  • Gesture drawing.
  • Practicing from life and photographs.
• Body Language.
  • Not just standing there.
  • What does your body posture says about you.
  • Basic emotions.
  • Using the hands.
  • Facial expressions.
• *Tutorial & Workshop: Color Theory and its application on illustration.
• *Tutorial & Workshop: Rendering - Light and shadow.
• *Tutorial & Workshop: Coloring styles - cel-shading, soft shading and painterly.
• *Tutorial & Workshop: Hands.
• *Tutorial & Workshop: Feet.
• *Tutorial & Workshop: Learn through imitation (copying a sprite by somebody else and making your own on that same style).

Character Design:

• Basic Character Design.
  • Introduction.
  • Who is your character?
  • Body Types.
  • Expressing your character through their appearance.
  • Dressing your character up.
• *Tutorial: How to draw and color Hair.
• *Tutorial: How to draw and color Eyes.
• *Tutorial & Workshop: Clothes.

I think it's a bit overkill and could probably use some trimming down, but let me know what you think x'D;

For BGs it'd work pretty much the same way:

• Intro - Examples - Analysis
• Background, middleground & Foreground in BGs
• Organic & simple BGs
• Perspective
• Drawing from photographs.
• Light and times of the day variations
• Populating your BGs

And for CGs:

• Intro - Examples - Analysis
• Basic CGs: close-ups and characters just standing there without a background.
• Character interactions.
• Composition, camera planes/shot and camera angles.
• Visual storytelling.
• Using cut-in (panels comic-style) and chibi CGs.

[CosmicKitty]

oh I love this idea

[myapple]

ooh i'm totally on board with this idea! Workshops are great for picking up tips~

I can't really think of any new things to add to this list except maybe that it might be worthwhile to make a different workshop for freehand painting backgrounds versus using lineart?
Trimming down might be hard... everything on the list is useful @_@ Only thing I can think of there might be to combine colouring styles with drawing hair, eyes and clothing (since they kind of go hand in hand).

I'm willing to help if you want me to~ Not so sure about backgrounds, but for i'm up for anything else :3

[azureXtwilight]

This sounds awesome! This topic should be a sticky. I would like to help but I realized I'm really lacking on art department.

[fioricca]

SCREAMS

I need someone who can teach me graphic design more right now but I am totally stalking this thread *o*

The course outline looks really good and I can't wait for it to start!

[Geckos]

Fun stuff. Is this a "I call X!" type of deal? I am interested in helping out a bit with this.

[Deji]

@myapple & Geckos: If yu feel like helping out with one of the classes and/or tutorial/workshops, please say so!
I think this is way too much stuff for me to handle on my own, haha ^^; And the more people "teaching" out there, the best (:

<rambling>
I'm thinking about making a forum thread and probably a PDF with the "lesson" that can be discussed in the forum thread.
For demos/tutorials, I'd make a livestreaming session that would be available to (re)watch later, for people to see how I do things and learn from the example.
Then the assignments would be posted in the forum thread during a certain amount of time, and I'm thinking that I could help the "students" on a 1-to-1 basis, but then again, the number of "students" (aka people signing up for the workshop) should be limited for that, otherwise it'd be a lot of work to do and having only some free time available, it'd be a problem S: ...
I don't think the "materials" (pdf/tutorials/videos/links to useful sites and tutorials) should be only made available to people that signed up for the workshop, since this wouldn't be a paid thing and everybody looking to learn should be able to find access to this stuff.
</rambling>

[Anna]

<rambling>
I'm thinking about making a forum thread and probably a PDF with the "lesson" that can be discussed in the forum thread.
For demos/tutorials, I'd make a livestreaming session that would be available to (re)watch later, for people to see how I do things and learn from the example.
Then the assignments would be posted in the forum thread during a certain amount of time, and I'm thinking that I could help the "students" on a 1-to-1 basis, but then again, the number of "students" (aka people signing up for the workshop) should be limited for that, otherwise it'd be a lot of work to do and having only some free time available, it'd be a problem S: ...
I don't think the "materials" (pdf/tutorials/videos/links to useful sites and tutorials) should be only made available to people that signed up for the workshop, since this wouldn't be a paid thing and everybody looking to learn should be able to find access to this stuff.
</rambling>

Sounds good :)! I also agree with leaving the materials in the thread and just letting people sign up for 1-to-1 tips. I'd love to help by the way, but I have no idea if I can really teach ^^;...

[Deji]

Also, what would be a good time for you to attend a 1 hour live stream lesson/demo?

(I'm using this to plan: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/meeting- ... =11&Y=2012)
During weekdays, I could do it at 2-3PM (UTC/GMT) or at 9-10PM
During weekends, I could do it on Saturdays anywhere between 9PM and 1AM and Sundays at 9-10PM

I'm thinking I could do one session a week for whatever workshop/lesson is being addressed that week.
In any case, the video would be available to watch later, in case you can't watch it live for any reason.

[Lumella]

This is a pretty good idea. This way, this forum could help train amateur VN makers in making the most of the the lessons to their own use. Not only that, it could even increase the quality of their works c:

I'm not really sure about the time of the livestream. Maybe you can choose a time that accommodates the most people or a time that's flexible for you in order to fulfill your task? As long as you can keep up, I'm sure it'll be a great help c:

[Mangafee]

sounds really good This will help a ton of people (including me haha) I'm all for it

[fioricca]

I also like the idea of leaving resources up for anyone to re-visit whenever they can! You never know when a workshop participant could have technical nightmares and lose some files, etc...

Thank you so much in advance for planning and volunteering to pick this up, Deji!

[myapple]

@myapple & Geckos: If yu feel like helping out with one of the classes and/or tutorial/workshops, please say so! :D
I think this is way too much stuff for me to handle on my own, haha ^^; And the more people "teaching" out there, the best (:

I'm definitely up for it ^_^

I think as long as the livestream video that gets recorded is up and linked somewhere on the forums then it doesn't really matter what time it happens at? It's hard to try and watch something and draw at the same time anyway (though I guess it has the advantage of being good for asking on the spot questions...)

[100puro]

I'd definitely be willing to help somewhere if I can! I'm pretty new to VN's, at least making them so I'm not exactly sure what I can do there but I have taught just basic drawing before and had a channel running up on youtube for awhile that got some attention some time ago...

Anyways, if you need some extra help with this exciting project I'd be happy to join!

[Deji]

@myapple & 100puro:
Thanks guys! <3
I'll PM you later on for organization shenanigans then (: