3.2 - Designing With Focal Points and Iterative Processes

 Following on from the previous post, we're going to be advancing with our discussion of the design process by continuing where we left off on our mesoamerican-inspired project. As a reminder, we are designing a boss creature and accompanying key item, in this case a dagger that is used to awaken the creature from its slumber. Last time, we covered the idea of using iterative sketching to establish a more targeted direction following a brief. In terms of practical demonstration, this meant exploring different body types for the creature and taking a first look at potential design features. Today we're going to be continuing with the theme of iteration, but we'll instead be taking a look at the next step in the process - using sketching to iterate and improve on an initial idea. We're also going to consider the importance of focal points in design work. We'll first be continuing with our boss design, before also taking a look at the dagger.

Development Through Iteration

After the initial brief, research, and early directional experimentation are carried out, our next goal is to nail down a more complete design for whatever it is that we are creating. So how do we do this? The best method is to continue with loose, iterative work until we begin to narrow it down. By creating many iterations quickly and loosely, we are able to do two things. Firstly, we can push aside any ideas that don't work out without feeling like much commitment is going to waste, instead choosing to push a different angle with our next iteration. Secondly, whenever an iteration does shows promise in any aspect, we can bring that element forward and develop it further with the next. By repeating this process as much as is necessary, we are effectively able to curate a strong design by sorting through our ideas until only the successful ones remain. 

Iterating on Core Aspects of a Wider Design

Picking up where we left off with our boss creature, we had so far established an overall form and started to look at some potential key silhouette features. The result of this was the decision to develop a heavily armoured frontal facade with large gauntlets featuring mouth carvings. I decided that this would be a good place to begin my iterative design process as the arms/gauntlets would most likely serve as the creature's primary mode of attack during its hypothetical encounter, and should hence be a focal point of its visual design. On top of this, iterative work on the gauntlets would also double as a way to establish a visual style for the rest of the design going forward.

The spread above shows my iterative process for both the gauntlets and the head of the creature. Looking first at the gauntlet sketches, we can see that the earlier iterations vary quite a bit from each other as at that point I was still looking for the right visual style. The later gauntlet designs are however much more similar to each other, and you can probably pinpoint the first iteration that clicked because the ones that follow are all clearly built from that same design. Hopefully these sketches are a clear example of the process we discussed above of cycling through ideas and bringing the successful ones forward in further iterations to narrow down a more effective design. The gauntlets also provide our first look at indication of colours/materials. In this case there wasn't much iteration with different palettes because my research into mesoamerican cultures made me very confident in the combination of stonemasonry with gold and jade ornamentation. My experimentations with colour were instead more about finding the right balance between these three materials. In different scenarios, more experimentation with different palettes might be required, but this time the problem that was already solved during the research phase, which is always nice.

Looking now at the head designs, it's clear that these came along much more quickly, and this is again because the visual style had already been established at some point during the gauntlet iterations. Due to this, we see fewer sketches for the head, as we were effectively able to cut out the first half of the process and land on something effective pretty soon, following it up with some iterations focused on fine tuning. The outcome at this stage was two options for the head design, one with a sun disc motif and one with more of a crown. Nothing is absolutely finalised just yet so it's ok to have a few options still open at this stage.

The Benefits of Using Focal Points to Design

Following the head and gauntlet sketches, I felt I was ready to work on a first pass for the overall creature, so I jumped straight into it. As you can see, the design really takes shape at this stage, and I'm now thinking about the construction of its entire body. After some quick sketches (top right), I was able to draft a relatively complete design, for which I've also provided a breakdown in the interest of clarity. It might seem like quite a sudden jump to have gone from sketching the face and gauntlets to suddenly the whole design, but the reason for this is rooted in the use of focal points as a starting point for larger designs, so I'd like to take this opportunity to discuss the idea.

Once you have an overall goal for your concept in sight, focusing on one or two focal points (central or core aspects of a design) first is an excellent and reliable process for reaching a strong outcome in the end. Since focal points are the most important features of a design, it's generally a good idea to start there and then build the rest of the details up around them, like a supporting act. Working on these focal points is also likely to help you in building a better mental picture of the rest of the design as you go, and this is exactly what happened in the case of our boss design. Before my head and gauntlet sketches, I understood the general shape and idea of the creature, but I didn't really have an exact idea of the specifics. Going through the process of designing these focal points gave me a much clearer plan though, because it got me thinking about how the overall design could be used to accentuate them. This resulted in my decision to make the design very front-loaded in terms of intricacy, while the rest of its body is much more simple and 'natural', composed primarily of roots, boulders and other bits of stone. The result is a creature that functions like an imposing wall that is more vulnerable from behind, if bypassed.

We've now essentially completed the design process for our creature, and we're ready to push it to a finalised concept. However, the design isn't absolutely fixed until 'submission' of the final concept, and so there could still be some slight alterations between the current design iteration and an eventual polished concept, but for the most part things should end up looking similar to what we currently have design-wise. We'll be discussing final concepts in the next post, but for now let's stay on track and move over to our dagger iterations.

Designing The Dagger: A Two Step Iterative Process

The pencil sketches above are my first round of iterative sketches for the dagger. There are quite a few, and that's because they are really quick to pump out with some use of the handy symmetry tool. I promise this is the last time I'll mention this as you probably get the point by now, but we are again seeing an example of that selective process we talked about here, with appealing ideas getting brought forward for further iteration, and other, not so successful ideas, being left behind. As a general trend, you can probably see that the designs start off relatively simplistic (top row) and become more intricate and 'architectural' in style as they go on. This approach appealed because it feels quite distinct to the mesoamerican theme, and also ties the item more closely to our creature, which also sports quite an architectural aesthetic, I think.

This second sheet of iterations focuses more on moving towards a finalised design than exploring as many possibilities as possible, like the previous sheet. To produce the first iteration on this sheet, parts were pulled from various sketches that I liked in the first, this time with a slightly higher level of attention to detail as we start to close in on a final concept. For the second iteration, I mostly adjusted proportions and some design choices to make it more appealing. At this point (2), I was happy with the design and could probably have decided to move onto a finalised concept sheet. However, I decided to employ a two step iterative process that was recommended to me by a professional contact a few months ago. To quickly explain this process, once you reach a concept that you are completely happy with through your iterative work, it can sometimes be worth doing a few alterations of that specific concept, just to be sure that its idea can't be taken further. In this case, my final concept will probably look more like the original (2) than any of the alternates (3,4,5), but it may end up incorporating some ideas from them in one way or another. Either way, its a very useful process to adopt because you really can't lose - you either land a better design, or you've essentially carried out your own quality assurance and passed. The only downside is of course that an extra process means extra time spent, but really these alternates take no time at all because the changes are relatively easy to make thanks to digital tools. I'd definitely recommend experimenting with this two step process in your own work - you might surprise yourself with an improved design.

Summary

This has been quite a long post, but hopefully you've picked up something useful! To recap, we started off by explaining the thought process behind the iterative design work that occurs after the initial direction setting stage that we covered in our last post. We then looked at the idea of beginning this new stage by working on focal points first, in order to provide a central 'hook' for the rest of your design. Finally we looked at a two step process of iteration that you can employ in your concept art, to ensure that you are getting the most out of your ideas.

In the next post, we're going to be closing off this chapter of the blog by focusing on our dagger design, bringing it to a finalised, presentable state. We'll be using this as an example for our discussion, which will be moving away from the design process, as we're largely finished in that area on this small project. We'll instead be taking a look at the things you should be aiming to cover in your presentation of a concept, alongside final renders.