Illustration & Visual Narrative Task 1

 25/09/2024 to 11/10/2025 / Week 1 - Week 3

Raida Abdoul Kader / 0353038

Illustration & Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Mass Communication / School of Media and Communication

Task 1: Vormator Challenge

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LECTURES

Week 2

The Bézier Game

For our first class, Mr. Hafiz briefed us on the modul and our assignments. He then he introduced us to a game called the Bezier Game, designed to help us enhance our skills with the Pen tool, which is essential for Adobe Illustrator. I found it quite easy to understand at first, but it became a little more challenging when I started tracing the car. I wasn’t able to complete it on the first try like the previous ones, as I used up all the nodes, but eventually, I managed to do it.

Fig1 - Bézier Game - 02/10/24

After that, Mr. Hafiz guided us to trace our template for the Vormator challenge on Adobe Illustrator, which involved different shapes. We primarily focused on using two things the Pen tool (and the direct selection tool to move one particual anchor point)  and the Shape and Curvature tool.

Fig 1.1 - AI shape tracing - 02/10/24

Week 3

This week, Mr. Hafiz taught us more about two essential design tools: Pathfinder and Shape Builder. These tools will play a crucial role in creating our Vormator. The Pathfinder tool helps combine different shapes, while the Shape Builder tool is used to merge and erase shapes (can also be used to add shadows on our character). 

After the demonstration, we were tasked with recreating well-known logos, like Adidas and Twitter, using these two tools to practice and refine our skills.

Fig 2 - Adidas logo - 8/10/24

Fig 2.1 - Twitter logo - 8/10/24

Mr. Hafiz also provided a link that teached us how does shape language impact a character design that I really find interesting: https://dreamfarmstudios.com/blog/shape-language-in-character-design/ 

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INSTRUCTIONS & TASKS

Task 1: Vormator Challenge – Character Creation in Adobe Illustrator

This task will teach us the fundamentals of vector illustration and character design using Adobe Illustrator. The challenge limits us to a set of pre-defined shapes, and our goal is to create a unique character by combining and manipulating these shapes while adhering to specific rules.

Inspirations:

After our first class, I spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of character to create. I wanted to design something unique, something that stood out from the ordinary. I serached through Pinterest and Google for inspiration, but nothing. It wasn’t until I went out for dinner and noticed this glass (fig 2), I found the shape and the details really intriguing and thought that I could make something similar.

Fig 3 - Tiki Glass - 03/10/2024

I then did some research and found out that this glass is inspired by the Polynesian Tiki, which represents the connection between man and nature, between heaven and earth, and symbolises creation and life itself (The Polynesian Tiki, a Significant Cultural Symbol - US, n.d.).

Fig 3.1 Polynesian Tiki Mask - 05/10/24

Fig 3.2 - Polynesian Tiki status - 05/10/24

Sketches:

I really loved the first 2 status in Fig 3.2, I decided to draft my characters based on those 2, I wanted to give an "angry face" by emphasizing on their expressions.

Fig 4 - Tiki Draft 1 - 06/10/24

Fig 4.1 - Tiki Draft 2 - 06/10/24

Attempts

I decided to go with my first drawing, as I felt it would be more interesting to recreate. However, I faced some challenges in the process due to the limited shapes available. Since my drawing was quite rough, it was difficult to achieve accuracy with the provided shapes, making it a bit challenging to recreate the design as I intended.

Here is my first attempt. Initially, I wasn't sure how the final result would turn out, knowing it would differ from my original sketch. While I was quite satisfied with how the face turned out, I wasn’t as satisfied with the top part. It didn’t seem to match the style or flow of the face, which left the overall design feeling a bit inconsistent.

I decided to revise the upper and lower middle parts of the design, combining different shapes to create a bull. This choice was inspired by my own culture. In Madagascar, we have totems called Alo Alo (as shown in Fig. 5.1), which serve as memorials that help the deceased join their ancestors. 

Fig 5 - Tiki V1 - 8/10/24

Fig 5.1 - Alo Alo - 8/10/24

Here is my second attempt, where I decided to modify the top part of the design. Initially, I aimed for a crown, but it ended up resembling hair instead. Despite the unintended result, I’m actually quite satisfied with how it turned out, as it adds a unique and unexpected element to the overall design.

Fig 5.2 - Tiki V2 hair - 9/10/24

Fig 5.3 - Tiki V2 - 9/10/24

I showed my character to Mr. Hafiz, and he reminded me that I needed to add a body to complete it. I wasn’t sure what kind of body to create at first, but then I recalled him mentioning the Chibi art style during class, which features characters with large heads and small bodies, often giving them a cute appearance. While my character isn’t meant to be cute, I decided to make the body smaller than the head to create a funny yet angry-looking figure, adding a unique twist to its overall design.

Here is the final version of my character. I kept the body design very simple and made it slightly chubby to complement the overall look. The simplicity adds to the character's humorous and exaggerated appearance, enhancing the contrast between the large head and the small body.

Fig 5.4 - Tiki V3 - 9/10/24

Final Character:

Name: Tiki Taoka 

Taoka is a part of a guardian community, his role is to protect the sacred land, ensuring that the spirits of the deceased find peace with their ancestors.

He's always grumpy/angry, whether it's a leaf falling too loudly or someone stepping on his sacred grounds. His rectangular shape suggest power and strength but despite his best efforts to look menacing, people often can't help but laugh when they see his tiny arms flail in frustration.

Fig 5.4 - Tiki Taoka - 10/10/24

I then decided to fully color my character, inspired primarily by the designs in Figure 3.1. I chose warm tones and experimented with the Shape Builder tool to incorporate shadow and depth, giving the character a more dynamic and three-dimensional look.

Fig 5.5 - Tiki Taoka - 10/10/24

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REFLECTION

Experience:

At the first, I thought that working with limited shapes for the Vormator would be quite challenging. However, as I began brainstorming ideas, I realized that creativity was key; we could create virtually anything within those constraints. Since I already had some knowledge of Illustrator, the process of creating my character didn't take long at all.

Observation: 
I realized that inspiration can come from anywhere; we just need to open our eyes and truly observe the world around us.

Finding;

I found that working with limited shapes actually sparked my creativity, demonstrating how even limited can lead to innovative character design.