Design a Character in Photoshop with @JackieDroujko (Ep 3) | The Brief | Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe Creative Cloud
24 Apr 202405:42

TLDRIn this episode of 'The Brief', Jackie, a character designer for Disney TV, shares her creative process for designing a character that reflects her own qualities. She incorporates elf ears and a charcoal stick, inspired by her love for fantasy and her recent interest in Muay Thai. The character evolves from a sketch to a digital illustration, with Jackie experimenting with different styles and lighting to convey the character's determination and passion. She uses Adobe Stock for textures and adds final touches like charcoal 'war paint' and sweat to enhance the character's appearance. The final piece features an anti-hero elf with a noble background, set in a dramatic and moody environment, showcasing Jackie's artistic skills and passion for storytelling.

Takeaways

  • 🎨 Jackie, a character designer for Disney TV, shares her creative process in designing a character that reflects her own qualities.
  • 🧚‍♀️ She incorporates elf ears into the design, inspired by her personal D&D character and the prompt from Adobe.
  • 🥋 Jackie decides to add a muay thai element to the character, reflecting her own passion for the martial art.
  • 💭 The character's personality is described as determined, passionate, and ruthless, which Jackie aims to project onto the design.
  • 📝 Jackie spends over an hour sketching and goes through multiple iterations before settling on a design.
  • 👚 Initially, she experiments with both light and dark clothing to decide whether the character is a hero or a villain.
  • 🤸‍♀️ The final design portrays the character as an anti-hero, exhausted from a boxing round, which Jackie feels better represents her vision.
  • 🖌️ Jackie uses rough and loose lines in her sketching, which is a departure from her usual style.
  • 🎨 She selects colors from her original concept sketch and uses Adobe Stock to find textures for the character's clothing.
  • 🧵 Jackie struggles with drawing braids but uses lighting to her advantage to minimize their visibility.
  • 💡 She adds final details like charcoal 'war paint', gradients, RGB split, noise, and dust particles to enhance the illustration.
  • 🏆 The finished piece is a combination of fantasy and personal interests, with a background that places the character in an environment, and a red bounce light that gives her a villainous glow.

Q & A

  • What is the name of the series that Jackie is a part of?

    -The Brief

  • What is Jackie's profession?

    -Jackie is a character designer for Disney TV.

  • What other companies has Jackie worked with besides Disney?

    -Jackie has also worked with Netflix, Warner Brothers, and Nickelodeon.

  • What was the task given to Jackie by Adobe?

    -Adobe asked Jackie to create a hero or villain character that incorporates qualities she likes most about herself.

  • What item from the box of goodies sent by Adobe did Jackie relate to and decide to incorporate into her character design?

    -Jackie related to the elf ears and decided to incorporate them into her character design.

  • What personal hobby of Jackie's did she decide to include in the character's backstory?

    -Jackie decided to include her personal hobby of attending muay thai classes in the character's backstory.

  • How many variations did Jackie go through before settling on the final sketch?

    -Jackie went through around ten variations before settling on the final sketch.

  • What was Jackie's initial idea for the character's appearance?

    -Jackie initially thought of the character as a hero, dressed in light clothes, but then switched to dark colors, considering the character might be a villain.

  • What was the final decision on the character's role in the story?

    -The final decision was that the character is an anti-hero or a villain.

  • What technique did Jackie use to add texture to the character's shirt?

    -Jackie used a woven texture from Adobe Stock, inverting the selection and deleting the texture not on the shirt, then played with overlays to make it fit the character.

  • How did Jackie approach the character's hair?

    -Jackie struggled with drawing braids and decided to use overhead lighting to emphasize the character's sweaty appearance without needing to detail the braids.

  • What final details did Jackie add to the illustration to enhance the mood and atmosphere?

    -Jackie added charcoal as war paint on the character's face and body, gradients, RGB split, noise, and more sweat to enhance the final illustration.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Artistic Inspiration and Character Design Process

Jackie, a character designer for Disney TV who has also worked with Netflix, Warner Brothers, and Nickelodeon, is introduced. She receives a box of inspirational items from Adobe to create a character that embodies qualities she admires in herself. The process involves selecting items from the box, such as elf ears, charcoal sticks, and a wooden mannequin, and integrating them into the character design. Jackie's personal connection to her D&D elf character and her recent interest in muay thai are significant influences. The character evolves from a sketch through various iterations, focusing on a post-boxing, exhausted and determined look. The final design features a sleek, anti-hero elf with hand wraps, incorporating textures and details like charcoal 'war paint' to enhance the character's moody and dramatic presence.

05:02

🌟 Final Illustration and Background Narrative

The final illustration is described, featuring an elf character with a background narrative that positions her as a noble who must fight to save her father's land. The character's environment is subtly depicted, with a red bounce light giving her a villainous glow and a blue rim light adding contrast and pizzazz. The character is portrayed as sweaty, angry, and passionate, with hand wraps that emphasize her physical state. The video concludes with an invitation to watch more episodes of 'The Brief' and to try Adobe Creative Cloud with a free trial. The viewer is also encouraged to like and subscribe to Adobe's channel.

Mindmap

Keywords

Character Designer

A character designer is a professional who creates the visual appearance and personality of characters for various forms of media, including television, film, and video games. In the script, Jackie identifies herself as a character designer for Disney TV, which implies that she is responsible for designing the looks and personalities of characters in Disney's animated TV shows.

Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe Creative Cloud is a subscription service from Adobe Inc. that gives users access to a collection of software for graphic design, video editing, web development, and photography. In the video, Jackie uses Adobe Creative Cloud to create her character design, showcasing its capabilities for artists and designers.

Elf Ears

Elf ears are a common fantasy element often depicted as pointed and slightly elongated, characteristic of elves in various mythologies and fantasy genres. In the script, Jackie mentions elf ears as part of the inspirational items she received, and she incorporates them into her character design, reflecting her personal connection to her Dungeons & Dragons elf character.

Muay Thai

Muay Thai is a form of martial arts that originated in Thailand, known as 'the art of eight limbs' due to its use of fists, elbows, knees, and shins. Jackie mentions attending Muay Thai classes and decides to give her character a similar background, suggesting that the elf character is also a martial artist, which influences the character's design and mood.

Sketching

Sketching is the act of creating rough drawings as a preliminary step in the process of developing a more finished work of art. Jackie discusses spending over an hour on sketching, going through multiple variations before settling on a design. This highlights the iterative nature of the creative process in character design.

Anti-Hero

An anti-hero is a central character in a story who lacks conventional heroic qualities, often displaying traits like ruthlessness or moral ambiguity. Jackie decides to make her character an anti-hero, which is reflected in the character's determined, passionate, and ruthless personality traits.

Lighting

In the context of art and design, lighting refers to the way artificial or natural light interacts with subjects and influences the mood and tone of an image. Jackie discusses using different light sources to create a dramatic and moody effect in her character illustration, emphasizing the character's emotional state.

Texture

Texture in art refers to the visual or tactile quality of a surface, which can be simulated in a drawing or painting to give a sense of depth and realism. Jackie uses a woven texture from Adobe Stock to add detail to her character's shirt, demonstrating how textures can enhance the visual interest of a design.

Braids

Braids are a hairstyle where hair is divided into three or more strands and woven together. Jackie admits to struggling with drawing braids, which is a common challenge for many artists due to the complexity of the intertwined strands. Despite this, she creatively decides to use overhead lighting to minimize the visibility of the braids in her design.

Sweat

In the context of the video, sweat is used as an artistic element to convey the character's physical exertion and emotional state. Jackie wants her character to appear sweaty and exhausted, which adds to the realism and storytelling of the illustration, showing the character as having just come out of a boxing round.

RGB Split

RGB split is a visual effect technique that separates the red, green, and blue channels of an image to create a surreal or dreamlike quality. Jackie uses this technique as a final detail to add a unique visual element to her character design, enhancing the overall artistic style of the piece.

Highlights

Jackie Droujko is a character designer for Disney TV and has also worked for Netflix, Warner Brothers, and Nickelodeon.

Adobe's The Brief series sends creators inspirational items to make art.

The task was to create a hero or villain character incorporating Jackie's favorite qualities about herself.

Elf ears and charcoal sticks were among the items provided by Adobe.

Jackie's D&D character was an elf, influencing her choice of elf ears for the design.

An item from Jackie's wardrobe, a muay thai outfit, inspired the character's background.

The character was envisioned as determined, passionate, and ruthless.

Sketching took over an hour with multiple variations before settling on the final design.

The character's mood was depicted as exhausted, angry, and sweaty post-boxing match.

Boxing gloves were replaced with wraps for a sleeker look.

Three different light sources were used to create a dramatic and moody atmosphere.

Imperfect lines and hands were intentionally rough and loose.

Colors were picked from the original concept sketch to maintain consistency.

The character's eyes were initially designed with white eyelashes and black eye whites, but later changed.

Adobe Stock was used to find textures, such as a woven texture for the shirt.

The character's hair was a challenge due to Jackie's unfamiliarity with drawing braids.

Blue rim lighting and bounce light were added to emphasize the character's mood.

Charcoal was used as war paint on the character's face and body.

Final details included gradients, RGB split, noise, and dust particles to enhance the illustration.

The final illustration features an anti-hero elf character with a noble background and a determined demeanor.

The background and lighting contribute to the character's environment and villainous glow.

The character is envisioned as fighting for her father's land against the main queen.

The video concludes with an invitation to watch more episodes of The Brief and try Adobe Creative Cloud.