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Tuesday, March 2, 2004

Making Bad Drawings Look Better
I finished up my Sketching and Modeling class last week before I left to go to the IA Summit. It was a "mini," meaning it only ran half the semester. Aside from learning that you can model physical objects very quickly (useful), I also learned how to make bad sketches (my specialty) look much better. Here's how:

  • Dropshadows are almost a cliche in digital design, but adding one to a sketch helps bring it off the page.
  • Related to that is to make a "light source" coming from the left of the drawn object, and shade in some shadows accordingly. Meaning, a dark shadow on the right plane of the object, a lighter shade on the front plane, and an even lighter one on the top.
  • Long strokes, even crappily drawn, are better than short, choppy, "hairy" ones.
  • Darken the edges of an object where two planes meet, but you can't see both planes.
  • Use the simplest means possible to convey ideas while storyboarding. Only use perspective for clarity.

posted at 08:21 PM in design 101, visualization | comments (0) | trackback (0)

 

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