Emulation Project
When my Visual Literacy professor assigned us the task of bringing in a "really cool picture" for the next class, I didn't know that I was going to end up having to re-create it from scratch. I had brought in a rendering done by Ash Thorp, a User-Interface designer for cinematic special effects. This task of emulating such a complex image became a lesson in research, dissection and reverse-engineering so that you can visually recreate something similar. In Thorp's original rendering, he had created the imagery through the use of Cinema 4D, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. I only had access to Illustrator and Photoshop so my task became much more difficult of an undertaking.
My process began with research and visually dissecting the original image. I watched interviews of Thorp and talks that he gave to get an idea of his process and inspirations to get into the mindset. Researching his inspirations, watching movies with other User-Interface designs and looking at other motion graphics designers like GMUNK really put me on the path of getting excited about the task at hand. I started by just taking notes, drawing and getting pen to paper. Icon drawings and mental notes began to give me a direction on how to untie the knot. After I felt that I got a grasp of what was going on, I began to re-create the image layer by layer in Photoshop and Illustrator, bouncing between the two programs.
This whole project, though not perfect, was a really beneficial learning experience. It really taught me to maneuver through obstacles I encountered in the process. Shoutout to Ash Thorp.
"Beautiful!!! :)" - Ash Thorp (via Instagram)
The intro page of some of the concepting and reverse-engineering I did to emulate the original image.
