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Process Videos

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Process Videos

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Finished Pieces

After I was happy with my design. I went back over and started fixing little mistakes.

Like on the close up of the head the horns are pointed outwards, but on the bigger design they were pointed in, so I’ve just quickly gone over and made it so that they now point outwards on the big design.

Also with the canvas I was using, there wasn’t enough room for the characters front and back design to be next to each other so they’ve always just overlapped. For some reason the two layers were merged and I couldn’t separate them. I’ll have to be more careful with this in future projects. Though it wasn’t too hard to fix as I just flipped the tail to use of the other design.   

I can’t believe that I actually forgot about the eyebrows, but as soon as I noticed I got to work on fixing this. I also added in the other horn on his head. With more time I would have loved to sort his eyes out but with how everthing has turned out I’m quite leaving him as he is.

To fit with the bigger design I made the wrist purple and made the orange darker.

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After finally choosing which face my character is going to have, I decided to do a quick drawing of him. I was going to smooth the colours together but last minute decided to base the look on a skin condition called Vitiligo. Since on my design I gave him horns I added in one here, I tried drawing the other but it just wasn’t looking right so I’ve just decided to leave it.

Once I was happy with how it was looking I decided to make the colour more accurate to the big design, which included colouring in the neck. Though it’s not what I was imagining at the beginning of the project I’m really happy with how he’s turned out.   

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Looking at Ears

After finding an art piece on different mythological species ears, I decided to use it as a base to draw some fin like ears. After going through all of them, I picked out three that I thought looked the best and started making them more realistic.  

I’m really happy with how they look so far, Now I just need to change the colours so that they match with my character concept. After having a look at them in orange and pink, I decided to go with orange.

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Hand with Claws

I used this picture of a hand with claw like rings as a reference for drawing my own one. I started with a base colour then went in with a darker colour to get the shadows, again with an even darker colour just getting the creases in the hand. Once I was happy I went over with a lighter colour for highlights. I shaded and gave the claws a more 3d look right at the end once I was happy with how the hand was looking.

Once everything was looking nice I changed the colours to see which one I prefered more.

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Different Power Sources

Wind Turbines

Wind turbines have some negative effects on the environment

Modern wind turbines can be very large machines, and they may visually affect the landscape. A small number of wind turbines have also caught fire, and some have leaked lubricating fluids, but these occurrences are rare. Birds and bats can be injured or killed if they are hit by turbine blades. These deaths may contribute to declines in the population of species also affected by other human-related impacts. The wind energy industry and the U.S. government are researching ways to reduce the effect of wind turbines on birds and bats.

Most land-based wind power projects require service roads that add to the physical effects on the environment. Producing the metals and other materials used to make wind turbine components has impacts on the environment as well, and fossil fuels may be used to produce the materials. Although most of the materials used to make wind turbines can be reused or recycled, turbine blades, as most are currently constructed, cannot be recycled. Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) established an approach to manufacturing wind turbine blades, employing a thermoplastic resin system. These thermoplastic resins allow for the recycling of wind turbine blades and also reduce the energy required to manufacture blades.

I really like the idea of a sustainably energy source for this world and as much of the world is covered in water I’m leaning towards getting energy from the waves. I think it would be pretty cool to have little floating villages too that just use the waves to power the whole community, then maybe if there’s any power leftover they’d share it with other communities 

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Finished Map

After deciding where all the settlements would be I put in some coloured dots. With more time I would have liked to draw little villages to show where the settlements are. I also got the compass in, though I’d like to put some colour on it so It doesn’t blend in as much.

I was thinking that if this ever did become a game the compass could change colour depending on which settlement you’re closer to.

After showing my family, some said that they should be closer to the water for docks. I quickly decided to put in transparent circles to show where and how big the settlements are, thus the dots have now become almost like the capitals of those settlements.

For the two utopian tribal settlements I’ve given them a latin name that fits in with nature. The other two are the more technological settlements and I wanted to give them a more simple name but still sticking to the theme of nature.

I’m really happy with the finished piece

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Improving the Map

Though I really like this, I think it’s way too bright so I decided to change it a bit.

Though I think black and white looks better I think I should try make it more coffee coloured to try and replicate the look of an old map. 

I didn’t think the lines where good with the style I’m looking for so I took them out.

After messing around with the colours a bit I found one I was happy with.

I put the lines back in but blurred them, I’m not to sure if I like it but I’m going to try go around the islands and see if it looks better after.

After going round the islands I quickly made some tree and mountain brushes to use on this map. I’m really happy with it so far but I’d like to do a bit more, like add in where the settlements are.

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Avatar

Quite a few people have said that my project sounds a bit like Avatar.

So I’ve decided to look at it a little bit. I already know a bit as I’ve seen the movie, I’ve even watched the newly released one too. 

the na'vi people are very in tune with nature and looking at the people in the world I’m creating, I’d like them to be very in sync with the world around them too.  

The Na'vi worship a sacred transcendent entity, called Eywa, who seems to be both Creator of the universe and Mother Goddess.

Though I think the concept of religion is quite interesting I don’t have much time and I’d prefer to focus on other aspects of the world. 

Unobtanium has no use to the Na'vi, as their laws forbid them from mining Pandora for metals. To humans, however, unobtanium has become the backbone of Earth's economy. As a powerful energy conductor, unobtanium has countless specialized uses.

I suppose Unobtanium is almost like the power source for Pandora though the Na’vi don’t really use it.

Since I’m looking at quite an advanced world that is also in tune with nature for my project, I’ll need to think of different energy sources that are eco friendly, like solar panels or windmills.

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The Last of Us

The Last of Us started as a PS3 game and the initial release date for it was on the 14 June 2013. 

The first of nine episodes premiered on the 15 January 2023

I think the show depicts a dystopian world very well and the relationship between joel and ellie has been shown well in the show too.    

I quite like the idea of the world I’m creating to look somewhat like this outside safe zones. I really like how everything is overgrown. 

If I get time I might do a little drawing showing a submerged city that has been taken over by nature. 

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Making Brushes for my Map

This was my first attempt for a tree and although it works it just doesn’t look quite right with the map so I’m going to try again.

Here are the four I’ve gone with, I’ve made it so that the top mountain is smaller then the other on the map and I think it really works, at first I wasn’t too sure about them because they’re quite pyramid like but they’re growing on me. 

I’m quite happy with the trees. I was finding it difficult to get the effect of the leaves but then I just ended up using a cloud brush and actually it works really well. I’ve always struggled with trees so I’m quite happy with how these two have turned out.

I really wanted to give a sort of painted ink effect like some of the art work I found in South Korea, I really like how they’ve all turned out.

I decided to try make a compass brush. while I like it, it doesn’t actually work as a brush, as it takes away too many details. Even though it doesn’t work as a brush I just decided to use it by copying the canvas it’s on, that way it doesn’t lose any of the details.

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Design Development

After doing sketches on paper, I decided on my chosen ones then started drawing them on my Ipad. Since I was looking at the sea I decided to go with blue. I wanted to make his tail have a paddle like look and I think it’s worked. 

Since the beginning this character concept has always had a baby and I really wanted to keep it that way. I looked at different ways to carry a baby around and decided to go with the one with the baby against his chest. I wanted to show the danger of the world so I put a scar on his back, one which looks to belong to quite a large animal. and I put a holographic screen in front of him to hint at the utopian like settlements.

After my initial design I wanted to look at different fish and how I could change the colours to show the inspiration behind the design. I decided to look at the clown fish.

After giving him an orange tail I decided that I would need to change the colour of the whole character so that it would actually fit in with the rest of the design.  

After looking through different colours I chose purple as I thought it looked the best with orange and I found I could blend the two colours together nicely. I scrapped the scar though I would like to have it, I decided to leave it, as utopia has good health care.  

After thinking I was done, I realised I had left his face. As his neck is a plum colour I thought it wouldn’t look right if his face just went into a normal skin tone so I put the plum colour around the edges. I ended up changing the colour of his clothes too as the blue didn’t fit with the new colours.

I’m really happy with how he’s looking and I think I might just go on to do a drawing of his face

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Moodboard

While working on rough sketches I also had a look at different ways my character could swim and move on land. I think I’m leaning towards them having two legs and a tail. 

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Clothes

After looking around on Pinterest for inspiration I found an outfit I liked though I wasn’t too sure about the top, so here I’ve redrawn it with three different tops. I think the one in the middle is my favorite so if I come back to develop it more then I’d use that one as a base.

I was thinking everyone would just wear white as this colour is often seen as a sign of purity although I quickly scrapped this idea as I think it would make everything look very black and white morally. 

Next I saw another outfit on Pinterest that I thought looked really cool and decided to make an outfit for the warriors of the world. I’m mainly thinking about the tribal areas and what their scouts/fighters would wear.

First I started off with quite a long piece of cloth that hangs from their waist but a few people wondered if that was actually practical as it might get in the way during fights. So I started to shorten it. At first I was also thinking they’d use a bow for fighting that’s why I added an archery guard and although I gave them a staff instead, I really liked how the design looked so I just kept it.

My friend also asked if they were even wearing armor. At the start of the design I was thinking fights would be more about agility and speed then strength so I kind of just ignored the idea of armor. But I quickly decided that I should give them a body suit for protection as they are meant to have utopian like technology.

The black body suits are based off of kevlar while the metal looking ones are based off of space fabric. Though I imagine it to be an advanced armor that protects you from blunt and sharp attacks and even the environment if need be.

I chose red partly because of that one quote from Deadpool. That if you’re wearing red the bad guys can’t see you bleed. It’s also because I’ve heard quite a bit that red berries are red because that’s a warning that they’re poisonous, I don’t think that’s right but it’s got me to look at different colours in nature.

I chose yellow and orange because of honey bees. honey bees are black and yellow as a warning to predators, since their last form of defense is their stinger, the stripes along their body is almost a means of prevention. 

I prefer the orange ones a lot more though as the yellow is just too bright and I can just see the bugs swarming them, especially in a jungle environment.

   After going through all my designs, this one is my favourite. Though it’s different the armour is a lot more obvious and I really like how it’s basically just like their second skin. Then the red parts of the outfit are actually inspired by bandages. I’d always liked the look of bandages on people, especially the really neat and clean ones or even it they’re just there to support the bones or joints in your body. Since these are meant to be clothes for a utopian tribal community who are very in touch with nature, I decided to not give her any shoes, just a wrap to support her ankle. Though there’s no bow to sight, the wrist guard stays, I like thinking that they are mainly trained to fight with bows and staffs  

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Teeth

I don’t think I’ll have enough time to sort out what his teeth would be like, I’d much rather refine what I have and sort out a head sketch for my final piece.

But I really like the idea of this character having very sharp teeth for defending himself, or even just for hunting fish for food 

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Metahuman

I went back to metahuman and designed a few more different faces. I’ve been stuck on the idea of the main character being a guy but to be honest since it’s a character concept for a game I could have it so that the player can choose their gender. I’ve also been thinking about how they’re going to be going round with their little baby sibling and thought maybe it would be more realistic if the main character was actually a kid themselves. Or just having it so that the baby isn’t actually their sibling but has just been adopted by the mc