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25/04/18
As the deadline quickly approaches, I am soon running out of time, So I really need to get the first one done as quickly as possible, so can move onto the next piece. I think my biggest worry right now is that I am only going to get one piece done, athough if I do, I have enough time to make it a lot more detailed. I think I should strive for quality over quantity, so making sure that at least one piece is amazing is my highest priority.
27/04/18
Today I made some big progress in my first final piece. The issue with the first drawing, was the the legs were correct, they didnt work in the perspective. This time I have tried to completely exagerate it in the style of one of the artists I looked at previously on my blog. I havent really done much painting, but I am happy with the progress so far.
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22/04/18
Ok so I have spent far too much time on designing the character, so I think it is finally time that I start the final outcome. For the next few days my goal is to at least get a start on the final piece. I need to try to finish the line drawing, however I feel that I need to focus less time onto the line drawing as generally I spend a lot of time on it - or at least have on my previous works throughout this year. I also want to experiment and try new things out in photoshop. Although I do think I am fairly proficient in it, I dont know everything and I am not even close to good at digital painting.
24/04/18
This is the first draft of one of the final concept art pieces. I think the actual composition work is actually pretty good, although the quality of the artwork isnt particularly amazing, its only in rough stages. I have layed the groundworks down, so now I need to build upon it. the first and most obvious thing to do is to add colour to it, however I still want to try another attempt at a gradient map, which is why it is in b&w right now as I figure out a colour scheme.
This is the second rough for the other concept art piece. The goal of this one compared to the other is to show the characters in a emphasized pose. I decided to completely change the design of the character as you can see, in which the main focus this time around was to make the character seem as native american as possible. I stripped away a lot of the clothing and gave her a spear as I felt both shown her to be a lot more visually clear of what her ethnicity is and the period in time. For the pose I tried to get something that shown she was just about to throw the spear. I did this by arching the back and having the other arm oput in front. I think this needs a bit of work however as the legs I couldnt get quite right.
Overall, I think that its a good start for both pieces, but will both need a lot more work. I think I want to start focusing on the second one first, as if I run out of time, then only having this one would be more important as it clearly shows the character and what the game is about, rather than the other one showing mostly forest area.
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19/04/18
The main focus is to design or at least know what I am doing for the companion. I am leaning towards something like a wolf or dog as I feel that would not only be a suitable companion, but could provide as a mount gameplay mechanic. The character is a gift from a god of death, so if the companion is a wolf, It would need to be quite large. I need to look into different body types of wolves or how to make it look unique. Generally wolves do not differ in shape and all look fairly similar. I should also do some drawings of wolves to get a better understanding on how they look and to build up my visual library.
21/04/18
Something that I have actively trying not to do is copy the wolves from princess Mononoke. This is actually a lot harder, as the companion is intended to be overly sized which is exactly the same in mononoke. Perhaps the idea popped into my head because of this movie.To make sure that the character is unqiue, I decided to change the species to a coyote. This would also make sense as the rating of the game is a 12, so there needs to be a more joyful joke character to contrast with the more serious main character. A coyote would make more sense for this reason, as they are considered more mischevious - so suits the personality perfectly. The goal when making the final concept art pieces is to make sure it doesnt completely look like a wolf, altough both species are fairly similar to each.
As time draws closer to the deadline however I am unsure that I am able to do what I planned on doing. I feel that I am spending too much time on designing the character, that I do not have enough time to actually make the final piece. The plan is to make three different pieces of concept art, but I may have to limit that down to two now. Perhaps I should only make one piece and make it a lot more detailed, but I feel that if I do that, the audience may not know what the intention of the artwork is for and may just be a random illustration.
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16/04/18
The goal this time is to fix the current character design, once that is done I can then proceed onto designing the companion character. I have stated a couple of times that I want the companion to be something of an opposite to the main character, personality and visually as I want to have a balance or ying/yang.
18/04/18
Ok so I offically know what type of game I want to design for now. I want it to be a open world- adventure type game, however I want to focus on a broader target audience, something that parents will allow their children to play, but also the parents to want to play. I think this is good, as I want the game to inform the users of what type of setting native Americans lived in during the 1600s, and how they were treated by the Europeans. I think having an open world style game will appeal to more people as the other genre which I was torn between (top down ARPGs) only appeal toa more niche market, and although I personally like the genre, it is not even closely as popular.
I also tried to fix the character design from the first one. I still think it needs work, and I am thinking of completely scratching the design altogether. This design I think is definitely a lot more native american b ut this time simply doesnt make sense for the period I want the game to be based on. I think I need to make the design as native american looking as possible. I feel that I am not covneying the theme to the audience as clearly as I can, and I am scared that people might not understand what it is. The point of concept art is to visualise something without it being made. The designs before the production. This I found out from looking further into concept art.
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13/04/18
So I think I am close to getting my final characters face done. I want to get it done as quickly as possible so then I can move onto my final outcome. The main goal however is to completely finish the character design on photoshop so I can move onto thinking of the characters companion and what genre of game/ how the game will work. After I couldnt fix my portrait painting, I think I need to restart it completely from scratch.
15/04/18
I think this time I completed all the goals that I wanted to. I started and finished the portrait design and am pretty proud of how it turned out in the end. I decided to keep using the same brush as I had used previously as I quite liked it, however I did go back to my comfort zone a little with a heavy emphasis on the line drawing. This is something I need to break out of as I am not too great at digital painting. This is why I decided to paint over the line drawing and keep the lines on the top layer to be shown. I think the outcome of this painting was ok, but I dont think it was as smooth or well painted as it could have been. However part of this is due to the colours not being as good as they could have been as they are very desaturated.
I also completed the torso, outfit design, although this time I might need to reconsider the actual design. I think for the head I have it down well, but I am unsure about the body design. I think it looks too asian rather than native american, and I feel that the clothing she is wearing doesnt suit the setting and the characters origins. I really like the idea of an archer, which is why I decided to go with that. I also researched into existing archer designs for inspiration.
I think the quality of the artwork is very good and I am pleased with how it turned out but I feel that the design of the character is weak and needs some more work.
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10/04/18
The goal this time is to finalize the character design. I have now a good understanding on what character I want to create and what clothing would make sense in the period in time. So I need to combine all the ideas in my head and all the research and information I have found out and put them onto a final character design. I think it is important to do some initial designs on paper first before I start officially making the character to get a better understanding on what I want to make. I also need to think on what type of hairstyle to have and face paint etc.
12/04/18
These past few days I have been trying to draw the characters outfit. I wanted to include a variety of designs so that I could pick out which parts I liked. I have a main post on my blog which I said which designs I liked the best. Something I really want to have is to show the character a slightly more masculine.With her being a female warrior, I want her to be a lot more athletic. I decided to look into the body types of athletes and did a couple of drawings as well. I also did a couple of hair designs, I think giving the character shorter hair would make a lot more sense.
I also finalised the characters story which is also on my my main blog. I think this story is very good as it gives the character a motive, and dark backstory. Although perhaps I might need someones opinion on it as sometimes I have been mistaken in thinking something is good until I have explained it to someone and it ends up sounding stupid. I dont think the story is anything groundbreaking, but is good enough for me to make a character from and is deep enough to explain the elements of her design.
After I had all the puzzle pieces, I then combined all the elements from the sheet work and research that I liked and thought would suit the character best. I then proceeded to start drawing the character in photoshop. The outcome of this however was not all that great in my opinion. Or at least the first attempt. I wanted to use a technique that I hadnt used before as well as experimenting with some new brushes that I found on the interent. This is something that I havent really done at all as I mostly have been using the default photoshop brushes, which is fine, but sometimes it doesnt benefit me. I wanted to use a more textured brush but had a softer edge. I found one brush set from a youtube channel called KNKL who provided a brush set of only 4 - however the was one that I thought was perfect.
I initially tried at doing a technique called gradient mapping which replaces all values with the selected gradient colours. This did not work as well as I hoped it would be, but I think the reason it didnt work was from the initial line drawing. I decided to use a line drawing from one of the drawings I did on paper. I was quite proud of said drawing, but when I went to paint over, the errors in perpesctive really showed and I wasnt able to fix it properly.
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07/04/18
The plan for now while I wait for my lightbox to be delivered is to make sure I understand how native american people look like and what they wear etc. I need to do thorough research on things like headdresses etc. Hopefully my lighbox arrives soon so I can carry on my character designs. However if not I will need to do some native american studies and undertstand how they prpoerly look like. This was something that I was meant to do previously but didnt as I guess I put it off. Im not too keen on life drawing. I also dont really have anyone who is native american that I know to draw from so will have to draw from pictures on the internet. Perhaps I will make a pinterest board of native american people.
09/04/18
So for 7th and 8th I spent this time studying all native american clothing and appearance. I also learnt a lot on how they manage resources. A lot - if not all their clothing was made from the animals that they hunted. This was called buckskin clothing and the process is extremely long and I assume tiresome. It makes me feel like I really take for granted the clothing that I wear.
I also did some life drawing. However I havent drawn in a little while. My new years resolution was to draw everyday, which I kept for the first couple of months but I guess it didnt last long as I am already rusty at drawing. I think its partly becuase I have forgotten a lot of things that I learnt from a bunch of video tutorials that I watched just before christmas. So to get back into the swing of things I decided to rewatch some of them, or at least the ones I thought would be most beneficial to me. There is one youtube channel in particualr that I think I learn the most from. I think this channel is largely responsible for the artstyle that I currently have - or at least did have because for some reason I feel that I have lost my drawing ability. Looking back at it I probably should have done more drawing and less game of thrones watching, but can you blame me?
https://www.youtube.com/user/sinixdesign
youtube
On the 9th my lightbox finally arrived!! Which also means that I can officially start my character design as it allows me to trace over previous drawings and tweak them. I could have done these drawings without but it saves so much time, and I didnt waste any while I waited for it to arrive. I honestly cant be bothered to draw out the same head every single time, so with this it made my life so much easier. From this I was able to finish the final face design for my character. A lot of the inspiration was a culmination of Taliyah from league of legends and Arya from game of thrones, whilst also mixing in themes of native america. I am pleased with the outcome of this character design and am happy to move on forward to the clothing designs.
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05/04/18
Goals: I am now happy that I have some goals for my character design. I need to look into existing female warrior and/or characters that I perhaps could use as inspiration. I also definitely need to look into how I will make my character look native american. Our brains are very good at recognizing faces and where people are from, so i need to find out how my character will look like she is native american.
06/04/18
Recently I have been catching up on season 7 of game of thrones. I think this show could be quite inspirational to me, however one character I think suits the goals of the character I plan to design, while also being really cool. This character is Arya Stark. I really like her troubled past in which she has had to train to join a guild of ‘no-ones’ essentially losing her past in which her parents were killed. In S7 she is now a nimble assassin style character that uses her short height to her advantage as is very nimble and light on her feet. This is a good example of a character using her natural features to her advantage. I like this idea and I want to implement this into my own character.
I also discovered a real famous native american person called the brown weasel woman or more commonly known as the running eagle. I found this woman by searching for prominent female figures in native american history, and thought that her story was very interesting and I could use as inspiration.
I also started with my characters face. I think that I have made a lot of progress in this area, although I want to take my time as i want to get it right. Although I dont want to directly copy the running eagles story, I do however want to use a lot of the theme prevalent in her story, So moving with my character design I will use her as inspiration while I figure out the final lore of the character. I think it is important to establish a good story, so that the visual design reflects that. The face however is something that I can do without the backstory (unless I had a massive scar or a missing eye etc, which i dont plan on doing but am not ruling out as could perhaps make sense in a warrior type character). In my designs for the face, i tried to get a complete variety as I can almost fill in the gaps if I have established what the characters face will be. For example if I have a rather butch face, then the body is going to be large and buff and vice versa if the face is slender.
I still like the idea of having a fairly unattractive face, and this theme I kept in all 4 of the designs that I did. I just now need to wait until I get the light box that was recommended that I buy. I am holding off on the drawing so that I can use the light box when amazon eventually delivers it!!
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02/04/18
Goal: Ok so I have now established that I want to have an already preset character as the one that you control. I think this is the right direction to take as I feel modern games are moving away from the trend of a customisable charater and to me comes off a little gimmicky. I also think that it would be a lot more fun to make my own character and I have been watching a youtube channel recently that reviews character designs in popular games. This channel has started to make me think of what makes a good and bad character design, so perhaps I could use the knowledge recieved from this channel and apply it to my own
youtube
https://www.youtube.com/user/TBSkyen Example video ^^
My main focus now is to start thinking on what my character will look like and how their design will reflect their backstory and personality. Something that I think will be the most challenging is to see how I can Impliment the characters ethnicity and how I will make the character look native american.
04/04/18
Ok so for the past three days I have been focusing on what type of character I want to make and trying to get the main goals for the character sorted for me to focus on. I also found a really useful book that I hope to reference or use when designing my character. I honestly forgot I owned it until sorting out my bookshelf. I also found a couple of ‘behind the scenes’ books that I might be able to use later on. I have books for the ghost in the shell, blade runner 2049 and street fighter that all have concept art and the process behind the movies and game. The book that I found is something on games art - a subject I plan on taking next year in uni which is why I bought it.
In this book it told a process for designing your character and some tips. The first thing was to get something called a high concept. This is essentially a small description of the game or something that might appear on the back of a game cover. I guess the high concept for my project is a native american themed game (thats all I have so far) This is something that I really need to get done so i can start the final concept art pieces.
The character that I want to design is somewhat inspired by a character from league of legends called Taliyah. This character I think is very well designed as she breaks the typical conventions of a female character in a video game. Over the years generally females have been overly sexualised and attractive. Taliyah has a lot of features that generally are considered unnatractive, and has a sense of innocence to her that I really like.
I also really like the idea of a strong female warrior and I think this could suit the theme of native Americans very well. So the main design goals that I want to focus on is to create a character that is somewhat unattractive, native american and is a strong warrior.
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30/03/18
Goal: Today I want to start designing my main character. Also look into existing character designs to see what makes a good character design or bad one.
Today I started my main character design. The biggest issue that I am currently facing is deciding what vody type and how large the character is going to be. To be a female warrior it would make more sense if she was more like a barbarian and a lot more muscular. I looked into existing characters from a game called overwatch. I think from looking at these character I got a better understanding on what makes a good character design and how I need to think carefully about what the visual design will tell the audience. The body type of the character also depends on what weapon the character will use. Although I think I made some good progress today, i do feel I could have done more. I started designing the characters face as I felt that was a gppd starting point but I think I need to draw a lot quicker as I was quite sluggish today.
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29/03/18
Goal: today I have decided that I want the playable character to already made and part of a story. I think this is a better idea asI will personally enjoy it more, but also I think the witcher 3 was really strong because of Geralt. I think playing as him was a really great experience. Alternatively playing as a custtomised character means that the character doesnt really have any personality and there is not much story that can be built around it other than ‘you are the chosen one’. The main goal for today is to think of the story and/or how the character will look like.
Today I researched into existing or historical native american people that perhaps could give me inspiration. I also looked on artstaion and deviantart for inspiration or exisitng character designs. I couldnt find many good character designs but I did find a historical figure called the running eagle or brown weasel woman. I think that I want to loosely base my character on her experiences and past. This means that I now know the gender and rough personality of the character. I can also start building the story around this as well. I think I want to make my character a female warrior which was considered rare during these times as well as culture as females were allowed to fight. I also want to use elements of Princess mononoke as I still want to use Ghibli as a small part of inspiration.
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28/03/18
Goals: look into war paint and other various symbolic things such as totem poles. Understand more about the religious side to native americans and their beliefs with spirit animals.
Today I looked into a lot of beliefs behind colour, patterns war paint and totem poles. I also researched a little into mythological creatures. One famous creature is the Wendigo which I thought was pretty cool. If I want the character to be customised, I definitely want a heavy design choice around the war paint as that was a significant part of a native Americans appearance. I also researched a little into the animals that lived in the country during the time and how that affected their livelihoods. This is an integral part of the game as there will be a lot of exploration or creatures in the world as that always exists in RPGs. I was also thinking of having the playable character have a spirit animal companion that guides them on their journey - giving quests and tutorials etc.
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26/03/18
Goal: to research into prominent tribes during the 1500s-1600s and the differences between one another. What did they do and wear etc.
Today I am very pleased with what I achieved. I knuckled down and got a lot of work done. I am a lot more knowledgeable into many tribes and how the different regions affected their ways life and houses. I still need to figure out if I want to make it so I have one set character like in the witcher or if I want to allow the player to customise. I think I am heading down the route of making the character already designed as it will be a lot more fun and easier to make artwork for as the character wouldnt be different in each piece of concept art.
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25/03/18
Goals: complete the posts that kyrstie and Josh advised posting. There is quite a list and the majority are movies so watch maybe two, but at least one then put on blog.
Today I did quite a lot of the posts that were on the sheets. However I didnt get around to watching any of the movies. I dont think that I will have enough time to actually watch the movies, so might have to watch the trailers and various clips taken from them. So long as I understand the premise I guess. I did however do the majority of the others like researching into modern day native Americans and Hollywood’s depiction of them. As well as the general racism towards them like in peter pan. I also now know what period in time I want to base my game concept on. I want it to be between 1500s-1600s. This was roughly what I wanted to do before although generally a lot of interesting things happened during 1800s which made me second guess my decision. Now I know what period I am basing it on I can narrow down the research and focus on that era.
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