Game Art - Character Development WIPS

I'm writing this while dosed up to the eyeballs with assorted painkillers... I'm not even sure that they are really working, but I'm positive I'd be feeling a lot worse if I weren't taking them. Back spasms... not a fun thing to be afflicted with, and they seem to keep cropping up. I should really take my body's hint and start exercising.

Up until the aforementioned back problems, work on the current assignment was going slowly but steadily. It has been tough fighting against my fear of Adobe Photoshop, and equally tough trying to establish a working method to make a final image work out.

So this would be my initial character sheet layout. Organized into rules of 3, I decided a large image of the character in his suit would be accompanied by some further images of the character in profile and portrait shots without the larger suit, and some images demonstrating the suit in action and how it appears from the inside. Thumbnail below -:

I hit upon the snag of the suit not measuring up when I attempted to iterate on the thumbnail sketches, and this resulted in a little impromtu reworking to try and gain a better resemblance to the diving suit inspirations... at least in terms of how a human body would fit into something so large and bulky. I also started designing the character himself. I did bad by adding colour, but I was struggling to work out how things went together otherwise.

Around this time, my back started playing up, and has made the task of doing my work a lot more problematic. I'm at the point now where I've done some shadow work ready to be iterated upon and finalised as soon as the pain subsides. I found myself working with the shadows by creating a dark silhouette and steadily applying lighter shades, it worked a lot better for me than adding darker colours onto a white background.

That is about all I have right now. Fingers are crossed I'll be able to feel well enough to get this done by Thursday.

Game Art - Character Development Images Part 2

A minor update to note down changes and ideas that have developed since the last post.

I have more or less decided to focus entirely on the space themed character, mostly because I want to spread my wings just enough to try and work on an artstyle I want to develop rather than playing more safely with a cartoon artstyle I already know I can pull off (Without being boastful!). Besides that, I have found myself rather interested in the ideas of making a heavyset (FATASS) character into an interesting design.

The bulky spacesuit design has also continued to mutate as I found difficulty in making a large domed torso work with arms and legs that could still function normally. I could very well have worked out a method of making this work if I felt inclined... however, my diving suit moodboard I lovingly knitted together with all the tenderness of a man beating a squirrel with a rock... took me down a different route of designing the suit. So this first image comes before I firmed up on the decision that I didn't want to work with a dome shape, and also features a rudimentary doodle of the man IN the suit.

Small sketches from a pocket notebook I carry around for quick drawing during journies

As I started trying to refine the design above into a larger image to add detail and accessories, I grew increasingly irked at how I couldn't feel that the suit was practical... and furthermore, the idea for the suit was increasingly becoming more of a powersuit that would feature additional components for long haul space walks and repairs in a zero gravity environment. I started referenced the diving suit moodboard and started to change the shape of the suit to allow for a greater range of arm movement.

Although these drawings are far from complete, I started to make the domed compartment of the suit more rectangular, and used older diving suits as an inspiration for how to structure the rest of it. I soon decided to make the main arms a lot larger and longer than natural arms for tethering to surfaces or lifting larger objects, and add smaller arms for delicate work. I also started working more towards the idea of the suit being operated like a machine rather than an outfit, both for the character to work for long durations of time in a cockpit like environment, and to have a concrete idea of how any character could get into and out of the suit.

Again from my pocket sketchbook, a design I am more satisified with as well as demonstrating how the suit opens up.

  I will be uploading digital drawings in the next day or two, while right now I'm starting to work out the composition of the final piece due to be handed in on the 30th May. This is proving surprisingly difficult, although I am going to be speaking to the tutor some more on Thursday to discuss what I can do. I'm starting to look at images of spacewalks, which I feel would best reflect the function of the suit. I'm also going to be working on some additional, rougher images of the suit from different perspectives as well as the opened up suit as shown above... afterall, the assignment is about making ourselves into a character and I feel the suit with a visor would obscure that.

I'll have to see what else I can do (maybe add a screen 'head' on top of the suit that is connected to a videolink in the cockpit?) to get this done.

EDIT - Forgot to mention that I'm also considering keeping the suit fairly mechanical whilst being covered in fabric - akin to that on regular space suits as well as what seems to cover the International Space Station. I find it an intriguing idea to follow. 

Game Art - Character Development Images

Because I might as well. Some early sketches from the first few classes. I initially wanted to go with the cartoon look, but as I continued working on ideas, I've started leaning more towards a space theme... if only because I want to expand my range of art styles. I need to get to work on some actual designs rather than plain ideas.

Game Art - Character Development

Because I figure that writing this here would be better than making notes in my sketchbook.

The first week has now passed, and starting on Tuesday, we're going to be learning some photoshop basics. I know just about enough about the program to know that I have never really got on with it all that well. And certainly I know that I have never really grasped it.

To move a step backwards however, I will be uploading some sketches after the Tuesday lesson. For now, I'm going to write down some details about the characters I have devised based on myself. Because I didn't feel that it would be quite good enough for me to only do one design that I've already iterated on (but never finalised) over the years, I decided to create an alternative based on a vaguely more realistic look. I've gone so far as to imagine game genres as well.

So lets get to it.

1.
Name - Bill Dup
Age - Unknown
Role - Silent Protagonist (Communicates through a pet as well as with expressions of both exaggerated and subtle natures.)
Game Genre - Turn Based RPG/Puzzler
General Genre - Comedy
Occupation - Alteamist (Using the power of tea)
Art Style - 30's Animation.

An individual whom has spent a significant proportion of his life living on the Moon under self imposed exile, Bill Dup is socially awkward and cowardly by nature - although his deeply rooted sense of right and wrong are only just able to counter his cowardice.

After aliens invade the Earth and kidnap his friends, it soon falls upon Bill Dup to make use of his unique ability to unlock the power of tea to try and repel the extraterrestrial invasion. Even if he really doesn't want to be the one to take the lead.

 His actions can appear to be clumsy due to his difficulty in getting on with people, and he is also easily startled in unfamiliar locations.  

2.
Name - Franco
Role - Supporting Character
Game Genre - Horror
General Genre -  Science Fiction
Occupation - Engineer
Art Style - Relatively realistic.

Something of an improviser, Franco has been working on large scale space freighters for much of his life, he has learnt to largely cope on his own and keeps people at a distance from himself - mostly symbolised in the bulky large space suit that he uses.

As a supporting character, he fully cooperates with the protagonist after his trust is fully gained, and he assists in various small ways as required, being nervous about any detours from the chief objective of getting out of the space freighter alive. (I have nothing else to say right now)

Game Art Assignment 1 - 2D Character Art

Not got an awful lot to say about the subject itself so far, what with how surprisingly quickly we burst straight into the first assignment. The first assignment that is frankly a nightmare to me - I have to make myself into a character that is recognizable either literally or in say... traits. Like I said, a nightmare owing to being so far away from being a cool person, and my dislike of idealising myself into something more than I am.


I'm hoping to work on a couple of designs over the next few days. One of which will be a further refinement of Bill Dup, a character that already represents myself and normally cameos on scraps of paper or sketchbook work. Given the fellow has never been finalised, and the opportunity to really run with the Fleischer Studio art style I admire... I think I could do something fun.  I have plenty of ideas for Bill as it is, including his cowardice/nervousness and his occupation of tea making that would lend themselves to a character sheet well.


And after deciding that this assignment could be interpreted in a number of ways, I'm actually contemplating doing a design with a more realisitc art style... on the presumption that this imagined version of myself would be a member of a party rather than a hero in his own right. I feel compelled to do something space based, though whether based on an existing game franchise or something entirely made up, I'm still working on. I like the rougher feel of the future in Dead Space, but I also like the shiny sleekness of Mass Effect 2+.

I'm mainly writing this all down to tide things over until I do some proper writing and include some sketches and drawings. Whoop.