Final Submission Notes

Final Major Project - 30/05/20 - HAND IN UPDATE

As I previously emailed my tutors about, I was having a lot of technical difficulties in getting a link to my ebook. As a solution, I had to create a shareable link that takes the viewer to lucidpress to log in in order to see my document. I hope this is sufficient. I also uploaded my PDF and everything else that was required.

On another note. I realised after my hand in that I had completely forgotten to include a small section of my work in my book. I have no excuse for this, it just left my mind somehow. I will be posting that left over work on this blog post and will email tutors about this.

Overall, this whole project came to a very anticlimactic end. I was unable to complete parts of my work. It was extremely hard to work from home, especially when we were unable to go out as usually we would. I also emailed Teo but I don't know if she ever received my emails as I never got a reply or confirmation. It's been a real challenge to push myself to keep working but I did what I could and hopefully I am not lacking too much.


The unpublished work:


The main character of the game (Val) has been bestowed with the powers of the ancients. This gives her unique abilities. Sneak, Movement, and Shielding (which I was not able to produce work for).

I started by sketching Val and then experimented with shapes and different layer types to determine the visual effect that comes with her ability to move things. Note that this power is not telekinesis. Val can only increase force on an object temporarily. For example, a pile of rocks could be manipulated to tumble or a broken tree trunk could be pushed to fall over.

I chose yellow because it is associated with energy.

I was having a hard time designing something that I felt was right, so I moved on to the next power: Sneaking. Val can use this power to bring her shadow to the surface world in order to avoid being seen by enemies. At first I began with some smoky shadow idea, and then thought about having her switch places with her mirrored self from the "shadow land". 

So that is all the work that was left out of the book by accident. Thanks for reading. 

Final Major Project Update – 21/05/20 – Forest Deities

 

I recently finished work on the deities that can be found around the environment and at native settlements, where the main character can “pray” in order to level up skills etc.

I began with inspiration from clay sculptures and pottery from Africa, as well as pottery from the Jomon period of Japan. With these in mind, I sketched 6 iterations of what the sculptures would look like. I made sure to give them all the same trait of having 4 eyes, and a head crest, to relate to the natives and creatures.

I got some feedback from my peers and concluded that the final design should be sturdy and not too delicate, as most of these “shrine deities” are old and scattered through nature. I chose the top right to be the basis of my final design.  I moved to Zbrush next to sculpt the final version. I thought it would be much faster and easier this way to edit and show different views. I mostly used the clay build up, dam standard, move, and trim dynamic brushes. After, I applied some materials and then screenshotted some angles to move back to photoshop.

Next, I added more realistic lighting and texture using textured brushes on multiply and overlay layers. I also painted moss on top. I then made an aged iteration. I created a new layer in Zbrush to subtract chunks of the model and make it appear broken and worn. I took this back into photoshop and edited the colours and shadows.

I took this aged version and added glowing lights to some areas, showing how it would react when “praying” at it.

Lastly I quickly bashed this guy into one of my own photographs to give a rough example of how they could be found. The environment is not as tropical as the in-game environment would be though.

 I really like how this little guy came out, I would like to do a couple more versions but I am quickly moving to my next task.

Final Major Project Update – 21/05/20 – Main Character master dump

 

It’s been a long time since my last post, the world has been strange, and everything has become more difficult. I have been working from my university house now for almost 2 months and it has been anything but relaxing and easy going. Doing work in the same spot you also relax, play, eat, and sleep in is not the most effective way to get things done and it has been a real struggle, hence me momentarily neglecting my blogging duties.

But, here is a compiled post of all the work I haven’t posted of my main character design development, as I realised a little bit ago that I had actually forgotten to post about her after I had done some work on her.

So, after I finished the general block-out for her outfit, I actually came back to the design of her face after taking feedback from my tutors. I needed to give her face and hair a bit of wear and tear, and so I sketched a whole new face for her and experimented with scars and dirt etc.

I chose the far right face, and the added detail of greyish hairs and metal accessories in her hair to keep it tied up.

Next I sketched her in more detail in her outfit, and tried a couple slightly varied colour schemes.

From this, and feedback, I gathered that she needed more detail and a colourway that wasn’t so murky, so it wouldn’t blend in with the “enemies” which have a muted colour scheme.

I also had to concentrate more on the design of her back, because this is the area that players will be seeing most of the time. After sketching a design for the back, I decided to add a knife, because what kind of wilderness-exploring creature-hunting person would she be without a simple hunting knife.

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After my formative feedback (which I found very helpful), I came back to my main character to work on the colours and details. Inspired by Horizon Zero Dawn concept art, I drew the character with her layers of clothing and detail being added in steps so I could compare easily and see how everything would fit together and add to the previous silhouette. I found using small silhouettes helpful. This is why I added details like the claws on her leather shoulder guard, and the feathers on her sleeve.

I then used photos of fabrics to create a more tactile looking texture, which I then adjusted into a desired colour. I realised it was still looking mute, so I made a copy and turned up the saturation. I also adjusted the brightness and contrast of certain garments, after using a colour layer to view what the values were like in black and white.

I did the very same process for the back of the character. I’m quite pleased with the outcome, as I think it is a good combination of practicality and visual interest. 

Of course there’s a lot more I could do and improve and continue upon, but I needed to hop to the next task. I decided early in my project as well that I would not be doing a male version as I felt in no longer made sense, and would eat up time I could spend on developing things like my creatures and native more.

Thanks for reading!