Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

November 26th:: P5 Beginnings

Project 5: Portfolio

Design a 'presentation' portfolio for the world/characters. Portfolio must be printed and bound in some fashion, in format of the designer's choice. Decide in terms of 'pitching' a story/set of characters/world to game executives. Must include all project content (concepts/sketches).

Idea 1:

The initial idea for the portfolio was to print and make a booklet to display the designs and information, but thinking in terms of 'pitching' an idea, it would be better to print all the created content (images, information/storyline, sketches, concepts) and arrange them in a way that makes sense on one or two large poster-board pieces to 'display' the components of the course.

In some of my research into looking into formats, game designs are often pitched with using lots of visual elements with text minimal. To make my piece make sense, I want to both include all the imagery as well as the character biographical information and the storyline so all the characters are seen as cohesive and connected to each other.

For the sake of the portfolio, I'll probably work out more sketches/poses/outfits for the characters that'll stay 'sketchy' and hand-drawn, as well as possible color exploration with markers or pencils. These images may be included on the final piece either on the material they were drawn on, or scanned in and printed like the other pieces. I'm leaning towards scanning and printing just to keep everything consistent.

The posterboard/book board would be large sheets of black that I can mount on most likely, to keep it simple and straightforward.

Idea 2:

11 x 17 (whereabouts; possibly 11 x 15) booklet 'pages' that can be flipped through. Running footer throughout the booklet for coherency that contains name, contact information, project information. Character names can be listed on the respective character names.

Think of typographical treatments;
Use Centaur contrasted with Helvetica Neue

Elements:
  • Title & Table of Contents
  • Overview/Explanation of Classwork
  • Cover page for 'Characters' - Thinking the 'front' shaded views of each character.
    • Section for Trinesta Avery (Reference Sheet)
      • Information on Trinesta Avery
      • Expression Sheets of Trinesta Avery
      • Concepts, Sketches, Alternate outfits of Trinesta Avery
    • Section for Adrian Kalos(Reference Sheet)
      • Information on Adrian Kalos
      • Expression Sheets of Adrian Kalos
      • Concepts, Sketches, Alternate outfits of Adrian Kalos 
    • Section for Leonidas Cyzarine
      • Information on Leonidas Cyzarine
      • Expression Sheets of Leonidas Cyzarine
      • Concepts, Sketches, Alternate outfits of Leonidas Cyzarine
  • Map Page for the 'World' they live in (come up with name of 'world')
    • Mark on Map where each of them reside originally + where they reside as the story starts to unfold a bit more
  • Digital Painting(s) of the world/environments
    • Sketches of the world?

Reference Material:

  • http://www.edge-online.com/features/how-pitch-your-game-publishers/

November 26:: P4 Finals

Final design/Images of 'Leonidas', for 'Character Design #3

Reference Sheet:

Flat Colored:


Shaded:

Expression Sheets:




Full Name: Leonidas Cyzarine
Pronunciation of their name(first, middle/middle names and last): Lee on eye das  See zar rinn
Title(Mr./Mrs./Lord/Lady/Sir/) Lord, Prince
Nickname(s): Leo, Leon

Sex:
Male
Race/species: Human (Some Lion characteristics)
Age(and how old they look): 8, looks 8-10
Mental age: acts 14-15
Orientation/Sexual preference:Straight
Height: 3' 10"
Weight: 55 lbs

Eye color(s):
blue-green (could be described as sea-green or teal)
Contacts?: n/a
Glasses?: n/a

Face shape:
round
Describe their eyes: large eyes
Describe their nose: small, button-like
Describe their lips: average
Ears(pointed, cat, etc.): normal

Body build(slim, muscular, etc.):
average
Body abnormalities(Cleft lip etc.): n/a
Extra extremities(Another arm, tail, horns etc.) whiskers

Hair color(s):
blonde
Hair length:
shoulder length
Hair style: curly/wavy

Skin/fur color(s):
fair
Complexion: fair
Patterns/designs(on skin/fur and where they are, such as a zebra stripe pattern): n/a
Scars: n/a
Birthmarks(and what they are/were): lion emblem as a mark of royalty that is passed through the royal bloodline, located on his back along his left shoulder-blade
Tattoos(what they are and where: n/a
Piercings(what they are and where): n/a

Mental state:
stable
Personality snapshot: trusting, curious, easily angered/frustrated, brave, stubborn
Most prominent personality trait: curiosity or stubbornness
Best traits of their personality: curiosity leads to uncovering information that others would miss
Worst traits of their personality: curiosity leads to finding out truths that he would probably wish he never discovered

Current faith(religion):
used to have faith in his country and his father's rule; now his faith is broken


Alignment(good, evil, etc.)
Good

Marital status(Single, married, dating, etc.)
single

Occupation:
Prince

Abilities(As in powers):
none currently, but will develop some later on; runs in his bloodline
Special skills(Not meaning powers): Excellent Marksman
Hobbies: Archery

 Project Synopsis:

Creating the prince was a much easier process than creating Adrian and in some ways Trinesta. I've always had a talent for creating more 'feminine' characters which might attribute to the ease of creating a large eyed feminine-like child figure. Leonidas was the first kind of 'spur of the moment' character that I literally had no foundation to build on like I did with Adrian or Trinesta. Those two earlier ones were characters I've had in the works for about a year, but had nothing solid for them for the most part besides wanting a 'witch' like character and a partial gryphon hybrid. Also Leo's name came quite a bit easier since I enjoyed the pun on Leo meaning Lion, and the royal bloodline of this world having lion traits. It seemed only fitting.

Leo's clothing took the most thought and work of the three, and I had to really brainstorm and re-do it a few times before I came up with something practical. I would have liked to make his scarf red, but in terms of game characters, red usually signifies the main character which would be Trinesta, not Leonidas. Thinking about it though, if this whole scenario ever was a game, it might be a neat idea to 'switch perspectives' with the characters, so that the 'main focus' could switch between Trinesta and Leonidas. Leonidas' royal attire was the first outfit I had sketched up, so he already has 'two outfits' unlike the others.

I found the most difficult/challenging thing to work with for Leonidas was getting his color scheme cohesive and making sense with the storyline of him being 'in hiding' and hanging around with Trinesta and Adrian. Having bright red clothing in a forest for example would really stand out. The other challenging thing with Leonidas was his hair. His hairstyle is significantly more detailed than Trinesta or Adrians, so it took a lot more time to render, in addition to the fact that I don't normally draw curly hair so that in itself was a challenge to make it not look like a wig of some kind. Overall I'm very happy with Leonidas' character design.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

November 21st:: P4 WIPs

Full Name: x
Pronunciation of their name(first, middle/middle names and last): x
Title(Mr./Mrs./Lord/Lady/Sir/)
Lord, Prince
Nickname(s): x

Sex:
Male
Race/species: Human (Some Lion characteristics)
Age(and how old they look): 8, looks 8-10
Mental age: acts 14-15
Orientation/Sexual preference:Straight
Height: 3' 10"
Weight: 55 lbs

Eye color(s):
blue
Contacts?: n/a
Glasses?: n/a

Face shape:
circular, large eyes
Describe their eyes: x
Describe their nose: small, button-like
Describe their lips: average
Ears(pointed, cat, etc.): normal (lion??)

Body build(slim, muscular, etc.):
average
Body abnormalities(Cleft lip etc.): n/a
Extra extremities(Another arm, tail, horns etc.) whiskers

Hair color(s): blonde

Hair length:
shoulder length
Hair style: curly/wavy

Skin/fur color(s):
fair
Complexion: fair
Patterns/designs(on skin/fur and where they are, such as a zebra stripe pattern): n/a
Scars: n/a
Birthmarks(and what they are/were): n/a
Tattoos(what they are and where: n/a
Piercings(what they are and where): n/a

Mental state:
stable
Personality snapshot: x
Most prominent personality trait: x
Best traits of their personality: x
Worst traits of their personality: x

Current faith(religion): x
Current superstitions/quirks: x


Alignment(good, evil, etc.)
Good

Marital status(Single, married, dating, etc.) x


Occupation:
Prince

Good habits: x
Bad habits: x

Abilities(As in powers):
x
Special skills(Not meaning powers): Excellent Marksman
Hobbies: Archery






Expression sheets are based (with some minor spillage that needs to be fixed) and the reference sheet is based, except for the side view. The shading needs to be done on my alternate program on my home machine, so today I'm going to finalize the color scheme and the information for the character, so that all will be left for Tuesday's due date is shading the reference sheet over the weekend.

Reference Material:

  • http://loreal-dam-front-resources-corp-en-cdn.brainsonic.com/ressources/afile/1341-95ee3-picture_photo-color-chart-displaying-66-skin-tones.html
  • http://www.latest-hairstyles.com/images/chart/nutrisse-color-chart.jpg

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

November 19:: P4 WIPs





All images are outlined now, besides the side view of the character for the reference sheet. Today I'll be working on getting that view drawn and scanned, possibly also lined for thursday. I'll also be base coloring all the images today, so I can play with palettes for his full outfit.

This project is set to be due next week, 11/26 before break. Therefore the shading will be tackled over the coming weekend.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

November 14th:: P4 WIPs



I have the front and the back of the prince's 'casual' outfit completely fleshed out. I sketched out the front of his 'royal' attire as well, though I don't think I'll do the back/side view for that one. I will probably at least line and base it though, as an added bonus for the prince's two outfits.

Today I'm going to try and sketch out the side view of the prince, as well as sketch out 12 expressions for his two expression sheets. For tuesday, I'm hoping to have at least these two sketches lined as well as at least 1/2 if not all of the expression sheets lined. The goal for this project/character is to be done by Tuesday 11/26 so I can spend that class period working on how to format the projects in a proper manner for the final display.

Reference Material:

  • http://www.halls.md/ideal-weight/met.htm
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_weight