BA5 - Character Design.

Ok so as I start a new project involving 3D character design I get really excited about all the possibilities that I could work with. So with any design process I start off doing silhouettes just to get some quick renditions of ideas down without getting too pinned down by one idea.

 These are some of the very early ideas I came up with I wasn't really with any of the outcomes early on, I knew I wanted to create a creature that was more organic then metal plating or with Armour.

After really refining out some of my designs I tried t create a wide variety of different sized and shaped creatures. After getting incredibly frustrated with my outcomes I decided that it might be best just to practice in Zbrush and try coming up with concepts in 3D.

After a couple of attemps and many tutorials in and outside the classroom I started to get the hand of Zbrush.

RESEARCH

I love the Gears of War franchise for its high level of detail it puts into every aspect of the game but for me personally I have fallen in love with the design of the Locust. Being able to see the hard metal plates fused to the skin and the scaring of the tissue. I will definitely be bringing these qualities across to my work in my final outcome. 

Another favorite for creature design is the work of Guillermo del toro, This man has managed to capture my mind so many times when watching his films and I feel that I would be letting myself down if I didn't try adding such a dark fantasy element to my work.

After researching dark fantasy and monsters I thought to myself, what about Lovecraft?

Kniwing very little about the stories of Lovecraft I decided to go out and purchase the Necronomicon.

As you may or man not know that the hearth of Lovecraft's mythos revolves around; 

Cthulhu, 

Azathoth, 

Yog-Sothoth.

So after doing a lot of research on these subjects I started to realise I wanted to do some kind of aquatic creature. This way I could get away with having more abstract looking shapes and colours and still make it fit within the lore of my world.

 So this was a concept image I came up with after doodling on the back of a letter and took it one step further into photoshop. I wasn't really happy with this because it looked to much like Abe Sabian from the Hellboy series. I did like the incredibly long legs though and gave me a lot of ideas for different body types.

This was a quick 30min speed paint I had done for a challenge online (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1402563099961950/?fref=ts) that made me think about different ways of using textures on the character.

VIRTUES

As part of the project we were told that we had to incorporate one of the seven virtues into are characters main design. I chose Temperance, from the information I'd gathered I took that Temperance can mean; Restraint, justice, self-control along with the protection of others and there surroundings. 

I thought this would fit well with a character I was playing with in my free time that I could incorporate into the project. I wanted to create a sea guardian, a protector of the ocean and its life. It's name was going to be "The leviathan". 

MODELING

 After looking at my body refrences and concept images I used ZSpheres to bulk out the basic form of the character I wanted to create.

 Sculpting into the body I tried to create what looked like a muscular system to help me work out where objects would sit correctly on the body.

 I used the masking and extract tool to create clothing and started to create subtools which allowed me to add details against  the body.

 By slowly increasing the number of subtools I could add more objects to the form creating a unique form. I wanted to create something that was not symmetrical and even on both sides.

I attempted to create what looked like corral for some of the armor plating. I really liked the idea of having living plant life on my characters body.

This was my first outcome, after looking at it and receiving feed back I felt that the body was abit out of proportion. I also wasnt really happy with the head, I felt it looked to much like a reptile rather then a fish person.

 So I re-sized the body.

After looking at other influences that I found interesting such as the Film 'District 9' and comics such as 'Swamp Thing' I went back to the drawing board.

This is my my final design for the character, I am incredibly pleased with the outcome considering I've never done 3D character design before. I think I will definitely be taking this further in the future.

BA4 Project Creating a Game Design Document (Group Work)

NOTES:

Story:
Early story idea, set in ancient Tibetan time period.
The Empire of the land is in darkness and disrepair due to all knowledge of the past and future leaving the lands.

The Empire was once very powerful and prosperous due to the symbiotic relationship form between the people and the "bookworms". The "Bookworm" were blessed with all the knowledge of the world beautiful depicted all over their body for all to see whilst soring majestically over the Empire. They brought knowledge and inspiration to the people, making their life's happy and phosphorus and had so for many hundreds of years.

The Rulers of the land, twins, sister Jinpa (Generosity) and brother Wangchuk (Lord,mighty). The twins were very old, older then anyone else in the kingdoms, it is said by the people that the twin emperors are decedents of the Yeshi (wisdom) whom first formed the "bookworms" to breathe life into the people, freeing them from the first worlds torment.

Though a great undoing shook the realm. A monsterious storm descended apon the Empire causing carnage and chaos, the people struck with fear did their best to flee from the storm but the winds and the rain were to great. Buildings toppled, statues and colosuims ripped from the ground and tossed into the air as if to look like the rock was mearly paper.

Children crying, mothers screaming. The people doing the best they can to save the land which they called home. 

The twins did what best they could to protect the people using the knowledge of the world to prevent further distruction. Wangchuk ordering the guardsmen to bang the gongs rallying the protectors to hold up the outer walls to prevent the waters from bursting in. 

Whilst Jinpa spoke words of wisdom to the people giving them action and direction. 

For three days and three nights this lasted. Then the clouds parted

Tired and without hope the people returned to the streets. They look up into the sky's "The Bookworms, they have gone?!"

IDEA? Make the Yeshi a being that created the twins to resolve the problems in the world and to shed light and creativity to the people. 

Unfortunately each twin had there own views on how the world should be led and divided the world into factions. 

Thus the protagonist is introduced "the third twin?" You are summoned by the Yeshi to bring balance to the twins and educate the world how to advance further. 

(Very early concept of "Bookworm")

Mind board I've created to get a rough Idea of what I want the landscapes to look like.

Wangchuk believed he could use the knowledge of the "Bookworm" to create a colossal mechanical army to claim more of the world for his own needs. Though the chaos and the harm that was scarring the world drove the "Bookworm" away. So he plans to use the army to find and forcefully bring them back to the empire to save the land and restore his factories to working order.

(Early Concept of Wangchuk)

These are concept I had created for Wangchuk's army. Which unfortunately never made it to the final game.

Jinpa believes that the "Bookworm" needed to be left to form the world as they saw fit and that it would only benefit the people to listen and embrace their teachings to take the world forward, finding new life and working as one.

After some thought I decided it might be better if we had the twins to be both female this way it would break traditional gender role conventions and give us the chance to build upon strong female character roles.

These are just a handful of my personal favorites. I didn't want to create a unnatural female form for the "Twins" I wanted to create something that looked realistic to a certain extent. I was going for the very tall and slender form as if she was a teacher to small children looking up to her in class.

 

These are the final designs that I was most pleased with. I refined them from my previous models and then created more realistic images. 

Wyrms: 

These are the very first renditions of the Wyrms that I had sketched out so that the team could get a feel for what I was looking for. I always wanted a long trailing feel to the creatures as if they were ribbons or cloth much like the ribbons in the game "Journey".

Unfortunately my concept images did not make it into the final designs for the Wyrms, though due to the input of the team we were able to create more unique designs.

These are the final designs I had selected for the Wyrms. I really liked the flat faces for the creatures because this was in keeping to my original idea of having the creatures covered in text of the knowledge through out the world. This way we could use the faces like unrolled parchment or script.

The final design was a collaboration piece between Lennon Chapman and Mikey Gledhill.  

Rewriting the story:

There once was and Empire strongest and mightiest of all upon the world, It was the stronghold to the Twins of Yeshi, Queens that had descended down from the skies to rule and bring order and unity to the people in darker times. The wealth of the empire was that of the knowledge given to them by the "Bookworms". Beings created by the Twins to show that the world was and had always had a living mind, controlling and deciding the fate of all that set foot onto it.

This was all but to tempting for the Vinayakas. A group of horrific tormentors that had grown unnatural obsession with the people of the empire, the hunger to torture had grown to strong to control. The creatures would massacre people in the night, dragging families from their beds for all to hear the screaming and punishments in the streets.

Then one evening something happened. Something that would cause the Empire to shift. The Twins managed to capture one of the Vinayakas.
"Release me!" Screeched the beast. "You know not what will happen when they come for me."
"Be quite beast, we have no time trying to negotiate with you. You are a lost cause." Kunchen (All Knowing/ Head strong) turns to walk towards the guard. "Make sure it never see's the light of day for the rest of its days.
The guards approach the cages, when like lightening the Vinayakas tears of its bottom jaw and holds it to the guards throat. "Hahaha we told you, now you've made us very unhappy. We think you deserve a special punishment."
The Vinayakas lets out an piercing scream. The trees to the north-east board start to move as if something is racing towards the Empire.
"Here we come."  

A disfigured hulk of a beast started hammering at the gates. The beat of his fists against the stone could be felt in the chests of all around. The only thing louder then the roars of terror from the Vinayakas are the cries from the people.
The gates erupt into pieces a smear of flesh and fur rush up toward the temple.

General Ideas:

Central plot -> recover/ discover locations of the worms.
Awake in a glade, explore your way to the empress.
Tasked with the finding worms before the emperor.
Hunt ancient artifacts that will lead you to the worms.
On the side gather artifacts and learn of their history and relevance, can view all treasures in museum.

Many artifacts hidden or protected by puzzles, riddles etc. Indiana Jones style.
Through artifacts you discover that no new events can happen when the worms are gone, life is stuck in eternal limbo (aging/death etc still occur but state of the world cant advance, no new world knowledge can be learned.)

Your path takes you to the Emperor who has captured the worms, planning to use their knowledge to create weapons.

Finding the worms near death, you discover they feed on knowledge, use gathering artifacts to find them.
Emperor in rage unleashes an army of constructs.
Race back to Empress and give her the news.
Prepare for war by helping people gain faction trust etc. Can also carry on adventuring for treasure no time limit.

Quick thought, what if wangchuk comes across some artifacts that release an evil power being into the world? Could change pace of the game? Dramatic shift?

Quick Idea I had for the villagers.

Museum Research:

As part of our brief we were required to look at some artifacts exhibited in the Sainsbury's Museum in Norwich. My group and I wondered throughout the halls searching for inspiration when we came across these figures. 

I personally like these figures due to there form and decorative appeal. I feel they are very eye catching with their intricate details and marking and have such a rich cultural background. I will be exploring the meaning of the figures along with its cultural heritage to hopefully grasp a better concept of the era and region which they come from.  

Visual Aesthetics:

These are some of the cultural influences I used when producing work for the characters and levels for the game. I wanted to keep a very strong Tibetan feels throughout the game as I felt the vibrant colours and designs were very eye catching and attractive.

As I gathered a collection of images to inspire our team to imagine buildings and landscapes for the project I worked closely with Mikey Gledhill in order to get some really strong concept images to present to the lectures and the team to make sure we were all on the same page when generating ideas.

 (Mikey Gledhill)

 (Mikey Gledhill)

(Mikey Gledhill)

  We were really pleased with the outcomes. This made it easier for us to convey what kind of people would live here and how they would interact with the world around them. 

Mechanics:

When coming up with mechanics Lennon Chapman and I wanted to create something that felt natural and very fluid to the gamer yet still have the accuracy to preform challenging puzzles.

(Lennon Chapman)

 We used the PlayStation 3 controller as a starting point as we felt most comfortable with it. Whilst looking at other games with high athletic qualities and controls such as Assassins Creed, Mirrors Edge and Beijing Olympics 2008.

(Lennon Chapman)

(Lennon Chapman)

(Lennon Chapman)

One of the core ideas we wanted to explore was the idea of precision foot placement when navigating puzzles. At first we played with the idea of you the player having control of all your limbs, being able to place them wherever you like with in the world. Though this led us to some problems such as being in the wrong place during key events in game and missing important events, along with the possibility of miss placing your set so badly that you made the puzzles impossible to complete.

So we settled on the idea of you having to press select buttons to move to certain areas. This was the easiest possible outcome we could come up with for the character and the puzzles.

Character:

Lennon and I had lots of fun coming up with the protagonist. Now knowing that we needed someone who was going to be very athletic and slender along with having to fit with the Tibetan styles we wanted to create an elemental Golum create.

We decided early on that we wanted to create something that wasn't gender specific. We felt is unnecessary to create a male or female character considering that the elemental was going to be created by the twins to complete the tasks and puzzles set.

  

We explored the materials we could have have the golum made of. After asking both friends and family the most popular face was the pointed stone face with the blue eyes. (number 4 from left)

After having a discussion on what we thought the body should look like, we collected some images making mood board to get a rough idea of form. Then I let everyone know I was looking for something that looked like its was still growing into itself and using what it had around it when first created to form itself. Just like when you see plants grown through cracks in concrete and when trees engulf industrial estates.

This is the incredible final design created my Lennon Chapman. If you wish to see the design process please click on his name to jump to his blog. 

(Lennon Chapman)

I am really pleased with the way the character came out I feel It met what I was asking for very well and really like that the idea of having natural plant life grown across the body to create the robe and 'clothing' whilst rock and stone is used to create a look of armor and muscle plates.

Vinayakas:

When thinking of what we could use as a villain for our game we wanted to create something true to the world we were looking to create. So we researched more into Tibet and what cultural influences we could use. We then learnt that they have a high Hindu population in Nepal so then started research into religions demons. Which lead us to the "Vinayakas." The Vinayakas are a group of four troublesome demons who created obstacles and difficulties within Hindu Beliefs. Which fit beautiful with the themes of our game.

(Joe Nestor)

(Joe Nestor)

This is Joe Nestor's final design for the Vinayakas. We spoke in depth about different designs for these characters, we really wanted to create something that was really odd looking and brutish but also clumsy and comical. We wanted to steer away from making the characters looking to demonic and iconic to things already created so we came up with several designs before we finally concluded with this.