Final Piece

My final piece was designed around a image i got in my head of a landscape that shows the city she is in as well as a pose that makes her look strong but not in combat again. I thought maybe if i had her sitting on a box or create it with a tough pose might give the muscularity as well as leaving plenty of room around the image to produce landscape.

Because i didn't use composition on my last image i wanted to use it on this one, I ending up choosing the Iconic 'Pay off' compomatstion as its mainly used to focus onto a single area, which is how i want my main focus to be on the whole of the character. What i did was i drew composition lies on a separate layer in which when i painted my character i could refer to so parts of the body could follow those lines.

I kinda could feel that light would come towards her but i didn't want to make it to plain with most of the image light so i moved the lighting lightly to the left so it would allow for some shadow.



From here i then chose to place a background into the scene which was the point i accepted that she would sit on an ammo box to make her seem more dangerous. I wasn't sure on the background to start with so i just drew in basic colour to see what i could do.


It was at that point the colours made me think that it could be a glass window in a tower behind her allowing me to experiment more with lighting and show distance in the image instead of being a solid wall. I had to remember basic principles with windows and light like how light the bounce off of her would and might bouce back in shadow areas giving off a reflection, also some light could reflect back and give a slight blue tinge to her sides.

Because i spent a lot of time on this one image i was able to add a lot of detail and make her feel like a fully thought out concept. I edited the background so that she could again could fit in the Iconic composition.


My final result was this image in which im proud of and i feel it sums up both the character of who she is and what she is like as well as giving a clue to what area she is in.

Preparing for final piece

To prepare myself for designing a final piece i wanted to a first final piece so that i could then take it and then developing it better. I created a pose that i thought would sum up the character and at the time was her in almost combat, I designed her to be hidden behind a wall in cover with gun ready for combat.

My idea was that being ready for combat shows her strong and masculine side of her but also showing her body and her feminine face. The image would also show off her assets e.g Weapon, tool belt and headgear. because of time limit i overally rushed this concept as i wanted to spend more getting good deal on my final image and you can see it as a result on the image. Another issue on the image was i didn't use any comasition on the character making it less of an interesting piece.



I also didn't take to much of an account for lightening for the background, these are things that i need carry out when designing my final piece to make it a lot stronger and make it more than another character image. I can see now how these parts could change my work for the better.

Model sheets

there are two popular sheets that designers use, these are Model Sheets and Animation sheets now both these are often mistaken for each other but what we have been asked to produce is a model sheet. A model sheet shows a character from 4 different angles, Front, Back, side and 3/4 perpective. This is so that when designing a model of a character or design another designer can see how the character would look around the body of the piece not just guess what they might look like from the front image. Its also used to keep continuity of the character or object as in a company might go through many different designers.

Model sheet example:

http://www.animationbrain.com/2D/46basics.JPG


This is a model sheet showing what a character looks like from different angles ready to be used to create a model of the character.

This is my character sheet:

more sketches for style sheet

I wanted to see what my character would look like full bodied but to make it more visually interesting i wanted to have her in a pose that should show her in action and showing that she would be involved in combat during the game. I used a similar style to to how i make my silhouettes. I created a black pose underlay and used the shapes to design the outfit, keeping to the other designs.

The pose was to show combat and to show my weapon design in use for the character to how she would hold and to see if it would suit her.




I feel that it works the weapon looks about the right size and balances out her shape and size. It makes it look like she can handle a big gun but also its not to big, also makes her look more masculine and dominate in combat.

Other designs i did were:


using equipment to help access information to tell your character what to do. This picture would show kinda her animation as she is reaching for wires and screens to locate information to help you the player to the next level.



This image next shows how the character when sitting and working like in the image above has a knack and that is to twist and crack her wrist as she is always typing or working using her hands giving her repetitive strain, makes her look like she has been doing it for a long while and if she is finding life hard as she would as she is meant to be hiding and trying to survive.

Style Sheet

Before i start to full concept my character i have to still design what she looks like and how she would look like in different poses and how she might have certain characteristics. I tried to draw both quick ideas focusing on her outfit and other more slightly detailed images that focus on her when she is in action. Some poses give more example to what she is like compared to others.



This image was me trying to see what she would look like more worked up and slimmer less baggy that my colour thumbnail design.I also put her in a pose that would show whats she is like, because my character is meant to be more technologically smart and hiding i can see her always sitting down with some sort of technology and fiddling and fixing equipment preparing and helping you for when you arrive. This pose kinda connotes how she is confined but works hard.

This next series of sketches show, just the design of what she might look like, headshape, hair look and style form different angles and her face.

Finished Weapon concept

I started to design my weapon by creating basic line work to show were different parts will be and help to define levels. It also ment that i could use the line work to block out colour easy so that i could get an understanding of different tones and what they would look like together.

My line gun:



I like the design it does appear to be heavy on one end but i can counter this by using light metal so it look heavy but isn't, size denotes power and making it appear big makes it appear powerful. The design is for my character and its more of a personal created weapon for her but i didn't want to make it colour and decorated personal i wanted to make it just custom weapon for the character, so it would appear to be well used and similar to her style. I also did a small front view to remind me were areas would stick out 3d like so that it does appear flat when i paint it.

My painted image:



This is my coloured version, i added details like scratches to make the gun to appear used and old so that you can tell she has had a hold of it for a while making it more personal. I created a torch on the under the barrel to show how the player can use the weapon at night or in dark situations. Other details include how the weapon work like i added a cartridge slot at the side of the gun so that the player went reloading would place a cartridge clip in the slot then when the ammo is empty it would pop out enough to be pulled out and replaced. I added gun prints to show parts like warning and ammo location. I also made them worn so that were the ammo would have rubbed and strached against it. It helps the gun to appear more realistic. I wanted to take an idea from the modern gun the G11 which its shells are incinerated and disburst as dust from the gun meaning that no burning hot metal is ejected from the weapon like most of todays weapons. This makes the gun seem more realistic in the time period.

Designing my weapon asset

After completing my 100 silhouettes i needed to fully concept a weapon into a asset that my character could use. This means that making the gun appearance to both fit the time period, style and look as if it could be real is important. Due to my timelimit i don't want to spend to much time focusing and refining lots of silhouettes like i did for my character so i am only going to choose one weapon to refine. Luckily there was one design that i thought looked better than the rest which caught my eye, the design was small but looked like to could be powerful which related to the type of character i want to make.

When designing weapons is important not to copy other designs and also to keep within the style and time period of the game, as my game is based in the future, weapons would be more technologic advanced. Its also important to keep the iconic view of the weapon you are creating so that when a player picks up the weapon by the look of it they have a clue of what type it is.

Other games that have good future weapons and have done well in designs for purpose are games like Halo, Mass Effect, Time splitters, Unreal tournament. Some games weapons get extremely popular and then always compared to other weapons in other games. The Halo 'assault rifle' was extremely popular and dispite it not being in the 2nd game it was brought it back for the 3rd game due to popular demand from the fans.

series of game weapons similar to what i want to create:

Halo 'assault rifle'

http://images.mocpages.com/user_images/16128/12434247271_SPLASH.jpg

Mass Effect Rifle

http://gadgetsin.com/uploads/2011/01/mass_effect_2_m8_avenger_assault_rifle_paper_craft_1.jpg

The weapon i want to design to me feels more like it could be a shotgun, so i want to look at the shape and understand the look of a shotgun today.

AA-12 one of the most modern shotguns today.