Task 5 - Scar night

Scar Night!

For nine hundred generations, the city of Deepgate has hung suspended by giant chains over a seemingly bottomless abyss. In the unfathomable darkness below is said to reside the dread god Ulcis, ‘hoarder of souls’, with his army of ghosts. At the centre of the city itself rises the Temple, where  a youthful angel lives, Dill, the last of his line. 
Descendant of heroic battle-archons, yet barely able to wield the great sword he has inherited from his forebears, he lives a sheltered existence under the watchful eye of Presbyter Sypes, who rules the Temple. For despite his sense of purposelessness, Dill has a destiny about to unfold.

When first reading scar night i was not blown away with the story telling i found that characters within the first part of the book were too seperate and each chapter jumped from character to character, for example you would be with the character Dill on minite and with the character Mr Nettles the next, hich made it difficult for me to imagine the world of deep gate and the environment. One character that i did visualise rather well was dill and his spine assasin protector Rachel.




The Assignment!

After reading scar night i was given a brief asking me too think back to when i first saw and read about Rachel, i was asked to design rachel and create two character sheets, one of ideas and the other of the final idea.
So i knew it was important to go back to when i first saw her in the book and see how she was described!

" A young woman stood waiting for him by the fireplace, small, gaunt, her fair hair drawn back severely from her face and woven into a plait.  She was bereft of jewellery, and wore beaten leathers bristling with weapons. A worn hilt  jutted from the scabbard on her back, blue throwing knives and silver needles ran the length of her leather-sheathe forearms, while her belt held poison pouches, a blowpipe and three stubby bamboo tubes tarnished with age."

After reading this a few times i got a few ideas of what i would want her too look like, and it is very important that i take maybe not all aspects of the description on board but a lot of them i will.


My Design!


This is the design sheet that i created when thinking about designing my Rachel character, you can see that i have just quickly sketched a few poses that i believe her character would be pulling throughout the book.  The first is just a stood pose, the pose is strait backed and standing tall, this pose would show the respect that she thinks she deserves from her fellow assassins and also Dill, this could be the pose from when Dill first saw her. The second pose shows how quickly she is ready for action and could be a battle pose from her,  I drew a spine with a skull at the top and the reason i did this was because she is a member of the assassin group named 'Spine' and this could be a nice design for the armour that she wears or a spine design could even link all her pieces of armour.

I used a brush to add a splash of colour too my idea sheet, i have chosen colours that could be used for her armour, hair and other things such as her cape and accessories like her knives, needles and poison pouches.  I know that in her description she does not have a cape however the brief was about my interpretation of Rachel, i believe that her appearance such as her hair, her posture and her accessories are all a part of who she is and need to be kept when designing her, however a cape is used in fantasy films, books and games to create a mystical feel to a character which is why i chose to at least give a cape a go for Rachel.

This is a screen shot that i took when trying too add some detail to my character, as it stated in the book along her leather sheathes she had needles and knives, i decided to split the needles and the knives on to different arms and this is just to make her look more spread out and make sure there is detail on each arm, i have chosen however to add metal armour and sheathes.

The screenshot below shows the metal knives on the other arm, they are all connected with in the armour by a connector between the metal shoulder and mid arm armour.

I then began adding in the detail onto the armour, it had come to my attention that i have been so focused on getting my pre-portions and scale correct that i have on previous characters rejected adding in detail.  In my ideas sheet i came up with an idea that because Rachel was an assassin for Spine then maybe some parts of her armour could replicate that.  I simply used another layer too add the detail, as you can see the shadows are coming off the detail showing not that it is raised above the armour but also the angle of the lighting that is coming from the top left corner.

The Final Set!


I think that overall my final images of Rachel are really good, i think that my pre-portions and poses are getting better, as you can see the back view is darker, the reason for this is that the light is in front of her creating shadows and darkness, i have used shading so that it gives the idea of perspective and depth to my images.  I think that the detail is what needs working on the most, i think that the spine themed armour and the blood on the sword is what makes the images good but more details would be great!  Just getting used to adding detail is what is important.

I also like the way that i have used a slight shadow to show where the light is on the character, but all in all i feel that my skills are getting better with each assignment.

Task 6 -Weapons and Armour

I have been tasked with creating a suit of armour and array of weapons for a game, i realise that with computer games today armour and weaponry play a big part in not only recognising a game by its creative choices but also by the characters themselves and what they wear, creating a new demand for designers to create original and incredible designs for armour and weapons.

Inspiration and research!

I have played many games, and i have found that all have their own style however i believe that with certain genres there are more options available to designers, for example Assassins Creed has some great original weapons such as the hidden blade that is worn on the arm and extends out when stabbing an enemy.  However this is a game based on earth and reality, so is bound by the laws on earth, not allowing for as much leverage on the design since we could not have a weapon such as a plasma gun or lightsaber weapon as these are not real.  Where as game genres like Sci-fi allow the designer more leverage and input as more weapons can be created as it is not bound by the laws of science and reality.

This is an image from Dead Space, a science fiction game where the protagonist is cast into a world of darkness and the unknown, and because of the darkness a great symbol was created.  The armour lights itself, creating shape and definition from the armour itself.  This works well because of the setting, because it is dark we are able to see the armour more.  And we don't see the protagonist but because of the armour design and concept we get a grasp of the character anyway.

In this image we see a more detailed version of the armour and 'Plasma cutter'.  Dead space was different Isaac faced aliens but where in other games you are encouraged to just mindlessly shoot at enemies, Dead space encourages the player to find ways to dismember the aliens as this will kill them quicker and will save ammunition.  It because of this game mechanic and concept that gives even the weapons an identity of their own.  This is important as we can then become attached to weapons, and become better at using them and upgrading them.  In contrast to other games Dead space is original and different to other games because of its weapons and armour and gameplay.  Compared with other games based on earth with earth based laws such as physics and biology and even gravity weapons and armour seem dull when linked back with the Dead Space series.

With games such as Assassins creed, are earth based games set in the past, so here armour and weapons are what we would expect too see, because the armour is human made there is a lot of research into what it could look like, which differs to science fiction games such as Dead space where the imagination is used in creating weapons and original armour, i am not implying that games such as assassins creed are not creative because they are i am just stating that more rules are in place restricting what the designers can create.

As you can see from this image of Ezio from assassins creed 2, the armour is very minimal but very normal too us, with shoulder, arm and wrist armour, with shielded boots and legs. These pieces of arms look very aesthetically pleasing and the whole suit in general looks from the era that the game is based in.  However as the game is based at a certain point in history, so the design is also stuck in that era, making the armour for me not as inventive as in other games.
Also the weapons simple knives and swords, these weapons again will have to be stereotypical of the assassins creed era, i see a lot more detail in the Plasma cutter from dead space not because of the designers but because of the world that the game is set in is very restrictive. Which is why i have decided to create my weapons for a science fiction game, where the possibilities for design are endless as they are not bound by earth rules of science.









The plasma scythe and Plasma rifle.

I chose a scythe as my heavy weapon, and i did this because i have always loved the shape and colour of the scythe and i thought that it would be interesting to put a new and different spin on the weapon.  I have always admired the glow and the effects that this type of plasma glow has on the environment and again looking back at games like dead space where there is little ambient lighting, and so the weapons themselves become a light in the darkness which is what i enjoy about these weapons, inspiring me to create a plasma scythe.

I began by researching the grim reapers scythe and also farmers scythes that they use for farming and i found and used these as a slight reference for the shape of the scythe and the handle, however i began to think of interesting shapes for the blade and as you can see at the top of it there is a break in the blade, and i had a concept idea that a plasma beam would flow through the break in the metal however beginning too think how the player would use it in game made me realise this was not a viable concept.
However another concept that i had was that the plasma itself was running throughout the weapon, even powering it which is why i chose to have plasma glowing around the hold of the scythe, and also a concealed weapon is the bottom of the scythe where you can see it glowing, this  is a hidden plasma blaster allowing small bursts of plasma energy to be fired out the bottom, making the plasma scythe a formidable and lovely looking weapon.

My next task was trying to develop a design for a secondary weapon, as the primary (heavy) weapon was a melee weapon i thought to mix it up a bit and add some diversity to my designs i would design a plasma rifle, although the name is not too inventive it doesn't need to be as it does not differ that much from rifles at the minute, however i knew the plasma theme had to run throughout which is what makes it different from other weapons. As you can see from the screen shot there are two parts to the gun, the lighter part at the top that has the scope and sight is larger that the bottom half with the trigger and the barrel is slightly smaller, so i decided too add a glow of plasma coming from the top leaking out underneath the top of the gun, this keeps the theme running throughout the weapons.



Armour and aesthetics.

It was just as important to get the characters armours correct, it was important too me that the same theme of the plasma running throughout the armour, as if the player is special and only they can control the power of the plasma.

This was my final concept for the armour, this was my first attempt at hand painting a person instead of using line art to shape the body and colour.  It does slightly remind me of a super hero named Iron man with the heart glowing and pulses coming out his hands, however this was accidental and i feel that it still runs with the theme of controlling plasma. i think that the armour looks aesthetically pleasing with the padding to the left of the body and the glow coming from his eyes and body.  I have placed the plasma scythe on the back of my character to put it in pre portion with an actual character.

This is my final weapon design sheet, and as you can see all weapons have a certain glow too them, and because of the vibrant colour scheme that i have chosen, we can see that plasma runs through them all but also it helps the weapons look fresh and bold because of the glowing blues and greens against the harsh shades of black and grey.

Task 7 -Vehicle design

This week we have been asked to design a vehicle and the driver for a game, i understand that within games these days vehicles are a major part of most games with even full levels within and controlling a vehicle.  Games such as Gears of war and modern warfare.
However this is not a new concept with games such as Star fox adventures on the gamecube having full flying missions through space, giving another dimensions and breaks in the gameplay.  We were advised that animals were able to be a part of the vehicle, however we were instructed it was not a driver just on top of an animal, such as a Knight riding a horse, the design would have to be integrated into the armour of the vehicle.
I found this artwork of a spider vehicle climbing a massive cliff, and this is an example of a vehicle moulded around the shape and anatomy of an animal and using it too its full advantage.

This image again is from a website called Concept art world, and i have just found this website and i am finding it very useful. It allows me to search types of art that i need to take inspiration from.  I really like this vehicle it is a weapon and the sheer scale of the machine is what makes it great i really love the way we really see the scale of the mech because of the mountains around it and also the people in the boat on the lake.



This was another piece of concept art that i found from the website, this is a shape and design that i have grown too like.  I began looking at artwork from films and games like transformers however i think i need to be realistic of my drawing skills at the minute, i have seen tutorials and i know completing a drawing like that would not be possible at this time.  This design however has grown on me as i have looked back over war games that i have played and been inspired by and the main game was resistance on the PS3 and these machines really appeal to me, the scale and the power of the machine.  I like the way that all four legs help balance and keep the huge machine up, i can also see how i could make a vehicle like this look great as i believe my abilities could achieve a piece of artwork to this standard.

Task 8 - Environment concept

Task 9 - Style mixing