Task 1 - Myself as a character

An introduction to design and pre- 

-portions. 

For a few years now i have been trying to make my drawing and designing skills better, i have been given this assignment about creating a character sheet for myself in my favourite game.

Having looked at different ways of looking at pre portions and faces it was a relief when i got sheets helping me and explaining the pre portions, although the following images are not the greatest quality it is my first attempt at using the guidelines i have been given.

This is the front of the first character that i have thought about generating, as you can see i have left the pre portion lines and notes on so we know that the pre portions are correct.

I also tried to draw my first figure at another angle for the character design sheet, i know it is not the best drawing ever done however i do see this as a starting point. I can see that parts like the nose and chin maybe are not out enough but as a first try i think its a good start and my drawing skills can only get better from here.

Finding Inspiration

We were asked too look at our favourite games, myself it was Uncharted 3 i think that the gameplay, storytelling and graphics are incredible. Also watching videos on the game itself i found out that research is a big part of naughty dog games, from location and settings to clothes and design of characters at different locations around the world.

So i thought that i would start by looking at different locations in the game and look at some design and get my inspiration for my character from there.

This desert location is one that i have always admired, the sky, the sand and even the ancient architecture.  I have seen videos of the Naughty dog team actually going to the desert too see just how people would walk and crawl over the sand dunes. So then i began looking at the characters that were used in this location.

Thugs

Chloe Frazer

These were a couple of the concept art images that i found of characters from the desert part of the game. I knew that it was important too look at both males and females to get an idea of what clothes they wear, like jackets and scarves.

I also noticed that the men wear darker colours than the women, and this could link into semiotics and what i have learnt about signs and meaning within games and the real world. For example the fact that the women are dressed in bright (red) colours could show they are desirable, but can also show their venerability in certain cultures.  On the other hand the men are dressed in dark colours like blacks and blues, this shows us their dominance and when contrasted with the womens clothes their power over the women in the game.

This is an early concept design that i found of Nathan Drake the main character, and i don't want too look at him in particular as my assignment was too create myself as a character too fit with within the uncharted world.  However it does give me and idea of what my character could be wearing, again as semiotics has taught me he is a good character so is dressed in bright neutral colours, unlike the thugs dressed in blues and blacks above.  So this will be something i will have to take into consideration when looking at myself am i good? or bad?

This type of scarf is used in the desert part of the game, i found this image off google and is the stereotypical scarf worn by locals and armies in the deserts.  We can also see on the image above that Nathan Drake and the thugs are wearing these which makes this a must for my character.

More Inspiration!

This is the second part of my research, i have chosen uncharted again, however i have gone with an entirely different idea. From the heat of the desert to the cold mountains of Tibet.  I have chosen to look at this as well so i can get a wider view on what looks good and what ideas work better than others.

Obviously if i was too choose this idea over the desert there are certain things that i will need to research in order to make my character look and feel authentic to the game. This idea feels less intense than the last, it feels that maybe i could be slightly more creative with my character.

Tenzin and Drake

As you can see from the image above that clothing is a big part of helping an audience not only relate to a character, but relate to where they are in the story.  We can obviously see just from the fur coats they are wearing that they are in a cold environment, and should i choose to pursue this path instead of the desert idea i will need too look at winter clothing in detail.

Final design ideas

This is my idea for the front view of my character, there are still a few developments that i need to make it better, i still need a holster over his shoulder and i need to make his shoulders and torso, however i really think this is a great leap from my last uploaded drawing.  As you can see i have gone for the desert look as i have added a scarf round his neck to protect him from the sand storms.

This is my as a character in drakes fortune that i created at the end of the module and i think it shows how my skills have progressed through the past few months.