Alchemy

A series of drawings was created of the character using the free program Alchemy. This was done to help get a diverse number of software programs in the project. It would be interesting to see what effect it would have on the work and the way the character appeared. It could also be used to create a 2D model sheet of the character as seen in a lecture.

Here are some drawings done in Alchemy using the mirror tool. (A picture was taken every 30 seconds and saved as a PDF to show progress)

The mirror tool was useful as it doubled the workflow, however, the lack of tools like Undo and lack of pen choice made it difficult to create a look that was satisfactory.

The mirror tool also became a hindrance to some degree, as it was hard to know where the mirror line was without drawing a line.

The parliamentary sketches in Alchemy were not successful. therefor the 2d model sheet would be made in another way , instead the character would be modelled in Mudbox (as I am comfortable using it) and then the 2D character sheet would be made using the Mudbox version for reference.

Finalising the character design

As time passed, emphasis was placed on getting the finer points of the character design, for the most part; the design was complete as the character had,

• A jetpack
• A hood or long scarf round the face
• Dynamic billowing fabric
• The colour range for the clothes would be taken from the selected colours in the design document.

However, the finer points of the character had to be defined to start the modeling process (what the hood or scarf looked like, how much face it covered, what the rest of the clothes looked like, the size and shape of the jetpack, what he would or would not hold, what weapons he would carry).

Most of the decisions around the character design came from predicting what was possible to model in Mudbox, Mudbox was enjoyable in the first year project and a high mark was ascertained from it, this could be repeated.

To finalise what would go round the head and face, character designs were studied from the digital games Assasins Creed, Soul Reaver and Star Wars the Force Unleashed 2 as all main characters from the games have their face covered up in some way.

These pictures from the games show different ways to cover the face.

As well as taking inspiration form these pictures, it was apparent that to achieve originality within the character design, the head design would have to look different as well as futuristic.

From a modeling standpoint, I was not confidant to try and model what looked like fabric around the face and shoulders, however, it may be possible to model a hood in Maya and then smooth it and make it appear as fabric in Mudbox.

To give the hood a futuristic and original touch, it is separate from the rest of the clothes, sitting on the shoulders (this was due to uncertainty in merging meshes in Mudbox)

The early design also showed that the sides of the hood were see-through to allow the character to see out the corner of his eyes. This was not possible to model in Maya, as only Polygon primitives would convert into Mudbox, this affected the design of the hood to not feature the see-through sides.

Through trial and error, the way the hood was finally modeled was purely in Mudbox, It was created by using a polygon sphere and the Grab tool to manipulate it to the shape of a hood, it was affective as it created the inside and outside of the hood in one object so merging meshes or unrealistic normals was not an issue. The Wax tool was used to make the hood look as though it was made out of fabric.

Light

This picture of Deckard’s apartment taken from the film Blade Runner is a good example of Dynamic Occlusion.

Light is shining on all the surfaces in the image, however, the intricate tiles and wall panels are stopping the light, creating lots of shadows in the tile ridges. The wall panels are most noticeable, but dynamic occlusion is also happening above and below the cupboard, as well as under the counter lip.

The scene is very detailed with very little flat surfaces, almost every surface is broken with a ridge or patterned tile, and this is what is creating the amount of occlusion.

As the picture is from a film set there is probably more light sources than what is visible in the scene, the scene shows 5 possible light sources.

Despite the number of light sources, there is still a lot of dynamic occlusion. The scene is not saturated in light; it is probable that it would be if the tiles were flat and shiny, like most kitchens are.

This picture of a Bat shows sub surface scattering. As the light shines through the Bats wing membrane, the light is refracted off the different textures and thicknesses within the membrane, it is then refracted out into the camera lens.

This process enables the camera to see the veins and small bones within the membrane.

The bats bones are denser than the membrane and they absorb the light, this is why it appears as black in the photo.

The light is even passing through the blood of the membrane giving the wing a reddish brown tone. If the light were not passing through the membrane, it would appear black.

This picture of a bubble being burst is a good example of reflection, refraction and also demonstrates how the human eye works.

The reflection can be seen in the centre of the bubble, the photographer that took the photo is visible in the bubble. The light is being reflected off the shiny flat surface of the bubble. As the bubble is spherical, the photographer appears stretched out at the sides, like a fish eye lens on a lot of skateboarding photography.

For this reflection to happen, the light came from the sun, onto the photographer, then bounced onto the bubble, and then finally into the camera lens.

The refraction can be seen on the outer edge of the bubble, as the bubble is round; the light that travelled to it is being spread out equally away from the bubble, appearing to stretch the image of the building.

On the top of the bubble, there is also swirling patterns of blues, purples, oranges and greens, this is the refraction of light of different wave lengths. The detergent that makes up the bubble refracts different densities, creating the rainbow colours on the bubble.

The human eye sees images upside-down and the brain interprets the image the right way up, this is because the eye lens flips the light entering the eye. The bubble is also acting like a lens as the image of the woman who popped the bubble is seen up side down on the other side of it.

This tunnel picture is a good example of bounce light.

The light is travelling from the sky outside the tunnel, it then is reflecting and refracting off the floor and up onto the ceiling of the tunnel. The ceiling is made up of flat bricks, which also reflect the light further into the tunnel.

You can make out the shape of the bricks, this shows that the cement that holds the bricks together is not reflecting the light but absorbing it.

The light is also being reflected off the sidewalls of the tunnel, which shows that the light is being refracted off the floor in lots of different directions.

The light only travels as far as the camera, as the far sides of the tunnel are black, which means no light has reached there. This is because no light is being reflected back into the camera lens from that position.

Anthropomorphic Characterisation

After the character progression sheets I found an animal that best suited the designed characters traits.
What was needed was an animal that moved in an interesting way and shared the same type of frame as the character (a thin animal), that could fly, jump or run in a way that the character could interpret while using the jet pack.

A Cheetah best suited the designedcharacter because of the Cat family; it is thinner than and not as powerful as a tiger for example. This fit my characters traits as the character is thin due to being poor. The way the Cheetah runs could be easily interpreted into dynamic jumps and landings from a jetpack, the biggest difficulty would be transposing four legged movement onto a two legged, upright human.

ISome experimentation sketches were then created using reference images of a Cheetah stalking, running and walking. The Cheetah characteristic then influenced the design process. the character was drawn lowering his head and arching his back, the torso was made wider at the top and thin near the waist, the limbs became longer and thinner, this helped in recreating the same limb angles in the legs. Billowing fabric was also added to mimic the Cheetahs tail.

The Cheetah drawings was an opportunity to try different clothing for the character, I focused on shoulder pads, what fabric would cover the torso and what parts of the jet-pack would be visible from the front. Colour to define one piece of fabric and where it would go on the character.

Below are some Cheetah design drawings.

Progressing from the Silhouettes

After completing the 100 silhouettes it was time to progress into more detail.
The silhouettes that most suited the character brief were chosen. White was then added to show detail and clothing.
The white was used to also show negative space, which suggested where lines of clothing would be, similar to some of the sketches in The Skilful Huntsman.

It was then possible to show different types of clothing within the same silhouette.

The idea of the character covering up their face was explored, with either a hood or bandana; this is because the character wouldn’t want his/her face to be recognised by the enemy police.

Through research it became apparent that a lot of science fiction clothing is either tight and shiny or loose like robes. Combining the two types could be interesting and original.

The idea of a billowing cape was mused over, however, a cape is very cliché. Another problem with a cape is that it would hide the jetpack, making it confusing for people viewing the character for the first time. The character needs to be easy to read from one look, so the jetpack needs to be on show.

Experimentation took place with ribbon on belts and fabric attached to a hood or long bandana. I also used the silhouettes to show either the front or back view of the character.

Below are some character progressions.

Character Silhouettes

The character silhouettes were much quicker to complete than the environment silhouettes,
this was due to a number of reasons.

The recently purchased design book The Skillful Huntsman was inspirational in the project; it also contains silhouettes as part of the character design process.

With the character brief in mind, the silhouettes were started. Off brief design also occurred, designing a few bulky characters and some women. When drawing the silhouettes focus was placed on the expression and look of the character, as well as focus on proper proportions.

A similar brush type was used to the one in The Skillful Huntsman, it’s a thin brush horizontally but thick vertically. This allows for easy silhouette making and allows for some detail. It also mimics flowing clothes better than a round brush.
I found it difficult to only draw the silhouettes in black, it was a constant battle not to add certain white parts like a belt or the arms to show more detail. The point of the exercise was to choose the most dynamic looking outer edge and then work inwards.

Certain silhouettes were drawn to show what movements the character would do. As the character has a jet-pack to move between buildings and walkways, some movements would entail taking off and landing. The character stalking and shooting was also drawn.

Below are some examples of the silhouettes, they best represent the character I had in mind.

Character or Asset?

The 2^nd half of BA5 is the same as the first, with a choice to do either character design or asset design, using the previous project as a starting point.

To decide weather to do characters or assets, some questions were explored.

• Which would be easier to make original?
• What would be more preferable?
• Which would be more beneficial to a career in the industry?
• What hasn't been done before?
• Which would be more useful? Which lends itself better to the designed game?

Characters best answer these questions because…

• Characters can easily be explored within the context of the game.
• This would be the first time creating a character would be attempted by myself, it would enable more understanding of the design process, which would help in the game design industry.
• Creating game assets like gadgets and weapons could be attempted after the University course learning about characters from the teaching staff could be more beneficial.
• Characters also include assets to some degree, weapons or items carried, focus however would be placed on the character itself.

The game design document only contains a few images of characters that were designed. There is not much emphasis on characters and there was not much design process, this gives a larger scope to explore and design with relative ease, this is a dream scenario from a game designer aspect, a lot of freedom to explore the design process.

The protagonist character in the game design is

• A rebel (gorilla warfare with the government)
• Male (no reason why cannot be a female)
• Can move between walkways and buildings via a jetpack
• Has weapons to fight the government police (could be anything from a pipe to a sophisticated laser gun)
• Living in poverty like most of the rest of the planet (this would to some degree determine appearance and posture)

With this brief of the character understood, the next stage would be to create 100 silhouettes, as was done in the environment part of the BA5 focus 2 project.