BA3b - Week 1 Summary

This week was the first week back after handing in our last work and having two weeks of break. I found it a little difficult to get the work vibe back at first but once I started it it felt a lot more natural. We were told our brief and similar to the last project we have to make a PowerPoint to pitch our ideas. My current idea for this project is to design two characters, and an environment for each of them, and using environmental storytelling to show the characters' personality and interests through these environments. I also want to add to this by creating important items for both characters, another element of their personality shown through the items they own. Life is Strange has this kind of environmental storytelling, with the main character and other NPC's rooms displaying a lot of items and information, helping to understand and know these characters better.

Chloe from Life is Strange and her room

For this project I wanted to implement 3D into my work, and after talking to Kailegh I decided on using 3D software such as Maya or Sketchup to create mockups of the rooms and drawing over that. It would be pushing my minimal 3D skills whilst not setting the bar higher than I can achieve, especially as a final project.

Currently my inspirations for the character designs come heavily from games such as Final Fantasy and Xenoblade Chronicles.

Xenoblade Chronicles Malia

FFXIV Lalafell

FFXIV Miqo'te

FFXII Fran

These characters are human but have elements of their animal counterparts. I wanted to do similarly in my designs of the characters, but perhaps with more animal elements in the overall design.

I started working on some of the ideas I had in my head for the characters. Making silhouettes with a light blue/grey and using an eraser to create details is something I enjoyed doing and it let me be more free whilst also allowing for details to emerge. Below are the first sketches I drew up-

I recently, after a lot of research decided to buy an iPad pro to use as a drawing tablet, and so far have been enjoying it a lot. I am currently using Clip Studio Paint with it, and the images above were drawn quickly on CSP as its easy to pick up and sketch.

Below are some sketches I was doing in my sketchbook when I was trying to get a better feel for the ideas I had. I drew up a mouse character, and then drew some more faces to get a better feel for it. I also thought about an idea around a royal family of cats, and the mice are used as servants. I want to research fashion from the past and apply it to my work too, as fashion has never been something I have every thought a lot about in the past in terms of my designs and I want to change that. I was also considering having a third character, but for now I am thinking of sticking to two. The right image is where I coloured over the sketch I made in my sketchbook using Clip Studio Paint on my Ipad, and it gave me a better feel for the colours I would use with the character if I kept them.

I decided after this to make some actual silhouette studies for the mouse and cat ideas. Below are the cats first, and then the mice underneath. For the cat I wanted them to be a tall, slender figure with long legs. The mouse I had already gotten a good shape idea, being small and rounder at the bottom with big fluffy thigh areas.

I didn't want to finalise too much of my work as I'm not having the presentation till Tuesday to pitch my idea, and if I need to make any changes I don't want to have to backtrack too much. I also wanted to focus mainly on the body of the characters, not the fashion as that will be worked on when I have done more research.

Here is some environment art that is currently inspiring me, including art form Bioshock Infinite, a series known for its environmental storytelling-

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Bioshock Infinite

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Here are also some concepts that inspired me for the meaningful items/companions -

Moogle Toy Concept from FFXV

Mei's Drone from Overwatch

Below is the PowerPoint I made for the pitch on Tuesday. It shows my goals for the project, as well as learning goals and stretch goals if I have extra time. It also shows the software I will be using, and a rough timetable to show that planning.