Author: Ramin Langari

 

 

 

 

 

Project : 2D Character Design – Concept Art

Moving forward, I have chosen to go with the theme of ‘Stealth / Thief’ as well as ‘Medieval-Fantasy’ for the world that my 2D Character will be debuting its appearance in.

The reason is simply because I am desired to grow a further understanding replicating those two themes. With the assistance of the Mood-Board, this will definitely enhance my ideas on how I would want my character design to turn out like. That is the next step into gathering all my ideas into one to make my life easier when production phase starts.

As you can see, here are an additional collection of primary research sources I gained from my visit at the British Library and Museum. However, due to my lack of knowledge with narrative, I had little to no idea on what kind of summary I should create based on my character. Hence why stumbling upon these several documentaries helped boost my understanding a lot better as to what a narrative truly is. Looking up to these short stories will not only give me ideas on what I could add to my character’s description but it will furthermore improve my writing skills as well as having the ability to be creative and imaginative with the story of my design.

In addition to my Secondary Research, I was left curious in wanting to know more about the story of ‘Clockwork Watch’ and how it was inspired. I got introduced to a short summary of this documentary during my visit at the British Library and this was when I was most confident in choosing the theme of Steampunk for my 2D character design.

After bettering my knowledge on the Clockwork’s story, I really found the concept of the steampunk-world appealing as it relates itself to certain British events alongside an interesting amount of fantasy storytelling. This definitely will come in handy for when I begin to write the narrative description of my character as some aspects in Clockwork-Watch come off as imaginative and that’s something I wish to replicate but with my own creativeness.

Another thing I would like to comment on and that is the art-style. despite the short documentary that I saw at the British Library, I was quickly amazed by the 2D hand-drawn visuals as it looks quite simplistic but effective from an artistic point of view.

After getting recommended of using the app ‘Pure-Ref’, I quickly went on to making my mood-board that will assist me with the designing phase of my 2D Character.

I picked out images from all areas in which are relevant to how the character’s appearance will look like. from the style of attire (Steampunk), to weaponry, I managed to gain an enhanced understanding of what kind of initial designs I could come up with. Through the next step of making character thumbnails.

Mood-Board Analysis

Before starting production, I was tasked with making two mood-boards. This would consist of both secondary and primary sources. My intention was to collect a media of images relating to video games as well as several real-life assets like the bell and gears for instance, so that my 3D Model would turn out as accurate as possible according to my design scheme.

As far as research goes, looking up to this Mood-Board will strengthen my idea on what kind of art-style I will be going for during the design phase. So far, I have grown a strong interest into the aesthetics of Zelda : Link’s Awakening , Sonic Frontiers and Assassin’s Creed Unity amongst the collection of research images. Why is this? Although all three of these games offer completely different kinds of art-styles, there is a certain aspect in each of these options that I feel like I can adapt into my own 3D model design. from the Chibi art-style of Link’s Awakening, to the Modernism details of Assassin’s Creed, and finally the creativeness of Sonic Frontier’s assets in-game. This will be heavily beneficial for when I begin my 3D modelling journey.

Artist Reference Analysis

To start off, the first game I will be reviewing is Zelda : Link’s Awakening as part of my benchmark analysis. as far as references go, this will most likely be the main inspiration that I will wish to utilise in my own design.

Now, in terms of the painting style, I feel like Link’s Awakening does a splendid job at managing to capture the warm and chibi look that this game was intending to go for. The colours used all throughout simply tells a subtle story, enlightening the player visually with each given location in the game looking all unique from each other. And based on the overall theme, Link’s Awakening handles the job very well when it comes to using colour in a way that not only makes the art-style all cartoony but it also feels modern in today’s visual standards. However, in connection to the mark-making used, I personally believe that it’s barely noticeable since it’s following such an appealing style that the game prefers to focus more on the general colour itself. Although, in several assets / models as you can see in the images above, there are a number of different mark-makings showcased such as for instance, the tower in the middle has got those brickwork and horizontal looking lines that resembles the concept itself, which is a building. The same can also be said for a variety of geometric pattern shapes all over certain areas in the game. This manages the player to visually understand specific identity and purpose of the mark-making used throughout.

Furthermore, I’ll say the 3D Forms are definitely on point. Why is this? The objects, characters and even the world itself does an exceeding job by blending in well with the already charming art-style, meaning that the player can visually and emotionally be immersed in the game mainly because of how everything is represented and that alone creates a more appealing experience. But something that I’m striving to take huge inspiration out off for my own model design is how the sculpting is handled in Link’s Awakening. Well certainly, not every sculpting done in here looks practically the same. The sculpting done on assets such as the mini houses or trees is on point because how accurate it is to the concept in essence. And this is what I’m aiming to achieve when it comes to that stage of enhancing my models to make sure it doesn’t get viewed as abstract. Features like subdivision and the blocking really adds more life to the assets itself perfectly capturing the feel of the game.

Finally, when it comes to the mood, the narrative told throughout the game’s story boosts the player’s understanding by simply symbolising that the setting takes place in a mysterious island with an atmosphere that’s filled with elements that you’ll see in a location such as the sea and various caves for example. Moreover, the lighting and composition in my opinion further succeeds by making the environment feel rather visually pleasing to the player’s eye and sets the tone for how an island realistically looks like.

Meanwhile, in comparison, Assassin’s Creed Unity offers quite the opposite art-style when it comes to modules. Link’s Awakening had rather a miniature look with the chibi aesthetic but Unity on the other hand aims to represent itself as more realistic like for example, implementing real-life environments into the game. To my point of view, I think certain aspect of visuals allows the player to relate more with the game as it reminds them of reality and it’s struggles. Despite it being a representation of it rather than a true duplication.

Carrying on, mark-making happens to play a big contribution in AC Unity. I believe the reason is mainly because since the setting takes place in Paris, the intentions of the artists who helped design the game’s visuals wanted each asset to look as accurate as possible with a few representation tweaks in comparison to it’s real life form. One use of a mark-making technique done right to me is definitely the design of the clock in the centre of the tower as you can see above, the patterns that surrounds it looks intriguing but also eye-catching to the player. The plan for me is to add a clock to my own model concept as it’s inspired by the theme of big-ben which is why I want to play around it on Maya and see what kind of design schemes I can come up with.

Moreover, I’d say the realism in AC Unity does a neat job in terms of capturing the real feel of Paris overall. Even though the location is based off that, the theme of Assassin’s Creed manages to blend in successfully as it gives the best of both worlds. Reality and aspects that were simulated to in-game. Quite similarly to Link’s Awakening, you can see the sheer detail around each asset and models, especially the buildings fundamentally. Although the art-style of AC is completely the opposite to what Link’s Awakening is, sculpting features such as the subdivision, blocking and even the masking is much clearer to spot here as the graphics focuses more on an authentic style which makes it stand out to the player.

And finally, in terms of the mood, AC Unity thrives by capturing the theme of Paris, specifically since this game’s story is based upon during the French Revolution. Managing to bring in real-life events but alongside, merging it with the in-game mechanics to keep the player hooked all throughout. Further features like the lighting and composition helps bring a good use of contrast since AC Unity’s tone at the beginning is all vibrant and bright. But as the story progresses and gets more personal, the player will start to see the environment around the character getting darker and vicious. The mood and setting pretty much changes drastically depending how far you are in the story’s prologue.

Product Benchmark Analysis

While I was looking into a variety of different dioramas to help inspire ideas for my future work, I came across this 3D Model. And it managed to quickly grab my attention due to its vibrant colours alongside the simplicity.

In connection to the overall style, this Diorama does a stellar job with successfully capturing the sense of fantasy through the warm and fuzzy colours which helps bring further life around this 3D world. I would also go as far into saying that this piece is definitely figurative as you, the viewer can be able to easily acknowledge the visual language told all round the diorama with the use of its assets. This element is something in which I will take into heavy consideration regarding my own model come production phase. By making my ideas quite simplistic but effective enough to tell a subtle story all throughout. Due to the fact that it will be my first ever time performing 3D Modelling so I wish to keep it at a limit to get a hang of the software.

Moving on, I really admire the amount of refinement that got put into these high-poly assets. Since the aesthetic is bright, it’s easy to quickly recognise the pure texturing that got put into assets such as the trees and even the tower itself. Although, as far as modelling goes, this is the kind of quality I wish to present in my own module but that would mean I will need to manage my time effectively as well as mastering the techniques of utilising UV mapping and rendering up to its fullest potential. In terms of the 3D forms itself, I would say that the artist certainly left a lot of space around the diorama. This may be because the artist himself/herself wanted to bring more attention to detail on the assets and by creating a stronger depth all over the theme of fantasy.

Moreover, what I find interesting on the use of sculpted features is how it manages to capture the concept of each asset like the tower for instance. The soft and smooth curve of the roof alongside the circular, wooden stairs helps bring in creativeness and imagination into the 3D Model. I’ve never done sculpting before and since I’m also desiring to base my model around a tower, this is the kind of sculpting I wish to pursue during production.

Finally, with the way how the colours are arranged in this piece, this strongly conveys an image of a safe and peaceful atmosphere and I believe that’s what the artist wanted to achieve as far as emotions goes. As I mentioned previously, the mood also tells an interesting story. The reason is because the art-style in here reminds me so much of ‘Spyro the Dragon: Reignited Trilogy’ and the art in that game just has that fairytale feel to it in which I’m acquiring from this diorama itself.

While on the other hand, as for this artist’s module, despite the model being a lot smaller in size compared to the fantasy tower, this also tells a strong visual language when it comes to the art-style. Why? I believe the style the artist was intending to go for in here was Low-Poly / Cel-Shading. If we’re talking about similarities here, just like the first model, this artist used quite animated colours to follow a style of medieval-fantasy. And for the pure quality, I find the little details like the bricks for example that’s scattered around the tower quite compelling. This alone creates a story for the viewer just based on the attention to detail in this 3D Model. Unlike the first benchmark, this definitely offers more textures like on the base ground and even the roof of the tower itself as it helps resemble more of the concept and ideas the artist was going for in my opinion.

Just like I mentioned earlier, this world is less wider than the first benchmark and in terms of 3D Forms, I think the arrangement of assets in here look more organised but that’s mainly because there’s less going on in which also means it has a lot of spacing around the tower and the barrels. As you can see, one barrel is facing upwards and the other is laying down on its side and this probably shows further depth and storytelling around the piece. In addition, I feel like the sculpting here looks a lot cleaner but that could be because there’s no signs of special effects going on in the model compared to the first benchmark. The first benchmark (fantasy tower) had these minor lightings to make it seem more fantasy-based to the viewer’s vision. Furthermore, another job done well by the artist is how he/she made each asset look like it’s real-life representation such as the barrels, wooden door, lamp, the little rocks scattered all over the corner and even the sheer attention to detail in the tower itself.

And finally, quite similarly to the fantasy tower, this piece also uses blazing and energetic looking colours to resemble it of being a fantasy and imaginative world. By getting the viewer visually immersed into what’s happening all round it. In terms of what this reminds me of, it kind of gives me stellar vibes from games like ‘Zelda’ and ‘Jack and Dexter’ with its innovative aesthetic and mood.

 

On top of my design development drawings, I also felt like I needed to expand on my iteration sketches right before starting my final refinement as I want to have everything prepared so that once I start my modelling process, I only stay focused on that and not worry about being limited for any 2D Concepts whatsoever to save time efficiency.

But moving on however, the main purpose of this was for me to experiment and start taking into consideration on how my props are going to turn out like in the final design. Firstly, I drew two designs of my tower and seeing which one would be ideal and one that would relate a lot more to the narrative of my story in this project. at the end of the day, I went with design 2 as I feel like it fits the aesthetic of Big Ben much better than the first design I made. And plus, the choice of colours compliments each other quite well to my vision.

Additionally, this time around, I focused more on the prop assets and making different iterations to see which one would be simpler to model as I am preventing on overcomplicating my designs. As well as using a few mood-board images from my Secondary Research to assist in referencing my ideas and what inspired them during the process.

Development Progress of 3D Modelling

 

Furthermore, here are a few more screenshots I took during my developmental process. in here, I was already done with arranging all my assets onto the diorama to fill up spacing all throughout. So, I was in the middle of adding in my base-colours and being careful with it. Why? my intention was to choose a set of colours that would complement each other otherwise it wouldn’t look as appealing for the diorama itself and my original 2D rendered concept.

Welcome to myblog.arts. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!