So that's about it for the character pre-production part. Next I'll take a look at the environment.
Monday, October 20, 2014
Character 2 Pre-Production
Here are the references I made for the Skeleton Knight!
Rough sketches
Line-art. Since he is overall symmetrical and quite detailed, I used some mirroring to save time.
Final color schematics
Detail sheet to point out all points of light emission from the character, plus a to-scale cutout of the weapon showing how large it is.
Breakout sheet, with various real-life references, plus another LOTR reference...
So that's about it for the character pre-production part. Next I'll take a look at the environment.
So that's about it for the character pre-production part. Next I'll take a look at the environment.
Friday, October 17, 2014
Character 1 Pre-Production
My midterm presentation was yesterday, so I didn't have much time lately to update this blog. But now that it's done, time for another post!
Today I'll be showing all the pre-production work I did for my first character, Gaviel the thief.
First thing I needed was a schematics sheet, basically a blueprint for the character that shows the front/back/sides. This is especially useful in 3d programs since you can place the art behind the 3D model and "trace" it, ensuring the anatomy and proportions will be more accurate. I personally feel that drawing out the character also helps me understand it better, so it's good preparation for modeling it.
Rough sketches done in Photoshop
Final line art. I put the most effort in the front view as you can see :P
Final schematics with color.
Now this detail sheet is not necessary, but I did it just to get a better understanding of the character. She has a lot of weapons on her so I wanted to count and separate them out before modeling. The silhouettes are pretty rough as I did this before getting the references.
Here is the breakout sheet, a basic gathering of the references and textures I will use for the character. This is just a sample of some of the most useful references of course, since I have dozens more pictures I will use throughout the course of the model's creation. I also used a book called "The Complete Illustrated History of Knives, Swords, Spears & Daggers" for weapon references. Thanks to a close friend for letting me borrow the book.
That's it for the first character's references, next time I'll show the Skeleton Knight.
Today I'll be showing all the pre-production work I did for my first character, Gaviel the thief.
First thing I needed was a schematics sheet, basically a blueprint for the character that shows the front/back/sides. This is especially useful in 3d programs since you can place the art behind the 3D model and "trace" it, ensuring the anatomy and proportions will be more accurate. I personally feel that drawing out the character also helps me understand it better, so it's good preparation for modeling it.
That's it for the first character's references, next time I'll show the Skeleton Knight.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Environment Selection
The other half of this project is the creation of an environment, which will be a game level in the Unreal Engine, where the two characters will be set. Naturally, it must make sense to see these characters in this environment. Theme and time period are important.
The teachers' guidelines for this part were more loose than the guidelines for the characters. I don't have to copy the environment's concept art exactly, and I can mix and match aspects of different concepts together. There is a lot of room for improvisation, which is a necessity when making a whole environment, really. A picture only captures one area of scene -- what is going on to the sides, or behind the "camera"? That part just needs to be (sensibly) made up. Overall, environment concept art is there to give the basic "look and feel" of the area.
One major thing to look at is the color - which will be achieved in 3D using a mixture of colored textures, fog, and lights. Color plays a huge part in the mood of the scene, so that's one thing that I want to replicate as closely as possible.
Also, look for where the light sources are, as light is another major part of an environment. All the light you see in the picture has to come from somewhere, and it needs to make sense. For example, if there are beams of light in a cavern, I need to remember to make holes in the walls that lead to the outside. It sounds basic, but sometimes you forget until you play your level and notice everything is too dark... There needs to be enough light to let the player see, of course. In the Unreal Engine, light is not rendered with the amazing realism that you can achieve in Maya... so sometimes, you do have to compensate for it by placing additional, invisible light sources to simulate reflected/bounced light. But that's for another day.
Choosing My Environments
So I have a thief and a skeleton knight as my characters. I thought having a cave, ruins, or a dungeon for my setting would be cool.
While I collected over 100 images for this part as well, I was overall more disappointed with these results. Most people really seem to prefer drawing characters over drawing places, so I didn't find such a huge variety of good-quality environments. When people do put a lot of effort into making a detailed area concept, it's usually for a video game or other existing project. It was hard to find quality concepts that hadn't already been used. Many environment artists also love to make speedpaints or matte paintings of huge landscapes in the distance. Those pictures are usually not detailed enough for me to really use as reference for a level. As cool as an epic mountain range looks, I need something closer up...
Anyway, I ended up finding some pretty awesome pieces:
The first three are by the same artist, which is both convenient and awesome. The style is also consistent. The last picture is by a different artist, but I really liked it as well, because I felt like I needed an actual building somewhere. The cave areas are cool, but didn't have enough detail/stuff to feel like they would make an interesting level on their own. The oriental concept art is very cool, and is probably the most interesting of all the areas. It also gives me an excuse to model another dragon - the statue you see in the wall. The archway/entrance/door thing is highly decorated, however, and very sketchy. It'll take a lot of improvisation. I really like the flaming skulls, which make for really interesting light sources that can even be spread through the cavern areas. However, the oriental area is very small, as it's basically just a wooden bridge and a doorway. So I needed something more, and that's where the dungeon part comes in. I will extend the oriental theme into the dungeon as well, so it will look more sensible.
That's it for my environment.
Using Other Artists' Work
Just one more thing I'd like to mention is that I have made sure to ask all of these artists for permission to use their work. This is really important to me, ethically... though it doesn't seem like a big deal to many people. Understandably, I am a student and this is a school project, so it is for educational use and it is non-profit -- there is little harm in my use of this concept art. But it definitely doesn't feel right to use someone's art like this without them knowing. This project will likely be seen in my demo reel and portfolio website, possibly future employers, this is a big project. If I drew something and found someone else using my concepts to create their own art, I would be rather peeved that they hadn't even told me. Oh well. Oh, and I am not sure using these without permission would actually be legal or not. I did a bit of research but I'm still not 100% sure. Either way, I went on the safe side and got permission from these talented artists. All of them were nice people.
The teachers' guidelines for this part were more loose than the guidelines for the characters. I don't have to copy the environment's concept art exactly, and I can mix and match aspects of different concepts together. There is a lot of room for improvisation, which is a necessity when making a whole environment, really. A picture only captures one area of scene -- what is going on to the sides, or behind the "camera"? That part just needs to be (sensibly) made up. Overall, environment concept art is there to give the basic "look and feel" of the area.
One major thing to look at is the color - which will be achieved in 3D using a mixture of colored textures, fog, and lights. Color plays a huge part in the mood of the scene, so that's one thing that I want to replicate as closely as possible.
Also, look for where the light sources are, as light is another major part of an environment. All the light you see in the picture has to come from somewhere, and it needs to make sense. For example, if there are beams of light in a cavern, I need to remember to make holes in the walls that lead to the outside. It sounds basic, but sometimes you forget until you play your level and notice everything is too dark... There needs to be enough light to let the player see, of course. In the Unreal Engine, light is not rendered with the amazing realism that you can achieve in Maya... so sometimes, you do have to compensate for it by placing additional, invisible light sources to simulate reflected/bounced light. But that's for another day.
Choosing My Environments
So I have a thief and a skeleton knight as my characters. I thought having a cave, ruins, or a dungeon for my setting would be cool.
While I collected over 100 images for this part as well, I was overall more disappointed with these results. Most people really seem to prefer drawing characters over drawing places, so I didn't find such a huge variety of good-quality environments. When people do put a lot of effort into making a detailed area concept, it's usually for a video game or other existing project. It was hard to find quality concepts that hadn't already been used. Many environment artists also love to make speedpaints or matte paintings of huge landscapes in the distance. Those pictures are usually not detailed enough for me to really use as reference for a level. As cool as an epic mountain range looks, I need something closer up...
Anyway, I ended up finding some pretty awesome pieces:
 |
Descent by eWKn |
 |
Cave by eWKn |
 |
Mogwai Temple by eWKn |
 |
dungeon by wanbao |
That's it for my environment.
Using Other Artists' Work
Just one more thing I'd like to mention is that I have made sure to ask all of these artists for permission to use their work. This is really important to me, ethically... though it doesn't seem like a big deal to many people. Understandably, I am a student and this is a school project, so it is for educational use and it is non-profit -- there is little harm in my use of this concept art. But it definitely doesn't feel right to use someone's art like this without them knowing. This project will likely be seen in my demo reel and portfolio website, possibly future employers, this is a big project. If I drew something and found someone else using my concepts to create their own art, I would be rather peeved that they hadn't even told me. Oh well. Oh, and I am not sure using these without permission would actually be legal or not. I did a bit of research but I'm still not 100% sure. Either way, I went on the safe side and got permission from these talented artists. All of them were nice people.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Character Selections
What Am I Doing?
First of all, I needed to pick which characters to model for the project. According to the assignment, I just needed a "Character 1" & "Character 2", no specifications whatsoever on what they should be like. The one rule was that they couldn't already have been made in 3D. This rules out many video game characters, and many characters from 3D forums. It might not seem like a big deal, but it does weaken your work when something like it already exists (I think plush artists would easily understand this).
Anyway, the point of a modeler's job is to take someone's concept art and bring it to life in 3D. A major aspect of the project is how closely the model matches the concept. Most of the time, even in small studios, concept artists/pre-production artists are separate from modelers. The concept artist needs to make sure that his/her drawings are clear, and the modelers needs to make sure that he/she actually matches the concept. After all, what would be the point of the concept art if it didn't? Plus, the concept art would have been approved by the director and perhaps other team-members as well. If everyone is expecting this concept to be the character, and people start changing it along the way... you're going to have a mess. As obvious as it sounds to not change anything, when people start running into problems with the model or running out of time, they start cutting corners and they end up changing things.
Picking the Concept Art
Since I am a fan of medieval fantasy, high fantasy, and similar themes, I wanted to go with something along those lines for my thesis (I like sci-fi and other themes too, but... this has to be my favorite). Also, I needed the two characters to contrast each other, while still looking like they fit in the same world.
When looking for concept art online, it's best to start with a specific idea and then move on from there. Too often do I see people typing "concept art" on google images, and being presented with an extremely random and boring selection of images. You want to first imagine what kind of character you do want, pick a few keywords that describe it, and go from there.
For Character 1, at first, I wanted to make a sorceress/wizard/mage. Character 2 would then be a similar magic-casting character, but an evil necromancer instead. However, while I was going through hundreds of pictures I didn't find one that really popped out to me. I started searching through artists' profiles and similar images. Many websites, such as DeviantArt, have thumbnails showing pictures very similar to the one you're currently viewing, which makes browsing like this very easy. I found a witch design that I really liked, but ended up looking through the artists' other works and finding something I liked better.
The quality of the art plays a big role in how your model is going to end up. Now, yes I know, "good" art is extremely subjective... but in general, there is a significant difference between art that was drawn by a professional and by an amateur. The better your concept art is, the better your model is going to be. I attended a live presentation by a Senior Modeler from Dreamworks Animation, and even he stressed how important this was.
So, there are certain key things I wanted to look for which are not so subjective. Keep in mind this list is only what *I* was looking for, for this particular project:
- Full-body
- Color (If it wasn't in color, I would have to create the color scheme myself, which would take extra time... and I don't feel comfortable with that)
- Detail (It can't be too sketchy, or a blurry speedpaint)
- Decent Anatomy (Not looking for a chibi anime character)
Concept art can be pretty much anything; it doesn't have to be a model sheet or a schematics sheet (shows front/back/side of a character or object), but you are super lucky if you manage to find those, because it makes your job a lot easier. If your character doesn't have schematics, you will have to draw them yourself - more on that in another post.
Eventually, I found some characters that looked AWESOME. While I had over 100 images saved, I narrowed it down to 10 of my favorites for each character. I showed these to various people at school, on my private blog, and over skype, to get an idea of which ones are the most popular. For the female character, most people loved Gaviel -- a fierce, awesome-looking, black & red thief character. I loved her too, so she was my first choice.
For the male character, it was a bit harder. I had a lot of big, evil-looking characters. Some of them were armored knights, others were liches (related to my original search for necromancers). Peoples' responses were all over the place. Ultimately, I picked the Skeleton Knight. I am a sucker for glowy lights, emissive effects, and magic. I also wanted the chance to make some badass armor -- and his undead face still allows me to do some fun organic modeling.
I wouldn't say they are a perfect contrast, but it's still a strong pairing. It's not a standard good vs evil/white vs black scenario, it is grey vs black.
The female is a thief (not rogue or other similar archetype) character, as stated by the creator. She doesn't appear to be "heroic" -- and rarely can you expect a thief to be so -- she is merely seeking personal gain. It's sometimes difficult to determine the alignment of a thief. But a major point to consider, with all characters, is motivation. Why is she a thief? I sent a message to the creator to see if he has an answer or a backstory for her... So I'll update this part later. Thieves can be any alignment except for lawful good, and I don't want her to be evil, so that removes 4 choices. I still have to figure out what she really is.
The skeleton knight is a powerful undead character. From the clear presence of magic on him, we can assume he has been cursed or enchanted, not that he was merely affected by a zombie disease or parasite (could be both however). He will be dwelling in a dungeon setting, hostile to anyone who approaches. This character is neutral evil.
That's all for now. I wrote quite a bit in this post, but I expect the next ones to be shorter.
First of all, I needed to pick which characters to model for the project. According to the assignment, I just needed a "Character 1" & "Character 2", no specifications whatsoever on what they should be like. The one rule was that they couldn't already have been made in 3D. This rules out many video game characters, and many characters from 3D forums. It might not seem like a big deal, but it does weaken your work when something like it already exists (I think plush artists would easily understand this).
Anyway, the point of a modeler's job is to take someone's concept art and bring it to life in 3D. A major aspect of the project is how closely the model matches the concept. Most of the time, even in small studios, concept artists/pre-production artists are separate from modelers. The concept artist needs to make sure that his/her drawings are clear, and the modelers needs to make sure that he/she actually matches the concept. After all, what would be the point of the concept art if it didn't? Plus, the concept art would have been approved by the director and perhaps other team-members as well. If everyone is expecting this concept to be the character, and people start changing it along the way... you're going to have a mess. As obvious as it sounds to not change anything, when people start running into problems with the model or running out of time, they start cutting corners and they end up changing things.
Picking the Concept Art
Since I am a fan of medieval fantasy, high fantasy, and similar themes, I wanted to go with something along those lines for my thesis (I like sci-fi and other themes too, but... this has to be my favorite). Also, I needed the two characters to contrast each other, while still looking like they fit in the same world.
When looking for concept art online, it's best to start with a specific idea and then move on from there. Too often do I see people typing "concept art" on google images, and being presented with an extremely random and boring selection of images. You want to first imagine what kind of character you do want, pick a few keywords that describe it, and go from there.
For Character 1, at first, I wanted to make a sorceress/wizard/mage. Character 2 would then be a similar magic-casting character, but an evil necromancer instead. However, while I was going through hundreds of pictures I didn't find one that really popped out to me. I started searching through artists' profiles and similar images. Many websites, such as DeviantArt, have thumbnails showing pictures very similar to the one you're currently viewing, which makes browsing like this very easy. I found a witch design that I really liked, but ended up looking through the artists' other works and finding something I liked better.
The quality of the art plays a big role in how your model is going to end up. Now, yes I know, "good" art is extremely subjective... but in general, there is a significant difference between art that was drawn by a professional and by an amateur. The better your concept art is, the better your model is going to be. I attended a live presentation by a Senior Modeler from Dreamworks Animation, and even he stressed how important this was.
So, there are certain key things I wanted to look for which are not so subjective. Keep in mind this list is only what *I* was looking for, for this particular project:
- Full-body
- Color (If it wasn't in color, I would have to create the color scheme myself, which would take extra time... and I don't feel comfortable with that)
- Detail (It can't be too sketchy, or a blurry speedpaint)
- Decent Anatomy (Not looking for a chibi anime character)
Concept art can be pretty much anything; it doesn't have to be a model sheet or a schematics sheet (shows front/back/side of a character or object), but you are super lucky if you manage to find those, because it makes your job a lot easier. If your character doesn't have schematics, you will have to draw them yourself - more on that in another post.
Eventually, I found some characters that looked AWESOME. While I had over 100 images saved, I narrowed it down to 10 of my favorites for each character. I showed these to various people at school, on my private blog, and over skype, to get an idea of which ones are the most popular. For the female character, most people loved Gaviel -- a fierce, awesome-looking, black & red thief character. I loved her too, so she was my first choice.
For the male character, it was a bit harder. I had a lot of big, evil-looking characters. Some of them were armored knights, others were liches (related to my original search for necromancers). Peoples' responses were all over the place. Ultimately, I picked the Skeleton Knight. I am a sucker for glowy lights, emissive effects, and magic. I also wanted the chance to make some badass armor -- and his undead face still allows me to do some fun organic modeling.
I wouldn't say they are a perfect contrast, but it's still a strong pairing. It's not a standard good vs evil/white vs black scenario, it is grey vs black.
The female is a thief (not rogue or other similar archetype) character, as stated by the creator. She doesn't appear to be "heroic" -- and rarely can you expect a thief to be so -- she is merely seeking personal gain. It's sometimes difficult to determine the alignment of a thief. But a major point to consider, with all characters, is motivation. Why is she a thief? I sent a message to the creator to see if he has an answer or a backstory for her... So I'll update this part later. Thieves can be any alignment except for lawful good, and I don't want her to be evil, so that removes 4 choices. I still have to figure out what she really is.
The skeleton knight is a powerful undead character. From the clear presence of magic on him, we can assume he has been cursed or enchanted, not that he was merely affected by a zombie disease or parasite (could be both however). He will be dwelling in a dungeon setting, hostile to anyone who approaches. This character is neutral evil.
That's all for now. I wrote quite a bit in this post, but I expect the next ones to be shorter.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
It Begins
Hello there. So I decided to make a new blog. With any luck and dedication, this will be my quintessential art blog!
I still have my DeviantArt account (which is inactive), but I think of DA's format as more of a gallery, suited to finished works and not daily WIP updates. My portfolio website, which I plan to publish in 2015, will also be a gallery/showcase, of course. This leaves me in need of an art blog... and here it is! Now remember, this blog will be full of WIPs (works in progress), sketches, and unfinished work... so it may get ugly. :P But, progress pictures can be very informative and fun to look at. If I have the extra time, I might write about my processes as well. As you can see, I tend to write on a lot...
Anyway, onto the current project. I am currently taking Thesis I in my Game Art course. For this project, every student must model 2 characters and 1 game level based on concept art we find online. We must also create a game cut-scene/video showing it all off, as well as a thesis paper and pdf file with all of our work.
For the coming months, I will be updating this blog with my thesis work. (This makes it a lot easier to show to friends who want to see what I'm doing... no more random Imgur links, haha.) I don't know yet if I will mix other art that I do into this, or if I want to keep it thesis-only for now. I'll decide as it starts to move along. Even though I have a month's worth of work finished already, I will be staggering my posts to update only once every 1 or 2 days. This is in attempt to make a habit of posting here...
I still have my DeviantArt account (which is inactive), but I think of DA's format as more of a gallery, suited to finished works and not daily WIP updates. My portfolio website, which I plan to publish in 2015, will also be a gallery/showcase, of course. This leaves me in need of an art blog... and here it is! Now remember, this blog will be full of WIPs (works in progress), sketches, and unfinished work... so it may get ugly. :P But, progress pictures can be very informative and fun to look at. If I have the extra time, I might write about my processes as well. As you can see, I tend to write on a lot...
Anyway, onto the current project. I am currently taking Thesis I in my Game Art course. For this project, every student must model 2 characters and 1 game level based on concept art we find online. We must also create a game cut-scene/video showing it all off, as well as a thesis paper and pdf file with all of our work.
For the coming months, I will be updating this blog with my thesis work. (This makes it a lot easier to show to friends who want to see what I'm doing... no more random Imgur links, haha.) I don't know yet if I will mix other art that I do into this, or if I want to keep it thesis-only for now. I'll decide as it starts to move along. Even though I have a month's worth of work finished already, I will be staggering my posts to update only once every 1 or 2 days. This is in attempt to make a habit of posting here...
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