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.