Brief Summary- Main Project Target

The main focus for this project would be me producing a visual overview of this story world.

This will feature a few illustrations which help paint a picture of this concept and the world in which the characters inhabit.
These illustrations will feature characters, environments and vehicles. When I refer to vehicles, I mean vehicles like armored suits to allow travel and flying ships.

As the direction may change and there will be time constraints, I should aim to have all the primary characters established and designed.

There will be three groups that I will focus on.

1. The five mercenaries affiliated with the neutral faction
2. The Tundran Faction
3. The Imperial Faction

For the mercenaries, I was wanting to follow the trend of the five man band trope where each character has some unique abilities. I wanted to redesign the following characters:

1. Johnathan Orion,the team leader.
2. David Gresley, the leader's best friend and expert swordsman.
3. Issac, the strong man of the group.
4. Zath,the genetically engineered team member who uses telepathic abilities.
5. Laura, the team's engineer and scientist.

The Tundran Republic has more diversity than the Emprie ,so there will be different ethnic races in this faction.  For the Tundran Faction I'll design the characters:

1. Cassandra O'pier, Commissar for the Tundran Navy
2. Ursula Dimitriv,Senior Commissar of the Tundran Navy
3. Samuel Oryol, Blind Prime Commissar of the Tundran Navy

The Empire considers themselves to be the people who shall lead humanity into the future.Their aim is to unite the diverse factions of the world under a single banner.

1. Duquesa Violet de Hispagne, Duchess of the Hispagne Province and head of Imperial council
2. Tiffany de Hispagne, Daughter of Violet De Hispagne
3. Oliver Schäfer von Rundkopf , General of the Rundkopf Legion

Animal Inspired Character Traits

9/10/14

My characters were originally meant to be anthropomorphic. However I've done that sort of style for some time and I believe that it would be good for me to try and design human characters for a change but I was wanting them to share some elements of certain animals in regards to colour, silhouette and personality.
Below are a collection of notes on the traits which are associated with each animal. These traits can help me when its comes to writing up these characters'  bios in future.

Character: Zath 
Species: Snake:

• Cycles
• Rebirth
• Patience
• Fertility
• Eternity
• Balance
• Cunning
• Intuition
• Awareness
• Healing
• Intellect
• Protection
• Solemnity
• Rejuvenation
• Transformation
• Occult (hidden) Knowledge
• Male/Female, Yin-Yang, Duality
• assertive power masculine

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/snake-symbolic-meaning.html

Character: Johnthan and Cassandra 
Species: Fox:

• Small to medium size
•  Autonomous
•  Generous
•  Creative
•  Flirtatious
•  Procrastinating

http://animalinyou.com/fox

• cunning
• strategy
• quick-thinking
• adaptability
• cleverness
• wisdom
• focus
• determination
• right-action

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/fox-animal-symbolism.html

Character: Isaac 

Species: Bull

• Physical power 
• Stability
• Virility
• Strength
• Stamina
• Provision
• Confidence
• Fertility
• 
  
• Helpfulness
• Determination
• powerful in spiritual presence

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/bull-symbols.html

Character:Dave 

Species: Eagle

• Opportunity
• Protection
• Guardianship
• Masculinity
• Dominance
• Control
• Freedom
• Community
• Command
• Action
• Authority
• Skill
• Focus
• Determination
• Vision
• Power
• Liberation
• Inspiration
• Ruler
• Judgment
• communication and thought

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/symbolic-eagle-meaning.html

Character: Laura 

Species: Cow:

• Patience
• Nourishment
• Abudance
• Fertility
• Female Power
• Potential
• Possibility
• Calming
• Grounded
• Provision
• Beginnings

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/cow-animal-symbolism.html

Character: Imperial faction 

Species: Dog

• Courage, 
• Persistence, 
• Virility
• Fidelity
• Loyalty
• Assistance
• Intelligence
• Obedience
• Protection
• Community
• Cooperation
• Resourcefulness
• Communication
• Sensory Perception
• Good Luck, 
• Loyalty, 
• Obedience 
•  Prosperity.

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/dog-meaning-and-symbolism.html

Character: Ursula 

Species: Bear

• Because the bear is cautious, it encourages discernment to humankind.
• Because of a fierce spirit, the bear signals bravery to those who require it.
• Because of its mass and physical power, the bear stands for confidence and victory.
• Because it prefers peace and tranquility (in spite of its size), Bear calls for harmony and balance.
• Power
• Courage
• Freedom
• Protection
• Motherhood
• Discernment
• Childbearing
• Resourcefulness
• Unpredictability

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/native-american-bear-meaning.html

Character: Oliver

Species: German Shepard

• strong, courageous and obedient
• tenacity, intelligence, loyalty and focus
• direct and fearless expression
• self confidence 
• their devotion is life-long

http://www.petwave.com/Dogs/Breeds/German-Shepherd-Dog/Personality.aspx

Characters: Violet and Tiffany De Hispagne

Species: Cocker Spaniel

• polite to strangers
• crave companionship
• energetic
• sociable

http://www.petwave.com/Dogs/Breeds/English-Cocker-Spaniel/Personality.aspx

Storyworld Building Plan

I've been thinking about my Creative Research. In regards to scope, I should aim to make a guide for a story world based on a comic concept I made for last year's Graphic Design project.  I want to make this a project focused on story world building as well as character design. Therefore I'll need to produce some visuals to allow others to understand what my story world is about.

One other thing that I can do is look at examples of existing story worlds.

Based on this article, I found about the rules of story worlds, I should consider :

• Locations
• Stories
• Characters
• Themes
• Overview
• Visualisation

http://www.bellyfeel.co.uk/bfblog/2011/11/16/inside-a-storyworld-bible/

I also found this article about areas to avoid during the creation process.

http://io9.com/7-deadly-sins-of-worldbuilding-998817537

21/10/13

In the book "The Kobold guide to Worldbuilding" ,there is an essay called "How to Write a World bible (Or how to keep it all straight) by Scott Hungerford(2012). In it, he discusses the layout for a Storyworld Bible. He says that the bible is split into three sections, one for the world, the characters which inhabit it and the appendices.

In the World section ,the things that should be covered are:

• The name of the world
• An introduction to the world
• The races and cultures
• The technology and communication.
• The currency and economy system . i.e what is a coin called?

The Character section should have:

• Summary of characters-key rulers
• The beasts and Antagonists of the world

The Appendices section should contain:

• Timeline of the world's history.
• Key events 
• The world map featuring borders and land marks
• Glossary of terms,names,places,creatures,vehicles
• List of terms that people need to know

My aim for this is to simplify my idea and provide certain visual elements to get my concept across.

For the character section, I'll have an image featuring the characters with summaries beneath them. As there are three factions, I'll need three pages each containing the images of characters from that faction and a summary beneath them.

References

Hungerford, S. (2012). How to write a World Bible. In: J. Silverstein, ed., The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding, 1st ed. Kirkland: Wolfgang Baur, pp.105-109.

Week 3 - Presentation Feedback

22/9/14

I made my talk today about my concept for Creative Research.

Brian's response was that he was still interested in the idea of character design or story world building. He asked which idea I would be focusing on. I seem to have difficulty making my primary focus for my project clear to my lecturers. As I wish to become a character designer, I wanted this to be my main focus but I wanted to have some story world building knowledge on the side to help me construct better characters and provide context.

The other lecturer liked my original work and the only thing he wanted to comment on was my involvement of a target audience. He basically said that there was no need for this because I wasn't going to be producing and selling it. He concluded by saying it's my concept so I choose what it will be about.