Style Experimentations

The following are colour tests I made using my Character, Cassandra O'pier.

Colour test with base coloured and line art coloured

Base coloured test

Base and line art coloured with soft brush shading

Base colour only

Style Research

For this project, I decided to focus on improving my line art skills using Sai and Photosho as it is an area I enjoy.

Here is a video tutorial about how I can add depth and weight to line work.

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/videos/the-power-of-line-weight

There were various artists that I took inspiration from.

Tony Moore

What I liked about this style was that to me, it helped define the Walking Dead franchise. The artist uses real life proportions in his characters but he allows exaggerated facial features and head shapes. He has made line art pieces which are then coloured with soft brushed light effects. Some of this is noticeable in "The Walking Dead "Tell Tale series and the Walking Dead Volume 1.

Neil Googe

I like how this artist's line art provides depth and immense detail. However I find his style to be flawed. He has difficulty producing effective facial expressions and these can come out as awkward or silly to a certain degree.

Here is a moodboard to illustrate this. I have used mu windows phone to capture stills from the comic Warcraft: Dark Riders graphic novel written by Mike Costa and illustrated by Neil Googe.

Facial Expressions for Warcraft: Dark Riders.

Julius Cowan Moodboard

I had followed this artist's work on Deviantart and I've found his work to be very good. I liked the approach he has taken to provide extra depth to an existing game franchise, especially one has not been touched upon for nearly 20 years. Although he has great focus on environments ,an area which I have difficulty in, I do admire the way he represents certain elements through the use of digital painting.

You can find more of his work on DA.

http://jecbrush.deviantart.com/

I observed the artwork from the Star Wars: The Old Republic Art Book . While I like this digital painting I feel that it would get too complex for me over the course of the module.

Buchanan, M. (2011). Figures: They Speak For Themselves (mildly NSFW). [online] tumblr.com. Available at: http://dresdencodak.tumblr.com/post/3583964949/figures-they-speak-for-themselves-mildly-nsfw [Accessed 9 Apr. 2015].

Costa.M. 2013. Warcraft: Dark Riders. 1st ed. New York: DC Comics.

Colour Meanings

I've began to revise on my original colour chosen for the characters.

I intend to design Dave's Armour to be affiliated with speed and reflect his cocky attitude. As a result, I decided to use red as the best choice of colour.

http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

http://changingminds.org/disciplines/communication/color_effect.htm

http://www.incredibleart.org/lessons/middle/color2.htm

http://lewisandclarktrail.com/section2/colorsanddesigns.htm

World Map Development

8/10/14

Story world Map Research

For my story world bible, I wanted to have my concept based on a world which has similar geographical details to Earth. However I wanted it to have different forms of continents and countries. I aimed to produce a map that looks like the surface of earth. So to do this, I  looked at existing maps of the earth from space. I will also look at fictional world maps for ideas. From there, I produced a series of iterations for how the world should look. Afterwards, I established where the three major factions will originate.

World Map Moodboard

As my concept takes place in a futuristic environment,I want to look at approaches that I can make to help the viewer understand where the illustration takes place. I particularly like the world map example in Sega's "Shadow the Hedgehog" where the military in that game used a similar approach to real world military maps.

If I am going to make my world have similar geology to earth, then I will need to consider equatorial and tropical climates. 

Some story worlds in games such as Warcraft do not behave in the same way as the earth. For example ,there is a Tundran area called Dun Morogh which is located near the worlds equator. It would be argued that it is because it is at a high altitude that it remains snowy.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6622352430

If I run out of time for producing a world map and all I've done so far is worked on the illustrations, I could include a map of the world in the background to show that this is where the story takes place.

However if I work ahead, I may not need to take that approach.

One idea for this solution was to produce a holographic projection of the world map. To allow it to be holographic will enable it to fit into the futuristic setting.

Many iterations feature a spherical form of the earth whereas other iterations take a plane form similar to traditional maps but with the addition of futuristic elements to it.

Here I've made some rough iterations to how my world could look.

The different coloured sections of the image represent the individual nations that inhabit the world.

A simple real world geology test to see how it could look with earth's climate features.

How the world would look like on a military computer screen or table top screen.

Same diagram with the three factions highlighted.

I was thinking that a computerized interface of the portfolio would be ideal because it could help immerse the player into understanding more of this world and technology.

10/2/15

Faction Name Consideration

Because I still want to include the Republic's name as "Tundran Republic", I will need to alter the geology to the map to fit the description. Tundra is referred to a vast area where there are no trees according to thefreedictionary.

I could change the name from Tundran Republic to  to red ridge  or Crimson republic which would explain the choice of colour. However crimson has a C in it and I don't want there to be two factions starting with C.

1/3/15

To begin with, I want to keep the "Tundran Republic" as one of the names for my factions. But for it to be a meaningful name it will need to be placed correctly. I chose to place it at the bottom of the map for geographical balance. However in regards to its location calling it the Tundran republic when it is in a southern habitat. When I think of tundra I think of northern location affiliation.

SO I began making some changes to the map to fit the description.

Silhouette Iteration 1

Silhouette Iterations 2

Coloured World map

Final World Map with colour

Neutral World Map Layout

I felt it was important to include borders on the  individual nations of the world. The reason for this is because I wanted to show that the major factions are not all one country or continent.

Imperial Name Ideas

I used a kingdom generator to help with some suggestions.

• Acaudan
• Ethen
• canem imperium
• canem empire

Descol Empire - Play on of desolate and connects with its desolate history of being uninhabited.

Final World Map Layout

Factions of my World

13/1/15

What you see above are the the flags of my three factions that will appear in my portfolio.

Tundran Republic

Colour- The red suggests aggressiveness but also shows the passion of the rebellious faction.
The gold and brown colours are analogous to the red and connects with the warm tones of the faction. However the brown on the flag is  too dark to distinguish, therefore this will need to be altered.

Shape - The use of triangles acts as the main shape motif for that faction. The triangles suggest the aggressiveness and strength of the faction's army. The flag looks like a mountain with golden top suggesting it's ambition to become the best country in the world. The mountain depicted in the flag design was actually meant to be the country's national land mark. Another perception is that it's a tunnel where the gold triangle is at the end representing their just cause.


Neutral Alliance

Colour -  Blue affiliates with loyalty and justice. It also reflects the nations peaceful intents as they are seen as a nation which tries to prevent escalation of war between the two rivaling faction.
White connects with purity and peace. Most important is it's a colour that gives a sense of order.
Shape - The use of squares are strong and give the impression that this faction although peaceful, its still willing to defend its borders from enemies. The pattern  on the flag also has traits similar to a  checkered pattern that police use.The reason for this was to connect with their intent to maintain order.

http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-white.html

At this stage, I'm still having difficulty deciding in names. Here are some examples.

• Cyran Empire
• Cynaku central province
• Colour 
• Cynakan 
• Canis meaning dog. Loyalty and purity

Imperial Faction

Colour - Purple connects with royalty, wealth and power.  However the use of purple reflects the empire's arrogance for other nations and it can be a sign of corruption and delusion. This colour fits the faction perfectly.
The use of gold in this faction reflects their nobility  and prestige as a faction. However I've darkened the gold in the faction to reflect their ignorant views of their vision of a utopia. Gold also suggests that they believe that they are superior.

http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/gold-in-business.html

Shapes

The two spheres in the center of the flag represent the world and it's moon. As I've decided that he world will have a similar geography structure to real life Earth, I felt that it should have the same amount of moons that orbit it.
The circles suggest the Empire's desire to promote unity and power.With the sense of unity, it can also suggest that because the Empire is a community of different factions with a united ideal and united strength, they see it as a sign of perfection.

http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/purple-in-business.html
http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/visual-grammar-shapes/


I got some feedback on my flag designs. The red on the Tundran flag was too dark to represent my intentions.Plus the brown is quite difficult to see. The blue faction flag is fine however. The Imperial flag is a bit insensitive as I've noticed that the two circles form a crescent that is too similar to that on the Turkish flag and the Muslim symbol. Therefore I made some changes based off that feedback.

 Updated Flag Designs.

Character Design Research

Within this post, there are several studies I made on character design.

This analysis was to demonstrate how the two major factions in Bioware's Star Wars: the Old Republic were different from one another. From what I observed, they showed major contrasting elements such as the use of shapes and colours commonly associated with good and evil. However there was a good balance between the two factions. Since this game was a prequel to the star wars films, there was elements of inspiration form the original trilogy. The Sith Empire's Star Destroyers are very reminiscent of the original trilogy' versions. The reason for this ,based on the Old Republic Art book the Galactic Empire was trying to bring back " the glory of the old Sith Empire" which  help explains the similarities.

The silhouettes are similar but that can suggest that they inhabit the same universe. 

This was more of a colour and pose study. It also helped me understand what shapes made up the character's silhouette to suggest that she's an ally rather than an antagonist.

This study was helpful me to see strong contrasting elements in character design. The reason I'm looking at Japanese anime examples is because not only am I a fan of that genre of animation but I have appreciated those with strong character design such as the two main characters from Trigger's Kill la Kill (2014) anime series. It was also a good opportunity for me to analyse the characters and see what their inspiration was. 

This diagram was to demonstrate how colours can help show a character's faction affiliation.

References

Bioware, (2011). Sith Star Destroyer. [image] Available at: http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/swtor/images/1/17/Een_Sith_Battlecruiser.png/revision/20110607074609?path-prefix=nl [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Bioware, (2011). Star Wars Old Republic ships. [image] Available at: http://cdn-www.swtor.com//sites/all/files/en/ff/20100917/20100917_DC05_full.jpg [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Hardy, J. (2013). 10 Traits of a Great Protagonist. [Blog] Fiction University. Available at: http://blog.janicehardy.com/2013/06/10-traits-of-great-protagonist.html [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].
High Moon Studios, (2012). Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Combaticons. [image] Available at: http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/attach/3/9/6/4/7/foc2_1324363520.jpg [Accessed 22 Apr. 2015].
High Moon Studios, (2012). Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Autobots. [image] Available at: http://cdn20.4nabs.com/-cliffjumper-grimlock-ironhide-jazz-jazz-transformers-mecha-no-humans-perceptor-transformers-transformers-fall-of-cybertron-warpath--532b4428a4f95.jpg [Accessed 22 Apr. 2015].

Lucasfilm, (2010). Star Wars: the Old Republic Sith Trooper. [image] Available at: http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110103225328/starwars/images/5/5b/SithTrooper-TOR.jpg [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Lucasfilm, (2010). Star Wars: The Old Republic ships. [image] Available at: http://cdn-www.swtor.com//sites/all/files/en/ff/20100917/20100917_DC05_full.jpg [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Lucasfilm, (2011). Havoc trooper. [image] Available at: http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y246/Toragh1/havoctrooperfronts.png [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Sega, (2008). Sonic The Hedgehog. [image] Available at: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090803003628/sonic/images/6/62/Sonic_141.png [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Trigger, (2013). Ryuko Reference Sheet. [image] Available at: http://www.cosplaylibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Screen-Shot-2013-09-15-at-7.42.44-PM-1.jpg [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Trigger, (2013). Satsuki Reference Sheet. [image] Available at: http://41.media.tumblr.com/77f5927a1f5b3b5b00740d1f9bbe7314/tumblr_nldd466W8n1rwyx9ko1_500.png [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Sega, (2008). Shadow the Hedgehog. [image] Available at: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090802231620/sonic/images/a/a1/Shadow_26.png [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Tsai, G. (2010). Sly 4 - Carmelita Concept Art. [image] Available at: http://slycooper.wikia.com/wiki/File:Carmelita_Turnaround.jpg [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Bioware, (2011). Sith Star Destroyer. [image] Available at: http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/swtor/images/1/17/Een_Sith_Battlecruiser.png/revision/20110607074609?path-prefix=nl [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Research Links

Here is a link to a web page that gives me more understanding of the levels of enquiry.

http://webinquiry.org/four_levels.htm