FINAL MAJOR PROJECT

 

BRIEF

The aim of this brief is to gather all the strength learned throughout the course into a body of work that represents our likes and interests. This body of work should also represent the direction we want to take career-wise.

My first thoughts regarding this project were creating something I identify or can relate with. During the brief I instantly though about choosing sexuality as a topic, and to create illustrations regarding the topic. After thinking about it I realised that all the projects I have presented during the course are either personal or depressing. I know that people are aware that this haven’t been the best years of my life but there is no need for instant reminder. I thought of doing something I like for a change. I chose the topic of character design. I started this course in hopes or become a character designer or graphic novelist so I might swell start doing it. I realise that character design is a very broad subject with a lot of layers so the research is going to be intense. I also need to plan what to do once I have created my characters.

SKETCHES

During the experimentation period I have created multiple sketches that can be but into different categories. I have sketched straight from my mind, I have sketched on the underground, at home, at the park… etc.

      

   

  

  

These sketches are made on the spot using pencils. I realise I only draw women naturally so I will have to practice sketching males. I also don’t want to design “just humans” I wan to design a character with human form but some sort of super-ability or alien to it.

 

WATERCOLOUR SKETCHES

These are also pencil sketches but I have added some colour to them.

  

  

As I was drawing I thought of creating characters for a video-game. For this I need to create the story behind the character, the character and the world he lives in.

 

LANDSCAPE SKETCHES 

 

There were a few times during quarantine that I went into the park and sketched the landscape. These sketches are made using Japanese non waterproof ink, water and a brush. I didn’t intend to accurately draw the landscape, I was more focused on the depth and space. I hope practicing landscape would aid me into creating quality landscapes for my characters.

 

PEOPLE

Even with everything that is going on I still have a job, my hours have been cut but I still get to leave the house from time to time. This allows me to sketch on my way to work. I like observing people, their features, style, presence, etc and I believe the Underground Is one of the best places to find extravagant people like, for example, the man shown in the sketch bellow;

I am going to call him “Doctor” as a reference to “Dr Who” . The doctor walked into the train frenetically looking around and mumbling. What caught my attention wasn’t the mumbling but his appearance. He looked old, prominent cheekbones aside his prominent nose. On his nose, very graduated black thick lenses and his her, even though poor, dyed neon red.  He was also wearing a camel waistcoat covered by a navy blue long coat. He also had little to no teeth. He then started shouting “THEY’RE HERE, THEYR’E EVERYWHERE” while taking an old notebook out of a very old leather bag.  He started taking notes while mumbling again and while people were laughing and the girl next to me started recording him, I thought drawing him would be a more respectful way of capturing the moment. The reason I called him the doctor, not only for being a crazy old man looking for presences in the London underground but because he took out a miniature of a Dalek from his bag and started scanning the air with it. I hope he is okay and got to find what he was looking for but I thought he was worth recording.

Another example of peculiar people that I have found would be these two customers from the pub I work at.  The first one tall, really tall and thin, black skin and prominent cheekbones that stand out because of his lack of hair. He is an old customer from the pub and he wouldn’t stop talking without making any sense. He had thick wrinkles not only from age but from smiling too much. The second one looked a bit older. On the contrary to his friend, he could bare speak. He had a curved and hunched posture with a cane holding all the weight. He was very short in comparison to the 2 m tall his friend probably was. His hair was white and cut in a bob and he was wearing a red hat.  They were both a bit deaf so the only thing they said to each other was “It’s been 8 years you look so old” and then laughter. They proceeded to drink their pint and started at each other laughing while pretending to play invisible instruments. I found out later that they have been customers from the pub for decades and they used to play in a band together.

 

MY FRIENDS

This is a marker sketch I made of my flatmate Arran. It looks nothing like him but I kept the drawing to remind me of how not to draw a portrait.

My bosses and co-workers. Above, Roxy, she is manager of a fertility clinic. She works part-time at the pub because she thinks its fun and loves to work. Rachel is my assistant manager. She loves drinking and working at the pub alongside my manager, Sean. Sean lives above the pub and they both are like parental figures to me. I sketched them on our las staff party thrown ash the Flight Club.

Macarena is my friend and current flatmate, I met her at the gym and we have been friends since. This is a sketch oh her in my old flat. Bellow you can find Macarena, Tomás and Alex. I sketched them at the park .

 

ANATOMY

As I had character design in my mind, I thought of sketching anatomy to study it. What I can notice from my drawings its that I avoid sketching nada and feet. This is a common issue for artists. To face the fear I have to draw them, I separately study the body parts.

I recently got an iPad to be able to practice digital skills and for it to be more comfortable to carry. There is a scanning app that came with the iPad so I decided to try and scan the sketches so I they could be cleaner. The result wasn’t what I had expected. The lines of he drawing have to be very strong and black for them to show up in the scan. Here are some examples:

 

 

 

 

I then looked into @reference.heaven , which is an Instagram profile with almost every reference you can imagine. I looked at the hand references and drew them to have a better concept of how hands look like when moving or holding things.

RESEARCH & PROCESS

I street by looking into several webpages to find the basics of character design. I gathered that in order to create a character I have to look for:

1. Where did the character come from?
2. Where does it live?
3. How old is it?
4. General disposition of the character (it’s character, set of behaviours, etc)
5. Audience: This is key since it determines how the character will be perceived.
6. Hopes and dreams?
7. Motive

Once those attributes are gathered I can end up with the looks of the character.

 

With all the information above gathered, I need to start thinking about what the character is going to be for. I thought of creating a character for a video game. The process I have to follow depend on wether I am going to choose an existing video game or wether I would have to come up with the story for a new video game. Regarding of the destino I will have to create the characters, create the world and its maps and then create a mock up of the video game. I usually go for the first idea that comes into my mind but in this case the initial idea involves a lot of digital skills and I don’t even know how to create a mock up or draw digital at all. It is a risky choice but I will research on it.

Another idea that I had was to design a character for a video game and then, instead of creating the mock up with maps and worlds, turn the characters into a graphic novel.

The last option would be to just focus on character design. Having the main research on the character and then come up with a narrative or the other way around, come up with a narrative and then create the characters from it. Either of this three options involve almost the same kind of research and experimentation so I won’t discharge any of this ideas. 

 

 

 

CHARACTER DESIGN

I wanted to research on character design, the basics, the procedures, whatever is fundamental fr character design. I realised that there are so many interpretations and versions of what to do that I could be more free with the outcome instead of following a list of steps to take. What almost every article I have read and I agree on is that what’s most important for a character is to be memorable. But what makes a character memorable? In my opinion, a character can be memorable for many things, how villain they are, how super they are, how cocky, how good, etc but if you think about it the characters that most of us remember the strongest would be childhood characters.  What this characters have the most in common is how endearing they are to us. Think about for example Pixar films or Dreamworks. Films such as Toy Story, Ice Age, films that have characters you either love instantly or you learn to love as the film progresses. All this characters have one thing in common, their impact on us, if there were no impact we wouldn’t remember them. It’s the same with video games. Think about Tekken, Carts or even the Wii sports characters. They are surrounded with good memories from a time where things were simpler and easier. So now I know I have to create a character which is endearing and original enough to be memorable. There are some platforms which have amazing characters that I need to look at.

FORTNITE

Fortnite started as a game jam around 2011 developed by Epic Games. The game is now a wildly popular online shooter in which players battle on a large, multi-terrained island to remain the last one standing ( Battle Royale ). The game is divided into three modes; Save the World, Battle Royale and Creative Mode.

• Save The World:  Save the World is the original Fortnite mode that pits players against zombies in a PvE ( Player versus Environment ). There can be up to four players collaborating to reach a common objective in various missions. The storyline consists in having 98% of the population vanishing after a mortal storm , leaving the surviving 2% of humanity to fight against “Zombies”. The game provides with materials to build forts and weapons to protect you against the attackers. Epic games. Battle Royale came after this mode. This is because Epic Games thought the design and character were too dark and wanted to give it a more animated style, using work and elements from other brands such as Pixar Looney Toons and Tim Burton. Save the world comes with predetermined skins or character designs and each skins has their own ability.

 

• Battle Royale: Battle Royale is a gaming mode that involves various players fighting until one remains. In Fortninte they start with 100 players , you can play alone or team up in duets or squads ( up to 4 people ) until one remains . Battle Royale starts with the character falling from a flying bus and falling into the map. The aim when landing is to find as much weapons and load to build as possible. This mode developed from “Save the World”. The difference between the characters from this mode and the previous one is that you start with a default skin ( Character design ) and you earn and unlock new ones throughout the game. The skins cost money and they come with a lot more accessories to personalise your own skin. Another difference from Save the world would be the construction system during the game. You can de-compound almost every object in the game and use the materials to cut across the map and protect yourself. I have tried learning construction in this mode on Play Station 4 and the combo of buttons was far too complex.

 

• Creative mode: Creative mode is a more free gaming option. In this mode the players can build their own island with friends.

As of March 2019, 250 million people are thought to play Fortnite worldwide (Wood, 2020). It has become one of the biggest games in the world with over 200m players – making Epic Games boss worth over $7 billion. What stands out about the game is not only its characters but the effort behind the character’s stories and the work they live in (Hyatt, 2020). When you think about Fortnite, what stands out the most is the wide range of “Skins” or characters the game keeps releasing and the thought behind every one of them and the worlds they play in. I found an article written by Celia Hodent,  former Director of User Experience (UX) at Epic Games who has worked for Fortnite for many years. In this article she talks about the methodology followed to create the game, some of them I would have never thought of or thought relevant for, in this case, a game or a character to succeed:

• Understanding the player’s brain
• Following a game UX framework (guidelines to usability and engage-ability)
• Applying the scientific method & establishing a UX pipeline.

I won’t develop on every point since I am not looking into creating a video game for UX but to understand their methodology.

When it comes to understanding the player’s name, you need to think about perception. Every person is different and reacts to different stimuli. It is key to understand the importance of retaining information since that’s what is going to make the game memorable. In order to understand the player’s game you need to keep 3 things in mind; Perception, memory and attention.

• Perception: perception is a subjective construction of the mind. Perception is subjective which means the there are many factors that play into perceiving a game or a character such as DNA, previous experiences, cultural context, etc. This means that, for example, you can’t base the design based solely on colour. Everyone’s perception of colour is different and most importantly, some people are colour blind. The designs have to be inclusive. Gamers are expected to react to certain stimuli but since not everyone reacts the same way to it, companies have to come up with multiple tests and different groups of people.
• Memory: According to Herman Ebbinghaus’s “Forgetting curve” (1885) when people learn something that is not meaningful, and with no method of any kind, you are likely to lose about 70% of the content learned from one day to the next. This is a problem because video games are meant to last and progress for several days. The solution for this would be creating a lesser load of information in order for the game to be successful. If a gamer has a screen filled up with text and buttons and options, he will most likely get frustrated and quit playing so it is better to drop more loads of information but in smaller amounts. Simplicity is key.
• Attention: Humans don’t have a very good attention spam. Even when we claim that we can multitask, we still prioritise unconsciously on one thing. Multitasking is the perfect example because the more tasks you do at the same time, the more mistakes you tenges to make or the more information you tend to miss out for. This is what we call “ inattentional blindness ” in psychology and it’s a very powerful phenomenon: when we are focused on a task, we fail to notice stimuli that are not related to the task. This is why game developers need to mind the cognitive load they put on players at any time, and more specifically when players are learning about something new, as this requires even more attention. Not too much tutorial text or pop ups because if they are not ignored , they will be annoying to the gamer (Understanding the Success of Fortnite: A UX & Psychology Perspective, 2020).

In summary, when we learn and process information our perception is subjective, our attention is scarce, and our memory is fallible. Even though the UX method is not the only method for gaming developers, is the one that I interpreted as more successful out of all the other articles I have read. This methodology will be very handy when it comes to designing my characters.

SKINS

It’s being very challenging finding quality research about a game so popular. Most articles are made by fans and if you google any information about Fortnite you’ll realise that most of you can find are gameplays or trick designed by and for the fans. I tried looking at the process used to design the skins of the game. Skins are stylises outfits, weapons and accessories that are usually themed like, for example, the Batman themed skins Epic Games released last year (Wood, 2020).

One of the reasons why skins are so attractive and such a business is because people can even personalise their own skins, so imagine what happened when I tried searching on how the skins where designed. Most results show tutorials on how to personalise your own skin. I managed to find an article from 2019 that shows the kinds of skins available on the Save the world game mode at the moment. I am worried the article might not have all the information since the skins and world change every season. Four classes have been revealed for Fortnite, with an undisclosed number of additional classes with their own skills:

• Ninja; a mobile, melee ( close combat ) combat oriented class. It is divided into alchemist and assassin sub classes.
  

  
• Constructor; a building specialist. Divided into base, controller, demolitionist, guardian, heavy base, hot fixer, kinetic beats, mechanist, mega base, plasma specialist, riot control, sentinel, tank, vintage tech and warden.
  

  
• Commando; a ranged combatant.
• Outlander; a mobile, scavenging, scout class. Divided into enforcer, flash, gun blazer, pathfinder, phase scout, ranger, reclaimer, recon scout, rook, shock specialist, T.E.E.D shot, the dark viking, trail-blaster, trailblazer, vanguard and wild fragment.
  

  
• Soldier; a tank, ranged combatant.Divided into berserker, bullet storm, centurion, cobalt commando, commando, demolisher, double agent, first shot, nevermore, raider, rescue trooper, sergeant, shock trooper, special forces, support specialist, survivalist and urban assault.
  

  

Most sub-categories are divided into feminine and masculine characters. I believe I could design one female and/or character per category for my final outcome. These picture examples aren’t all the characters of the game but there are so many that I wouldn’t ever finish talking about them. What I love the most about this character is how diverse they are. The characters are culturally diverse and also use myths and traditional stories for inspiration. After-doing research on Fortnite and realising how complex and creative the game actually is, the idea of choosing two topics, character design and something else to create a collaboration like “Batman’s” is becoming more and more appealing.

On the contrary to Save the World, in Battle Royale you can personalise your own skins. There are over 160 skins and many personalisation options so I am going to show a collage made by a fan showing the different types (All Fortnite Skins Ever Released – Item Shop, Battle Pass, Exclusives | Fortnite Insider, 2020). He has divided them into categories; Legendary skins, Epic skins, Rare skins, Uncommon skins, Common skins and Marvel skins:

CHARACTER STORYLINE

There are various topics that interest me for the background story of the characters. I have been recently watching Doctor Who and I have become a massive fan. I thought of making the story line space/ alien related. One type of enemy the Doctor has is the Cybermen. They are cyborgs who want to conquer humanity by turning humans into cyborgs. I really like the concept and the design of the Cybermen.

Dr Who is a British TV show about a “Doctor”, last time lord from Gallifrey (planet of the time lords), who travels through time and space saving humanity from Aliens. He usually travels with a human companion. The “Doctor” has a life spam over 1000 years old. Time Lords can regenerate up to 12 times. The Doctor was granted extra regenerations fro saving his planet so there are more than 13 actors who play the role of the Doctor so there is a different main character almost per season. I find the topic of aliens and time traveller very interesting and I would love my character to be part of a sci-fi environment. Here are some examples of some of my favourite aliens from the show;

Cybermen: 

The Cybermen were originally human beings, but gradually they replaced their flesh with metal and plastic. In the process they lost their kindness, joy and every other emotion (BBC One – Doctor Who, Series 8 – Cybermen, 2020).

The Teller:

The Teller was creature of awesome power able to telepathically sense guilt and turn a victim’s brain to ‘soup’ without even touching them (BBC One – Doctor Who, Series 8, Time Heist – The Teller, 2020).

Vampires of Venice:

The true form of such creatures is a dark, leathery beast, something like a shark. They hide that body beneath a perception filter that manipulates the brainwaves of whoever’s looking at them. Which means that sometimes you won’t see them in mirrors. But a human’s sense of self preservation means they’re always aware of the fangs. In their natural form these vicious predators live underwater (BBC One – Doctor Who, Series 5 – Vampires of Venice, 2020).

Vashta Nerada:

The Vashta Nerada are ravenous hunters able to strip the meat from a body with a frightening speed and efficiency. They tend to avoid light, often concealed in patches of dark that resemble shadows, hence the general warning to ‘Stay out of the shadows’ if you suspect these creatures are close. In their natural state the Vashta Nerada are tiny but when they gather in large numbers they’re able to animate objects, including the remains of humans (BBC One – Doctor Who, Series 5 – Vashta Nerada, 2020).

Prisoner Zero:

Prisoner Zero is one of an interdimensional multi-form species, who, having created a psychic link to a living but dormant creature, can then copy the appearance of that creature or of anything they dream about. Coma patients provide the perfect live feed: Prisoner Zero hides in the dreams of the living dead.The being’s natural form is gelatinous, a snakelike mass of glowing tendrils with a mouth full of sharp teeth. It’s capable of creating a perception filter to stop itself being seen, or to hide anything it wants to hide (BBC One – Doctor Who, Series 5 – Prisoner Zero, 2020).

 

Rutans:

Rutans share the Sontarans’ ruthlessness, caring little or nothing for other species. They can adopt different physical shapes and are able to kill with a single touch of their tendrils. But they are vulnerable to fire and can be destroyed using fairly crude weaponry. As a race they will stop at nothing – even the obliteration of Earth – in their quest to defeat the Sontarans (BBC One – Doctor Who, Series 6 – Rutans, 2020).

The Ood:

Ood individuals have two brains, communicate with each other using telepathy and although much about them remains a mystery, we have glimpsed their planet and marvelled at its majesty and beauty. Ood are not monsters. They are a peaceful race, sophisticated and wise, and loyal friends of the Doctor. However, when they are taken over and controlled by evil entities they become monstrous creatures, acting against their instinct with lethal intent (BBC One – Doctor Who, Series 6 – The Ood, 2020).

The silence:

The Silence are a terrifying race who invaded Earth at an undetermined point in our history. They have powers of telepathy and can kill using a deadly discharge from their hands. But every Silent has a far eerier ability…Even if you see a Silent, you won’t know you’ve spotted it as Silence somehow edit themselves from an observer’s memory. Glimpse one of these creatures and you may feel slightly unsettled the moment it’s out of view, but you won’t remember anything about it (BBC One – Doctor Who, Series 6 – The Silence, 2020).

The storyline is going to be aliens vs Zombies. For the environment and the design of the skins I am going to get inspiration from steampunk art and fashion. Steampunk is a subgenera of sci-fi literature. Its roots go back to Jules Verne’s and H.G Wells early science fiction. The most common way of representing steampunk is imagining a world in which steam power is the dominant form of energy instead of an internal combustion engine, therefore all the gears, cogs, googles, protective equipment, etc. The reason behind using steampunk as a style is because there a lot of steampunk references in Dr Who. The show is old so the concept of futuristic in the early seasons resembles a lot of the style. I also find very interesting the idea of having a technological world but keeping the old fashioned aesthetics of the machinery.

STEAMPUNK FASHION

Steampunk, apart from being inspired by Victorian fashion, is also deeply connected with Goth and when we speak about clothing – gypsy clothing and punk fashion (What is Steampunk Fashion?: Clothing & Accessories | Steampunk Tribune, 2020). The genre was usually made out from vintage clothing therefore its rusty and dirty look to it. While traditional fashion only involves pocket watches and gears, the gothic steampunk focuses more on lace and leather and also is when jewerly is introduced to the style. There are various types of gothic-inspired clothing:

• Pirate
• Advernturer-explorer
• Military steampunk or dieselpunk
• Lolita

I decided this part of the research wasn’t very relevant so I got stuck in this point for a few days, I tried doing a sketch per category but I felt overwhelmed and dropped it. I realised that the solution was to have a different approach to it. For this reason I looked at references of steampunk to get a general idea first instead of going straight into the categories. Here are some examples of steampunk art, hopefully it will make my vision a bit more clear :

 

DIGITAL PROGRESS & DEVELOPMENT

I have dedicated most of the time we were given to create this project to learning digital skills. I started out by doodling people using only lines.

 

I struggles a little bit since the medium is new to me but I am happy with the results. What scares me the most about drawing digital would be applying colour. I feel like by hand you have more control over how you want it to look like. I also love the smudges on paper and all the natural mistakes that happen while drawing, such as draft lines, etc. I believe it gives personality to the drawing. Below you can find my first attempts to colour a drawing digitally.

 

I was personally horrified when I zoomed our from the first drawing. I thought it didn’t show how much I am capable of doing with my art so I asked my best friend if she knew a better way to colour digitally. I has colouring it using airbrush strokes until she showed me how to fill inn the drawing and then give volume to it by applying shadows. She also taught me how to apply the colour by layers, selecting the layer so I can work over that particular layer which I didn’t know before.

I am more pleased with this two drawings. I used the airbrush tool for both of them. I wanted to try having an outcome without a black outline but I need to improve colouring to be able to give volume and space. I decided to draw this figures because i wanted to try colour over something that is easy for me. I proceeded to look at different techniques online on how to apply colour. Another technique would be to use the acrylic brush and work on it as if I were drawing on canvas using real paint. This time I followed the steampunk theme.

I used different paint brushes and applied the colour. I am happier with this drawing than with the previous ones. I do believe that the proportions are a bit off but it was easier for me to draw because I sketched it on paper first. I also have to work on the contrasts because I feel like the drawing looks a bit burned. I will try using colours that are more similar to each other so it doesn’t look overworked. Following my research, I sketched a steampunk/pirate/cyborg. This time I used the wet acrylic and the acrylic paint brush. I didn’t use black this time just very dark black tones.

I didn’t get the results I was expecting. I still feel it needs polish. I am happier about how the skin looks like but it feels very cartoonish. I also realised that if I start doing pirate steampunk or Lolita steampunk I will have to research on every category and it feels a bit out of topic. It also doesn’t look like a Fortnite skin. I realised that to make it look like part of the game I have to make it simpler and fun.

Because I am doing steampunk, I started drawing gears. It was a bit challenging but by drawing this I learned how to copy and paste in procreate. I used the airbrush tool first and the I applied rust with the industrial brush “Rusted Decay”. I then overlapped the drawing of my steampunk explorer with the background to see how it would look like if it was a final outcome.

 

Since steampunk is all about gears and fashion, I went through my research and gathered the elects I need for my design. It is key for a steampunk character to have some sort of mask, a weapon ( it could be a robotic feature ) and worn off clothes. I started by looking for references for masks and hats.

Starting with masks, I looked at “steampunk concept art” and started sketching based on elements of each picture. I then drew over them using procreate to practice the detailing I’ll have to draw in the final outcome.

 

To get an idea of how the human cyborgs would look like I created concept sketches. After drawing so many details I decided that , having the timeframe I have and using a medium which I am still very unfamiliar with, I won’t be able to design the aliens. Looking at these sketches made me realise the tremendous amount of detail the goes into a steampunk character and I am worried I’ll struggle with the final outcome.

FINAL OUTCOME

For the final outcome I have created four illustrations, all made in procreate. Each drawing was inspired by steampunk concept art, which I had to research a lot on. Also each character has a different weapon of a different type. The first character is inspired by Victorian Steampunk. It is the closest drawing out of the three to the original steampunk movement. He also has mechanical arms and a mechanical chest, which he uses as a defence mechanism. His weapon would be his cyber arms which he uses to claw his enemies in close combat. He is also wearing a mask which I incorporated to apply what I have learned from sketching the masks, and it’s also a characteristic element of steampunk. The second drawing would we a more medieval steampunk character. She also has a mechanical feature, the arm. She is a cyborg too hence her lack of hair and a metal plate on her head covered by a hood. Her weapon is lance which she throws at enemies and is also great for close combat.  The third character is inspired by the pirate steampunk style. She is the only character with a long range weapon, a gun powered by steam, on her left arm she has a smoke cannon inspired by pirate boats. The last drawing is inspired by a mechanic. His weapons are a steam gun and a mask he uses for protection and augmented vision. The reason why I chose four drawings is because in Fortnite Save The World you can choose up to four characters. The reason why drew male and female characters is because in the original game there’s a female and male version of every character.

CONCLUSION

Working on this project has had a very positive impact on me. It felt long and tedious because I chose a topic that was too ambitious for the skills that I had. This being said, choosing to design characters has given me a taste of what it would be like working on the design field. The project also gave me a reason to engage with digital learning and practice. Although I don’t feel like this is my best work, I am content for being able to challenge myself and actually achieving it. I can now say that I finish the year with an open mind to working with different mediums and facing big challenges. I have also stepped into the world of digital which is what was frustrating me during the previous years. Overall I am very happy with the outcome and the learning experience.