FMP - Final Major Project

Outline

For my FMP, I have tasked myself with creating a character concept sheet. I want to create a dystopian/cyberpunk themed character with a cohesive design, which will be inspired by my 'Dystopian Worlds' game concept from a previous assignment.

Aims

Within this project, I am aiming to develop my understanding of industry standard character concept sheets, how to effectively draw different ethnicities and anatomy, as well as how to effectively design an appealing character design for a video game. I am also hoping to expand my artistic understanding of how to colour and shade correctly to create a pleasing piece of cohesive artwork. 

Skills

Within this project, I will need the following skills:

• The ability to research independently and evaluate pre-existing sources. - This is a skill that will be vital with the games industry, as to create appealing concepts artists need to be

• The ability to plan ahead so that work can be completed in a timely manner.

• The ability to apply practical skills, such as creating artwork, which I can use to complete the brief to a high standard.

• The ability to solve problems, and use creative ideas to make solutions.

Hardware and Software

Throughout the project, I will need the following hardware and software:

When laying out the tasks set out within my project proposal, I tried to judge what I would enjoy doing each week. I knew that research needed to be completed at the start of the project, so with that set and out of the way I planned tasks based on what would be most enjoyable. Overall I'm reall happy with my plan, and plan to use my reflective journal to update where I am upto with it.

As clothing is a core part of character design, I wanted to look at some examples of clothing in dystopian games to help me gain inspiration for my own character design. I am aiming to look at the concept art for some of the main characters, labeling the main aspects of their designs and expressing what I like and dislike about the designs. This is vital research, as it will help guide the design of my own character.

Cyberpunk 2077 is set in the year 2077, within a world that has been completely taken over by large corporations. The rich benefit directly from the poor's suffering, and there is a massive focus on material goods and looks. This can be seen through the bright, flashy colours, lots of metal on show, as well as a focus on body modifications and tattoos.

Silverhand' - the character that gets stuck in V's head throughout the game, who also wears a similar garment. I feel it also shows off how dangerous the setting of the game can be - V is a mercenary, coming up against dangerous individuals for her work, so it makes sense that she would wear some kind of protection. I also love the material choice of many of her garments - I feel the leather/pleather of her outfits really works with how messy her work could get, as leather is sturdy and easy to clean. I like the construction and attention to detail that her outfit has, especially the jacket - the pins and patches give it a personal feel whilst also being a practical piece of clothing.

One thing I dislike about her design is the lack of colour and accessories - whilst I understand the dark colour scheme has a practical use within her work as a mercenary, I feel that this goes against the fundamentals of fashion in the Cyberpunk universe - Bright colours, varied fabrics/textures and lots of accessories. V is quite plain when it comes to accessories, and I feel that this design could be improved by having some jewellery.

link to the story - Johnny is intertwined with V so closely due to the game's storyline that these links to him are really effective at showing how he is taking over V's brain. I love the design of the jacket, as I believe the mix of technology and leather is really effective. I also like the design of the shoes on the first design - the sneaker look is really fun, and gives V an air of youth-like naivety, which is shown throughout the introduction of the game. 

Whist I feel they give the outfit a nice balance, I feel that one aspect of the design I don't like is the trousers - I feel like they are quite boring, and could have had some stitch detailing or complex structures to give them a more 'futuristic' feel.

 casual style in her main design - the tied crop top gives off a casual feel, which helps to distinguish her from the higher class, more uptight characters that can be found within the game. The technical assets that can be seen within her design [mostly as a cyberware implant on her head and the glove she wears in design 1 and 4] help her to seem immersed into the world, as within the game lots of people use implants and other gear.

A aspect of Judy's main design that I dislike is her hair- although I understand that the artists were trying to draw attention to her implant, I feel like the longer hair on design 3 would have worked a lot better with her final design. I also don't like how monochrome her final design ends up being - although a great contrast compared to the other characters in the game, I would have liked to see some kind of colour, be it on her crop top or another aspect of her design, that could have tied into the colour in her hair.

like, the feathers making her stand out in a crowd, and I feel it fits in perfectly with her character - she has a lot to hide, and has relations with people in high places, so she almost dresses up so that she can be on their level socially. Furthermore, the bright colours in her outfit, from the electric blue of her hair to the deep purple of her thigh high heels, almost feeds into the narrative of her dressing up to be someone that she isn't - later on in the game, before her death, she is seen wearing a plain white and grey outfit of sweatpants and a crop top. This departure of colour and use of a monochrome colour pallet helps the player to see that everything is an act, and that in reality she is really a very quiet, non showy person.

The only thing I dislike about her design is the plain slip dress - I feel that if she is trying to be almost peacock like and showy as her appearance shows, her dress could have been more colourful, and used some more interesting textures and constructions to fit in better with those she interacts with.

choices used. One prevelent trait within womens clothing in Cyberpunk 2077 is the blatant sexualiseation, which can be seen on design 2. Within cyberpunk, NPC'S can sometimes be seen wearing next to nothing, which really helps the player to understand how normal the sexualisation of women is within the cyberpunk universe. This is an aspect which I find quite uncomfortable - Within games I believe women shouldn't cater to the 'male gaze', and should instead be empowered. Whilst this liberation and normalisation of the topic of sex could be a good thing, Within my own project I aim to keep my character away from the 'male gaze', and aspire for them to have the same empowerment as a character such as 'Aloy' from the Horizon franchise.

Some design tropes from these designs that I aim to use to inspire my own work is the use of contrasting fabrics, as well as the detailed construction of clothing. As my character is going to be a rebel who needs to stay under the raydar, I feel that bright colours will not work well for my design. However, I aim to use a set colourscheme, which will hopefully help to distinguish them against enemies.

women. Furthermore, even though one of the main inspirations for fashion within the game is being as showy and bright as possible, I believe the use of clashing, gnarish colours is a design trope I will not be using for my own design. 

Some things I like about these designs are the use of garment layering, as well as texture and angular shaping, which i believe give the germents a great, futuristic feel. I also really enjoy the use of 'Techware' stylings, which really help solidify this fashion in the future. I aspie to use these design tropes to create a great design for my character.

Throughout this project, I aim to use a plethora of different video tutorials to help improve my artwork. After watching the videos, I will rate their effectiveness, and say what I found good about them!

Within this video, e r g o j o s h details two ways of learning anatomy known as 'tracing' and 'copying'. When tracing, the artist selects a selection of example artwork, choosing pieces that have a clear use and understanding of anatomy. He then traces around the main shapes that build up the body, which helps to build up muscle memory. When copying, he selects a reference artwork, then attempts to trace the anatomy next to it. This practice helps an artist to test their skills, whilst also learning the simplified anatomy.

Whilst learning anatomy before this project, I found 'tracing' to be a really useful tool! looking at how artists break down something complex like anatomy into easy to draw chunks has helped within my own artwork. I have also used tracing as an easy way to draw anatomy in the past, and although it makes my art look good, It hasn't helped me to learn the processes needed for my art to improve.

In relation to 'copying', I don't feel like this practice would be very useful for my own artwork. If I were to use this method, I would use it alongside 'tracing'- tracing the main anatomical features before copying that anatomy to the side. I have tried this method before, and I feel it was effective at aiding my understanding of anatomy.

Overall, I feel this video was effective at helping me to see some methods that could be used to help me draw anatomy. However, I believe that as I had already heard of these methods, I would be better looking for a tutorial that helps me learn a new method. This would be useful to me, as it would help me to broaden my horizons and learn a new skill to better my artwork.

Within this video, e r g o j o s h details his journey of learning anatomy, from 2017 to the present day. He shows examples from each year, and then details the mistakes he made. 

Some important lessons I learned from this video was that I shouldn't be angry if my art doesn't improve really quickly - learning takes time, and with practice my artwork will gradually improve. e r g o j o s h details that it took him two years to be happy with his artwork, and I will not be able to improve that much in the space of this project. However, I aim to show an improved knowledge of anatomy, however small! As well as this, drawing from memory is a really important tool to help show what you know, and know what to improve!

Whilst the tips were useful, I feel like this video wasn't very useful for my own development. It was more focused on another person's journey, not mine, and whilst I found some useful tips to use, I believe I could have spent my time better.

On recommendation by a friend, I decided to check out 'Character Artist Mastery' by Jaysen Batchelor. An industry concept artist himself, Batchelor shares his story on how he got into the industry, whilst also sharing some of the fundamentals he believes aspiring artists need to practice and research. My highlighted version of the text can be seen above.

Whilst Batchelor mostly works within the film and tv industry, He details elements such as belief in yourself and your art, essential drawing skills, anatomy, gesture, pose, emotion, creating a character's story and costume as well as style. He also details his process when creating a character design, which is quite similar to my own process! 

Overall, reading through this text was really eye opening! It helped me realise that progress will take a long time, however with persaverence my work will improve. Furthermore, It also gave me a ground work to build upon, giving me ideas of elements to research so that I could further my artwork.

I would reccomend anyone wanting to become a character concept artist to read this book! Batchelor gives some great advice and tips for budding artists, and I will especially be coming back to this text when I'm at a dead end of what to do.

Firstly, I looked at post apocalyptic fashion for the main clothing aesthetic of my character. This is a clothing aesthetic that highly interests me, especially when used in a dystopian setting.   When looking for clothing inspiration I tried to collect images that inspired me to create outfits for my own character - Some of the major traits of post apocalyptic fashion are pieced together outfits, with prevalent stitch detail and lots of texture. These are traits that I wish to explore within my own designs. 

Techware is the clothing aesthetic I can most see myself using for my project - within many existing examples of cyberpunk themed characters, they are wearing techware. Techware can be categorised by bold bright colours, a mix of textures, use of plastics and large hoods, face coverings and garments. This is a style very reminiscent of what many people perceive to be 'the clothing of the future', and I think that it is really cool! 

Japanese Street fashion is the umbrella term for the many different fashion subgenre's on display, mostly within the Shibuya and Harajuku districts of Tokyo. These subgenres of fashion are extremely diverse, and are mostly worn by the youth. I was inspired by Japanese street fashion due to the diversity, bright colours and mix of textures and materials.

After looking at these clothing aesthetics, I created a questionnaire to help gather information on what people liked about each aesthetic, as well as what they think would match my character the best! This questionnaire can be seen below.

To get a feel for what colour schemes might work for my character, I have decided to look at what types of different colour scheme exist, and create examples with colours I might want to use! My notes on different colour schemes can be seen below.

Whilst looking at different colour schemes, I have come to the conclusion that either a monotone or complimentary colour scheme would work for my character. I want to use variations of grey as the main colour of her outfit - within many existing cyberpunk examples the outfits are dark and gritty, neon colours acting as an accent colour, so I plan to use this as the basis of my own design.

Now that I’ve decided what colour scheme I want my accent colours to have, I first experimented with complimentary colour schemes - I chose a selection of different colours and showcased them on a light base and a dark base. This experimentation can be seen below.

Whilst I like the look of the complimentary neon colours, especially 1 and 3, I feel like if I used these bright colours within my full design, it may end up looking busy and unappealing. I could scale back the amount of colour used within the garments, but I'm not sure that the neon works anymore. Furthermore, I feel like using a mostly monotone colour scheme for my coloured elements could help to alleviate the feeling of busyness, which I feel is vital for making the bright colours work. 

Next, I decided to look at monotone colour schemes, and the different ways I could configure the different values to create a pleasing design. My experimentation can be seen below.

Firstly, I started by creating a set of colour schemes, showing them on a light and dark grey backdrop. I chose the brightest value first, then adjusting the values to create the mid and dark tones. From these different hues, I decided to eliminate the bright fuchsia, as well as the orange - I didn’t like the brown tones the orange colour made when darkened as I felt these didn’t feel the futuristic feel I was going for, and I also didn’t like how the darkened tones of the fuchsia looked either.

I then moved onto experimenting with the colours I liked, using the undercoat of my final design as an example of how a coloured garment for my design could look. I tried many different placements for the colour, which was really useful as it helped me to see how strictly I needed to moderate my colour. In the end I really liked the look of 3, so I plan to base my final colouring on this placement!

Overall, I really enjoyed the blue hues, shown in 4 and 6. I also like the red of 2, and saying blue yellow and white are the colours of the South Korean flag I feel that this colour scheme would work quite nicely! I plan to experiment with these colours once I finish my final design to get a combination I like.

After realising that the stereotypical neon aesthetic wouldn’t work for my character design, I decided that looking at my character’s setting could be useful at dictating a pleasing colour scheme.

My character is from a dystopian, futuristic version of Seoul, South Korea. As a start off point for my research I decided to look at traditional Korean colour theory - from personal knowledge I knew that a lot of Asian countries used colour theory throughout history to dictate power, status and gender, so I thought this may be a good place to start. You can see my notes below.

The traditional Korean colour spectrum is called “Obangsaek”, which means “Five Orientation Colour”. This colour spectrum is made up of red, blue, yellow, white, and black - each of which represent the 5 cardinal directions (North, South, East, West and Centre), as well as each of the 5 elements. The combination of colour, direction and elements was created in China, and was adopted by Korea.

I have looked at the attributes of each colour, and how I could use these to influence the colour scheme of my character. For example, I liked that one of the attributes of the colour yellow was an essence of vitality - a state of strength and energy that my character possesses. I also liked the connections to hope that the colour blue has - my character is extremely hopeful about the future of her home after it has been liberated so I believe this fits my character well. My plan is to trial each of these colours, using different values to create a pleasing monotone colour scheme that could match well with my established values of grey.

When creating my brief, I decided that I wanted to make a character based on a dystopian themed game. The game I am designing my character for is a concept I created in my 'Dystopian Worlds' assignment earlier this year, which captivated me so much I wanted to create more work towards it!

In my game concept, my character comes from a place called 'Gumeong' in Seoul, South Korea. The world has been ravaged with climate change, thus making the surface uninhabitable, and the civilisation in my game is made up of people from all over the world who congregated within a massive sinkhole. 

This sinkhole has been split into different levels, with the highest [level 710] being populated by the poorest inhabitants. The ruler of the sinkhole, a mythical being called 'Oni', and their followers have made the inhabitants into a cult, who praise the ruler for creating the hole as a safe haven from the surface, even though they are never seen or heard. The people are subliminally brainwashed by Oni's seconds in command, called 'Elders', who rule over the goings on within the civilisation and brutalise the non believers.

These non believers have created a rebellion against the unfair ruling of their home, and they call themselves 'Yokai' - They wear hidden earpieces that block out the subliminal soundwaves, and work to free people from the dehumanising brainwashing that Oni and the elders push onto innocent people. 

One of the first questions I asked when brainstorming to create my character was about gender - What gender will fit best for what I have in mind? When thinking about this I was tempted to design both a male and female character, like the mascots used in Cyberpunk 2077, and although I would still like to do this, I have come to the realisation that I do not have the time to create two different designs.

Looking at both male and female main characters in video games today, I have come to the conclusion that I would like to create a female character! I want to create someone who is inspirational, whilst also having weaknesses and quirks which make them feel alive.

Now that I know what gender my character will be, I have written a list of questions that I can answer to help flesh my character out! This character biography is vital to my concept process, as it will help me to pinpoint design elements that need to be included in my designs.

Going into this project, I knew that I wanted to become more confident posing and drawing realistic anatomy, which takes into consideration realistic proportions.

In this attempt, I tried to use the skills observed from my video studies alongside reference material as well as my pre-established knowledge of the body and anatomy. Whilst attempting my anatomy, I really struggled drawing the hands - using what I'd learned in the video studies didn't seem to be working, so I chose to  trace my own references of both my friend's arm and my hand. Looking back this wasn't the best practice - Many artists express that tracing isn't the best for if you are trying to learn something new, and I should have really chosen to practice my drawing. Even if this wasn't the best idea, Using these references helped me to overcome my problem quickly, which helped to keep my project going.

Overall, This is my best attempt so far! I believe this is the best I've ever managed to draw anatomy, however I can see that I need to work on my side view, as it looks extremely unpolished and preliminary. 

To get some feedback I asked for advice from an in-industry 2D artist I am in contact with, who calls herself Jart [@SCaprium on twitter]. She gave me some really useful tips that I plan to use in the future! These can be seen below.

I find the line up against her own artwork really useful! It has helped me gain perspective on what I need to change, and I plan to use this resource to adjust my artwork. In future, I plan to use these useful diagrams and tips to adjust my attempt to make it proportionally correct.

After looking at what outfit aesthetic I wanted, as well as practicing my anatomy, I then moved onto creating the first outfit concepts for my character. I tried to draw inspiration from information collected within my questionnaire, as well as the mood boards I created looking at Techware, Post Apocalyptic fashion and Japanese street fashion. The designs I came up with can be seen below.

I tried to create a large variation between my designs, using different design motifs, shapes and designs as shown in real life examples to create pleasing designs. I also used athletic wear as a major design inspiration, as my character needed to be able to move around freely. My main aim with my first set of outfit concepts was to give myself a large amount of different ideas, that I could then pick and choose from to help create my next ideas. I feel that this aim was met - I was really happy with what I managed to come up with, and have chosen 5 designs to influence my next concepts. These designs were 5, 8, 9, 15 and 16, which all have a strong Techware influence. I really liked each of these designs, because they each felt unique and had elements that I wanted to explore within another set of concepts. 

From this point onwards, I will be using Techware as my main influence as it is a clothing aesthetic that really interests me, and one that I believe will fit my character better then the other aesthetics I was thinking about using. However, I will still actively be trying to use elements of the other aesthetics, such as scavenged / pieced together outfits and use of different textures and fabrics. I believe these aspects, mixed with the main aesthetic of Techware, will be able to create a visually interesting clothing design, that is unique and viable for my character.

Within my next set of designs, I plan to use my 5 favourite designs from my first concepts to create another 12 concepts, 2 of which I will choose to influence my final design. I really want to draw in more inspiration from traditional Korean dress within my second concepts, as I feel this could create a really interesting design that also ties in with my character’s backstory.

When creating my hair designs, I drew inspiration from many different aesthetics. I tried to focus on an asymmetrical design, a design I was planning to use in my clothing design so that the cybernetic leg could also be seen and not covered. I also experimented with different hair lengths and styles, and I’m really pleased with what I managed to create!

When asking for feedback from family, their favourite designs were 3, 4, 7 and 16. They liked the variation between the designs, as well as the different hair lengths! My favourite design from these concepts was 13 - I felt it fit the aesthetic I was going for, whilst also being short, which I felt would fit my character better than a longer hairstyle.

I plan to use this feedback to create a second wave of concepts, 1 of which I will choose to influence my final design.

I decided early on when creating my character that I wanted to give them a cybernetic limb, inspired by such body augmentations found on characters in Cyberpunk 2077. I felt the idea of giving my character limb like this would also be a really interesting design challenge, as it would push me to incorporate many different things into one cohesive design.

I drew inspiration from many different prosthetic legs, real examples and fake. For example, designs 6 and 7 were drawn from athletic running blades, 3 and 10 drawn from cybernetics seen in Cyberpunk 2077. I decided to use a wide variety of different prosthetics to help me make interesting designs, which could be feasible for my character. I feel that using these examples was highly effective! My personal favourite from these designs was 4: I liked the mix of viable mechanisms and skin, but to gather more information I created a questionnaire.

Within this questionnaire, I learned that the two most popular designs were 1 and 11, feedback saying that people enjoyed the amount of visible parts, as well as the sleek designs - they felt that it made the leg look like a replacement due to injury, rather then a replacement for aesthetic purposes. I also learned that people’s least favourite designs were 5 and 10 - people felt that the small base on design 10 wouldn’t be very practical for my character, which I agree with. They also felt that design 5 felt too simple and fragile, which wouldn’t work for my character.

Following the information I was given in my questionnaire, I have decided to create my final leg design using elements of both design 1 and 11. I believe this will be able to create a sleek, believable replacement design, with enough detail to feel believable.

Once I finished creating the first concepts for my character’s outfit, hairstyle and cybernetic leg, I moved onto creating my second concepts! I believe that creating a second set of concepts was vital for my design process, as it helped to to expand upon ideas from my first concepts whilst also introducing new ideas.

When creating my second outfit concepts, I first started off by picking my favourite five ideas from the first wave of concepts. The ideas I chose were 5, 8, 9, 15 and 16 as I liked different aspects of each outfit, and wanted to experiment with some of these ideas further!

Using these ideas as inspiration, I moved onto creating my next 12 ideas. I tried to have a lot of variation between my designs - using different design ideas combined with different styles of garment and masks really helped me to create a set of concepts that are all unique in some way! These can be seen below. 

Overall looking at what I was able to create, I’m really pleased! I enjoy how much variation there is between each design, and the mix of more tactical gear with athletic wear. One of my favourite designs is 9 - I really liked the idea of my character having a layered look, as I felt it would make her feel more nomadic and mysterious. I merged my designs from design 1 and 2 to get this look, and I feel the mysterious vibe is conveyed really well, making this one of my favourite designs. 10 was also another favourite, as I worked really hard with this design to take inspiration from traditional Korean dress whilst also editing it to fit in with the futuristic aesthetic I was going for. Whilst I believe I could have done a better job at conveying the traditional dress inspiration, I really like how this design looks. 

Some other designs that I’m really pleased with are 3, 5, 7 and 12! I really liked the clear, see-through elements that I experimented with in 3, as I feel these really help to give the ‘Techware’ feel. I further experimented with this element in design 12 with the see-through section on the trousers, which while Impractical was a fun idea. I thought the face covering on design 5 gave a kind of Arabian feel, which while not what I’m going for, was a really interesting idea. I also liked the really high collar on 7! I feel this gave a mysterious feel whilst also making the character feel like a commander on a battle field! This feel was further aided by the harness like structure around my character’s chest as well as the shoulder pads - I experimented with a harness on 3 underneath the jacket, and this is an element I really want to try for my final design.

Whilst there are plenty of elements from these designs that I would like to explore within my final design, I’m planning on using designs 9 and 10 as my main inspiration. I really like the asymmetric look for the trousers that I showed in design 9, as well as the poncho and undercoat combination. I also plan to use elements of traditional dress to elevate the design, which is why design 10 has also been chosen. I believe I could create a really effective design with these concepts, and am really excited to see what I manage to come up with for the hair!

When designing my second wave of hair styles, I didn’t have any set inspiration from my first designs! I mostly just drew what came to mind, leaning into some of the designs that can be seen on my first hairstyle concept sheet. The designs I managed to create can be seen below!

Looking at what I managed to create, I’m really happy I decided to do a mix of more crazy hairstyles alongside more normal styles! Overall design 5 is my favourite- it is practical, being short, but also has a futuristic punky vibe with the bangs that I really enjoy. However, when I asked for feedback from friends they actually expressed that this style was their least favourite. From feedback, many respondents said that 3 was their favourite, with 7 and 4 also being mentioned. I do like these designs - I think that the space bun style used in 4 is really fun, and the short hair of 7 is really practical and would fit my character well! 3 fits with the asymmetrical design that’s I was going for, however I feel that this style wouldn’t be very practical as my character is very athletic and the hair would end up going in her face.

For my final design, I plan to take inspiration from designs 3, 4 and 5, as these were the most popular designs and my personal favourite. 

Now that I’ve finished my second concepts, I chosen designs 9 and 10 to influence my final outfit design, and designs 3, 4 and 5 to influence my final hair design. From the cybernetic leg concepts I created along with my first set of concepts, I’ve chosen designs 1 and 11 to influence the design for my final concept. With all of these designs in mind, I created a document showcasing them alongside each other that could be added to my final concept document for easy viewing. 

To start off with my final design, I imported the anatomy model that I had been working with for my character into my document, then importing the inspiration document (as seen above) so that my base for the document was ready.

I already had the main idea that I wanted to use the layered look, so I chose design 9 to be my main inspiration for the outfit. With this in mind, I decided that a shorter hairstyle would work best for my character, as I didn’t think the long hair would be very practical alongside the outfit. This is why I chose design 5 to be my main inspiration for the hair - it was my favourite of the designs I created for my second concepts, and I believe it has the punky futuristic look I was going for.

With my main inspirations decided, I started drawing! I started from the head and worked downwards, moving from the hair, to the poncho and coat, then the trousers and finally the boots. I also worked on the design for the cybernetic leg separately, so that I could design it with moving parts and a working design in mind. The thought process of asking the question “how does this work?” was inspired by the work I completed for a past project, where I was tasked with creating a mech. The questions I was tasked with asking myself for that project were the questions I asked myself for this element of my design, and I’m really happy with how the leg came out!

Another element of my final design was the garment layering - after drawing the face covering and elements of the poncho, I realised that creating each garment separately would be more beneficial as it would mean a viewer would be able to see the detailing of each garment separate to my final design. After changing my workflow to fit this idea, I realised that whilst it gave me a lot of work it was actually really beneficial to the design process! One benefit was the face covering and coat - at the start of the design process I planned them to be separate garments but while thinking of the outfit as separate pieces of clothing, I ended up merging these into one single garment - the undercoat. I’m really glad I decided to do this, as it gave the garment a more interesting design. 

It took around 4 hours to complete the linework for my front facing perspective - overall I’m really happy with how the design came out! I love the layered effect for the clothing, and feel that it really fits the mysterious, nomadic look I was going for. I wanted my character to feel prepared for any situation, and I feel the protection of the poncho and the coat really gives this feel. Furthermore, I also enjoy the asymmetrical design for the trousers - it really helps to show off the cybernetic leg whilst also keeping the flesh leg covered and protected from the elements, which I felt fit well for my character’s setting. 

Whilst I am proud of this design, if I were to design it again I would use the feedback of a friend within the games industry, who suggested that I make the leg stand out more. To quote his feedback, “Visually, I feel that  the leg doesn’t look distinct.  If the cybernetic is part of her backstory, giving it some extra visual distinction would be great.  Since it is also part of who the character is, it would be good to have the distinction give some extra visual clues towards what kind of mechanical benefit that character gets - from a gameplay perspective.  Things like: does the character get extra kick strength, does the character struggle to walk, does it need repairs if broken, can it hold upgrades?” These questions got me thinking about improvements I could have made to the design - one such improvement was shortening the coat on the left side of the body so that the leg was on full display, maybe making it look torn or burned away to introduce a post apocalyptic feel to the outfit. Another improvement I could have made in accordance with this feedback was adding extra detail, such as removable covers and other visual ques that show that the leg can be taken apart and repaired. I tried to simulate this, but I feel that I could have made the elements on my leg more distinct to fully realise this idea.

After creating my front perspective, I then moved onto creating the side and back views of my design, using the front view as a guide of how things should look. This process didn’t take long - I spent about 7 hours in total on the linework as a whole, which while slow compared to industry concept artists. However, I’m really proud of how polished it looks! If I were to improve my design, I would do more practice on the side view - I feel like it doesn’t look very realistic proportion wise, however saying I struggled to make it look good I’m still proud of what I managed to make. There are also a couple of discrepancies within the design that would need to be fixed before this document was sent to a 3D artist, such as the connection between the sleeve and the back - On the side view there is a slit that separates the two sections, whereas on the back it is shown as a solid piece.

After finishing the linework, I moved onto colouring my design. I completed lots of research to decide what kind of colour scheme I wanted, including looking into traditional Korean colour theory, also known as Obangsaek. I chose to look at this, as I was having trouble deciding which colours to use and thought that looking into my character’s heritage could help! Obangsaek is the belief that there are 5 main colours, each with different attributes. One of my favourite colours was blue - in Obangsaek blue is a symbol of hope and immortality, hopefully attributes that would help my character in her war torn setting. I also liked the attributes assigned to the colour red, of passion and love. I planned to use these two as the main colours for my final design.

I also looked at colour theory and other colour schemes, experimenting with these and the colours of obangsaek, as well as other neon colours on the undercoat of my final design. I came to the conclusion that a monotone colour scheme would look the best, as it is cohesive and easy to use. A lot of techware clothing also follows this colour scheme, so I thought it was a great match!

Starting work, I tried the blue and red colour scheme, however I realised that I really didn't enjoy it and scrapped it. This is when I decided to use two different values of blue - a lighter and a darker tone, each of which I would further adjust to get a lighter and darker tone of. The colour scheme I created can be seen on my design below.

Overall, I am really pleased with how the colouring turned out! I think that the blue tones work really well together, and give the outfit the almost 'each piece found seperately' look I was going for - I didn't want the two values of blue on the same garment, as it would make it look like the outfit was supposed to go together when I wanted to make it look like she had found each piece separately.

Also in line with my character's backstory, I included scarring down the left side of my character's body. I believe this give a really cool look when paired with the cybernetic eye and bleached eyebrow, as it gave a very rugged feel.

One thing I would improve is the leg - as I don't have time to do any shading for this design it almost fades into the design. With shading I feel that I would have been able to create a metal look, but I sadly don't have the time.

To showcase the work I created for my final design, I created a video speedraw - within this video my whole linework and colouring process is showcased from start to finish, which I believe is really interesting to look at. This video can be checked out below. 

To gather more feedback for my final design, I also endeavoured to create a Focus Group! I feel that doing a focus group was the best choice at this point in the project, as it helped me gain a lot of insight into peoples thoughts extremely quickly.

Within this focus group, my peers expressed many elements which they liked and disliked - One of these element that they disliked was the hair. They felt as if it looked to unnatural and triangular - Whilst I understand these complaints, I like the style I decided to go for! Picking this style was quite a selfish choice, as throughout the concepting phase it was the least popular among the respondents of my feedback, however my favourite! I decided to use it for my final design as I thought it created the 'futuristic, punky' feel I was going for. When I asked if my peers had a style or length in mind that they thought would fit better, they expressed that they thought a shorter hairstyle would work, maybe in a mohawk style. We also talked about different elements of my designs, such as the cybernetic leg, colour schemes, and outfit, which gave me great insight into what changes I could make if I were to retry creating my final design.

When starting my Final Major Project, I had the idea of creating a character from a game concept I created within a past project this year. I wanted to create the main playable character for this game, set in the future within a sinkhole that is home to one of the last pockets of civilisation, and make sure I was giving them an interesting, memorable design!

To start off my project I started by analysing the given criteria, as I believed that this would help me to create a strong brief as well as helping me understand what skills and hardware I would require. This was really useful as it helped me to understand what was required of me from the project, as well as getting into the correct mindset to start my work. After this, I filled out my project proposal - When creating this, I decided that I wanted to focus on developing my understanding of industry concept sheets as well as how to draw different ethnicities, then finally how to effectively design a character for a video game. Looking at my work from the end of the project, I believe I was able to hit two of these three points - I have been using industry concept sheets as inspiration for my own design, as well as looking at industry concept art for my research into dystopian fashion. Whilst I didn't look far into different ethnicities, I made sure to use references I found online of Korean women for my character's face so that I could make sure she looked Korean.

After setting out my brief, I created my schedule. When creating my schedule, I decided when to do things based on when I thought I would enjoy doing the work, apart from my main research which I planned to complete at the start of the project. This may have been a massive mistake - forcing myself to complete lots of research at the start of the project really caused my motivation to suffer greatly, which was a massive problem I had a hard time tackling. It was only when I was around half way into the project that I managed to tackle this problem, which meant I was able to catch up in time for the hand in date.

After creating my schedule, began work on the primary research for the project. To start off, I looked at clothing within dystopian games. I decided that this was a good start for my project, as I thought that I would be able to take inspiration from these designs for my own. Overall, I found this research both fun and interesting - there are many repeated design tropes used within the designs such as unique garment construction, stitch detail and unique textures and patterns. I planned to use these ideas in my own design, which I believed they really encapsulated the futuristic, techware look I was going for. Within my research, I also looked at different video studies to improve my understanding of anatomy. After watching these videos, I found that whilst they were useful for tips and different methods of learning, most of the information shared wasn't useful to me. I believe I could have used the time I spent looking at these videos instead finding a more useful reference for information, such as articles online or a book. I also created moodboards of different clothing aesthetics I could have used for my design - I believe that this was really useful, as it gave me garments and outfits to take inspiration from for my final design. I created a questionnaire from this work, and found that most respondents believed that a mix of post apocalyptic fashion and techware would work the best. I actually believed this too, however when designing my final concept I ended up dropping the post apocalyptic elements without even realising - looking back I wish I had added some of these elements, as I believe that they would have made the design look even better! One of the last things I looked at further into the project was colour theory: as an artist I hadn't done research about colour theory yet, so I thought this was the perfect excuse to have a look! I started off with the main colour schemes that I could use for my work, which are the analogous, complimentary,  monotone, split, split complementary, triadic, tetradic and square schemes. I created notes on each colour scheme, and decided that either a complimentary or monotone colour scheme would work the best for my character - I wanted their outfit to be quite mysterious and dark and so felt that tones of dark grey and black should be the base colour with extra added accents. I had finished the final design at this point in the project, so I experimented with colour on one of the garments. This experimentation made me realise I didn't want two colours, and only wanted one - I then moved onto experimenting with a monotone scheme which I liked much better. Also whilst looking at colour, I decided to look at Obangsaek, or the traditional Korean colour spectrum. The colours that make up this spectrum are Black, White, Yellow, Red and Blue, with each having unique attributes and and elements assigned to them. I felt this element of my research was vital for understanding my character better - I wanted them to be Korean because of the setting of my game, so knowing about some of the tradition of their setting was really vital to me. 

Once I had finished my research, I then moved onto thinking about my character: Who are they, what is their backstory, what are their beliefs and what do they look like? One of the first questions I asked myself was whether I wanted a male or female character. At first I wanted to create both a male anf female character, similar to those shown in the marketing for Cyberpunk 2077, However I realised that I wouldn't have enough time. With this in mind, I looked at iconic male and female characters in video games, which was really important as it helped me look at the main character tropes used for each gender to help me design what I wanted to create! After this research, I decided that I wanted to create a female character - I want to create a strong, independent character that could be an inspiration. I also wanted to make her have quirks and weaknesses that make her feel more alive. After deciding this vital element of my project, I then moved onto creating a character biography, including sections on my characters background, backstory, physical appearance, mannerisms and philosophies. It was really fun to think of questions for this biography, as I was trying to think of things that would show a lot about my character, whilst also being fun to answer! 

Once I had created my character, I moved onto practicing elements for my final design. I started by practicing my anatomy, starting off by drawing how I would draw it before this project before then trying to replicate what an anatomy mannequin shows and using the video studies from my research. This practice was followed up by feedback from friends and fellow students, so that I always knew what needed to be improved and what was going well! Overall, I’m really happy with how the anatomy came out - I believe that the constant feedback really assisted me, and definitely helped to to create the best that I could!

The next work I completed on this project was the conceptual process. I took inspiration for my first concepts from my research to create appealing designs from many different design aesthetics, and I believe that this was achieved! I also worked hard with the cybernetic leg designs to show lots of variety between the designs, using different feet and shapes in general to create an interesting but feasible design. Once again, feedback was given for all of my work from friends and family, and this feedback helped me greatly in deciding where I wanted my designs to go for the second concepts. I also created a questionnaire for my cybernetic leg, which helped me gather more valuable feedback - in this questionnaire two designs were the most popular, so for my final design I decided to create a mix of these two designs!

For my second concepts, I used the feedback given from my first concepts to create another set of hair and clothing designs. This time, I focused more on the ‘techware’ fashion aesthetic, as well as using Korean traditional dress to influence my designs. Overall, I’m really happy with the work I managed to create during the conceptual phase! I believe that whilst the time it took to create this artwork (over 24+ hours) is not at all industry standard, with time and more practice I will be able to create conceptual pieces quicker. Furthermore, I feel that I need to become looser with my conceptual drawing - I was making every piece appear quite polished, when really my main priority should have been to create artwork quickly and be thinking about interesting design choices.

Moving onto my final design with colouring, I first created a document with all of the main inspirations I wanted to use from my concepts. I really liked a layered look, as I felt it gave my character a mysterious, nomadic feel that I really enjoyed. I also liked short hair, as I felt it would be more practical for an athletic character compared to long hair that could get in her face. With these ideas in mind, I then spent 7 hours creating the final artwork, creating a character with a layered poncho and undercoat look, including a face covering and asymmetrical trousers so that her cybernetic leg could be on full show. Within these 7 hours I also created the other perspectives of this design for my character turnaround sheet - a document used within the game industry to show a 3D artist what a character would look like from all angles so that they can be turned easily into a 3D model. Overall, whilst this design doesn’t include as much of a post apocalyptic feel as I would have liked, I’m really pleased with how she looks! I think the layered look really portrays the aesthetic that I wanted it to, as well as making the outfit have a really nice silhouette! When completing the colouring for this piece, I tried a neon colour scheme first, which I didn’t like - I didn’t think this fit my character very well, as I wanted her to be able to slip under the radar easily. With this in mind, I decided on a more simple monotone colour scheme for my accents, using a lighter and darker hue of blue as the base for certain garments. I also gave her a cybernetic eye, as well as scarring on the left side of her face which I feel looks really great and makes her look really unique. Whilst I’m happy with this colouring, I believe it could be improved. One of these improvements is the lack of shading - I really wanted to fully shade this design so it could look to the best of my ability, however I ended up running out of time to complete it. This was a problem with my own timekeeping, which would not be allowed in a fast paced, industry setting. To improve, I plan to practice my speed drawing over the summer to improve on the pace of my work. Another improvement I think would make my work better is the use of my light blue colour - I feel that this is a bit to bright for my character, and If I were to configure the concept further I would make this colour slightly more dull.

In Conclusion, I believe the work I created for this project was created to a high standard. I believe that the linework of my final design is smooth and polished, and that the colouring (especially the see-through elements on the poncho) worked well and created a great effect. I believe that whilst I’m happy with my design, there are definitely improvements that can be made, artistically and also in regards to my time management. However, I plan to focus on improving these elements of my work over the next few months, so that I can be creating better artwork in the future. When asking for feedback, many respondents expressed that they were really impressed with the final design, saying that the colours looked great and they really liked the design I had come up with! Throughout the project my respondent’s really helped me to choose elements and designs when I was stuck, so I couldn’t be happier with their answers. However, they also made their constructive criticism clear, many saying that the design I went for with the hair was not their favourite, as they didn’t like the triangular shape of the bangs. Furthermore, another response stated that the cybernetic leg blended into the design too much, and should have rather stood out as it was a vital part of my character’s backstory and design. Whilst I really like the final hairstyle I went with, I can see where people may not when compared to the other designs I had created in the conceptual phase. I do however fully agree with the second critique - I wish that I had the time for the shading and highlighting, as this would have made the leg stand out more then it’s block colour version on the final design turnaround. However due to the time constraints I couldn’t complete this element of the colouring, meaning the leg didn’t manage to reach its full potential.

Throughout this project, I believe that I've learned how to create high quality, industry standard concept art. I've delved into colour schemes and costume design, which are vital skills I will definitely be calling upon in my future as an artist. This project was a vital stepping stone into my future as an artist - it has given me the time to look at vital aspects of my art that needed improvement, such as my anatomy and line control when drawing. This means that looking at my art before this project compared to teh work created afterwards, there is an extremely clear differance in quality. I'm really pleased with what I managed to create, and more importantly I am really pleased with the artist I have become thanks to this project.

Monday 27th February 2023

Today I gathered some images for my research on Dystopian fashion within Video Games and also finished my project proposal. Whilst I am happy with what I managed to do,  I feel that I have been quite lazy and wasted time - I could have done a lot more then I managed, but I found it quite hard to start the project mentally. On Thursday, I plan to get started fully with my research, as well as write out my brief and aims for the project, which will help to keep me on track!

Thursday 2nd March 2023

Today I started my project off properly, by gathering the references for the images collected on monday. I also wrote an explanation of my brief, detailing what skills I would need as well as what hardware and software I would require. Lastly, I started my research into dystopian fashion by labeling concept images from Cyberpunk 2077 with different outfit features. In the future I will write about what I like and dislike about the concepts, and what I could take to use in my own designs. Overall, I'm really happy with my progress today! I feel that I have made good progress compared to how I felt on Monday, and I'm really eager to carry on with my research by looking at the fashion used in games such as Detroit: Become Human and The Outer Worlds.

Friday 3rd March 2023

Today I carried on with the research I started conducting on monday. Looking at what I liked and disliked about character's designs, I found that characters with cyberware implants/augmentations interested me, and that I liked the 'techware' clothing aesthetic many of the characters have. In the future, I am planning on looking at character designs from other games, so that I can get a broad range of referances to look at and study. Overall, I feel that I could have done a lot more today- I wanted to get all of my research from Cyberpunk 2077 completely done today but I will be unable to so I plan to do it over the weekend so that my schedule isn't compromised next week.

Monday 6th March 2023

Today I managed to work towards my research on clothing in dystopian games, writing up my thoughts on the NPC costuming used within Cyberpunk 2077. Due to not having access to the technology I needed in the morning, I then moved onto deciding the gender of my character. Whilst I haven't fully decided this yet, I am more inclined to create a female character, as I find them more appealing to work towards. However, to help me decide I am beginning to look at some of the most iconic male and female characters in video games, which will helpfully help me to make a decision.

Whilst I am now running behind the schedule set out within my project proposal, I believe that the research I plan to carry on conducting can be completed in between my practices. I also believe this will be more useful then completing research before starting practical work - The research will be fresh in my mind when I'm generating and creating ideas.

Tuesday 7th March 2023

Today I did some work towards my research of clothing within dystopian games, by looking at the design of female V and analysing her design. Within this research, I found that I liked the use of leather within the construction of her garments, as it is a sturdy and easy to clean material. I feel that this fabric would be good to use within my own work, as I want my character to have sturdy clothes that would last them a long time.

I now only need to look at male V's design and source images for clothing within Detroit: Become Human, so that I can analyse clothing within another dystopian game.

Thursday 9th March 2023

Today, I decided to look at some video tutorials that could help me with my anatomy. Furthermore, I analysed these videos, looking at what I liked and disliked about them. Furthermore, I had a second try at drawing anatomy, using structures I observed from an anatomy mannequin. I believe this attempt was partially successful, However I know I'll need to have a lot more practice before my anatomy improves.

Tomorrow I plan on finishing my comparison of male and female characters in video games, so that I can fully decide what gender my character will be! Over the next week I am planning to begin the creation process for my character by writing a bio, which will help me to flesh out my character and know what to include in their design!

Friday 10th March 2023

Today, I finished my comparison of male and female characters in video games, and fully solidified that I want to create a female character. I also began writing a list of Character Biography questions, which could be used to flesh out my initial ideas into a more concrete character concept!

Even though I am a couple of weeks into the project now, I still feel quite unmotivated! Whilst I am getting on with work, I'm finding the process of research and practice quite tiring. I am hoping that as I get into designing my character more in depth I will begin to enjoy it more. In future, I also plan to create questionaires and focus groups, so instead of relying on my own opinions I can use those of my peers.

Monday 13th March 2023

Today, I started to create the base anatomy for my character design sheet turn-around. Whilst I was happy with the feedback I was given, after asking for feedback from a friend in-industry she pointed out that my proportions were actually incorrect. From this feedback, I learned that the average human body is approximately 7.5 times the side of the head, as well as other anatomy tips that will really help me in the future.

I'm really pleased with this feedback - It is really constructive and I plan to adjust my anatomy appropriately to match this feedback. 

Furthermore, I created some mood boards on 3 different fashion aesthetics - Japanese Street Fashion, Techware and Post Apocalyptic. These are the aesthetics I want my character to be based around, and whilst I want the Post Apocalyptic influence to be less visible then the others, I plan to use all three to create a cohesive, interesting design!

Overall, I'm really happy with my progress! I've started work on some of the most important practical work, and I am nearly ready to start creating initial concepts! One thing I need to keep an eye on throughout this project is my project proposal - I keep forgetting to keep an eye on my schedule, which is vital for finishing this project in time. Looking at the schedule set out within my project proposal, I am about a week behind - last week I should have finished my anatomy, however I believe this extra practice will be really useful in solidifying my knowledge so that I can replicate the processes I've learned in the future.

Thursday 16th March 2023

Today I worked exclusively on redrawing my anatomy for my concept art sheet. Using the tips given to me from friends and peers, I managed to create a sketch that I was mostly happy with! 

Tomorrow, I need to work on making the linework more clear, as well as fixing the muscles in the arms and the stance. I believe I need to fix the arms, as they look too muscular compared to the rest of the body. This makes the art look quite odd, which I am not happy with.

Even though I haven't done loads today, I'm really happy to have started on my character concept sheet - Starting such an important part of the project is making me feel more comfortable about my lack of motivation throughout my FMP! I'm hoping that this will help me get more motivation, which will hopefully make me get a lot more work done!

Friday 17th March 2023

After starting my character concept sheet yesterday, I finished my anatomy by fixing the arms, then created the back view. I'm really happy that I managed to get this work done, It has made me feel really excited to start concepting outfits, and this excitement pushed me to create a questionnaire based on my possible outfit aesthetics. 

In my questionnaire I looked at Post Apocalyptic fashion, Japanese Street Fashion and Techware, asking what I could take and ignore from these fashion aesthetics for my own design as well as what people liked and disliked about the clothing.  Although I wanted my character to have a techware influence in her outfit, many people expressed that they liked the look of post apocalyptic clothing! I think I am going to still work with Techware, but also take inspiration from post apocalyptic fashion to make a cool, interesting outfit!

Over the next week, I plan to create an art bible for my designs as well as looking at different ethnicities, and how to draw then within my own style.

Wednesday 22th March 2023

Today I worked on filling in my Character biography, to get a better idea of my character before I start the first concepts! One part of this biography that I'm really excited to explore is my character's cybernetic leg, which she got through a traumatic experience when she was 17. The next parts of this biography that I want to work on is working out what I want my character's name to be, as well as some other information like her birthday.

Thursday 30th March 2023

Today I completed 5 more designs, Using inspiration from traditional asian dress and techware. I believe this use of traditional dress, as seen in 7, doesn't work for my character design, but is a super interesting look which I plan to take inspiration from for my final 5 designs tomorrow! 

My favorite designs of today are 7, 8 and 9. I really like the design of the mask used on 8, and believe its almost 'running gear' aesthetic is super interesting! I love my design on 9 - The leather jacket mixed with the baggy cargo trousers and trainers give a really cool visual, and i love the look of the antenna on the sides of the trainers! Whilst the rest of the designs are all interesting, I believe the techware look is the aesthetic I'm going to lean into the most, whilst using post apocalyptic elements to give a more worn, scavenged together look.

Tomorrow, my main plan is to finish the final 5 designs to get my initial concept sheet completed. In relation to my project proposal, I'm currently on track to finish my project on time, which makes me feel really relieved!

Friday 31st March 2023

Today I managed to complete my initial concept art sheet! To finish this I created a final 5 designs, that takes the amount of concepts on this sheet up to 16. Within these final five, my favorite designs are 15 and 16: I really like the silhoettes that the baggy overwear creates compared to the rest of the outfit, as well as how these designs really seem to encapsualate the mix of techware and post apocalyptic fashion that I was going for. The design I like the least from these five is 12 - I feel that it looks too similar to something you would see today, compared to the futuristic aesthetic I'm going for. However, I like the use of the baseball cap, as it deviates this design away from my other ideas.

Looking at all of my designs together, my top 5 are 5, 8, 9, 15 and 16. I believe these designs all utilise techware and post appocalyptic elements really well, and I plan to use these designs to create my second concepts! 

Furthermore, today I also began work looking at my character's most notable feature - her cybernetic leg. I gave my character this feature, as I belive it is a really interesting design choice, and would be really fun to design!

Within my designs, I looked at inspiration from the game Cyberpunk 2077, as well as real life examples of prosthetic limbs, so that I could get an interesting design that looks like it could actually work. I believe these designs are effective in this way, my top 3 being 4, 6, and 8. I really liked the idea of a running blade, which I explored within my 6th design. I also like the detail of different plates and structual designs that I've thoughtabout within my concepts, so I plan to use these three designs to create a second selection of artwork, that I will then pick my favorite idea from for my character. 

Monday 3rd April 2023

Today is the first day of the easter break, and I began work on my second outfit concepts! I used my five favorite designs from my first concepts (5, 8, 9, 15 and 16) to influence my concepts, and I believe that this was a really good idea! I managed to finish the first 6 designs today, and I plan to continue this work tomorrow!

Out of the designs finished today, I think that design 5 is my favorite. The face covering has an arabian vibe which while doesn't match my brief entirely, is a fun look! I also like the jacket and tall boots - I feel this design is a good mix of techware with post apocalyptic elements, which is the aesthetic I'm going for!

Today I also created a questionnaire so that I could gather feedback about my cybernetic leg concepts! Within the feedback, I gathered that designs 1 and 11 were the most popular, as they looked the most feasible to produce. Furthermore, people liked the sleek simple designs - they look futuristic but not outlandish, and the designs show individual parts and mechanisms. They also enjoyed how these designs looked more like a replacement for the limb rather then a fashion accessory, which fits with my character's backstory.

The most unpopular leg design was 3 - within my feedback many pointed out that it looked too skinny and fussy, and how it was not a very practical shape. I agree with this feedback - this design was created as more of an experimentation of what prosthetic legs could look like in the future, and within the bounds of my character brief it wouldn't be appropriate.

Looking at the schedule set out within my project proposal, I'm behind schedule by about a week. This is due to the problems I've been having with motivation, however within the past week I have felt a renewed interest in the project! I plan to work hard over the next two weeks to catch up, which I believe is entirely doable. 

Tuesday 4th April 2023

Today I managed to finish my second outfit concepts! Overall I'm really happy with how these turned out - I love the similarities and differences between the designs, and the different elements that help give the outfits a techware, futuristic feel. I have two favorite designs from today, and these are 9 and 10 - I love the layering on 9, as I feel it gives a very mysterious, nomadic feel whilst also having a futuristic flare! I used traditional Korean dress and an inspiration for 10, and really like the look and aesthetic it gives the viewer - this fits nicely with the setting and background my character comes from, so I thought it was an interesting design.

A design trope I enjoyed using whilst concepting was thinking of the use of different fabrics and materials, which can be seen through the clear see-through elements prevalent throughout many of my designs. This element was really fun to think about whilst concepting, and I plan to use it whilst I create my final design!

Thursday 6th April 2023

Today I began work on the second concepts for my hair designs. I didn't have lots of time to work, so I only managed to get around 4 designs completed. Of these designs, 3 was my favorite - I like the asymmetric design and the side parting! I also believe this design has a post apocalyptic feel that would fit my character well!

Friday 7th April 2023

Today, I managed to finish the second wave of hair concept designs! I'm really pleased with what I've managed to create, design 5 being my favorite of the 8. I believe this is because of the angular nature of the design - it gives it a futuristic feel which I enjoy, however when showing my concepts to friends they actually felt that this design was their least favorite! Many respondants enjoyed the longer asymetrical nature of 3, whilst others liked the more basic and practical designs such as 7 and 8. Whilst I can see why these designs were more popular, I'm going to try and base my hair for the final design on what kind of outfit I plan to create.

Within the next week, I plan to fully finish the linework for my final design, meaning that when I go back to college on Monday 17th April, I will only have to complete the colouring.

Sunday 9th April 2023

Today I managed to begin my final concept design!

I started by looking at the most popular concept designs from each element of my design (costuming, hair and the cybernetic leg) and compiling them all on a single PNG that could then be imported onto my working document and used to create my final design. I'm really glad I did this, as it helped me to have a great work flow instead of flicking between documents. 

From the start of this process for my final design, I knew I wanted my character to have a layered clothing design, very much inspired by the long coat and poncho of design 9 on my second outfit concept sheet. I kept this in mind as I started to draw her hair - I didn't want the hair to be too long as to interfere with  the outfit, so I ended up choosing design 5 of my second hairstyle concept sheet as it was shorter and gave off the 'cyberpunk' aesthetic I was going for.

I also started work on her cybernetic leg, although progress didn't get far until I had to finish work for the day. Tomorrow I plan to get the leg completed, as well as start work on the outfit.

Monday 10th April 2023

Today, I was able to carry on with the work I begun on the design of the cybernetic leg yesterday, as well as starting work on the outfit of my character.

I started off by completing the design for my character's cybernetic leg, Which was inspired by both designs 1 and 11 from my cybernetic leg design sheet. I believe the heritage between these designs and my final design is quite clear, and I'm really pleased with how it came out! If I were to go back and edit it in any way, I would add more plating to help give it a pieced together and repaired feel, but overall I'm really happy with this design!

I next moved onto creating the clothing! I started by creating the face covering, inspired by many face coverings used within the covid 19 pandemic, as well as those used by many bikers underneath full face helmets. I really liked the zip down the side, as I believe this would make it an extremely versitile piece if it were made in real life, as well as making it easy to remove if the wearer was getting too hot or needed some fresh air. I chose a face covering like this over something like a gas mask or full face visor, as whilst those options fit the futuristic / post appocalyptic aesthetic I was going for, they were bulky, and not the easiest to carry. I liked the simplicity that came with the design of face coving I went with, as it could be tucked back into any other clothing when not in use.

I then began work on the poncho, drawing the basic shapes of the raised collar, hood and body of the garment. I began drawing the basic shapes of the coat underneath before deciding to draw all garments seperately, as this would mean I was able to show the detail of each garment seperately to the layered final design. Whilst this approach gave me more work, I'm really glad I chose this over only drawing all garments layered as it gave me a better idea of how the outfit was actually contructed.

Lowering the opacity of the combined layer, I began tracing over the lines I had already drawn on differant layers, combining the face covering and long coat into a single garment, with the poncho, trousers and boots being seperate. With this plan set into action, I worked on designing the poncho, using lots of straight lines and square based shapes to create the look I was going for. It was during this design process that I decided a clear plastic element in the poncho would look really cool, as it would mean you would be able to be able to see the coat underneath! I ran with this design, finishing off the poncho with a hanging banner-like element at the front bottom of the garment before moving onto the next garment - the coat.

It was at this point that I decided to combine both the face covering and the coat together as a single garment, using the zip design on the face covering as the main access point of the garment. I believe this gave the garment a really interesting structure, as when the wearer didn't want to have their face covered they could unzip it to the neck area and use the rest as a collar or tuck it in. I also added a lot of detailing to the arms, chest and sides of the jacket, using straight lines and geometic shapes to give a futuristic feel. I believe this is really effective!

Tomorrow, I plan to finish the linework for my final design, drawing the bottom half of my design and combing these seperate layers into one finished linework piece.

Looking at the initial schedule set out within my Project Proposal, I am on track to finish the project on time if I manage to create the linework for my concept turnaround this week. Looking at my work ethic and the progress I was able to make last week, I'm extremely confident in my ability to complete this task, which is a massive relief when looking at what my motivation was looking like just a few weeks ago. I hope to keep this level of motivation up throughout the remainder of the project.

Thursday 12th April 2023

Today I worked on completing the side view of my concept turn-around sheet, starting with the anatomy for this view! I really struggled with this view in my practice with anatomy, so I used the guidelines set within my front facing anatomy to create this side view. Whilst this is not the greatest attempt, I'm happy with how it came out! Whilst I believe this is not industry standard at all, practice with this perspective could help me to be able to draw this view in the future.

Using the front view as a guide for the outfit, I found it quite simple creating the side view! I felt the time flew by drawing this, even though it took me a few hours! I found it quite fun to 

After a break, I started on the back view, first modifying the front view anatomy to show my characters back, before starting by drawing on the hair, and then the poncho. I ran out of time to work on more, so tomorrow I plan to finish the back view for my character turn-around sheet before configuring my concept sheet for best viewing!

Saturday 13th April 2023

Today I managed to finish the linework for my concept turn-around sheet!

I first started off by completing the back view for my turn around. I first drew the visable parts of the undercoat, before finishing the detailing onthe poncho's hood amd body. I really like the 3D accent on the top of the hood - I'm imagining this could have a use as some sort of light, which is making me really want to create artwork of my character with her hood up, although I don't think I will have the time. I then moved onto the legs, drawing in the detail of the cybernetic leg as well as the armour plating strapped to my character's right leg. Drawing the small details in this design was really enjoyable to me, as it made me think about what these details looked like on the other views of my character!

It didn't take me long after this to finish drawing the boots, completing the final view for my concept turn-around sheet! Overall I am extremely pleased with what I managed to create - I believe it fits what I was going for perfectly, and really encapsulates the 'cyberpunk' feel! I created a linework of my character without her mask as well a the front and side view of the cybernetic leg, then placed these next to the front view of my character for easy viewing. I'm not a fan of how this looks however, so I'm planning on moving it around at some point next week.

Over the next few weeks, my main plan is to look at different colour schemes I could use for my character. I also plan to start the writing for many aspects of this project, that have still not been given the information where it is needed. If I have the time, I also plan to create a seperate concept sheet at the end of this project to showcase the detail on each of the individual garments I created to make up this outfit, which I believe would be really beneficial for a viewer of my work!

Monday 17th April 2023

Today I updated my reflective journal for work completed over easter - This included my work creating my final concept design, hair concepts and leg designs! I should have completed these entries over the holidays as I had issues remembering the specifics of each day, however I'm really glad I managed to get these entries completed!

I also started looking at some different colour schemes I could use for my character, creating notes and examples using a colour wheel. I believe this work will be super useful in the future - being able to create appeasing colour schemes will be a really useful skill to practice for my own personal development as an artist. Looking at what I've researched, I believe a monochrome or complementary colour scheme would be the best choice for my character: as I'm using variations of grey for the main colour of her outfit, I believe that one or two bright accent colours would help to keep the outfit feeling less busy.

In relation to the schedule set out in my project proposal, I am only slightly behind schedule - This is due to the amount of writing I need to catch up on, as I have focused on practical work over updating my sight. In hindsight, this has placed me at a disadvantage and I should have written up my work as I went. However, I do believe I can catch up in time, and plan on writing up within my own free time on days off and at night, etc. 

Thursday 20th April 2023

Today, After testing out some neon colour schemes on the coat of my final design, I then focused my attention on looking at traditional Korean colour theory, also known as Obangsaek. This is the belief that the five traditional colours of korea (black, white, blue, yellow and red) all have differsnt attributes and directions tied to them. Whilst this research may have not been important for my project, I found it super interesting and enjoyed thinking about which of these colours could relate to my character. I also believe that this research was really important foe helping understand the korean roots of my character - I'm working really hard throughout this project to honour this herritage as much as I can, so this research was really interesting from that point of view!

Now that I've completed this research, I plan to use the knowledge earned to create a pleasing colour scheme for my character! At this point in time I really want to try a grey, black, red and blue colour scheme, as red and blue are the main colours on the south korean flag! I also like the messages of power and leadership conveyed in their meanings in Obangsaek, so I believe this could work really well!

Monday 24th April 2023

Today I worked solely on finishing the colouring for my final character concept turnaround sheet, and I’m really happy with the final result!

I started off with a plan of using a red and blue colour scheme - I liked the messages of hope and power associated with those colours within traditional Korean colour theory, however when I was adding the block colour to my design I realised that I actually really disliked how this colour combination looked. I struggled to come up with a replacement, and so I’m the end decided to swap out the red for a more cyan tone of light blue, which I believe gives my design a nice cohesive monotone colour scheme.

I also worked really hard today to focus on the colours of my cybernetic leg - in some feedback from a friend they expressed that because the cybernetic leg was such a large part of my character’s backstory, it should stand out from my characters design - however he felt that it didn’t. To make it stand out, I chose to keep the colours in variations of a light silver, which contrasts the darker greys and blacks of my character’s garments. It also gives it a sleek, modern look, whilst also looking pieced together with variations of different metals. Overall, I am really pleased with how the final design came out - I really believe that the leg stands out from the rest of the design, and overall I feel the design fits my brief really well. Although I wasn’t planning on using neon colours, I feel they’ve worked really well, and plan to add light effects if I get the time to shade properly!

In relation to the schedule set out in my project proposal, looking at the amount of work I need to complete this week I am behind schedule by about a week. However, I had an extra week free at the end of my schedule, so I should be able to complete all of my work on time.

Wednesday 26th April 2023

Today I wrote up my processes and thoughts about my first concepts. I’m really pleased I managed to get this written, as I have been meaning to complete this work for quite a while.

For the rest of this week I plan to finish writing up the information for my concepts, as well as finishing writing up my colour theory work and character bio. This is work that needs to be completed desperately, as whilst my character bio is unfinished, my character doesn’t have a name! If I have time, I also need to finish reflective journal entries that I didn’t manage to complete over Easter.

Thursday 27th April 2023

Today, I worked on the speed draw video for my final design! I started off by exporting the timelapse videos from procreate, exporting them into capcut and cutting out any unimportant sections. I then sourced background music from the Cyberpunk 2077 original game score, picking 3 tracks that I thought could fit quite well with my video! I then downloaded these tracks and added them onto the timeline, cutting down some of the tracks so they could all fit nicely. I finally added an into and an ending, as well as some information throughout the video lined up to what was happening. Once this was complete, I exported the video from capcut and uploaded it onto YouTube. 

After this, I worked on finishing some of the writing that I needed to complete - my first concepts, my questionnaire responses and my prosthetic leg designs. This progress is really positive, as I was slightly worried I wouldn't finish the project on time without it. Now, I just need to finish writing about my second concept and final design, as well as finishing my character biography.

Tomorrow, I plan to fully complete my character biography. I'm denoting a full day to this task, as it is super important that its completed, and I haven't had a lot of motivation to complete it these past few weeks.

Friday 28th April 2023

Today, I managed to fully complete work on my character biography! Throughout the process of completing this work I used many online resources to help patch knowledge, which I believe really helped me to create a believable design! One of the aspects I needed the most assistance with was honoring my character's Korean roots - as I have no prior knowledge of how korean names are structured and the meanings behind them, I wanted to make sure I chose a name that would fit my character whilst also being applicable in Korean society! I wanted a shorter name, which quite a mysterious feel, which is how I settled on 'Seo Gi'! Gi means "one who is brave", which I feel was quite a nice choice for my character. I also feel like this is a name that her mother would have chosen for her, thinking about the disadvantaged setting in which she was brought into the world. I liked the shortness of the name also - the way it sounded like "G" in an english accent felt right to me, as I feel it gives it a mysterious feel. G could mean anything, and I feel this feeling of the unknown around her name really adds to the mysterious nature I was going for! 

Whilst finishing my character biography was all I managed to complete today, it is a major step towards finishing my project! Over the weekend I plan to finish writing up the information for my second concepts and my final design, which will leave my final week as writing my conclusion and checking over my work to check it is up to standard! I'm really excited to see if I can complete this on time - I believe I will be able to!

Monday 1st May 2023

Today, I worked on finishing writing up the information for my second concepts, as well as starting writing up for my final concepts. This is really vital work, as without this complete I can't start work on my project evaluation!

I managed to fully finish up work on the 'Second Concept' section of my project, which I'm really happy with! I also finished talking about the development of my final design, with only the development of my colouring left to talk about. This progress is really promising, and although I wanted this work done last week I'm confident that I'll be able to get it done.

In relation to the schedule set out within my project proposal, I am only slightly behind schedule. This is due to my colouring write-up not being completed, however the final week was left blank for catching up so that's what I plan to do. 

Thursday 4th May 2023

Today, I worked on finishing writing up the information for my colouring, as well as starting work on my final evaluation of the project. 

I managed to finish the colouring section of my final concept component of my project in the morning, which I was really happy with as this meant I could get started on my evaluation. 

Friday 5th May 2023

Today I managed to finish my final evaluation of the project - This means that my FMP is complete! I'm really happy with the progress I have managed to make during this project: art the start I had a very basic idea of anatomy, and was only able to draw characters head on. Now I am able to create realistic anatomy, from a front, back and side view. I also have a clearer understanding of colour theory, as well as line weighting and control. I believe that coming out of this project, I have become a more well rounded artist, with more skills to call upon in my future.

Research- Dystopian Fashion in Video Games.

V- female: Creative Uncut. (2020). Cyberpunk 2077 Art Gallery. [Online]. www.creativeuncut.com.

Available at: https://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-39/c2077-v-female-concept.html

[Accessed 2 March 2023].

V-male: Creative Uncut. (2020). Cyberpunk 2077 Art Gallery. [Online]. creativeuncut.com.

Available at: https://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-39/c2077-v-male-concept-art.html

[Accessed 2 March 2023].

Creative Uncut. (2020). Cyberpunk 2077 Art Gallery. [Online]. creativeuncut.com.

Available at: https://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-39/c2077-v-male-concept-artwork.html

[Accessed 2 March 2023].

Evelyn Parker: Creative Uncut. (2020). Cyberpunk 2077 Art Gallery. [Online]. www.creativeuncut.com.

Available at: https://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-39/c2077-evelyn-parker-concept.html

[Accessed 2 March 2023].

Female Crowd Clothing: Creative Uncut. (2020). Cyberpunk 2077 Art Gallery. [Online]. www.creativeuncut.com.

Available at: https://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-39/c2077-female-crowd-clothing.html

[Accessed 2 March 2023].

Male Crowd Clothing: Creative Uncut. (2020). Cyberpunk 2077 Art Gallery. [Online]. www.creativeuncut.com.

Available at: https://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-39/c2077-male-crowd-clothing.html

[Accessed 2 March 2023].

Judy: u/Kazuliski. (2021). Judy Alvarez Concept Art by Martha Jackowiak - CDPR. [Online]. reddit.com. Last Updated: 11 May 2021.

Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/LowSodiumCyberpunk/comments/na9voy/judy_alvarez_concept_art_by_martha_jacko

[Accessed 2 March 2023].

Research - Iconic Male Characters in Video Games

https://twitter.com/katemcpx/status/1632713307923660800?s=46&t=DXGvZsRLDNEFp2xfDHHEpw

T2KSo69GLdqAEhoNKB68hQ-1200-80.jpg

maxresdefault.jpg

1200px-OB-npc-Adoring_Fan.jpg

handsomejack.jpg

kratos.jpg

marcusholloway.png

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19412453/ss_70d786ca18e4a78f6ba33f6d219584f825e0571c.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9e/Cloud_Strife.png/220px-Cloud_Strife.png

https://i0.wp.com/www.fightersgeneration.com/np9/characters/ezio/ezio-brotherhood2.jpg

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nicky_Webster2/publication/316435393/figure/fig1/AS:806724462198784@1569349508052/The-Witcher-current-standard-of-artwork-in-the-AAA-games-industry.ppm

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ex7oaKcqzX-Fmu9rlcdQsBP9b0I=/0x0:2560x1439/920x613/filters:focal(1076x516:1484x924):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68667024/Cyberpunk2077.0.jpg

https://fictionalcorporations.com/wp-content/uploads/kisspng-fallout-new-vegas-fallout-3-fallout-4-vault-tec-vault-boy-5b22586ba6dba3.9758647115289775156835-504x458.png

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/bMMhSAoF2tFzyvuABSpNZ7-970-80.jpg.webp

https://assets.mycast.io/characters/jason-brody-628612-normal.jpg?1588032589

https://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/dmc/d/da/Dmc-20120409091822405-3625266.jpg?width=325

https://digistatement.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Uncharted-5.jpg

https://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/resident-evil-operation-raccoon-city/b/b0/Re-orc-leon-kennedy.jpg?width=325

Research - Iconic Female Characters in Video Games

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/s7HZ8R4XCqkf5KNAUu73BD.jpg

https://vrvoice.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/witcher.jpg

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0c3a2da7f4258079ecd6d29240b85deba8fe5913/410_4_2023_1214/master/2023.jpg?width=620&quality=85&dpr=1&s=none

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/teppen/images/5/53/Chun-Li.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20191026091256

https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/01/Horizon-Forbidden-West-release-date-443a124.jpg?quality=90&webp=true&resize=620,414

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xwi3ykzxecim66b5tibF0inks-8=/0x0:1066x465/920x613/filters:focal(706x96:876x266):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/54046969/BayonettaHero.0.jpg

https://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/hyrule-warriors-age-of-calamity/3/30/Zelda_art_thumb.png?width=325

https://ssb.wiki.gallery/images/thumb/0/03/Samus_SSBU.png/250px-Samus_SSBU.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/16/Princess_Peach_Stock_Art.png

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YjKc67nJCwVG9mbecLScNj-970-80.jpg.webp

https://i.imgur.com/Qllzhec.png

https://www.denofgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/halo-tv-series-cortana-jen-taylor-natascha-mcelhone.jpg?resize=768%2C432

https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/dd4c2650088863.5608750385f28.jpg

https://e1.pxfuel.com/desktop-wallpaper/729/46/desktop-wallpaper-cyberpunk-2077-male-female-v-cyberpunk-yellow.jpg

https://media.criticalhit.net/2019/11/alyx-vance-0ffa1746-4585-4084-a185-7d9afb30564-resize-750.jpg

Research - Clothing aesthetics mood boards

Post Apocalyptic Fashion

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/katemcpx/ᴄʟᴏᴛʜᴇs-ɪɴsᴘɪʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ/post-apocalyptic/

Japanese Street Fashion

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/katemcpx/ᴄʟᴏᴛʜᴇs-ɪɴsᴘɪʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ/japanese-streetwear/

Techware

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/katemcpx/ᴄʟᴏᴛʜᴇs-ɪɴsᴘɪʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ/techware/

Research - Video Studdies

e r g o j o s h. (2022). The EASIEST way to start Learning to Draw Anatomy!. [Online]. YouTube.com. Last Updated: 16th March 2022. 

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl0VUHLJuls

[Accessed 4 May 2023]. 

e r g o j o s h. (2021). How long it takes to learn Anatomy.. [Online]. YouTube.com. Last Updated: 19th December 2021. 

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5w3Yd-6s6o

[Accessed 4 May 2023]. 

Jaysen Batchelor. (2022). Character Artist Mastery. [Online]. Jaysen Batchelor. 

Available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m5P9sSDVRMC82ZIB7MR6t1D3B_YzBO13/view?usp=sharing

 [Accessed 4 May 2023]. 

Research - Colour Theory

Vien Cheung. (2012). Colour Preferances for Traditional Korean Colours. [Online]. Researchgate.net. Last Updated: November 2012.

Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-five-traditional-Korean-colours-and-their-relationship-with-

[Accessed 19 April 2023].

Wikipedia. (2023). Obangsaek. [Online]. Wikipedia.org. Last Updated: March 2023.

Available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obangsaek

[Accessed 19 April 2023]. 

Character- Creating my Character Bio

Aliza Kelly. (2023). 12 Zodiac Signs: Dates and Personality Traits of Each Star Sign. [Online]. Allure.com. Last Updated: 1st April 2023.

Available at: https://www.allure.com/story/zodiac-sign-personality-traits-dates#Scorpio

[Accessed 28 April 2023]. 

Pampers. (2023). Pretty Korean Names For Your Baby Girl. [Online]. Pampers.co.uk. Last Updated: 16th January 2023. 

Available at: https://www.pampers.co.uk/pregnancy/baby-names/article/korean-girl-names

[Accessed 28 April 2023]. 

Marissa Raymond. (2020). Temperament: Understanding Why You Act the Way You Do. [Online]. hubpages.com. Last Updated: 27th August 2020.

Available at: https://discover.hubpages.com/relationships/Temperament-Understanding-Why-You-Act-the-Way-You-Do

[Accessed 28 April 2023]. 

Jason Hamilton. (2022). 250+ Character Quirks for Believable Characters. [Online]. kindlepreneur.com. Last Updated: 24th March 2022. 

Available at: https://kindlepreneur.com/character-quirks/

[Accessed 28 April 2023].