Contents

Insect Athlete Project

Insect Athlete: Mood Board and Initial Silhouettes

Moodboard

Since I didn't have much of an idea of what direction I wanted to take this project in, I started by creating a somewhat large moodboard of many different references, which I then intended to refine later once I had a more solid idea of what I wanted to achieve. I split my moodboard into 4 main sections: Sports, interesting colour palette, material ideas, and bugs with interesting features that I wanted to take inspiration from. As stated, I kept the moodboard very broad and I didn't intend to use any of the references I gathered. 

Character Silhouettes

Once I was happy with the amount of reference I had gathered, I started to very loosely and quickly create silhouettes of the characters. Using what I have learned from the future tribes project, I tried not to be too concerned with the quality of the drawing as long as it conveyed my ideas. This is because I was too focused on making thumbnail sketches which were too detailed and high quality, which took way too much time and became a problem later on in the project. Since this was only a short project, I created 8 basic silhouettes, as follows: 1. Dragonfly + Gymnastics; 2. Stag Beetle + American Football; 3. Mosquito + Fencing; 4. Caterpillar/Moth + Sumo Wrestler; 5. Spider/Cricket + Tennis; 6. Grasshopper + Basketball;  7. + Ice Hockey; 8. Ant + Athletics/Running.

Because of this, I created 2 more quick silhouette iterations to see how I could expand my idea further, and I ultimately decided that iteration 7 was the most effective, with the inclusion of the spider web motifs on design 8. I think that design 7 best reflects an insect and a gymnast as one character, and has the most insect-like body, with more emphasised insect legs than the other designs, multiple insect-like eyes and the mask featuring an insect’s mouth. I think that iteration 7 is now the best since it stretches the insect features in the outfit further, and now feels the most cohesive when considering the gymnast themes. In design 8, I feel that the mask covering the upper half of the face (Which I designed with the intention of making it look like a dragonfly's eyes) gives the impression of a ski mask due to its size and shape; and I also think that the inclusion of an extra set of arms makes the silhouette of the character . I think that this obscures a clear read of who the character is supposed to be, therefore making the design less effective. Once I chose this design, I felt happy enough with the design to take it forward into a final photobash.

Bug Athlete - Colour & Value Iterations, Final Design Changes

Colour Iterations

So that I could quickly iterate on colours and values, I decided to create a line drawing of the front view of my character so that I could quickly fill in and edit new colours in a tidy and easy to understand way. To do this, I roughly traced over my chosen silhouette to create a sketch, then again with clean lines for the lineart. 

To strengthen the impression of a dragonfly in the character, I aimed to experiment with only colour palettes seen in dragonflies. This included combinations of blue and yellow; some pinks, reds and yellows; and greens. In each iteration, I aimed to ensure that the colours were bright and saturated where appropriate, and to aim some form of contrast with an accent colour, building off feedback that I received last year that suggested that much of my work was quite desaturated. Since I found from my references that the colours on dragonflies seem to fit into the 4 main groups identified above, I made 4 iterations to explore all of these possibilities. 

Overall, I like the first iteration of colour the most. I think that the blue is the most recognisable as a dragonfly, and the yellow accents add contrast in hue, colour temperature and value. I think it also has a good amount of contrast, making it easier to distinguish different elements of the design at a glance. 

Final Design Changes

After I made the first set of extra iterations for my character, I received additional feedback on them and how I could make the silhouette and character as a whole more interesting. It was suggested that where I have elements sticking out of the silhouette, such as the antennae, I should try experimenting with stretching them out further to create a more bold and interesting silhouette. It was also suggested that since I have already exaggerated the length of the character's legs, I could also do this with her arms since it would help her to look more gestural, linking back further to the sport.

Bug Athlete- Photobash

Photobashing is a new technique for me, so I had a chance to experiment with a lot of different techniques to try and find out what worked the best.

Before starting, I identified the main textures that I would need to include in the piece, and where I could find suitable images to use for these. I found that I would mainly need a material for the armour-like plating, as well as a clear image of the wings of an insect such as a dragonfly and a smooth, slightly shiny material for the more insect-like features of the character. When finding the images I could use, I focused mainly on finding clear, high-resolution images which would allow me to scale and distort the images without worrying about them becoming pixelated. I didn't pay much attention to the lighting since I felt that I would be able to manipulate this later on within Photoshop.

I started with the areas that I felt would be the easiest to achieve a convincing result with, such as the tail-like ribbon prop. I achieved this by finding a clear image of a dragonfly's tail, which was posed to be mostly straight. I then cut out a section of this and duplicated it to ensure that it was straight. When it was approximately the desired length, I used the puppet warp tool to manipulate the images into the desired shape. I found this tool to be very useful to achieve a flowing and natural shape, which I wanted to keep in mind for the other more natural forms of the character, such as the curved legs.

Creating the curved tail ribbon

I also received some useful feedback from one of my peers at this point. It was suggested to me that since the tail image I used has a bold stripe down the centre line, I could experiment with moving the stripe to one side or even remove it in some areas to imply the twisting of the ribbon, making it look more natural and less rigid. I took action on this feedback, and I think this had a very good impact on the fluidity of the object. As suggested, it did make the ribbon feel like it was twisting and overall made the object feel more 'correct' and believable. From this, I learned that I should also consider the patterns either on the images used in the photobash, or the patterns that I will paint by hand later on, and how they interact with perspective and the contortion of the surface that they are placed on which will help the surfaces feel more believable.

I continued the photobash by only placing the images. I focused on creating accurate shapes, maintaining the silhouettes and ensuring that the patterns and textures followed the flow of the surfaces, following the feedback I received. 

Lastly, I needed to make a back view for the character. To make this process as efficient as possible, I used a technique where you could flip the front view of the character, and use the silhouette to easily place each part in proportion in the back view. Onc I ha created a rough sketch, to help keep the back view simple and aesily unerstnadable, i decided to display it through a simpe lline drawing with flat colours. I aimed to make these lines as clear as possivble to make the forms as understandable and cear as possible. In addition to this I made two separate versions of the back view, one wit the wings an on ewithout, since otherwise, the wings would be obscuring much of the character's back, but I still wanted to isplay thi detaill. Once i was happy with the back view, i was able to move on to any final presentation prepartaions

The finished photo bash of the character, and the back views

Bug Character Feedback Session- The CRIT Script

05/01/24, 17:25

As an exercise in class, we got into small groups and gave our peers feedback using the CRIT script, a 'formula' for giving constructive, useful feedback. At this stage, my character was nearly finished, so making changes to the character would probably take longer than receiving the same feedback earlier on in the project, however, I still wanted to make sure I implemented as much of the useful feedback as I could since finishing more of my work would mean that the feedback I received would be more relevant, since it would be easier for my peers to see my ideas more clearly.

The main piece of feedback that I received was that the bottom half of the design was the most interesting and detailed, and my peers generally liked this part of the design, however, the same could not be said for the upper half of the design. It was pointed out that mainly around the shoulders and upper arms felt a bit bare, especially when considering the details in the lower half of the design. My peers suggested adding some extra clothing or details on the skin to make this area more interesting, one Idea that they suggested was giving her insect-like scales, and giving her an armoured-looking neckpiece around the top of the collar to match the bottom of the design more. They also suggested adding a few more details on the existing armour pieces, like making some parts feel glittery, to make her feel more flashy, like a real gymnast. Once this was pointed out to me, I felt that this could have been why I felt that the design was a bit simple in places. I agreed that there were very large areas of low-frequency details, so if I have time at the end of the project, I will experiment with adding more areas of higher-frequency details and adding something like a neckpiece to make the top of the design feel more balanced with the bottom.

The second piece of feedback I received was that I could add more gradient-focused areas, or increase the intensity of the gradients I already had, since they liked this detail and felt that the value change made the design more interesting as a whole. I think that I will experiment with this feedback, however, I would want to be careful doing so since I have already been experimenting with gradients in my colour iterations. In the iterations where I added the most gradients, I feel that this made the design less clear, rather than helping to define this. I think that the most effective way to take this feedback on board would be to increase the intensity of the gradients to make sure this detail was very clear. From this feedback, I also inferred that I could take another look at the value passes, and see if there are any ways that I would be able to make the character more interesting through the values since they picked out that the value change in particular what was interesting here. To make use of this feedback, I will review the value passes, find areas of low contrast or low-frequency detail, and experiment with adding more details in the values, or by adding higher-frequency detail through the values.

Other smaller pieces of feedback that I received included:

• The spiderweb motif on the chest confuses the themes. I could instead replace it with a dragonfly motif or dragonfly wing texture.

• I could experiment with adding the spikes on the legs on the arms as well

• Pull out more details from the silhouette to make it more interesting

Once I have experimented with the main pieces of feedback, I will review all of the feedback I received again, and try to identify if there is anything else I can improve, at which point I will move on to experimenting with these second pieces of feedback to try and improve the design in all areas.

Insect Sport Character- Final Image

Horde Survival Vehicle

Horde Survival Vehicle - Concepting

When approaching the vehicle project, although I did not have a completely clear idea of what I wanted to do- I still knew I wanted to aim for a vehicle with some interesting contrast. I also wanted to include some visual storytelling about what had happened to the people in the world during the apocalypse. My initial idea was to base the vehicle around a small car with round, friendly-looking shapes, which had been modified and built upon with large pieces, including sharp, more aggressive shape language. The car would potentially belong to a lone survivor, trying to live within the makeshift small car.

I started concepting with some very loose silhouettes, adding a few different items each tie with the intention of picking the best additions, and combining them in later iterations. I tried to consider different options on what would be needed to survive a zombie horde alone with very limited space. I tried experimenting with adding both defensive and offensive elements, and ways that the person has tried to increase the amount of space or force as much stuff onto the car as possible. In design 16 (Below), I also tried to incorporate the idea of human factions forming after they were forced out of settlements, where the zombies would be in the highest numbers. Although it deviated from my initial idea of a single person trying to survive alone, I was quite interested in this idea and wanted to see how I could take it forward further. However, I was not completely satisfied with the results I was achieving otherwise. Because of this, I asked my tutors for feedback. It was suggested to me that I could experiment with tying my idea into the faction further, such as adapting my idea to be a utility vehicle that was used by one of the factions, such as a transportation or medic vehicle, rather than just being a single person tied to one of the factions.

Since I was already interested in the idea of exploring the human side of an apocalypse, I found this idea very helpful, and I was especially interested in the idea of experimenting with a medical vehicle. To help me gain inspiration for this, I gathered some references of both modern-day ambulances, as well as field ambulances used in the First World War since these would be similar to what I imagined would happen in this specific apocalypse; resources would become scarce so fighting was common between different groups of survivors that had formed. This would lead to situations almost similar to battlefields or turf wars, where medics would need to enter to retrieve casualties.

At first, I tried to experiment with how the injured would be transported back in a makeshift ambulance, from being put in the back of a pickup truck, to a horsebox which had been converted into a makeshift ambulance, to finally finding the idea of a small trailer to be the most effective, as I was able to include similar shapes and materials to those that can be seen on my references of World War 1 ambulances. I also felt that it was the most effective in creating a makeshift, handmade feeling since it looked sturdy enough to work and would offer more space than the back of a pickup truck, however, it did not seem as sturdy as a pre-made structure such as a horsebox. Once I started to come to a design I was happy with, I tried including some elements from my previous design to fill the empty space and get something more finalised. Considering the previous ideas of a field medic ambulance and the fact that I initially intended to add contrast to the design, I added the same defensive and offensive elements, that could be useful if the medics had to retrieve injured faction members in the middle of an active conflict. I eventually settled on design 27, with the idea of a snow plough to act as a shield from gunfire, in addition to several large wooden stakes to plough through a zombie horde, as well as a gun fixed outside the passenger window for further defence. Since I Was now happy with the design, I moved on to creating an initial presentation sketch and started iterating on the details of the designs.

In photoshop, I then traced the model. I first created a rough sketch over the top to add any details that weren't present in the model, or to add and extra clarity to the elements of the design. I was still putting focus on the perspective and proportions of the design at this phase, since I have found that perspective is a weakness of mine and I felt that this was an important fundamental to get right in this project, as well as it offering me a good opportunity to improve and practice this skill.  Once I was happy with the rough sketch, I then created another, clearner sketch over the top to make a sketch that I could present to others for feedback, where all of the details were clear and readable. Here, I focused on creating clean lines, avoiding tangents and line weight to make a visually appealing sketch. As a final touch to improve readability and add some form to the sketch, I filled it in white and added some very basic shading.

Once I Had a cleaner base to work with, I then started iterting further on some of the details in the design. These included graffiti on the cars (to mark the faction that the vehicle belonged to), details to help achieve convincing practicality within the design, as well as the cargo the car carried. I felt that this was especially important to help sell the idea of an ambulance and leave no confusion on what the vehicle is used for. Because of this, I decide to settle on the fourth design out of the further sketches I did. This is because it has the most interesting silhouette (Created by the boxes on the roof and the gun by the window), I feel like it has a good balance between high and low frequency detail, and is the most obvious that the design is an ambulance because of features such as the stretcher hung over the side of the truck. 

Using this sketch, I then began iterating colours. During this process, I wanted to practice my skills with colours, since in previous projects I have not been completely satisfied with this aspect of my work. I wanted to achieve an effective but controlled pallet in a limited gamut range, that also felt realistic, and that the colours of the props still worked together whilst still feeling natural. I initially started iterating on the colours by using very earth-toned palettes since this would help me to achieve the limited colour gamut. However, I felt that these palettes were too reminiscent of military vehicles, which made them look too purpose-made. Since this is the opposite effect of what I wanted to achieve, I felt that I should choose less practical colours, ones that would be considered less like camouflage, and colours that would be more likely to be seen on civilian cars, such as brighter colours. When doing this, however, I still tried to keep even the brighter colours somewhat muted to both help all of the colours on the designs feel harmonious and also to help imply a dusty, dry environment. When experimenting with what other colours to use, I tried to keep the kind of colour palette I wanted in mind to help me achieve my goals. Because the colours are slightly subdued because of the intentional decision to mute them, I also decided to experiment with primarily analogous colour schemes to avoid making the car look so bright that it became too impractical and stood out too much, even considering it has been pieced together from whatever could be found.  At this stage in my work, I was also considering the contrast in my piece, since this is a common piece of feedback that I receive often, so I wanted to ensure that this project had a wide range of contrast and that the piece could be easily understood through just this. To do this, I used a proof setup so I could quickly view my images in greyscale, and I also made sure to squint regularly at both the colour and greyscale versions to make sure that they could still be easily understood.

I eventually decided to take forward the blue colour palette. This is because although the details of the trailer and equipment on the car are analogous, this is complemented by the blue body of the car, helping to draw attention to this area without the need for colours that are too bright or saturated, helping to maintain the slightly dusty feeling colours. I was also able to achieve my goal of making the props feel like their colours are natural. A main example of this is the stretcher and the first aid kits. The kind of folding stretchers used in my design are primarily orange, and the first aid kits are usually green and red. Because of the analogous colour scheme within the props, I was able to use the natural colour of these objects whilst still achieving a harmonious and cohesive feel. At this point, I felt ready to take forward my design into a final photobash.

Horde Survival Vehicle - Photobash

Although photo bashing was a technique that I was not so confident in at the start of the bug character project, I felt more confident in approaching this task, since I had learned a few different techniques through experimenting with it in the last project. 

Because I did not like how my work was looking, it led me to analyse and plan for my work a lot more than I usually would. It led me to look at my work more objectively, analysing what was going wrong and the steps I could take to improve it. Although I found it hard to find the motivation for it, I continued to work towards the areas that I felt needed the most improvement, which I found was mostly the lighting. From this, I can learn that now and then, I should take a step back from my work and analyse my work more closely as I did with the car since it helped me to greatly improve my work. It allowed me to notice better things that I would not usually do, so it would provide opportunities in future to improve my work no matter the area which needs improvement. 

Whilst improving the photo bash, I took advantage of some useful tools which helped me to create a consistent final result. The main one I made use of for this piece was Photoshop's Patch tool. This is a tool that allows you to replace a selected area with another, and Photoshop then automatically blends them. An example of where this was particularly helpful was the door on the back view of the car. On the front view, the door is very dented, and this detail is from the image I used to photobash it with. However, it would be odd for the car to be damaged in the exact same way on the opposite side, so I wanted to make sure the right door, visible in the back view,  was not damaged like it was on the left side. However, since perfectly replicating the size and shape of the damaged door may be difficult using another image of an undamaged door, I used the patch tool instead to sample the side of the car (which was smooth and not dented) to replace the dents in the door which I had copy and pasted from the front view. This not only helped me to quickly remove the dents, but it also helped me to continue the patterns from the side of the pickup truck, a small groove near the bottom which not have been visible on the dented door due to the damage,

Once all of the main parts were placed, I then started to adjust the colours. Since I had already had a chance to experiment with this in my bug character project, editing the colours was a very fast and easy process. First, I started by setting each of the photo elements to greyscale, then I used a gradient map to ensure that I was using a non-destructive workflow, to overlay the needed colours. Once I had the colours in place, I could then also better edit the lighting. I used multiply and add layers to paint in the shadows and highlights, using large, soft brushes to help to give the impression of form and to make the lighting of the photos feel more cohesive whilst still maintaining the details of the form that they originally had.

Horde Survival Vehicle - Presentation Considerations

Since I have been unsatisfied with the presentation of my precious projects I wanted to put special focus on how I could improve this in the vehicle project. To help streamline the areas to focus on, I identified two areas in which I wanted to focus on; utility for if the concept were to be passed on to a 3D artist to model, and further expand or incorporate the world.

The main thing I considered for this was the overall branding, shown to us in several examples in class. This often involved a rectangular section at the bottom of the work including the name of the design or the project that the design was for, as well as the artist's name. I felt that there was an opportunity here to tie this branding into the world the car was from.

For the text, I wanted to experiment with how this could be edited to fit my goals.  Since graffiti is featured on the car, I tried to experiment with handwritten, graffiti-style text, that looks like it could have been written by someone in the world. In my iterations, I had already experimented with poor handwriting and misspelling to help develop the world, with the thought that it would help to imply the duration of the apocalypse: the factions would have had time to form and raise a new generation of people, however, education is no longer considered as important so the people's handwriting and spelling would not have been as developed.  However, since this text would be for presentation, I had to make sure that the text was easily understandable,  so I had to find a balance between messiness and legibility. I felt that making the handwriting somewhat neat was the most important for this, so to achieve the effect I was after, I experimented with reversing letters and mixing capital and lower-case letters in places they shouldn't be. After trying to write out the text a few times, I found that reversing letters could make the text a bit too hard to read, so the main method I used to make the text more interesting was to mix the cases of the letters. I feel that this was effective in giving a relaxed attitude around writing that I was aiming for.

Since my finished document was very wide, I wanted to fill some space on the right side of the document as well, so to fit the branding, I also included the faction logo seen on the car to the right-hand side of the title to help fill the space, and make the presentation feel further tied in with the car and the world. To make the image easier to use for a 3D artist, I also included a sample of each piece of graffiti I used on the car, with a plain white colour and no distortion from perspective or surfaces, so that it was easy to select and use as an alpha if this design were being made in 3D by someone else.

Work- in progress shot of the car's presentation

The next thing I wanted to focus on was the utility of the piece. The first way I did this was by showing the scale of the car. In the examples provided, this was done simply by providing a silhouette of a player character or other basic person. Since I wanted to allow myself plenty of time to improve my presentation or piece as a whole later on, I also wanted to focus on ways that I could save time on my presentation. This led me to decide to use a 3D model to help show the scale. This was made very easy by pre-existing tools within Maya. The software provides some simplistic base models, which I was able to use for this. I first chose a model that would be suitable, then resized it so that the scale would make sense. I tried to pay attention to how the person would fit inside both the car and the trailer, adjusting the size so that it did not feel too big or too small. Once I was happy with the scale, I moved the character to roughly where I wanted the scale indicator to be in relation to the car (Since I  had saved the camera angle of the screenshot of the front view). Since the character was in an A-pose, I wanted to make it more interesting and natural-feeling. To do this, I used another one of Maya's tools; Quick-Rig. As the name implies, this is an automatic rigging tool to provide a very basic rig for biped characters. Although this rigging tool is not perfect, it would work well enough to give me the base that I needed, after applying the auto-rig, I then posed the character with a preset gun model, also provided by Maya by default. I did this to further link in with the world-building, to imply that carrying a gun at all times is often vital to protect yourself against the zombies and enemy factions. Whilst posing the character, I tried to focus on achieving a clear silhouette so that there was no confusion that the character was holding a gun and that the silhouette's purpose was clear.

When I was happy with the pose and the silhouette was clear, I took a screenshot from the same angle as I used for the front view of the scar, and imported the screenshot into Photoshop, roughly aligning with the original screenshot I took to make the photobash. I then removed the silhouette from the background and blacked out the character to create a silhouette, then added some details to make the character feel more refined.

Blog Task - Comparative Critique

To help me improve my work, I found a professional-level piece of work similar to my own, and from this, I will compare my work to the professional's, finding areas in the professional's work that I can apply to my own apocalypse vehicle project, as well as other techniques that I can learn from the piece to help improve any future projects as well.

Since it is a website for professionals to share their artwork, I decided to search for a piece to compare to on ArtStation. Despite expecting a lot of concept art for apocalyptic vehicles, there were surprisingly few results and even fewer which looked like fully developed, photobashed vehicles. Because of this, I decided to use more general vehicle concept art. With elements that I felt made the image feel more professional, and that I could take inspiration from.

The first image I found was concept art of a small moped-like bike by Inès "Ourka" Rotzinger:

Inès "Ourka" Rotzinger (2020)

I think that I can learn a lot from this piece. The thing that drew me to this piece the most was the presentation. I think that this piece is presented really well, and at the time of writing, this is something I am struggling with for my vehicle. The first thing I noticed that was different from my presentation was the background. This piece feels like it is being presented on a backdrop like you would with a 3D model in Unreal Engine. I think that this makes it feel a lot more grounded and believable. This seems simple to do as well since the floor has just been lightly indicated with a lighter tone. The dark value of the background also makes sure that all of the details stand out. This is emphasised further by the use of a rim light, which I am also missing from my designs. 

Another thing I noticed is that this almost feels like an ad from a company trying to sell this bike, which I found to be an interesting and effective idea. I think this is something that I could do when considering the world the vehicle is in. I could experiment with doing this myself, where the people in the vehicle world are trying to advertise the services they provide with the car. This may be hard to achieve in the single image I will hand in, but will be a lot easier to experiment with when it comes to my PowerPoint.

Another thing which I can learn from this is the amount of breathing room. This may be the hardest to implement simply because of the nature of my design being very long, thus requiring a very large image size to avoid the height of the image becoming too low-resolution. However, I think that I can adjust the way the presentation has been done to increase the breathing room. The branding elements in my design are very large, whereas here they are smaller and more minimal. I can also improve this through my PowerPoint presentation. I can split my design up into different elements like these Artstation posts to make sure that each element is highlighted individually with plenty of breathing room. Another piece that I found that does this well is this tugboat design by Tano Bonfanti:

Tano Bonfanti, 2018

For this post, the artist has posted multiple 'passes', the fully rendered version as seen above, a greyscale, and a sketch version. To improve the presentation of my car in the PowerPoint, I could split my piece up like this artist has. This would not only give my piece more breathing room but would also make it feel like one of these professional ArtStation posts. From this, I also learned that the presentation for my preliminary sketches is also important, so I should also ensure that I put the necessary time into this.

The priliminary sketches presented by the artist (Tano Bonfanti, 2018)

5 Point Action Plan

From analysing these images, I have been able to draw up a 5-point action plan. I will aim to complete as many of these points before the deadline as possible, on both my presentation image and the PowerPoint, if possible or applicable.

1. Treat my PowerPoint like these ArtStation posts. Although I may not be able to fit all of the information in the single final image I'm going to hand in, I can still make sure that all of this information gets seen by treating each slide as if it were an image these artists upload to ArtStation.

2. 'Tone down' the large branding elements, and give my design more breathing room

3. Improve the background to make it feel more like it's a 3D model being presented on a backdrop, almost like my 3D pumpkin project

4. Improve my presentation sketch to add more greyscale values, and potentially add colour

5. Add a rim light to separate my piece from the background

Bibliography

Bonfanti, T (2018) Tugboat concept art (Online). Available from: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/2xnXYe [Accessed 2nd Jan 2024]

Rotzinger, I (2020). Flying Vespa (Online) Available from: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Ga9VW1 [Accessed 2nd Jan 2024]

Horde Vehicle Project Post-Mortem/Evaluation

I think one of the most successful areas of this project was the lighting and rendering. I think that although I was able to mostly find images that had a similar lighting direction, I think that I was also able to adjust it as needed to help make the overall result more cohesive and give a good impression of the forms and materials. As well as this, I think that I was able to make a lot better use of the images I used in the photo bash and layer styles, especially compared to the bug character project. I think that the materials look blended together much better, a lot more realistic, and have better colours and lighting than before. I think that after having a chance to experiment with photo bashing as a technique for the bug character, I was able to gain a better idea of what techniques worked best, so in this project, I was refining these techniques and adding any improvements, or doing smaller-scale experimentations to improve the final result further.

However, I think that I could improve this project by considering the design more deeply and finding more creative ways to sell the idea I am trying to convey. Through some feedback I received on my colour iterations, my tutors suggested that I consider the connotations connected with certain colours that I use, and add some extra details, such as emergency vehicle lights, to make sure that the concept of an ambulance is very clear. For my yellow colour iteration of the car, my tutors suggested that it made the vehicle feel more like a New York taxi than an ambulance, which when pointed out, I also saw how these connotations were relevant. I think I could have improved the colour scheme by taking more inspiration from a real American ambulance, such as adding some graffiti of (poorly painted) decals seen on the ambulances in my references, rather than just focusing on colours that work well together.

From this project, I can take forward all of the refined techniques from photobashing and layer styles, and know how I can combine these with more straightforward painting techniques in my future projects. I can also make use of my improved skill for picking colour schemes, however, I can also learn from this project by more deeply considering how my references and inspiration could influence the design choices I make, especially when they are decisions like I was making for the graffiti, ones that were only considered for the aesthetics and not the connotations. Other factors that could be influenced like this are smaller details, such as the graffiti in this project, to much larger decisions, from the colour palette to the type of vehicle I use to send the right message to the audience. 

Horde Vehicle Final Image

Boss Battle Arena

Boss Battle Arena: Research, Idea Generation & Gameplay Considerations

For this project, I wanted to go in the direction of a Norse-themed boss and arena, reminiscent of that of God of War (2018). This is because not only do I enjoy this game and want to take inspiration from it, but I also followed a similar Norse/Celtic theme in my Cube World project last year and was never satisfied with the results. I felt that I could have included aspects of the mythology more and researched more deeply, as well as generally executing the designs and final drawing much better. I wanted to take this project as an opportunity to learn from my previous projects, as well as explore these subjects and themes more deeply, aiming for a better overall execution.

Before I started to make any sketches, I wanted to create 3D blockouts of my general ideas for the layouts of my boss's arena, to experiment with what layouts work first, then fill in the details and work out which each part would be later. Creating 3D blockouts first would also let me experiment with the same environment from many different angles, in case adding some features would not work from the initial angles I was planning. When making the blockouts, I mainly focused on the gameplay that I wanted to include. Many of the 'traditional' boss arenas in God of War often involve a closed-off area, which is often square or round in shape, usually with little cover, so the main way to avoid taking damage is to parry or dodge the boss's hits. I also took inspiration from another game with a similar gameplay style to that of the game I would imagine this boss arena for, Horizon Zero Dawn. This game follows a very similar formula to the God of War arenas, except they have much more verticality, such as posts to climb and jump off, as well as high ground that the player can use strategically. This was an important part I wanted to consider, since the brief states that there needs to be some sort of verticality to the map, so I wanted to ensure that I could include areas where a player could take a high ground or assets which could be climbed.

However, I wanted to include references to Norse mythology throughout the design of the map to meet one of the specifications I had set out for myself. In my research before starting this project, I became interested in the idea of the mythology's forest spirits, and Yggdrasil, a legendary and sacred tree in the mythology which was said to be the center of the universe, where all of the 9 realms existed.  Because of this, I became interested in combining these two ideas, which would tie the boss character and arena together.

I wanted to experiment with the idea of the boss not necessarily being evil, but instead play with the idea of perspectives that the character can be seen under, or come up with another idea of why the boss would be an obstacle for the player. Some of these ideas I came up with were the player character objectively being the 'bad guy' or acting selfishly to meet their own goals; the forest spirit becoming corrupted by some sort of external force or magic; or adding additional narrative elements where the spirit could not be evil at all, and would just want to protect their home, the forest, and potentially even Yggdrasil that could be a part of this forest. From this brainstorming, came the idea that the boss could be a protector, and would want to stop the player from reaching Yggdrasil, for one of the potential reasons mentioned above. 

In my blockout designs, I tried to include these different mythology elements in the most simple form of the design, usually placing Yggdrasil at the back of the boss arena, so that it can easily be reached once the boss is defeated. Using a moodboard had I collated of different Norse-inspired game environments, I also focused on the kinds of shapes and structures I wanted to include, combining this shape language with the idea of an enclosed, clearly denoted area for the fight. In my blackouts, I wanted to add additional interest by playing with scale, making all of the elements of the area very large in comparison to the player, to help add to the atmosphere. I wanted to use this scaling to make the player feel very small and insignificant, and as if the odds of the fight were stacked against them because of the size difference, adding to the tension of the boss fight, which would create a rewarding feeling once the boss was defeated, and that would add a very imposing feeling to the environment as a whole.

Combining the ideas of the mythology I had researched and the idea of a forest spirit, I based the scene around mainly a rounded structure to stage the fight, which was already very large surrounded by a forest where I had played with the scale of to create incredibly large trees as a backdrop, and to help place the central Yggdrasil naturally. However, I still wanted to highlight the massive size of Yggdrasil, so I still tried to make the framing trees smaller than this focal point, so even though the framing trees feel large, Yggdrasil would still feel very large in comparison.

The 3D blockouts I created

Boss Arena- Iterations

Once I had a basic idea drawn out, I moved on to iterating upon it. My main goal was to achieve an arena that would work well within a game,  whilst clearly incorporating elements of Norse mythology. Using the moldboard I collated and referencing the God of War artbook, I first wanted to pick out the main defining features of a Norse or Viking architectural style. I found these to be largely wooden elements with many large pillars and/or archways and ornate engravings and carvings, sometimes with golden, metallic details. However, considering that the arena would be potentially placed in front of an important place in Norse mythology, and because there would be a boss battle here, often portrayed with powerful and impactful attacks, I felt that wood would look too flimsy for a structure like this. Additionally, since the structure is also surrounded by trees, having the entire area made of wood could cause issues with the foreground and background not having enough contrast, and feeling too 'samey', especially in terms of colour. This led me to look back at my references, finding that stone was another commonly used material that I could use for the main structure to help differentiate it from the background and create contrast.

Once I knew what features I should use to make the area fit Norse architecture, I started refining my ideas with the sketch that I had previously made. I tried experimenting with different elements that tied into Norse mythology, such as adding symbols of Yggdrasil or the World Serpent, another figure in Norse mythology who I thought could also fit in well as a symbol since the serpent was large enough to wrap around the entire world, and Yggdrasil is where all the words/realms in Norse mythology are located. I also wanted to expand upon the idea of the boss itself, and how I could tie the two elements in with each other.

Previously, I had created a quick silhouette of my first thought of what the boss character could be, and I included a raven as part of the boss' character to link in with the mythology. I had initially included some bird cages to link with this idea for the boss and to add some details and points of interest in the upper area of the map, so I decided to look into this further. I found that Odin had two ravens, so also experimented with including just two bird cages, linking back to where this idea came from.  Below are the 4 initial iterations that I came up with:

Overall, I feel that these iterations get closer to what I initially had in mind for the area, but I was not completely satisfied yet. I felt that this was mainly because a lot of the details were unrefined and still quite loose in this stage, so I decided to start iterating on some of the props in the scene so I could get a more finalised idea of what the scene could look like. I decided to make iterations/callouts of 4 repeating or important props within the scene; a fire pit, pillars, chains, and the birdcages. To be able to make quick iterations and to be able to get all of my ideas drawn out, I started to consider ways in which I could spee dup my workflow. The main way I did this was 3D modelling the assets to trace over in Photoshop, which would also make my sketches more accurate and clean in terms of perspective and shape, which would also be beneficial if these concepts were to be used within a team-orientated setting. Another thing I did was make custom brushes of norse patterns. I did some research online to find commonly occouring or interesting patterns, which I then tried to break down into their repeating parts, then tried to draw out myself so that I could put the shape into a custom brush for it to be tiled and quickly deformed to fit into the scene where needed. I also did this for my chosen chain iteration later on, so that I could also quickly draw these in.

Prop iterations/callouts

3D models that I made to quickly and accurately iterate upon

However, even after trying to refine the scene by designing some props, I was still not completely satisfied with the results I was getting. Because of this and some useful feedback I received, I created two further ideas, to more deeply consider gameplay, nail down my idea and add additional points of interest both within the scene, and the story it is trying to tell.

Further scene iterations

One of the main ideas I could experiment with suggested trough feedback is the incorportation of further Norse myhtology. I was told that within Norse mythology, goblins once tried to destroy Yggdrasil, attempting to cut away its roots, but were ultimately unsuccessful. It was suggested that I could play with the idea of the tree's roots framing the scene, potentially with large cuts in them to suggest further history and age in the scene. As well as this, it was suggested that I could have some sort of 'life force' or energy flowing throughout the scene, to help add a mythical and magical feeling. This was all feedback that I took on board.

I found that using the roots to frame the arena was very effective, and added more depth than a forest fading away into thick fog, like I had initially iterated on. It helps to make the area feel framed, and to help keep the viewer's eye contained within the main area, helping the background trees to act like leading lines to guide the viewer's eye back down towards the arena. After these iterations, I was a lot more happy with the second new iteration (Above), and so I felt confident with creating a more refined sketch which would be a lot easier to work with when it came to refining my ideas to their final stages, iterating with colour, and using as a base for a final piece.

Boss Arena - Refinement, Colour, Further Research & Adding Depth

Once I had a basic iteration chosen, I moved on to creating a cleaner sketch that I could use to create my final piece from.

However, whilst making this sketch, I made some smaller tweaks to the arena based on elements that I felt weren't 'working', or that didn't make much sense. The main part of this was the removal of the pillars to the left of the arena. I removed these since although they framed part of the arena nicely, I felt that overall, they felt as if they didn't have much of a reason to be there in the first place. I felt that they also felt a bit out of place, since they were simply floating structures (Which wasn't really explained or connected to anything else in the scene); and they also looked like they were part of a bigger structure which had been destroyed, which did not fit with the rest of the arena which at this point, felt more like an open, mostly well-maintained area which was not part of a bigger building. This led to my decision to remove them.

At this stage, I was also considering how I could further tie my scene into the theme of Norse Mythology. I started to conduct some additional research on Norse/Viking motifs and symbolism to see if there are any examples of these which I could incorporate into the scene. This led me to find out about symbols such as Valknut, otherwise known as Odin's Knot, a Norse symbol representing 'transition between life and death' (Mark, 2019), which I thought would be a very fitting motif to place here, as Yggdrasil connected all of the Norse realms, including those associated with the afterlife. It would also be fitting for an area where a battle (And therefore a death) would occur. Therefore, I decided to add it as a centrepiece to the arena, to both help the arena 'feel more Viking', and to make sure that the significance of this symbol is clear to anyone who may know the meaning of it.

I also learned that it is 'generally agreed that Yggdrasil was an ash tree' (Mark, 2019), which is a detail I planned to take forward when rendering, as I would need a good, consistent references of tree bark due to the size of the tree. This detail led me to be able to decide to reference ash tree bark when it came to rendering and photo bashing.

However, since I now had a cleaner sketch and was able to visualise what the arena could look like more clearly, I started to feel dissatisfied with it for several reasons. Firstly, the arena felt empty, which could work in some gameplay scenarios, however, in this case, it simply felt like a lack of detail and I felt that I could include some more interesting considerations for the gameplay through the level design. As well as this, I felt that it did not easily read as Norse. To correct this, I created some further iterations to explore ways in which I could fix these issues and implement further feedback.

In my feedback, it was suggested that I could add roots to help frame certain elements, as well as add an additional lower layer or area to the arena which could help make any potential gameplay more interesting, as well as to add some more interesting shapes to the arena and help tie the arena further into Yggdrasil. At this point, I felt that adding a lower area to the structure would both be time consuming and might not entirely make sense since I initially planned for this area to be more of a 'checkpoint' for anyone wanting to pass through Yggdrasil, and potentially to prevent damage to the tree, which could potentially be the role of my boss character (A guardian for the tree). I felt like adding a lower structural area would make the area feel like it had more of a purpose than just a checkpoint, so I felt like this could potentially obscure this idea.

However, I did agree with the feedback that adding a lower area could make the arena more interesting overall. To try and find a middle-ground for this idea, I added a large root of Yggdrasil that the player would be able to access and fight the boss from. I feel that this avoids the issue of muddying the purpose of the arena, whilst tying the area closer to the tree, adding more interesting gameplay options, and I think that it also helps to frame the main area of the arena. I also experimented with another iteration of hanging fire pits, mainly to help develop the gameplay options presented by the environment. My main idea for these fire pits was to give the player an option to attack the chains holding them up, dropping them onto the boss to deal additional damage. I also experimented with adding an additional lower platform around one of the trees for the player to shoot the fire pits from, although in this iteration, the player would likely need a strong movement ability to be able to reach this area, and unless my boss is also able to attack from range, the boss may not be able to attack the player at all. This is something that would need further considertion, either for the arena or for the boss.

Bibliography

Mark, J (2019) Norse-Viking Symbols & Meanings [Online]. Available from: https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1309/norse-viking-symbols--meanings/ (Accessed 25th Jan 2024)

Boss Arena: Re-Evaluation & Fixing Core Issues

Despite creating many different iterations of my arena to try and solve different design issues, I was still not feeling satisfied with the arena. However, I was not able to identify where this issue was coming from in terms of the design. My main idea on why I wasn't satisfied with the design was simply because it may have not aligned with what I had initially envisioned going into this project, however, I was still not fully convinced that this was the issue.

Because of this uncertainty, I decided to take a step back from the arena, and instead start work on the boss character. I chose to do this to both give myself some time away from thinking about the arena so I can come back to it with 'fresh eyes', and also, if I were able to create an effective boss character that I was satisfied with, I would be able to use the boss to help pick out what didn't 'feel right' about the arena and to influence any design tweaks I needed to make. I ended up spending about a month away from the arena whilst I created my boss character, and in this time, I tried to look at my designs for the environment as little as possible so that any mistakes or poor design decisions would be more likely to be noticeable to me when I returned to working on it.

During this time, I also received some feedback from my peers, and most of them assumed I was going for an ancient Greek theme. This helped me to realise that the main problem within my scene is that it did not follow Viking themes within the building enough and that I could add more, or more obvious, Viking iconography or references to the mythology.

Since I now had an idea of what one of my issues could be, I aimed to identify what was making it feel Greek. The parts I identified were:

• The light stone 

• Predominantly using stone as a building material

• Evenly cut stones

• Mostly clean and well-maintained environment.

During my time away from the area, I also realised that I had not considered a key part of Viking culture and iconography: the boats. Although I did not plan on redesigning the arena from scratch, I still felt that taking influence from these boats would help to give me a solid direction in which I can make tweaks to my arena to help it feel 'more Viking'. I created another iteration of the arena, with a new hero asset (See next blog post for discussion & explanation), as well as some changes taking inspiration from Viking long boats, and focusing on reducing the above-identified features that made the arena feel more Greek than Viking. Many of these changes, such as using a darker and more irregular stone, would come later in the rendering stage, however, I aimed to increase the amount of overgrowth to both make the arena feel more natural and overgrown, linking with the tree and forest theme, and less perfectly maintained like you would expect a lived-in Greek environment to be. I also increased the amount of wood being used, however, I still wanted to maintain some of the stonework because I still felt that building the entire environment out of wood would not feel as stable or solid, therefore making the environment feel less suitable for a boss fight. I tried to maintain strong trims especially, to suggest that these are parts of the structure intended to reinforce and add more structural integrity. For other walls which may not need to provide as much support (Such as those surrounded by more stone or by pillars), I replaced the stone for panelled food, similar to like what you would see on a longboat, to try and increase the similarities to real Viking buildings, which were almost solely made out of wood. 

Although not pictured in this iteration, I also changed the central area engraving to the Viking compass. This is not only because I had included this design on my character and hero asset, but I also felt it was fitting since Yggdrasil was a place to travel between the nine realms in the mythology. I felt that this was a lot more suitable for the circular area than Valknut since the Viking compass is already circular in shape, and had a clear centre point for me to place the hero asset on top of/ for the lines to extend outwards from the hero asset. I also had the idea to place Viking shields along the wall to add a very clear and recognisable piece of Viking iconography, and this was also suggested in feedback from a tutor. This is something that I will experiment with in the painting phase of the arena since I will have a better idea of the level of details in my textures and the contrast, so I will be able to better judge if, where and how many shields I should place.

As a final 'nod' to the boats, it was suggested in feedback that I could add some sunken boats in the fog beneath the arena to suggest that the boss had defeated other travellers in the past, and make the area feel less like an empty void. I think that this was an effective yet subtle detail to add some additional storytelling and connection to the boss, to help break up the fog beneath the arena, and to help add some additional leading lines towards the central point of the arena.

Overall, I am a lot more satisfied with this design. I think that even these smaller changes has made the arena fell a lot more 'Viking', as well as add some additional visual storytelling and improve the composition and balance of values overall. Since I am a lot more satisfied with this iteration, I decided to take forward this iteration into the final piece, keeping in mind what elements worked the best to help improve the arena, and if there were any additional tweaks that I could make in the painting process which would help me to improve my arena further.

Boss Arena Hero Asset Designing & Painting

Whilst designing my arena, I was very unsatisfied with the idea of a brazier being my hero asset. This was because it felt very boring and similar to smaller, less important assets in my scene. I felt that its placement was also very strange since it covered a central symbol in my environment which would make this detail a lot harder to notice in a game environment. Because of this, I revisited my ideas for a hero asset.

Since I now had a design of my boss to work from, I found that a past iteration I made of a raven statue could be a good choice, however, I felt that it needed some revisions. I felt that in my original design of the statue, the pose was somewhat unnatural, which is what initially drew me away from choosing this as a hero asset, so I started by creating some rough concept sketches of the statue, experimenting both with shapes and the pose of  the bird. I experimented with adding  different bases to the statue as well, and fell upon the idea of having the state carved from the  trunk of a tree. I thought that this would be fitting since it would fit the forest theme, and in my reference, a lot of biking statues are made out of wood with rough tool work.

From these iterations, I was the most keen on iteration 4. This is because it was very triangular in shape with harsh edges in places, making it seem more aggressive and threatening. However, it also contained some curved shapes which were common in my references of Viking statues, and gave it a more natural feel. I also experimented with covering it in foliage, which I think would help integrate it into the environment which I was planning on making more overgrown, too. One last detail I added to try and add an additional layer of interest was the glowing yellow veins, also seen throughout my character and environment design. This would add continuity to my other designs, helping to link them all together and build on the visual storytelling of the 'life essence' / energy flowing throughout the space, making the environment as a whole feel more mythical.

Once I was happy with my chosen iteration, I wanted to make sure that I would be able to quickly and consistently produce the different angles mentioned in the brief: a 3/4, front and back view. To speed this process up and to improve the overall quality of the end result, I decided to play to my strengths and create a 3D sculpt of the statue that I could then rotate, take screenshots of, and paint over in Photoshop to create my callouts.  

I did not make many large changes to the sculpture in Photoshop. The main changes I made were reinforce the direction of the light, as well as increase the contrast in some areas to make sure that the concept drawings were more understandable than the sculpt itself. I also added the foliage as mentioned above to help blend it in with the surrounding environment. For the 3/4 view, I also photobashed some images in to help define the materials. However, to make sure that these drawings were also functional, I removed the material callouts on the front and back view and only implied the lighting, then provided a stripped-back version of the 3/4 view with no lighting or foliage, to make sure that the colours and the forms underneath the foliage were very clear. For my presentation, I also included the silhouette of the sculpture to show that I had taken this into consideration when designing, as well as the ZBrush sculpt to help describe the forms in greyscale with a large range of values.

Boss Arena Painting

During the painting phase of my arena, I tried to find several ways in which I could increase the seed of my workflow, since in all of my previous projects, this stage of the project has always taken me several weeks to complete. However, during these projects, I have learned of, and had the chance to practice and experiment with several time-saving tools that I can use within my painting process.

One of these methods included creating my iterations in a way that would be easily transferrable to my final piece. This included ensuring that all my layers were well labelled, and organised into folders and that I separated each element out with a mixture of masks or layers. I also aimed to create my iterations in a non-destructive way. This meant that I could change out the iterations that I wanted in the scene in a way that would allow me to preserve the base of the arena underneath, making it a lot easier to work with. Creating my preliminary sketches in this way allowed me to simply save a copy of my final iteration and remove any extra parts/layers that I did not need, and I was left with a clean sketch and separated, filled-in parts of my drawing, saving me time when it came to starting and blocking in my final piece.

Additionally, although unintentional, the rendering of my hero asset also fit the perspective and angle of my whole scene almost perfectly. This meant that I was able to copy and paste the final image into my arena and make only minimal adjustments to ensure that the perspective and lighting matched the surrounding environment. 

Layer Styles

One of the main methods that helped me to quickly progression my final piece in a non-destructive way was layer styles. I used them extensively throughout my drawing to add smaller or more complex details that would have taken a long time to render by hand.  I used them to add small cracks in wood, add a glow effect when needed, add texture and in some cases, used them to entirely render smaller/thinner objects such as the chains with the bevel and emboss style.

A prominent example of using layer styles to render was the symbol in the centre of the arena. I wanted this symbol to be engraved into the stone, and also emit a glowing effect in the lowest areas of the engraving. However, to get a convincing effect, some parts of this glowing area would be covered by the higher areas of the engraving. This meant that I had to manipulate the original layer style so that I would be able to add this glowing effect effectively. 

The process of adding the engraving and glowing effect

However, the lighting didn't match up with that of my scene, so I had to make some adjustments to this manually. I also wanted to edit the details of the shapes in some cases, too. For the bird cage, for example, I traced over the 3D model, separating each 'layer' of bars onto their own layers, then applying the bevel and emboss layer style to make them look more rounded and dimensional and to help them fit better into the lighting scenario of my scene overall.  Once I had the cages separated into layers it was also a lot easier for me to make some manual lighting adjustments, too.

One final tool that I used to help my workflow was using designer to get a more custom material that I could photo bash. I was struggling to find an image of panelled wood that would tile well. This was important since I had  large areas that needed this material, and because of its regular and geometric nature, any errors in trying  to tile a material like this would be extremely noticeable. Because of this, I decided to make a material myself in Substance Designer. I first started by creating the basic tiling sections of the wood, then I worked on making the edges a little more rough, assigning different values to the different panels, and so on. Since Designer is used for 3D textures, it automatically makes textures tile, so I was able to export my final texture into photoshop, and place several copes of thetextures next to one another to get it to the length that I would need. I was then able to transform and warp the martial to fit  the perspective and curvature of the forms underneath. 

The process of making the tiling wood material

After some time working on rendering and photo bashing, I started to consider the colours of the scene and fixing the values to match that of the colour and light iterations I had previously made, however with some minor adjustments. I wanted to make sure that the arena matched my boss very closely, to make sure that the boss almost felt like a part of the arena. Although one of my colour iterations already matched this very closely, I tweaked the colours slightly, using the same gradient maps I had used for the boss. The main change that I made was to the glowing effect. In my boss character, I had included a yellow glowing effect tom atch with the idea that was suggested in my fedback o adding a 'life energy' or magic fowing through the environment. Since I wanted the boss and arena to fell as harmonious as possible, I changed the colour of this glowing effect to yellow to match the boss as well. Using the gradient maps, I was also able to fix the values giving it a more clear read when in greyscale.

Progress screenshots of the arena

Boss Arena- Final Pieces & Additional Angles

Boss Arena- Project Post Mortem

Despite having a lot of troubles at the start of this project, I think I was able to recover well and create an environment that I am a lot more happy with.

I think that I have been able to develop my visual problem solving skills, evident through the fact that I have been able to turn an environment that many thought was Greek, into one that read more obviously  as Viking/Norse. I think that I have also been able to tie in several 'nods' to real Norse mythology in a 'show, don't tell' way.  Although I have not directly included any references (Such as statues) to the most notable figures in the mythology, such as the Gods, I think that the arena will still be easily recognisable as including lots of references to the mythology for those who know about it through more subtle, but still significant references to the mythology such as heavily referencing ravens and using Viking symbols.

Another thing that I think I have achieved well is implying/incorporating gameplay decisions through the arena. Although the arena provides a mostly large, open space to fight the boss, there are still some areas for the player to hide behind cover, such as behind the statue, and some of the walls. I think that I have ben able to effectively use the environment in natural-feeling ways to also expand upon the main area, such as using the root and structure supporting the tree on the left to expand the area where the player can walk and gain a vantage point over the boss, in a more interesting way. I have also considered ways in which to boss could be killed using the arena, mainly through the braziers hanging above the arena. Assuming that  the player would have a ranged weapon, I included foliage growing on the chains denoted by flowers and glowing fireflies to try to make the environment tell the player that these points in the chains are important, and can be hit/destroyed to drop on top of the boss and eventually kill them.

However, one thing I would improve about the arena is the contrast. I think these plants hanging on the chains could be made a lot clearer through increasing the contrast, by potentially making them much lighter of even using a second accent colour to mark where the player should hit, since I feel like they could seem like a naturally-occurring piece of overgrowth like in the rest of the scene, since there is very little difference in the design of the overgrowth on the rest of the arena and on the chains where it is intended for the player to hit. I think that especially the hanging props ion the arena blend in to much in the ground below them in my final piece. Although this may not be as much of an issue depending on which angle the game is played from, if this piece were to be used as concept art, it takes away from the functionality of  the piece since it makes it a lot harder to read and understand quickly.

I thnk this also somewhat flattens the envronment since the lack of contrast makes the lighting feel very lat, implying a lack of changing forms or depth. If I had more time to work on this  poejct of if I were to work on a simliar project in future, I will be sure to take this into consideration and push the contrast further to ensure that my drawing is both clear and easy to read, whislst also feeling 3-dimensional.

Boss Character

Boss character - Initial Iterations & Gathering Ideas

When starting the boss character, I had a pretty strong idea of the role that the character would fill. From the start of the project, I wanted to experiment with the idea of the boss not necessarily being evil, and at this stage, I though this would still be something interesting that could lead to some unique design choices for the boss, making it more memorable and interesting overall.

When first laying out my ideas for the boss arena, I also quickly sketched out my initial idea of what the boss's silhouette could look like, which I liked a lot. However, to ensure that this was the right direction to take, I wanted to explore a few other possibilities before I decided to take forward the initial silhouette to ensure that this is what would work best for the type of character that I wanted to create. Since I was basic my character off Norse mythology, I felt that there were a few routes I could take with the character's design. Since I had the intention of making the boss a guardian of Yggdrasil, it made sense for the character to be affiliated with Norse Gods in some way. This led to several different ideas of the type of character I could create. These included a Valkyrie (Potentially designed closely after a raven), a giant raven, a tree-like forest guardian, and a wolf.

The initial iterations of the boss character that I made to help visualise my ideas

I thought the most relevant of these characters was initially a Valkyrie, however, I chose to not follow this idea. This is because the role of a guardian did not seem to line up well with the original mythology, and may not make sense in terms of the narrative I was trying to imply. Valkyrie means "Chooser of the Slain", and was a figure who took hero warriors to Valhalla (Mark, 2021). This made me feel like a Valkyrie would be a strange choice, despite them also often being revered as warriors. Having a 'not evil' boss would have to mean that the player character would have to be at least morally grey, or have a greater motive for their journey that would justify killing a guardian of a mythical place. I felt that placing a Valkyrie as a guardian would not fit with their mythological role, and I also felt that associating one in the story of a morally grey protagonist would also be strange due to their well-known connection with heroic characters and warriors.

This led me to choose the initial silhouette I chose, since I felt that there was a lot of room to incorporate the mythologies in other ways within this character. I felt that this character could closely be associated with (Odin's) ravens, due to the bird cages I included in the arena and the fact that the silhouette has a bird companion. I felt that I could design the character with a heavy raven motif, and design some abilities that would involve the ravens, potentially like a falconer or a figure that would guard Yggdrasil, as well as be the keeper of Odin's ravens. I also felt that I could also carry forward the idea of Valkyrie imagery designed closely after a raven.

Once I had a basic idea for my character decided, I moved on to creating further iterations of the character to try and develop my idea further.

Mark, J (2021) Valkyrie [Online]. Available from: https://www.worldhistory.org/Valkyrie/#:~:text=A%20Valkyrie%20is%20a%20figure,fight%20beside%20Odin%20at%20Ragnarök. [Accessed 8th Jan 2024]

Boss Character - Further Iteration and Idea Development

Once I had chosen the iteration that I was happy with, I moved on to creating some further iterations of my further silhouette to try to make my design more recognizable and readable at a glance. The main features that I experimented with in this phase of my iterations were the length of the coat and the head area. As mentioned above, I had experimented with several different ideas for who the Boss Character could be, and I wanted to experiment with combining these ideas or incorporating them into my chosen iteration. This is the most true for the Valkyrie iteration since they are recognizable figures within Norse Mythology. I mainly tried to do this by editing the silhouette around the head, especially to incorporate wings. To try and combine my ideas and Norse mythology, I also planned on iterating on making these wings black, to reflect that of a raven's (If the design I chose included motifs like this).

Out of these designs, I ended up choosing iteration 11. This is because I felt that the silhouette was imposing with an almost royal read from the details around the head. Although I did not, and still do not, intend on making the character royalty, I think that this design choice helps the character to feel grander and 'above' or 'more than' the player character, therefore making the odds feel against the player which would make a boss fight with this character more tense in a game situation. Additionally, I had also experimented with combining some of my ideas from my previous iterations. In my iteration for a forest giant/creature character, I experimented with the idea of the character being rooted into the ground. Although I would want to experiment with pushing this idea further in future iterations of the designs, I felt that this would be an interesting feature for the boss to have to link them further in with the environment and add some interesting visual storytelling.

With this iteration chosen, I moved on to filling in the details of this silhouette. When doing this, I mainly focused on making sure that the character looked well-armoured and suitable for fighting, whilst also trying to clearly communicate a Viking theme, along with further incorporating some additional themes that I had started to incorporate in my arena. Taking further inspiration from my initial iteration of a forest giant, I wanted to try and make the character appear somewhat overgrown. I wanted to build upon the idea of the boss being rooted into the ground, so I experimented with iterations of the boss featuring plants growing from her clothes, and most notably, connecting the arm to the axe through vines. This would provide the overgrown look in multiple areas, making it a key feature of the character, helping to link all of these ideas together further.

However, whilst iterating, I also wanted to consider the gameplay, and I had to be careful with what elements I included when iterating, mainly regarding the feet being rooted into the ground. My arena did not feel like it was designed to house a stationary boss. In games that do this, there is commonly a straight platform that offers little cover or verticality for the player. I felt the same way about the general 'kit' of the boss, I felt that a character wielding an axe would be the most effective from a gameplay perspective if they were able to move around. This led me to exercise caution when designing the roots around the feet. I wanted to make sure that I implied the connection to the ground, but I also wanted to make sure that the character did not look completely tied down by this, implying that she would still be able to move around the arena freely, potentially just slowly, giving the payer a weakness of the boss that they could exploit in a gameplay setting.

After iterating, I chose to take forward design 6. This is because it achieved my goals of trying to incorporate the pre-established themes. I believe that this iteration of the character looks well-padded out and sturdy due to the use of square-shaped language throughout the torso, and it also includes references to Norse culture and mythology. These include adding Norse patterns to the design, styling the armour after what was used by Vikings, and adding details revolving around ravens, due to their links in both the arena and Norse mythology. This is the most prevalent in the large feathers lining the edge of the cloak. I also had some indications of scale in this design. To make the boss seem more imposing, I thought that it would be effective to experiment with the scale of the character, and I implied this by placing a Viking shield on her hip,  potentially as a trophy from someone she has fought in the past. Since the shield is so small on the boss, it would help to imply the scale of the character.

Since I now had a design that I was happy with, I moved on to iterating on colours.

Boss Character Colour & Detail Iterations

Although I now had an overall design that I was happy with, there were still some details that I needed to refine. Since the face was still just a simple sketch (and mostly covered by a hood), I needed to work out what the boss's face was actually going to look like, along with the colour scheme. I also wanted to refine the axe design since I was not completely satisfied with this.

Colour Scheme

First, I started working on some iterations for the colours of the boss. I wanted to closely follow, but refine, the colour scheme I had used in my arena since I had made it up to the colour iteration phase of my arena, but I was not completely satisfied with it. I wanted to come up with a colour scheme that felt natural to the boss's design, which could also easily be applied to the arena to make sure that the two feel connected. During this stage, I also began to consider what materials the boss's clothing would be made out of since this would influence the colours. When considering the materials, I focused on what materials the boss would likely have around her to use. The most obvious choice here was materials from animals living in the forests surrounding the arena, such as leather and fur coats, which is what I mainly experimented with in the first iteration. However, I also wanted to experiment with other more interesting materials and other colours that may not naturally occur in materials such as leather or animal fur. Because of this, I went further into the idea of combining the character with plants. I experimented with making the cloak green, potentially so it could be overgrown by, or completely made out of, plants.

I also considered the practicality of the materials, since the boss would likely need to be heavily armoured to appear experienced and imposing. I thought that leather could be a good choice since this material can be very thick and tough, and it could also be layered on top of other materials such as metal, which is something that I considered doing in my design to create a practical armour design. 

I ended up choosing the fourth colour iteration. This is because I think that the overall dark colours make the boss look more ominous and imposing, whilst also having (Mostly) balanced values. I think this iteration will also be the most effective in communicating the materials available to the character, whilst also drawing attention to the face area because of the higher area of contrast.

Face Iterations

When designing the details of the face, I wanted to incorporate further visual storytelling. As discussed in previous blog posts, I wanted to experiment with the boss character not necessarily being evil or violent. Because of this, I wanted to experiment with giving the boss conventionally pretty and feminine facial features due to the positive and gentle connotations with features such as this. I initially iterated with soft and round facial features to try and achieve a soft look, however, I felt that this may not be completely fitting considering the fact that I also wanted the boss to look imposing. Through feedback, it was suggested that I could still incorporate traditionally feminine features, such as a slim face and nose, high cheekbones and full lips, but push some of the features slightly to be slightly more angular. Through this feedback, I also decided to push the facial proportions to be somewhat unnatural to make the boss feel 'not quite human'. To do this, I increased the length of the now sharper and more square nose, and I increased the angle at which the eyes were tilted. I also exaggerated and warped the shapes of some of the features. I pulled out some pointy, very high cheekbones, and I did the same thing with the jawline. However, I was careful in doing this since I did not want her to start looking too masculine. Whilst creating all of these modifications, I aimed to maintain the above-mentioned feminine features 

Lastly, I wanted to experiment with creating a good balance of values and introducing a high level of contrast to her face to help improve the read of the character and to take advantage of contrast to help pull attention to the character's face, and so her exaggerated and warped features. First, to incorporate elements from my arena further, I gave her yellow glowing eyes. This would give me a both a light and vibrant colour to work with to help build the contrast. I also gave her pale skin, since the rest of her design is quite dark. This light area would help to draw attention to the face since it creates a high area of contrast. However, I had to be careful when doing this. Since she was so pale, my initial iteration looked somewhat dead. I felt that this went against her character since nature (life) is one of the main motifs used throughout the design. To try and remedy this whilst still being able to maintain the pale skin, I made sure to add some warm shadows and areas of blush to bring some life back into the face.

Next, I experimented with different types of makeup/face paint. Face paint is commonly associated with Vikings, and it came up a lot on my moodboard. I chose to iterate with a dark blue accent colour seen on some parts of the clothing design. This ended up working well for the intended purpose since not only does it contrast well with the pale skin, but it is also on the opposite side of the colour wheel to yellow, creating an intense contrast between the paint and the eyes, which would help to draw further attention to this area. To add some additional contrast and tertiary details, I lastly added some vines growing up her neck and face to link with what I have been experimenting with in the clothing design in terms of her being overgrown. 

One last detail I added to try and convey the (mostly) peaceful nature of the boss were general decorations. These mainly included small, white, delicate flowers and jewellery. This would help to reinforce this character as the delicate flowers could imply a gentle character, whilst the jewellery would show that the character would take the time to decorate herself in this way. A character who is more violent in nature would likely not be interested in decorating themselves like this since they would probably much rather focus on combat, so this jewellery suggests that my boss would have other priorities, as well as having the time and self-respect to decorate herself in this way.

Axe Iterations

Lastly, I iterated on the axe since I was not completely satisfied with it. In a discussion with a tutor, I also received feedback that a dual-bladed axe may not be the best choice for a weapon because of how dangerous they are to the user as well. Although I initially chose a dual-headed axe to create an interesting silhouette for the character, I decided to take this feedback on board so that the character felt more convincing. Whilst iterating, I also tried to compensate for the change in silhouette for the axe, I wanted to find another way to make the axe silhouette maintain its interest, except making it more practical and realistic.

I started the iterations off simply, modelling my first sketch after a basic Viking axe to ensure that the final weapon had a norse read at a glance. I then began to build new ideas on top of this initial sketch, combining the existing ideas of the axe merging with the arm. This is the main area where I tried to build some interest in the silhouette back in. I ended up pushing the design further after these iterations, but I focused on creating small jutted-out areas and bumps in the handle from features such as vines and flowers, to create a more intricate design, even from a glance. In future iterations of the axe, I replaced the green vines with wood to better blend the arm and the handle, but to also make the connection look stronger. Additionally, I added the glowing effect seen throughout the arena and added some 'loops' of the wooden roots to further add detail and interest to the silhouette of the axe. Through feedback, I also added some of the wood/roots being braided, to add some finer tertiary details and add further Viking/Norse motifs.

Boss Character Painting & Final Design Tweaks

When starting to render the final version of the boss character, I wanted to make sure that I completed the rendering in the most efficient way possible since I wanted to leave myself plenty of time to complete the arena project. 

I also made use of layer styles for areas such as the shield. Since rendering each of the wooden panels would take some time to do manually, I tired to find ways in which I could more efficiently render them. Once again, I was able to make use of the bevel and emboss style, with a few adjustments. Since I wanted to make sure that the panelling looked even, I used the same techniques as I did for the custom brushes and graphics since it would be easier to create evenly spaced straight lines from a 'flat' view, then transform and warp them into place over the shield. Once I had the lines in place, I was then able to use the bevel and emboss effect to try and create the impression that the lines I had just placed were deep grooves in between each panel of wood. I think that this technique saved me a lot of time and was a lot more accurate than if I were to try and paint it by hand.

Whilst I was photo bashing some textures into the drawing, I was struggling to find some images that I needed that would be suitable for me to use (Such as having a high resolution and correct lighting). Because of this, I decided to take advantage of some 3D tools where I could make my own textures. The main example of a texture that I could not find online is fabric, since the majority of images had folds in them, or they were the wrong type of fabric or were too low in resolution to produce a good effect. Creating a solution to this was quite simple, I went into Substance Painter and found a fabric weave texture, then applied it to a black and white mask so that I would have a texture with both high resolution and high contrast making it easier to adjust the intensity and size of the weave.

Applying  the texture in Photoshop and warping it to try and conform the direction of the weave to the forms of the fabric underneath

During the painting phase, a few additional changes were made to the design. Through feedback, it was suggested that I change the crown design, seen in the previous blog post, since the sharp angles make the character feel like a villain, and this is not what I intended. Instead, I changed the crown to a natural wooden texture to link with the arm and roots. It also gave me the opportunity to modify the silhouette slightly to try and read somewhat as horns (From common representations of Viking helmets). I was able to also use more rounded shapes to give a softer appearance, whilst still being able to incorporate some pointed shapes to still signal aggression, but on a less intense scale than before.

 Through additional feedback, it was suggested the contrast and read of the character worked a lot better without the hood. After checking how the character looked in terms of the silhouette, from a distance, and in greyscale, I agreed with this feedback and decided to remove the hood from the design altogether. This put the face of the character fully on display, where before, it was largely covered by the hood. Considering that I had previously tried to create a large area of contrast and incorporate smaller but interesting and somewhat important details into the face, I think that this made the design a lot more effective in communicating additional story elements about the character since I focused on this a lot around the face. Additionally, the high area of contrast was still maintained by removing the hood since the pale skin and hair is surrounded by black fur, this is increased further because of the face's dark face paint contrasting the glowing eyes in both hue and value.  

One last thing that I did to improve the presentation of my work was to add the silhouette of a person (potentially the player character).  This would be especially important for the functionality of the piece since I planned on the boss being very large, implied through the shield on her belt. To try to quickly but effectively create this indicator of scale, I employed a method that I have used in my previous projects.

In Maya, I first imported the default human model and used the quick rig tool so that I could pose the character. I tried to get the character in a mostly neutral and uninteresting pose so that it would not take too much focus away from the boss. Once I was happy with the pose,  I took a screenshot, imported and imported it into Photoshop, where I was able to remove the background to give me a base 'mannequin' that I could quickly paint over to help it fit the theming more closely.

What Can I Learn From Professional-Level Work? (Boss Character Presentation)

When considering what I can learn from the first image, I think it is very effective in terms of its presentation. The background is decorated with small shapes and patterns that fir the theme, but do not take focus away from the character due to the low levels of contrast. Contrast is also used to help the  character stand out from the background. Since the character primarily consists of darker, saturated colours, the artist has used light, desaturated colours for the background to make the character 'pop' off the page due the the very high levels of contrast. It should be noted, however, that the background colours also appear as accents on the character, so the background does not clash with the colours of the  design and also helps the background to feel more thematic.

Another smaller detail that heps the piece to feel more professionhal overall is the inclusion of the name of the artist/studio, and the name of the project. This makes the character/artwork feel as if they are part of a larger project or world, giving the impression of professionalism. This is something that I could do in my presentation piece to make my own work feel professional.

Once thing that comes up in both off these pieces that I think it effective and functional are the weapon callouts.  This would be useful for a 3D artist since they would be able to use the callouts to get a better understanding of the weapons and take a closer look at some of the smaller details. Although the weapon is enlarged in the Overwatch concept art, I think that the first image has the most effective callout due to it being seen from multiple different angles. Assuming that the first  image was drawn concept art, this would be the most useful for a 3D artist since they would be able to use the multiple angles to model the weapon in detail with increased accuracy to the concept art.

One last thing that is of note in the Overwatch concept art is that the decals of the weapon each also have their separate callout. This would be very useful for a 3D artist since it would be much easier for them to recreate the designs when texturing, or they could simply pull the design from the concept art itself if the image resolution allows it. Additionally, another one of the character's props has its own callout from multiple angles, and in flat colours. This would also be functional since it would give the 3D artist a place to colour pick from, increasing the accuracy of the colours. However, this could be more useful if this prop also had a rendered version,  since in its current state, there is no way of telling what materials the prop is made out of. If I were to do something similar in my own presentation, I would make sure to provide versions of props both rendered and in flat colour to maximise the functionality of the concept art.  

From these pieces, some things that I can take away and action in my own work are:

• Decorate the background with relevant patterns/decals

• Include images/graphics used throughout the design so that it would be easier for a 3D artist to use

• Create contrast between the background and the character

• Create a weapon callout, ideally in flat colours

• Brand the presentation with the project name, my name, etc. 

I will aim to action all of these points in the presentation for my own character.

Bibliography

Dinsai Studio (2024) AETHERPUNK Project : Yakuz (Online) Available from: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xDk4Ar [Accessed 4th May 2024]

Wang, K. (2024) Overwatch 2: Venture hero concept (Online) Available from: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/AlJrON [Accessed 6th May 2024]

Boss Character Final Piece

Boss Character: Project Post-Mortem

Overall, I am mostly satisfied with how this project turned out.

I think that I was able to create a character that reads as Viking, whilst still incorporating the additional themes of nature in a clear way. I think that the character also looks imposing due to the dark colour scheme and silhouette that clearly demonstrates the size of the axe, whilst still maintaining a somewhat peaceful atmosphere due to the natural, desaturated colours and the use of smaller visual storytelling elements such as the small flowers and the feminine facial features, which have been warped to give a 'more than human' appearance. 

I think in this project I have been able to improve my use of contrast to create focal points for the piece. This includes using contrast in both values and hues to build a high area of contrast at the focal point of the character, where I have then been able to convey some additional information about the character's backstory and personality.  However, if I had more time to work on the project or if I were to attempt it again, I could definitely work on the values overall. Although I did aim to use lower areas of contrast for the rest of the body to help draw attention to the face, I think that a lot of the details and some of the forms have become lost if you were to look at the character at a glance, because the contrast is just too low. This is especially true around the legs. The details of the large crow feathers lining the cloak have become obscured by the fact that trousers are also very dark and there is not much contrast in the lighting to help separate and denote these forms. I think that this takes away from the visual storytelling since these feathers were one of the main details I planned on using to connect the character to ravens and the mythology surrounding them. If I were to take on another character design project in the future, I think that I would make sure to identify any important visual storytelling elements such as this, and ensure that I take advantage of colours an/or lighting to make sure that these areas are highlighted and easily visible to the viewer.

I think that I have also been able to tie the character in well ith the arena. Using the same colour schemes, as well as taking the themes and motifs of the arena and applying them to the character, have worked well here to ensure that the character feels harmonious with the environment and that if seen separately, would feel like they would go together if no other context was given.

Overall, I think that this project has been very useful for developing my visual storytelling skills, which is a useful tool that  I can use in other areas of my work such as 3D to create more interesting environments and characters which are more thoroughly able to communicate an interesting story, just through the way that they look.