Creature Prison: Warden Gorman

I've had a bit of a break from this project as I was completing some freelance work for a studio, but now I'm back and ready to work.  I developed a new character design based on the list of characters provided to us on the brief.

The Warden is described as someone young, inexperienced and in way over his (or her) head.

With my project being based around a dinosaur zoo/them park/science experiment gone wrong, I altered the Warden idea to a head scientist (or even vet) of the park.  Brilliant in his field, and a young genius, he gets hired.  He soon discovers the genetic mutations that are taking place and is forced to work against his will, despite his objections.  He's young and scared and easily manipulated.  He hides and has survived the events of the last year on the island.

I wanted the Warden to be one of the earlier characters Chloe (the player) meets in the game.  He'd be the guy with the 'plan', helps out with information, tells the player what to do, how to attack and avoid the varying species of dinosaurs etc etc.  So, to stop him from wondering around with the player during the game (survival in numbers and all that)...I broke his leg during a recent dinosaur attack, immobilizing him.  That'll slow him down.

I also named him Warden Gorman after the wonderfully inexperienced and in over his head Lt. Gorman from Aliens :)

Here's some of the early design work, leading up to the final piece:

Aw goddammit!

Well this just pissed all over my ideas

Creature Prison: Prison Exterior

I've started working on how the exterior of the prison may look now.  The prison would look less 'prison-like' and a bit more of a research facility, however I wanted to create a strong industrial feel to the overall look.  I just had this idea of a monstrous, industrial shit hole in the heart of a dense jungle.  The idea being it would look radically different to the exotic, well maintained holiday resort/theme park on the other side of the island and very different from public perceptions.  Two faced, evil corporations and all that.

Since my idea take place on an isolated island, obviously there would be no direct power sources for the prison/facility to run from.  So this also fueled the industrial idea.


This is the thumbnail design that I liked and thought would be a useful basis for this design.

The next job was to track down some research.  And I found pretty good references based around concrete mixing facilities, nuclear plants, dams etc etc.

Combining the thumbnail and my research, I set about doing a couple of black and white paintings to get the basic look.

Happy with the general look of this image, I also created a couple of rough colour studies

Now I need to finish the damn thing...

Creature Prison: Chloe Final Designs

Creature Prison: Chloe Designs

Early sketches of Chloe based from on some thumbnails from my previous post.

Creature Prison: Thumbnails

This is quite a large brief, so my first task was to come up with a bunch of ideas that I'd like to do, and then reign these designs back in so they fit the overall brief better.

Creature Prison: Story

So, we have a new brief to work on.   Create a prison designed around 'exotic' creatures.  Again, this a pretty open brief, and it has quite a lot of leeway over what we can do.  There's some basic information about the prison we need to keep and there are a set of character profiles that are also provided.

After whittling down a few early ideas (including a space prison) I've found something I like.  This is a module based around visuals and concept art, so story writing isn't exactly an 'important' factor.  However, I find it useful to have a basic narrative to give the project some focus.  So, brace yourself for a cliche ridden, plot-hole filled story...

Title: Project Resurgence.

Action survival, third-person game.

Government owned "STEM Research Facilities" has perfected cloning dinosaurs (exciting!).  On the exotic, but isolated, island of Isla de la Muerte, a dinosaur safari park has been opened with full attractions and resort.  The park is obviously a very popular destination receiving incredible amounts of tourists each year.

Unknown to the public however, the military are conducting experiments in secret facilities around the island.  They are experimenting with gene-splicing and bio-weapons.

One week, during a tropical storm, the island went dark.  All communication was lost.  No one returned from the island and no one was ever heard from again.

A year passes.  The government has declared the island a quarantine zone with no access by sea or air.  Access is strictly prohibited.

After exhausting every option, an aging billionaire is putting together a small team, including Chloe (you, the player).  Chloe is a veteran photo-journalist.  The billionaire has hired you, and the team, to find his daughter and her children (who were at the park when the island blacked out) as well as documenting what happened.

On the flight to the island, a hurricane strikes the plane, forcing a crash landing.  Chloe and the rest of the team are scattered across the island.

Chloe awakens unarmed and alone on the island.  Using only her instincts, she must fight for survival on this dinosaur invested island as well as facing the genetic horrors that have been created.



Like I say, story writing isn't my strong suit, but this is workable enough for me to base an entire project around.

Next up, ideas...

Captain Hook: Final Design

Captain Hook: Painting Development

Still a work in progress...

Captain Hook: Ideas and Sketches

A new year, a new module, a new brief.

For the introduction to the Character and Environment Design module, we've been given a straight forward character design brief.  Re-design Captain Hook in futuristic style.  Simple.

The brief is deliberately vague in order for us to put our own creative spin on the character.  I've decided to go down a 'colourful' route.  Inspired by Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" film, my intention is to create a design that could fit into that Universe.  I love the way that Guardians incorporated a good sense of colour in its art style (not dark, moody futuristic like "Blade Runner" nor super sleak, clean white metals from say "Elysium").

Captain Hook still needs to be a villain.  So I'm going to try to crank up the 'bad-assery' of this character and make him more threatening.

Let's see how it goes.

Here's some early design sketches:

LINK TO CONCEPT ART PRACTISE LEARNING OUTCOME

Learning Outcomes Link:

http://davidpagetma.blogspot.co.uk/p/concept-art-practise.html

Pete Amachree Brief: Romans: Tiberius Final Design

Final Character Design

Pete Amachree Brief: Romans: Character Design

I began focusing my ideas towards a character design.

After selecting my design, I then began painting the character through Photoshop

Pete Amachree Brief: Romans: Development Work

A designed a variety of rough thumbnails for this brief, as well as experimenting with a few different environments.  Unfortunately, due to my own frustrations, none of these developed any further passed the idea stage...

Pete Amachree Brief: Romans: Research

The final brief we have to create was set by Concept Artist Pete Amachree.  The brief is a fairly simple set up.  "What would the Romans have been like if they electricity had been introduced to their society. Show three stages of advancement from 60AD, 160Ad and 260 AD."

At first, this seems like a fairly simple brief.  But the more I thought about it, the harder it actually became.  If the Romans did have electricity, how the hell would they be able to harness it or store it?  More questions like this arouse the more I thought about it.

Anyway, to try and clear my head, I did some pretty intense research...

Rome:

Additional Environments:

Soldiers:

I can't pin exactly what I want to achieve with this brief.  This is going to harder than I first thought.

Jack Couvela Brief: Assassin's Creed: Prop and Building Design

I quickly moved through the prop element of the brief.  I wanted create a Victorian based gun.  So, as usual, I did my research first...

Gun's aren't a new thing to Assassin's Creed and having a weapon with a limited fire power/clip capacity helps keep the player of the keep vary their tactics (rather than just shooting everyone...).  There's quite a lot of varying styles to choose from and I also wanted something decorative for my design.  So sketches...

My first few designs were way off the mark.  They were quite steampunky and didn't really belong in the Assassin's universe.  They seemed to fit better in something like Bioshock.  Assassin's Creed is always built on the foundation of a believable and 'real' world.  Everything needs to reflect this, including the weapons.  So I refined my design to look more...normal.

After choosing my design, I moved forward into painting the final thing...

I applied a very similar logic to my building design.  I began with the research stage...

 This lead me to designing a variety of sketches.  At this stage, I was trying to look for an interesting shape, whilst maintaining the idea that the player can climb and free-run.

Choosing my design (design 'M'), I blocked out a fairly basic model using Google SketchUp.

 After selecting a rendered view I liked, I painted the final piece using PhotoShop.