3rd year at Falmouth

Another year has gone by and I am on to my final year on my digital Animation course.
This year we were to pitch a project we'll be working on for this final year.

My project partner, Lokii and I decided to pitch our gaming bible : Revenant.

Our aim is to develop a complete gaming bible  as well a 30 second video promo for the game. This video will consist of both 2D and 3D animation (Cut scenes and mock game play demo)

WE had our final pitches on the 27th of September.  Our project was approve and we can work on it as our final work for the year.


The work that was divided between Lokii and I was that she took on the producing aspect and I took on the role of art director. Though most of the time we tend to consult each other on the decision makings.

We've set aims to recruit second and first years to help us. On both pre and post production.
We're also keeping close contact with those that we recruited so far. Setting up task such as concepts designs for NPCs each week and assign the finalised concepts to modelers and riggers for the 3D aspect for our promo video.

On going concepts

Most of the art work I will be working towards(  Excluding my personal art and project)   will mostly be for Revenant. My goal is to create more sets of "WOW" images. Lately I've been doing random concept designs , which mean I haven't based the designs on the official reference sheets.

So far theses are some that I have done.

Since we have the final character sheets and turn arounds, I can explore more in their movements and doing some action poses for them as well. another area that I feel is still lacking are the environments so I will be doing more practice and painting on them too.

Final colour and scene

So in the end this was the official colour for the beetle bouncer in the night club scene.  In the group tutorial we agreed that the green colour for his skin would stand out among the red interior. The one before had greyish skin but  it loked a bit purple when overlayed with the red light which make his colour a bit too similar to the cat. Green adds a nice contrast.

After fhinsihing the colour scheme, I moved on to to colouring in the lined animation. Charlott did the finished in between and I got the work while off her.  I was a bit unsure for the shading of the character because the scene I worked on was where the live action character would interact with . I was advise to so some subtle shading. and this is the end product.

So nothing too dark but still doesn't look like he's all just flat colours.

DEEP Background

I've also been working on another background for another scene. This section is called the snow scene. I've been assigned it recently and style used for this scene is heavily influenced by Mike Mignola, the artist for Hellboy.

These are the scenes I've done so far and have been approved for the style. There are still some work that needs to be done for the colours and lighting. 

DEEP

Another Digital practice project that is on going is DEEP. A film directed by our lecture , Derek Hayes. The film has various style through out and I sighed up to work on a section of the film called night club.

Here I was responsible for coloring in the night club backgrounds. The layout and designs were done prior and the background was divided between Jasmine Groot and I to work on.

This concept was sketch up before I was handed the official layout. The purpose of this is to test out the mood and lighting that could be applied to the scene. After hearing the feed back, I was was advised to improve on the tone of the colour to make it warmer.

Above is the finish coloring of the background. I had a bit of issue in over shading some of the assets in the film . Most of the reference I look at were mostly Warner bros cartoon. Focusing on bold colours.

Not only that I had to adapt to the new colouring style that I am not so familiar with I also must maintain consistency in the colouring since there were two artist working on the background. It had to look like it had been coloured by only one person.  

Another interesting work that I really enjoy was the character. The character were already designed and all that was needed is a colour pallet. I focus on testing out colours for the beetle character in the scene.

Above here is a test of the coloured character in the backgrounds. I personally like the green beetle but it still need some working since this is mostly from an illustration point of view rather than a moving animated character. Some adjustments are still needed in his attire colour and the saturation of his skin that at the same time need to work with the background but still has to stand out on his own as a character.

Personal art work and designs

 Other than my current university projects , I've been doing my own practices with digital art. I mostly wanted to improve on my lineart and colouring style. Trying to refined my personal style as well as adapting to other styles and techniques.

One of my main concerns are the uses of colours.


Above is a sketch concepts of my own character I've developed. On the right are head shots. Here, I was aiming for a vibrant colour pallet. I wanted the colour to pop , bright but also balanced. The one on the top right is probab has the brightest colour and saturation.


This second concept piece, I've toned down the saturation but still maintain the lighting. (with the exception of the characters on the top left.) This was also a good practice on colouring different skin tones and face shapes.

Concept of human races for a story concept


Lastly this is part of a comic strip I did for an art group. I limited myself to using few colours and stick to mostly black and white tone and focus on the lighting. I used red to emphasis the female character's unique features. ( Red nails , marking and eyes.

Project: Revenant

Both Katie and I have been slowly putting all our work together, building up our production bible through out the easter holiday. It is still on the basic backbone stage but so far we've been able to get the basic game play mechanic , script and concept designs together.

I've been doing most of the designs for the main playable character : The reaper.

This is a concept for the 8 stages that our character will develop into. the last two I was inspired by the Yautja or known as the predator from Alien vs predator.

Here are the turn around for the reaper in stage 1,3 and 4. I wanted to get their basic shape laid out so I only did a flat coloured version on them here. 

Concept for our witch, Rosalyn. Top picture is a concept design of her as a child. Rosalyn had a pet of sort. This pet will also be one of the main NPC of the game and will be a guide for the playable character through out the game. the first idea we had for this was for it to be a cat. Though it felt a bit too popular and we wanted stray from using a cat. In the first picture we though of using a hare and the second one is the possibility of it being a doll.

The second picture the first concept we had for Rosalyn. I am still working on her design as well as a proper attire for her to fit into the time age. I want to do some more rework on her hair. Perhaps have it covered up with a hood.

Revenant

Another production bible piece that I am working on is a project called Revenant.

For this year in the course we are planning on a bible/concept for a film which we will be working for our third year. I am working with Katie once again to develop this project, which a concept for a horror game.

Ideally for it to be count as a piece of an animated work. We will be animating the cut scene of the game while also developing the actual game mechanics as well. The bible will include contents such as plot, genre , a story line, a section on the game play aspect and other content such as characters, NPCs, assets etc.

The story  to sum it up is about a girl who was accused accused of being a witch and was burnt at the stake. Unknown to the villagers she was indeed a witch and as she was burnt her hand turned into a little deformed minion of which is the main playable character int he game. The minion (named Reaper) 's main goal is to gather body parts to eat and growl stronger and to gather victim's souls in order to bring back his mistress.

Below are some concepts designs for the character. Costumes are still being worked on due to the accuracty of the time period that we want our story to take place in.

Concept for one of the main character in the story. "Victoria"

Concept of perhaps a loading screen art or an asset in the game.

On going projects.

So my main production work right now are concepts designs for our up coming pre-production work.I've been looking more into movies/games art behind the scenes books and they really help inspired me as well as motivate me into exploring more painting techniques.

My main interest now is developing an idea for a potential short film and/or game.
I aim to work with Katie again for this project after seeing how well we've work together in the past. I look forward it.

One of the ideas we have for game is a horror theme. The boogeyman.

A very rough design on the main character which (also the playable character )

The basic idea so far for the plot is like a search and hunt.Gathering items which in this case , you play as the monster and in order to grow and evolve , it must consume human body parts and manifest itself  to look even more scary than when they first start off with.

11 seconds animation

11 second concept for animation

Script :

Character A: "Your job is to break through barriers, not accept blame and say 'wah wah wah'. So what?"

Character B: "I don't cry."

Character A: "You wanna be really great? Have the courage to fail big and stick around."

Character idea -Two headed hydra dragon talking to one another.

I chose to focus on the performance of the character.

·         How the two head react to each other

·         Each head has a different mind and personality ( one will be male and the other female)

·         Movement of the head

Idea of one of the head circling the other’s– character movement

Focus on their expression which I will use live action facial expressing as reference in developing.

Concept storyboard