Master's Thesis Project - Who in the World?

[Ronpower]

Well the idea behind my Master's Thesis is to re-design characters from history, mythology, and literature as if they were characters for an action video game. Comic books have done this a lot, from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to Thor, so why not video games right?

So in the coming weeks expect lots of characters, plus their weapons, vehicles, and prop objects.

Also I thought it might be a fun game if I left out the titles of the concepts or descriptions, so you guys could guess who the characters actually are. Plus, it will let me know if I am doing my job well, if you can guess it right away. There are both heroes and villains.

But no matter what, I really would appreciate any critiques you would offer.

Thanks!

[Ronpower]

These first two should be pretty easy. Remember, the idea is not for them to be historically accurate, but to be recognizable.

[Psychotime]

Lincoln looks awesome.

[Ronpower]

heh, good guess, but it's not Abe Lincoln.

Thanks for the compliment!

[Mute]

Hey man, what a fun idea, and coming along well so far!

Is that first one.....Jack the Ripper? I think that figures base design is great. The hat and high collar jacket creates a good silhouette. I think the tanks and gun on his back mess that silhouette up a little. Plus he's got all those knives and so the gun feels unneccesery and I cant figure why anyone besides a scuba diver would have tanks on his back. His boots look like combat boots and don't really fit the "old english" style of the rest of him.

Ben Franklin is cool. The kite feels like a background decoration instead of part of his costume though because the perspective is not consistent with the figure. His head looks kinda small and I think his actual clothes could be pushed further. They are kinda plain right now.

For the future ones, use their poses to describe their characters as well as the clothes. If you're not going to put in even a vague background (a horizon line for example) at least put in a rough cast shadow to ground the figure.

Can't wait to see more! Rock on!

[Ronpower]

Thanks mute! Very helpful critique. The tanks were supposed to be acid that he might spray on the bodies, but yeah very valid criticism.

So yep, mute got it right, its Ben Franklin and Jack the Ripper. I'll update the thread when I have new images.

[Ronpower]

Here is an alternate version of Jack sans the tanks and with a Victorian style of footwear.

[Ronpower]

This is a very very early work in progress, that I think is going well, but if you have any critiques or whatnot I think its best to get to them early right? Any suggestions?

[Ronpower]

Here is the current progress. As always any critique is welcomed.

[Ronpower]

Here is a finished version.



Again feel free to guess their identity.

[Molested]

Hi Ron,

Excellent concept on the drawings so far - but for the last image I have a few pointers, questions, if you may.

So, the lighting!
First off, the shadow at the bottom implies a low-light from behind - the skin tone tells us there's a profile-light from the front, or front-right. Her right breast and hair imply a light from above.
With all the lighting - the shadow on the ground does not underline their presence, hence creating confusing messages to the depth of the drawing.

Secondly - the sword.
Was the "see-through-waist" intentional? Is she ethereal? If so, where's the transparency? I somehow feel as if the color of the sword was on a layer that got overlooked.. but maybe I'm wrong.
The sword lacks definition and depth - compared to the woman - the sword is kinda - not ready.

Hopefully this helps - I like your drawings though - those who can, draw - those who can't - criticize.

[Ronpower]

Wow, thanks for the draw over!

The lighting tips are very helpful. As for the see thru sword, um would you believe that was a simple layer mistake? Guess that's what comes with only 5 hours of sleep a night.

I have some other corrections for this piece so I will make a number of adjustments and re-post tomorrow.

[Cyr]

"Again feel free to guess their identity."

Boadicea?

[Ronpower]

We have a winner.

[michaelharris]

They let you do this in grad school? I am going to apply soon and I might want to go to your school if you can do that... Anywho. You still have some anatomy problems in your characters. If I were you I would push these further, why not have a Ben Franklin Mech? As for Jack I would have him dragging lots of knives and cutting implements on chains coming out of the bottom of his coat. I would look at newer games for inspiration. I youtubed the game darksiders a while ago and they did a good job at reimagining the four horsemen on the apocalypse in a very exaggerated, fatastical way.

[Ronpower]

Our program is in Video Game Development. I am going for the Masters in Interactive Technology with a specialty in Art Creation. Technically its a project in lieu of a thesis, but we still have to write a 30-50 page document to go along with the art.

Thanks for the critique. Any concrete specifics on my anatomy issues? These were very, very rushed by the way so don't think too poorly of me. I have a lot to do in this term besides my thesis, and we are early on in the project so I am counting on polish time later.

[michaelharris]

Well with Boudecea, her legs are too far to the right to support her weight, she would fall over. Her left forearm is curved, her forearm is also bigger than her bicep, which has only a tube-shape with no shoulder muscle at the top. Her neck is really thick and doesn't connect properly to her head. The far shoulder should be connected to her clavicle which isn't there. Her abs are long tube shapes and her hips are turned downward as if she is bending over. The knuckle bones are all exactly the same, spaced very evenly without any kind of difference. THe knee doesn't connect right. One the foot facing us her second toe is bigger than her big toe, and on the other foot her toes are chopped off. Not to be rude, but anatomy is something that should be in there from step one not something you should get to later. Its the skeleton of the piece, the polishing should be in the coloring. I would encourage you and every other artist(myself included) to take every life drawing class you can.

[Ronpower]

Hey guys sorry I haven't posted on this in a while.

Michael you were definitely correct in your assessment of my character's anatomy problems. My difficulties were twofold, 1) the pace of our program is such that I wasn't spending a lot of quality time on the images, and to keep up I was rushing and 2) my references were too cartoon-y, because that's the style I was originally trying to achieve. I basically decided to keep it more grounded in realism, and add the cartoon-y-ness through accents, costume, etc.

So here are two pieces that I took more of my time with, and used more photo-realistic reference.







I feel much better about the latter one in particular. Any thoughts?

[ZodiacEclipse]

On the woman you've isolated her abdominal muscles too much making her seem overly masculine. Try using longer lines that run vertically up and down the torso to show the definition sans the six pack.

[HNguyen]

I actually sort of like the old version of Boudica, but your latest iteration looks nice too. I'm inclined to agree with Zodiac's suggestion of making her look toned and athletic rather than muscular [like the first one in your sketchbook], yet I do appreciate that she has the physique to be a warrior queen. Kind of an interesting juxtaposition you have going on.

The half robot guy is pretty neat too. Is the green vat holding in what's left of his organs? I think it might be interesting to see them floating around in it, but that may be a bit much.

The pose and character of the guy are really nice, I think they're the strongest elements in your latter piece. The weapon and concept of how he moves is really intriguing as well, have you ortho'ed it out to see how it may look? It might help you flesh out the mechanical parts as well.

Good luck on the MIT defense!

[waru]

Awesome concept for the project!

I love Benjamin Franklin and the 1800s robot guy (not sure who he is). But, I can't stop being bugged by where his jacket meets the robot lower body. It looks like his legs were erased and then he was pasted on top of a robot. It just doesn't connect or look natural somehow. I guess that gets into what "re-designing them" means- just making them modern and dangerous/cool-looking? Or making them resemble typical types of characters in action games?

Anyway, I don't know who Boadicea is, but where's her weapon in the second version? Video game character design usually prominently features their special weapon. I think it'd be cool if you mixed in more video game culture, style, and archetypes in, and maybe make one like a mage or something. I guess that's more RPG style though.

Some more dramatic action stances to reflect their in game fighting style could be cool too.

Good luck, I'm looking forward to seeing more!

[Ronpower]

Thanks for the comments guys.

I have weapons for all of these characters, but in some cases just because of the way I was drawing them, or the pose, I did nit include it in the perspective shot. The good news is I am working on weapons for each character.

The robot-guy (he's supposed to be Eli Whitney by the way) I guess the idea is he has had half his body amputated, so he stuffed his torso into the walker, and the goo is like a formaldahyde that would keep him alive. If its not working though I might reconsider some redesigning, I actually have an idea for it I might expound upon.

Anyhow here are some more W.I.P.'s.





And I am working on a nicely detailed turnaround sheet for the latter character.

[Ronpower]

I did a little bit of re-work on a few of these characters, so I figured it might be time for an update. I pretty much totally re-did Ben Franklin. Tell me what you think.





This is a work in progress, it is of course, Baba Yaga's Chicken House. I know there are still some issues with color, and I am working on adding detail to the rest of the hut, besides the roof. Also the shadow is just a block in, and I need to get the ridges around the earth defined in that shadow. The legs are very rough. So very much a WIP but I wanted any input you might have for me.

[SpecialK]

YES! baba yaga's chicken house from hero's quest! Sorry, bringing back old memories of loading 20 floppy disks just to play a game that would fit on a flash drive now. Here's my two cents on Eli whitney , such as they are. The one thing that most jumps out at me is that blob of white down on the right hand footpad which is kind of distracting. When I look at the picture as a whole it just screams for attention hehe. Maybe do a double check on the lighting source or maybe add some texture to it, but other than that looks great =D. Ben Franklin looks tons better in the redo, maybe just expand on the stock of the rifle just a hair to make it look more like a blunderbus, unless you wanted it to look like that in which case my suggestion is rendered moot. Hope this helps. Good luck!

[Bai Fan]

I would say that Ben Franklin's face is the best thing you have done so far. It almost doesn't look like your work due to really believable lighting and illusion of mass.

If that is really yours, well done.

[Ronpower]

It's mine. I did use more reference for that one than I've previously shown on this thread. I'm also practicing a variety of styles. The first few I did was intended as primarily comic book style, with an emphasis on heavy inked lines, and more "Image-style" coloring as is done in most American comics. The feedback I've gotten recently from game professionals has been that they prefer a more hyper-realism that you see in most of the threads here on CA, so I'm trying to mimic it more. I am self-taught for the most part, so its taking me a lot of time and study to be able to produce that kind of stuff quickly. Most of the work on this thread I've been spitting out in a few hours, but I worked on that Franklin (esp. his face) for days.

Anyway, thanks for the positive feedback. Eventually I want every piece I put out to look like that Ben Franklin, but there are only so many hours in the day right?

[SashaMichelson]

Hi Ron,

Your work is excellent! both in terms of creativity and performed hard work.
A suggestion. Can you get more sophisticated weaponry with old style? I mean getting hands on future weapons is really a Turn On.

I like futuristic tanks, guns, missiles and armors.

Thats strictly my opinion.

Thank you

[Ronpower]

Thanks Sasha, I am struggling with how to transform old style weapons with modern. I mean if these guys came from the past and now had access to modern weapons and tech, how much would they use the new stuff, and how much would they fall back on the stuff they were familiar with?

Any suggestions on how to incorporate this idea in a cool way, I would really appreciate it.

[Nightblue]

Nice work Ron!

I think the imaginary face-to-face interview may help you in this matter. Depending on their personality, each character may deal with the time difference differently. A crafty person may be able to use both, a young and open-minded guy would use mostly modern stuff, and older guys may tend to stick with what they know best... you know them best because they are your characters

One thing I noticed is that most of your characters dress in the old-fashioned way and hold modern gears. It might help spice things up a bit if some of these guys wear modern cloth and use old-fashioned gears instead. At first glance, the superhero guy doesn't quite fit in with the rest, but if they aren't supposed to be concepts for the same game that really wouldn't matter.

It's very encouraging seeing you grow throughout this project. Keep up the awesome progress

[Ronpower]

So here is Baba Yaga's hut:



Pretty typical way its often depicted. I just wanted a nice solid architectural drawing.