Creature Design Process 101 :
This activity will be set up similar to an Artist/Client relationship to simulate real world freelance industry job experience. The reason for this thread is to prepare you for the business world of a concept artist, to improve your designing skills, to provide a client relationship experience and to boost your portfolio. You will be asked to stick to a schedule and the details of the topic for each activity which may be based on video game or film related designs.
When dealing with a client, you are often asked to produce preliminary rough sketches to relate as many ideas as possible with as little effort as possible before moving on to a final design. It’s customary for a concept artist to provide the client with a page of rough thumbnail sketches. This will be the first step of this activity and the most important step. I will expect that the thumbnails stick to the guidelines and design brief as well as promote as much originality and creativity as you can while sticking to the limitations of the brief.
Once the thumbnails are completed, please post a number next to each one so that they can be clearly identified individually. The thumbnail sketches should be no larger than approx. 1 x 2 inches with just enough detail and form to illustrate the idea clearly.
Topic Brief: Video Game Design - Next gen consoles
Title: Triple Falls
Triple Falls is a vast third person video game title based in a modern fantasy era, so elements such as houses, industrial plants, vehicles, advanced weaponry and magic will be involved in this world. This should be kept in mind when designing your creature so that the style will fit the theme of the game.
The look and feel of this title will be colorful and exaggerated with the use of low poly models, so try to keep the amount of individual segments to a minimum: ie; ( lots of limbs, small hairs, separated fingers. ) Keep in mind that the amount of bones used to rig the creature and it’s animations will also have to be limited to approx 12-18 segments, try to design around the fact that animation will be limited to rotation of the shoulder, moving the arm up and down and flexing wrist and rotating the waist side to side and bending over up and down and bending the neck etc. Exaggerating things like the size of the muscles, facial features and details is what were going for here since we want a very stylized fun looking game, not so much realistic or extremely detailed.
Creature description:
Name: Waterlope
This creature should resemble an antelope but remember to keep the features exaggerated and stylized. The Waterlope is an amphibious creature used as a mountable beast by halfling races. This creature should be in the realm of a hippocampus with both mammal and amphibian characteristics. Try to keep it original, exaggerated, and unique rather than just combining an antelope & fish body. This creatures animations will be limited to a gallop/run/swim movement, a jumping movement and grazing movement, they will not be a dangerous species, but rather a more beautiful and exotic creature. Think of some colorful amphibians such as salamanders, frogs, and tropical fish. Since the creature will be mountable, it is up to you whether or not the creature design warrants a saddle. Keep in mind though that the saddle should not be too complex since that would eat up the poly's. A possibility for the saddle would be to create natural protrusions out from the animals back which would save time in modeling and texture mapping. The time era should also be evident in the design if possible. The animals skeletal structure is open for possibilities so it is not necessary for it to have two or four or six limbs, it’s up to you.
As far as the design is concerned, try to push the limits of creativity, I'd rather not see your average hippocampus or antelope, and remember this design should be exaggerated. If you happen to bend the rules of the creature description a bit, you can get away with it as long as the design is interesting and still resembles the overall idea. You have to remember that making the client happy is the most important thing, but I also want you guys to design what YOU would like to see in a game like this, so push your imaginations.
Details & other Information:
Hippocampus reference links:
Hippocampus photo 1
Hippocampus photo 2
Hippocampus Photo 3
Antelope reference links:
I think the Pronghorn Antelope is a good basis for reference for the Waterlope
Antelope photo 1
Antelope Photo 2
Antelope photo 3
Antelope Photo 4
Antelope Photo 5
Antelope Photo 6
Antelope Photo 7
Antelope Photo 8
Antelope Photo 9
Schedule:
You will have approx. 11 days from start to finish. You will only be permitted to move on to the next step after you have been given approval of a sketch by me. Each step should be completed by or before the deadline. I am based on USA, East Coast so the time zone will be GMT Eastern Standard Time: New York, that only applies to anyone who would be a day ahead or behind. It's not completely necessary but just incase.
Time Zone definitions
Step 1: Due Dec. 6th : 10 thumbnail sketches
10 rough 1 x 2 inch thumbnail sketches presenting variations in overall concept design. They should be presented in b&w on an 8 x 12 sheet of paper and individually numbered one through ten. They can be digital or pencil sketches.
Step 2: Due Dec. 9th : 3 rough color variations
Once a thumbnail design Is approved, design 3 variations based off of comments given by myself. These should be a little more detailed than the thumbnails and they should be presented in color. The color does not need to be detailed, just enough to get the general idea across. These should be numbered one through three.
Step 3: Due Dec. 12th : 1 honed drawing posed
Based on comments and the approved version of step 2 you should present a cleaned up detailed drawing of the creature design.
Step 4: Due Dec. 17th : Final color design
Based on comments given and the approved hone drawing, make any necessary changes and present the final detailed color version on a white background - Shadows and minimal texture or colored backgrounds are acceptable but should not take away from the creature design.
If you have any questions, concerns or comments feel free to post them here. You guys are more than welcome to post helpful suggestions for one another but I will be playing the role of “Client/Art Director” so I will have the final say and approval for each step in this design process. This is a basic introduction into how a freelance job might be handled. If you do not meet the deadlines for any reason you will be dropped from the activity. There will be no exceptions since if this were a real job and you were bound to a contract, you would not get a second chance. I will be strict about this and I’m sorry if it sounds harsh but this is to teach people how to be professional and meet deadlines.
Participants:
The list:
1: Avatar<---added last minute
2:Gloominati
3:Inkfish
4:Floris Didden
5: PHATandy
6:MindCandyMan
7:Evil_Sloth
8:dCept
9:Interceptor
10:ngnorden
11:Craig D
12: Scumgrinder
13: Profil
If you are going to back out and you know ahead of time, please let me know so I can fill a spot incase someone else is interested.
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Originally Posted by dogfood
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