Capstone: Final Deliverable
Additional Artwork & Designing the Artbook
The final weeks, November 5th - December 3rd, were dedicated to providing additional concept designs as well as arranging the layout of the final artbook. I spent a lot of time in Procreate and Photoshop in order to create these pieces and arrange them into cohesive pages that would make into the final iteration of the artbook.
Character Lineup
I began this final phase by lining up the characters together in Adobe Photoshop and making adjustments as necessary. I adjusted the placements of the layers for each character as well as doing my best to showcase their approximate heights compared to each other. I knew I wanted this line up to be in the artbook, but it felt bare with only the characters. Because I had designed a simple graphic unique to the world, I put the design behind the characters for additional interest.
Additional Concepts
Left: I had the idea of creating glyphs for each character so that the main character/player would have an indication that they were close to a guardian in the game. These glyphs are found throughout the world, whether they be painted on the side of mountains, in caves, or shrines in and out of villages made by Agarthans. I used the contours and shadows from the new artwork I made of Wrath.
Right: I drew an example of what a portal to Agartha might look like, with the silhouette of the King of Agartha standing to greet the player next to a large tree. These symbols will be important in the game and allude to mysteries dwelling within this expansive world.
Cover Design and Page Layout
Left: Originally, the cover design was going to include a conceptual landscape or another design found in the game, but I found that because this is a book highlighting the characters, it was most fitting to have one of the characters on the front. I chose Wrath because he became my favorite design out of the guardians I created.
Right: For the page design, I wanted to focus on the main design for the front of the character and include the silhouette of their animal. I also wanted to include an excerpt of my design process alongside an early iteration of the character. Below that, I included the description of the character as it fits with the narrative of the game and the purpose of the main character. I was also considering some sort of border, but did not want the page to be too busy. So, I included the same graphic at the bottom corners of each page so that they would feel less empty and balance out the heavy content above.
Additional Artwork
With the time I had left, I decided to paint a cherry blossom tree to go on what would be the back of the book. I chose this painterly art style because in the game, I imagine lore would be told with artwork done similarly. I also find that many concept artbooks include artwork done in this painterly style, so I was inspired to create my own.
Final Thoughts & Reflection
I learned a great deal about character design especially when concepting for a video game. Most importantly, I worked on time management and sticking to deadlines, and ensuring that every turn-in was on par with my own expectations. I did struggle with finding a happy medium between my personal expectations and the requirements for the project, but I was satisfied with each turn-in regardless. Although I am getting used to drawing in different styles, I was able to find one that I felt comfortable enough in to work on 7 different characters over the course of this semester. Each one is stark and unique compared to the others, but I wanted to maintain style through shapes and line for consistency. Finding color palettes that not only worked for the character individually but together was difficult and took time to adjust in order to still maintain that consistency.
Additionally, I learned a lot about time management and using the first few characters (primarily Phase 02) to find an efficient workflow. I timed myself when it came to drawing the lines, coloring, and adding details. This helped me with future characters and creating a pipeline over each week to get the work done. I found that creating an 8th character (the main character/player) was going to require an additional week and take away from time going into the artbook itself as well as any additional pieces I wanted to include. Because of this, I ended up revoking the idea of including them and instead focused on the guardians of the game.
From what I learned over the course of my time at UT Dallas, I wanted to incorporate my understanding of character design and narrative with games. Characters must be unique and attract immediate attention in order to maintain interest and keep the player invested. Regarding narrative, I wanted something well-rounded but also include an urgent conflict that would entice the player to fight for their goals. I focused on the seven sins because while this land is a fantasy world, maintaining humanistic values gives the player some sort of standards and recognition as they play through the game.
Going forward, I want to continue my pre-production with this game and assign each character abilities that the player will eventually learn. I also want to create documentation for the narrative itself to prove my knowledge of game states and the logic to meet those conditions. I would also like to include additional concepts such as vignettes to show the environment, monsters/creatures the player will face, and materials/collectibles. This means I must improve upon my art skills, practicing anatomy and textiles, as well as learning tools.
Overall, I learned a lot about the character design process not only from my own work, but from the references and videos I watched throughout the semester to better my workflow. I look forward to continuing this project post-graduation.