Character Torso

I think I'm going to call this media test finished....

I quickly cleaned up the torso from the previous sculpt. I should have the base sculpts to begin morphing them into the body types I need for my final characters. They should act as a good base to start modelling over when they are shaped into more appropriate body types...

Weapon design

Here is a little section on how I came up with my weapon designs...

Weapons and accessories can play a large role in defining a character. Some characters are not only known for their appearance, but also their abilities. What they use must reflect their role in the team, and can change a character's silhouette for better or worse.

Here are some rather unique weapons what are connected with some rather iconic characters...

Gears of War Lancer. Known for its brutality which  reflects the bloody nature of the combat in the game.

Kingdom Hearts Keyblade

Dead Space Pulse Rife. A common yet unusual looking design in the dead space universe

I wanted the weapons to look very cheap, but futuristic. I drew some inspiration from Hawken (PC), where the weapons looked both futuristic and mechanical, as well as past weapons. 

Though the weapons design in Hawken were large and clunky, there were a lot of elements I liked about them. They had a very bare, mechanical aesthetic that I wanted to bring down to a smaller level. 

I drew up some quick sketches.

I also designed a larger weapon for Character 2, suitable for flight, yet effective at fast speeds. I'll probably attach it to the character permanently as his design doesn't call for him to function outside his military duties due to his extensive modification. 

Helmet Design

I thought that maybe an open face mask would be able to make character 1 more memorable instead of looking like a faceless soldier. Though this will require quite a bit more rigging.The idea is that the full face plate opens to the top and side to give better vision for the character. When closed, sensors on the side are used for vision and is projected inside the helmet. Here is a quick paint up of the design. I am hoping that when open, the helmet will add to the characters, already tall profile. 

Additional Characters

I designed a fairly standard character to show the form of the standard uniform. He looks slightly tattered, but overall he looks fairly normal and generic.

Many games also have a character whose role is to act as the "tank" of the team. This character is often large and heavy, does incredible damage, but is also incredibly slow. I decided to design a character that would fit into this archetype. With a large body frame, the character would have to be heavily armored and armed. 

The "Tank" design took the initial uniform and fitted it onto a larger body, and adding additional armour. I added a railgun looking weapon as well as adding a thick front section to the head. Though this worked successfully in games such as Brink and Killzone 2, the aesthetic did not suit the cheap mechanical look of my own game environment.  

If there is one thing that I want to remain consistent in my team, it is that all the characters must look cheap and unhealthy as I want it to be part of their group identity which reflects the harsh wasteland that they live in. 

Team Colours

Colour is one of the more important factors when identifying allegiance in characters. Whist reading about read hierarchy of characters in a paper about Team Fortress 2 character design, I found out that colour was often used to distinguish between teams when a player is in close proximity to an ally or enemy. 

Though not having designed characters for the factions enemy team, it was important to start some colour tests to show that if an opposing team was encountered, it was easy to tell them apart. 

The 2 pallets I came to be satisfied with contained colours that both blended in, yet contained colours that stood apart from the others. With more arcade like games, strong, predominant team colours that often stood out from the background made the characters easy to see. However, aiming for a more realistic atmosphere, red team and blue team's colours were less obvious against the background so that they blend in, but were easily identifiable once seen. Both pallets contains organic colours from the environment, and some artificial colours. Some were shared between both palettes to show some kind of consistency so that they both seemed like they were from the same universe.

Helmet Design 1

Here are some simple sketches for helmet designs. I wanted to create some rather unique designs as the head is one of the first places an individual looks.  I based the designs on some well known social roles in team based shooters, as well as making my own,

Designs : Engineer, Assault, Underwater specialist and Officer

The underwater specialist and officer are social roles that are not really used multiplayer games, but may be rather interesting if implemented.

Character 3 Refined Design

Here is the finished painting for the refined design for "Amputee Soldier". 

There are many elements of the design I do like, such as the helmet, and weapon, but there is nothing exceptionally memorable about the character. He does look a little more generic now, and though I'm pretty set on using that colour palette, it doesn't help in making him more memorable. 

I think the design of this character can be worked on more to make him more memorable before he is brought into 3D...

Character 3 Refined Design

Working on a detailed painting of character 3 : Amputee Soldier. I have written more about him to give him a little more personality and background. I've been using the Feng Zhu tutorials as a reference to hopefully improve my digital painting skills too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKndZHlcgFE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meIOValetZw

Role : This character is an engineer. Ranking just above grunt, he lives in isolation from civilization. Left to himself and his mechanics, he is forced to amputate himself from both war and personal injuries. He lives on the plains and avoids contact with outsiders. Skinny and starved, his clothes are ragged and his weapon has been modified by removing most of the unnecessary pieces to make it lighter for his already fragile body to hold.

Feng Zhu Tutorials

I've been watching tutorials from Feng Zhu. He provides a lot of useful insight into character design, as well as useful techniques for concept drawing.

http://www.fengzhudesign.com/

Feng Zhu Concept Art

Character 3 Variations

"Amputee Soldier"

Continued working on some thumbnails for the 3rd character in the silhouettes. This silhouette was interesting as it contrasted with the large powerful outlines of the previous two. The zombie like, fragile appearance was quite refreshing, especially when a games protagonist often consists of  large, strong male characters. The outline also fitted well into the planned environment, showing the effect the harsh climate can have on an individual. 

The silhouette implies that the character is low level, with a stance that doesn't seem very threatening as a person, yet seems dangerous. It was very mechanical looking, so I wanted the character to be heavily modified with mechanical limbs and such. 

ANALYSIS

All designs were based off the engineer archetype, as a player will most likely link all the mechanical parts to some kind of mechanic role. Similar to a Demo man having a blown off arm, or a medic carrying a syringe, a player will hopefully recognize the characters enhancements as his own work. 

Design 1

Though I am not too fond on these 3 designs, this is the one I think is the strongest, although not by much. The mechanical leg and arm works well, and so does the radio like antenna on the back, but the rest seems fairly uninteresting and generic.  

Design 2

I think the open mechanical rib-cage and helmet works well in this as they seem quite unusual, however it does make the character seem entirely robotic. The rest of it was rather rushed as I could not think of a suitable design for its place. 

Design 3

The third design is my least favorite. I tried to give him a tacky looking gas mask similar to the one on Character 1, however it doesn't seem to look or fit right. The armour around his upper torso doesn't seem very functional and the pouch on his stomach seems out of place. 

This is the current design I have of "amputee" soldier. I have taken the elements I like from these thumbnail sketches and have added a helmet design from before. 

I aim to have a more detailed, finalized design soon.