Hi
This is the first post out of three about our final assignment for this course. The assignment is to model and texture a character-concept made by another student in our class. The concept I was given is made by Seamus Newman.
All I was given by Seamus is a turnaround of the character, with no background or story at all. No information about what type of game he is suited in or what his purpose is (all that pre-production information you need to know to be able to make the concept you is being asked to do).
So this blog was supposed to be about what type of character I’m going to make, but as I know nothing about him other than what he look like in the ”turn-around” I’ll have to guess his background.
Well here’s the turnaround I received.
The character has a much defined cartoon style. His body is way out of proportion whit his thin and long legs compared to his upper body that is more muscular and/or takes up more volume. The head is very small and the details on this turnaround doesn’t give away much of how the facial area looks. First I thought the whole head was just an eye (which would have been really cool actually) but I had to ask my client if this was true, and it wasn’t. The face is an actual mask where the black spot in the middle is some kind of hole so that the character can see (it’s not his eye/eyes, and you should not be able to see them either. I can imagine it being some kind of thin textile for the character to see through, like on many of those mask people wear for Halloween to see).
And here comes the guessing part about whom and what he is. By looking at the action pose he seems pretty passive I would say. He just stands straight up without any intends of aggressiveness. The armour gives away that this person (or alien or animal or anything, I don’t really know) needs protection from others, and as he also have a weapon he can harm other individuals. And by that I assume that this person is someone that the player would interact with (possible being the character the player play as, but I don’t think so) during a play-session.
By these statements I can think that the player will have to interact with this character in some way, probably within a mission of some kind. I imagine this character as some kind of guardian (mainly based on by looking at his gear and his attitude) that will protect something, maybe a gate to a path, or a treasure. It would be something of value for sure and the player won’t be able to pass him if the player won’t do what the guardian asks for. I don’t see him going into battle with the player, rather just blocking him or her so that a pass isn’t possible without giving the guardian some sort of exchange, like money or some artefact etc.
For completing this assignment I would like to have a close-up of the facial area, so that I can understand how the mask works and functions (as I now, with the materials handed to me, even can’t tell the difference between a mask and an eye). I would also like to know about all the background facts for this character so that I can understand the concept further. Right now everything I can do is to guess how things should be and why they should be like that, so this is something that would be greatly helpful.
One risk with this project can be to stay within this art-style that the concept is drawn in. I guess I’ll have to go away from the proportions of the character a bit to actually make him physical possible, as right now his body won’t really function. One other risk is more of a personal problem as I’m not so good with edge-flow. I can make the volumes right and correct but as this is a character that will be made with animation being possible I really need to focus on how the edge-loops and the edge-flows should be done. Also (with experience from assignment 2) I need to spend some time on the textures to accomplish that cartoony look that this character has. Other than that I think it will be okay.
This post is a little shorter than it would have been but as I haven’t received anything other than the turnaround this is all I can write for now. I can do an update to this post when I get more information from Seamus about this concept but right now this will have to do.
So that’s it for this week. See you soon!
-Lui