Team Twist - Abilities and Anmations

Now that we are getting closer to modelling our playable characters, I have been set with a task to figure out the looks and animations while our characters cast spells. This task is something that I have never done before and it was definitely a lot of fun figuring out how to convey everything that I wanted to show.

This page was the first thing that I have done for our Gravedigger character. While designing these I have looked quite close at various fantasy games such as World of Warcraft, Guild Wars and Neverwinter Nights. Each of those games have provided me with a starting point on what I wanted to show in my own animation sequences.

This ability, which is called Necrotic Mass, was meant to be a wall of bones emerging from the ground in front of the player. The purpose of this skill was to create a wall that would protect the player and block out incoming enemies.

This was a second approach to Necrotic Mass. Although I knew that we would not do something like this (due to the tight schedule and) I still wanted to play around with different designs and ideas.

This ability was quite simple in design. A big cloud of toxic gas slightly emerging from the air or a horde of insects slightly increasing in size and quantity. 

Spirit Guard is essentially a buff which increases player's defense and increases damage. I imagined this one as a spirit of a gladiator emerging from player's body.

Unholy Utterance was yet another buff ability which, upon casting, would release a floating skull above player's health that would indicate that skill is actively working.
Overall I really enjoyed working on this task, and I think I learned quite a lot during the process. At first I have started with quite detailed designs but I have quickly learned that simplifying my drawings, especially in this task, would work better for me while trying to convey my ideas on paper.

Team Twist - Graveyard

Graveyard was something that I always looked forward to. I really enjoy the overall idea of haunted place, that is dark, scary and ready to strike.
As mentioned in my previous blog post I have decide that now I am going to do paintings that will be more 3D friendly. I want to do both illustrations as well as more design work that I could pass along to our 3D modelers so that they could use them as a starting point.

Above are three illustrations that I have done for our graveyard level. As you can see I have used quite a lot of hard surface objects that I have noticed while researching Victorian Graveyards. A lot of these look almost modern. Concrete floors along with steel gates and tall tombs give a sense of world progressing forward, just like in Victorian era.

Above are couple of drawings that I have done for our 3D modelers. Throughout the process of designing these we have decided that it would be better for us to follow both my drawings/paintings as well as various reference photos that we have gathered, That way we can combine both and hopefully come up with something unique and believable. 

In conclusion, I have really enjoyed working on this location and I plan to come back to it and do more. I have learned quite a lot throughout the process. Painting graveyards was definitely not an easy task. Coming up with designs as well as trying to convey everything that I wanted onto a canvas was definitely challenging but rewarding task. 

Team Twist - Sewers

As I've mentioned before me and my team decided that we wanted to have three playable locations for players to explore. So far, I have worked on two of those, which is the graveyard and sewers. And while both were really challenging, I really enjoyed figuring out designs.

Above I have attached three paintings that I did while designing sewers location. The first one represents an entrance to the sewers. I really tried to convey the gloomy and dark mood of Victorian London in each painting, in hope it would help our 3D modelers work things out better. Next two paintings are interiors of the sewers. Although they are quite different from each other, my intention was to add variety of different concepts. 

When I look back at these now, I feel like I should have done a lot more drawings that are more 3D friendly. Although these paintings might be used for representational purposes, they will definitely not be used as a guideline for modelling. There is too many elements that would definitely not work out in the 3D environment, even though they might look believable on the canvas.  

Team Twist - Harpy.

I think that this character really deserve it's own post. Working on a harpy was really challenging, due to the fact that we weren't sure of how it could look. We had couple ideas in the head but in the end we really pushed ourselves with this piece and I think it looks really good, as far as the design go.
Although I usually start with silhouettes while designing my character, we came to a conclusion that there is not much to explore when creating a harpy. A lot of silhouettes end up looking the same due to the humanoid body shape and a set of large wings. Instead I have went straight to the sketching phase, which I think worked really well with this particular character.

Above you can see some of the sketches that I have done while trying to figure out the design. The only guidelines that I have received while designing Harpy was that we wanted her to have a child's face. At first I thought that this would not work with the creature, but I quickly grew to love this idea.

And here is a final painting. Quite a jump from sketching stage straight to this point, but I have decided to figure out things along the painting process. In the bottom right is the sketch that I used as guideline while designing this creature. I've decided that going with female-like body would work really well with the design. The mix of bird features with human proportions really stands out from this design. For the wings I have closely looked at various birds, but what really struck me was the vulchers. They wing span can be quite large, and I think their overall behavior would really fit with our character.
Overall I really enjoyed working on this piece. I think it turned out well and definitely looks unique compared to previously shown creatures.

Team Twist - Weapon design

Weapon design is always fun, especially when our characters are quite unique. My job this time was to design weapons for Gravedigger and Deep Sea Diver. Although both characters are quite different from each other (one being melee and one being a caster) I followed the exact same process while designing weapons for them.

Above I have produced quite a lot of silhouettes for the Deep Sea Diver weapon. Our initial idea was to have him wielding an anchor, but I really wanted to explore different concepts so I came up with various hammers, maces, scythes and even a steering wheel.

As far as the Gravedigger weapon go, from the start we knew exactly what we wanted to have. A simple shovel. Of course I wanted to go overboard and I came up with a shovel that is magically infused. I have used a green tone because it really fits with our character, that is able to summon minions and use blood magic.

Here's the final design that we chose for our Deep Sea Diver weapon. I have imagined his anchor as a rotting piece of extremely heavy metal. I have used few pictures of rotting fish which really fitted with the design. I have also produced a second version which is wrapped in chains.
Overall I consider this task to be really joyful. I always liked designing weapons and I think this process is definitely rewarding.

Team Twist - Neptune design

With the Neptune design we didn't really know what we wanted to have, so at the beginning we have explored various designs and approaches.
Below I have produced some silhouettes that later would be used as a starting point for our Neptune design. As far as the reference I have looked at various mythological paintings, pictures and character description and also at multiple movies such as Pirates of Caribbean.

As you can see we have explored quite a lot of different designs. I have painted both humanoid characters as well as insects and more generic fantasy creatures.
Once this stage was finished we have chosen no. 3. From this point on I have started producing various sketches based on the silhouette.

Based on the silhouette above I have produced various sketches for the Neptune character. I really enjoyed this process, because I had a lot of freedom and I was able to explore many different styles and concepts. During this phase I imagined Neptune as a rotting, chubby looking character with tendency to sit in one place, or even being chained to the wall. He  was supposed to be big, grumpy and have a strong appearance. Although I found number 8 really appealing to me, my team decided that we want to go with number 5.

In this stage I have started to explore different heads for the Neptune. I have extensively looked at the reference that I have mentioned previously. This was fun process and I really tried to make all the faces different from each other.

And here's the final illustration. I have used quite a lot of different colors on the character, and I think it worked quite well. Although he does not look quite as angry as I'd imagine him he still looks appealing. I have intentionally left out painting lower body, due to the fact that this won't be visible in game. Neptune will be half way in the water so I saw no point in painting legs. I really enjoyed working on this piece.
Neptune definitely looks unique and although he does not resemble the mythological picture of him, I still think he will fit well with our game idea.

Team Twist - Tavern Design

As a part of our hub location we have decided that we want to have some sort of tavern that will be used as a means to regenerate health or buy potions. As far as the design go, we knew from the beginning what we wanted to do. The ground floor was something that we really explored in depth.

At the beginning we wanted for a player to be able to enter the tavern, but as the time went on we decided that player will not be able to enter the tavern. I think this approach will save us quite a lot of time and maybe in future, when we finish all the fundamental bits then we might come back to it and expand on it. For now we wanted to use the windows on the ground floor as a way of communicating with the maid inside.
Overall I think this tavern turned out great and it will blend well with other buildings.