Final Mini Project and Evaluation

Adding all of the improvements to this project helped me to push my work further and hopefully to a much higher grade. I am especially pleased with the character as I feel that she would be an interesting asset to the game. Her design encapsulates both fantasy and wild west elements which is what our group set out to do. I will definitely be doing a 3D model of her over summer, using all of my concept work to guide this.

I am also happy with the saloon, and although I found it challenging to create the interior breakdown, I think that it matches the character well and now has a better sense of mood with the added lighting. The overall presentation for my work has improved since receiving feedback also.

The piece that required the most work was definitely the moodshot. I re-made it from the 3D stage, changing the camera perspective and integrating the us of magic and lighting a lot better than my first attempt. Using a cliche wild west shot and integrating it with my fantasy -wild west theme emphasised what the game was about - duelling fantasy gang leaders. It added a sense of danger and excitement that my original moodshot didn't have. The lighting and perspectives are also a lot more accurate, which the final moodshot benefits from.

I think that there were still things I could have improved on with more time, such as making some more detailed drawings of interesting objects fully rendered, such as the harpsichord in the saloon. I also could have made my presentation even more interesting, as although it is neater, it is quite similar to my style guide project's presentation.

Overall, I am happy with the outcome and changes that went into this project.

Final Style Guide Project and Evaluation

I am pleased with how far my project developed and the work that I acheived in the time that I had, as well as alongside circumstances that affected everyone and limited our use of resources. I think that my concepting methods became a lot more efficient as I went along and received feedback, and I really did try my best to complete the work to a high standard and polish it. I am especially proud of my character design for the pharaoh as I was able to use my knowledge and interest of historical fashion and photobashing to create convincing clothing and a characteristic face. It was also a fun process to use my 3D work with my 2D work, as I got to combine elements of both and this helped me with both of my modules.

I find doing room interiors challenging, but I am proud of the results, and I think that I managed to find something interesting to put into all three rooms. I think that the designs were consistent throughout, and although there is a lot I could still improve on, I am still pleased with what I accomplished.

I am also happy that my project has an extra sense of identity and branding, through the use of the iconography and powerpoint text style. Using Ubisoft artbooks as inspiration also assisted me with maintaining a sense of project identity and target audience.

I would love to have worked on extra pages if I had more time, such as the mood drawing of the visual effect from the perspective of the messenger, and some exploration of different face types for the pharaoh's face.

Updating and finishing the Mini Project Moodshot

From my feedback for the mini project moodshot, I knew I had to make substantial changes to improve it. The scene didn't offer an interesting enough perspective of a duel, nor did it really highlight the use of magic in the game. I decided also that instead of focussing on magic in the surroundings, I would make my character use magic in the moodshot. This would emphasise the fantasy elements in the game whilst in the format of a wild west duel. I also needed to improve the lighting as it was incorrect in the first moodshot attempt.

The moodboard was re-vamped to help me choose specific materials, building designs and to show examples of wild west duels and dramatic perspectives.

I started by taking a different moodshot thumbnail, inspired by my moodboard images of wild west duels. This featured some close up perspectives of a character reaching for their weapons.

I then tightened up the composition for this thumbnail. I didn't want the character to obstruct the camera view entirely.

I thought about street layout again but improved the page layout and did a presentation pass on my silhouettes.

I also thought about the scenery layout in more detail, and how the character would take part in the duel. I included her shotgun on her back to show that weapons are still present in this world, but for this fight, she would use magic. This helped me to integrate both elements of my themes in the moodshot.

I also thought about combining medieval fantasy materials and building structures with wild west building shapes.

In order to begin the new final moodshot, I opened up my 3Dsmax blockout and altered the perspective to fit my chosen composition. I took a render shot and a Zdepth render.

This was the old moodshot. There is evidently a lot here that needed to be improved, and the improvements can be seen below.

This is the final moodshot. I am so much happier with how this turned out. I think that the lighting is a lot more accurate, and I think that the colour sceme is far more exciting and there is more of an impression of mood in the piece. 

Updating the Prop

The moodboard was improved and my inspiration pictures made clearer.

I did a presentation pass of the silhouettes, and showed my three chosen ones to develop clearly.

I continued to improve my presentation with the next pages of development.

I put in the updated version of my pharaoh to use as comparison for the colour scheme.

I went back into my final drawing and added small details to enhance the material qualities. The wrapped cord around the top and bottom of the crook and flail was not clear enough, so I used fine highlights to bevel it. This immediately made the material easier to identify.

Updating and finishing the Character

I improved my Pharaoh moodboard using my iconography and neatening up the presentation.

Using my feedback I spaced out my three chosen silhouettes, and explained briefly my plans to develop them. I also did a presentation pass to clean up any untidy edges.

I also filled in a gap that I had missed, which was a detail block out page. This helped to show my process in developing areas of detail.

Next was the detail experimentation, which I also did a presentation pass on.

To continue detail development, I combined my favourite details from the ones I had chosen.

Values page, with my chosen variant.

I also improved the presentation of the head moodboard and added more specific callouts.

From my feedback I found that my page of tonal exploration with the pharaoh's head was not  useful to a designer, as it didn't explore much. This page was more useful to a 3D artist

as it showed a lot more variation and detail.

This page helped to explore facial features, using side profiles. I also used it to explore skin tone and eye colour.

From my feedback, I knew that this page could be used to model from, but I also needed to add in a callout for the design on the head of the pharaoh's cane. I added in a simple back view also. These would be crucial for my final paintover.

I added in the new cane to the colour variations page and altered the presentation.

Finally, I put together all of my exploration into a final paintover. This showed the character in a much more realistic fashion, and better presented the material qualities of objects, such as the gold and the linen. 

Updating and finishing the Mini Project Saloon Interior

From my feedback, the saloon did not need as much tweaking as the character or the moodshot, but I improved some elements like presentation. I reorganised my moodboard and used icons to pick out pictures I used in my iteration process.

I added in my detailed thumbnail sketch and described what I would develop.

Next was the object iteration. I made sure that the chosen object was larger than the other iterations so that it stood out to a 3D artist.

I did the same for all of my iteration pages.

I ensured that my object details page was neatly laid out into rows, with some annotation to describe the objects. I also put my character in to show how I used shape language.

The extra details of the exterior sketch and the painted object helped to add more detail to the world building and style that would be used.

I picked out the chosen colour variant using the icon.

I was told to consider adding in lights to draw attention around the image. I decided to use a reddish light as it made the room more mysterious and had a more magical look to it. I also added some areas of shadow to emphasise the lighting.

Updating and finishing the Mini Project Character

Using my feedback from the mini project, I carried out some improvements to the character. I started by creating another icon for this project, and using it to highlight ideas on my moodboard. I also rearranged my moodboard and got rid of any images that were not essential. 

I then explored facial features in more detail, particularly the side profile. I wanted to make it clear that her nose was a stylised long straight shape, which gave her another inhuman quality and made her more interesting visually. This extra step would help a 3D artist to model her face better.

I did a presentation pass on my silhouettes and briefly described what parts would be developed.

I improved the presentation fot the sketches and value designs.

I also made clear what I was using as my final option for the face, and neatened up edges and areas that needed tidying.

The weapons moodboard was also updated and the presentation was improved.

I made sure to include an ortho of the chosen rifle.

Next I added in some material swatches to dictate what material should be applied to certain areas of each prop.

Final Clothing layers

I improved the arrangement of the final colour scheme page.

Lastly, I improved the perspective of the braces that she is wearing, and added in the side profile, as well as the weapon orthos. I think that these adjustments, although quite small, make the entire concept a lot more effective and useful to a 3D artist.