Digital Reflection 17 - interior breakdown development and final

I developed the inside objects further, particularly by making orthographic sketches of the key objects and adding details to them. This would help me to set up my final construction drawing and to dictate how objects would look from different angles for a 3D designer.

Object details from different angles

First version of construction drawing

I produced a version of the final construction but I was not entirely satisfied with the colours. They looked too bright and friendly for a gang leader's HQ. Therefore I did some colour variations playing with brightness values and tones of blue, purple and brown. I was much more satisfied with the final.

Variations of colour - similar to character to match her aesthetic

Final Construction drawing 

My feedback form my tutor was to produce an example of how an object would look textured in the game and to share it with my team as part of the style guide.

My message to my team about feedback

Digital Reflection 16 - Beginning the interior breakdown

For the breakdown diagram I decided to do an interior of a saloon, that my character owns and would act as a gang base for her. I started with a moodboard, taking influence from fantasy taverns and wild west saloons to find a middle ground of fantasy and western elements. I found that the fantasy elements included tinted mood lighting of greens and purples, and props like mounted wall shields and barrels. For the western elements I looked at traditional saloon doors and furniture, oil lamps and wall decor like  paintings and animal skulls.

Moodboards for fantasy and western elements

Next was the idea generation process, which I began with simple thumbnails. I made a variety of layouts over several levels, and I opted for the last thumbnail with three levels - a ground floor, a stage area and an upstairs balcony. I chose this as there was a lot of visual interest and a path that could be created in the platformer. 

Thumbnails

I then made a detailed thumbnail to better show the objects I wanted to put in the saloon. The next stage was to pull this apart and iterate on each key object, so I created iteration pages and made silhouettes for each object before I achieved the form that I wanted. Using my character and team moodboards for shape language reference helped me to choose the shapes I wanted.

Detailed thumbnail with my notes

Iterations of objects

Digital Reflection 15 - Final character sheet, Miss Valerie Valentine

I  produced the final character sheet with the front and back of her design, a close-up of her face and the shotgun and parasol. I posed her with the shotgun over her shoulder and the the parasol in the other hand, which showed confidence and authority.

Final concept - first version

After receiving feedback from my tutors, I added warmer tones of light to contrast against the cool tones and to enhance the metal parts of the outfit. For example, the shotgun shells in the bandolier did not stand out enough and so adding a contrasting warm tone made them pop out a lot more. I also changed the orange background as it was too distracting and took away from the design.

Final concept - second version

Overall, I am very pleased with my final character design. I will use her as reference for the saloon interior.

In class I put my character design amongst my teammates' to see if the styles align. The styles all matched quite well, and together we went over elements we could improve to make them match further. One major point was the use of bright highlights, which would work well on the sharp edges of the character. One thing we captured very well was the shape language - the use of angular sharp edges and different height and thicknesses.

Comparing the styles of my teammates' characters

Digital Reflection 14 - weapon design and outfit layering breakdown

I started producing weapon and prop silhouettes for the character, once again pulling together a mini reference board for this. I was using weapon inspiration from fantasy and western designs which would help me to achieve a middle ground. There were various objects that I considered developing, such as a blade fan and a hunting knife, but the two objects that I decided to develop was a shotgun and a parasol.

Weapon and Prop moodboard

The shotgun was a typical example of a wild west weapon, using 12 gauge bullets that would be placed in her bandolier. I combined this functionality with fantasy shapes and colours, once again thinking about the shape language I was going for and using my moodboard as reference for metal inlays and component shapes on the shotgun.


The parasol reflected her position as a lady in Western society, but with a deadly edge. I looked at references of cane swords in real life and in games, such as Bloodborne, and played around with the idea of her hiding a thin blade in the parasol handle. This emphasised her cunning and deadliness as a gang leader, with the parasol's deceptive initial appearance.

Weapon development

The next stage was to produce colour variations for both the parasol and shotgun. I used my chosen character colours as reference, playing with darker and lighter weapon colours. I went for light colours that would stand out from the character's dress, with pink tinted metals. This gave the shotgun and the parasol a more magical and unusual value. I also produced a sketch of the weapon firing, and the colours it would produce. I reverted to the glowing orange colours that I had used for her eyes and her crystal brooch, which allowed for continuity and a sense of magical power.

Final colour variations

A page was produced to show how her clothes would be layered. Her trousers under the skirt would be held up with the suspenders, and the skirt would fasten with one button at the front. The bandolier belt could then be placed on top around the waist. This page would be useful if the character had different clothing options within the game, such as an option to remove the skirt and just wear the trousers instead.

Layering the clothing and accessories

Digital Reflection 13 - Character development continued

The next stage was to further refine the details of the character. I applied different hair and skin colours to try and match her personality and to give the impression of an otherworldly magical race. I was leaning towards making a dark elf variant as I thought it would match her demeanour and clothing, but I also experimented with lighter and warmer tones. Although I discovered some interesting options, the warm tones would have clashed with the cooler tones that I envisioned for her clothing and weapons, and some of them looked too human. Therefore, I tried making a version of her skin and hair using cooler tones, but changing the eye colour to a striking magical orange hue. I liked this version the best as the orange eyes stood out from the cold dark tones of the hair and face, and she resembled a classic high fantasy dark elf form popular culture, so she would be recognisable as a specific race.
I used reference from Dishonored character designs for painting style. I was looking at the way the artist used created angular highlights to exaggerate the sharp shape language and to highlight the planes of the face.

Dishonored reference boards

Painting stages

Adding detail to the face

 Adding highlights to the hair

Final skin and hair colours

Next I developed the details even further, pulling together some miniature reference boards. I used images from both fantasy and western genres, as well as victorian fashion as many elements of the Wild West derived from Victorian England. Creating this detail sheet proved crucial to the project as it would allow a 3D artist in industry to identify the exact shapes and textures of an object.

The colours of the dress were experimented on, using similar techniques to the face and hair colour. I used the selective colour tool in Photoshop to alter the different tones much more precisely than I would be able to with a gradient map. I mostly experimented with different tones of blue and purple as this is what we discussed as a group. I also altered the saturation levels and the pop of colour that I would use. The final result was a fairly unsaturated purple outfit with pops of white and orange. The orange matched the eye colour, and enhanced the appearance of magic within the character.

Final colours

Digital Reflection 12 - continuing character idea generation

I continued the project by producing 3 sets of detailed sketches based on my silhouettes. I chose three that I thought best represented a town lady in the Wild West - well dressed and fashionable, with accessories to enhance her appearance, and a look of quite high social standing. I also wanted her to have a mobster aesthetic to emphasise the idea of her being a gang leader who owns a saloon business. Therefore I went with the second row as it suited this criteria best, e.g. the pressed trousers and suspenders, combined with an open skirt and a blouse.

Detailed development sketches

I went back and adjusted the silhouettes, making them taller and thinner to match her body type better and to show how stylised my character would look.

Old vs New silhouette shapes

Next I produced a page of detail tightening. I combined elements of two sketches from the second row, and played around with these details until I came up with an idea I liked. I wanted to ensure that I was using the correct shape language that we had discussed as a group - angular and pointed, and so I looked at shapes I could use for the clothing such as diamond buttons, pointed shoes and sharp edged hats. I used my moodboard to develop these ideas, looking at wild west fashion and patterns like pinstripes and frilled edges on skirts.

Detail refinement

I took the refined sketch and experimented with values. I wanted her to have an overall dark and unsaturated aesthetic with bright highlights, and so I experimented with different levels of brightness before choosing my final values. I feel that it matches her character as a no-nonsense elven boss.

Traditional - Blog topic 5

Leonardo Da Vinci's 'Lady With an Ermine', painted 1489-1490 is an example of a High Renaissance painting that follows both typical and atypical rules of Renaissance portraiture. The portrait depicts Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of the Duke of Milan holding an ermine. 

From an initial glance, there is a lot of contrast from the background against the paler colours and tones of the skin and the bright red and blue clothing. The shape of the ermine sweeps downwards towards the bottom left hand corner of the composition, which brings the eye towards the hand and along the detail of the dress. There is an even balance of saturated and less saturated colours, such as with the clothing against the skin, and the darker more neutral tones of the beaded necklace and backdrop. 

The use of light shine in the eyes adds a sense of life to the model, and catches the attention of the eye. It also draws our eyes to the right hand side of the painting, leading off of the canvas. It creates a sense of open space surrounding the subject, and gives a clue to the setting, e.g. a near-by window or a candle light. The colours of her clothes are reminiscent of many religious paintings of Mary in the renaissance, who is often depicted wearing lapis lazuli blue, reds and golds. There could be a subtle comparison that Da Vinci made between both Mary and the sitter of the portrait.

In this painting, Da Vinci uses a technique that he developed during the Renaissance period known as 'Sfumato', or 'Smokiness' - the tones in the painting are blended softly to form a soft gradient form one to another, and this can be seen primarily in the face and neck area. It emphasises the youthfulness of the portrait subject, who was only 15 years old, and adds a softness to help exaggerate this. It was also painted using a more modern medium, Oil paints, which were introduced from the Netherlands in the 1470s. This was a big change for many Italian Renaissance masters, who had previously used powdered pigments and egg whites for oil painting. 

The use of the ermine as a symbol was prevalent in many renaissance era paintings, such as for monarchs who wanted to symbolise wealth and status, and for expectant women. Perhaps the ermine in this painting is a symbol of both Cecilia's familial wealth and status, and her relationship with the Duke of Milan. 

'Lady With an Ermine', 1489-1490, Leonardo Da Vinci. 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_with_an_Ermine