pre proposal (major project)

Aim:

My aim for this project is to make multiple finished characters however they wont be rigged. I’m doing it like this because my focus will be on the art/design of them rather than animating them etc. and improve on any mistakes I made on the last character I did. I also want it to be a good enough portfolio piece so that I can show future employers my area of specialty. Showing them this project gives them a good idea of where my specialties lie but also my interests and how its a personal piece of work that I have been fully committed to do and do well. In doing this, I hope it would give me an advantage when it comes to employment over others who may not provide a portfolio piece, its also better than just saying I can do the work I would be required to do if they did employ me.

Process:

To create my characters I will be using Zbrush, Maya (Maya will be for rigging if I end up doing it) and substance painter. I will be using different techniques we have learnt over the last couple years to achieve my aim for this project. I am doing it this way as I have experience using these tools, doing instead of trying to learn something new will also save me time. I made the choice to use Zbrush as I want to improve on sculpting I also prefer to sculpt.

Research:

Ideas: To come up with ideas/inspiration for my first piece I’ll look into different characters from games, stories from the past about real people such as jack the ripper who’s identity was never confirmed giving me the freedom to create them how I see fit, and finally different mythological creatures that are believed to have existed many years ago. I’m also going to look into characters people have made on ArtStation and the process they went through to help me with mine.

Potential Features: On top of this I’m going to be looking at groups of animals, the main focus being on bats, wolves, and bears. I’m looking at these groups as the features of these animals can be added to my character to help form the creature/monster I’m looking to create. Some examples are the ears from a bat, fangs from a wolf and the claws from a bear, which would all give that creature/monster look to a human character. for the skin id look at other animals like fish and lizards. There’s lots of variations for example some have spikes some have scales some have smooth skin some have neither and instead its slimey.

Media: I’m looking at these particular features as they have been portrayed as “scary” through films, tv series, art, stories and games. The main examples are vampires and werewolves, these creatures were believed to have lived among us centuries ago before becoming myths and nothing more. But stories continued to be created through media focusing on their razor sharp fangs and claws, yellow eyes and lust for blood. Because of these being focused on they are now some of the features that make something scary. Sharp fangs began with Abraham Stokers novel Dracula where he depicted them with 2 fangs, and according to (Katya Cengel, Smithsonianmag, 2020) “The undead have appeared in western folklore since at least the 18th century, yet most historians agree it was not until Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel Dracula that fangs became widely associated with vampires in the popular imagination—and even in Bela Lugosi’s landmark 1931 portrayal, Dracula didn’t have fangs”. Even now a film made in 2022 called The original Living Vampire, the image/cover for the film is a vampire with sharp fangs and yellow eyes just shows how media and society accepted and recognized these as scary features.

Ideas: I have now began looking into a different theme for my second piece getting different references to help build upon the idea. The idea I’m looking into is a character from a futuristic world, and to help with this I will look into different games, films or series and other bits of media. One game I have been looking at is metal gear rising: Revengeance. In this game, there are two characters called Raiden and Sam both of these are great examples of what I’m aiming to do. A couple other ideas I have looked into are Genji from Overwatch as the Blackwatch skin has robotic parts and tubes coming from the back of his head. This is another perfect example of what I’m wanting to do with this piece.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Potential Features: Based on the characters I have looked at, some features I would think about using are robotic arms, legs or mouth/jaw. These seem to be the most common features used, and the way they are designed they seem to be made with armor in mind as they look to be reinforced already. Another would be including the weapon in the armor, similar to how the hidden blade works in Assassins creed but a bigger version (see figure 10). I could also make the chest robotic and include the core in the center of the chest which provides power throughout the being as a replacement for the heart.

Back Story:

First Character: Reeve Williame, also known as The Doc was one of the best doctors during the 1400s, if anyone needed curing you would go to him. However when the plague started he could not find a cure, no matter what he tried not one cure worked. He eventually started to go crazy trying to find one, going days with no sleep desperate to live up to his high standards and great reputation. eventually he lost peoples trust and no one would go to him. So, during another sleepless night he decided to get infected with the disease and cure himself to show people it works. So he prepared 3 different cures before infecting himself with the disease, then injecting one cure every couple days for 6 days. And as expected his health got worse, indescribable pains shooting throughout his whole body, then the changes started. His skin burning, his muscle increasing in size, hands and feet becoming claw like. Eventually the pain stopped but after the changes he had no desire to help people he now desired to make them suffer.

Second Character: Kayetlyn Adley, the best sniper in her brigade, could hit a shot from anywhere in any conditions. she joined the army in the year 2080, not knowing how much her life would change in 10 years. The year 2090 her and a few others from the brigade are performing a search and rescue, something they have done countless times however there is one change this time, instead of providing cover from a distance she’s helping clear the building for the first time. One simple mistake is made, a bomb goes off and the next time she wakes up, she’s part human part machine, the first of many.

Art Style:

For the style of my first character I’m wanting it to look realistic, a few good examples would be the Witcher characters, the characters from Souls borne games and tomb raider. I decided this after looking at this article (80Level, 2018) Character Art: Balancing Stylisation and realism. The theme for the first piece would be medieval, as this fits the character the best.

For the second character style it will be similar to the first (realism) but wont relate to the character in anyway as the first is more of a horror character, while this second one will be more RPG adventure character and it will be set in a different time period too. I feel that its important to make different characters that do not relate as it shows variety in my work while showing employers that I can do pieces for multiple genres.

I have chose to do realism after I was originally undecided because it fits my ideas better and when I visualise how I would want my characters to look going down the realistic route works so much more. some example pieces that helped me decided have been referenced below, (figure 11, 12 and 13).

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Concept Art:

Once I have made a decision on what the characters are that I’m creating I will then start to make a few rough concepts of how I want the characters to look. For now I’m going to draw some very rough concepts for a few possible ideas i have in mind. I’m doing this as i feel like seeing a drawing of some sort will help me choose what i want to do.

• 

• 

Using procreate I made a couple of rough concepts to help me choose what i want my character to look like but to also help get the idea across to anyone who sees this allowing them to understand my thought process. Making these concepts has helped visualise some ideas and has helped me come to a rough decision on what i want to do for the first piece of the project, which is a being who has been involved in illegal experiments and modifications turning them into a beast and possibly giving them incredible power.

I have now created a block out/the basic look of the female character’s body I will then follow this up with creating the base male character’s body too, making any adjustments needed to make sure it looks how I need it to. After making a new blockout for the male body i was not happy with it so i decided to just make slight changes to the female body (making the arms bigger etc) as smaller details like abs are not going to be on show.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

References:

(Figure 1) ArtStation (2021) werewolf [image] Available Online: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/eaeOoZ

(Figure 2) DeviantArt (2017) Genji Blackwatch [image] Available Online: https://www.deviantart.com/sticklove/art/Genji-Blackwatch-679506866

(Figure 3) Cyberpunk fandom (N/D) Cyberware [Image] Available Online: https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Cyberpunk_2077_Cyberware

(Figure 4) ArtStation (2016) The wraith [Image] Available Online: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/the-wraith-from-dead-by-daylight

(Figure 5) ArtStation (2018) The Trapper [Image] Available Online: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/L25Akk

(Figure 6) ArtStation (2016) The hag [Image] Available Online: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0L0ew

(Figure 7) MetalGearFandom (2020) [Image] Available Online: https://metalgear.fandom.com/wiki/Samuel_Rodrigues

(Figure 8) HeroFandom (2020) Raiden [Image] Available Online: https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/Raiden_(Metal_Gear)

(Figure 9) IMDB (2022) The Original Living Vampire [Image] Available Online: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17042714/

(Figure 10) DeviantArt(2016) Sci-Fi Knight [Image] Available Online: https://www.deviantart.com/jeffchendesigns/art/Sci-fi-Knight-604958025

(Figure 11) ArtStation (2018) warrior of the shadows [Image] Available Online: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/y8NVO

(Figure 12) ArtStation (2019) Nosferatu [Image] Available Online: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/OygnYy

(Figure 13) ArtStation (2022) Knut [Image] Available Online: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/X1vqv3

(Figure 14) ArtStation (2019) The Beast [Image] Available Online: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/X1vqv3 https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Bm5G69

(Figure 15) ArtStation (2016) Dettlaff [Image] Available Online: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/X1vqv3