Desolation: The Old World

So I have now for a while been working with concept art and creative development for the game Desolation: The Old World. Since it has been a while since I posted anything here on my blog I’m drop this bomb of my compiled work on the game!

 

This character was supposed to be a sort of merchant that would appear from any odd dark corner and trade with the player. 

Here is a concept art of the enemy faction called “the Gnaarg”This is the fist rendered piece of an environment in the game, just to get a feel for what the game world should entail. It was decided to be a bit too bright. 

3D friendly concepts for the average door in the game. Iteration 3 was decided to fit the game aesthetic most. 

Some concepts for structures and architecture. 

I wanted to try out some more stylized concepts for the game world as well.  

After a long process of traditional sketching I landed upon the design to the far left, I then proceeded to iterate in photoshop until I reached the design on the far right. In the end the visor was made more smooth some of the helmet diods were scrapped. 

For the main character I wanted to give the team a few variations to choose from after the initial concepts were given green light. So I played around a bit with the proportions and silhouette of the character.   

In the end the character landed on a more slender and realistic version that I cleaned up a bit and added some asymmetry to make it more interesting. 

Here is the final piece I did for the game before it was put on ice. My requiem for the game! 

Apart from what I have shown here I have a mountain of sketches done by traditional means that lies dormant in my sketch pads:) All in all it has been really fun to work with the setting of the game and to get the opportunity to really poor my creativity in to creature designs and environment concepts! too bad the game could not go on.

Passing of knowledge

Title. “Passing of knowledge”

With this work I wanted to further explore the nordic myth and that take on the fantasy genre. I think that a lot of the fantasy that is portrayed in modern games and movies have turned towards a generic expression that has taken away a lot of the soul and sense of mystery that has always been the most intriguing part of the genre as far as I’m concerned. So with my exploration of the Nordic myth I hope to find some sort of core essence of genuine mystery that tells a story that is closer to my heart.

The Ent Chef

We were having a drawing/programming night last night, we were given key words to paint from. I got the words “organic”, “cook” and “forest”, so this is what you get! I had a lot of with it, worked a lot with different ways to create textures and experimented with different blending modes.

Week 7

So for this week’s post we are to self-evaluate our own knowledge of anatomy artistically speaking, so I will show a few of my 2D drawings and share some of the feedback that I got from my fellow students. Some of these images are already shown in previous posts, so “sorry” or “your welcome” if someone has to repeat the experience.

The thing that I received the most critique for and that I myself also think is the area I could use the most improvement is when it comes to motion in my images. There are a lot of static lines and a lack of general movement in the poses of the characters. Another thing is that I seem very inclined to mess with the proportions of most characters, like having everything stretched out and elongated, which could be used as a style characteristic but if so I should do so with a clear pretense of doing just that.

One major gap in my work with characters right now is that I haven’t made a lot of female subjects, I think that I’m just more comfortable with drawing the male body and anatomy. Which is in fact kind of strange considering that almost all of the nude models I have drawn from in class since I began studying art has been women.

When I now realize some of the knowledge gaps that I have, I will try to fill them with focusing my drawing exercise towards those subjects. Firstly I will focus more on practicing action-pose drawing, and the way I thought I should do that is to do five minute sketches were I pick different verbs or expressions to illustrate. Just to squeeze in as many of those exercises as I possibly can whenever I have a spare moment, which is not very often these days but I’ll try.

I will also start to use more anatomically correct reference- images when I draw characters in general just to burn those proportions deep into my standard procedure of construction drawings. Also I really should get over the bump and start drawing more female characters and really get into it so that I become comfortable with that, because that is something I need in order to become a versatile artist. But I really think that it is just a matter of routine and practice, I just need more hours to grind and play with it to get where I need to be and I really try to draw a lot and do concept art in 2D just for practice and fun. I really try hard to not forget that drawing is really fun and something I just love doing just for the kick of expressing my imagination and create my own little worlds full of my images.

As bonus material I will now show a sneak peek of my latest concept work! It is just a practice image drawn from imagination in my spare time, but I did play around with the pose a lot to get the expression that I was looking for. It has some way to go before it is finished, but you can perhaps see the direction it is going in, and I welcome all tips and critique I can get towards completing it! I live to learn.

Character Background Jorm

 

Name: Jorm. It has no name that can be pronounced by humans, through folklore since the dawn of time this one has been called Jorm.

Gender: None.

Age: Unknown. The beings are mentioned in the earliest accounts of civilization, they are said to have been created by the goods to keep watch over the realms of good and guard them from the dark forces that wishes to take over the world. Some even say that the gods have forgotten them in this realm, and that they now just wander aimlessly in search of their creators.

Physical attributes/ Health/ Handicaps: These beings are very large, reaching heights well above the tree tops and they are also incredibly strong. They are however not very quick to react and seldom make any hasty movements, but once they build up momentum they can move with terrifying speed.
the only known weaknesses that they have are contact with lava and deep depressions that renders them immobile and sometimes falling asleep. Many of the hills and land formations around the world are actually made of these forgotten giants.

Movement: As said before they are slow to react, but can build up incredible momentum given time. They seem to have certain migration patterns, but the motivation behind the patterns are unknown.

Appearance/Hygiene: The appearance of these giants can differ a lot both in size and shape and with that their physical attributes as well. Jorm does not seem very concerned with his appearance, of course he does not abide by the same framework for vanity and attraction as humans. Most of the giants seem to not question the way that they are made, they just “are” in the sense of physical beings.

Favorite food: The giants gather their life force from the earth itself, the core of that force is located at their hearts. As long as the core is active they are able to move their bodies, if the core is dampened by sadness or lack of energy the body will become immobilized and frozen.

Intelligence: Little is known of their intelligence, as no one seems to understand their language. It appears as though they communicate with each other through low rumbling sounds that makes the ground shake. To hear them rumble is however very rare these days, seen as there are so few giants left and they hardly ever cross paths anymore.

Culture: There are only speculations.

Temper: Jorm has a very calm and contemplative personality, He has been known to just sit and watch the passing of the seasons for years just contemplating the beauty of it all. When provoked enough however Jorm has been known to obliterate entire armies of soldiers trying to bring the giant to its knees.

About the game:

Platform: xbox, play station, PC.

Target audience: Achievers, explorers, ages 12 and up.

Direct competition, 3 titles: “Shadow of the Colossus”, “Skyrim” and “Dragon Age”.

Game description: An ancient evil has returned to the world, slowly creeping forth in the shadows. This evil was in the dawn of time defeated by the might of the great giants, but the giants have since then decade to the point of near extinction.

In this game it is up to the main character to find the power to raise the giants once more and restore their will to live and to fight off the evil that threatens the world. The narrative will be partly a classical hero’s journey, and partly a reflection of lost respect for the wonders and magic of nature.

 

I just started a little thing on the side…

I just threw this first sketch together, it introduces an imaginary creature that i have been drawing in different shapes and combinations for years! I have been dying to work with it in photoshop, and now I feel that I have the peace of mind to do it.

 

At this stage of sketching my main concern has been composition and setting, I have used the rule of thirds when placing the main object a little to the right in the image. I then went for sort of a pyramid composition making most of the environment direct the attention towards the main motive, which is the bird combined with the factory setting.

The next step will be to insert value to the background, and with the point of view that I’m using it will go from high contrast, darker value towards a foggy lighter value deeper in to the image. I am also going to apply a one or two point perspective on the buildings in the background.

When it comes to the hue and saturation of the image, I’m going to play around with it! I’m thinking of having it as a cloudy winters night, with the orange light of the city burning in the reflection of the clouds and patches of ice on the ocean that light up as well. In that case I could complement that with deep blue shading and fill light and make it more of a dramatic sunset. It is going to be a process just because that’s the fun part of creation!

I will post updates on the progress of this image as it grows. Thank’s for reading!