CONCEPT ART STUDY
I studied how many professional games artists produce their concept art and compiled several images that I aspired to achieve the effect of. I admired the way that FromSoftware compiles their character sheets, with focuses on aspects that had great detail or would be major within the character design such as a crown or an emblem or symbol on a character’s cape. Namely, I looked into Pontiff Sulyvahn from Dark Souls 3, who I thought had a very focused concept due to it being centred on emphasising his threatening form in the second phase of his boss fight. I also picked a concept from Bloodborne of an NPC character, Djura as, and one of an Old Hunter enemy from the Old Hunter DLC of the game, along with enemy NPCs from Dark Souls: Kirk and Lautrec. And also within their concept arts, I observed that many of the boss or enemy characters would be in important, appropriate poses or something that suggested movement rather than a completely static, idle pose. I also picked several concepts from TEKKEN 8 as I liked how concisely the rough concepts for the character Leroy Smith were compiled- they were rough, but conveyed enough information and experimentation with colour and form that it was clear to tell what the character is and does whilst playing around with many ways to explore the character. I also liked the way that they compiled the more developed concept sheets for their characters King and Yoshimitsu, as they showed many close ups of details that had to be brought attention to such as masks or patterns and emblems. I also like the way which King’s pose says a lot about his character, much like the FromSoftware concept arts. I looked into the concept work for Devil May Cry 5 as I liked how they showed progress for the character Dante’s conceptualisation along with placing it near the final render for the idea, as it shows the thought process through making him. Finally, I looked into the design works of several characters from Arknights. I looked into the character Hellagur’s concept sheet as I liked how it showed the multiple thumbnails for the colour tests which also once again show the thought process in composing his design, as well as this, like for the TEKKEN works, it closed up on the important details that would be important in his design, such as his weapon, the hilt a gas mask and more, the reason most likely being that these characters would be rendered in 2D fully, and the artist would have to see everything in complete detail much like in the concept works for characters before they would get transferred to 3D. I the looked at the characters Silverash and Executor’s design, which showed the design in layers which added context to the functionality and logic behind the clothing, such as how a series of straps on Executor’s design would connect to the edge of his cloak, or showing how the the straps under Silverash’s waistcoat appeared. The logic and thought behind these designs was something I also wished to reflect in my work.
2D RENDER STUDY
Keeping in mind that I wanted to do full body 2D renders as well for my main character and potential other characters, Using the inspirations I looked to for one of test renders for summer, I built upon this foundation, developing my idea for a 2D render and finding other references to look to when thinking of the overall style I wanted to go for. At the start, I was completely set on what type of style I wanted to achieve for my 2D renders, which was the rendering style I observed in FromSoftware concepts. To prevent this immediate decisiveness, I decided to compile 2D renders that I liked the style all from games that did not have a similar rendering style to the FromSoftware concepts. Through this process, I kept my horizons broad for aesthetic and style, and allowed myself to not be strict with what I wanted.
I looked into renders from various games, such as the artwork used within TEKKEN 8’s panels, along with character art from Soulcalibur and NieR, and also various character sprites from Reverse:1999, FGO and many from Arknights, as I deeply admired the way that the characters were rendered. I thought about leaning towards this (Arknights’) style of rendering, and thus, analysed a few of the designs that I thought would be very useful to look at.
I looked closely into an NPC, Wang’s, official render, as he visually had a lot of cloth, which I knew that most of my characters would at least have some element of. I looked at how values were used in order to in order to bring attention to certain things, bringing our eyes to his quite ‘shabby’ clothing, suggesting he is not someone of noble or wealthy status. The way accent colours affect the mood of this character is also quite crucial- the use of brown or washed out bronze colours show the ripped clothing much better, and the use of textures on his clothing bring more of that worn-out, tattered feel that emphasises Wang’s disposition. The way his tail is in more faded out values also suggests it is not the main focus either, whilst remaining clear.
Another character I decided to look into deeper, since I had already looked to him multiple times for reference and within my mood boards, was a boss and NPC, The Last Knight. I liked his unique armour shape, as well as the way his armour was rendered with various textures to suggest rusting or wear and tear, as he mainly fights in water. I thought this would be useful when approaching my designs as it is also quite water-oriented. The composition was in the armour was also well thought out and suggested a lightweight mobility that didn’t feel too clunky despite him wearing mostly metal.
The last character I dove into the full official render for was another boss character, Zubayr. I wanted to dissect this mostly because despite being mostly in gold, it brought effective attention to the places which viewers were supposed to be drawn to such as the head. I saw this was through an effective use of value and lighting, as well as colour composition and design complexity. The bottom half of the design is not nearly as detailed as the top half of the design, as the top half of the design is where the main focus is. The highlights and brightness of the gold immediately tell me that this character is someone of royal or high status. I was also very fond of the way the metal was rendered on this character, as well as the use of textured shine effects, giving the effect of something that shimmers. There are also many features that frame Zubayr’s head which make it stand out.
3D RENDER STUDY
As compiling various images to aid the visualisation of my 2D concept, I decided to do the same practice for the 3D side of my Final Major Project. I knew I wanted to go for a high quality model, so I kept my moodboard within that level of work. Once again, I looked to Tekken as they have a high level of polish for the renders, due to being used for promotional material, although I had to keep in mind many of the high quality renders that I observed such as the ones for Tekken 8 (2024) and Devil May Cry 5 (2019) are most likely not fully optimised for gameplay, and have higher polygon counts that are purely for visual/display purposes. I also looked at how some higher end figurines are constructed, and a lot of detail is also put into it for printing, with textures even being embedded into the print. Once again, this is not optimised for gameplay, as intricate sculpted patterns would be embedded into the textures via baking, displacements maps and more. Looking into TEKKEN character, Yoshimitsu’s render, I saw the sheer amount of detail put into it, along with Vergil’s official render from Devil May Cry 5.
When looking into armoured characters when present in the game as a fully rigged model, it is clear to see that a lot of the details are not embedded into the mesh, but within the texture, and made to show depth through various techniques mentioned before. Along with this, the polygon count is obviously more optimised, as it is essential for a rigged character for efficiency. Since I knew I wanted to rig my character, I kept in mind that I would have to polish these practices in order for it to meet the standard that I wanted. For this, I looked into Elden Ring and the Demon’s Souls Remake’s models, as whilst both meeting high standards within the gaming industry, both follow different looks, whilst Elden Ring settles on a realistic yet slightly stylised fantasy style whilst still remaining realistic in a unique way, the Demon’s Souls Remake goes down the route of complete hyperrealism. And they both look incredibly high standard nonetheless. As I would be using Substance Painter, I thought going down the route of Demon’s Souls appearance would be much more achievable, as it was quite hard to tell how to achieve the slightly matte appearance of Elden Ring.
MODEL BASE CREATION
Using various references, and my previously learnt skills in Zbrush, I decided to make the base for the model of the Tidal Soldier, keeping in mind that I did not want to give him a build that was too bulky or muscular as I did not intend for him to be too imposing.
I struggled initially to get into the flow of sculpting again, but reach a satisfactory result, holding off on fully making the hands until when I was in the production stage.