Game Character Designs

[dorian]

I got my first character design job! :teeth:
I guess it's concept art as well, maybe it's called character illustration, character development..? I'm not very familiar with the vocabulary I guess..

Anyway: I get to do around 50 characters, handdrawn and digitally painted. For some I have somewhat precise descriptions, others are left to me, which is really really cool I think!! 8)

Can't tell you too many details about the game yet since it's being developed right now, but the working title is "Hired Guns". (Since Jagged Alliance 3D is now called Jazz: Hired Guns [link (http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=74810)] it's now definitely only the working title.. :dad:
It's a war game with 3 parties. Naturalists, Technocrats and Pirates. all parties have 3 anonymous standard characters, the rest are enemies and mercenaries. All of these should be a ton of fun to draw & paint :D

And it'll be excellent practice, since I've never drawn weapons, mechs, soldiers, black chicks with rocketlaunchers, chinese guys with flamethrowers, etc..
I get paid, it's going to be an experience, I get work for my portfolio, I hopefully get my name out there via credits on the game website, I'll encounter new problems and will have to find ways to solve them, learn more about drawing stuff and drawing from imagination, work under a deadline and: I'll just have so much fun!!

There's not much time besides school (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60494), so I'm going to quit my "studio monitor" (cleaning guy, copy maker, lightbulb exchanger, toilet plunger, ...) job next week.. ;)


All feedback is greatly appreciated!
What are my weak points?
Post everything that comes to your mind!
I need the help :S


images
:down::down::down:


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[dorian]

Here we go:

Naturalists
Soldier

The Naturalists' base color is green. I tried to keep the shapes organic overall, and save the more high tech stuff for the Technocrats.

[Kan Muftić]

Nice. Have some more? Whole figure stuff, orthos, etc...

[dorian]

Naturalists
Trooper

More powerful than the standard soldier. I tried to keep the organic shapes and make the tubes a "naturalist trademark".
I realized that the eyes look like splinter cell - even the color... - too late. Do you think this is bearable? Do you guys think "RIPOFF!! Start over, sucker!" or "Well, I can see where you got your inspiration on this one, son.. ;) Try to find something new on the next one!" ?
As you can see, I had to change his arm, which I did digitally.

Oh, btw. I paint in OpenCanvas and do the masking, compositing stuff and polishing effects in photoshop.

[dorian]

Chupacabra: Thanks! No orthos needed, these are pretty much the final images used in the game. They'll stay static 2D. I do a full figure in some sketches from time to time to see how the character feels with a lower body. I guess I'll do orthos and full "figures" for the mechs, to help me solve perspective and design problems.


Technocrats
Soldier

I figured these guys should be more angular, sharp, technical. Their base color is blue.
Does this look too anime to you guys?
I'm not really happy with the light under his chest, does anyone have tips on how I could get this to look better?

[Pavel Sokov]

I personally can handle letting the splinter cell influence go, since the rest of the ideas have nothing to do with it, but in the next drawing i am hit with a half life 2 elite combine looking helmet.
http://hl2.gamona.de/images/screenshots/combine-assasine.jpg

i think the helmet makes one think too much of the elite combine of half life 2.

[dorian]

man you're right.. :\
I've been playing hl2, but didn't look closely at the combine designs. Basically it's just the "eye" in the center, I'll see if I can do something else. Also depends on what the client thinks. (he approved these here)
thanks!

edit: hmm actually it's also the color and.. the groin pad :D

[davekang]

I'm very excited that you have this first break through opportunity, Dorian.
From everything you've said, it seems clear to me that you are not terribly
familiar with the world of concept arts and yet you've landed yourself a perfect place to start. Good for you-!
Well, there are people like me who are still waiting!

Can't wait to see your Pirates!

[dorian]

davekang: I'm very thankful for the opportunity, indeed. It will - and already started - to teach me a lot!
Don't just wait, go out, send your portfolio to companies you want to work for, keep practicing hard!! Just in case you don't do all this already anyway ;]
Oh and.. those pirates give me a real hard time! Anonymous pirates... How does one design a pirate soldier uniform..!? A pirate scientist..! :O


Technocrats
Soldier Revisited

To take away from the similarities to the combine elite unit, I made a couple changes. "Speaker" on his chest for amplifying commands/announcments/orders, and an altered helmet design, including a periscope-style viewing device.
also increased overall contrast of lineart (it's on a multiply-layer) and colors.
Still not satisfied with that chest light, but can't figure out how to make it look better :\

[MEMPER]

the colors are nice in these. though the anatomy in the first two are a bit off. take another look at the first guy. his neck seems to be pushed too far back toward the background, and his shoulders are set too narrow into the torso. With the length of his trapezeius he should have wider and bigger shoulders.
The second green guy(I like his concept) just has a much too massive chest.
These are all together pretty cool. Keep up the good work.

[Coinpurse]

true dat.
pay close attention to anatomy, make studying it your best friend :}
you have alot potential, but you need to keep at it with your life studies.
This will help you break away from the stiffness you see in your characters.

keep at it!
~BOOM!

[dorian]

MEMPER & BOOM!: thanks, good points! Won't be able to fix these, I have to move on .. (deadline and not much time to work on this stuff since I'm in school all day) But I'll definitely pay close attention to that on the next ones!

As far as life drawing goes, I do spend time there :)

http://www.stylestation.ch/discussion/uploads/post-1-1169837788.jpg


More to come, working on pirate sketches and the technocrat trooper!

[John]

Awesome Dorian.
Congrats on the job!

[dorian]

John: thank you!²

Technocrats
Trooper

Angular shapes, very technical. hmm.
he looks silly... :dad:

[dorian]

Pirates
Trooper

here we go! Bastarrrrrd... took me way too long..
What you think?!

[dorian]

Pirates
Soldier

Find the magic poison :]

[dorian]

NPC Opponents
Plotted

nuclear radiation victims / zombie guys ;]

[davekang]

You've been busy, Dorian!
I find your Pirates trooper and soldier concepts rather original.
Sure you could add some popular features that will make them look "cooler" but that won't be much different from everybody else's I think.
I sincerely belive that you are on the great track for this project,
now it just the matter of how polished your final presentations are going to be.

Oh! and two bloody fantastic thumbs up for your figure drawing!!

[dorian]

davekang: thanks man! I get ambivalent feedback for the pirates, some think they're the most interesting, others think they're the weakest.. :]
If there's any time I'd like to play up the ragged/torn up character of pirates a bit more. maybe add an arm band or more dirt/damage in clothing and armor etc.
thanks for having some faith in all this.. :) When I finish one I think "This looks allright? Cool!" then I go through some threads here and just want to go straight back to my silly scribbles and WORK MORE on them... no time.
Still very happy I can do this, though! So much fun :]

oook, here's more!


Naturalists
Scientist

He's performing some chemical/biological experiment, the client/partner had the (good) idea of including the hose/pipe thing here to make the connection to the soldier & trooper more obvious.
I sort of had to add it "on top" an it shows :\
He also has additional gene manipulated eyes that add some extra senses

[dorian]

Technocrats
Scientist

He's more like a mechanic, showing off a secret new technical miracle...