Final Piece

Below is my final promo piece show both the antagonist and protagonist in combat.

For this piece I wanted to include lead-in-lines by using the dust cloud leading the viewers eye from the right towards the darker dust cloud up to the antag, through his arm to follow the bullet back through the protag. I believe that using this technique I have given the viewer a clear path to follow in which they will see the whole painting.
I believe that I have shown these two characters well, the viewer gets a good view of them both.

Sketches for Final Piece

Below are some quick sketches for my final promo piece. I decided to focus on the movement and flow rather than detail while sketching. I wanted to have both characters clearly visible, which I found a challenge as well as creating an interesting piece.

Antagonist Posed Character Sheet

Here are some sketches I made for the antag pose sheet.
Overall I had to rush through these so I had time for my final piece, so I'm not happy at all with them but I do believe that the poses and sketches help show to type and movement of this character.

Antagonist Painted Model Sheet

Here is my final painted model sheet. Again like I've done in the protag painted sheet I have made texture samples to show the viewer and to get a better look at the underling textures that are on this character.

Antagonist Visual Interest Design Sheet

Here is my final visual interest design sheet for my antag. Again, the same with the protag I want there to be more light towards the top of the character and slightly darker towards the bottom.

Antagonist Line Art Model Sheet

Here is my final line art model sheet for my antag. I've designed him to be shorted and more stocky than the protag with a quick temper and wider shoulders - his weapon of choice is a pistol.

Antagonist Colour Tests

Here are my colour tests as well as my finished protag to help me compare the colour schemes together. Overall I think the darker colours - bottom row - will look best and my favourite out of the is number 4. I feel like the lighter colours sort of loose the sherif feel whereas the darker colours don't.
My next steps will be to do the final outcomes for my antag and create the line art and visual interest design sheets etc.  

Antagonist Design

Here is a visual design interest pose of my final design for my protagonist. I designed him to be 5'5 and to be a bit more stocky than the protag. Also, because of his height he has a 'short man' or 'Napoleon Complex' and seeing a character new into town, standing at 6'2 trying to change things, he's not too happy about that. 

My next step will be to start creating colour tests on how this character will look and to try and create something that will also look well against the protag.

Taking the Antagonist Silhouettes further

Here is the silhouette that I have chosen. I tried using drapes and lots of cloth the same as the protag but I didn't think it sat well on the character. The designs that I like the most are numbers 3 and 5.
My next step will be to choose a design that I feel works well with the character and start creating visual interest and colour tests.

Antagonist Silhouettes

Here are some of my initial silhouettes I made for the antagonist. I already had a theme in mind to shadow the protag which was a sherif style. However I did allow myself to stray away from that when silhouetting to see what I could come up with.
There are a select few that that I feel have a strong stance and potential for strong design. My next step is to do that same that I've done with my protag and take the selected silhouette and design from the inside out.

Protagonist Posed Character Sheet

Below are some sketches for my posed character sheet as well as my final posed character sheet.
While sketching I thought about how this character would move in-game and because I designed him to be tall, lanky and fast I thought I would push the pose while he was running. As well as the shooting pose I thought how this character would stand while firing. Either a standing or kneeling pose would work in game but I thought because I have the painted character sheet of him standing I thought a kneeling one would show more variety.

Protagonist Painted Model Sheet

Here is my final painted model sheet showing the character from the front, side and back as well as
showing some texture samples and a close up of his weapon.
I decided to create the texture samples because the actual textures are not meant to be very heavy or standing out in this design, more implied like the work of Ashley Wood. Therefore I created these texture samples for the viewer to get a better look at the underlining textures that are on this character.

Protagonist Visual Interest Design Sheet

Here is my final visual interest design sheet. Using greyscale - nothing absolute black or white - to show where the lightest and darkest parts of the character are. As I've said again, in previous blog posts the lightest part of the character will be towards the top much like how they teach in the DOTA 2 visual style guide.

Protagonist Line Art Model Sheet

Here is my final line art model sheet for my protagonist. This character has pushed proportions in the legs and arms, having them stretched. His height is 6'2 making him a fast and nimble character. Ammo is kept on the belt and he carries a double barrel shot gun.

Protag Colour Tests

Below are some colour tests that I've made for my protag. I just wanted to focus on the colour scheme right now and will add in the textures when I have my colour final design for character.

I wanted there to be lighter colours towards the top of the character as I've discussed in later blog posts, taking inspiration from the DOTA 2 visual style guide on having more saturated colours towards the top of the character. I shared this image on my Twitter account and I got some really good feedback on numbers 3, 4 and 5. Number 4 got the most attention so I decided to go with this colour scheme for my protag as I find it very fitting for the 'good guy' role as well as the good feedback I got.
 

Protagonist Design

Here is a visual design interest pose from just the front of my character. I'm planning on doing some colour tests before I start creating the final turnaround sheets etc.
I wanted to keep the lightest parts of the character towards the top, gaining more interest and attention from the viewer but keeping the design simplistic as to not to distract the player from the game itself.
Next I will work on creating various colour palettes and themes for this character and see which one works the best.

Presentation

I've decided to blog my presentation that we had to do for class, I choose to talk about the animation studio Pixar. 

Originally Pixar started out as a division of Lucas Film in 1979, was then bought by Steve Jobs in 1986 and renamed it Pixar. Then finally bought by Disney in 2006. 

working as an artist within Pixar, they create hundreds and hundreds of drawings within the first two years of preproduction of a film. For character design, the artists are given script pages that give a description on a character and the artist will create a variety of sketches. A fun fact is that for the character Roz from Monsters Inc, only took one sketch, the artist thought of one perfect design for her and the director loved it. 

Pixar also love to do their research for their films and often take their art department on trips so they can get a better visual on certain aspects that will be in the film. For example going to Scotland to sketch landscapes for Brave. Another fun fact is that when creating the film Finding Nemo, they originally wanted to take their art team inside a dead whale - it never actually happened, I think because they couldn't find a dead whale and at how uncomfortable the artists would be. 

I personally want to work in film as a Visual Development Artist and what attracted my to Pixar is there innovation with 3D film making. I couldn't find any specific information on artists jobs in their website but found some points on Visual Development Artist jobs in other companies such as:

"Show a portfolio that demonstrates a wide range of experience and technique with strong sense of composition, design, colour theory and story telling." 

Within university I've started to choose my modules to what will help me create a better understanding in visual development and also help me to create a stronger portfolio. Pixar isn't my main goal either, I'm pretty much open and I'm also open to moving to different countries.