Character - 1800s America

My task for the third project is to create a character from 1800s America. For the duration this project I will apply the skills I've been learning through previous two. I have spent plenty of time researching and sourcing the era. After much investigation I have decided that I will base my character on Mackinac Island during the battles of 1812 and 1814. I plan to create 3 types of character during silhouettes in order to help me chose; British soldier; Native American; Colonial American. Once dicided I will do further iteration of my decided character. Mackinac Island (1812 &1814) will serve as my environment.

Final Timepiece Design

Model Sheet

Shinto Tales

I have chosen to use Japanese symbols for my numbers because of an ancient Shinto story of theirs about the sun goddess.

Amaterasu (or Amateras-Ohmikami) the Japanese sun goddess was born from the left eye of the primeval being Izanagi, making her his daughter. Izanagi was the ruler of the heavenly plains. In one the stories Amaterasu is driven to hide in a cave, this was until the god Uzume managed lured her out. As she exited the cave a beam of light, or the dawn, escaped.

As a consequence of reading this story not only will I use Japanese symbols but also add a few extra details to the lore of this alternate world:

- The star around which we orbit is called "Amateras" - after the sun goddess

- The device around it is called "Uzume" - it draws out the sun

- Our planet is known as "Susa" - because of its chaotic nature

- We often refer to ourselves as the children of Ama(terasu) and Susa

- The moon is "Sakaki" - after the Sakaki tree which hung the mirror Ama saw herslf in. The moon being the greatest mirror of the sun there is.

- Outer space is refered to as the (heavenly) plains

- The ancient ones who constructed the Sunsphere (now known as Uzume) are known as Izanagi's Aprentices.

This is a link to the Shinto tale I read:

http://www.lyricalworks.com/stories/amaterasu/amaterasu.htm

Numerous Numerals

I have made a list of 7 ways in which the numbers 1-12 are written across the world and throughout history. I did also look at the ancient Egyptian way of alphabetically counting to twelve but deemed that the images used were too complex. I don't like the Egyptian way I have on here either due to the fact that all those lines could be easily misread. My favourite at the moment is the ancient Greek alphabetic. However I want there to be meaning behind the symbols I chose so I will do further study before I make a decision.

More Work Ahead

I've done some base drawing taking a closer look at the rings of the Sunsphere and how the projection holes will be arranged around them. At this moment there are Roman numerals around them, but I can't help feeling that they're a little boring and obvious so I plan to do some further investigation into various numerals with better aesthetics or story value.

Context and Future

I've made a quick environment mock up so that I can see it in context. The things to focus on next are adding further detail and figuring out what it is exactly I want the Sunsphere to project. It has to be something that can be universally understood or learned with region specific time, this is due to the fact that this is supposed to be a globally unifying time device.

SunSphere

I've done further work to the look of star-powered time telling device. I have also given it the working title of 'Sunsphere'.

Time Projected

Moving forward with my star powered timepiece I decided to scrap the lava-lamp-emulating liquid within the orb in favour for a gasious element that changed colour over time but repeating a cycle. After struggling to ground this idea in any believable narrative I changed my idea once again so that the rings around the star were what told the time by projecting it on to the moon. This is done by the gas now around the sun reflecting and refracting the light of the sun until it is bounced through one the various holes pointing towards the moon. The rings around the star would be constantly rotating and orbiting around the sun so that the appropriate hole for the correct time would dircted toward the moon at all times.

Filtering Ideas

I had an idea of a device so grand in scale that, not only did the Earth, but even the Sun revolved around it. And the civilisations of this alternate Earth will have learned to interpret the shapes of the liquid within it into the time. At the same time I was contemplating a pocket-sized device that contained (or Orb) a hyper-sensitive liquid that responded to the position of the moon - similar to the tides. Though I decided that I wanted to stick with an outer space device; I had go at finding a comprasize between the two. Now the grand outer space device was the orb, but instead of containing this liquid it contained a star with liquids systematical changing and casting a shadows and shapes that can be interpreted into an accurate measurement of the time.

Timepiece Inspiration

I thought a lot about various existing timepieces; from pocket watches to sundails. I also have become very interested in a outer space and/or sci-fi themed device. This has led me to looking at lava lamps and the behaviours of liquids; thermometers and how mercury expands with raising temperatures. In this moment I have become enamoured with the idea a great construction suspended in outer space that allows everyone for lightyears around to be unified in the knowledge of when they are in the galaxy. (When I think of this timepiece construction "The Citadel" from the mass effect series comes to mind)

Timepiece Silhouettes

In my silhouettes I am keeping in mind hourglasses, grandfather clocks, as well as exploring futuristic ideas that would look aesthetically like lava lamps. As I moved through my designs I began thinking of clocks that you would see on a mantle piece.

Insect Finish

I have now finished my final design for my "appropriated craceatic dragonfly corpse" (couldn't resist) and placed it within the environments I created.

Environment & Colours

I've done a couple of environment to help frame and contextualise my designs. The first of which is a canyon with a large river at the bottom and forest at the edges. My second environment is thick jungle that would have been a very common environment of the cretaceous period. In the jungle environment I made sure to add plenty of steam and mist to emphasise the heat and well oxygenated era. And though the canyon has great potential I chose to use the jungle as I believe it's truer to the creatures that I have created. Bright colours on bugs and animals alike are usually a sign of danger, eg poisonous. However they can also be used to attract, whether it is for insidious purposes or not. I think I prefer the idea of using colour to resemble danger and to this end my insect will made up of pleasant or vibrant colours. Plus I enjoys the contrast bright beast will bring to the field of battle.

Final Stage Begins

During my time on the first project of the course I did a variety of silhouettes, experiments and even some lore creation and decided that I would focus on design a mounted, re-animated dragonfly. So I started the process of realising my final design of said dragonfly.

Upload Troubles

I am currently having trouble uploading pictures to this blog site.

Sources and Detail

I collected a variety of source images, as well as taking a few of my own, in order to inform further iteration of my silhouettes. The iterations allowed me to discover new ways to view the dragonfly.
After this I decided what I wanted my final design to look like and began working on that.

Finding Inspiration

I had an idea to help drive my work forward, creating the lore and game world in which my insect will exist.
The first draft of the lore behind my game is that it takes place on a densely forested planet with an environment similar to the cretaceous period. In this environment insects have grown huge and dominate the majority of the terrain. However, humanoid creatures also exist in this world and live in a small singular colony. Population growth and living resources have become an epic problem throughout the colony and the humanoids have no other choice but to move into new grounds to ensure their survival. In doing so they begin to enrage the dominant insect population, they are moving on their territory. War between insectoid and humanoid erupts and losses grow on each side but the humanoids losses are too great and defeat and near extinction seems inevitable. That is until the humanoids begin to utilise the still in tact carcasses of their fallen enemies. Due to the fact that insects don't have brains reanimating the carcasses for personal use becomes a simple case of stimulating their nervous systems. Now the tide is turning for the human forces as they have the advantage of disguise, to a certain degree, and an equity of fire power.

Starting Silhouettes

At the beginning of my silhouette work I primarily focused on creating a variety of insect-looking silhouettes. I did my best to keep my silhouettes as earth bound as I could so that they are still recognisable as insects. However I may explore only keeping a minimal amount of insectoid features in future. This is in order to test how far I can move from the familiar while maintaining a distinctive insect look.

Brief on Project One

Put simply my task for the first period is to come up with an idea for an insect. The skills that will focused on during this project will be concept art, the ability to come up with a variety of ideas for; a brief; research and source the subject; further iteration of your ideas; digitally paint it in multiple ways; create a model sheet; create a character sheet; as well as creating an environment suited to said character.

The Course to Come

I have learned that Games Art & Design encourages the following things:

- Independent Learning - we were advised that when working on a project we should allow ourselves a buffer period so that we don't run out of time. As well as allowing time for more creative exploration.

- Hard and Rewarding - though the hours may be long and the work tiring the more we work at it the more likely success becomes.

- Place to make mistakes - to clarify, what I mean by this is that in order to cover ground and explore medium one shouldn't be afraid to make mistakes.

- Independent time management - decided to get a visual calendar to help track my work load.

Making the Move to Digital

One of the first steps involved in my course, though seemingly benign, proved to be surprisingly jarring due to the fact that I have become so accustomed to interacting physically with many aspects of my work. After years of education during which I kept written diaries I find making the move to an online blog strange. However, I aim to get accustomed to this as well as all other digital aspects of my course.