Models - old man

Photos of the old man model bust as promised. Here is my final design for him, upto his chest:

Models - boy and jars

More images of the boy in his jar, this time among other jars. Could this count as my image of a character in an environment? Probably not... but I could draw this scene...

Models - boy

I took some more photos of the little boy model in his jar:

Empty shop reference

Saw a lovely empty shop on my way home from college and took some quick photos. I was particularly interested in what you could (or couldn't) see through the windows. The interior just fades into darkness... The reflections from the other shops on my side of the road were quite strong, but you can still get a feel of the emptiness.


I also liked the door a lot, and the lose tiles below the windows.

Views

I have finished an orthographic view from top down, and an Isometric view of the shop. I have also started to create separate documents for the real world images and the sweet land images, each with an accompanying style guide. Here is a screenshot form the real world document:



I think planning the documents as I create the images is helpful as I will see if I have anything missing, and helps me prepare for hand-in in good time.

Update - 2nd week

I am realising how long planning an environment takes. I need to make my final images of the real world environment (with my character in) by the end of this week so that I can work on the six sweet land levels to get them all finished in time. These will take a lot of researching into British culture and nostalgia to achieve the 'embedded scenes' described in my game document. I have already started finding books relevant to this in the library and will make a post about this later.

For now, I need to draw my isometric view of the street and shop and its interior having finalised my layout for it. This I will colour in subdued atmospheric conditions, to represent the shop in its dying/empty stage at the start of the game. I will colour a second version of the shop in its lively sweet land stage at the end of the game.

I also need to add in the old man character. I have finalised my design for him in plasticine (pictures to follow soon, I will make a separate post) as I found it easier to build a model first and then draw from this. He will appear in one or more of the final shop images.

After this I will move onto the sweet land levels, by the end of this week at the latest.

Street perspective practice

Today I re-watched the animated film Bellville Rendezvous, Sylvain Chomet, 2003 again, this time taking particular note of the urban environments and elderly character. I researched Sylvain Chomet, creator and director, last term - but only briefly. He is a huge inspiration to this project's aesthetic. Here are some screen shots from the film that are of particular interest:

I have many more that I will refer back to when relevant.


This is a practice sketch for the street focusing on perspective and use of line. I turned off the size adjusting ability of my tablet so that the line thickness remained even throughout. I liked the outcome and will probably use this for my final images.

Models - reference

I wanted to make a model of the shop because I think in doing so it would not only help me finalise an idea and make drawing a lot less confusing, but help communicate my design fully to all audiences. I used to be a keen model builder, paper and cardboard being the material of choice when I was younger, and yesterday I looked in the library for books on papercaft and also dolls houses. Dolls houses and miniature interiors are a secret passion of mine that I rarely draw upon for inspiration when concerning college work, but I feel it appropriate this time. When thinking about my 'real world' game environment, the shop, I really believe that it can be enhanced if I think about it as a small set or stage where the story happens.

The books I found in the library were predominantly useful because of the fact they made me realise the above, not because of their content in particular. Regardless, while it is still relevant, the books I found were:
3 Dimentional Illustration, Ellen Rixford, Watson-guptill publications/New York 1992

Dolls and Doll Houses, Hamlyn, Middlesex England, 1977

Recently I have taken inspiration from David Petersen's Blog[1], creator and author of graphic novel Mouse Guard[2], who makes models of his architectural locations to help him draw them in his series of books. I was only introduced to this artist very recently, a week or so ago, and although he has inspired me more, Petersen did not spark my initial decision to make a model for my project. I do think looking at his work more will be extremely helpful though, and here are a few examples:






Here is what Petersen says at one point on his blog about his work:
"Like many artists, I find it easier to draw something, if I have a visual reference for it. Even if you have imagined a wonderful setting or room or style of architecture, it can often be complicated to imagine that same image from a different perspective or under different lighting."


[1] http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/, Jan 2010
[2] http://www.mouseguard.net/, Jan 2010

Shop interior

The shop is very important, and until now I have avoided planning the shop layout and interior except for my preliminary animatic:


After seeing the inside of the bear shop in Norwich and drawing some birds eye view sketches, I made this paper model to work out how I am going to draw an isometric view of the shop.

Shop front reference 2

I went to the college library and found several books on shop fronts and architecture. Here are some images from:

English Shop Fronts, David Dean, London, Alec Tiranti 1970



These are extremely relevant, and I struggled to find anything as detailed online. But in terms of direct reference and inspiration these shop fronts are far too elaborate for the humble, neglected and mysterious look I am aiming for.

London: the art of Georgian building, Dan Cruickshank and Peter Wyld, the architectural press ltd, London 1975


The majority of this book was useless to me, but these two images appeared near the end as examples of Georgian architecture in London in the 40s. These images show exactly the kind of street I want to create, and I wish I had some reference I could visit without travelling far.

I went back to the bear shop and drew several images of the front:

Shop front reference

I have been collecting images of traditional looking shop fronts since last summer, and visiting some around East Anglia. By traditional I mean late Victorian/Georgian, or associated with stereotype sweet shop themes. Here are some of the best examples of shop exteriors:

[1]

The last image here is of a shop in Norwich. It would be great if I could base the shop on somewhere local that I can study. Tomorrow I will draw this shop and go inside to see the layout for myself.


[1] Flickr.com

Street reference

The old sweet shop is where the game is set, on a street somewhere in urban wartime Britian. I have started sketching terrace buildings around Norwich city for inspiration on how the old sweet shop will look, and tomorrow I plan to take photos. For now I am looking for photos online as reference for the street.

[1]

[1] Flickr.com

The half way point

This is my half way point, and probably yours too, but for some of you this is your introduction. I have been working on a digital game concept for my university course since September and I have completed a full game document, preliminary research document, and made a pitch of my idea. This blog is a place to continue my research and keep a record of my work including thoughts and experiments as I produce finished concept pieces this term.

As of now there are only a few pieces of concept art to give an idea of the visuals of this game. But here is the most frequently referred to so that anyone new has some idea of the style I am aiming for with the animation at least.