RESEARCH

Here you can see my Primary and Secondary research resources complete with Harvard Referencing and my statement of intent.

Character Design

Secondary Research

Creative Character Design – https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=m4c6-P4tmj8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

This book is the first one I came across and is defiantly the most impactful. I started reading into this book mainly for the ideology behind creative character design and how his philosophy works. I was very impressed on how he changed my perception on creating character. The main idea which stuck in my head was that how you cannot simply have a set character in your mind and expect to make that in its entirety, you need to change your character’s design based on their background how they’re changing as they develop. Basically, it taught me to change the character as I develop them to have the best outcome.

ZBrush Character Sculpting – https://shop.3dtotal.com/zbrush-character-sculpting-volume-1.html

I needed to improve my skills in ZBrush and I came across this book which was full of important information and tutorials to help anyone learn the software quickly. The workflows and methods that they explain and show are amazing will benefit me when I am creating my own character. The tutorial on the hippo/monster hybrid was extremely helpful because it taught how to properly navigate sub divisions in ZBrush and how to use Dynamesh whilst maintaining a good number of polygons.

Character Design from the Ground Up – https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Character_Design_from_the_Ground_Up.html?id=Pw0FCAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

This book focuses mainly on the actual creation of the character as opposed the ideology behind. It was clear form the introduction that this book would try to teach me skills in the art world instead what I’m trying to learn. I continued to read in case I found anything useful, but all that was stated id what I’ve previously learned from my fist source. It was still a nice reminder but I’m not focusing on the arts side of character design so this book is going to be used to remind of the basics of character design.

ZBrush Character Creation – https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/ZBrush_Character_Creation.html?id=m5k8uaVEkuAC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

It was clear from the first chapter that this book will be revolve heavily around the idea that reference images should be used whenever possible. It’s an area which I’m slacking in so reading the start of this book motivated me to find reference images for when I make my character. This book is text heavy, but as stated it is for beginners so it must explain the entire character creation ideology to people. This book will be beneficial to me because it can teach me a lot about the research workflow for a practical piece of work.

ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy – https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/ZBrush_Digital_Sculpting_Human_Anatomy.html?id=nBTJev9ummgC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

This book is the most text heavy I’ve come across, but it also the most advanced in terms of what it teaches. It goes into depth about the anatomy behind a human figure and emphasises the important of gesture and pose to start of your character. I won’t be following the tutorials in this book but more so of the entire concept of researching your character and how the book teaches us anatomy of humans which is like devilish creatures.

Primary Research

DOOM – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7UqE8F4U88

I am using this video to get a better idea of the different ideas and designs of devilish creatures in games. The way they are designed makes some of them seem like normal mutilated demons whereas others are tall and mighty demons which tower in size and have a menacing stance to them. The Baron of Hell caught my attention because he looks like some of the other demons I am researching so I will have reference image of him.

Agony – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL3ZS6TFyK0

This game has all the visual references I could possibly want, the game is centred around hell which is full of demons, which is what I’m trying to create. The demons are deformed and blended with human anatomy which is perfect because my research has included them both so far. I will be coming back to this video for my ideas and references in the future.

Killing Floor 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ7rv4Prl6w

I chose this game because it gave me inside to low poly characters, specifically demons. Now they may not seem low poly but compared to other games and sources that I’ve researched, this is the game with least number of polys. It shows a variety of characters and designs and even showcases that the designs have re used and altered so that you can get many different variations from one concept.

Demon’s Souls – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnLLDEOEqZo

Now I’m not focusing on the entire game but just one boss called the Dragon God. The design and facial features behind the character are super beneficial to my research and it gives me a lot of inspiration from the overlook of the character to the colour scheme of the design. I’ll defiantly be coming back to this one.

Nioh – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWSDL5-mbgM

So, for this game I am going to be focusing once again on the character design because they all have unique twist on them. They are certainly demons but adapted to a ninja style which is very interesting and did grab my attention. The monster Onryoki has a facial feature which is reminiscent to some of the designs I have been considering so far. This game is full of references for my project.

Statement of Intent

For this project, I plan to sculpt a character in ZBrush using some of the software’s pre-sets.  The reason why I am doing this is because I want to explore the ZBrush in more depth and want to push the boundaries of my skillset. I want to use my research to expand my knowledge and to also learn some new workflows which I previously hadn’t thought of. One of my book sources states that character design should be a continuous journey, this is the main thing my research has taught me. I will be using my primary research to research the actual designs of my future character, you can a lot of inspiration from existing video games. My research will aid me in creating and getting inspiration for my final character. Given the time limits, I will try to add as much as I can to this character to make it shippable, I’m planning on using it for another project so that is what I mean by shippable. If my deadline permits it, I will make a low poly version in 3ds max and texture it.

Presentation

I have also made a short prezi outlining what I am deign for my project:

http://prezi.com/7kmg1vi-j1sm/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Time Management

I have created a time chart which I intend to and if I stay on top of it, I’ll finish the work in a timely fashion