Four Chosen Character Concepts

I've made the decision about the four characters that I'll be working on for this project. The following four characters that I've chose are:

1. Hybrid Creature Character.

2. Robot Character.

3. Superhero Character.

4. Monster Warlord Character.

I now need to work on the detailed drawings for each character in my sketchbook #2 before I can work on the color and texture trials in either my sketchbook or in Photoshop.

Progress so far for Schedule and 3D work/Online Log 8

I'm still currently working on choosing the four characters out of the eight designs from my sketchbook #2, and try to work on the color and textures for each one.
For 3D, I have managed to try out both ZBrush and Mudbox with my graphics tablet with the sensetive pen, which was very useful to draw onto the high poly model.

Mudbox Head Model Test

ZBrush Head Model Test

I'm also thinking about re-scheduling my coursework at home from today's task until the first deadline for the Concept Development module.

29/12/10 - Choose four character concepts, and work on detailed drawings for each one in sketchbook #2.

30/12/10 - Continue with detailed drawings on chosen characters in sketchbook #2.

31/12/10 - New Year's Eve Party with Family.

01/01/11 - New Year's Day with Family at home.

03/01/11 - Update Proposal and Pre Production Document, and also fill in the ethnics form before showing it to Academic Supervisor.

04/01/11 - Color and texture work on four characters in Photoshop.

05/01/11 - Finish off any sketchbook work for character concepts and visual research.

06/01/11 - Submit coursework for Concept Development Module (Deadline).

Online Log 7

I'll continue with the coursework by finishing off my visual research in sketchbook #1, and also work on experimenting with ZBrush and Mudbox by creating a basic mesh based on one of my character concepts from sketchbook #2 to see which sculpting methods work for me on this project.

27/12/10 - Work on suitable design brief for the project, and play around with ZBrush/Mudbox using a graphics tablet.

28/12/10 - Apply the rest of visual research to sketchbook #1.

29/12/10 - Create a basic mesh from one of the character concepts, and experiment the sculpting tools in Mudbox and ZBrush to create a high poly mesh on the character.

30/12/10 - Choose 4 characters from the 8 concepts, and work on each of the character's colors with either colour pencils in sketchbook or in Photoshop.

31/12/10 - New Year's Eve party with family.

1/01/11 - New Year's Day with family.

Online Log 6

Another set of tasks that I'll be working on until Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as I'll be spending time with my family.

20/12/10 - Christmas shopping, then gather references from books to support Literature Review.
21/12/10 - Update Literature Review for Proposal.
22/12/10 - See Tron Legacy Movie in 3D for inspirations and influences towards character design.
23/12/10 - Update Other areas on Proposal and Production Document.
24/12/10 & 25/12/10 - Christmas with Family.

Thumbnail Sketches

I've managed to complete the thumbnail sketches of each 8 characters from my sketchbook #2. Now I can focus on experimenting with ZBrush and Mudbox by selecting one of these character designs and model them in 3D, and also to find out which modeling/sculpting method works for me.

Soldier Character

Monster Warlord Character

Magician Character

Robot Character


Creature Character


Hybrid Creature Character

Assassin Character


Superhero Character

Early Sketches on Character Concept

Some early character sketches of the 2 characters (the soldier and monster warlord characters) before I've reworked on the characters in thumbnail sketch forms.

Soldier Character 1

Soldier Character 2

Soldier Character's Weapons

Monster Warlord

Discussion Points from Academic Supervisor 2

I've just recieved another report from Lynn about our last meeting along with some tasks for me to do over the Christmas break period up till January 2011.

Meeting 2 10/12/10

We discussed the written work in great depth and planned the structure for the literature review. It may be useful to structure your review to discuss:

Define concept art/design process

The traditional concept art process (identifying individual artists’ practice throughout)

The 3D concept art process (identifying individual artists’ practice throughout)

Identify common themes in both processes

Break down advantages and disadvantages of these themes

Suggest how the project will explore this subject further

The literature review should be around 1,500 words in total. Try to use the quotes and references to support your argument rather than reiterating their point. Once you have drafted your research proposal, you can send a copy to l.love@abertay.ac.uk for feedback.

We discussed your sketchbook and the characters that are being developed. It may be wise to identify an eighth character to develop. In your research sketchbook, it may be useful to dedicate one page to research each of your eight chosen character types. This will link nicely to your development drawings and will highlight what has inspired each character more specifically. It may also be useful to experiment with colour throughout your sketchbook.

Gordon suggested that you create mood boards for the four characters that you plan to develop. This is an excellent idea and I highly recommend that you consider this. In these mood boards you can research surfaces, design and proportions along with personality and character.

For the presentation of your models, it may be useful to find an animator to produce animations of one of the characters. This would allow you to focus on design, modelling and texturing but would also aid the presentation of the models.

In your research questions and topics it may be useful to narrow our research to characters for computer games rather than animation and computer games. Your process focuses on a game pipeline so the research should mirror this. It is also useful to add evaluation into your research somewhere. We must evaluate the process undertaken in the research. This can be a personal evaluation of your process, but we could add the feedback from your animator as part of this evaluation.

Suggested reading:

Prepare to Board – Nancy Beiman

Ideas for the Animated Short by Kate Alexander and Karen Sullivan

Better Game Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive 3D Technology)

d'Artiste Character Design (D'Artiste)

Game Character Development: Digital Sculpting for the Realtime Artist by Anthony Ward

Agreed action points:

• E-mail Belinda to check that a digital sketchbook can be submitted
• E-mail Gregor for feedback on pre-production essay
• Continue Mudbox and ZBrush experimentation
• Continue development of proposal – expand reading to books and journals
• Continue drawing characters – add an eighth category for design
• Take one of your concept drawings and try to create it in Zbrush/Mudbox as a proof of concept
• Send draft copy of proposal to l.love@abertay.ac.uk for feedback.

Visual Research: Character References

I've gathered some extra visual research for each of the 8 character concept:

1. A Soldier.
2. A Monster Warlord.
3. A Magician.
4. A Robot.
5. A Creature.
6. A Hybrid Creature.
7. An Assassin.
8. A Superhero.

I've also gathered some samples of textures including on clothing, metal, and organic skin types for the 3D stage when modeling the chosen characters and apply textures on them.

Soldier Character










Monster Warlord Character









Magician Character









Robot Character









Creature Character











Hybrid Creature Character









Assassin Character












Superhero Character