Professional Character Concept Introduction

This part of the module is professional character conception and goes through the process of concepting a character in 2D and finally modelling and texturing that character in 3D to a professional standard.

The project requires two characters one low poly (600 tris) and a higher poly (6000 tris). These tri counts would be similar to a PS1 character and an early PS2 character model.

 Low poly

I like to model in low poly and the designs of good low poly characters is something I can admire more than a next gen high resolution character model. Low poly models can have a charming quality about them as often elements of that character will be oversize or cartoonish, just look at most ps1 or Nintendo 64 era games.

For some inspiration and understanding of low poly character designs it may be usefull to look at games such as Crash bandicoot, Spryo the dragon, ect.

 http://mestarstudios.deviantart.com/art/Crash-Bandicoot-109456711, MeStarStudios

http://uk.ign.com/images/games/spyro-the-dragon-ps-3920/4fa6c969cdc388ed13e3c44c. IGN

High poly

Although 6000 tris is not considered that high poly in today’s game technology it would have been around the time of the first ps2 titles. Most games in 2002-2003 would have characters around the 6000 tri mark. An example of how poly limits have changed is that in 2007 the character head models alone in Crysis would be around the 6000 tri count.

For this tri limit I wanted to do a completely different sort of style character and since theres more polys to play with I could attempt a more semi realistic design over the cartoony and exaggerated features of what I intend to do on the low poly model.

 

Concept of characters in 2d

When it comes to concepting characters there are thousands of ways and styles that artist adopt. Me myself I find that drawing a silhouette of a character with little to no detail then when I’m happy drawing line art over the silhouette and finally adding colour works best for me. However this project would be a great chance to explore some other techniques that I may find other artists use.

Evolution theme in character designs

Some initial ideas for character that have some link with my chosen evolution and genetics theme:

·         A character not necessarily humanoid having shrunken limbs due to the fact they aren’t used anymore.

·         Taking a creature from the world today and putting them in a different environment and designing how that change of habitat may affect them.