Eden - End of Project Review

At the start of this project i had planned to create 3D armatures of my characters for my final piece, but when that idea fell apart i felt lost. I lost all motivation and didn't know what to do - i was uncomfortable with my digital painting skills and knew that sketchbook work wouldn't be enough. I put my project off until the deadline was only a few weeks away and then realised i had to suck it up and figure out what i was going to for my last project.

I got right down to work and managed to pump out three sketchbooks full of work and eight finished digital pieces. My friend gave me some priceless input and taught me how to keep my original sketch lines in photoshop whilst still being able to paint underneath them. This seemed like such a minor bit of advice for them but to me it was incredibly helpful. I'm very pleased with how all my work turned out as my digital paintings have made me much more confident in my abilities and make me want to keep practicing now. It's just a shame that my poor time management meant i could only produce eight final pieces instead of the whole cast of characters i had designed. However this will be a lesson that i'll learn from for next time.

In this project i have:

• Explored several routes for my final pieces including puppets and digital art
• Brought seven characters from my sketchbook into finished digital paintings
• Improved my digital painting skills
• Performed colour tests to ensure the final character designs have the best possible looks
• Written character biographies and a story for my game 'Eden'
• Learnt an important lesson about time management

This project was challenging because of my mid-assignment crisis but it was also very fun being so free and able to create anything you wanted to. It has increased my confidence in my own work and given me the drive to keep on practicing when i leave university which is very helpful and reassuring as i was having a lot of doubts about whether i should continue with my art. Overall i am happy with my final pieces as I've managed to give life to my characters through colour and character sheets which makes me feel warm and fuzzy, i feel like i'm finally doing my characters justice. I'm also pleased to be leaving university on a high note, even if i will miss university in general. Hopefully the lessons I've learnt from the last three years will stop me from making too many mistakes in the future and keep me motivated enough to pursue a career in the games industry.

Here are a few pictures from my end of year show:

Since this is my last university project i may not update this blog again, so if i don't then i'd like to thank you for reading and following my three-year university learning experience, from photographing building's faces, to scathing game festival reviews to my final project. Thank you for reading :) - Nate.

Eloise - The Mother

Name: Eloise

Age: 53

Eloise is the deceased mother of James, Annadetta and Malibu. At one point she was happily married and raising her three children with her husband, however he became seriously ill and died a while later. With him gone Eloise sunk into a deep depression and found it hard to show her children love and attention. Some years later her health had deteriorated to a critical level through self neglect and she passed away, leaving behind her now orphaned children.

Eloise is one of the last guardians James acquires and although he manages to bring her back from the dead she is very weak and very depressed when she realises she is back in the world of the living. It isn't until Malibu is killed a second time that Eloise becomes powerful. Angered by the death of her daughter, Eloise goes into a blind rage and fuses with the power of her dead daughter, which still refuses to die even though its host is dead. This turns Eloise into a powerful and vengeful witch, twice as strong as her daughter ever was.

Although i had intended for Eloise to be a guardian, i hadn't really designed her, with only a few rough pieces of concept art to her name. However, when i got frustrated at drawing one of the other characters i decided to just doodle and i came up with the character above. After realising that she looked similar to the inital concepts for Jame's mother i decided to make this character her. However, i didn't want to take this character all the way through to a finished concept so instead i decided to do colour tests. These three colour tests are probably some of my favourite pieces from this project. I like each one, and any of them would look great in the game. My favourite of the three is the far right, which has been named 'The Peacock Witch' by my friends.

P. R. - The Machine

Name: P.R. #815

Age: Unknown

P.R. #815 is rusty, riddled with bullets, overgrown with foliage and has been spray painted by teenagers who themselves have long since past away. He stands dormant and has been this way for centuries, the last soldier of a robotic army from a long forgotten war.

As James started to destroy the world he discovered the forgotten war machine and blew life into it, reawakening its ancient circuit boards and re-programming it to serve him as a guardian. James' gift to P.R. made him more than a guardian though- he became fiercely protective over his overgrown environment and the wildlife inhabiting it and bargained with James to only serve him if his surroundings would be a part of the new world. Amused at the robot's audacity James agreed on the condition that P.R. hunt down Serenity and put an end to her interference. P.R. is incredibly intelligent but also shows many signs of understanding and feeling human emotions such as compassion and sorrow. Whether this was his originally programmed artificial intelligence or a side effect of James' gift of power is unknown.

Some rough concepts for poses

Coulour Tests

Before deciding on a final design i did a few colour tests to see which colours i liked best and which suited the character the most. After playing around with colour for a while i went with my initial plans and made him pink and yellow. I like how ironically cheerful he looks for a walking death machine. P.R. was one of my favourite characters that i digitally painted and i'm very pleased with how the colour tests and final piece turned out, i especually like the late addition of the blue bird.

Stella - The Maneater

Name: Stella

Age: 29

Stella was Jame's previous girlfriend before Serenity who never quite got over the breakup. She managed to crawl back into his life by posing as a friend, when in fact her true intentions were to win back his affection, a secret she doesn't keep from Serenity. She sees Serenity as the reason the pair broke up. Stella is emotionally unstable and still madly in love with James, willing to do anything and everything for him to win back his love, enabling him to manipulate her very easily.

When approached by James to become one of his guardians she accepted enthusiastically, seeing it as a sign that he still loved her when in fact she is little more than a pawn to him. James mutated her into a half spider, half woman hybrid and with her new power she hastily follows James' wishes and does his bidding.

I'm very happy with how this piece turned out and it's probably one of my favourite pieces from the project. I like how unusual the upside-down pose is and the range of emotion she shows in each picture, especially the one of her sobbing. Although the 'black widow woman' is a cliche i'd like to think I've put my own unique stamp on it that separates it from similar designs.

Ray and Laurent - The Scientists

Names: Ray and Laurent

Ages: 31 & 33

Ray & Laurent worked with James and Serenity on the mysterious new element 'Eden'. Although their personalities contrasted they worked very well together, with Laurent's cautiousness balancing out Ray's recklessness. Although the two worked well together they weren't particularly fond of each other. Ray disliked how pessimistic and neurotic Laurent was whilst Laurent was always Jealous of how confident and optimistic Ray was. Despite their differences though they were integral to the progression of Eden and their research helped James to develop a way to harness Eden's power.

They were the first two people approached by James when he was looking for guardians to help him destroy the world and stop Serenity interfering. The two initially declined his offer, appalled that he had used their research for himself and planned to destroy the world. However, James managed to persuade them with the notion that in his new world everything would be new and their would be endless things to study and dissect. Knowing how intelligent each man was, James decided to fuse the two together to increase their intelligence and hopefully make them work better together. Although they both became much more intelligent, their feelings for one another didn't change and they bickered and disagreed even more, their already opposing personalities now seemed even more exaggerated with Laurent becoming even more neurotic and pessimistic and Ray becoming overly enthusiastic and reckless. Driven mad by the fusion and with no regard for their own bodies anymore they start to experiment on themselves, which gives them their odd sucker punch glove arms.

Some concepts

The Scientists - mid paint

I'm really pleased with how this picture turned out. This idea originally came from a game me and my friends designed over ten years ago, although back then he was a two headed jester. Later on i took inspiration from the jester character and drew a two headed, skinny man with strange claws on chains for arms, which transformed into this when i revisited it. I like how clinical the picture looks and how almost everything about the scientists is contrasting, from their hair to their boots. Although Ray and Laurent are one of my more bizarre creations i think they fit into this game idea very well and are a quirky and unique addition.

Jimmy and Gladys - The Brother and The Best

Name: Jimmy

Age: 10

Jimmy is the little brother of Serenity. He's an adventurous child who has a passion for exploring and collecting insects and often went bug catching to look for new pets to add to his collection. When James started to destroy the world Jimmy was out collecting bugs and was approached by James who managaed to manipulate him into becoming a guardian for him. The power James granted him corrupted his mind and turned him into a hate filled shadow of his former self, hell bent on intercepting his sister as she tries to stop James.

Name: Gladys

Age: < 0

Gladys was a caterpillar that had recently been collected by Jimmy. When James made Jimmy a guardian he unintentionally made Gladys one too, who was in Jimmy's pocket at the time. She grew in size exponentially and aquired sharp fangs and a large horn on her head, along with giant tufts of hair. Unlike Jimmy, the power granted to her didn't corrupt her and she remains quite docile and tame unless provoked or ordered to attack by Jimmy, whom she is very protective over and serves loyally.

These two characters were some of my earliest creations whose colour schemes and dynamic i had had in my head for a long while. I'm pleased with how the pair turned out, although if i were to redo the picture i would probably give them each their own character sheet instead of a shared one.

Malibu - The Witch

Name: Malibu

Age: 17

Malibu is the youngest sibling of James and Annadetta and was raised by her sister after both her parents died. She is considerably younger than her older siblings and therefore can't remember her mother. Shy and nervous, Malibu is often overshadowed by her old sister and keeps to herself most of the time. She looks up to Annadetta for raising her and although her brother had little input in her life she has always admired his confidence and appreciated his extravagant gifts.

When James approached both his sisters with the proposition of becoming guardians Annadetta accepted on behalf of both herself and Malibu. Although she got on well with Serenity and was slightly scared by her brother's new form, she did what she was told by her sister who had always had her best interests in mind.
Whilst Annadetta's transformation into a master huntress was successful, Malibu found it harder to harness the power gifted to her. She was clumsy with her sorcery and had a lot of trouble controlling it. It wasn't until she was killed by Serenity that her true potential was realised; as Malibu died her power refused to and took control of her body and mind, transforming her from a novice sorceress into a skilled adversary.

Malibu was particularly hard to get right. She is based on a character i created in a game once and although i wanted her to look similar, i also wanted the character to have her own identity. Colour was especially hard to decide on since in my mind i imagined her to be wearing black and white, but when i tested that it looked very bland. I'm glad i went with purple as it's a much more 'magical' looking colour which suits this character perfectly.