Monday, August 15, 2011

Konclave Tribe

Konclave is a beastly tribal faction in Project Realm. They are students of transmutation; the bending and blending of nature. Also referred to as Deonodians and Rhyomorths, the Konclave tribe lives in the damp swampy forests of the South-Lands. Deep in the giant forest along a flowing rivers ravine these tribal creatures perfect their craft of altering their own biology. They've also formed a magical connection with their environment.

Konclave design forms follow organic signs of nature: curved conical cylinders, acute triangular shapes and the rhythm of the sinuous S. I first defined their high level art direction then started aesthetic design for specific characters. I had an image in my mind for a Shaman so I grabbed my reference and made the notes and ideation sketch shown below. I debated on posting this image because it's only an initial sketch. It is however the only one I made for this character before going to an orthographic model sheet. 

Project Realm is an exercise in small team rapid development of new-IP. Every piece seen here is of my creation and hands on work, however I've also utilized offsite contractors as needed to assist in specific stages of art asset production. This blog post documents the development process that works for this project. The goal is to get ideas down and conveyed very quickly and inexpensively, move into 3d asap and get it in game. The focus is on fast creative execution, not mind blowing visuals. I think showing some early, rough "in-the-making" imagery is fair here. Sometimes a napkin sketch is all it takes to move an idea or concept to the next phase. Three style-guide pages and the two following images were all that was needed to achieve desired results in 3d where finalized conceptual design often happens for me. 

This Shaman was only one asset among many being created at once and I needed to get it  into animation asap. This means it had to be ideated, designed, completely modeled, rigged and tested with separate component pieces before animation could begin. I worked with a remote local artist to help create an ortho-graphic model sheet. We drew/painted over each others work for a couple days to tighten down the design. I then sent an image similar to the one below to outsourcing for a first pass model. 

After a day or so of tweaking verts, proportions and leg mechanics on the outsourced 3d model I finalized the mesh and uv's. Several weeks later I had it textured and rigged looking like this.  It was ready to begin keyframing and be sent out for animation.

I had considered transitioning this character from a two leg stance into a four legged locomotion style but due to time constraints and other potential issues I didn't pursue it. I spent one or two days creating an animation tree and keyframe images for about six to eight animations: walk, get hit, death, three or four melee attacks and a couple spell casts. Whether we use animation blending or not we need each animation to start and end with specific keyframes. Below is the first pass anim tree before adding all final keyframe imagery. This animation work was outsourced to non english speaking animators I've never met, directly spoken with or had any direct email correspondence with. In order to get acceptable results with this process I must convey exactly what I need and effectively define a style I want them to follow, otherwise I'll get all kinds of random, inappropriate and unusable work.

One of the first Shaman spells is the Entangle, a ranged targeted spell to decrease enemy movement. The Shaman targets his enemy at a distance and conjures tree roots up from the ground which entangle and temporarily trap his enemies. Visually the Shaman rears back in a wide squatted stance with outreached arms, focuses on the ground then swoops his arms forward and up. Here are the keyframe reference images I sent for the Entangle and death animation.

I only sent key frame reference imagery to China so the animator could interpret it him or herself. They ended up asking for my maya keyframe files that I used to make the images. Fine by me. Stay tuned for animation results...

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Irozan Faction

Irozan is the first of three factions in the fantasy based Project Realm. The Irozan's are learners of instrumentality, magical engineers. They traveled east into barren canyon-lands and settled on cliffs above the sea. They draw from the waters to help power and cool their magical glowing, steaming machines.

Irozan designs follow the etchings of their visionary mage leader who founded their belief in the powers of instrumentation. The three shapes of Irozan are the circle, square and trapezoid. They also adhere to the rhythms of the Gear (which in profile is made up of their three primary shapes). An interesting thing about the earliest markings found on Irozan artifacts is they are all etched in perspective. A 3d representation of their shapes forming spheres, cubes and cylinders. Artifacts from other factions show etchings of two dimensional shapes. This indicates Irozan aptitude and ability to think and see in broader dimensions. Irozan aimed to achieve the creation and development of perfect circle and square forms in their instruments. They believed if they could create these perfect forms they could increase their powers greatly.

The Irozan race of humans are short and stocky, they are muscular blacksmiths who utilize magical powers that drive their gear, weapons and machinery. The Irozan Snealth is a type of ranged warrior. He primarily uses cross bows and steam powered weaponry. When he gets in close he also uses explosive devices to take down targets. Seen below is an Irozan Snealth medium res model with diffuse textures.

I create keyframe imagery for every animation for every character when I use foreign animation outsourcing. Here's an example keyframe sheet I quickly created to describe and visually convey what I want for the plant explosives animation. 

The Irozan Juggernaut is a large magically powered suit or armor. The driver fits inside the torso and looks out of the porthole. This heavy suit is designed primarily to withstand attacks while pushing frontlines to destroy enemy towers and fortifications. The image below shows a rapid process I used to get this character designed, modeled, weighted and rigged for animation in less than four weeks while also doing many other tasks. The sketches are quick thumbnails that conveyed enough information to start the modeling process where I easily refined the design in 3d. The model images show a default upgradable hand attachment. It may be replaced with a variety of weapon mounts like blades and the glowing orange molten metal pummel fist. This Juggernaut design is intended to be an oversized suit of armor, not a "mech". Remember a driver sits in the torso and drives the heavy suit with Irozan magic. The torso is a large solid unit and the legs are shorter to give it this feel. The design matches the short and wide physicality of the Irozan people.

Below is a quick styleguide I put together to convey important hip translation requirements to the rigger.

Saturday, August 13, 2011