LOGO DESIGN PROCESS #2

This is the logo I designed  based on the inspiration I received.The logo shall somehow express the idea of the story.The figures in the middle of the circle are the key characters of the whole story.The circle is like a shelter that protected the two main characters from the storm outside.

LOGO DESIGN PEOCESS

I start making a logo for the game.I'm not a professional graphic designer,so I looked at lots of game logo to get inspired.

Environment one sheet # 2 The Stone Bridge

Emotional Contents:
lonely,Serene,historic,unearthly

Environment information:
The stone bridge serves as a connector between the kingdom and the exterior world.The fortress exclude herself from the universe,creating a world of her own,only the bridge serves as a link for the outsiders to come to her world.
The bridge was built by the ancient people who live on the mountain.That was the time when civilization was not matured,and Kingdoms was not established by the heroes.

Inspiration:
Bridge from ICO,Shadow of the Colossus

Environment one sheet # 1 The kingdom on the peak of the mountain

Emotional Contents:
Unique,Traditional,Defensive,Natural

Environment information:
This is a fortress built on the top of  a mountain.It is surrounded by other mountains and forest,thus make it an isolated territory from other nations' malice.She had never fall over to the hand of her enemy.Thought she was invaded by her enemies three times in the history, she still stands firmly with her dignity.

Inspiration:
Just like what I did to the character design ,I imagined a fortress with mixed style.The time setting is still in steam punk era, but the people live there had their unique culture and custom that separated themselves form other contemporary nations. Since architecture represent the culture,the fortress shall be as unique as her dweller.

My first idea is the Tibetan architecture.It is different from the Pan-East-Asian Architectural style,it has her own style due to her peculiar religion and custom. The Potala Palace became my main inspiration since she is the symbolic landscape in Tibet. In addition, there is another famous building that represent the mixture of different culture -- Istanbul.
Istanbul's destiny is similar to the fortress in this story.They are both invaded by exotic forces with a distinguishing culture.The differences between the fortress and Istanbul is that she had never really be took over by the enemy force.

Character One Sheet # 5

Emotional Content:
Dark,Stern,faithful,Non-human

Character information:
Name:
Age:unknown
Gender:unknown
Reference:
They are the royal guardian of the kingdom, the protector of monarchy.They are the symbol of ruling power, and the ruthless force that eliminate any opponent that stands in front of the lord of the fortress.Their identity remains an enigma.No one knows if they are human or not,but historical record reveal that their first appearance on the stage of history was to protect the hero who founded the kingdom on the mountain.

They only follow and obey the rule of the hero,and were fearless to death.In fact,no one,included the hero's enemy,had ever seen the a guardian's corpse in person after a battle.Though the hero's enemy declare that they had physically defeated the guardian in the battle, no one actually believe that the guardian can be killed by a human being.To the hero's enemy,the guardian are like a ghost,they are quiet,still,firm and cruel.They seem to be emotionless, since morale never affect their craftsmanship of war.Their movement appear to be completely controlled by reason without a single waste of efficiency.

The inspiration came from the royal guardian of UK and the SS from Nazi Germany.The guardian of UK give people an impression of royalty,while the Nazi SS gave the mankind a sense of evil and cruelty.The British guardian impress others with their reddish uniform,and that gave my design idea a standpoint.On the other hand,SS,regardless of their role in Nazi Germany,symbolize those who follow order without questions.
Based on these two groups I mentioned above,I will go one step further,trying to apply some steam punk elements to the design.

Art Style:
Steam punk solider inspired by the royal guardian of United Kingdom.

Elite Guard from the game "Dishonored"

SS Uniform

British Royal Guard

Character one sheet # 4

Emotional Content:
Innocent,timid,agile,noble
Character information:
Name: 
Age:11
Gender: male
Occupation: The second prince of the kingdom
Reference:
He is a boy born in the royal family.However, he is neither a spoiled kid nor incubated in the green house.Thought his knowledge of the world is limited, his curiosity urges him to explore the unknowns of the nature surrounds him.This curiosity gave him an open attitude toward strangers and exotic culture,and granted him the longing of discovering the world outsides the fortress.

He is the younger brother and agnate sibling of Haiss,who is the lord of the fortress,and the second prince of the kingdom.He also shared the pretty face that Haiss inherit from his parent,and a born courage buried deeply inside his heart that remains uncovered.

Since he is Haiss' younger brother, his appearance is also inspired by some feminine boy in Japanese RPG. For instance,Danzel from Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children, and Joshua in Vagrant Story.As for the costume design,in order to create a sense of mixed culture, I will take inspiration form the royal costume of  Qing Dynasty of historical China,mixing them with the modern conception of costume design.

Art Style:
Oriental style costume mixed with Western design idea.The purpose is to make it looks noble and light.

Character one sheet # 3

Emotional Content:
aristocratic,feminine,calm,unflustered

Character information:
 Name:Hiatt
 Position in the story: Antagonist
 Gender: Male
 Occupation : The lord of the fortress
 References :All the feminine JRPG characters disputed by the western players.
He is the regular type of character you can see in various Japanese RPG. They are too feminine in the eyes of some western players.And this is the situation he will be facing in the story.As the elder son of a legendary hero who founded a kingdom in a fortress on the mountain,he received extremely high anticipation since the day he was born.Unfortunately, he was born with a pretty face and slender body disliked by most masculine people in the fortress.They question his ability to lead,and things getting worse when his father suddenly went disappeared,left the throne and burden to him.In Asia,there was a figure in the Chinese history who had a similar experience. 

Gao ChangGong, who share the same trial as him,resolved the problem with his outstanding military genius,won numerous battles for his country,and eventually received the approval from the people around him. Gao was famous for wearing a mask to the battle. He knew he is too pretty as a general and that will make his enemy look down on him.So he put on the mask to deceive the enemy's feeling,gave them the fear generated by mystery and unknown.

Thought Hiatt do not wear a mask, he was able to create a poker-face to seal his true feeling,making it invisible by the exterior world.It is also a priority goal for him to win supporter through splendid action and achievement. This pressure and trial in his life substantially create the complexity of Hiatt's personality.

Art Style:
Folk style ,General coat,Military suits

Character one sheet # 2 - Heroin

Emotional Content:
Elegant,Mysterious,Serene,Exotic.

Character information:
Code Name: Memory
Age: Estimated to be 23-25
Gender: Female
Occupation: Intelligent agent
Reference:Her role in the game is like the intelligent agent Callo Merllose in the old RPG "Vagrant Story".But her appearance will be younger than Callo. There are a few characters in the movie that resemble similar characteristic with her.For instance,Selene,play by Kate Beckinsale in the movie"Underworld" has an aura of exoticism and mystery that is very close to her.However, since she is a non-combat personnel that she won't be as strong as Selene in terms of physical power and determined personality.

Art Style:
Oriental steampunk,mixture of western and eastern costume style

Character one sheet # 1

Emotional Content:
 Fashionable, Strong, Matured, High-tech.

Character information:
 Name:Seith
 Position in the story: Protagonist
 Age: A man in his late 20 to early 30.
 Gender: Male
 Occupation : Mercenary
 References : Alatriste in the movie"Alatriste",Balian of Ibelin in the movie"Kingdom of heaven".
 He is not a traditional mercenary with well-trained physical combat skill, but someone who possess special power that allows him to enter people's spiritual world and finish the job.However,he will look younger than both Alatriste and Balian. Alatriste possesses a sort of characteristic that shows an indifferent attitude toward the world around him,and he doesn't really care about what people think oft him. Balian of Ibelin on the other hand share the same personality in a way, but he is religious and faithful to what he believes in.These characteristics resemble Seith to a certain extent.The difference is that Seith is more treacherous in personality
Art Style:
 Steampunk technology with mixed cultural apparel. Slightly stylized, but a realistic character in general.

looking for reference

It's about the time to look for references for the hero.Well,in my imagination he is a very skillful mercenary and an experienced veteran specialized in his field of profession. So he will not be too young in this case.Somehow I  recall a movie called "Alatriste".The protagonist in the movie,Alatriste is a strong guy with dark brown hair.His appearance tells some characteristic that is similar to the  hero I'm trying to design.

My plan and workflow

Visual Development Workflow

So I divided my work content for visual development into two parts.
Firstly, I will focus on  character,and the props come with the characters based on the story.
Secondly,I will start designing the environments.

According to the deliverable I provided before,there will be six characters and two environments.
In additions,based on the training I received in AAU, I estimate visual development  process for a character normally takes a week.

It starts with collecting information of a character.In order to visualize my imagination,I have to collect every picture available that best depict the impression of a character in my mind.This is the Character One Sheet.

A Character One Sheet consists of  3 sections.

1.Emotional Content:
Emotional content pointed out a character's characteristic or style and how that give a certain impression to the player's emotion.

2.Character Information:
It contents the basic information of the character like gender,how old or how tall is he/she,where is he/she from,what he/she do for a living.

3.Art Direction
There are so many different art style for various game,therefore the art direction section are responsible of settle down the overall art direction the artist wants to go for.Is it realistic or stylized? When is the story take place?Is it a futuristic Sci-Fi game or a high-fantasy game?
The artist has to decided the overall art direction in the initial stage for a visual development project, otherwise it will be a waste of time in the end

There are something like one sheet for the environments as well,the content is similar to the character one sheet

Story Synopsis

Forgetfulness has become a serious disease for the people in this world. As a result, human discovered a way to stop “forgetting”.
Scientists indicate that certain monsters called ”mementos” are responsible for devouring people’s memories.
There are two ways to protect yourself from the “mementos." One is by taking a newly invented medicine prescribed by the specialists. However, there are rumors saying that the medicine might cause side effects to the human body.
The other way to save memory is to hire a mercenary group that are capable of killing ”mementos.”The story unfolds during a mission of one of these mercenaries.

Deliverables

This is a list of deliverable I shall create for my thesis

Characters

1.    Hero

2.    Heroin

3.    The boy

4.    The Young Lord

5.    The Lord's Guardian

6.    Villagers

Creatures

A Wolf-Like Creature

Character Props

1.    Earphone

2.    Sunglasses

3.    Pen

4.    Hair Ribbon

5.    Pouch x 3 for Char 1~3

6.    Whip

7.    Rifle-Sword

Environments

               1.   Fortress

               2.   Stone Bridge

It starts with you

So everything start with you. You are the beginning of my idea.In my imagination, you are a mercenary of mystery, you are from nowhere but a dweller of my mind.

Memento Of Time,Thesis Project for Academy Of Art MFA degree

I start to write my journal.I shall do this long time ago,somehow I don't have time to write but only to draw.
My thesis is about concept art of video game.The art is created totally based on the story in my imagination.I have a story I want to tell, and I use the story as a basis to do visual development.The original art style in my mind is steam punk. Speak of Steam Punk, it makes people think of Victoria Era and Nineteen Century.

However, I don't want to do something that is already done by some other awesome artist, I shall depict the steam punk style in a different way.