###### tags: 'Uni work' 'Games art'
# <21309613> Portfolio (1J6Z1017_2324_1F)
https://hackmd.io/ADHpgAHJQ3GReQm7e7cKEQ
### Collaborative Game Studio Practice (1J6Z1017_2324_1F)
### Games Art BA (Hons) L6
### Keira Steele
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For this project we picked the theme “Pregnant detective on a Lovecraftian train” out of the prompts available. I immediately started my research into the Lovecraftian theme as I wasn’t fully aware what it was. After realising that it meant cosmic horror I started to investigate the different games and films in this genre. Holly and I also did some primary research by watching a film called Color out of space which was based on a story by HP Lovecraft. The basis of the film was that the farm a family was living on got struck by a meteor which then began an onslaught of strange circumstances one being the mother and son merging into each other. Watching this filmed helped us to generate ideas for this project. However ultimately the idea we decided to run with was a 3D first person horror story exploration game based on a travelling gentlemen’s club. The people on the train are getting mutated by some sort of foreign poison someone has planted on the train. The mutation idea was somewhat loosely based on the mutations we observed in the movie previously stated. The aim of the game being to investigate and find the killer that’s spreading the poison.

We all decided as a group what our roles would be. I opted for being the character artist. Once all roles were appointed, we created a Miro board and added our ideas for the project.

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Once we figured out the direction, we were going in I did some research into my pregnant detective character. My first thought was what her outfit was going to look like as it would hypothetically have to be something comfortable yet formal for her to work in. I wanted to go down the route of the classic trench coat, so I collected a few images which I liked the style of. Then went onto looking for inspiration for what she would look like. I wanted her to have an edgy look to her with quite a few piercings.



I then went further with my research looking at other people’s concept art of female detectives and 3D models however I found it quite hard to find images of young female detectives as there seems to be a stigma that detectives are men or older lady’s.

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I began my initial sketches of the detective. I found it hard to incorporate the detective’s pregnant belly into this as the sketches are basic front facing drawings and I have never done that sort of anatomy before. So, I focused more on what the detective’s outfit would be like in these initial sketches.


I found that this sketch with the standard shirt, skirt and trench coat was my favourite as the it would allow her to blend in better to the environment enabling her to sleuth around the carriages undetected.



When doing my more detailed drawings of my character I decided to change the skirt into flares as I felt they would be easier to model but also the theme for the trains environment is art deco and I feel as though these pants fit the vibe better. The colour palette that I used for the detective was colour picked from an art deco inspired room image I found on Pinterest.


Because iv never drawn the anatomy of a pregnant women before I struggled with making the belly prominent enough to be able to tell she is pregnant. However, after a lot of time adding contrast by darkening and lightening areas it began to take shape. The hand placement on the belly also made the belly look flatter so I lasso tooled the hand and rotated it to follow the curve of her body. Which I think helped dramatically.


I originally created a frame to present an enlarged image of the face of the detective, but after communicating with Holly, we thought it would be a good idea to do a framed photo of all the characters to put into their character profiles sheets Holly was writing out.



I came across a few issues with the brightness of the character as the environment is a gentlemen’s club which would be dark and mood whereas she is quite the opposite. I turned the brightness down and turned up the saturation so she would keep her colour while bringing a moodier vibe making her fit with the environment more cohesively.


This is the finished drawing for my pregnant detective. I decided to go without the coat as I felt that it takes away from her professional look. Apart from this I am happy with the way she turned out.

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When using Zbrush I was having a lot of issues with modelling my character and figuring out Zbrush as it is software iv barely used before. After communicating with my group, I came up with the idea of adding 2D characters to the game. We would implement this by the game being in a first-person point of view and when the detective interacts with a suspect a dialogue box would pop up along with a 2D image of the character the players interacting. This is similar too Stardew valley and the other images I collected down below. This way I can Play to my strengths as well as doing something I’m happy with for our final project at university.


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There wasn’t much contact from the rest of my group apart from Holly. So, we relied on each other for help and ideas. We scheduled to call every Tuesday to do work together to make sure the work was going in the right direction and was cohesive. Even though Holly was adamant on doing the environment all by herself I continued to ask if she needed help with anything. She eventually asked if I would do the miscellaneous stuff that would be found in the environment such as glasses, crumpled paper, ash trays and cigarettes. The last two objects where quite easy to make and I just used Boolean for the cut-out semicircles on the sides of the ashtray.


(2)

When making the whiskey glass I came across a few issues with the design on the outside of the glass. I found the inspiration for the design from a glass I used in a pub I went too, and thought would suit the theme of the train. I didn’t know how to do the Dimond design, so I found a tutorial for making a whiskey glass. I used the poke tool for the diagonal subdivisions and from there I just extruded till I got the outcome I wanted.

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I used the Ncloth tool to create the scrunched-up paper. I found this method on a YouTube tutorial. I started off with a plane and a sphere which I animated to scale it down. I then created a Ncloth to the plane. Next, I set the passive collider. Then when I pressed play on the animation the plane started to scrunch up. I stopped the animation at different intervals to duplicate the paper, so I had slightly different pieces.

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Holly and I discussed what we thought the antagonist should look like. She thought he should have a moustache and a hat. I thought he should be wearing a suit to fit in with the art deco vibe. With this in mind I started researching different suit designs and different poses he would be standing in to make him more interesting.





This is the finished design for the Evil scientist. I’m happy with the way it turned out. I added elements of green and gold to match in with the art deco theme. The suit is based off the image up above. The collar of the shirt is the only thing I wish I spent more time on as it feels quite flat.

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I felt that I needed more to do so I started creating the elements for the dialogue box as I had an image in my mind of what I wanted it to look like. I started by drawing a magnifying glass in Photoshop. I used the colours of the palette I made to colour it. I then distorted two rectangles and coloured the borders in gold I combined these elements together to form the final outcome. I feel it is a simple enough designed to not take away from the rest of the scene. I created an example of what the dialogue would look like in a scene down below.



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I wanted the bouncer to look quite strong, so I made him quite wide and his arms quite big. I gave him all the stereotypical bouncer accessories such as the sunglasses and earpiece as well as the standard pose with his hands in front of him. He was one of my most straightforward characters I made. The bouncer is one of the victims in the game getting mutated from the poison however this is what he looks like before that happens.

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Holly found a couple of free 3D models from Unreal which she was going to use in the game to buff it out. So, I created my stripper with all the attributes from the 3d model to keep the project cohesive.

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The bartender was also based on a 3D model that we found however I did some research for different poses for bartenders. I ended up drawing him holding a tray as if he’s going around the carriage handing out the drinks he has made.

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These are all the picture frames for the character profile sheets Holly and I collaborated on. Overall, I feel the lack of communication from Oliwia and Rachel limited the collaboration on this project however Holly and I tried are best to keep the project afloat and we are quite pleased with how everything turned out.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR2E5lLKhkw
This is our final outcome trailer which Holly made

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