2D Art for Games

This was an interesting process, less because of the 3D mapping aspect and more because I decided not to go through the hassle of moving assets between my computer and iPad and therefore got to quickly learn some photoshop basics. My roommate graciously let me use her tablet and stylus (thanks Kat :,) ) so I also got to learn some new hardware as well. This ended up being a pretty satisfying process, even though I'm not totally happy with the final result, and I could definitely see this type of art being something I do more of moving forward!

This was a really cool process! I wish I'd been more creative in figuring out scaling/style, since I really just used the same style/brushes I've been using, but I feel confident about the more distinct line art on my foreground element in particular (though I know I should've colored it differently to make it stand out more). I'm very happy with where this landed, at least for the time I did it in.

Sketch from last week's assignment!

Sketch from last last week's assignment!

If I have learned anything from this class it is that drawing humans is my weak point, and that drawing faces is my much, much weaker point. I took and used reference photos for both of the detailed sketches, which definitely helped them turn out more human, and I ended up drafting a friend to teach me how faces worked (thanks Kat). I also thought a lot about the actual visuals of the hypothetical game as I was working, and came (far too late) to the conclusion that I should be operating as if the game is 2D, and therefore I should be trying to find a general style for the art rather than aiming for realism, which I feel would be more useful in designing for a 3D game. All of that said, I'm decently happy with where this landed and I'm feeling much more solid about their narrative design as a character!

I struggled quite a bit with this process, as my world is fairly close to reality and I don't have a lot of experience visually designing characters. I used a 3D model to get references for the poses, which was life-saving. I'm decently happy with how they turned out, and the initial sketch process actually changed some elements of my costuming of them, probably for the better. I do think the right palette looks too modern/normal, while the left looks too girl-scout-ish, but so it goes.

I really enjoyed this process, and I felt particularly happy with the final staircase, as it was one of the few things I didn't have a super direct physical reference for (I've seen them but didn't have a picture on hand). I ended up not spending as much time on it as I wanted, and would've liked to have taken more time to add designed objects rather than known ones, and to think in a more granular way about spatial design (especially in cooking, ie adding a stack of wood, pots, etc).

In lieu of other communications, many portable radios have been scavenged from old military outposts and are now most commonly used by civilians. As more and more satellite infrastructure fails, mechanics are constantly updating them to retain functionality. They were mass-produced, but being primarily for military purposes, they are one of the few scavengable objects that lasts.

The known historian of the region lives in a log A-frame partially under the overhang of a large cliff. She collects books, newspapers, and any other writings she can, as well as physical artifacts of the past from the region. The living space consists of a ground floor with many shelves of materials, open spaces with tables, and a pseudo-kitchen area.

The logo has the globe in front of the sun, supposedly to show the Earth as a thriving planet, but many interpreted the logo as a burning world. Global Goods, at the time of total collapse, was the main supplier of food to every connected nation, and now old warehouses of stored, shelf-stable foods are the main source of food for those who survived. For almost a decade before collapse, the company was generally regarded as a primary driver for ecological disaster.

I really enjoyed this process! I do wish I'd ended up importing all of the assets into unity and using a script to generate them, but it seemed like more effort than it was worth so I just created the variations manually by turning on and off a million layers. This has also revealed to me how much I struggle with line art - I enjoy sketching and once the line art is done I enjoy simple rendering, but I've found I'm very bad at creating clean line work that I feel satisfied with. Overall I'm very happy with how these turned out!

My first (memorable & named) OC, Ash Shadow, created sometime in early elementary school. She was the subject of a story I was writing at the time, and I wasn't very descriptive and never drew my characters so I didn't have much to work with. Instead of drawing her as I imagined her then, I drew her as I expect she'd actually be - in my head as an elementary schooler she was brooding, mysterious, alone but not lonely, and I imagine she saw herself the same way while actually just being a completely normal teenager. She lived completely alone with seven cats at #14 Dark Road, which was the only cobblestone street in town (because I was emo).

This turned out about how I wanted, and it gave me a better opportunity to learn the VFX system in Unity than literally any other class I've been in, which I really appreciated. I don't love how the drawings of the effects themselves turned out, I think they look okay in context but on the page I'm not super happy with them (and I messed up something in converting the middle image to a material so it's oddly squished). What I'm most satisfied with for this assignment was my workflow & time spent vs final product, I ended up doing this relatively fast but I think the ratio of the time I spent vs how much got done is better than it's been in the past. I also like the blinking effect I was able to get with the Lingering Pain particle.

Air bubble - collapsible container made to store breathable air.