Game Concept Art - Week 5
Caricature - Accentuating Contrast:
Study the period photos posted here. What parts of the face accentuate the assumed personality of the person? If you enlarge the distinctive features of the face, does the character diminish? Using the cut/paste and clone stamp tool in Photoshop, enlarge the major features of the personality's face and diminish the smaller details without changing the character.
By focusing on key features of the Eyes, Nose and Mouth and changing their size and orientation on the head, you can accentuate the character of the individual. Look at these examples:
Costume Changes:
Take Character Design of Historical Figures and change their costume to the appropriate genre assigned.
What "character" isn't expressed in the silhouette or in the facial features MUST be communicated in the costume design. Think of the iconic clothing worn by Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark, or the outfit worn by Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars. Those costume designs are a direct reflection of the personality of the character those actors are playing.
Take one of the characters shown above and change their costume to reflect their persona and change the genre to Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi and a Prehistoric Action film. This should be a quick study, don't focus on the details and maintain a strong silhouette.
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| Post Apocalyptic |
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| Prehistoric |
* "Boyhood Daze"
Perspective & Horizon:
Draw a horizon on a page. Add a vanishing point and place a box below the horizon in deep space.
What is the difference between Flat Space and Deep Space?
How are vanishing points used in a design?
Comparative Size:
Use the vehicle posted here and arrange them in a horizontal composition with a horizon and comparative lines or boxes. Add drama and conflict by pushing the limits of realistic proportions.
Here is a good example of a vehicle size comparison:
Week 4 - Reference
Our video game world is made up of two tribes, one of STONE, and one of IRON. Using the reference photos from the NY Natural History Museum, design:
- a Musical Instrument
- a Weapon
- a Tool
- two Food Items (one Vegetable/Fruit and one Meat)
One prop design for each tribe based on their Stone or Iron lifestyle. Obviously, the "Mad Max" characters are from the Iron tribe and the characters from the series, "Primal" are a Stone tribe. Think about the limitations and advantages each tribe has and use those traits to influence the prop designs. Focus on the differences between the tribes and play up the contrasts in the shapes. Stone tribe will have access to dinosaur bones, skin and primitive mammal and bird fur/feathers. Iron tribe will have access to machines, engine/vehicle parts and artificial surfaces like rubber, steel and chrome, but they have no access to animals (perhaps they live off of human flesh or insects and fuel?)
You can design as many props for each group as you like, but the minimum is 5 for each. The composition can be landscape or portrait using the 1:78 aspect ratio. The designs should be rough with NO COLOR. You may use Black, White and shades of GRAY, but do NOT use COLOR for this assignment.
African Tribal Reference:
Stone Age Props (Primal) -
Iron Age Props (Mad Max) -
Your final design should begin to look like a poster showing the conflict inherent in the video game. We will add color the following week.
Print out your final designs or add them to a thumb drive so they can be projected for review.
