Reworking old game art ideas 3

I am back to reworking old game ideas and this time using a lot of my own brushes.

Here are some sketches that I did  while testing my brushes:

Pencil and Watercolour tests

Watercolour and Ink tests

Oil/Acrylic paints tests

And here is mock-up 'screenshots’ for the games:

Fianna

As I have mentioned in my previous post (week 7) I have decided to move back to using bright colours inspired by the original The Book of Kells (can also view it online at http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/index.php by using search option ) and also re-watched The Secret of Kells (2009)* animation to see how they dealt with the art style that was also was inspired by the actual The Book of Kells. 

Columba, Saint (521-597) and Jones, Henry (1605-1682). The Book of Kells: Gospel of Matthew, Portrait of Christ. [online image]. Manuscripts & Archives Research Library, Trinity College Dublin. Available from : http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/index.php [Accessed 5 January 2014]

The Secret of Kells. 2009. [online image] Available from: http://c8six.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/secret-of-kells.html [Accessed 5 January 2014]

Here is an image of work in progress with some colour reference (bottom right-hand corner) and changes to the background texture where I have tried imitating an old paper texture.

And here is a final image I came up with.

I think my new brush set definitely helped in producing a more of traditional media look, however the colour scheme and artwork ended up looking like the one from ‘The Secret of Kells’ animation even though it was not my intention. I think trying to replicate really closely actual Celtic art that can be seen in the real book of Kells is way too complicated, time consuming and possibly will not read well at all on a screen particularly for a game where player needs to see and understand what’s happening. If I was trying to do this type of art for my honours project I will need to really re-thing and re-design as well as test it more if it can work at all.

Conclusion: too complex and time consuming, won’t be using this art style for final production.

Books used for image references:

Bain, G. 1977. Celtic art: the methods of construction. Glasgow: Wm Maclellan Publisher

Courtney, D. 1988. The celtic art source book. Blandford.

Meehan, A. 1995. The dragon and the griffin: the Viking impact. Thames and Hudson

Meehan, A. 1995. The tree of life. Thames and Hudson

Dragonfly Dash

I've tried once  more to test the watercolour media look using a side view and see what I can do with the background plants: I wanted them to have that flowy watercolour look.

After considering art style from the actual gameplay view I have realised that it might be too confusing for a player to view it this way, as the background will get in a way: draw some unnecessary attention. Therefore, I have reverted back to the top down view and here is my final result.

I have used my custom brushes to create the final image: including the plant brush visible on a background). I think it looks much better than a previous attempt.  The player would have a feeling that there are certainly some plants below the flowers but the cool colour of the background makes it non-obtrusive. Flowers (obstacles which have to be avoided by the dragonfly) stand out well enough from the background by having warm and bright colours (reds, yellows) and the actual insects are black. Dragonfly is different from the other insects (dragonflies food) as it has red eyes and is much larger in size. Red trail drawn using stylus or finger shows the path it will travel.

The game art style design has traditional media look as I have used images of real ink stains on paper and converted them in to Photoshop brushes (the base of poppy flowers).

I think this game art version looks nice and could be taken foreword through in to semester 2 of my honours project.

NoBoy

Instead of continuing with my idea of an orchard I have decided to try an underwater scene instead.

Here is a thumbnail image of my initial idea for environment and character I have scribbled on my mobile phone.

Here is my first stage where I also tried applying a Bas Relief  filter effect (a technique I have found out about in one of the Digital Masters books) to create paint on canvas  texture. I was trying to imitate texture of traditional paint on canvas. See example image in my week 8 post by Alexander Sigov.

First version without the filter effect.

Second version with the filter added and layered on top of the original painting where you can see the texture somewhat reminiscent of paint brush texture created on canvas.

And here is a final image I was able to create.

I am really happy with the outcome. I think the Bas Relief  filter effect really adds to the traditional media look. I have changed the underwater plants slighlty: used different colour and black outline to indicate them as interactable objects. The main character supposed to have come from the stars, therefore I have created a 'star' brush and used it to add pattern on its body and that way show that he was not a regular creature. It also has a black outline since it falls in to the same 'interactable object' category and it was logical to make it stand out from the backgound. What I do realised now is that I need to look in to the game design and UI (User Interface) design in particular as I find it really hard to come up  with the game design logics and interaction therfore design suitable HUD (Head-up Display).

*  The Secret of Kells. 2009. [animated film]. Directed by Tomm Moore. Belgium, Ireland and France: Les Armateurs Vivi Film, France 2 Cinéma, Canal +, Cartoon Saloon.