Concept Artists

This post is going to be the master list of all concept arts that need to be drawn, who is drawing them, and what source images tere are for each. I'll keep updating this post to reflect new material. Oh and BTW if you have a question about anything you are supposed to be drawing, don't forget to check the Design Doc to see if it answers you question - that's what it's there for, to describe everything that needs to go into the game. :)



Characters Currently Available To Be Drawn

Kitten the cute innocent catgirl -

Quote:

Young (16-18), short, curvy and a bit on the plump side, with a pretty face. Peachy or lightly tanned skin. Big sparkling eyes, short hair, cat ears, and a cute tail. Tail and hair should be the same color and texture. Her personality is kind, innocent, cute, and helpful. http://members.cox.net/wickeddelight1/kittenfullbody1.jpg Only problem with this source image is that she doesn't look quite as young and helpful as we are looking for. Feel free to change the hair style or draw a few alternative hairstyles, improve on the anatomy, use a different pose, etc.

kittenfullbody1
kittenfullbody2
Desiderada the vampy gothic 1920s hermaphrodite

Quote:

Desiderada is a techno, and like all technos sie looks androgynous and gothic. Desiderada is slender and vampy - sie needs to have the same swaying, slinky seductiveness as the character Jessica Rabbit from _Who Framed Roger Rabbit_. Lots of makeup, sexy pose (one hip sticking out?), eyes showing that sie is very intelligent and watching everything that goes on, ready to manipulate it to be more to her advantage if necessary. Probably has a big elegant tattoo on hir back. Maybe one on hir forehead and/or cheek also. Clothing will likely include thigh-high stockings.

Desideradafullbody1

Follow the stocky boyish submissive hermaphrodite

Quote:

Follow is the second techno character. Sie is stocky and cute in a shy way, looking like a boyish woman with broad hips. Sie is somewhat atypical for a techno in that sie wears little or no makeup, less revealing clothing, and no obvious tattoos or cybernetic augmentations. Short glossy black hair. Perpetual shy blush.

attranath1
followfullbody1 (should look less grumpy and more shy)

Characters Who Will Be Available Later
- RNPCs
An athletic techno (Diamond/Flaw)
A magical female with wings
A seduceable spiritual
A human of each gender

- NPCs
A non-seduceable spiritual; friend or relative to the seduceable one
The Oldest Spiritual
Many other NPCs of all races including 11-12 humans

Notes on Characters: I am going to want one person to do all the lineart design for the main characters so they match in style. I haven't decided who this is going to be yet, if you want this job you need to compete for it by doing a sample character design for one of the 5 available characters. (PM me for details if I haven't already sent them to you.) If you are not chosen, don't despair - this applies only to the 10-11 major characters. Everyone will be allowed to design some minor characters later if they want to.


Web Graphics, Logos, GUI
Title Font and Tapestry Logo -
Flash Intro - to include character concept art and tapestry logo.
Other Website Graphics
The Game's GUI


Racial Categories To Be Designed
Magical Hair -
Techno Hair -
bicolormohawk
crimpytufts
flatmohawk
greenfluffyhair
hedgehog
spiderwebbraids
spiralmohawk
starmohawk
Spiritual Ki Ribbons And Bodypaint(?)
Human Hair
Magical Clothing and Jewelry
Techno Clothing, Jewelry, And Tattoos
Tribal Tattoos
Circuits for Tattoos
(spirituals don't wear clothing.)
Human Clothing
Magical Anthro Traits
Techno Metal Bod-mods
Spiritual Mutant Bodies
parasiteeve1
parasiteeve2
shamanicprincess1
shamanicprincess2
spawnangel
owlofdecay
Magical Architecture
runic sculpture
Techno Architecture
Spiritual Architecture
Human Architecture
Magical Furniture And Items
Techno Graffiti, Furniture, And Items
Spiritual Furniture And Items
Human Furniture And Items
Magical Monsters
Techno Robots
Spirtual Mutant Monsters


Locations To Be Designed
Villains' Stronghold (Major feature: ritual magic circle, jail cell)

Quote:

Jail Call Description "Skew takes his report [about who and what the PC is] back to the major villain, and the major villain then orders Skew to capture the PC. Skew's previous little taste of having power over someone was intoxicating, so when the villain orders him to capture the PC Skew is eager to play with his role as captor. He kidnaps the PC with the aid of techno robot soldiers and puts the PC in a cage/jail cell. The PC is the first person Skew has ever captured, just as Skew is the first person who has ever held the PC captive, so Skew is just as new to being a captor as the PC is to being a captive, and Skew's inexperience makes him uncertain and he makes mistakes which reveal his emotional vulnerability and attraction to the PC." "...to reassure himself that the people he's dealing with deserve his hostility Skew has unconsciously developed the habit of 'testing' people by offering them a mocking show of affection. In this case Skew treats the PC like a pet, patting the him/her on the head and feeding him/her tidbits. Skew even feels morally superior at this point because he is treating his prisoner more humanely than he was treated; he was beaten by magical bullies but he does not hurt the PC." So - a cage jail cell with the cell on the left and the 'free' area on the right. The jail cell needs to have an animal cage-like barred door, and we need to be able to see the areas on both sides of the bars at the same time, because the PC and Skew will be having a few conversations through them. The center of the room should be inside the jail cell, because the player should feel trapped in a cage, and should be able to search around the walls and door trying to find a way to escape. Probably want one of those shelf-beds on the wall opposite the door. The cell is in the basement, so no windows, perhaps shadowy lighting but no open flames because this in a higher-tech area of the game. Might be able to see stairs going up on the 'free' side of the room behind where Skew will stand.

Magical Town (major feature: cathedral or academy)
Techno Domed City (major feature: mall)

Quote:

The techno city is to have art nouveau style architecture done in a dark/futurisic colorscheme to give it a cyberpunk/gothic feel. So everything should be twisty and sculptural with metal filigree (in tribal and circuit patterns) for detailing and artistic use of colored glass and light. Thus techno robot monsters will look somewhat like suits of armor in gargoyle and humanoid shapes, except for the ones intended as pets which will be covered in faux fur. The colorscheme should be black with shiny highlights of midnight blue, electric blue, silver, brass, gunmetal, chrome blue, computer green, citrine yellow, and sunset reds and oranges. Historically art nouveau pieces often have plant and animal motifs, but this is not appropriate for the technos - instead motifs should be celestial (stars, suns, rocketships), mechanical (gears and circuits), chemical (mushroom clouds and nuclear symbols), and abstract tribal shapes.

Art Nouveau - Stairs
Art Nouveau - Lamp (I'm imagaining this lamp, tree-sized, as a sculptural lamppost inside the mall or in a park.)
Art Nouveau - Lamp2
Art Nouveau - Window
Art Nouveau - Filigree
Art Nouveau - Filigree on black
Spiritual Utopian Commune (major feature: library/museum)
FF7 - Nibel Mountains 1
FF7 - Nibel Mountains 2
FF7 - Nibel Mountains 3
FF7 - Nibel Mountains 4
FF7 - Mythril Mines 1
FF7 - Mythril Mines 2 (Thanks PnP Bios! :) )
FF7 - Crater 1
FF7 - Crater 2
FF7 - Crater 3
FF7 - Inside Cloud's Mind 1
FF7 - Inside Cloud's Mind 2
Thanks to ArchWizard for valiantly fightng through FF7 to capture these elusive screenshots of the ice caves for us! :)
Ice Caves 1
Ice Caves 2
Ice Caves 3
Cliff Dwellings - Manitou 1
Cliff Dwellings - Ladder
Cliff Dwellings - Gila 1
Cliff Dwellings - Gila 2
Cliff Dwellings - Mesa Verde 1
Cliff Dwellings - Mesa Verde 2
Cliff Dwellings - Mesa Verde 3
Cliff Dwellings - Mesa Verde 4
Cliff Dwellings - Mesa Verde 5
Cliff Dwellings - Mesa Verde 6
Cliff Dwellings - Mesa Verde 7
Cliff Dwellings - Mesa Verde 8

Tree Roots - Ta Prohm 1
Tree Roots - Ta Prohm 2
Tree Roots - Ta Prohm 3
Tree Roots - Ta Prohm 4
Tree Roots - Ta Prohm 5
Tree Roots - Ta Prohm 6
Tree Roots - Ta Prohm 7
Tree Roots - Ta Prohm 8
Tree Roots - Ta Prohm 9
Tree Roots - Ta Prohm 10
Tree Roots - Angkor Wat 1
Tree Roots - Angkor Wat 2
Tree Roots - Angkor Wat 3
Tree Roots - Angkor Wat 4
Tree Roots - Miscellaneous 1
Tree Roots - Miscellaneous 2
Tree Roots - Miscellaneous 3
Tree Roots - Miscellaneous 4
Tree Roots - Miscellaneous 5
Tree Roots - Miscellaneous 6
Tree Roots - Miscellaneous 7
Tree Roots - Miscellaneous 8

Gemstones - Opal
Gemstones - Malachite
Gemstones - Goldstone
Gemstones - Tiger's Eye
Gemstones - Paua Shell
Gemstones - Labradorite
Gemstones - Agate
Gemstones - Fluorite and Tourmaline
Gemstones - Gemstone Cutting Shapes
Human Patched-Together Settlement
Competition Field Between Magicals And Technos
General Location Examples - Riven


Natural Wonders To Be Designed
A fountain
A waterfall
A trellis archway with vines - maybe a whole gazebo
Lots of trees: flowering, fruit-bearing, leafy, and pine
Tree Bark - Splitting
Tree Bark - Peeling
Tree Bark - Camouflage
Tree Bark - Scaly
Tree Bark - Gnarled
Tree Bark - Stringy
Thorns, Spikes, Quills
Leaf Types 1
Leaf Types 2
flower Shapes
Bushes and grasses
Skys, clouds, suns, moons, stars, a rainbow...
Landscapes: mountains, meadow, dirt road, city street...



That should be about everything. If you see anything you feel inspired to draw, speak up! :)



Completed Concepts! ^_^

Characters:
Lion the big muscle warrior - Done! Drawn by MeowMeowMeow

Quote:

Lion is 21-24 years old, a football quarterback type - tall with broad shoulders, bulging muscles, and a stance that shows he is very comfortable and confident with his body and always eager for some action to start. Particularly he should have a strong, cleft, masculine jaw. A good pose for him might be a cowboy pose, wth hips thrust forward and thumbs hooked through belt loops.

kinfullbodyproportions2 (anatomy only, Lion should have a build like this but a different face and anthro traits.)
helion (neat cat eyes and battle scars)
flyingnekomimi (Lion's tail could be like this.)
Race Proportions (See the male magical.)

Skew the angsty bishounen minor villain - Done! Drawn by MeowMeowMeow
(Slightly Tweaked Skew by sunandshadow)

Quote:

Skew should be slender with medium breadth shoulders, narrow waist and hips, and long legs. He has a little muscle but not much - his ribs might show a little. His height is 5'6"-5'8". His hair should be at least shoulder length - you may want to make the style somewhat remeniscent of a horse's forelock and mane, but this is optional. Skew grew up being bullied - consequently he is defensive, using a shell of contempt and anger to cover up the fact that he subconsciously feels inferior and is starving for love. If you want to read more about Skew's life and issues, there's about 6 pages on him in the design doc. ;) Skew tends to look at people over his shoulder and out of the corner of his eye. He tends to stand with his arms crossed defensively, or one hand on his hip tauntingly. Common facial expressions are a sneer, a lonely look, lips pressed together and eyes narrowed in anger, and a smug smirk. Good reference characters: Tomo from Fushigi Yuugi, Snape from Harry Potter, Grima Wormtongue from The Lord of the Rings.

skewfullbody3
skewfacecolor

[Edited by - sunandshadow on May 5, 2005 9:36:47 PM]

Hello,

I'm Hallow (sometimes known as Context).

I'm an animation student at Seneca college and I like to draw.

I am a professional Windmill jouster so my fear-mongering attempts should be taken with at least TWO grains of salt, possibly three.

Umm...

And I'm off to draw.

Artists, check out this gorgeous anime character model someone posted in gamedev's art forum! Imagine your concept art being modelled that beautifully in the completed game!

Hey, I'm George!

I'll certainly take over the vague "Other Website Graphics" category if you like, S/S. Besides that, I'm drawing lots of things that just don't look good. Maybe I'll try some of the natural stuff and see how that turns out.

AG - Webgraphics will be helpful, and another thing you can do if you have time is find and upload concept art images for any of these categories. I found some techno hair ones and some architecture ones, and of course I have done sketches of some of the characters and races, but we will need lots more. My highest priorities at the moment, however, are the race names and the gameplay design, so if you have limited time concentrate your efforts on those, k? :)

Hallow, I was thinking about what you said about crystals going more with the spirituals, and I think you were right and I was wrong. What do you think of the spirituals living in a glowing, shimmering Mesa Verde-type cliff dwelling/cave complex?

Visual references from FF7:
- Mythril Mines
- Nibel Mountains
- Great Glacier

That would be quite interesting I think. I am thinking though that the spirituals are so highly individual that there really wouldn't be a good way to classify there environments except as "unique". Certainly one spiritual could live in a glowing geodesic crystal but others are just as likely to live in a house made of one perpetually renewing bubble floating endlessly at the edge of a waterfall or inside of the root structure or a tree.

I think they should definately enhabit fantastic environments but I think we weaken the concept of the species if we give them a singular "look" for all the spirituals homes.

Well, the spirituals are not as obsessed with appearance and uniqueness as the technos. I was thinking the pretty flows of stone would be a side-effect of the way the spirituals can mentally command stone to shape itself into floors, steps, etc,, rather than something they purposelydid for the sake of being artistic. Also I was thinking that the most indvidualistic spirituals probably live away from their commune-city, and the basic architecture of the city was probably built all at one time long in the past, and the present spirituals just move into whatever apartment is available. They probably neglect the maintainence of the city just like they neglect the maintainance of the Library/Museum. They're kind of like the Eloi in Wells' _The Time Machine_, only instead of ignorant apathy they have knowledgable apathy. Or like mad scentists who don't care whether the house is falling apart as long as it doesn't interfere with their projects.

But yeah, I agree that we don't want their houses to look all the same.

Well, perhaps they aren't doing it for uniqueness, they just make their houses how they want to. They might have a common theme throughout (for continuities' sake) but should look different, like Hallow said...

"How they want to" meaning for practical or artistic reasons? The spirituals are ascetics and more interested in function than appearance. I was thinking bare stone would create a nice feel of them being like zen monks living in an ancient monastery up in the mountains, far from civilization...

BTW I apologize for my ideas about the spirituals not being very consistent, my vision of them is still foggy and confused, that's why we need to have a thread to discuss them.

My project for the next few days will be stone and plant source images, so if anyone has any favorite gemstones or plants they want to see in the game, let me know. ;) Note that I added some spiritual city concept art in the second post in this thread, and I should have a few more added later tonight or tomorrow. :)

Hibiscus-like flowers would seem to fit well. Giant ones. [grin]

Ooh, and amethysts. Royal purple, you know?





Of course, they might be more interesting in natural form, in a huge outcropping of quartz. Make for a spectacular entrance or something of the like. I remember the Ice Caves in Zelda OoT that looked something like this...

(like this, but with purple).

That's a nice example of a crystal cluster. :) The only thing I don't like about amethysts is that they're clear and all one color. I'm looking more for mottled stones becase they would look more natural in a cave. But if you lke purple, heck out the fluorite and tourmaline page, some of those are lvey purples. :)

I'm done doing gemstones now I think. Plants next then, I guess.

Kay, figured out why I'm a terrible concept artist. I can't draw things I can't see. I can at least piece several things together to make something "new" but I don't really think in visual terms, which creates problems. So... >.> I can still do web graphics, never had a problem with that, but still having lots of trouble with anything else.

Umm... yeah sorry for not posting much recently. I have just gotten some kind of horrible cold/flu/chronic illness that makes doing things like breathing a difficult and exhausting concept.

I'll (hopefully) be back up to full strength within a day or two.

This is playing merry hell with my school schedule.

I'm having problems this week too. Replaying FF7 for research has temporarily eaten my life, none of the other concept artists are answering my emails, I'm overdue for my latest game review assignment, and trying to move out of our apartment is turning out to be a very expensive nightmare for my roommate and I... I guess I'll try to get the game review written and finish FF7 this week, and then focus my efforts on getting some work done here again. So it's helpful that you guys don't need me to give you any immediate instructions...

Heh, well, let's all get caught up with school/work/sickness and everything for a couple of days, then [smile]. I'm just getting over the side effects of this awful medicine, and I'm not up to doing much yet either.

Quote:

Original post by Avatar God Kay, figured out why I'm a terrible concept artist. I can't draw things I can't see. I can at least piece several things together to make something "new" but I don't really think in visual terms, which creates problems. So... >.> I can still do web graphics, never had a problem with that, but still having lots of trouble with anything else.

I've been thinking about this, and you know, I don't really think visually either. I mean, I can imagine shapes and simple colors, but not complicated stuff. But I don't have any problem doing concept art because the method I use works around that limitation. Have you read the entries in my developer journal about how to do concept art? Hallow, you might want to glance at these too, just so you're familiar with how I think about the process of creating concept art.

Basically the idea is to first get a firm idea in your mnd about what the thing you're designing needs to accomplish. Then get a bunch of source images, look through them picking out shapes you like, perhaps sketching these all onto one sheet of paper so you can look at them all at once. Then you do a couple of lineart drafts until you're happy with the arrangement/proportion/pose, repeat adding detail, then finally worry about color.

But if you'd rather do artwork that doesn't require concepting, I'm sure we'll need some of that done too. For example, I could really use one clean and perfectly detailed crystal heart (see Gemstone Cutting Shapes source image), done in photoshop using layers so we can switch the colors around easily.

But respond to the Spirituals thread first, that's a higher priority. ;)

[Edited by - sunandshadow on January 28, 2005 4:14:44 PM]