Visual Arts and Animation: Lava Creature

This week's last was to create a 'dark, rocky lava creature with a cracked surface'. I really enjoyed this task as I got to design something cool looking and put some of our most recent Photoshop techniques into practice to make something I'm very proud of. The initial design sketches yielded some interesting results. I toyed with the idea of having a lava lizard with rocky scales and a big mouth pouch full o' lava, I also sketched out another creature, armoured and evil looking, but both of these sketches and ideas felt more like individual characters rather than creatures.

I'm actually very fond of both of these designs, and I'll likely work them up in the future and use them for something else. The design I settled on for this however, was something a little more traditional. I went for a lava rock golem, as I felt it best showed off the lava aspect of the creature designs. I also like how even from the sketch, it looks as though it could have erupted from the ground with cracks rubble covering its body. This, combined with the opportunity to test out the skills we learnt in the most recent lesson made me choose this design.

I then went about recreating this pencil sketch in Photoshop. I started by laying down some flat grey colours, and using a number of Multiply layers to add in different levels of tone. The addition of shadow really made the flat, sharp edges of the rock pop out, and the highlights helped to make the shapes more defined and detailed. I began toying around with the colour of the rock, and the lava within the creature.

After deciding to stick to a traditional colour, I used a combination of painting, lava textures and images and layer styles to make my lava. I then found a nice stylised lava environment on the internet, which I dropped in the background to add some context and sense of place, and it really completes the image. I definitely want to create some of my own landscapes and environments in the future, but for this piece, the one I chose works very well.

The Molten Golem Brutes are sentient lava beings wrought from the core of a volcano and enslaved, used as a personal army for the highest bidder. The creatures are naturally aggressive and dangerous; their ability to shift and change their shape due to their molten lava core makes them a lethal opponent to even the most skilled fighter.

Visual Arts and Animation: T Rex Preliminary Mesh

For Robin's Maya lesson we started to model a Tyrannosaurus Rex. This was a basic low detail, low poly mesh, but the shape is already present which is quite nice. *UPDATE* Managed to finish modelling the T Rex, struggled with the hands so I decided to leave them rather than compromise the overall quality of the mesh and the tidy edge flow. Very happy with the result.

Visual Arts and Animation: Lava Creature - Lesson

Here's the lava creature I created in the lesson from the reference picture. I'm pleased with how he looks, as he's very close to how I first pictured him when I saw the picture. I think the lava effect and composition is very effective. I do prefer the version with the black outlines; it looks like a Borderlands creature, a style I'm very fond of.

Lego Marvel Characters

Sortie: One Sheet

Just finished the first draft of our one sheet. We have settled on the name Sortie, as it is a flying term used to describe a solitary mission with one ship, which sums it up pretty well. Also, compared to our other names, it's great. Happy with how this is looking.

Project Balloon: Marco 3D Model Rough Model.

An initial foray in Mudbox, tried sculpting Marco but it didn't go so well, think he'd be better suited to being modelled in Maya. Excuse the nakedness.

Visual Arts and Animation: Mudbox

We had a guest teacher in today who gave us an introduction to Mudbox and sculpting. I have been waiting to start sculpting more organic shapes for a while so I loved this lesson. I was very pleased with how my dinosaur turned out, and even the little test sphere came out well; I turned it into a planet because why not?

Visual Arts and Animation: Pixel Art

Pixel Art from last week. Quite enjoyed this work. Not sure it's my strong point but it was fun nonetheless. Might have to try out some more pixel art in the coming weeks.

Project Balloon: Modelling the First Airship

I've spent the last couple of days modelling a preliminary model of the airship we are going to use in the game. This is only a rough model for now, but it's good to see the idea coming together. The way I envision it, Marco, our protagonist, was a humble sky fisher and this was his handmade vessel. But in the wake of the attack, he became the last line of defense and made some DIY adjustments to his ship, making it combat ready. So the look and feel of the ship should be very rough and hand made. This was why when I made the wooden textures that are used on the ship and the figure head, I wanted to make it look like the paint was flaking away, and that it had been bolted together in a slapdash fashion.

Games Encounters: Project Balloon Concept Art