Concept Art Collaboration

For my concept art I am going to be collaborating with Deanna Hatton. So far I have discussed a range of different ideas that I am still investigating such as animal deities.

I really like the idea of having some kind of animal influence on the costume and colour scheme of the characters and possibly exploring anthropomorphism.

This idea has been highly influenced by Egyptian mythology and the Zodiac as well as general research into the different animals that appear in the seasons. I thought that applying animal traits would make for interesting design, personality and even behavioural qualities for the characters.

There are a lot of examples of anthropomorphism being used, especially in the fantasy genre. There are also a lot of fantasy creatures that take inspiration from living animals such as the Harpie and the Manticore.

Because I have so many sources of inspiration, I am going to create a series of annotated mood boards to help get my ideas across as well as setting up dates to meet up and further discuss ideas and progress.

Extended Practice Proposal

Based on ideas and research I gathered in the last module, specifically that of character design and development and world-building, I have quite a vivid idea of the project I want to tackle for the Extended Practice. To explain my idea, I'm going to regurgitate the majority of what I wrote in my Statement of Intent for this module with a few additional changes based on the feedback I was given.

Inspired by some world-building ideas for my last project, I want to create and develop a set of characters based on the four seasons. These characters are representative of Gods/Goddesses who possess the four basic elements befitting of their season. Depending which time of the year the people of this world are born, they would be gifted with the element for that season. However, exclusive of the seasonal theme, this is all subject to change in order to realise the story and aim of the game I am creating.

As well as designing and developing a set characters, I want to take it a step further and develop environments for these characters.

To assist the transition between seasons in my Unity walk through, I want to design and build the homes of the four characters. Starting Spring (because it's the season of new beginnings), the player would walk through a section of woodland before finding the home of the first character. After exiting the house via the back door, it will move on to the next stretch of woodland for the next season and will continue following this pattern until the player reaches winter.

The houses will be explorable and I want to allow the player to interact with their surroundings similar to that of the game Gone Home, which allows you to not only pick up items but to spin them around and examine them. This allows me to further explore the idea of visual narrative through environments and how I can make these homes representative of the characters without their presence. Following on from the use of visual narrative, I also want to somehow use it in order to shape a storyline and goal for the game. My initial thoughts was a detective-like scenario in which the player is looking for clues in order to help them progress the game, hence the rooting around homes. It works nicely with the interactive props and would be worth considering but at this moment in time it is just a starting point.

Sound design is going to be a another big part of this project as adding sound can completely transform the environment and bring it to life. Based on the feedback I've been given, I am now collaborating with someone for this area of the project. Joshua Scott will now be doing my sound design as he's kindly agreed to give me a helping hand. Most of our conversations regarding, ideas, brainstorming and progress will be done over the phone but I will do my best to condense our conversations and type them up, as it is of course, valuable research and development as well as proof of our roles within the project.

The end product for this project should take form of a Unity Walk through and a Game Design, Document which will showcase everything from Characters to environmental designs. 

Lynaea's Character Document

Forename: Lynaea    (Pronunciation: Li-nay-ah)

Meaning: “Flower”
Derived from the Linnaea borealis otherwise known as the Twinflower.

Surname: Valiant

Maiden Name: Corbett

Nickname: Lynn (Given to her by her lover)

Gender: Female

Age: 32

Birthday: 26^th February

Height: 5' 6”

Weight: 117lbs (53kg)

Blood type: A

Species: Human

Archetype: The Mother

Home town: Hafeld (Hay-feld)
Lynaea is a small town girl from a village on the outskirts of the Chalithe Vale. Since she came of age she decided to leave her village to see what the outside world had to offer. After meeting Isen she became a residence of Faleah (Fa-Lay) the City of Oaths where she lives the rest of her days.

After the world was thrown into chaos through the overuse of magic, the cities are no longer what they use to be. They are broken and desolate but those who survived have slowly started to build up to a better future, learning to live without magic. Although the cities are small and isolated the community is very close knit and although far, have good communication with the surrounding residence resulting in a positive network of trade.

Occupation: Seamstress / Tailor
Back in her hometown of Hafeld, Lynaea was the daughter of a Tailor and became her father's counterpart as a seamstress along with her mother. After leaving the village she found work where she could, working at the market stalls. She then eventually set up her own business in her current place of residence continuing her role as a seamstress with the added responsibilities of being a tailor. She earns a reasonable income through her shop located in the market district and through trading goods with other towns, which also results in good connections and regular customers.

By working as a seamstress, she has developed a great sense of time management and organisation. Her job also allows her to apply her natural talent for creativity and imagination, which is the unique selling point for her business and ultimately her products as they are beautifully presented and original in design. Her job has however given her quite the “perfectionist” outlook on everything she does, resulting in her becoming very critical of herself.

From a young age she was taught by her parents to study the art of making and typically spent most of her days growing up studying fabrics, textiles and fashion. She has since become highly dexterous and has a good eye for materials and design.

Personality:
Lynaea is a kind; benevolent and strong-willed woman who since entering married life is blindly devoted to her family. She is a very graceful and self-sacrificing individual who upholds her responsibilities as both a wife and a mother no matter the cost. She is at times hard to pin down, because she is quite mysterious, elusive and very indecisive as she has many personal conflicts. She also burdens herself with the feelings and problems of others as her sensitivity leads to her with an inability to reject others and is always compelled to help where she can. This makes her a very approachable individual as she holds limitless love and nurturing for those around her, giving off a feeling of warmth and welcoming about her.

Being a sensitive person, her inner conflicts of temperament and emotions are quite noticeable as she is constantly battling with herself to find a middle ground. She feels the extremes of emotions and sometimes comes across as overly sensitive resulting in her indecisive nature. However contrasting to these qualities, she is steadfast in her beliefs and willing to fight for what matters most to her. She is very intimidating and displays a stubborn side in her strongest form.

Distinguishing qualities: Positive and Negative

ñ Compassionate              Over-sensitive

ñ Adaptable                      Indecisive

ñ Accepting                      Self-pitying

ñ Devoted                        

ñ Creative

Primary motivators: New knowledge, Discovery, Grounding and Purpose

Likes: Discovery, Exploration, Learning, Family life, Romance and Advising.

Dislikes: Bad manners, Rejection and Confrontation,


Family:

ñ Parents: Mother: Celeste (Ke-lee-st)     Father: Saelon (Say-len)

Lynaea is an only child who never knew the joys of having siblings but she was however very close to her parents. The family business was initially what brought her, and her parents - particularly her father - quite close. They seemed to share the same level of creativity, skill and enjoyment for the baking allowing them to understand each other on a different level. Her parents were very proud of her interest in the business with a hope that she would some day take over but Lynaea's heart yearned to learn more about the outside world. When she came of age she wanted to leave the village however her parents didn't approve. Frustrated and upset that her parents wouldn't respect her decision and allow her freedom, combined with her father's eagerness to inherit and run the family business, she ran away to seek a life of her own and one day receive their blessing.

Since falling in love and gradually building up a stable life of her own, her parents realised they were wrong from wanting to keep her from finding her own dreams. They apologised for their selfishness and made the effort to make up for lost time by regularly meeting Lynaea and her family, spending quality time together.

ñ Spouse: Isen Valiant (Eye-zun)

Lynaea's relationship with Isen runs very deep as their relationship developed through what was originally a friendship. Due to the nature of the progression from friends to lovers, they share a deeper level of understanding for one another that other's would long for.

Lynaea and Isen met as a result of Lynaea's travels and urge for discovery and new knowledge after leaving her home town. She stumbled upon him in the City of Illusions where she returned a personal possession of his, after losing it among the crowds of people. From this day onwards they met up regularly as friends and grew closer to each other over time.

They lived a difficult life, as there were issues with Lynaea’s parents at the beginning. They also struggled for work and drifted from city to city until finally settling in Faleah (Fa-lay) the City of Oaths where they set up a tailor business. They lived in a flat located above the shop and started a comfortable life together and eventually started a family. They had a son who they named Elson after Isen’s father. At this point Lynaea’s parents realised that she was truly happy and didn’t want to be absent grandparents. So, they made peace with the couple and are involved quite a lot in their day-to-day life especially concerning their son Elson.

ñ Children: Son: Elson

Elson is an only child who until recently was a very healthy and active boy. Elson, for some reason has always favoured his father over his mother making Lynaea’s job very difficult in terms of brining him up. Isen is usually always away from home as he is part of the knight’s watch for the town and worked very long days and long nights. He eventually went missing and was assumed dead leaving Lynaea and Elson to continue on. This left both Elson and Lynaea in a really bad state of depression but as the only parent left Lynaea brought in on herself to stay strong for Elson despite his cold attitude towards her.

Appearance:
Lynaea is strikingly beautiful and innocent in appearance and could be compared to that of a fair maiden. She has short brown hair and green eyes to both contrast and compliment the soft tones of her hair, complete with a fair complexion.

She wears a lot of loose hanging clothing and has quite a build up of layers. Her clothing mainly consists of fabrics and leathers enough to provide her with protection but not too overboard and heavy on her frame.

The colour palette chosen for her is based on the Linnaea borealis in which her name derives from. Tones of pink also compliment her personality and motherly disposition, as it is a feminine and delicate colour denoting warmth, romance and tenderness.

How the Character is Involved in the Story?

Character's role: Heroine


In what way has the character changed through their journey?
Through the events that took place prior to the abuse of magic, her husband went missing and is assumed dead therefore she had to learn to cope on her own and developed a strong sense of independence that she didn't have before.

During the journey she learn the truth about her husbands disappearance and finds closure, peace and emotional stability. 


Throughout the journey she also develops a strong bond with her only son as they work through quarrels and emotional struggles bringing them closer and allowing a better understanding of one another.

Final Design

This is Lynaea's final design. At first, I really struggled with the realisation of her colour scheme an applying it to her costume, which is why her development was still in monochrome. I got frustrated with the digital drawings and so decided to have a go with pencils and paints.

This is her finished design that has been awfully coloured with coloured pencils but it's enough to show what I want it to. I tried to do a breakdown of her costume to better understand how they are worn and to show the full design of her costume as some of it is covered up.

The next image (Bottom Left) was just to better show the gradient of her petal-like skirt as it was difficult to properly show this through coloured pencils. I was also still on a break from the computer and wanted to continue using other mediums for my character development. 

I did eventually pluck up the courage to attempt another digital drawing and this is what I managed. Her design changed a lot from my initial ideas, especially the hair and colours.

She originally had long pink hair which was to be tied back in a braided fashion but I settled for a short brown style. I think that shorter hairstyles are more associated with a mature look especially pixie hair cuts. It's also still tidy and presentable so I still managed to keep the initial ideas behind her hairstyle.

I also had to change her hair brown as there would have been way too much pink otherwise. I think brown hair quite nicely balances out her colour scheme as it breaks up the pink and whites as it is well distributed on her outfit (hair, gloves, corset, boots).

Digital Character Designs

I have been developing Lynaea's design through sketchbooks, all of which will be submitted on disk. But I selected just a few designs and recreated them in digital form for my dissertation. I tried to pick a varied selection to show the different ideas and looks I considered. Through all the designs there are lots of loose clothing with a mix of fabric and leathers. I did however, try metal armour in very little but necessary areas of protection, but feel that the leather fits in better with her colour scheme.

Corsets and bustiers were considered to be a very fashionable item of clothing in the medieval era as it enhanced the woman’s natural shape, and gave the illusion of wider hips. I wanted to include the use of corsets in my designs, as it would make a good template or starting point for designing armour. I am however aware that a corset brings much attention to the chest region, therefore, I wanted to have lots of loose hanging clothing to cleverly cover areas of attention, and hide her physique while still maintaining an attractive overall look and feminine figure.

So far I really like the petal-like skirt, the short cape and neck/shoulder piece. I think my final design will definitely be a combination of all these things as I feel that together they would create the kind of shape i'm looking for.