These images include some character designs, and one mood art piece portraying the protagonist. They were created using watercolors – specifically Sumi-E watercolor paints, which seem to have a remarkable texture and opacity when manipulating them.
A Watercolor Mood Art Piece
Underling One
Underling Two
Our Protagonist's Sidekick
Overall I think the second underling’s features have a slightly sliding quality that needs to be corrected, but the coloration of these models is spot on. Notice how loud the color palette is for the underlings in particular. These tones are actually quite typical of the Victorian era, which tended towards rich primaries that have almost a violently seedy quality to them at times. In truth I love these shades – saturated, almost gaudily so – they’re reflective of colors we saw in horror films by Hammer studios rather than those represented in modern-day features. Think of the sepia washes that we like to use to portray the Victorian period, or the desaturated pall that some filmmakers believe evokes the past. Bright colors – particularly reds and golds – can evoke a horror and unsettling mood all their own, as this game will hopefully prove at the end of its creation.
Four of our team members are over in Calabasas learning Emergent’s fabulous Gamebryo Lightspeed engine. The days are long, but definitely fascinating. This engine seems both like a lot of work and a lot of fun at the same time. Kudos to the instant iteration system – you can edit the game, and save or export the block file and *instantly* see the update to the game right away! I can’t wait to see what we’ll learn tomorrow. ^_^
Meet our protagonist: a prostitute in Victorian London about to come against one of the most infamous murderers in history. Recovering from a career of dubious import, and an opium addiction of similar repute, she’s both strong and wary – strained and yet innovative.
I sculpted this head to be used as an orthographic model for Alice. The photographs will be imported into Maya and used as references for the digital sculpting that will occur within. It’s rough, and there are some slight burs that occurred while baking the head (which was made with Sculpey – gotta love that stuff). Also, the jawline is somewhat uneven, which needs to be corrected. What’s best taken from the head is the expression of constant tension. This is a woman on the cusp of dramatic action – never neutral, she is always about to innovate and pursue plans that she must put into action on impulse.
Tired, weary, an underling of an unforgiving city – she’s ready to come to life.