I'd like to blog about the process on the project, talking about the overall project as well as a focus on what I have been doing. This will be a weekly thing and will contain all the work of the week within it. For these weeks prior to the start of the project however, i will be putting all my work into this one blog post.
10/12
To kick off the R&D break of Christmas, I started by adding a lot of what was in my head and on the presentation to the mindmap, and also started to write some cards onto the Trello board. I originally gave myself the story ideas and character design tasks, however Danny asked if i had done anything on the story yet and decided he'd like to take it upon himself to make a story due to his experience with RP. After talking a while with him about it William joined into the conversation asking about the character creator and said he's going to get to work on a prototype for one in unity.
11/12
For the second day i didnt't do as much as the first, but i did start to research on how exactly to approach the character designs thinking about how they will be animated.
I looked at this blog and this video about the 2D RPG Super Neptunia RPG. From these i got that after making my designs for the character i should make an idle pose for them. This idle pose can then be spliced up and animated in software.
13/12
Started to make some moodboards, starting with a human moodboard. I felt that this would be a good place to start for character design because it will be best to have a basis from which i can work. Using a human design for a character i can:
Branch off and design a Felis character, who are just humans with cat features
I can work out how changing options will work in character creation
I can look into how the characters will be animated
Games with character creation like to have a character that they can use in marketing material and be like the face of the game. For example, FFXIV:
The character they use for all promotional material is a male human with a basic apperance, it's also the what the default is in the character creator. Therefore, I want to design a basic looking human appearance for both Male and Female sexes and then work from there for the other races that are similar to Human.
Here is the moodboard I created rather quick:
There are some renders of FFXIV Hyurs, which are humans, and also some art for the game. There's also some art of characters from FFTactics, Aragon from LotR, art of a game character knight, and some facial portraits of people.
I'm not used to making moodboards and i don't use them much as i only have one monitor so looking at one is a bit of a stuggle. I'll slowly add more images to this as i need them.
Thinking now about what i have gotten from this moodboard:
Theres a difference between cultures when it comes to fantasy worlds. West = Long hair + beards, Japan = Pretty boy look unless they're old
I should try to make some portrait shots and also a full body concept
Different races/builds of humans, like highlander and midlander in ffxiv
Sketch some character designs with the more western appearance and the more japanese appearance.
Maybe a race specific outfit like ffxiv has.
Moodboard for outfits, this may be used for any race but this will first be used for the human idea:
Once again, not too sure on how to best get ideas. I started by looking at the race specific gear from ffxiv (bottom left) and then realised i'm taking too much inspiration from the one game and went to look elsewhere with Neptunia, Atelier and some anime's. I also looked at some darksoul armour and other fantasy games with the more medieval look.
Currently in terms of outfits for the game i want to make a race specific outfit as well as some armour. In most JRPG games i've found that the look of the character doesn't change when they equip armour, instead it just boosts their stats. This is something i will have to go over with my team as this may cause more workload if i have to make armour designs.
So in terms of what i will do next:
Head designs for a human character
Thumbnail full body design with a race outfit
Worked upon until detailed
Look at how things are changed for CC
Give life to the character in the form of a pose
Don't make it highly detailed as this should be the base character build
After this, if i feel happy with everything i will try to make an idle pose for that character that i can then work towards animating.
14/12
Today i'm going to start on the tasks i set myself yesterday. I started off by creating 3 simple outfit ideas while looking at my moodboards and also a head design.
16/12
After doing some other work i came back to my designs and started to refine them.
First with the head design and then with the outfit:
I didn't really use any reference for this outfit design, it kinda just came from my head. I was trying to come up with an adventurer look and I was thinking how adventurer's slay monster and use their fur for clothes, so that's why they have fur around their collar and on their boots. For why I chose to have them shirtless, this person is most likely not entering cold climates and is accustomed to warmer climates.
I think the idea is a solid start and could maybe use some work. Possibly working on the boots and pants for starters. I think i'm gonna branch off and design the individual sections separately to add more detail.
Progress
This really feels like an adventurer look to me. The wolf pelt coat possibly being made from wolves they've hunted and the fur around the boots being similar. The trousers/pants have pockets for storage and the belt allows bags to be attached to them.
This outfit design is what i will use as a base outfit for the human male character for now, and will adjust it into an outfit for a female character and also make a different design that exposes less skin if the player prefers that.
List of notes:
What choices i want as a goal:
2 Races, Human and Felis
2 body options (Sex) Female and Male
2 body options (Build) Slim and Built
3 hair styles
2 Race options, ear types and tail types (Felis)
Outfit options, amount of skin shown
Outfits are race based and class based.
Race outfits are based around the lore of the race
Class outfits are based around the class, for example a knight tank class would have lots of armour while a magic class will have robes or magic enthused gear.
2 race outfits per race and body sex, 4 per race, 8 in total
1 class outfit per class, 2/3 classes.
What i will be making:
Character creation options
4 character models, 4 skeletons
8 race outfits
2/3 outfits
How i want to approach this
Make a skeleton rig for the male idle model
Low detail design of the male idol pose on the skeleton rig
Practice animating the model somehow
- Back to college -
Continue practicing animating the model
Detailed design of the male idle pose on the skeleton rig
Design customisation options for that character
- The rest will be decided based on whats happening with the project -
I've decided to take a break over the christmas period and not do anymore work on the character design. However, i've purchased Super Neptunia RPG which i have been using as reference throughout this project idea to get a more solid idea of how the game works, feels and plays. This will hopefully allow me to get a better understanding of how to make the game project that i can also pass on to my team.
I've recorded some short clips of the start of the game to look at as reference. These show different gameplay features as well as the character, enemy and level design. I hope these clips will help not only myself but also my team to make the best possible product in the time we have.
Now i've taken a look at the game and got some reference, and an idea of level design, i'm going to try to look at the idle models in the game more closely to get a proper idea of how they work and are animated from, then i'll try to create my own skeleton rig for the basic character and from there i will make a low detail version of the character, thinking only slightly about the overall aesthetic of the game with the more detailed design of the character being closer to the actual aesthetic of the game.
I started off by analysing three character models, two of which are NPCs while the third is the players character. Theres a clear difference between the direction the NPCs are looking at compared to the PC, so the better reference would be the PC one.
From here I made a silouette skeleton of the character.
Which i then used as a reference to make one for a male character
From here i took it into Unity and started to try rigging the skeleton for animation. It is a bit janky currently, with certain parts stretching or compressing where they shouldnt and the lack of ability to move the fingers but it is a good start. From here i will try to make the first character, which shall become the basic character option.
Continued in Week 1