Specification/Brief

So I wrote myself the 'project specification/Brief' for this project. This is only a draft at the moment and still needs approval from the University Lecturers. I think the budgets I have set are reasonable and within sensible limits.

Here it is -------

Project Outline

Produce a series of concepts and models from and in the style of Joe Madureira’s ‘Battle Chasers’ comic. There must be a minimum of 3 complete models, at least 1 of which must be completely designed by me.

The models must show good appreciation of the final aesthetic, proportion, colour, silhouette and detail density and accurately depict the characters from the comic.  The meshes must be well laid out, with clean flow lines in the geometry and include efficient use of texture space.

Each model needs to be carefully rigged and tested with a simple .bip file and then completed with a unique walking animation loop to show mesh deformation.

A suitable scene or plinth can also be created but must have a respective tri and texture budget to complement the characters.
 





(Some Battle Chasers imagery which has been seen in recent posts)

The idea behind the project is to accurately create some characters from the Battle Chasers world as if was being made into a playable RPG game for the PS3. Joe Madureira’s style is very recognizable and works well when translated into 3D models. This is evident from the Darksiders game franchise, of which he was the creative director. The entirety of those games were heavily based and developed in his particular way of drawing, which means the models from Darksiders can be of judgmental aid throughout this project.

Darksiders Reference 

Technical Specification
To coincide with PS3 specifications each model must;
Have between 15000 – 20000 tris
Use one 1024x1024 diffuse/normal/specular map for the body
       one 512x512 diffuse/normal/specular map for the head
and one 512x512 diffuse with alpha for any hair
Have no more than 45 bones (to allow for full finger movements)
 

The plinth/scene must;
Have no more than 10000 tris
Use one 1024x1024 diffuse/normal/spec map (which can be appropriately broken down into tileables)
 

Total Assets needed;
2 or 3 Models accurately depicting characters from the comic
1 Model personally designed which is in keeping and coherent with the overall visual style
Optional scene or plinth with which to situate the characters.
 

Final Outcome;
3-4 Complete models with a believable walking animation
Final renders of characters in a variety of poses, preferably one mimicking the layout/style of the comic book covers.

 

Software Needed
3DS Max
ZBrush
Adobe Photoshop
Mudbox
Knald
UDK

I think this covers what it needs to in order to give me an outline to follow throughout the project. It has also defined a 'goal' which the project is aiming for. There are no doubt things its missing but its just a draft at the moment so there is time to update/change it.

Nailing down the idea

People doing characters as their FMP normally have 3-4 characters, so this is also what I aim to achieve. I'm planning to definitely make 3 characters and leave myself enough time to make a 4th. If I fail to keep up with the project plan I can drop the 4th character and still have a complete FMP.

Although there are 5 characters from the Battle Chasers universe that I could do, I don't want to just use them. I enjoy drawing characters and want to incorporate some of my own design capabilities into the project. Therefore I think it would work best if I picked 2 characters that Mad! has drawn and then design the 3rd myself. Doing this allows me to spend time doing something I am most passionate about (drawing cool stuff) but it also provides some personal challenges. The characters that already exist are in unison, they are believably from the same world and time, my challenge is to match this. I need to design a character that is equally interesting and similarly dressed/equipped and styled so that it doesn't look out of place amongst the others.

The ultimate aim from designing the 3rd character would be for people who don't know the series to not be able to pick mine out from the others. This would show I have accomplished part of what I set out to do, work within someone else's world/project in such a way that it all looks coherent and seamless and thus my ability to adapt.




What characters?
Out of the 5 characters the one that stands out the most to me, and everyone else that saw my original pitch, was Gully. She has a very unique silhouette and dynamic to her that make her appealing. She is by far the most interesting character from the series and is the center of the story line.

The 2nd character that grabs my attention is Knolan. For similar reasons as Gully he is an interesting character, he isn't a stereotypical hero, or even wizard. He has a very interesting style and looks like an in depth and appealing character.

I haven't yet thought about what my 3rd character might look like, it will need to be something which offers some dynamics to the trio without being too dull or common place. Its something that will require more thought over the coming weeks as I progress. Getting my character wrong could throw off the entire project so I need time to make sure its right.

If I have enough time my 4th character will be Calibretto. He may be a fairly dull war machine with very little detail compared to the others, but I think this is why he works. He is absolutely massive compared to the rest, and he adds more variety to the group. I don't think making him will improve my project much, if at all, which is why I will only include him if I have time.


Where to start?
Unfortunately for me there isn't a massive amount of reference out there for the characters I want to make. Although Battle Chasers did very well and has a strong fan following, there never was very much artwork of them, apart from what is in the comics. There may well be quite a bit of fan art floating around but that isn't going to help me, I need Mad!'s artwork if I am to replicate his style.

I will be scouring the internet and my own artwork/comic collection for any and all relevant images that I can find. From those I will then have to draw my own orthographic images that I can begin modelling from. This in depth look into Gully and Knolan should help me when it comes to designing my own character.

A few pics to get going...

   

Picking a topic

One of the hardest parts of the FMP for me is picking a topic to do, I've been having ideas of what I could do since the start of the 2nd year. Some were good ideas, some were awful and some I knew I wouldn't be able to do or enjoy.

Idea 1 - A skate park.
This was my longest running idea, I thought it was something I could enjoy doing, the modelling wouldn't be too hard but more importantly I could work from my own experiences of doing graffiti. This would really help me enjoy the project more and I didn't want to be spending months on a project that I wasn't enjoying when I was the one that picked it.
I don't really want to do an environment though, and that is exactly what a skate park would be. It would also be quite boring as skate parks aren't exactly interesting.
What makes skate parks interesting is the people, so then I thought the focus of the project could be skaters, IN a skate park. The idea then took a turn towards characters rather than environment. I was just chasing the idea though, I would be taking on too much personally to do characters and the environment and the more I thought about the project the less I liked it.

Encouraged to actually set myself a project I personally wanted to do I turned towards my favorite artist, whose characters have always inspired me.

Idea 2 - 'Joe Mad!' Characters
Joe Mad is an awesome character artist, his history grounded in comic books. His characters aren't realistic but drawn in a recognizable exaggerated and interesting way. I have always appreciated and aspired to his style, my favorite game (Darksiders) was based completely around his artistic style. I knew that if I was going to enjoy any 3D project it would be one making his characters.
Joe Mad has done loads of characters over the years so I needed to pick some that I would enjoy making and that would work well as a 3D project.

These are just a few examples of Mad's character drawings.  

I took a selection of examples of Mad's work into Uni and put forward the idea to model his characters. A topic that caught everyone's interest was his Battle Chasers work.

Battle Chasers is a comic book made by Joe Mad in 1998 and became one of the best comic books in America at that time. He only made 9 issues before leaving the comic book industry to peruse a career as a video game designer. Despite not having many issues Battle Chasers has a very strong fan base, although nothing more has been done with the series since September 2001.

The story in Battle Chasers is focused around 5 main characters.
Garrison - A legendary swordsman

Gully - A 9 year old girl with her father's massive gloves!

Calibretto - An outlawed war golem with a gentle personality.

Knolan - A 500 year old powerful wizard, Calibretto is his companion.

Red Monika - A voluptuous female bounty hunter, she trained Garrison.

The Battle Chasers team has an interesting dynamic and unison that make them fit together. You can tell by looking at them that they come from the same universe and each have a unique story. 

The unique and interesting look of the characters immediately appealed to everyone which is always a good sign. There are further considerations to be made around the project but at least I have a starting point which I think could really work and be something I enjoy doing.