Designing Mr. and Ms. Glasscock
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The first assignment of 2D-art class was to design a character from a set series of criteria. All students got spec sheets detailing two fictional games and were tasked with creating one of those game’s main protagonist. I picked ”Clash of Gods”. The game in question was your generic run of the mill 3rd person action game where an ordinary person is thrust into a conflict between mythological deities. The story’s been done to death in games, books and film (Percy Jackson, Thor, God Of War, Megami Tensei series, every greek myth ever comitted to celluloid etc.). The spec sheet specified that the player would get weapons from the gods in the game and most people I talked to opted for drawing a character with ”legendary” weapons such as the Sword of Damocles or the spear of Longinus. Personally I think that’s one of the problems with mythological settings. Even when the myths are put into present day like in the Percy Jackson books we get the same old ancient weapons. But those weapons were in the myths because they were the things that mankind imagined when dreaming of magical arms in the days of antiquity. A sword was considered an effective weapon in 500 BC, so a god would of course use a magical sword. It just made sense that a God would wield something far more powerful than any mortal, but the available armaments of the day limited their arsenal to otherwordly versions of those same objects. To me then at least it seems like a no brainer to suggest that if mythological deities would indeed make their presence known in our time their weaponry would surpass our current weapons in the same way their magic swords and shields did in their heyday. That’s why I gave my character some bad ass rayguns. After all, Zeus would be pretty stupid to deck his ”champion” out in sword and shield in 2014. He’s a god, a creature of unfathomable power. He’d give a champion magic plasma guns, pocket sized bunker busters, an enchanted kevlar jumsuit that was both stylish and impervious to anything mortal made. Mythological deities are cool, that’s why we keep coming back to them. But keeping them in antiquity when the modern world keeps moving forward is a limited point of view when the concept of gods create limitless possibilities for play. So about my design then? Yeah he/she looks like a rooster, I call him/her Mr./Ms. Glasscock, though obviously were he/she an actual game character someone at marketing would’ve given him/her a name like ”Ulysees Cravenclaw” or ”Jessie Odinfield”. The spec sheet specified that he/she be cocky and brash with elastic morals. I wanted him/her to have an easily recognizable silhouette and a look that somehow communicated the character’s traits visually. I’m a big fan of the Disney way of doing character design where you can see on the body language, gait and overall look what makes them tick. I also tried to draw the character in different ways, though we only just begun the course and I really don’t know anything but how to poorly sketch people in the nude. There are some attempts at a morning cartoon look, some more realistic ones and some attempt a french/belgian comic book style. Of course like I mentioned in my last blog I haven’t drawn anything in 15 years. I’m not a very good artist, though I’m committed to getting better. It’s rough, I don’t know perspectives very well and I struggle with human proportions. I busted my ass getting this made and it’s not a great feeling showing it to anyone. But this is for my benefit more than anyone else’s. In 3 years time I’m gonna look back at this and go ”good god I sucked”, with a coating of sweetest relief covering my voice like cake frosting. https://copy.com/ToPU2kLxpJp3TU2x Postat i:2D Computer Graphics: Theory and Application, 5SD013 Tagged: 2D Computer Graphics: Theory and Application, 5SD013  |
