Greetings!

This week we were given the task to create a character, draw turnarounds, write background information, and other details about both the character and the world it lives in.

I love making character backgrounds so I found this to be very enjoyable.

First I thought about doing some cartoony version of Vito Corleone from The Godfather, but changed my mind and went in a completely different direction.

The ghoul, a servant of the dark forces, a mindless drone wreaking havoc among the living.

In a land blessed by the light a human kingdom has risen and during the years have had many evils rise against it, but they have persevered. A long long time has gone by since the lord of darkness last rose against them, but he is now gathering his forces once again to strike.

All this background is for a quick little game we were to place our character in. In this case it is a kind of RTS similar to Civilizations or perhaps even Starcraft. One player takes on the human faction and must get ready to build a defense to stand against the evil darkness that the other player will amass to be able to take down the light.

This is set in a fantasy medieval setting. Humans being blessed beings of the light where put on this inherently dark plane to cleanse it and defend it from the evil that existed there.

And there he is. All he wants is a hug.

The ghoul as I said is mindless drone forced to do his masters bidding. The soul of the creature it used to be still inside screaming out in pain but is never heard. But this ghoul is different, strong of spirit he has been able to regain control to a certain point. When the dark lord has his focus else where this ghoul is able to move on his own accord and control his own body. In extreme agony and with a wish to die he manages to get to the wizard of the high tower, a great sorcerer of the light, to ask him for help in getting released from his bodily prison.

The ghoul is very similar to a human is that human was to lose most of its skin and flesh. Although having been twisted to life by dark magic its proportions are rather ridiculed and odd. Its face is in an expression of eternal agony and fear. Claws decorate its fingers and toes. Stringy muscles wrap around its bones and although it looks weak and slow the ghoul’s movement and strength is incredible and surprising because of the dark magic that enhances it.

It was a bit of a shame that we had to give the character to someone else for production since I made it to test my own skills in 3D. But at the same time it is a very good exercise to be able to explain a world and character to someone else and have them understand.

And now, lets go on to the assignment 2 update and after that a look at the character that I will make for this character building assignment 3…

Assignment 2 – Entering Mordor

A strange title I agree, but I see ‘entering Mordor’ as a way of saying that soon it is over. It is all coming to an end.

For some reason I’ve had some problems importing .FBX files into UDK, so instead I’ve had to export the 3D object as a ASCII file. Have no idea why I have this problem but I assume ASCII files work just fine as many use them when importing to UDK.

And that’s what I have so far! One week to go to clean it up a bit and fix things I’m not very pleased with. But as of right now I’m not worried.

And so to the third and last part of this post…

Assignment 3 – From the Doorstep where it Began

I’m in a LOTR mood today, don’t really know why. No matter, onwards!

This one will be interesting. A wizard with immense power, hunting bounties and gathering knowledge for his own ends. I will just print the background info received from client, Ahmad Ali.

Character Background Mokhtar

About the character:

Name:

Mokhtar

Nickname:

He is refereed to as “Saher” (Wizard in Arabic), by the people from his village. The village magician of the village “Al Qariya Al-Hurra” (The free village), he is a master at banishing “Djinn” from lands all over the world, the kingdom grants him money and material for research.

Gender:

Male, The size of his mustache determine his degree of wisdom and also one of the biggest factors revealing his gender.

Age:

His age is unknown, but he has lived for a long time. Generations that has passed has seen him but he has never grown in appearance. When asked he answers: “A wise individual would not count his age in numbers, rather in the amount of wisdom one have”

Physical health/ attributes/ handicaps:

Even if he looks small and harmless, he possesses a great deal of power, He uses ancient magic when defeating djinn. It is said that he cover his eyes to strengthen all the other senses. “A man distracted by his sight is a man that cannot see past the shell of the reality”.

Movement:

Mokhtar usually walks as a human, but when in battle he enhances and hoovers for better mobility and reach.

Appearance/ Hygiene:

Mokhtar wears a lot of expensive fabrics, he can afford it as the king would give him a lot of money for the bounties he brings in. Keeping clean is a top priority as he has to present himself in high standard. He wears sandals as he doesn’t always need to walk everywhere he goes, they don’t get worn out easily

Favorite food:

“He seems to eat pretty much anything, but he seems particularly fond of apples, I wonder why that is…”

Intelligence:

He has very high intelligence, he does a lot of research of new spells and incantations, trying to understand how everything works. He has a great thirst for knowledge.

Culture:

He has been around for a long time, even if he does not live as the villagers does he still knows of the customs. When researching people he often sits down in the village tavern and smokes “shisha” (Water pipe) and eavesdropping on people.

History:

Little is known about Mokthar, but there are of course rumors. They say that he is a child of a great wizard and has manipulated time and space so that he can live on for ever. Some others claim that he is evil and he is the reason for the djinn appearing, the mistakes done in secret researches. Some thinks that he is a direct descendant of Adam and Eve and the protector of this world.

Religion:
It is said that he only knows one god, but he never sits around at churches or mosques in the area. He is mostly at his home whenever he´s not out hunting abnormal creatures.

Income:

All his money is gained by collecting bounties, so all the income comes mostly from the kingdom, but he also manages to collect some valuable stuff from his journeys.

Source of income/ occupation:

He lives just a bit over the village in a lone broken stone tower, where the doors are sealed shut behind him.

Education:

This man is self-educated. His thirst for knowledge is like a little child. That is why he has a demand from the kingdom to provide with both money and research material. He sometimes finds mystic books that contain a lot of new and valuable information.

Why did he/ she/ it (had to) choose this occupation?

He saw it as an opportunity to achieve money as well as gaining experience  throughout his journeys, the funds was only achievable through the bounty hunts.

Hobbies:

Trying out new spells and going out on journeys collecting new stuff or searching for new clues for greater spells.

Procreate:

He dont have time for that

Family:

None people know about.

Friends:

He does all the work himself, he sees friends as a distraction, that is why he does not choose to have any.

Inner rhythm:

To keep his magic in check he also need to control his feelings, but he sometimes gets to excited when he masters a new spell… let’s say that he had laid places to waste.. as some accidents tend to happen….

Psychology:

He has found his inner self pretty well. No enemy seems to shake him. But one.

His main goal in life:

Become the creator

His biggest secret and why:

He is actually not human, He is a Djinn himself in disguise, and the reason why he fancies apples is because it reminds him of the apple of eden. He was created before men was created and he was angered when god created man. He wants to create man and prove to everyone that man is not worth anything to previous creations.

Does anyone else know this secret? Who? Why?

No one knows of his secret yet, as he is the oldest of the “humans”. But the djinn knows who he is. The djinn wants to stop his plans to take over the creators place, that is why they appear in the human world.

About the game:

What platform(s) is it aimed at?

Console, third person

Who’s your target audience?

Adventuring audience that aim for a role playing game, ages 10-30

Who’s your direct competition? (name 2-3 game titles).

The legend of Zelda, Kingdom hearts, Fable

Describe in 1 paragraph the game world:

Entering a dark cave where the djinn dwell. He knows this one, and it can exploit him to the human society, he has to get rid of this monster. Preparing his staff and channeling his power into one element. fire erupts from the ground burning the djinn’s body whole and into a coal. He drains the powers left of the djinn and proceeds further into the cave, searching for his page of knowledge. He finds the page and heads back to his tower with the charred djinn. After leaving the page at home he heads for the kings castle to leave the coal and to receive his bounty.

Parts

1.    Staff

2.    Turban

3.    Vest

4.    Harem plants

5.    Waist cloth

6.    Slippers

7.    A big fat mustache

And there we have it! One beautiful character I have to say.

It will be very fun to create this character, as it is far from things I usually create. During this I will have to look up some Arabic clothing and just how its made and how it looks, as this character is rather wealthy he should have cloth reflecting this. Mokhtar does have a rather easy shape and I don’t think I’ll have to much trouble with him, the only thing I dread is the UV mapping as I’ve never been good at it when it comes to organic shapes.

And that is all I have to say about that.

Have a good one!