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Assignment Name: Character Design, Part 1

Tools: Medibang Paint Pro, desktop + tablet

Desc: A turnaround of a currently-unnamed character in the setting I developed the past few weeks. She's supposed to be a Japanese amberjack, also known as a yellowtail. Sushi of this fish is called "hamachi" or "buri", the former of which is printed on her scarf.

There are two palettes of this character; one more vibrant and one muted.

In terms of identity...

This game is intended to be a fighting game, and within the roster she's meant to be the "balanced" character. Ergo, I wanted to make her seem "average".

However, she doesn't want to be just average; she wants to be the greatest warrior, and probably starts the game's "story mode"(?) with just that wish in mind, but gradually grows to see other things more importantly.

Prolly a bit naive as a result

Feedback: This "person" has in fact appeared in my Environment Design sketches, so I picked this shapeless form to make into a proper character this week.

Because this character is supposed to be the balanced "average" character, I thought it would be best to make her seem as "average" as possible in terms of appearance, with the rest of the roster pushing boundaries more.

So with this "baseline" character I wanted to establish some fundamentals about biology among the populace, considering the underwater world; they don't have noses, for example, but they do have gills on their cheeks and necks. I gave her seaweed wrapped around her arms like bandages, as well as ripped sleeves and heavy-ish boots, to emphasize that she's a fighter.

I couldn't change the colors of the facial scale patterning nor the tail due to being based on an IRL fish, so I had to change colors elsewhere. I think adjusting the jacket and shirt already do a good job in establishing a different "tone" or even personality, but I also experimented with the skin and hair color while I was at it too.

I'm not sure which palette I like more, but I suppose one could be a "Player 2" alt.

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Three differently-posed sketches of the same character in my #08character assignment this week.

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Standard-fare blaster that's used in this world, taking inspiration from various underwater guns like spearguns. Intentionally based on a sockeye salmon. Angles from the front and from the side.

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Assignment Name: Environment Design, Part 3

Tools: Medibang Paint Pro, desktop + tablet

Desc: An alternate version of the town square from last week. Taking place at dusk, the event that has taken place involves some kind of cataclysm, with all the corals (including those that construct building a la wood) being washed out and bleached. The fighting ring, once the center of attention in the scene, is cracked and the emblem of the two warriors is faded and damaged.

Unlike last time, the towns' inhabitants are now hiding away. Only three of the fighters remain in focus, facing towards a giant monstrous whale-like creature.

Feedback: The main thing I wanted to work on is the lighting; there's still caustics, of course, but less of them, to create a sense of impending dread and darkness. However, I chose to still retain the fighting ring being lit from above, making it the centerpiece of the composition with the three fighters in the center, as if to imply hope against all odds.

Aside from the different lighting, I wanted to experiment with different colors, especially taking into account how a sunset looks from underwater. The bleached out, damaged corsals was also important, I think they add to the bleak atmosphere.

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This started as a punching bag, but after I added the eel I figured maybe it could be something else, like an idol of prayer or something. Eels could possibly be thought of like mythical dragons or some other kind of high "value", especially seeing as one of the original warriors of the land was a daggertooth pike conger eel.

I felt like this was tricky to think of two different versions of, especially since it's a communal thing in a communal space, rather than something belonging to only one person, but I decided to try tackling it in a "pristine" vs. "aged" case, like a statue that's been actively maintained vs. one that's been around for a while and hasn't received the same polish, but is revered nonetheless.

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Assignment Name: Environment Design, Part 2

Tools: Medibang Paint Pro, desktop + tablet

Desc: A refined version of the first of my two environment sketches from two weeks ago. Now there are multiple figures scattered around the town watching the fighting ring, some cheering. In the ring itself are four hypothetical player characters, with the whole ring illuminated from above.

The only photobashed part of this scene is the fence blocking off the brine lake.

Feedback: The main feedback I got from last class was to add "life" to the scene. This meant adding not just actual people to give the world a sense of this being an actual lived-in world, but to add some proper lighting too. I spent plenty of time looking at water caustics and tried doing a rudimentary version to get the idea across, especially the fact that the ring is the most lit-up part of the scene. This, I feel, establishes it as the scene's "centerpiece" much more than physically positioning it at the center of the image, which messes with perspective.

Other smaller details include properly drawing the various seagrasses and corals, replacing one with kelp. All of them intentionally lean sideways to give the impression of a proper underwater current. I also changed the building on the left to some kind of nondescript structure, possibly a dojo where the fighters warm up, so I could add a prop for my sketch assignment.

References and original Sketch:

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UPDATE TO ADD THE SECOND SKETCH OF THE ASSIGNMENT (April 1)

Desc: A different layout of the town, this one being from the perspective of being in the ring. In the distance is a Japanese archway, with statues of an eel and a crab, the land's "original" warriors, on each side. Spectators watch as two silhouettes fight.

Feedback: I largely followed similar procedures as the first sketch, taking the different perspective into account.

Assignment Name: Environment Design

Tools: Medibang Paint Pro, desktop + tablet

Desc: A view of a town that's currently unnamed, but serves as an important location and possible stage in my planned fighting game revolving around underwater humanoids with sea creature elements. There's a fighting ring in the center of the scene, with a design of an eel and a crab, the town's sacred guardians. Three coral trees sit in the background on the shoreline of a lake, which is actually a brine pool. On the left hand side is a market and on the right is a seaweed garden. This scene is drawn as if seen from a balcony.

Below the "colored" art are two sketches of the town's layout, neither of which was directly translated into the final product; instead, I just took choice pieces from each.

Feedback: I knew from the start that the fighting ring would have to be the centerpiece of the scene, and taking a view of this from the balcony would be the easiest approach to have most of everything in view. I chose to put the brine pool lake at the opposite end of the balcony, with the fighting ring perfectly in between them both, to create a sense of "perspective" and making things line up more satisfyingly. This was also generally a good opportunity to practice perspective again after the first few assignments.

Aside from the upwards-pointing seaweed in the garden, the coral formation "mountains" in the background with their holes and irregular shapes, and possibly the coral "trees", I realize that theres not much in the scene that really implies that this is an underwater world, especially not in a black and white (or "light pale blue and dark teal") sketch, so I'll have to consider how to really make the underwaterness apparent without characters or a blue water overlay.

As a side note, I did want to try building the scene in MagicaVoxel first, but figured it'd be more of a fair challenge for myself if I approached this purely by drawing.

References:

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An "emblem" that appears throughout my still-unnamed underwater world, as well as in this week's assignment. It depicts a gold-colored eel (specifically, a daggertooth pike conger) and a purple crab (Alaskan king crab). Both of these figures, in the world's culture, are said to have been the original warriors who fought back evil and founded the land to be settled on by average citizens. This emblem, and the whole fighting culture in general, was created in their honor.

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Assignment Name: Environment Design

Tools: Medibang Paint Pro, desktop + tablet

Desc: A view of a town that's currently unnamed, but serves as an important location and possible stage in my planned fighting game revolving around underwater humanoids with sea creature elements. There's a fighting ring in the center of the scene, with a design of an eel and a crab, the town's sacred guardians. Three coral trees sit in the background on the shoreline of a lake, which is actually a brine pool. On the left hand side is a market and on the right is a seaweed garden. This scene is drawn as if seen from a balcony.

Below the "colored" art are two sketches of the town's layout, neither of which was directly translated into the final product; instead, I just took choice pieces from each.

Feedback: I knew from the start that the fighting ring would have to be the centerpiece of the scene, and taking a view of this from the balcony would be the easiest approach to have most of everything in view. I chose to put the brine pool lake at the opposite end of the balcony, with the fighting ring perfectly in between them both, to create a sense of "perspective" and making things line up more satisfyingly. This was also generally a good opportunity to practice perspective again after the first few assignments.

Aside from the upwards-pointing seaweed in the garden, the coral formation "mountains" in the background with their holes and irregular shapes, and possibly the coral "trees", I realize that theres not much in the scene that really implies that this is an underwater world, especially not in a black and white (or "light pale blue and dark teal") sketch, so I'll have to consider how to really make the underwaterness apparent without characters or a blue water overlay.

As a side note, I did want to try building the scene in MagicaVoxel first, but figured it'd be more of a fair challenge for myself if I approached this purely by drawing.

References:

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A sketch of my first OC, Allison Astrid. She started as my personal self insert back in 2019 but gradually developed into her own character, currently a hydrokinetic + cryokinetic half-phantom and one of the protagonists in my personal project Neon Devils.

I ended up turning this into a fully-polished + rendered piece, shown on the right, because I had time over the weekend.

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Assignment Name: Making Many from Few

Tools: Medibang Paint Pro, desktop + tablet

Desc: Ten assorted containers of fire, electric, and poison elements, each with (mostly) different combinations of shapes, element, and top. They could be potions, alchemy vials, or something else. Below is the same collection on a white background for visibility, and below that are the individual sprites on which the ten were made.

Feedback: Inspired somewhat by last week's sketch. Probably the biggest challenge I faced with this was making the top segments not only unique, but also able to connect with the main bodies as seamlessly as possible. I think I did fine with establishing the different tops' shapes and what they could imply; the tall, straight one is probably a standard tube for slow pouring or drinking, the big slanted one could imply heavy pouring like a milk carton or a gas can, and the small one could be a canteen for drinking. Making the elements themselves was also somewhat simple; I wanted to restrict myself to try filling as much space as possible while still staying within the constraints of the containers' varied shapes. Having a simple, large emblem, combined with associated haze, somewhat accomplished that. I do wonder if I could possibly push for even more variety in these forms in another try of this.

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Assignment Name: Patterns from Particles

Tools: Medibang Paint Pro, desktop + tablet, Unity

Desc: A representation of crunching/biting an ice cube. First there's a spinning sparkle representing the initial bite, followed by smaller shards appearing around it representing the shards of the ice cube breaking off. Squiggly lines represent the water and melted ice pooling in your mouth, followed by a large rush of electricity-like energy suddenly moving through the scene, representing the extreme cold feeling on your teeth, or perhaps brain freeze.

Feedback: I had a pretty definitive idea of how I wanted to approach this from the get-go, so putting together all these aspects into one "scene" was rather intuitive. Using particle systems rather than actual code was a fun challenge, especially in randomizing the smaller shards' speeds and colors for a bit more uniqueness. The GIF doesn't do a great job of capturing the original framerate though so things might look off.

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A fancy, fantastical container of water, taking inspiration from both its liquid and solid forms. Could be a potion, a flask, or just a bottle.

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A variant of sushi readily available by diving off your local coast!

1+ fillet of any seafood of your choice

Rice

2 square meters of seaweed

1 lb of ground rocks, or misc ocean substrate

A dash of vinegar

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Assignment Name: Pixelizing Monstrosities

Tools: Medibang Paint Pro, desktop + tablet

Desc: A large sea monster themed after various marine reptiles, such as a saltwater crocodile, a leatherback sea turtle, and a pliosaur. Rendered in four different pixel sprites, each with their own size and quality (8x8 with 4 shades, 16x16 with 4 shades, 32x32 with 4 colors, 32x32 with multiple colors). Also has the "original" sketch below.

Feedback: Before actually tackling the pixel sketches themselves, I wanted to redo the sketch of the Dracochelys macrops, since the original wasn't very conducive for a square-sized pixel sprite. I also wanted to experiment with a more dynamic pose. I think the upper two were easily the hardest due to needing to actually retain the shape language of the monster in such a small space, and having only four shades of black to work with didn't help. I think the thing that gets lost the most in this small space is the long crocodilian jaw, but otherwise I wanted to try making the overall "flow" of the pose clear. The other two in a 32x32 space fared better especially since now I have actual colors to work with; in the unrestricted fourth one I especially wanted to try experimenting with dithering to create a sense of depth and shading.

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Assignment Name: Industry from Biology

Tools: Medibang Paint Pro, desktop + tablet

Desc: An artillery truck shaped somewhat like a common snapping turtle. At the bottom of this post are also the original silhouette sketches, as well as references.

Feedback: The main problem I encountered with this design was the contrasting proportions; a truck is generally taller than it's wide, whereas a turtle is wider than it's tall, so I had to work out a compromise. Choosing a boxlike structure did help me practice perspective more easily, especially with horizontal vanishing points in mind, and I think I did fine with the front part of the truck, which is intended to represent the turtle's small head. It's not quite as small as a real turtle's head, though. The rest of the truck, representing the carapace, is a bit more nebulous, though I liked adding "guards" in front and behind the first and last wheels to represent the feet. The back might've been either a rocket launcher or an exhaust pipe; either way it's kind of meant to be the turtle's tail, but either way I realize I could've continued keeping perspective in mind.

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Dracochelys macrops

A monster/creature design for my personal OC project, inspired by the above shown aquatic reptiles. With no eyes, this giant lake-dwelling dragon relative draws in prey, whether on the surface or deep in the depths, with the glowing lure on its tail.