Capstone Part 32: Retrospective

This is our final week of Capstone, so I'd like to take the time to review the last 32 weeks.  Overall, it was an enjoyable and important experience, one that I'll remember.  But it does come with mistakes and regrets.  I wish that I had spent more time doing concept art, which is what I liked most about Diesel Thunder.  I can only imagine what my painting skills would be like if I had dedicated myself to it from the beginning.

There are also things I did that i wish I could go back and change.  The design of the first tank doesn't sit well with me; the hull is a weird shape, the turret doesn't really fit with it, and it isn't really broken up.  I also wish i had spent more time on the pickup concepts, because I didn't know they would be displayed at portfolio night.  But if I didn't fail, I'd would never learn.

Capstone Part 31: Logo

Having noticed that we didn't really have a logo for this game, I took it upon myself to design one.  My initial design was inspired by 1940's logos and tattoos, with curving shapes and a heavy outline.  No one liked it so I redesigned it to be "darker".  I used a eagle as the mascot because it's the symbol of Germany, and it references the Thunderbird, a mythical creature from Native American folklore.

Capstone Part 30: UI

I worked on a new UI design for the win screens.  The first is for free-for-all mode, and displays the winners in descending order of box size.  The next image is a concept for the win screen for team death match.  I used the same aesthetic for the menus, and added the colors of the players for an outline and font color.

Capstone Part 29: Color and Finish

Continuing on from last week, I worked on finishing the loading screen image.  I chose the 4th concept because I felt like it had the best perspective and blocking, so I made 3 different color concepts based on it.  And although I decided on a very barren tone to it, I still mixed up the colors for the sake of variety.
The first is based on a this place at sunset, what photographers call Golden hour.  It's the period where colors are usually at their most saturated and shadows are at their most defined.
The second is a much more snowy and cold environment, with heats of snow and black smoke stacks.
The third is more green and peaceful than the others, almost like nature has reclaimed the land.
The final is picture below.  i went for a cold environment, but made the sky clearer.

Capstone Part 28: Envrionment

Although i wish we had tackled this way earlier, I'm finally working on environment concepts.  My task is to paint an image for the loading screen, just to give the players something to look at while they wait.  Below are my initial sketches for this environment.  I went for a barren, post-industrial landscape.  Like a volcanic region that was turned into a factory.  Blow those are value studies for my 4 favorite thumbnails.

Capstone Part 27: Turn Arounds

I've finished the turn around for the third tank, which was easier in some ways and harder than others compared to past turn arounds.  I didn't have to do a top angle since the thumbnail is in perspective, but the design also features a lot of curves.  Finished curved lines are difficult because they rely on you drawing from you elbow or shoulder rather than your wrist, which is hard if you're not used to it.  Normally, I can't draw finished lines, but this turn-around helped in overcoming that.

Capstone Part 26: Third Tank Concepts

We decided to add a third tank to the game.  Since we cannot customize our tanks, we have to make a third tank to match a third weapon.  In this case, it has to match the flamethrower.  I tried a new method of concepting for this round of tanks, which is down from an aerial view with perspective.  I also tried going into a more "hovering" direction for some of these.

Capstone Part 25: Menu Ideas

I worked on menu concepts for the main menu, and to a greater extent, the look of the UI for the entire game.  This first concept was inspired by WWII battle plans, like the player was looking down at them as a general.  Where you actually select the map and game mode is just a translucent black box, which seems more professional to me.

The second concept is based on a as if you were looking at the side of the tank.  it has picture taped to the side and crossed out tanks painted on.

The final concept, and the one that was chosen, is simply a image with a black box on the side.  It's simple, but you want it be simple.  A menu that is gaudy will distract from the rest of the game.

Capstone Part 24: The HUD

This week, I've worked on the HUD for Tanks.  Below is pictured the progression from thumbnail to final HUD.  Step 2 is a base render, a directional light is chosen and shadows are painted in with a soft brush.  Shadows occur where the angle is parallel to the form; and because the material of the HUD is matte and not glossy, the contrast is lower.
In the next steps, I used textured brushes to achieve a more realistic surface.  After that, I added color along with rust and few splotches of blue to bring in more different colors.

Capstone 23: Environment Explorations

Below are the images I worked on in the past week.  The first is a series of flame throwers I concepted.  My personal favorite is #8 because of the images painted on the side.  It's evocative of old WWII missiles and planes that would have sharks painted to give them a certain personality.  Also painted on the side are images of crossed out tanks, which serves as a kill-count for the pilot. 

Next are some environmental studies, that explore the kind of colors that would be in a tundra.  If it's not clear, the reddish ground is supposed be a kind of flowering plant that covers the plains.  Along with plants are various abandoned buildings.  These include an enormous tower for docking airship, a research station, and old rusted factory.  Below the colored image is more sci-fi approach to this environment, where a techo-shepard watches over a mechanical flock. 

Captsone Part 22: Weapons

My task for this week was to concept as many weapons for the tank as possible.  They each have to be as unique as possible so that players can tell who's who from across the map.  This is a design concept called silhouette, where you block out all the details of an object.  If you can tell what the object is just by it's shadow, then you have a very clear and readable design.  Below are my thumbnails for the laser, projectile, and flamethrower turrets.

Capstone Part 21: The Second Tank Turn-Around

Like the previous week, I worked on the turn-arounds for our second tank.  We had the week off from calss, but that didn't stop me from working on it.  This tank is based on the WWI British Mark V tank, but with a little more dieselpunk elements added to it.  It has more exterior piping and wiring, which is the point.  Dieselpunk is very much a dirty science fiction, where things aren't going to be put together in the most aesthetically pleasing or practical ways.

Capstone 20: Tank Turn-Around

In artistic media, a turn-around is full figure drawn from the most important angles, usually front, back, and side.  I worked on a turn-around for our first tank, seen below.

This was meticulously planned out, and drew reference from actual WWI and WWII tanks.  It features wiring, headlights, and hull armor.  The armor is specifically designed to explode outward when hit to redirect bullets away from the hull.

Capstone Part 19: The Tank Thumbnails

This week, I began to work on several thumbnails for our tanks.  Below are 36 concepts for a single tank, with some taking elements from others.  While they ultimately weren't chosen, numbers 26 and 27 are my personal favorites.   They incorporate some organic shapes into metallic objects, which is very surreal.  Numbers 13 and 8 were chosen by the rest of the team, so I'll be doing turn arounds of them.

Capstone Part 18: Sprint Planning

We spent this class period sprint planning, which we're going to have to do a lot of since it's a huge project.  Our PO wants to make sure that we get everything planned correctly.  I wrote up the entire Art Bible of the game during  this part of the project, which can be read here.

Above is an early concept for a tank.  It's an exploration of more "vertical" tanks, but ultimately it would just be too out of place for our game.  It only has one tread to balance on and looks more like a factory.  Maybe it can be reintroduced later in development.

Capstone Part 17: Dieselpunk

We received our new project for the semester, a multiplayer tank game with networking.  As art lead, I begun to develop the look of the game.  Originally, we concepted that there would be different factions in the game with different themes, but we can only do one faction in scope.  The original faction had a sort of futuristic junkyard feel to them, like someone had built a tank in their garage from rusted parts.  We further expanded this idea into a Dieselpunk style.

Dieselpunk, like its predecessor Steampunk, looks into a world where the early 20th century had never ended.  It's futuristic technology running on diesel engines.