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.