Sketchbook Studies
This first set of doodles was more of a warm up page. I was thinking back to Echo's current design from War of Art Part 1. I tried thinking about what I would change, and how he'd look different if I changed this particular part of its design. I also tried to draw his mask with different perspectives and different designs, though the designs just were not working out for me, I wasn't liking any of the changes at all and I didn't want to stick with any of them for now. As for the tails in the far right of the page, I really like the bottom tail concept how it had a little bit of fur curling around it, the top sketch looks more like some kind of husky tail.
Now that I look back at this page, I can see how I was focusing more on the canine side of Echo's design. I even added a little nose to his mask and tried smaller ears. I wondered what it would be like if the mask could open and close, though I felt like that took part of the mysterious personality of the character away from it. I did like this idea though, I just think it doesn't fit the character very well as I do not want the mask to loose its mystery, it would start looking a bit too surreal than planned.
I also thought it might be a good idea to try another hand paw style, so I added more feline-like characteristics to it. I was very pleased with the outcome and I want to take those paw designs to the next stage of Echo's character, I feel like it looks a lot more natural than having a big puffy paw with claws sticking out of it. Though changing the paws like this may effect the way the character functions in the game, so it may need a little more future development, I was thinking about a running cycle in my head and those puffy paws looked a bit odd at first.
Here are a few inspirations for my sketches, most of them are from real animals. For example the fluffy tail is like a shiba inu's tail, the spiked tail is more like a lizards tail or a dinosaur's tail. Though most of it was just from my imagination.
Now that I look back at this page, I can see how I was focusing more on the canine side of Echo's design. I even added a little nose to his mask and tried smaller ears. I wondered what it would be like if the mask could open and close, though I felt like that took part of the mysterious personality of the character away from it. I did like this idea though, I just think it doesn't fit the character very well as I do not want the mask to loose its mystery, it would start looking a bit too surreal than planned.
I also thought it might be a good idea to try another hand paw style, so I added more feline-like characteristics to it. I was very pleased with the outcome and I want to take those paw designs to the next stage of Echo's character, I feel like it looks a lot more natural than having a big puffy paw with claws sticking out of it. Though changing the paws like this may effect the way the character functions in the game, so it may need a little more future development, I was thinking about a running cycle in my head and those puffy paws looked a bit odd at first.
Here are a few inspirations for my sketches, most of them are from real animals. For example the fluffy tail is like a shiba inu's tail, the spiked tail is more like a lizards tail or a dinosaur's tail. Though most of it was just from my imagination.
As much as I loved working back on Echo's design, I needed to move on and focus on the important parts of the character. The second/adult stage of Echo is going to be the most important part of the game. So I knew I needed to think more about what he would look like if he was able to engage in combat and what kind of weapons I could imagine him using.
The quick character concept in the corner basically shows the brief vision how I would imagine the adult version of Echo to look in the game. I imagine him using two different types of weapons, swords and magical staffs. The staffs make a lot of sense in terms to story-line, I had the idea that Echo may come across some magical crystals that each held their own unique powers. In sketch 1, 2 and 6 I used a fire crystal, those specific weapons would behave like a torch when this crystal was equip to it, though it would also function similar to a flamethrower. Sketch 3 and the staff in the concept doodle have similar functions except they are equipped with a different power, I was thinking more of a 'Light' power which could shoot rays of light. I'm starting to think more about how the player may need to equip different crystals determined on which enemies they face in the game, so each crystal and weapon becomes more effective in their own way to keep a good game balance. For example if the player entered the forest they may want to equip themselves with the fire crystal to be able to fight off enemies which may be made from woodland or plant life and so on, here are a few sword designs that I referenced for my sketches. These designs are similar to what I would want in my game, though i'm still leaning more towards wanting the staffs to be used as a main weapon. The staffs were easier to draw from imagination.
The quick character concept in the corner basically shows the brief vision how I would imagine the adult version of Echo to look in the game. I imagine him using two different types of weapons, swords and magical staffs. The staffs make a lot of sense in terms to story-line, I had the idea that Echo may come across some magical crystals that each held their own unique powers. In sketch 1, 2 and 6 I used a fire crystal, those specific weapons would behave like a torch when this crystal was equip to it, though it would also function similar to a flamethrower. Sketch 3 and the staff in the concept doodle have similar functions except they are equipped with a different power, I was thinking more of a 'Light' power which could shoot rays of light. I'm starting to think more about how the player may need to equip different crystals determined on which enemies they face in the game, so each crystal and weapon becomes more effective in their own way to keep a good game balance. For example if the player entered the forest they may want to equip themselves with the fire crystal to be able to fight off enemies which may be made from woodland or plant life and so on, here are a few sword designs that I referenced for my sketches. These designs are similar to what I would want in my game, though i'm still leaning more towards wanting the staffs to be used as a main weapon. The staffs were easier to draw from imagination.
I sometimes struggle with anthropomorphic characters, so I decided to try find a tutorial that I could learn from. Thankfully on pintrest I found this following tutorial to aid in the creation of the adult/final stage of my character.
http://kmoongangsr.deviantart.com/art/Anthro-Werewolf-Tutorial-70119849
I found it extremely helpful, it was perfect for the design that I needed. And now that I have the next concept sketch of Echo I'll be able to work on this in the future if I needed to change the design. But i'm really happy with the way the adult stage has turned out so far. I added the basic height information as everything else is pretty much the same as last time.
During this process I sadly decided to scrap the idea of my character going through three different playable stages. I made this decision because I couldn't think of much variation between the three designs and I would rather focus on the two most important character stages in my game. I'm going to stick with the Child and Adult stages that I have already been working on, these two stages are the most important part of this character so I want to make sure that my full attention is going into development.
I have added the old first stage concept of Echo to place side by side with the new second stage so that you are able to see how the character will change over time during game play. As a reminder, the first stage is the younger version of the main character, and the second stage is the adult version of the main character. This was also explained clearer in War Of Art Part 1.
http://kmoongangsr.deviantart.com/art/Anthro-Werewolf-Tutorial-70119849
I found it extremely helpful, it was perfect for the design that I needed. And now that I have the next concept sketch of Echo I'll be able to work on this in the future if I needed to change the design. But i'm really happy with the way the adult stage has turned out so far. I added the basic height information as everything else is pretty much the same as last time.
During this process I sadly decided to scrap the idea of my character going through three different playable stages. I made this decision because I couldn't think of much variation between the three designs and I would rather focus on the two most important character stages in my game. I'm going to stick with the Child and Adult stages that I have already been working on, these two stages are the most important part of this character so I want to make sure that my full attention is going into development.
I have added the old first stage concept of Echo to place side by side with the new second stage so that you are able to see how the character will change over time during game play. As a reminder, the first stage is the younger version of the main character, and the second stage is the adult version of the main character. This was also explained clearer in War Of Art Part 1.
The next sketches I wanted to do was a redesign of my villain character, there was a ton of development that was needed in their design. During this process I decided to change a lot of the features and even the gender of the character. I named her 'Shizu' which means 'Silent', considering she is the villain and it is the opposite of 'Echo' this name would make a lot of sense.
She is part dragon, part dinosaur and part lizard. I made up the species name Lizargon for now, it's not very creative but its just a concept species name, it will most likely change later on. One part of her design that i'm not sure about yet are her arms, I drew a pawpad design on the far left just in case I want to change her arms in the future. So far i'm extremely pleased with the way she has turned out. In comparison to the older concept I did you can tell just how much I have changed and that it looks far better than it used too. Picture 1 (Titled Villain Concept 2) is the old concept and Picture 2 is the new concept.
Environment Concepts
What I decided to do with the last few concepts was to draw four different environments. If you look closely you can see that all of the pictures actually relate to each other. For example, if you look at concept sketch number 3, the trees in the top left corner are actually the trees in sketch number 2. Concept sketches 1 and 4 are also meant to relate to sketch 3 as I have tried to imagine what it may look like at the back of those mountains. The first thing I saw being at the back of those mountains was a lake with a little bit of grassland or possibly trees or something along those lines.
You may also notice that sketches 1 and 4 are not shaded, this is because I want to paint them later on when I begin developing the colours for my environments. I only wanted to try shading on a couple of environments, but out of sketch 2 and 3, I like 3 the most because its presentation looks really nice considering it is a sketch concept. I also enjoyed adding the animals in there, this is just to make it easier to see the perspective and viewpoint of the sketch. Having a little mouse in the foreground of this sketch made it easier to identify where parts of the drawing belong.
A few of my inspirations came from these few pictures, I wanted my trees to be based off of those sakura trees as they make me think of a fantasy environment.
You may also notice that sketches 1 and 4 are not shaded, this is because I want to paint them later on when I begin developing the colours for my environments. I only wanted to try shading on a couple of environments, but out of sketch 2 and 3, I like 3 the most because its presentation looks really nice considering it is a sketch concept. I also enjoyed adding the animals in there, this is just to make it easier to see the perspective and viewpoint of the sketch. Having a little mouse in the foreground of this sketch made it easier to identify where parts of the drawing belong.
A few of my inspirations came from these few pictures, I wanted my trees to be based off of those sakura trees as they make me think of a fantasy environment.