Major Project

March 2022 Semester 6
Ng Ming De (0335594)
Major Project (PRJ62304)

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Instructions 

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Week 1

And then it was the final semester. For our major project, Mr Asrizal will be facilitating our progress and assign a supervisor for us based on the topic or theme of our project who will guide us throughout our self-driven project. In this module, we can come up with a topic based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, find a client to work with or continuing the research from our dissertation. 

Week 2

At first, I thought of designing a portable pillow or cushion case which can be filled with any stuffing for patients with anxiety or depression as some people may need a companion as some people might be too scared to call out for help from their peers. But after the consultation with Mr Asrizal, he said that although it might sound like a good idea, I need thorough and deeper research as to how does a plush toy aid in patients with panic attacks or depression. After some research, I find that plush toys are not really important to patients with mental illnesses and I personally feel that this approach does not feel like a "Major" project for me and sounds more like an arts & crafts session. Mr Asrizal also said that Entertainment Design students have more freedom to take on any project along the line of our work.

    

    Thus, I decided to continue my exploration using the plot from my Game Art module. I will be experimenting more on different character anatomy as I've been doing female characters. I also want to combine the knowledge I've learnt from Environment Design and Digital Matte Painting to create illustrations of the new adventure team on their journey.

Week 3

Feedback:

Find a genre, that gives it originality and uniqueness as my ideas right now feel like a copy of existing games. My major project should reflect on my ability to generate a narrative story, make sense with design, product execution. Four characters does not feel sufficient, may add more. Sculpt one 3D Model, do splash art for the rest.

After taking that feedback, I've decided to start a new and made a new slide and write everything on Google Docs so that I do not get lost with my train of thought.

My slides:

Week 4

Detailed direction/ planning of my Major Project:

SDG 14: Life below Water
Topics: Overfishing, Ocean Warming, Water Pollution

Project Objective:

Raise awareness of the current crisis that is impacting marine life and the ocean through fantasy storytelling, making references from real-life data collection.

Game title:

Oceanus Instigators

Synopsis: 

With the rising cases of ocean’s pollution that are damaging marine life, a group of individuals with determination in restoring the ocean’s ecosystem set out on a journey to identify the causes and solve them. However, what they encounter in their journey is but the tip of the iceberg..

Plot: 

Set in a dystopian fantasy future where the marine ecosystem is in decline, determined scientists and adventurers set out on a journey to find out the roots of what has been causing the disappearance of many marine wildlife along with the depleting numbers of coral reefs. From a scientific point of view, there are cases of pollution from mass industries recorded. However, it does not explain the disappearance in marine wildlife as there were no carcasses of marine animals found. Although leviathans and beasts alike have been recorded as extinct or slain, many rumors have been going around saying that cultists have successfully brought back their gods from the afterlife. In this open world adventure game, players will form a team and set out on a journey to investigate the phenomena that has been going around. Would they debunk it, or will they uncover something totally unexpected?

Characters: Total of 10, ( 4 Playable, 4 Animals, 1 “Boss” 1 Mysterious character)
Playable Characters

1. Vashghir Yugharis
2. Meryl Boulash
3. Bellamy Von Hara
4. Seismic Tarni

Animals: 2 Marine mammal, hybrid of dolphin and Jellyfish

1. Fish, Hybrid of flowers and gemstones
2. Floral inspired Deep sea creature (anglerfish, goblin shark, etc)

Boss

1. Corrupted Leviathan-like creature (Kraken, Dragon/ Serpent, Prehistoric marine dinosaurs)
2. Mysterious Character, Cultist (Worshiper of the Leviathan)

Environment Design

1. Serene seas
2. Tropical inspired oceans and islands
3. Islands / water corruption from the cultist + human activity which lead to pollution

Outputs:

1. Character sheet
2. Environment Illustrations
3. UI designs for each characters
4. Poses
5. All mentioned outputs will be compiled to an Art Book

References: 

1. Subnautica
2. Coral Island
3. Final Fantasy XIV

Feedback: The silhouette study for Vashghir and Bellamy. She said that Vashghir is good whereas Bellamy were kind of lacking. She gave me references to Silco from Arcane and Shera to study on their clothing. After that, I began putting details on Vashghir's design and continue to collect references for Bellamy, Meryl, Seismic and the non-playable characters.

Week 5

Feedback: Loosen some parts of the pants from Vashghir as I'm trying to achieve a himbo look for him. Decide between a gunslinger or an archer for Seismic as these two class have a different look and feel despite being under the marksmen class. Refer to Kokomi from Genshin Impact for Meryl and think of incorporating some familiar to go with her. As for Bellamy, look into Roegardyn Glam from FFXIV and adapt a classy clean silhouette for them. Add accessories like glasses to her. 

Week 6

As it is Raya Holiday this week, we will be updating our progress through our blog.

Here are my character design variations with flat colors:

Fig 1.1 Bellamy 

Fig 1.2 Vashghir

Week 7 

Feedback: Bellamy: Go for Design #2, add some kind of lipstick and refine the shoes. Vashghir: Design #1, go for skimpier and short pants as he's the carefree kind of guy and outfit is the least of his concern. Meryl: Cross designs for #2 and #3 and the hair in #3 fits her name whereas the sleeves in #2 is actually elegant but the pants are not doing it. Seismic: Ms Anis is digging for #1, maybe add a backpack onto her as she is the analytical type, and having a backpack conveys the message that she is a utility based character. For the animal designs, Ms Anis suggested that I focus on the Environment Design first. Identify the colors and biomes of my environment and pick out the colors and schemes which best fit the type of creatures to live in these biomes. Reference: Terraria, Minecraft.

 

Week 8

This week is our proposal presentation week as well as current progress checkup. Here are my slides:

Some feedback I got was to look at existing art of bibles for references, color scripts, splash art for the loading screen, look into soft storytelling because my plot feels a bit overwhelming for every character to have different backgrounds as well as do more variation for the designs as a form of exploration for the art book.

As for my PDW report, here is the link for it: https://ngmingdetds.blogspot.com/2022/05/professional-development-week.html

Week 9

I showed the turnarounds for Vashghir and Meryl, here is Ms Anis' response:

Fig 2.1 Feedback

Week 11

This week, I showed the turnarounds for Bellamy and Seismic, as well as some sketches on the weapon designs and animals.

Fig 3.1 Bellamy Turnaround

Fig 3.2 Seismic Turnaround

Fig 3.3 Animal Silhouette Studies

Fig 3.4 Weapons Silhouette Studies

Fig 3.5 Feedback

Week 12

This week I updated Ms Anis on the lineart from last week's sketches, character poses for splash art as well as some thumbnail sketches for the illustrations.

Fig 4.1 Animals lineart

Fig 4.2 Weapons lineart

Fig 4.4 Character poses

Fig 4.5 Thumbnail sketches

Fig 4.6 Feedback

Week 13

This week, I updated Ms Anis on my renders for the props, animals and poses for the character's splash art. Ms Anis helped guide me on polishing Meryl's splash art.

Fig 5.1 Animals Final render

Fig 5.2 Weapons Final render

Fig 5.3 Poses

Fig 5.4 Bellamy lineart

Fig 5.5 Meryl lineart

Fig 5.6 Meryl Splash art Final

Fig 5.7 Feedback

Fig 5.8 Feedback

Week 16

Submission Week

Here is my game art book: https://online.fliphtml5.com/xffxn/ifej/

Overall, it was quite a hectic and rewarding experience creating an entire world and characters on my own, I wish I had more time to try and sculpt them for fun, but I'll probably do that in the future. :)