Final Rendered Image

Final Design

final sketch

Finally I chose my final sketch and scanned it so I could digitally paint over the drawing in Photoshop.  I began by blocking out the main shapes and colours by painting over the sketch, I then used lighter and darker tones to create shading and lighting on my character, making it look more defined, to me the wastelander looks a little cartoonish, I wanted more of a realistic look which I couldn’t quite get.

basic paint over

added highlights and detail

I finally added a pale, cold, winter background behind the wastelander, in the brief it mentioned to think about different environments and weather types I felt due to his clothing he fits a cold blizzard weather style, using tools such as colour match I was able to make them both blend well together so the character doesn’t look out of place. And finally I added shading and shadow detail on the floor, which I believe looks good as I could identify the light source well.

This is the photoshop file containing all the layers of my concept drawing.
http://www.4shared.com/photo/Pm76R-hB/wastelander2.html

This is the photoshop file containing the final image with background.
http://www.4shared.com/photo/WSxP7Ldp/wastelander.html

final rendered concept

Sketching

Secondly I began to sketch some rough drawings, these were to transfer the ideas from my research and put them on paper and see how I can modify them and create something special. I sketched a few poses and some weapons I want my character to have, however I was still confident in doing a landscape environment painting in Photoshop. 

Rough sketches

I then sketched larger designs, at this point I was pretty sure I had a good idea of what I wanted to do, either a wastelander character design or an environment design containing a wastelander character. After looking through my rough sketches, and using ideas from them I drew 3 main character concepts, 2 wastelanders and the other a kor soldier.

wastelander sketch 1

kor soldier sketch

wastelander sketch 2

After collecting reference on the famous Brazilian landmark the Christ of Redeemer statue I wanted to put that idea forward and place it in my futuristic scene, the mountain that surrounds it could be a great area or base for either the Kor military or the wasteland townships. Drawing both versions I felt the Kor city looked far better.

shanty township built around christ of redeemer statue

kor city built around christ of redeemer statue

 I was very happy with the Kor city drawing I did and I wanted to continue with that and paint over it in Photoshop, however after trying different techniques such as over painting a photo and painting over the sketch from scratch I felt it didn’t look as good as how I wanted it to, so I left that idea and chose a wastelander concept.

Research & Reference

Shanty town reference

Christ of Redeemer statue reference

Aircraft and cargo reference

wasteland reference

wasteland reference

Firstly I collected researched and reference, at this point in time I wasn’t completely sure what I wanted to do for my final project so I researched environments as well as character designs, I collected both conceptual reference as well as photo reference, this is because I can see how others have done their concepts and become inspired by some and also to see the standard of the games industry, and photo reference is important  because all games and concepts are inspired from creatures or environments from our own world, everything we have here. 

I collected a good amount of reference from environments, such as shanty towns, wasteland surroundings, aircraft parts, washed up cargo and after searching famous landmarks I could build my scene around, I felt the Christ of Redeemer statue was perfect. I also looked into creature and vehicle design however I ruled them out because I wasn’t as motivated by them. 

I looked into key factors that would help be define my character design such as his clothing, handmade items, robes from thick fabrics, dirt and tears in different places and salvaged cobbled together weapons, their resources are very limited after all. 

wastelander concepts

wastelander concepts

wastelander reference