Negotiated Study 1- Finished Backgrounds & Animatics

After a long period of work over the Christmas holidays, I'm pleased to say I got tons of stuff done. I finished all the SketchUp models I wanted to do, as well as my two collections of animatics.

Here are my finished backgrounds:

Alexandre's Server Room

Bryant's Museum

Bunty's School Stadium

Dorian's City Park

Fumes' Alleyway

Mackford's Street

Mayhem's Shopping Centre

Natalya's Scrapyard

Petra's Library

Shen-Te's Garden

Walt's Art Gallery

Grace's Fairground

And here are the animatics!

Negotiated Study 1- Backgrounds 3

I've done another today, for a total of 5 backgrounds done. I'm whizzing through these quicker than I thought, so I thought I'd put in some development screenshots to show my process.

The garage was made by hollowing out the wall, although it may not look like that.

When I work on SketchUp, it reminds me of working with a sculptor's block, as the shape has to exist first before you can make it into what you want. Here I wanted a dumpster, so for the moment it is simply a cuboid.

You then have to draw the section you want to chop off.

Deleting the corner lines then forces the cuboid to join at the points you drew underneath. And there you have a basic dumpster.

Here, I was making a trash can, using the same method as the vase in the previous Art Gallery stage. You make the cross section shape, then draw a circle at the point of rotation and then use 'Follow Me' Tool. Simple!

This is Fumes' stage, the Alleyway. I've yet to make the texture for the dumpster.

Negotiated Study 1- Backgrounds 2

I've done more backgrounds on SketchUp, and to my surprise, I'm finding it lots of fun modelling backgrounds using this tool. Despite being really simple, SketchUp allows for creative solutions to modelling things and I also get to draw my own textures.

Three more backgrounds have been done, but they are missing a few textures that I have yet to create. One in particular was challenging as I wanted to create a 3D vase, which proved to be quite tricky, but after finding this easy tutorial, I was able to make a very nice vase model.

I have added a different lighting setting to indicate a skylight in the room. Tables have now been added, as well as cardboard boxes, to fill up the otherwise vacant library.

This is Grace's fighting stage, a paved area outside a large funfair. Everything is finished except the most important thing of all: the nighttime backdrop that will showcase the extravagant funfair.

This is Alexandre's fighting stage, a large server room. The textures for the towers however are missing, and I have yet to add more wires and circuits.

This is Walt's fighting stage, an art gallery. This one was relatively simple, with the exception of the vase. There are still some improvements to do, as there is a clock I want to add on the olive wall in the background, and a mask exhibit to the right of the vase.

The vase proved to be tricky at first glance, but after viewing the tutorial, it was made by simply creating a vertical rectangle, and drawing out a cross section of the vase using lines and arcs. Deleting the rest of the rectangle and leaving the cross section, I then created a small circle at the point I wanted it to rotate to make the shape, and then it was just a matter of using the 'Follow Me' Tool to create the vase. It was far too small at first, but I selected all components that made it, and used the Scale Tool, rather than create a bigger one from scratch.

Negotiated Study 1- Backgrounds 1

December is now upon us and I'm going into full overdrive mode now to get this project completed. As the sprites are now done, I'm going ahead on the pseudo-3D backgrounds. In SketchUp, I've reconstructed the background I envisioned in my sketches to scale, and then began texturing it. The objective here is to get a 2D image that I can polish in Photoshop to make the final background. It will then be shrunk down to the resolution of the Nintendo 3DS.

Here's the process on my first background:

First off, I created a basic plane with intersecting walls.

Then, I created the bookshelves in the same positions as in my sketch, making sure they are symmetrical on both sides.

To verify this, I positioned the camera in the same place as it appears in my sketch.

I then add the arcs of each bookshelf.

The doors and windows are added and checked appropriately. I then start to add basic colour and textures.

I position the camera at the envisioned pose and this is roughly what the final shot would look like. I have yet to make textures for the bookshelves, and I have to remove the black edges from the model too.

Negotiated Study 1- Coloured Sprites 6

All my character sprites are now done, and will be shrunk down to the correct resolution. For the next part of the project however, I'm taking a break from animation, and focusing on doing the backgrounds and concept art.

Bunty's coloured pose.

Bryant's coloured pose.

Negotiated Study 1- Coloured Sprites 5

I'm nearing the end of my production with the sprites. Only two remain (Bunty and Bryant) and after some careful consideration, I have decided to retain their hand-drawn style after shrinking them to resolution. I was in the process of converting Grace's animation into a full 'pixelized' sprite, and I realised that it wasn't viable to do them all in this fashion as it would take too long. I will carry on with Grace's sprite however to demonstrate that I can handle sprite art, but the rest will be finished as they are. However, this option seems to be quite popular in today's world, where sprites are fully hand-drawn and unedited, such as those in Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion for Nintendo 3DS.

Dorian's coloured pose.

Mackford's coloured pose.

Shen-Te's coloured pose.

Negotiated Study 1- Coloured Sprites 4

Mayhem's coloured pose.

Natalya's coloured pose.

Negotiated Study 1- Coloured Sprites 3

Walt's fighting pose.

Negotiated Study 1- Coloured Sprites 2

I've done a lot more of the sprite colourings today!

Petra's coloured default pose.

Fumes' coloured default pose.

Alexandre's coloured default pose.

Isten's coloured default pose.

Negotiated Study 1- Coloured Sprites 1

As now the sprites have their outlines completely done, it's time for colouring the frames. Once the colouring has been done, they will be shrunk to actual pixel size and worked into to highlight details and finished the frame off. Today, I have recoloured Grace's animation and this has been shrunk down to the right resolution.

Grace's fighting pose, fully coloured.

Negotiated Study 1- Sprite Animations Practice 5

I've now finished the last of my sprites. The next step is colouring each frame with detail before shrinking them down to the final size.

Dorian's fighting pose, based on Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat II.

Grace's fighting pose, based on Nightwolf from Mortal Kombat 3.

Walt's fighting pose, based on Jade from Mortal Kombat 3.

Isten's fighting pose, based on Raiden from Mortal Kombat II.

Negotiated Study 1- Sprite Animations Practice 4

More have been done!

Bryant's fighting pose, based on Jax from Mortal Kombat II.

Bunty's fighting pose, based on Sonya from Mortal Kombat 3.

Portfolio and Shop Links

As I now have portfolios online on both Carbonmade and Dropr, I'm reposting links for anyone who is interested. I have also started an online shop on Etsy to sell my artwork as well as other tidbits like keyrings and charms.

Dropr Portfolio:

http://dropr.com/racketyesperus

Carbonmade Portfolio:

http://racketyesperus.carbonmade.com/

Etsy Shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RacketyEsperusArt

Negotiated Study 1- Sprite Animations Practice 3

More animations have been done!

Fumes' fighting pose, based on Baraka from Mortal Kombat II.

Mayhem's fighting pose, based on Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat 3.