Semester 3 and Masters Evaluation...

I can honestly say i am pretty deflated to be typing the evaluation of my Masters in Games Design!

Not only that but my final days in education are now coming to a close and i would be lying if i where to say 'I won't miss it'. However its not all doom and gloom guys!

Ive learnt a MAHOOSIVE amount of techniques and methods during my time on the Ma and even generated theories of creature design! My drawing skills have improved on such a dramatic scale both digitally and traditionally from my time on the B.A in Games Design and the exciting part is that its only going to get better!

My approach to design is more professional, i consider flaws before the initial concept, i rough it out first and most importantly, i think.... I use my gained knowledge of Natural History and Anatomy to make design decisions for my creature designs, which is a knowledge that is only going to become stronger as my career blossoms.

Key techniques learnt include the use of Textures in my designs enhancing the look and believability of a design. Silhouetting; generating random shapes and just seeing what i can do with them! Using the Pen Tool and masking off my image to generate clean cut artwork without the aggro of using the rubber afterwards! Finally the most beneficial has to be Grey Scale, using this method to figure out the basic rendering and building the detail and colour upon that. I believe this has helped me gather a greater understanding of Colour Theory which used to be a bit of a 'grey' area for myself. I have grown more confident in Photoshop than ever before and considering i hadn't used it at all until University i am so pleased with my progress and i know its only going to improve which is an exciting concept for all of us!

Enrolling on the Masters course was easily the greatest decision of my life. Now i actually feel ready to be let loose on the world and continue providing my artwork for people to enjoy, but hopefully on a larger scale in the future... fingers crossed. I know with experience in the industry and within a studio environment my skills will flourish further as i observe the professionals and gain valuable knowledge, methods and techniques from them.

After the Ma experience i finally feel my career has direction, its been a long road to get to this point but wow, it was worth the wait.

Thank you so much for following my journey as a Masters student.

See you somewhere in the future! :)

Final Creature Update... for now...

Insect

These pesky critters are everywhere in the deep damp forests. They don't tend to both you unless provoked and i don't intend on experiencing the stinging pain from their fangs!

They can be seen feeding upon rotting carcass's of other creatures or even sucking the blood of live ones!

Quite a large fly with a wing span of 20cm and body length of 15cm.

Flying Catfish aka Water Dragon

Flying Catfish head redesign

This huge creature with a a body length of up to 10metres and a wing span almost doubling that dominates the vast intertwined rivers and lakes. This creature is unique as it can breathe above and below the surface. Like a fish it uses gills to breathe under water but like the mud skipper it can also breath above the surface. I can only do this by keeping its gills and body as moist as possible. Adapted glands cover its body like an amphibian which secretes a lubricant enabling it to exit the water.

they have been spotted around wetland bog areas, lakes and rivers and even gliding on thermals around waterfalls. This truly is a water dragon. It feeds upon fish, birds and even small mammals.

King Fisher.

 This king fisher is like no other, this creature has earned this title purely on its skills at fishing for prey. Its hawk like eyes pick up on the slightest movements beneath the waters surface but what is more clever is its ability to pick up on heat signals enabling pin point accuracy when swooping down for a kill. The long snout with piercingly long teeth easily puncture skin and bone making them sure of success.
Its flat feet are used for balance and skim the waters surface when capturing a meal, the huge wing span enables a greater lift when pushing back off the water.
Can be spotted in most wetland marsh areas.

Similar to the Water Dragon it too has adapted the ability to exit the murky depths and can be seen basking upon beach fronts during the daylight hours absorbing the heat from the sun. Its lubricating gland ensure its precious skin doesn't dry out. When too warm it simply slips back into the sea to cool down or feed upon seaweed and algae. Its two front limbs help the creature support itself when feeding off rocks or even allow it to forage amongst rocks and coral.

 This ray is difference to anything Ive seen before, it hosts a single large eye and a stinging tail. These creatures are only small at most 1metre from nose to tail tip and a body size of less than half that. It has a small mouth opening below the eye and it appears to feed on anything floating by; plankton, seaweed, small fish and even rotting creature carcass's.

Ray progression

Stressful book building times?!

The past week has been a stressful experience to say the least. I am generating an Art book of all my best bits from the MA which in theory i need to send of to Blurb for printing..... Tomorrow in any hope of receiving it in time for the deadline on the 9th Jan 2013... EEEK!

As you can imagine in usual designer fashion its crunch time... wine and late nights/early mornings it is! Its funny, no matter how prepared you feel deadlines always manage to sneak up on you! So I've been beasting out as much work as i can whilst organising it into a pretty book for you all to check out eventually :D

You may sense panic in this post... you'd be right, however don't don't fret! I CAN DO THIS!

Despite my final deadlines only being on the 9th Jan 2013 i will be doing my Semester 3 Evaluation aka MA Evaluation shortly as i also have an EPIC blog book to complete and send away for printing as well which contains every post, image, inspirational piece and photograph's from day 1!!!

WOWSERS!

Anyway here's a few things I've been doing this week besides book building :)

Wintry Tundra with creature grazing - speed painting attempt of environment.

Spiky Tree dweller!

Bird of Paradise vs Dino

Bear hug.... or not...

Front, Side and Scale, Back, Skeleton.

Completed design

Originally inspired by a Bear/Beaver cross this design underwent some design decisions turning it into a Bear/Hyena inspired design. This creature has a powerful bone destroying jaw with two prominent canines which puncture even the thickest skin and bone with ease.

They can be seen hunting in packs of up to 10 and even working seemingly together to take down larger prey. These intelligent creatures can be seen assessing situations... sitting on their hind quarters and looking out as if they are working something out? Perhaps their next move? I wouldn't advise hanging around to find out!

Their fur provides a highly camouflaged coat against the dense woodland back drop. They can be located in woodland areas and occasionally upon the plains when scouting for larger meals, this tends to happen within the colder months when most creatures are hibernating and larger prey like the Rhino/Bull seems the only obvious target...

When running on all fours this creatures can reach speeds of 10-15mph, which as part of a group is fast enough to take down larger prey. This creature is built up mainly of solid bone, strong muscle mass and dense fur standing at around a metre in height when fully grown and sat on their rear limbs.

Size comparison next to a tree and a Crimson Wasp's Hive (very similar to a bee hive)...

The design process

Once upon a Wintry Tundra...

Completed design

Ok so this creature based around a Rhino and a Bull but i liked the idea of a fluffy warm fur coat. I picture this creature gathering in mass numbers like Bison upon a wintry tundra. Cold, blowing plains where the trees these guys feed upon thrive in sub zero temperatures. Mainly grazing and sleeping they may appear to be lazy creatures or an easy target to a hungry predator... possibly a predator like the Gorilla/Lion cross i did earlier or even the Bear creature above this post... perhaps a pack of those guys could take one of these down if they worked together?

Both males and females have an impressive array of sharp horns however the males do tend to have larger ones, to compete and size up, showing off to surrounding females. Its not uncommon for duels to break out on a regular basis, some for fun, some fights to the death.

This powerful creature should be approached with caution!

Colour variation

Ice Creature...

Above; colour samples

After watching tutorials over the past few days i now know how to use the pen tool, turn into a selection, and then create a 'masked' group to create neat images without wasting days of my life rubbing out and correcting afterwards!!! THIS IS A GOOD DAY! :D

Generated a few options colour wise at the top and the bottom image i have selected a colour and now starting to work into it so far been working around the head. BUSY BUSY!

Above; final polish in process

The Leech Fish

Above: Top down, side and perspective view.

The Leech fish is given its name from how it devours unexpected prey... Similar to the Upside down Catfish this fish is basically to wrong way up to look at, but there is good reason for this...

This creature stalks its prey from below, its darker coloured top side helps it become camouflaged against the dismal watery depths below and looking up from below at this creature it has a lighter underside to help it camouflage against the shallower waters. Its patterning is an attempt to create the effects of sparkling sun kissed waters at the surface.

The Leech fish has a long slender tail which once latched on to prey initially with its piercingly sharp tooth lined jaws it begins to wrap around the prey and squeezing the 'life' out of it, making it impossible for the prey to breath eventually leading to its death. A large paddle at the tip of this tail forms a vacuum  making it near impossible to escape and insuring control of the writhing prey. Along the dark top side of the creature there are ridges lined with tiny tooth-like structures to ensure further control over prey and movement from the prey could cause abrasions to its skin.

This creature can reach sizes up to that of the length of a human arm!