Quick Inspiration

http://conceptartworld.com/?p=25589
http://conceptartworld.com/?p=25422
http://conceptartworld.com/?p=12373
http://conceptartworld.com/?p=12092

These were things I found which I thought might help with designing kids and backgrounds.

One step forward and two steps back

I was able to kind of finalize my landscape concept art.

 

However, now that I need to focus on my characters, specifically Rudolf. I'm questioning the style still. Whether to use a more realistic style or use more cartoony design, by which I mean whether to use realistic proportions or cartoony ones.

Demotivator

Wanna know what is a great demotivator?

When you spend 3+ hours working in painter and you exit out and reenter only to find out you had been saving in psd format....so all the effort you did using the different styles amounts to jack-squat.... Fun....

My Concept Art

This is a concept art I did and other than maybe detailing Rudolf, I believe I'm done with it. However as I was playing with it, I started adding a texture. I really like it. It makes it less flat and I feel the style looks like an old picture book which is a good style for this image.

This image is one I did to figure out how I wanted my other art to look...And you know what? I am in love with tablets! I love how I can sketch with it while retaining layers for editing them or to help coloring or painting it.

WIP Carnival Concept Art

This is my work in progress for a landscape concept sheet. I still need to add lights and define the first rows of trees more. I also need to color the carnival items.

I've been, and still am, hesitant to post my work like this online because there is no guarantee that someone won't still either the art itself or the idea/concept.

What makes an environment and a character scary?

Looking at videos like this and many many (too many to list) videos and articles(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KIaZvu39Po) I believe I have an idea what makes something scary.

1. Being alone
Honestly, kind of obvious

2. Limiting senses (sight in a video game medium)
This makes it so people are on edge because they don't know what or when something will strike. And if you can't see a lot then they can come out of nowhere.

This can be done through darkness or narrow areas or both at once.

3. Vulnerability or helplessness
If you are a character with a sword or gun to fight with and can kill anything that attacks then you aren't as worried than if your only option is to run. Vulnerability seems to add to horror.

A note: Being dark does not equal horror. Something being dark and sad is different from making something scary. So being helpless to prevent a sad situation may be dark, but is not horror. Like Majora's Mask, it is incredibly dark and though it has it's creepy moments, it is not a horror game or overall scary. On the other hand, the situation on Pleasure Island in Pinocchio is dark, but a scary dark. Even though the situation is a bit sad, the scary comes from the fact that that dark experience could fall upon the protagonist and left him no choice but to run. In that case, helplessness is scary when the possibility of being subjected to said dark experiences falls upon the player.

4. Imagination
Some of the scariest things occur when you leave it to the player's mind to fill in the blanks. Such as in Amnesia and Slenderman, everyone said the scary part is the fact you don't know what is around the corner. You have an idea based on the sounds that there is something, but if you don't show it then the player's imagination will fill in the blank.

Note: so this means that a moderation in monster or creature attacks might be better than a constant assault, because if you know it is coming then you aren't as on edge as if you haven't seen a creature for a long time but you can hear the DAMN things around every corner!!!

5. Music
On that note, the music playing can really create a creepy ambience, but it isn't just the music but the sounds as well, from the environment such as floors creaking or grass crunching.

6. Confining areas
It seems that tighter areas are scarier than open areas, probably because you have less movement. However in Slenderman you are in a forest and it is still scary. The areas just needs to be confining enough that you have few places to run, but open enough that you have choices and you can dread over whether you made the right one.

7. Hallucinogenic Experiences
This idea really plays with the mind, where you question if something is real or not and thus can really make the imagination go into overdrive.


Characters
The two scariest elements of scary characters seems to be either when they are human, but some feature of them is off, is just wrong in some way, or when they are expressionless.

1. Off humans
For example, zombies. They are humans, but the bloody design of them where they can be missing a pieces of themselves or have something more is a common scary elements, because they seem like they could be anyone but they mind just screams that they are wrong and unnatural!!! This seems to be a common feature of monsters, is to make them humanoid but with tentacles or a melty face like in Amnesia. Or Slenderman and his messed up proportions...

2. Expressionless
The big example is again Slenderman for being faceless, so you have no clue what he is thinking or what his intentions are, you can only assume they are bad and you have no way to reason with them. So a mask could also work in this way such as Pyramid head. Another one is just someone with a face who never makes any expression even after doing some horrible deed, it just creates a scary image for the mind to process. Because we all have ideas on how one should react in a situation to see no reaction seems to creep people out.

However this doesn't mean they can't have expressions. A big example is CLOWNS! Why are they so uniformly scary or off putting? It is because their expression is painted on. They are perpetually smiling and you have no clue why or if under the makeup they are truly smiling, so it is off putting and even scary to a lot of people. Especially since their job is to force their creepy smile on others and get them to smile. Being forced to act a certain way is scary. So characters like the Mask Salesman in Zelda: Majora's Mask are scary for their perpetual smiling where you can't tell their real intentions.

Note: it seems that the scariest expression is a smile. That is probably because either it warps the usual idea of a smiling person being happy or nice and trying to play off that for some evil reason. Another reason is that it could really mean that the person is truly happy and enjoying committing horrible acts, like the coachman from Pinocchio or any smiling serial killer.

Women's Outfits: Maximum mobility or Sex sells?

So when designing a female character the clothing choice is important, among other issues but I'm sticking to outfit designs for now. So with a lot of female leads, action and mobility are a must so what kind of outfits give maximum movement without being designed for pure sexual aspects.

 
 
 



So with these two their outfits do give maximum mobility but they still seem a bit sexualized since little is showing. But on the other hand these are outfits women wear in real life. So it raises the question of whether these outfits are appropriate even if a male most likely designed it.

 These two outfits are skin tight and supposedly meant for movement which would explain gymnastic outfits, but on the other hand they seem overly sexual because they are skin tight.

 These last few ones are movement based but use longer pants versus Tifa's and Lora's short shorts. They seem less sexualized, though still attractive in their own rights. So movement does not require very little clothing. However, in my case the female is an anthropomorphic feline. So having her wear nothing like a normal cat would equal max movement but would be said to be overly sexualized. However adding clothing seems like an attempt to humanize her. While she is intelligent and cunning, she is still a "monster" and "beast."
 Now the issue with using anthropomorphic characters that are females is that even though the males may be left unclothed, the females are more often than not dressed to some extent, usually a dress.

For example in the famous Looney Tunes, who are big on using anthro characters, we see Bugs is nude as usual, but Lola, a female bunny, is dressed in clothing. So even though it is ok for the males to go naked, it isn't for females to. I suppose because even anthro characters are sexualized just as any female character is. It has even become a popular trope to humanize the females over the males: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumanoidFemaleAnimal
So how to design a proper female beast without it becoming a sexualized character, something she is supposed to be the opposite of?

Art Style

I need to find a style to fit my design. These are examples of good styles but not the one I need.

 

These are similar to what I wish to depict. The atmosphere of the shading and architecture design are nicely done in a manner I feel would accentuate a dark atmosphere.

Whereas these seem to have good expressions but the style isn't what I want.



 

http://youtu.be/JJFzBEPrSHQ?t=1m32s  And the cartoon movie, though not for kids, Felidae does scary cartoon design well.

So the style I'm picturing in my head would take the style of these pictures, mix it with the design and shading of Zelda: Majora's Mask, and then distort and twist it with the design and color palette of Felidae.

Creepy Ambience

In a game the intended ambience or feel of the game can influence the style of the game. So I researched different aspects of horror-esque games and games which twist the aspects.

One big element of a game I found creepy was the rogue-like gameplay of Baroque. Trying to reach the top while dealing with permadeath and randomly generated dungeons, while the dungeons are filled with creepy monsters makes it well creepy. However, I feel like that aspect might not work for my idea.

This site showed some prime examples of creepy elements: http://arcadesushi.com/creepiest-moments-in-video-games/

The main idea appears to be shock and keeping the player on edge. Such as Amnesia or Slenderman where the monster could pop out of nowhere which is scary, but the act of keeping players from knowing when or where is what keeps them on edge to make it scary.

This is a good example of using a desolate area to make something creepy. Making it dirty and used and falling apart usually add a creepiness factor.

 Though this one is during the day the cloudy sky that looks like it might storm plus the style of the lifeless trees and old buildings create a creepiness.

This guy may look normal but for pointy ears, but the shaded face and creepy masks make this design scary. He may not be a monster, but his smile can send chills.


These are examples of what not to do.

To begin with a bright and sunny landscape is a big NO! But the cartoonish and bubbly art style also seem inappropriate for creepy ambiences.

This is from Epic Mickey and seems to attempt to be creepy. The dark palette does seem creepy, but the bright lights work against it as well as the reminiscent Disney style, which has too much of a upbeat connotation to really be creepy. Perhaps it can be creepy, but just the childishness of the style seems to detract from that.

This is another old, dark place but the sky seems more mystical than creepy. So night and old does not guarantee a creepy atmosphere.

 These two are from a Halloween themed game called Costume Quest. Again the cartoony, childish style seem to detract from the creepiness associated with night and even Halloween.

 

And perhaps the biggest reason these aren't creepy is the association I have with them from playing some of them. Such as costume quest which is a humorous game which definitely makes it non-creepy. While I've played Zelda: Majora's Mask and Folktales, two of the creepy games, and both were creepy even though they weren't COD realistic, they were fake and you knew they were fake but the atmosphere in the games was just so creepy at times with out it really trying.

Having said all that I have an idea how I'd want the style to look, but unfortunately I question my capabilities as an artist to actually render it. I'm positive I won't succeed and my art with turn into either a cartoony style or just plain bad art.

Edit: I just recalled something cartoony that was creepy as all heck: Courage the Cowardly Dog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdTymvjRuoc

And I found some Disney bits that are freaky (plus commentary): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gw5uA2fT68 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzErJTXjspU
I can safely say I forgot about pleasure island...so it isn't necessarily the style that makes or breaks a creepy ambience, though it does help, but the actions and even psychological implications that really mess with people. And though they are cartoons, it might be possible to apply them to a video game setting.

Character Design

To append to the last post about character designs, I didn't really go into the three types: realism, pseudo-realism, and stylized. Realism would be like

where the proportions and design are based on realism or naturalism. This is useful in allowing the audience to connect with the characters more because they appear like real people. Then there is pseudo-realism like

where the proportions are based off of realistic proportions but there is stylization to them, another good example would be anime characters whose eyes are larger than a real person's eyes. Pseudo-realism is typically minor tweaks to the design. These are good for being relatable for their similarity to realistic proportions, but allow for changes that others may find aesthetically pleasing. And then their is stylization:

where the proportions are all decided by the artist themselves. These are purely based on aesthetics so they can appeal to the audience through aesthetics over realism and how relatable the designs are.

Typically one can use their concept or aesthetics or their own style to decide how the characters should be designed, but I have no idea what concept to do, what my aesthetics are, or even what my style is...honestly I haven't really explored or tried to find my own style, instead I've just used whatever style came with the medium or tool I was using.

Game Concept

I have no clue what kind of game or concept I'm going for. And without an idea I have no idea what kind of environment or character design to use. There are three big archetypes: "real world," fantasy, or sci-fi. The "real world" archetype is any setting based on or in the real world, such as:

 

 

Such as from Sly Cooper which is set in Paris, and though the world is populated by anthropomorphic animals, the setting is still based upon the real world. Then there is

from WildStar which is a fantasy realm because it isn't from the real world and is a separate world entirely. And then there is

from Ratchet and Clank, which is sci-fi because of the space travel and alien races.

Each has there pros and cons. The "real world" becomes relatable to the audience, but limits to an extent alterations to it before it falls into one of the other categories. Fantasy and Sci-fi allow for a completely new place and rules, but there is the need to make it realistic enough that the audience don't find it jarring.

And these can effect the character design. Such as a realistic design versus a stylized design. For example, WildStar is fantasy, which effects the clothing, but the design is realistic or at least based on realistic proportions.

Then there is Sly Cooper and though it is based in the "real world" the use anthropomorphic animals lends itself to a more stylized approach to differentiate species from on another.

Then there is Ratchet and Clank and as a sci-fi game lends itself to stylization for alien races.

So since I'm unsure of what type of game or concept to go with I have no idea the type of setting or character design to go with.



Concept Art

The first assignment of the course is to research concept art and find images that appealed to our aesthetic. This idea in general was hard for me to comprehend since concept art ranges from sketches to full-fledged constructed pictures.

So I found images from video games I enjoy. The first is the Sly Cooper series, using the wiki as the source of images: http://slycooper.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Concept_Art

 

 

With this I tried to include a range of sketches to full pictures from the Sly Cooper games.


This next one is from Ratchet and Clank: http://www.insomniacgames.com/ratchet-clank-10-years-of-concept-art/

 This one is interesting because it shows a progression and evolution of Ratchet's design, which is something to consider that the first design is not set in stone as the only one that can be drawn.

So with this this is the compilation of my research into the use and development of concept art.