Francis Varley: Games Art 2024-25

 

Ward Ship Ideation: For the environment piece, I have decided to create a representation for what the Forge Father's Ward Ship would look like, a massive, city-like structure that acts to be a mobile home for thousands of individual Forge Fathers. This ship is the primary location in which the game is set, the "Aegnar" Ward Ship that the Forge Father character controls a part of and the Veer-Myn character is invading. This idea bears strong inspiration from Crying Suns (Alt Shift 2019), in which the ships shown are 3D assets more complex than the otherwise pixelated character and environment designs.  These ships are a source of inspiration due a degree of similarity they have to the Ward Ship. Though not necessarily sharing the same design language, they are massive and city-like in scale, housing a robust crew. In Crying Suns (Alt Shift 2019), art showing the battleships in full scale also shows how big typical fighter ships are in comparison. In the image seen below,...

Lineless Art Practice Lineless art and digital painting is the technique of creating pieces that do not have line art: where, instead of a harsh line separating bodies of mass in the piece, they are instead defined through value and tone. Blocks of colour show the difference between different areas of the piece, with value and contrast used to sharpen these differences creating new lines and defining the forms. To practice this, I used a piece of line art I created of an alien character.  Drawn using pen, I found that - with some correction to make the line art pop a bit more - it worked well as a basis for the digital painting. With the layer of the pen drawing set to multiply, it blended into the background: this let me change the transparency of the line art to help in defining my forms and keeping to the shapes of the initial drawing. When creating this piece I used a value painting to block out the forms of the character. In future pieces, I will try to up the contrast between...

Retopology Retopology is the act of recreating existing surfaces with optimized geometry, in terms of memory usage. Also allows for topology to be fit for animation, allowing models to deform and move in a correct manner. To retopologise, we first decimate our sculpt, significantly reducing the polygon count, then export it as an FBX into Maya. In Maya, the Quad Draw Tool is utilised to create new faces over the mesh whilst retaining the shape of the model.  When using the Quad Draw tool, TAB is used to extrude faces, SHIFT+LMB is used to smooth regions, CTRL+LMB creates an edge loop and you can weld vertices together by dragging them using LMB. CTRL+SHIFT+LMB deletes regions of the retopology. In areas of sharp deformation, such as the eyes, shoulders and hips, it can be useful to consider creating topology in a series of concentric circles, allowing for more detailed deformation. To demonstrate the retopology process, I have created a high-topology sculpt of an alien head.  ...

Compositing Scenes When creating illustrations, potential inspiration for the compositions can be found in analysing stills of scenes in films and tv. This can be used as a template to understand how personal illustrations can be improved. This scene, in Dune 2, shows the lead-up to a fight between two characters: Feyd-Rautha (left) and Paul Atreides (right). This is a highly climactic moment in the film and is of great importance to the plot, more or less the highest point of tension and anticipation in the film; it is the final trial that will determine the fates of both characters involved, and is a spectacle as such. The scene has been established in a manner that enhances this, with sharp contrast pushing forward the silhouettes of the two characters and placing them into total shadow. This highlights the shapes and stances of both characters, illuminating the differences between them. There is tension and balance between the two: with both being placed roughly the same distance a...

Skinning & Weight Painting Skinning is the process of connecting model geometry to a rig: placing the skin atop a rig and allowing for the geometry of a model to deform and move as the rig is manipulated. This allows for the process of weight painting, in which the influence of joints is proportioned out across regions of geometry. There are several methods of determining how joint weight are distributed. In weight distribution and skinning, there is the concept of different "binds", determining in different terms how the skin of a model moves. This is in relation to the strength and difference between weight distribution. Often, weight distribution is measured on a scale from 0 to 1, with 0 meaning that a joint has no weight on a section of geometry and 1 meaning it has a great degree of control. If, when computing weight differences, the binary values of 0 and 1 are all that is used, the bind is considered a "Hard Bind", being split uniformly between areas wit...

Client Review: The Client Review gave me the following feedback: Forge Father: -Squash down proportions: move knee, feet and arms up. Move legs closer together. -Add curve to interior arm plate: as is, the plate restricts movement -Increase scale of pauldrons to cover more of upper arm (moving arms up could also rectify this) -Add more angles to background of key art; proportions on character are fine because of angle / position, though i should move the arm position up to be more in line with the reference sheet Veer-Myn: -Squash proportions in arms and legs. In key art, could change arm position to help rectify scale issues.  -Add more of a hunch to the neck and curve the back more. Not as much an issue in the key art, as they are already hunched.  -Increase size of stomach and narrow gap between legs To implement this feedback, I have decided to alter the orthographic images I previously produced to include the suggested changes. This will save me more time than drawing out...

Professional Online Presence To help in starting a professional online presence, I have created accounts on several websites in which I will be able to share my work, acting as digital portfolios in which people will be able to see and access projects I have worked on. This is already a process I have started with prior, having previously created an Artstation account and Itch.io account which can be used as digital portfolios. Artstation itself is a digital portfolio website based around hosting artwork, and itch.io is a website in which games (digital and physical) and books can be published for download. I have also created a LinkedIn account, which I could use to search for job listings and other employment opportunities.  On my Artstation, I wrote a brief artist statement that describes what artwork I produce, what my interests are and what I am studying. This serves to give a brief for as to what my art is and why I create it, informing others of my potential inspirations and...

DEADZONE: OLD EXTERMINATION Deadzone: Old Extermination is a strategy game with RTS elements in which players control a Forge Fatehr Huscarl aboard the 'Aengar' Ward Ship, overseeing small-scale skirmish battles between the Forge Fathers and Veer-Myn invaders whilst managing a rapidly depleting pool of resources that keep the ship alive.  The following are two main characters who would be in the game. One is the Forge Father Huscarl which players would interact with the world through, and the other is a Veer-Myn leader who is pushing ahead the infestation. Both characters are 'administrative' in nature, not necessarily being front-line fighters but instead commanders and leaders who would order soldiers from afar. VEER-MYN CHARACTER : THE INFESTATION : A Brood Mother-turned-warrior, who commands the thralls of her nest to storm and pillage. What she lacks in resources she makes up for in ingenuity, and in the total loyalty her young have to her. She is their commander, ...

Key Art Production: The Key Art I wish to produce for the Real Worlds project shows my characters in full and in their own environment, made to demonstrate the design of the characters in question whilst pushing the differences between them and illustrating an attribute of their personality. In this, they are somewhat simplistic, not requiring complex backgrounds or detailed interactions, being more based around trying to illustrate what makes the character unique and a hero in their own faction. My Forge Father character, Masan Helmen, is nobility: a Huscarl who commands a section of the Ward Ship she lives within, stern and regal. My Veer-Myn character, The Infestation, is a skulker in the darkness, a terror who will stalk and hunt to protect her young. I want the illustrations I produce to show these aspects of their characters: in my mind, in-game, they would be seen in a codex detailing elements of the character's backstory and personality.  To begin with, I created thumbnail ...