Environment 2 and 3

I have finished 2 more environments. One is set at the mountains while the other is in a cave with the final boss and the 3 main characters.

I wanted one environment that's not just silhouetted. I added a bit of colour to the cave as the boss just faded in with the black.

Mountain

Cave with boss

The mountains give a nice scenein the background and with the cave, I made it more compact rather than free space. The black planks keeps the cave up and from falling. 

I also created the character sheet for the rabbit and the main character. I used the main character sheet from my animation and updated the poses and eyes. 

main character

rabbit

Again i stuck to adding more personalities and expression as well as show the sizes between two characters.

Feedback presentation

Currently gained feedback for my last presentation.

Continue to work on project.

Don't just stop there with the designs. Can work on them more and maybe use them in future such as games comics or small animation.

Environment looks good with the characters inside it. 

Need to produce one more long environment art with the characters in action.

Environment update

I have just completed my first environment in long length. The player will need to get through the cave to get to the snowy mountains. I added the bear and the rabbit for now to show where the player will be standing. I have also added my villains to the page as well to show size and what they would be doing.

Environment 1

The screen will be in small blocks so the player will not see all of this but what will fit on the screen.

Update

From my last post I was going to draw a wolf character, but it became difficult to draw. I'm not sure why I can't get it right but I may practice this on a later date.

Currently I finished making my little villains and I am pleased with the outcome.

proud of my villains

The large flying villain will be the boss of the level. Dodge the arms as he will grab you to eat and can fly/float. I wanted a goofy design for this so I decided to add small pixie wings to his back to show the difference to his size with small pixie wings.

On the bottom, from left to right, you have the first villain, which you would have seen hiding under the bridge from my last environment art. Just a normal walking villain that scratches. The next villain just has one large eye with no arms. He would be the watcher, and the player would need to snake pass him to get to the next level. He cannot be destroyed. The character thats similar to this one has many eyes and has arms. The eyes will pop out as little grenades and he can generate new ones. The player will have to dodge the eye-grenades as well as attack each eye till he is blinded, which then the player can destroy. The last and personally my favourite character is the littlest one. He can be on both sides, evil and good, if the player gives him a treat. This in turn gives the player a choice of either killing the little monster (I hope not!) or giving him food to keep him occupy. He is the same as the first villain on the bottom but much more easier to destroy.

I was thinking about animating in after effects the floating character, the eye-grenade and the little one, but I will see for time first.

Video Research

NO CATS OR HUMANS WERE HARMED IN THIS VIDEO!

He received treats and his favourite toy afterwards.

When designing the wolf character David pointed out that wolves mostly use their toes to walk rather than the whole foot. I decided to see how they would walk by looking up Fantastic MR Fox and my cat.

The first video I had help with lift him up and walk 2 steps.

The second video I asked my boyfriend to walk on his tiptoes to see what a human would look like when walking. From the legs it looked difficult as the knee does most of the work to move the legs. So the shin looks stiff and rigid. I did ask him to walk normal so it must have been difficult to do so.

Lastly I got my cat to walk normal. It was difficult as he kept on bashing his head on the camera, but I finally got footage and looking at it, you can see the leg work of the knees when walking. He pushes his back legs to come forward in running action. 

If I make the wolf have his knee bent when in standing position, then he can walk normally on his hind legs.

I will have a character sheet ready by Thursday hopefully. Again I say no animals or humans were harmed in these videos.

Character Design UPDATE

So I have updated the bear and I am finally happy with the result.I got my flow back with the drawing tool on graphics tablet as I have stuck with the pen tool for too long.

The first design looked ok but no personality. The pen tool made the bear too rigid and stiff.

First design looked too bland

Character sheet and new design

I wanted to use a character sheet to show certain emotions and how large the bear is compared to the main character. I still stuck to the small head and large claws.

It has some sort of my design mixed with a bit of Tim Burton. The bear looks cartoonish, which is what I aim for and has more of a flow with the lines. I didn't add colour yet and just kept it black and white at the moment.

I hope to do more characters like this design.

Character design

I have designed the bear character and another design of the main character. I still have her body to do but the head looks finished.

The bear is large since he is the strongest of the group. He can go crazy when lifting heavy objects but is still very slow. I kept the eyes blank, with a small head. Even though my concept has a lot of detail in my drawings I want to keep the style of the game in with the characters so there is't a lot of details about him.

For the main character I have been through 3 designs of her as I was not happy with the first one. I wanted a bit of expression and personality with the face. I also made her older but this might change again. I still kept to the tim burton style and looks more victorian with a pale face.

I will work on the body after I have done more characters.

Character Time Burton Style

As my characters are Tim Burton inspirations, an artist by the name of Andrew Tarusov re imagined disney posters and characters in that sort of style. 

Snow white
http://rack.3.mshcdn.com/media/
ZgkyMDE2LzAxLzMxL2MyL3Nub3d3aGl0ZS5lMWI1My5qcGcKcAl0aHVtYgkxMjAweDk2MDA-/ca55e8b7
/e8b/snowwhite.jpg

These are better examples to look at from Tim Burton inspired as it sticks closely to the original theme as well as keeping the disney feel without any horror (sometimes). 

The Little Mermaid
http://imworld.aufeminin.com/story/20160201/-855935_w650.jpg

They look drawn in rather than using graphics. I may use the same technique to get that gothic, dark look.

Bambi
http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/
ZgkyMDE2LzAxLzMxLzEyL2JhbWJpLmU5ZDhhLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTEyMDB4OTYwMD4/90124afa/ce8
/bambi.jpg

It doesn't look sketchy or crooked in some parts or have the odd colours. More subtle and dull colours work well against the black.

The Lion King
http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/Zgky
MDE2LzAxLzMxL2RiL2xpb25raW5nLmI3YTUxLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTEyMDB4
OTYwMD4/11713784/302/lionking.jpg

For the silhouettes i have used the same technique of just showing the eyes. I like these eyes more than the other artists have produced as most artists try too hard to keep with sketchy shadow eyes, which don't work very well.

Too sketchy eyes. Squirtle by Hatboy
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2012/09/03/fan-artist-begins-tim-burton-inspired-pokemon-re-designs

Can see more of Andrews art here: http://www.tarusov.com/#!what-if-tim-burton-directed-all-disney-c/c1o6v

Setting 3

This is set on the players way to Grandmas house in the little red riding hood story. I still kept the simple effect and the blurry background and the foreground is more focused.. I got this idea from pogos music video, minus the bright colours.

I placed a bridge with a creature underneath. When the player comes across the brdige, the creatures arms will stretch up and try to snatch the player. The player has to run across the bridge to avoid getting caught.

full view of environment

I will still need to find out what else i can add to the environment other than just trees, forests and hills to add more excitement. This is why I thought of the creature under the bridge to add a bit of excitement otherwise the environment would look plain like Mario side scroller games.

Creature under the bridge - Players view

For Granny's house i kept the plain look with a slight crook. The next step will be the interior design of the house. I notice in some movies and films that the bed is already by the front door or its all one room behind a curtain. I think i will take this interpretation and design something siilar.

Granny's house - players view

I will stick to the blurry backgrounds as it intensifies the foreground and can show the distance from the house.

Background without bridge and house

Experimenting

After looking at some side scrolling games i notice that the backgrounds look blurry. I tried this effect on my 2 environments and it makes the foreground stand out more than usual.

Blurry foregrounds can make the scene more clearer

I will use this effects for my environments to enhance the foreground more. It can also stand out objects that the player has to interact with.

Sign post. When approached warning signs appear

Environment 2 - in the forest

In the forest, the only colour for background will be the trees in the distance

Close up view from players eyes

Environment - Game view

I have made a game view of what the environment would look like on screen. I like the style of using minimalism in the game and just the tones of colours. I opted for the black and white look as when the characters come in place, they will stand out.

The setting will be in a forest, so loads of trees and hills. The piece has a close up view of what the player will seeing and the screen will move from left to right.

Full view of setting

For the sky i just used a dark gradient, as I want the game set during a gloomy period. 

What the players will see when playing the game - close up

Walking vs Non walking characters

After showing David my charfacters for the "Two Brothers" story there was a difference between walking animals and standing (Anthro) animals. We needed a reason why there was a difference between the wolves and other animals to make sense.

Even the Mikey Mouse comics made a strip on why there are two different kinds of dogs
http://2damnfunny.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Mickey-Goofy-Pluto-Comic-On-Goofy-Being-a-Talking-Dog.jpg

I have thought of a way how this can work. Since it is all fairytales it sort doesn't need to make sense. I decided to make up a story of why the wolves can walk while other wolves don't.

When the player approaches the wolf in the two brothers stage, they can ask innocently if they can walk. The wolf will respond with a small story.

"A long time ago there was two clans, the good clan and the bad one. The bad ones did horrible things, murder, pilage, steal, everything while the good clan would stay all saintly. One day the bad clan pilaged a witches village so one of the eldest witch that survived set off to find the clan. However, she came across the good one and turned them into wolves saying "If you want to act like savage animals then you can be a savage animal". Personally I take that as an offence since we're not all savage and that but ANYWAYS she found out that was the wrong clan. "No matter" she thought "I'll just turn the other clan into wolves too" and thats why they can walk and us normal wolves can't. I guess she wasn't a clever witch since A) She doesn't know how to change the good clan back or B) she got devoured instantly after turning the bad clan into wolves. They've been that way ever sincewith the good clan trying to do good deeds to change back, which will never happen. I think the bad clan liked the way they are now which is more frightening...."

I will try and shorten the story later on since it's not important at the moment. Since it'll be a DS game I will make text boxes similar to pokemon, link, etc.

Text boxes will be similar to this with the characters face at the side to show who is speaking. Will be a different design
http://media.gamerevolution.com/images/games/ds/kingdom-hearts-358-2-days/kingdom-hearts-358-2-days_009.jpg

Reason for changing stories

Over the holiday I found that using the same stories in the Brothers Grimm book for the game wouldn't be interesting enough.  That's when I thought of changing the story slightly so that the player will be more involved.

I got this idea from the game "Kingdom Hearts".  The player in this game travels through the Disney universe helping the characters with their stories / locking key holes.

Rather than locking keyholes the player in my game will have a book that can capture ink demons who want to ruin the Brothers Grimm story.  It's more interesting, fun and I can explore how I can create my own story using the Brothers Grimm pieces. I also want to design the ink demons and have different endings and takes on the stories.

Level 3

STORY 3 - Snow White

The player comes across a little cottage.  Player explores the cottage and goes out in the garden.  There is a glass coffin with a girl trying to get out.  The girl says that 7 gnomes locked her in the coffin and went off to fetch the wicked Queen.  She asks the player to find the key to unlock it which is around in the house somewhere.  Once the player retrieves it they go out into the garden where they are confronted by the Queen and 7 gnomes.  The Queen says it's too late and puts the coffin on her carriage.  She transforms the gnomes into a giant with 14 eyes.  The player needs to defeat the giant to get passage to the Queen.  Once defeated the giant changes back into a shadowy form which is transported back into the book the player has. The player needs to go to the mountain before the Queen throws the girl off the cliff.  The player meets the Prince who is looking for the girl.  They both go to the cliff where the Queen is with the coffin.  The Queen attacks using magic but is defeated when the girl escapes and throws an apple by a rotted apple tree at the Queens Head.  Surprised the Queen topples over the cliff.  The girl and Prince thanks the player and gives the player a small dagger that can cut through anything.  End of level

Boss ideas

Story Idea BOSSES

The bosses will be the the main stories that the players defeat.

Red Riding hiod

Hansel and gretel

Cinderella

Snow white

Rapunzel

Each story will be very different to the original with the main character the villain or the Co main characters.

Level 2

STORY 2 - Two Brothers

The player comes across a lion a fox a duck a mouse and a rabbit with a decapitated human.  The animals say they need a magic root that will help return their master back to life.  The player agrees to help. And gets a choice of which animal companion to bring.  They have to search the woods for a talking tree to get the root.  Once they go pass the levels they come across the tree.  There is a riddle the tree speaks and the player must answer with 3 attempts.  Once answered correctly the tree digs into the ground and brings up a root. The player goes back to the animal companions and gives it to the lion. The lion sticks the root into the neck and spears his head onto the top end of the root.  The neck heals and the man is brought back to life. However the lion placed it on backwards.  The Fox says to take off his head and do it again, at which case the man starts to run backwards away from them.  The player must jump on the lions back and chase the man down and move obstacles in his way to slow him down.  Once caught up the lion does a swap and the man is brought back to life properly with his head on right. The man thanks the player and gives him a whistle to call on one of his companions whenever the player is in trouble.  End of level 2.

Level ideas

I have thought of levels and how to design them in a ds form.  I have tried to design in a detailed way but as my style is mostly geometric shapes and minimalism I feel using this format will be great for a ds game or and indie pc game. 

These posts will be about the levels and what the player will do.  It will give me an idea on how to design it which I will start doing by tomorrow.

STORY ONE -  Red Riding Hood

Stage one player walks through the stage till he meets Wolf crying.  Asks what's wrong and Wolf complains of some demon stealing his red Cape. Gets up and claims to know where the demon is going and asks the player to help him get the Cape back.  Player agrees and pursuits the red Cape theif.  Turns up at grandma's house who is out at the time.  Wolf asks the player to tell the Cape theif to pick up muffins while he gets changed into grandma's clothes to give him time. Once player collects the muffins and gives to the Cape theif (who shape shifts into a girl at the time ) she goes in to the house.  After the usual red riding hood quotes the Wolf pounces the demons and gets back his cape.  The girl transforms into a shadowy demon and player has to defeat it. Once defeated the demon gets swallowed up into the players book and boss 1 is defeated.  Wolf's leaves with cape and grandma comes back with her grand daughter (real riding hood with a GREEN cape) to her now run down home. Player completes level 1.