Tentative Timeline for Capsstone

January 23: Finished proposal.

February 6: Complete 1 wireframe in Mudbox

February 20: Complete 2 wireframes in Mudbox

March 6: All 3 wireframs complete in Mudbox with additions started in Maya

March 19: All wireframs and additions completed and ready to be displayed.

I Need a H.E.R.O.

Hero Commandos 

I will attempt to create a series of three characters from the ground up using a combination of Maya, Mudbox, and Photoshop if necessary. 

For my Capstone I will attempt to show my skills in character design using the industry standard software by creating three unique, original characters. The characters I will attempt to create come from my own imagination with inspiration from Marvel Comics, DC comics, and numerous video games including Killzone, Mass Effect and Halo. The three characters I will attempt to create will be called the Heavy, the Dancer, and the Commando.

The inspiration for the characters came to me as I was listening to a song by Skillet called Hero. I started thinking of what life would be like within the DC comic universe if there was a completely mortal group of faceless commandos that fought side by side and sometimes toe to toe with the Justice League. I started thinking what that kind of organization would be like, what their troopers would like, how they would behave and what kind of  hardware they would be sporting. I came up with an interesting answer. 

Each and every trooper would be faceless, with the observer only able to maybe discern gender, but no other features. The Troopers would be heavily armored in the latest survival suits so their mortal bodies could withstand combat with the various meta-humans that are running around within the DC universe. At first I thought that each trooper should be unique, but ultimately that brook the idea of the “faceless hero” because a bystander would be able to tell one trooper from the other. So, I decided to go with a more videogame esc approach to the problem. Separate classes. 

So far I have only come up with three: the Heveay, the Commando, and the Dancer. The Heavy is an extremely heavily armored and armed trooper that wears a suit of armor similar to the Halo Spartan Armor. The suit allows him to tank, standing in heavy fire will dishing out suppressing fire at the same time. The Heavy uses two mini guns, one on each arm, for weapons, the large weapons supported by crossbar that runs across his back that acts as a sort of second pair of arms to control the barrels. The Commando is essentially your standard H.E.R.O. trooper, medium armor with a variety of small arms weapons ranging from sniper rifles (possible forth class using extreme range weapons in the future) to shot guns and assault rifles. The final class in s the Dancer, a light armored extremely mobile fighter using a mixture of hand to hand combat and edged weapons. The dancer is quick, agile and limber and are most often female.




Inspirational works of art from which I will draw from to complete the basic look of my characters.

Book Project

Well, what defiantly helped me most on this project was the basic knowledge I learned of Photo shop. I know the book isn’t flashy, it isn’t even all that interesting but, Well it was a how to manual, you are supposed to read it, not ooo and ahh at how it looks. As far as keeping on a schedule, I defiantly learned that simple is not always a bad thing. There were a lot of things I could have done to add bells and whistles but I didn’t really want to. I didn’t want this to be flashy and showy, I wanted the information inside the book to be worth more than the fancy ways I could have presented it in. 

Erasure

So, for my very first image, I chose it because it belonged to my very favorite gaming studio, Blizzard. Originally there was some text, the Blizzard logo as well as the titles of the three different franchises. I chose to erase this text because; well I think they look better with out it.  I mostly just used the stamp tool; it just worked the best for me. As far as maintaining critical perspective I really have no idea. I just did what my gut told me too. Maybe not the best approach but that is just the artist I am. 

Portrature

To be blatantly honest I didn’t really think about being apart of something larger. I feel bad in saying this but I didn’t really care, I just wanted to get the project done. The people I photographed are my cousins, Arena and Merissa, and myself. Merissa is first though she is the younger. I choose them because they are the closest to me in age in my family. Arena is 3 years younger than me and Merissa is 5. I took a photo of myself mostly for ease, though it was just of me sitting in the art lab because that is were I spend most of my free time. Honestly? No, I don’t think I can or will change the world.  

Poster project

The poster project had me really stumped for a long time. I had one idea that I really wanted to do, but could not find pictures large enough to support the size needed for the project. Ine then end I settled on two things I really enjoy and am quite proud of how it turned out. As far as Themes go I wanted to go a little darker, a little more sinister than I had in the past. To be honest I didn't need to use many tools other than the removal tool. And when it came to text I really just rolled with what I thought looked best regarding both groups and what they are known for. As far as effecting the audience went, I really just wanted to catch their eye and leave an impression. With the propaganda poster for Chaos, I could have gone for a more fearful look, but I feel that what i have works with what I wanted to get.

Photomontage

My photos were of a few different things that I thought would work well together. All 4 were pictures I had taken long in advance and just had sitting on my phone (camera) waiting to either be sent to my comp or get deleted. The Tiger is from the Denver city zoo and the girl is my best friend Leah Brown. The other two are the moon in the upper left hand corner, with Canon beach and Haystack Rock in the background.