Level 2 - FMP, SteamPunk Character Concept

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Project Proposal

UAL Awarding Body - Level 2 Diploma

Candidate Name	Joe Taylor
Candidate Number	BMC151644807
Pathway	UAL Level  2 Diploma in Art and Design (Game Design)
Project Title	Steampunk Robot

UNIT 8  - Project Proposal

Review

In this project I have been very influenced by steampunk and 19th century western style. I am creating a robot using cogs, lights, brass, bronze, and steels, as such used in 19th century steam mechanisms. I have used the style of the movie “Wild Wild West” because of the mechanics used in the spider machine and the clothing used. I will create this robot to look very civilized and sophisticated. The character will look to be human, with human poses and posture, it will be coloured to look like the metals and different materials used to create it, these will include, metals, lights, glass, and then there will be rust, and weld lines/rivets. In my previous projects I have created various creatures and also have created a working game, I had created lots of different concepts and also produced a substantial amount of research. I have developed my skills my skills with Photoshop, further developing my skills at proportional drawings, shading, blending, and drawing using a reference image. I hope to develop and also push my skills with perspective drawing and also proportion and realistic drawing further so that my projects can become better.

Project Concept

I intend to create a character in the steampunk fashion, the character is meant to be a very bronze/brass robot with a suit. My character is a prototype model of a robot that was created to serve people in shops, restaurants, and in other places. But this robot was very sentient and thought for itself, so it went off into hiding by itself. It then goes into society to try and be accepted but he doesn’t until he finds one village (Inadoho) where there is a tribe that worships machines, so he is finally accepted into a society and he fights for the rights of robots. His name is C1, he was created by a steam train engineer to help him do more dangerous tasks working on steam trains initially, but the engineer (Hank Stanson) found a way for the robot to make him a money, so he tried to get factories to help him mass produce C1, but they didn’t let him, and C1 was cast away, but then a scientist found him, and this scientist was very rich so mass produced C1, and robots became very, but where also miss treated, which is why the original C1 is fighting for robot rights.      The genre will be steampunk and western themed. It will be very 19th century, because that’s when the steampunk style is usually set, The character will have a very rich and dark suit, he will seem quite gothic with his suit because it will be very dark and not have much colour. I have/will use, reference images, proportional drawings, The Rilly Method to draw the body and lots of tone and blending.

Evaluation

In the project I will be and have used the VLC media player to record everything I do, this helps me to show how I solve my problems I encounter in the task, this helps show how I also I solved so it can be seen instead of being told how I did it. I will organise my time by using the project plan so that I can keep on track with everything that I need to do and make sure the project is done on time and done to high enough level.

Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format) Galleries/Museums I could visit various conventions including comic con because of the wide range of steampunk cos-players that go to them, also the steampunk museums and most art galleries.  Books: Books like, around the world in 80 days, Golden Compass Boneshaker, Leviathan and many books are all based around steampunk. Magazines/Periodicals There are lots and lots of art magazines and steampunk magazines that advertise and show different steampunk costumes Websites: There are thousands of websites and pages, one I use for inspiration is a facebook page called “steampunk tendencies”.

My character changed from the robot I started with to a new creature, I changed it because I didn't like the idea of the robot so I changed it.

My new character is called Rueben, he is a demon like creature, Rueben came from a very poor family and had been working in the mines from a very young age, hence why he had all the robotic parts due to injury. He has began to develop a hatred for humans because they are the rich mine owners who treat him and the other workers very poorly. Rueben can be considered an evil character because he is seeking revenge on humans and plans to wipe them out.

He comes from an underground world where there is not much light, this explains his pale exterior, he lives mainly off of meat and has the ability to drain nutrients from the underground surfaces, this is why his species is best suited to be miners.


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Mind Map

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Mood Board

Silhouette

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Sketches

These 3 sketches are of the "Reilly Method" which is a method of sketching to help make sure that all proportions are correct. I will most likely use this method in my FMP to help design my characters.

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Facial Proportion and Developments

This is the VLC documentation of my first character (before I changed it). The VLC recordings show show each process of how I made the first character in this project.
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Research 

Steampunk :                     

Steampunk is a sub- genre of science fiction. It utilises American wild west and Victorian England themes to create the "full brown" culture we have today. Steampunk first started in the 1970s as a genre of science fiction books such as;

• Morlock Night by K.W. Jeter- 1979
• The Anubis Gate by Tim Powers- 1983
• Homonculus by James Blaylock- 1986
• Infernal Devices; A Mad Victorian Fantasy by K.W. Jeter- 1987
• The Land Leviathan by Michael Moorcock- 1974

It is widely used in today's society, people use it as a life style or sometimes to just dress up for conventions such as comic-con, Brass Rind Academy and Cabaret, Chattacon 42, Steampunk World Convention- Steamathon 3, Glimmerdark, and many  more. 

There are many different types of steampunk such as;

• Timepunk
• Stonepunk
• Bronzepunk
• Classicpunk or ironpunk
• Clockpunk

and many many more.

I have used steampunk in my design by adding Victorian style mechanics to my creature to give my character a Victorian style. I will stuff like brass, steel, cast iron and other basic materials and alloys. 

Artist Research :              



Frank Frazetta:

Born Feb 9th 1928 and died May 10 2010. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of 16 he started to draw comic books that many different themes such as, western, fantasy, and mysteries.

He influenced my work because of his creatures that he has worked on, and in my work I do focus on creatures more than anything.


Chet Zar:

He was born, Nov 12th, 1967, in San Pedro, CA. He started off as a special effects artist who worked on movies such as "Hell Boy 1 and 2" and "Planet of the Apes"

He has influenced my work because of his style of dark and creepy creatures/characters has really had an impact on my because of his very dark and creepy creatures/characters. He has uses a serial and dark aesthetic on his characters. This influenced my design because the creature I have created is very dark and so is his backstory. Chet Zar has most likely been the biggest influence for me in this project. 



Eric Lacombe:

He was born 1968 in Lyon, France. He is a graphic designer and also a digital artist and self-taught painter.

He has influenced my work because of of the style in which he draws his creatures in. The style is very serial and the creatures are made using a human body with an animal or decaying head. This style will be used on my creature because I will give it a very serial look and style.



Games :                             

Bloodborne

Bloodborne is RPG, it uses steampunk in the sense of Victorian England style of steampunk. It shows this because it is set in Victorian times. 

This game influenced my idea because the creatures in the game are very horrifying and demon like my creature is meant to be.



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Dishonoured 

It is set in the Victorian times, Dishonoured is a first person, stealth game. Dishonoured influenced my character by giving my good ideas for the sort of mechanics I could use for my creature. The mechanics influenced my creature because of how they have a very used look and also have lots of different parts used and different metals.

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Head Experiment

This is a quick sketch of a characters head, this is to show how to draw a head at different angles.
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FMP Sketch Folder

 This folder I have made at home to show how I am developing my character and also developing my drawing skills, using facial proportion and also the Reilly method.

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Artists Interpretation

This is my interpretation of one of the pieces of art work created by artist Chet Zar. This work inspired my project character because of it's dark Victorian aesthetic. I liked the style of the art work and felt i could try and make a slight resemblance. I have used this art work in this art by using the slim and slender look of this creature and used it on my character.      

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Experiments

Here is where I decided what colour the front arm should be because I didn't like the colour I had to start with. So I went through different shades of the same colour to decipher which colour I was going to use for the arm. I used the colour on the creatures body and changed the tone of the body colour so that I could choose which tone would best to use for my characters.

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I have decided to use a horses foot to use as my creatures foot. I chose this to fit the aesthetic that my creature has, which is a sort of steampunk demon /creature. But the creature has a classic Devil look to him , and the most common interpretation of the Devil is it has hooves like a horse or goat.
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I used an image of model arm made on some 3D software, this is so I could clearly see the muscle structure of an arm and see where I should be shading in to make the muscles stand out.

These materials could be used to create the mechanical arm I have decided to add to my creature, I could a variety of brass and bronze and different cogs.

         

For this image here, I saw that my girlfriends puppy was asleep and he had a very strange, creepy eye and it really looked as though it would suit my character, so I took a picture of the puppies eye, and used it on my character.

This is the process I used to get the length of the arm for my back view. I cut out the arm on the left to and moved it over to the right side of my character to get the correct length of the right arm as well. I drew to around halfway on the arm to the point where the bend should occur.

I then drew the bend in the arm.

This is a sort of easter egg I am putting into my character. The hand is the creature I drew for my first project. I am then going to re-create the hand as a steampunk version of the hand.

This is a colour experiment that I created to get the correct blend for the leg joint.

I used a shield reference to replicate the dents in cast iron. 

I used this image to get the anatomy of the torso for my front view.

This is a reference picture I took so that I could draw how the back view would hold the pickax I drew for my character.

These are some materials that I have painted on Photoshop, it shows how I have created different materials and textures.
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Final Developments

This section shows the development and changes to my character. I have done step by step deveolpments on my charcter that I have done each lesson of my designing. I mainly used the Reilly method to create my character. 

For his legs I have made them look withered and unused. For this I thought about references I could use to see how the legs would be effected through a long period of not being used. For this I used one of my friends (who shall remain anonymous for privacy). He was sadly in a car accident at a very young age and is now an adult, but because of the lack of leg and muscle use, his limbs are very thin and withered, so I have used this idea on my character.

For this I have used Howard Schatzs, body types of athletes to show how different bodies are suited to the role they do. My character is primarily a miner, so he will have a strong back and a lot of upper body strength. 

 

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Shape Dynamics

This shows the shape dynamics of my character, as it shows my character is very pointy and has a lot of triangles and very few squares or circles, this signifies that my character is quite an evil character. I have ensured that he looks evil so that he suits his backstory correctly.
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Clothes

This is an image of the clothes i was going to have for my first character idea. It was based off a classic Victorian style suit, it is very dark and designer around the character being mysterious and villainous.
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Colour Meanings

My character has a lot of dark and dirty colours to his hair because he lives underground so he will have very dirty hair/fur. But his skin is very pale because he spends a lot of time underground so it would mean he doesn't have much colour to him, so he will have very bland skin. This could show he is evil due to the way his colours  make him darker and more menacing. I have used various shades of browns, greys and silvers so that it conveys the  image of my character being evil, but he has some bright colours because of the light that shines off his metal and the glass parts of his body and the light from his eye.  

The dark brown means he is a strong character but also sad and depressing, this convays the image and mood of my character because he is shown as a strong but also very dark character.

The colour gray means that he is melancholy, it can also resemble the fact he is grieving and also very intelegent. This would make him out to be a strong villian, and can also be quite a challenge for the hero/heroes.

The dark blue colour used on some of the powerpack szmbolises, knowledge, power and integrity. This shows that mz character is very smart and makes him more of an ideal villian.

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Iteration sheets

I changed the leg from being out of a bandage to being wrapped up and wounded.

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Experiments

Brushes :                     

Poses :                       

These are images of my model posing so that I could get the joints for my character anotomacly correct. 

These are images of my legs, I was going to originally have my character standing on the ground and was going to have his feet slightly turned so that it looked like he was turning. This is before I changed my characters legs to be dangling from his body, and not in use.

References :                 

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Final developments

 These are the final outcomes of my character, the first is a completely unchanged image of my presentation page. The second image is changed using the layer adjustments features. I changed the saturation, brightness and the contrast.   

I added a background to my character to show the sort of environment my character spends his time in (it's a mine shaft). So it would explain the very dirty colours he has.
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Variations of Presentation
These are the different variations of how I can present my final piece of work.

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Final Presentation

Here is an experiment to see which gradient I should use for my presentation piece.

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Evaluation 

This blog is about a character I have designed using a steampunk art style using Photoshop. Before I could start to create my character I needed to do research on steampunk, such as the style, different styles, origins, life styles and different materials, such as the metals; fabrics; items of clothing and famous artists and games that focus on using steampunk.

I have created a steampunk creature; I initially was going to create a robot, but my character changed. My character is named Ruben. He is quite a dark and disturbed character idea, he is meant to be a villainous character and quite scary and meant to look broken because of the effect living his life in the mines has done  I have done a lot of sketches and experiments to make sure my character looks how I want it to look. I have ensured that all my views are in proportion and all have the same colour pallet. I made sure that I did this correctly by making proportion guides for my first view and then I copied it onto each character view, to make sure the arms where proportionally correct I would take one arm off of the first character and then design the other arms off of that arm. For the bend in the back views arm, I found the halfway point on the arm and then drew in the elbow to create the arm bend. I made sure I used the same brushes for each part of the body, I used the same brush for the hair, and the metal, and the leather to ensure that all the textures where the same throughout the designing processes.

I was heavily influenced by the artists Chet Zar and Eric Lacombe. The creatures they design and the dark views they create, along with the serial and creepy affect they create, I have used this and tried to replicate the same image and style onto my character as well. I was also influenced a lot from by the game bloodborne; the creatures in the game are very dark and disturbed creatures. I have incorporated this style of design into my creature along with the steampunk style that my character has.     

I have used a very serial design, because the creature is extremely extraordinary. I have used a realistic art style to try and make my character seem realistic; I have accomplished this by making the character anatomically and proportionally correct. I have used a mixture of bronzes, brasses, steels and irons to create the robotic limbs such as the legs, eye and his robotic arm. I used glass to create the eye lenses and also the glass on the power pack and the lens on the meter on his arm.

I am not so happy with my time management in this project, I should have managed my time a lot better than I did, I would have managed to do a lot better if I didn’t change my character through the project. I could have added more detail onto my character and improved on other parts of his body, such as the hair and his head I am very happy with how my character turned out; I am impressed with the whole outlook of my character and also my research I have managed to achieve.

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