The concept art in creating impacting
game character personalities in the video games
Literature review
The literature review is accumulated with information obtained from
different areas in the study, and professionals in the fields, these themes are
based on creating an impacting game character personality, the influences in
putting realism in character development and it’s readability to the audience,
the crucial procedure in creating a character that fits with the story. The
paper shows different explanation of the topic, the primarily focus will rely
on character personalities.
The Skillful Huntsman is a book edited and constructed with four
individual concept artists, who opt to create a universe from scratch. Every
individual member explains the process of creating a character which stands
out. Three students Felix Yoon, Mike Yamada, Khang Le and their tutor Scott
Robertson give an easily to understand, but crucial explanation of character
development. From the beginning the hunter was developed to have an Asian
appearance to his costume, Yamada starts researching history and culture to add
part of realism to the story. Le stated [ p.32, 2005] ‘Make an alien character too alien and the audience
won’t relate to it’ this statement is very interesting, a person needs
something familiarizing to create an enticing character, Le added [p.32,
2005] ‘This is the
reasons why most alien design in movies have human features’ this quote is
informative, however it feels like it constrains the character design. Yoon
follows up with the costume design; he’s a traveling hunter, and Yoon States ‘I
thought it would be inconvenient for a traveling hunter to wear drapery as part
of his costume’ [p.36, 2005]. After establishing the
character now it was time to create the world which revolves around the huntsman.
Yoon starts with sketches by exploring structures and landscapes in different
time periods. [Yamada, P 44, 2005] states ‘the world could become an additional
character and give an additional sense of history’. [Le states P. 46, 2005] ‘The
huntsman traveled about looked for work’ which opens a lot of different
environmental designs. Le creates different types of transports; floating
hovercrafts is a fan favorite in sci-fi films. Le states [p.54, 2005] ‘designs
need to perform a function’ this is an interesting quote; because every form
should perform a function.
This
relates to the second literature piece, as director Todd Howard describes it in
the Art of Skyrim specifically about the world of Skyrim, the character ‘Dragon
Born’ from The Elder Scrolls game IV, is a linear character made by the player,
to explore the world of Skyrim. In addition the developer [Howard 2011.p.4] states “the world in our games is the main
character” in this case I agree with him, a games personality is not just based
on a person, but also a world, the areas, the inhabitants, and it’s completely
true in Skyrim’s case. In the land of Skyrim there are several playable races, Argonians
,Breton, Dark Elf, High Imperial, Khajiit ,Nords, Orcs, Redguard and Wood Elf all
of this can be seen in the introduction of the game. ‘With an expansive world
for player exploration, environmental scenery is not only a defining aspect of
the graphics, but a character itself’ states [Anon.1. P.190] The weather,
changes, from calm to rainy, to snow, the game has a life of its own. The main
inhabitants of Skyrim are Nords, [Anon.2. 195 states] ‘We depict the player as
a male Nord to best illustrate the tone of the game’, which is understandable,
however, a player can choose what is best for them, this is strongly based on opinion,
the best thing about the story, is that the player gets to play it how they
wish.
In contrast to this another professional that
works in creating characters, Bruno Gauthier Leblac a concept artist who works inside
Ubisoft, was asked to create one of the main antagonist characters for the game
Far Cry 3. Vaas is one of the most prominent characters from the Franchise. The
antagonist was originally called Bull. Leblac recalls (2012, pp. 64) Bull being ‘a brutish, aggressive, intimidating
character with a face to prove it’, however he states that this is ‘a little
generic’ and he changed the concept for Bull, he did
a great job dealing with this and he managed to create one of the most interesting
characters of the decade. Leblac came up with different styles. Leblac then
creates the character appearance based on actors, Micheal Mando, a well-known
actor that stars in the series Orphan Black. Leblac added that ‘Ubisoft is
increasingly using actors to inspire at the concept/development stage of
character creation’ alike the film industry, games have started announcing real
celebrities to take part in their games. The name Vaas was used to the
character, because it is an indirect way of the word meaning Pyro. ‘Some
of Vaas’s insanity is captured in his rough-shaved hair and the bandages on his
fingers, covering scabs he incessantly picks at.’ (Leblac,2012, p. 64)added in ‘Few
are aware that the three white straps hanging loosely across Vaas’s chest are
an allusion to the three white stripes worn by military generals.’ This shows
little details such as equipment creates interesting parts of these characters,
the character renders very well with his surrounding, keeping that in mind
Leblac equipped Vaas with pirate-terrorist clothing, to make him look like one
of the locals in the game, which takes place on a deserted island.
The books and article provided me with inciting
understanding of my topic, further my knowledge in creating impacting game characters
and made things clear, in addition to my previous understanding in the field, I
have accumulated from relevant research topics, to critically asses the topic
and keep amassing further into this field.
The SkillFul Huntsman
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Skyrim:
Dean, I, Issue 89., December 2012. ImagineFX Create dynamic
game art.. 30 Monmouth Street,
Bath, BA1 2BW, UK: Future Publishing, accessed: http://www.imaginefx.com/02287754332397685045/imaginefx-89.html
McCaig, I. 2005, THE SKILLFULLHUNTMAN, Visual Development Of
Grimm Tale At Art Center College Of Design. Hong Kong, Design Studio Press.
Howard, T. First edition 2011, Bethesda, The art
of Skyrim. Maryland, United States, publishing: Bethesda.
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