PROJECT TERRA
This is a collection of the art created for Project Terra a video game created for my group's MAGD 488 Capstone project. Project Terra is a short game that demonstrates a PvE boss fight. The art shown here displays early character concept art, in-game animations and 3D models, and the unused boss character that was cut from the game due to time constraints.
Artists:
Key Animation, Concept Art, & Textures by Sara & Tessa Joyce | Models by Sara Joyce | UV Mapping by Austin Lange | Rigging by Nikkos Horaitis & Austin Lange | Motion Capture by Nikkos Horaitis, Sara & Tessa Joyce, and Austin Lange
Softwares Used: Procreate, Maya, Substance Painter
Character Sketches 1
The first sketches for Sprout. His “antlers” started large to give him a presence, but shrunk after considering how they may interfere with movement (eg. overhead swings, rolling). His textures resemble wood grain, the style of which was inspired by the Koroks in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Character Sketches 2
The second sketches for Sprout, where his final design was developed. The “tall slim” body type was our chosen one (#5), as it was similar to our actor’s and would be easiest to translate for animation. Here, his “armor” was ideated upon, as well as his cannon arm, and we decided he would wield a sword, not a staff (much easier to swing one-handed).
Texture Concepts
With Sprout’s body type chosen, it was onto textures, which were developed from earlier sketches. Sara wanted to suggest the presence of clothes, such as gloves and boots, with his pattern, and to keep all the lines connected throughout his body. Sara thought a skull-like motif would be most interesting for his face, but wanted to keep it non-menacing, so various patterns were tested. We went with #6.
Turnaround
Sprout’s initial turnaround, which included an early design of his sword that would later be simplified. The roots connecting the back of his mask to his body are meant to accentuate his eyeholes and avoid covering them, so one can look through them when facing him and understand his face’s mask-like nature.
Textured Turnaround
Sprout’s refined turnaround with his final pattern. Prevously, the area around his shoulders was raised to imitate the start of large pauldrons, but these were flattened to make rigging and movement easier.
SPROUT
Concept Art & Turnarounds
By Sara Joyce
Sprout was inspired by a woodland spirit, such as a wood woad or dryad. To make it easier on the animators, we chose for him to be a tall humanoid, as our actor himself is a rather tall individual. He has a smooth body, and we left him without separate clothes, save for the suggestion of flaring armor to make modeling faster. To keep things simple for our riggers, we decided he would deform as though he had flesh, and gave him a static, mask-like face. We also decided to give him only three fingers, and to make the ranged attack we all wanted him to have simple to execute, gave him a cannon arm.
Despite these strange qualities, we wanted Sprout to remain unalarming and likable, hence the softer, neutral colors, round shapes, and a happy default expression.
Hover over the images to read a more in-depth breakdown of each one!
Animations
3D Model
Animations: Sara & Tessa Joyce, Austin Lange | Sprout's MoCap Actor: Austin Lange | MocCap Recording: Nikkos Horaitis & Prof. A. Bill Miller
All of Sprout’s finished animations plus the NPC’s idle animation, which was done before the NPC was cut from the game. Nikkos and our professor, A. Bill Miller, handled the motion capture data that our actor, Austin, performed. Nikkos, Tessa, Austin, and Sara collaboratively directed the performances, drawing on our various experiences with martial arts (Aikido, Tai Kawn Doh, and Muay Tai). His animations were cleaned and edited in Maya.
Model & Texture: Sara Joyce | UV Map: Austin Lange | Rigging: Nikkos Horaitis & Austin Lange
Sprout’s "low-poly," in-game model. Click on the slideshow or the button below to go to Sara’s Sketchfab page to view it!
The NPC
Concept Art, Turnarounds, & 3D Model
Concept Art & Turnarounds: Tessa Joyce
The NPC for our game, which was sadly cut due to lack of time and implementation problems into Unity. It is an elemental inhabited by a demon, whose presence has twisted and animated the natural rocks by its prison to serve as a mobile, powerful vessel. The NPC was inspired by golems and elementals, popular enemies in fantasy RPGs. The NPC’s designer, Tessa Joyce, threw in a few bull-like elements to play into its sturdy, brutish nature. Similar to Sprout, we kept things simple to save on time, relying on his patterning to convey his rocky body, and eliminated his legs and simplified his arms into two-jointed bludgeoning weapons.
Hover over each image to read a more in-depth breakdown of each one!
Model: Sara Joyce | UV Map: Austin Lange | Texture: Tessa Joyce | Rigging: Nikkos Horaitis & Austin Lange
The NPC’s model. Click on the slideshow or the button below to view it on Sara’s Sketchfab!
Early NPC Sketches
Early in development, we knew that we wanted the NPC to be a large, imposing creature composed of rocks, like a rock elemental or a golem. One of its first concepts was an enchanted stone archway that guarded the entryway to a building or realm.
Early NPC Sketches
One of the ways we thought of decorating the archway would be to incorporate a pair of gargoyles leering down at Sprout. However, while designing them, we began to pursue the idea of a gargoyle itself serving as the NPC. We shifted to the idea of a demonic spirit sealed within an ancient stone gargoyle, the magical bonds that imprisoned it having begun to whither over time, allowing it limited mobility.
Early NPC Sketches
A few digital sketches of the gargoyle concept, this time focusing on the statue’s wear over the centuries, the fiendish essence it contains leaking from within.
NPC Sketches
After much internal debate, we decided to step back from the gargoyle concept and begin anew, starting with sketches of the NPC’s silhouette. The concept of an enchanted, sentry-like suit of armor acting was introduced.
NPC Material Concepts
Once its silhouette was decided, we began to explore just what type of stone the creature could be made of. Among these were cliff faces, sandstone, limestone and basalt.
NPC Texture Concepts
Coloration exploration for each of the material concepts, the textures simplified to match Sprout’s.
NPC Turnaround 1
Turnarounds for each part of the NPC’s body, including its head, torso, upper and lower arms/clubs.
NPC Turnaround 2
A turnaround of the NPC fully assembled, pinning down its composition.
