Game Art and Design: BA1a Task 2

For my Timepiece at the beginning I didn’t have much of an idea of what I was going to create. I knew that the piece had to measure time but other then that the project was relatively open. I began by using a low opacity brush to draw out random shapes of the first thing that came to mind, usually some form of object with a clock on it.

. As I continued my silhouettes I began to utilise what my basic idea was; an object that didn’t just measure time on a basic scale; by this I wanted a Timepiece that either didn’t just measure minutes and hours but a much larger scale (such as days/years) or a Timepiece that actually used time rather then just measuring it alone.

Although I knew what I wanted the piece to do I still didn’t know what the overall form it would take, having most designs being simple objects with clocks or dials in them. By about the third page of work the silhouettes became slightly more detailed as I started to understand more of what I was doing, however my actual final design idea didn’t come till the final silhouette page.

Once I had reached a design of what the Timepiece basic look and functions would be I began looking for images for inspiration. I wanted my Timepiece to combine aspects from both Steampunk and a supernatural element; I liked this idea as it combines 2 opposites, science and magic. I went online and looked at different pocket watch frames and parts such as cogs, gears and even lighting for the Steampunk look. For the supernatural aspect I used elements from my favourite game series ‘Darksiders’ as it used magic, souls, runes and other parts of that particular genre. Once I had chosen what I thought would look best I picked out colour from the images and got to work on iterating my basic design.

When I began iterating my design I knew certain parts from the original image I wanted to be key factors in the final design; some of these being able to see the souls and the clockwork parts moving. My first page of work used the same process of drawing out each watch individually which, although gave each one a unique look, did cost time which I was able to correct in the second page of iteration, were I drew out the basic circular frame and copy and pasted the frame over and over and simply drew over the top, saving a lot of time. As with both pages I thought of a number of different designs, from having storage vials to a more satanic frame. Some of my designs I look back on and think that they didn’t have much thought put into them, such as a simple design of cogs in the main frame and the souls in the background or one where I basically copied one of the pocket watch frames from my research. However some that didn’t go into the final design I also really liked, such as the watch that looks like it was stitched together with skin or the one with the rotating soul containers.

As I couldn’t choose between one overall design, I took multiple designs to the next stage were I placed the first basic design and chose which parts of the iterations would go where. I chose which colours would look right in certain places and what key aspects of each design would work best in each part of the final. I used the original design as I was the first one and I liked the overall layout of were everything was, however some parts did need to be changed around. I also at this point realised that certain parts may not work, however I kept them on the page as I was still deciding at this point.

Once I had drawn out what the final design would look like I then drew out what the back, sides and a rough ¾ view would look like creating my model sheet. I then copied each viewpoint onto a new document, completely blacked out the shape and started adding colour to my designs. At this point time I hadn’t chosen what colour the souls that powered the watch would be so I coloured the front and back the exact same, leaving out the part where the souls would be and copied the design so I was able to just add the colour without having to re-colour the image again, saving a lot of time.

As I knew what the sides would look like colouring them was fairly easy. I chose to also leave the colour palettes of each image to show what colours I used. I found the heart the most fun part to do out of the images as I used a real image to create my colour palette, which made it much easier to make it look realistic. The other colours were from the ‘Darksiders’ images and the light for the light bulbs was from a real Steampunk bulb.

Once the colouration was roughly finished I drew up the functions of the pocket watch in rough showing how the watch worked. This ranged from how the cogs on the side would spin (being able to set the minute and hour hand), how the bulbs would light up when the watch was powered, the heart beating, which would spin the cogs that moved the hands on the clock, and opening the watches front to absorb souls that power the entire device. For my inspiration for the watch I also briefly looked into a few games that involve necromancy, as that is what the watch is loosely based on and found the ideas behind it very interesting, such as using and manipulating a living soul.

When it came to the final illustration I wanted the watch to look as eerie as possible. I wanted the Timepiece to give a sense of unnaturalness and something that is almost unholy. I took a lot of time colouring the heart to make it look as realistic as possible, as well as going into detail of the souls at the centre of the pocket watch, giving them eyes and a sense of movement. I also made the watch look like it was swinging from side to side trying to give it a look like an old artifact that had be doing that movement for a long time. I thought id tie the string that would attach the watch to say the character that used it around the heart, adding an unnatural feel to the piece. A few things about the piece were some last minute changes such as the souls look as well as the tether, which I wanted to add for that uncomfortable feling. I especially like the lighting I was able to achieve as still being new to using Photoshop I was able to try and create the warm flame like flow using different brushes, which I will hope to use more of in the future.