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Switchgate Plant: From Concept to Reality

5/29/2015

 
Hello friends!  It’s Alice, your favorite Mobius Digital artist.  Our ever-so-hardworking producer, Avimaan, threatened-I mean, requested, that I make a little post about my art process.  So here we are!  

If you haven’t noticed, the art in Beacon 38 is pretty out there.  We wanted to create a world that contained creatures and objects far beyond the realm of what was normally expected in a fantastical outer space setting.  The creature we’ll go through today is actually on the tamer side of my designs, I would say, hehe.

The first step is to have a discussion with Loan, the Creative Lead, about what the creature is and what components it has.  He also throws in a few ideas about how it could look.  Then, he leaves me alone, and I get to work!

I start out with some sketches.  Here we have the Switchgate Plant:

Picture
As you can see, I’m drawing a combination of how I imagine the plant to look like but also exploring some of the plants I’m inspired by. There's a couple studies of the leaves of the ginkgo biloba plant and also the Dutchman’s-Pipe Cactus.
Picture
Then, I start developing the aesthetic for the main portion of the creature. For this creature, the long, flowing parts are not harmful, so I’m using a piece of Art Nouveau artwork as reference to get a gentle, organic feel. In the beginning, I create all my assets as white shape vectors with a black outline. I will later use layer properties to decide all the colors.
Picture
Now it’s getting to the good stuff! I’ve created the base, from which the flowy stuff will sprout from. I was thinking about the chambers of the heart for the structure of that part. I also start to work on the “flowers” that will function as danger signals for the player.
Picture
Here are all the finished components that make up the plant’s different functions. My original sketches are there in the background to remind myself of the feeling that I’m going for. Now, I will bring all the pieces together…
Picture
I’ve combined all the different parts together. This step seems simple, but once I combine the parts, I usually end up going back and re-shaping a lot of pieces to get the flow of the whole plant creature correct. In particular, there was a lot of rearranging to do on the tendrils and tweaking on the proportions of the flowers. Now, on to color!
Picture
I’m going to be honest here; color is one of my weaker areas, and I have to take a particularly systematic approach to it. I started with the base as a green color and built the other shades off of that. The blossoms are warmer since they are meant to stand out, and become fiery when activated. This version is then shown to the designers, Loan and Alex, for approval.
Picture
Here is the final mockup and asset reference sheet that I send to the programmers so they can see how the plant is broken down and how the parts fit together. As you can see, the final version is a lot longer and the proportions are more exaggerated.
And with that, the Switchgate Plant design is done!  Next, it’s up to Loan to animate it and bring it to life in the game.  Thanks for reading!!  'Til next time~  ♪(・ω・)ノ Alice
Locksmith Aurora link
6/3/2021 10:55:30 pm

Absolutely! Allelopathy occurs through the release by one plant species of chemicals which affect other species in its
vicinity, usually to their detriment. This phenomenon has been observed for over 2000 years.

Denver Landscape Design link
6/10/2021 09:33:01 pm

Absolutely! The process of getting your ideas into production has historically been a lengthy and complicated task but with new and innovative technology, fashion production has become a much faster process.

Exotic Animals For Sale link
6/15/2021 09:52:13 am

Great blog! Over the past four decades, the power industry has transformed beyond what we could have imagined and now, we find ourselves at the precipice of the next big wave of change.

Concrete Driveway Greeley link
6/17/2021 12:08:13 am

I agree! What a masterpiece of engineering! I hope the machine runs as expected, I can't wait for your first results!

Concrete Greeley link
6/22/2021 10:19:40 am

I agree! we’ve seen monumental changes from the launch of the internet and the growth of wireless technology to building neural networks and developing advanced pattern recognition.

Business Director link
6/25/2021 01:27:34 am

I agree! It’s always good for your designer to explain their thought process and rationale behind their ideas. Sometimes their subtle creative inclusions aren’t so obvious but once explained become genius.

Concrete Contractors in Denver link
7/21/2021 12:00:45 am

I agree! people are nervous about their new idea and they overthink it. They keep planning and coming up with strategies instead of trying something.

Michael link
10/6/2021 12:57:57 am

Great Article! Thank you for sharing this very informative post, and looking forward to the latest one.


Comments are closed.

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