Other Work | X Gomes Game Design

Concept Art

I am often inspired by concept art I have seen for so many different films and video games that I decided to take a short course to learn a couple of skills regarding concept art.

Below I have some examples from my short course.

Weapon Design

Flattening out the perspective for weapon design and how to use blending modes to make it feel like there was a real glow off the lightsaber were important lessons. I kept the first draft as a reference of progress from my first attempt. Eventually I used this design for my animation project in Blender.

Character Design

My method of character design starts with creating poses using basic shapes and then creating the detail afterwards. This method is one where the artist draws silhouettes and brings out the highlights later which challenged me to think in a less conventional way.

Asset Design

The idea was to create a basic object as an asset for a scene. I chose a lantern as I felt the challenge of the shadows and lighting from the candle as well as the perspective would help me progress at a faster rate. Having a great teacher helped my progress from the first attempt to the final.

Perspective Study Using Cubes

Using cubes, my goal was to achieve perspective and realism within perspective by taking a cube and cutting, chopping or morphing it in a certain way. This was to show how lighting and shadows would then impact a structure in environment design later on as well as being able to keep the realism of the image.

3D Models

I really enjoy the versatility of using Blender for game design as it can produce whatever you might need for a 3D Game and even a 2D game.

All models were created in Blender with a goal in mind.

Retopology Project

Task - create a highly detailed render of a model and retopologize the model to be ready for a game engine such as Unreal Engine.

Textures were not necessary but I decided to use a type of cell shading to give my character a toon feel.

Animation

The task - create a full animation with a variety of movements in any format.

Using strictly the linear timeline, I created the video however the biggest problem was taking close to two days to render the animation due to the environment and volumes in the scene. Sounds were created from free sounds and editing in Audacity and Fruity Loops Studio.

Low Poly Character Model

Task - create a low face count model to prepare us for creating good looking models for mobile games.

Good topology again was required, in case of implementation into a game engine. I ended up going over the face count of 1500 faces and ended up closer to 1600, however I succeeded in keeping good topology, which helped when texturing the character.

XANDE GOMES_CAR MODEL_PERSPECTIVE VIEW.png

Low Poly Car Model

Task - create a low face count of a car within 24 hours. I chose the DeLorean which managed to cause many issues due to the odd shape of the chassis.

The task was completed in the end with some interesting lessons learned on shortcut keys.

Creating a Logo

Task – make a 3D logo and put it into an animation.

The most difficult part to figure out was getting the correct topology, which I learned later in game design to be incredibly important to avoid errors such as warped faces.

Environment

Task - create a low poly environment with a variety of objects.

Inspire by Treasure Planet, I created an environment on a small space raft travelling the galaxies. Unfortunately, I didn't possess the knowledge at the time to give the sail more of a cloth feel to it which I would now implement for a short animation.

Sound Design

Sound is one of the most important aspects in digital creation and I loved pursuing small projects to help with games I was busy developing.

I use Fruity Loops Studio and Audacity to edit and create music and sounds which are often sampled with the correct etiquette of course.

Econauts Main Menu Music

This song was created in Fruity Loops with an element of layers and repetition similar to that of Lofi Hip-Hop and it was the first song I ever produced from nothing.

I used the standard sound plug-ins which was a massive challenge due to limitations of sound.

My First Song

This is the first song I produced in Fruity Loops Studio with help. I chose the genre of lofi hip-hop as it uses basic sounds that really capture the imagination with such a short sample of compositions and pauses. I quickly learned how to work the digital audio workstation, not be overwhelmed and trusting in your intuition when it comes to creating digital audio.

Space Rocks Sound Design

Every sound was created from raw audio provided by Audacity software.

A lot of research went into the way to create sounds such as thrusters, bangs and phaser blasters.

Econauts Voice Lines

I recorded these voice lines using a mobile phone and then began the process of cleaning and editing the voice lines to sound like they're being transmitted through an old walkie talkie. Using Audacity made it simple to create these voice lines as quickly as possible as we had run into problems using the previous voice lines which meant these needed to be edited and produced in less than a day.

Graphic Design

I really enjoyed being able to learn and use Graphic Design to implement into video game design and even personal content creation.

I use Photoshop and Illustrator extensively but for quick projects that require less effort, I'll use an online editing software called Pixlr Editor.

Pixel Art

Pixel art has played a massive part in creating 2D video games. Piskel is a great software for this and it was my duty to teach the software to a graphics team for a group project called Serious Lee.

I found out how to use shading and highlights to create a variety of depth in sprite sheets to make an animation look fluid even in 2D.

Personal Content Creation

Graphic Design has also inspired me to create content for personal channels, YouTube thumbnails, and even animated twitch banners using a variety of software to create these graphics.

Graphics Used in Game Design

This is a compilation of different graphics created for the use of UI buttons, main menus and indicators.

This lengthens the process when creating a video game however it gives you the full control of being able to decide the visual aspect for the game or software being created.

My Personal Logo

The difficult part about creating this logo was trying to keep the logo simple but still having a good variety of composition for it to be bold and eye catching to the viewer. I experimented with a variety of fonts before deciding on the simple bold font that still manages to catch the eye. The pen tool came in handy for creating a clean looking controller.

Class Content

Here is a display of all the work that had to be provided. These tasks could be as simple as how to perfect the pen tool in Illustrator to creating a mock up of a film poster.

I learned a variety of different methods to achieving the desired result including using typography in a clever way to using composition to create a brief and clear message.