Games Art: 2D Pathway - Environment (M2/4)

For the second milestone in the 2D pathway, we had to create thumbnail sketches of primitive shapes and silhouettes.

Above and below are my thumbnail drawings, using just one tone to block out ideas and forms.

I created two thumbnail sheets. One for ships and the other for the environment setting. As my focus is on the future shipping industry, I wanted to convey both elements and explore alternate structures.

Above is my first sketchbook study in a series of four (using an array of mediums). I began to construct using 2B to 6B pencils, a level horizon with a ship above and a dockyard below; almost squeezing the sky to a strip in the center field of view.

In this second sketchbook study, I used both pencils and fineliner pens to bring the ships out in context. However, I feel the front view looks a little flat and if I was to go over this again, I would add more tone into the shading to bring more value and form overall.

I made this sketch using black biro pen and a ruler, copying from the mental ray render I did in Maya (second image down).

This is the last study I did on paper using a range of grey Letraset Pro Marker pens. I was fairly pleased with how the foreground turned out making the lighter grey values in the background fade out in distance and scale.

Here is one of the renders I did using mental ray in Maya. I blocked out some simple models of three different ships in two hours and then positioned them about; gathering ideas and compositions.

I quite liked setting up the ships hull antenna's and making different features on the normally smoothed surface.

The front of the anti-gravity ships (AGS) contain a modified bulbous bow fan. This allows air to vent the engines, enabling anti-gravity without over heating!

I also created a colour palette of nautical/shipping tones and OSHA colour combinations of hazard and caution warnings (often found around machinery). I will then use this to help me with my digital paintings and final piece later on.