Panels

Once I had drawn all the raw files I then handed them over to Jack to add the text and get them ready for iweb. Some of the panels were going to be animated so with those ones I had to make sure that the things being animated were on separate layers.

This is an example of one of the finished panels, this is the first choice when you have to decide if you want to investigate something or go back home.

This one is when Anna gets home after finding the Bracer and is talking to Oliver for the first time.

Backgrounds

The backgrounds are going to be used for both the static panels and to be behind the sprite characters when there is dialogue. I found the backgrounds a challenge as it is not really my chosen area but I still enjoyed doing them and would like to improve on my environment skills. To help I found some relevant images on the internet, mainly Google search, which I took bits from and compiled them together using Photoshop. I then used these spliced images as reference when drawing the backgrounds. I searched things such as American townhouse for the main characters house and also alley ways etc. I also took some reference photos myself particularly the bedroom and the staircase in the house, I then added to these to make them suitable for what I wanted in the final image.

For a lot of the backgrounds I had to do two versions one during the day and one at night, meaning I had to change to the colours slightly on Photoshop. I did this by either making the drawn image slightly transparent and putting a different coloured background behind it, or layering over a slightly transparent coloured layer.

Storyboards

After designing all the characters and drawing all the sprites for the parts that will be mostly dialogue I started planning out the static panels. These were just rough sketches, sometimes with shading and a bit of colour to make what is happening a bit clearer. I started drawing the storyboards in the style of comic book panels, having multiple images per page. However when I came to draw them up I decided to do it as one image per page, this would better suit the way we were telling the narrative. We would be using a text box at the bottom of the screen, this will tell the story and also include what the characters are say.

These two examples I selected because they were two of my favourites out of the lot.

Flash backs

Throughout the game you collect fragments of Oliver’s memory that are inside other magical products. I had to design memory fragments that would appear in the narrative when Anna comes into contact with the different items. The first one I designed was a memory of Oliver and his friends at school, the point of this memory was to give Oliver the basic understanding of who he is, as at the beginning of the game he only really knows his name and that he can use magic.

In the background for this picture I used an image of a place called Casa Loma which has been used in many films such as Xmen as Xavier’s institute for gifted children.

Sprites

Oliver character sprite sheet: Neutral, sarcastic, happy, worried.

Ronan character sprite sheet: Neutral, happy, worried.

Jean character sprite sheet: Neutral, happy, Angry/ scolding.

Designs (Main Characters)

I started out drawing up some rough sketches for the main character, the female teenage character whose perspective the game will be in. I produced a series of pencil sketches in a sketchbook first before considering going on a computer to draw. I find it easier and quicker to get my ideas down on paper first, before transferring them onto computer and working on them further.

She comes from quite a poor background, so I used clothes that aren’t particularly fashionable and wouldn’t be the latest trends in the time period that the narrative is set in, so they would be a bit out of date. I browsed through a few different clothes catalogues that have come through he door in the past few months to get some ideas. I liked the idea of having the oversized coat that doesn’t fit her, it could have been something she picked up somewhere on the cheap or got handed down to her from someone else. I wanted to keep her clothes quite simple, shirts, jeans and baggy jumpers were the general things I was looking for, nothing fancy or too elaborate.

She has very long hair that she keeps up in a messy ponytail so it is out of the way, especially when she is at work. She works full time at a local café to save up so she can move out of her parent’s house.

These were a few refined ideas showing her regular clothes, her work clothes and then her outdoor wear, which is her normal clothes just with a big heavy coat over the top. She either wears boots or converse on her feet and changes to black jeans, a white t-shirt and red apron for work. Normally she wears a short skirt, a striped long sleeve top and a long baggy knitted jumpers over the top.

I did the same process for the second main character, a young man from England who is a natural magic user and has transferred parts of his consciousness into various different magical devices. Even though he only talks to the main character via her mind he also projects a mental image of himself so it is like she is talking to an actual person rather than just a voice, I thought that this would be better visually and would make it clearer who was speaking. I wanted him to appear in more modern attire as he came from a wealthier background sort of middle to upper class. He went to quite a fancy school in England etc. So I wanted him to be a bit more refined than the outspoken lead character. It was hard to know what sort of clothes to design, as it would be a mental image of what he wanted to be wearing, as his body would currently elsewhere. Again I looked at more modern looking clothes in various clothing magazines.

Above are the two final designs for the main characters.

After deciding on their appearance I scanned the sketches into the computer to colour them.

I chose to stick with quite earthy colours for Anna and I gave her red hair to match her quite fiery personality.

With Oliver I couldn’t decide what colour scheme I wanted, so I tried a few different variations, then posted them on Facebook and asked people for feedback. Most people liked the one on the far left, coming second was the middle so I combined the two.

This is the final design. 

Another key character is an old man who runs an antique shop. He acts as the two main character’s mentor. I found drawing older people quite a challenge and racked up a lot of test sketches to try and get something I was happy with. 

These are some quick sketches for the main characters boss at the café, I had some trouble deciding what I wanted her to look like, but as she only appears for a few panels I didn’t want to make her stand out to much. She is more just a generic looking character that wouldn’t be too difficult to draw.