[Visual Design] From Human to Zombie - Thriller Night

To celebrate Halloween, in our Visual Design class, we "zombified" a model of a girl.

Using Photoshop and a given mesh of the textures (clothing, face) we re-textured the girl in order to achieve what we wanted. I had tons of fun modeling this one:

This is how it looks like as a 3D model. The only thing I don't like is her ponytail which I do not know how to remove, but overall, I like the final result.

21/10/2015 [Lifedrawing] - Light And Darkness

Sometime during our Lifedrawing session we had to blacken a large area of the paper and use a rubber to "draw". This was an exercise that would allow us to focus on the lighter areas of the body.

Then, we were asked to divide the paper in to two areas.  Each area would have the drawing of the model which was created using different drawing medias each time.  I used charcoal and rubber.   Then we were asked to compare the two and decide which is better and why and write down the reason for it:

Pixel Genius

A week ago, we had a tutorial on how to create Pixel Art. After the tutorial ended, we were asked to create our own pixel character to practice the technique.  Here is my "Pixel Genius" Robot!

Battle Arena Project

For my 3D Art Production course, we were assigned as a project to create a Battle Arena.  My Arena is a fantasy inspired arena that uses magic for certain aspect (lighting, entrance of spectators using teleportation, protective fields etc).

This one below is in camera perspective:

This is just a build and work in progress as I am still trying to figure out how Autodesk Maya works and what else is needed to be added in the arena.

The Shadows Speak | GAME PROJECT | MAP DRAFT NOT INCLUDED

So in my Gameplay and Interactivity class, out tutor asked us to create an idea for a game. Preferably a first person walking simulator kind if game (e.g Dear Esther, The Stanley Parable, Gone Home).

It took me some time to think about a game that is not just a person walking around looking at objects.  That is when the idea to create an adventure horror game came to my mind.

What I did first, was look up a few game to give me some ideas as to how I can accomplish such a game. (eg. Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Penumbra Series, Cry of Fear etc).  After I had done so, I created a One Sheet Template for my game to help guide me through the process of its creation.

Then, I proceeded to enrich the story a bit to make the game a bit more "independent" ( Story is still a draft. Changes might be made where necessary). I'll copy and paste the story draft from the Word File:

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In 1942, the Noble family used to live here.  A rich family it used to be and just at the family name suggests, noble. They were also kind.  Especially Mrs Claire Noble, a woman who loved it when she had visitors over and was very helpful. Mr George Noble was more of a reserved man. He would spend a lot of time in his study. Nobody knew why he stayed in there alone because it was a sudden behavior. Their children Lilly Noble and Ron Noble were just like any other child of their age; full of life, playful and carefree. 

The Noble Mansion was located on a remote hill; several miles away from the nearest town. I t was very common for mansions to be built that far away at those times. It was a beautiful hill too.  It would sprout with magnificent flora  and the view of the town was stunning- especially at night. 
One quiet evening though, everything changed in regards of the Noble Mansion. The scenery outside stared to wither away out of nowhere, but no one paid attention to it.

A few days later, the entire Noble household mysteriously caught into flames but there was no sign of arson or anything that would lead to a house hire. Everyone was included, except Mr Noble who was fast asleep on his desk of his study. He was awakened by the agonizing screams of the household and rushed downstairs to the living area where his family was.  By the time he got there, it was too late; his family was not there - not even their ashes. The room smelled of fire but there was no sign of a fire - everything was intact.  He searched the entire mansion, for other people but no one was there.  When he returned to the living area, he noticed that everything around him had changed; the wallpaper was torn out, the furnishing got really old and dusty, the windows were cracked and the flooring creaked with almost every step he'd take.  It was not just this one room, but the entire mansion. "It can't be..." he said to himself and ran upstairs to his study.

He noticed that only his study remained the same as it was but for how long, he did not know. He sat down on his desk, grabbed a feather pen and dipped it in ink and started writing down notes and letters - even the history of this building, so he would not forget. He knew something was wrong with this house and needed help, but he could not ask the townsfolk because they would only call him a crazy old man and mock him. That is why he decided to write down his thoughts and such on pieces of paper; someone would eventually come around, by accident perhaps, and he needed to be prepares if Mr Noble wasn't still alive. He had lost his mind, as he spent days and night without rest, or food.  He would hallucinate and scream at nothing at times, yet, nothing stopped him form finishing his writing.

When he finished all the notes and letters, he fell unconscious on the floor.  Then, the windows and door opened. The wind of the night blew the notes away and were scattered around the house, seemingly lost forever.  The study - that still looked the way it did before "the happening" as Mr Noble would call it, withered into time as well; everything now looked old, dusty and empty.  When Mr Noble regain his consciousness and saw that the notes were gone, he had gone completely mad and decided to burn this house once and for all, even himself.

He set everything on fire even himself and laughed maniacally as the house was caught in the hand of the flames.  He burned away, though his ashes disappeared and the house was still on fire. The townsfolk saw the fire and rushed over to help put it out but by the time they got there, the fire was gone as if it never went out, like an illusion or something. They searched the house for anyone but found nothing.. Not even human remains. Just an empty house with old and dusty furniture.

It was believed that anyone who would approach the house, would hear whispers and see things walk around the inside of the building. Anyone who would enter would lose their mind and got insane, maybe die, or never return to tell another tale. But those are just stories told to foreigners just to scare them away out of town. 

That is how the tale of the mansion began. The mysterious disappearance of the Noble Family, the fire that never existed and the mysterious mansion itself...

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7/10/2015 [Lifedrawing] - The Musical

On the 7th of October we had a lifedrawing class.  That day I found it interesting at some point, in my honest opinion.

Firstly, we did four 4-minute drawings as a warm-up. Then, we were asked to choose two drawings which we thought were better or worse from the four.  After that, we did two drawings of the model with our less dominant hand (left hand for me); the drawings came out better than I expected!

Then, after those tasks, we were asked to draw two 10 minute drawings of the model.  This time we had to hold the charcoal a bit flat on the surface to create thicker lines.  Results are shown down below: 

Finally, the interesting part of the class came by.  The tutor told a student to put some music on and try to draw while it was playing.  We did two drawings; each drawing had it's own music style playing in the background,

REALIZATION: I had a hard time doing the second one because the music was not fit for my style (drawing or music wise) and because the singer was male. The way he was singing was too fast and harsh. Sort of like a rap song mixed with some modern RnB.  Not my kind of thing.  On the other hand, the first drawing was easier for me to do because the music was a bit more soothing.  Perhaps it was because there was a female singer rather than a male singer.  The music of the first one was something similar to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y72aCx2HtLc but not entirely; thought it helped me concentrate more.


Music does have a huge impact on people's work.  Choosing what type of music will play in the background will aid you in your work's completion, as long as it is relevant to what you'll do or just help you do the job faster and make it more enjoyable for you.

Character/Creature Silhouette Design

We were asked to create creature/character silhouettes on photoshop. Here are my characters; Quickly done with an overview of what their colors and textures look like,

Then, we created a mood board/collage of the references and things that inspired us to create these characters:

First Character:

Second Character:

Between Two Rivers [Blog Research]

With its name meaning "between rivers", Mesopotamia was an ancient region located in the Mediterranean Sea.  It was a "collection" of various cultures which shared the same religion.  Now it is known as Iran. 

It was believed that Mesopotamia created the wheel because in 1922 B.C, archaeologist Leonard Wooley discovered the remains of a four-wheeled wagon.  He also discovered that it was the first region to have city states, rather than actual cities.  An example of this discovery is the city of Ur.

The architecture of Mesopotamia mainly consisted of ziggurats; a pyramid-like structure, similar to those of the Aztec architecture.  Those complex looking buildings are made out brick and stone and it quite interesting that a structure like that was created without the help of any heavy machinery and can still be seen today.  

In the popular game "Minecraft", this structure is very popular among the community because it is considered "easy to build" yet hard to complete, since it is mostly blocks stone and bricks but also one of the most impressive and satisfying creation one could have.  Others, tend to lose their mind when trying to re-create a ziggurat because of its complex design! 

Mesopotamia was also believed to have created one of the first board games ever to be created: "The Royal Game of Ur".

It consisted of two game-boards and was played with two sets (black and white) that have seven markers and three tetrahedral dice. The rules of the games however, are not known but there are several reconstructions on how it is played.  Even though is believed to be a race game, it resembles today's Backgammon.

Mesopotamia is an ancient civilization that created a part of today's developed world.  With one of the most important invention coming from their own hands to people's entertainment. this civilization helped tho world develop even further.