CAGD 495 - Sprint Blog 3

 I am a 2D Artist on the team responsible for creating Little Arthur. During this sprint, I was able to complete a total of 14 points of work, which is a great improvement from previous sprints and right around what my point goal for each sprint is going to be from this point forward. The focus of this sprint for me was to create different portraits of each character to represent each of them within the HUD next to their health and abilities. I created four character portraits in total, as well as a small loading screen icon to replace the placeholder loading icon that our build currently has. 

The first portrait that I worked on was the one of King Arthur. This one came first because it was the only character model that had been textured at the time. How I executed this portrait was very important to my work, because it acted as a format and foundation for how I would illustrate the other three portraits. The main challenge in creating King Arthur’s portrait was the different beveling and facets in his crown, as well as deciding on a rendering style. I could not rely on the rendering style that I had chosen for the main menu background. Although King Arthur was present in that artwork, I had made him considerably less rendered than the other parts of the work because he was not at the focal point of it. I decided to render the portrait in a fairly blocky style to accentuate the hard edges on the model as well as show that the model is low-poly. I also made sure to emphasize the glow from the eyes, because even in the isometric view in-game, that is one of the prominent features of the character.

The second character that I worked on was Sir Gawain. I found that since his model lacked a crown, the defining feature of King Arthur, The portrait felt pretty uninteresting and ordinary when I originally had completed it. At this point, I had outpaced the texturing of the models, so I did not know what color Gawain’s glow or shoulder pads were supposed to be. I followed the same design ideology as I did with King Arthur, keeping the angles sharp and having a lot of flat edges. Later on, once my 3D modelers had finished texturing the Sir Gawain model, I was able to update the portrait to match the model. Fortunately, the textures helped add a lot more visual interest to the portrait, and give more visual distinction from the other portraits.

The third character that I drew the portrait of was Sir Lancelot. I had a lot of fun drawing this portrait because it felt distinctly different from the previous portraits. Although it still relied heavily on an angular drawing and shading style, the shape of the helmet and the visual imagery of the crosses throughout the model made it really interesting for the portrait to come together. I also think that around when I did this portrait was when the series of player icons began to feel unified. They were similar, but unique.

The fourth and final illustration I did was of Sir Percival. This portrait is my favorite overall. The textures of this model have a much darker metal, so I was able to lean into that and give the portrait a lot of contrast where some of the previous models lacked some. I also just love the black and yellow combination of the textures, so I made sure to emphasize that throughout the portrait. 

The last piece of work that I worked on was a loading screen icon to show that progress was loading. The previous indicator was quite literally a tree that the programmer had set to rotate. For the sake of visual clarity rather than thinking that the development team was making a weird joke, I created a basic quarter circle that would rotate to show some sort of loading progress. I also drew a quick iteration of King Arthur’s sword, Excalibur. The job of the sword is mainly to act as a placeholder until there is time to commit to creating a proper icon or logo for the game, which would be better suited to be in the loading screen icon than just the sword.