GANTT CHART
My gantt chart was the first thing I made in terms of time management for this project. Having a visual aid for my time management is very important for me as it is something I have struggled with in all of the projects I have done so far and I haven't effectively used a gantt chart for my projects up until now. Setting up certain weeks to be mainly focused on research and developing my site will help ensure I my site is not lacking compared to my practical work as that is where I usually fall short.
TIME MANAGEMENT
A big issue I come across in every unit for the past two years has been my time management. I struggle to work unless it's under pressure so most of my work is produced towards the end of the project. To combat this I began using Trello which allows me to give myself tasks to do and as I find it easier to begin doing work if it's split up I decided, this also let me visualise the work as smaller tasks and set myself weekly deadlines so I was able to stay under pressure which made me work allot more effeciently.
I also kept my do to list in my notes app as when I had reviews with Frazer or Owain I found it easier to listen and write down what I need to add to my site on my phone rather than submit it into Trello as I am talking with them.
MOOD BOARD
For my mood board I focused on fashion as much as I could as that is a big focus for me in this project. I chose key fashion styles for each region and picked out a few key pieces from Pinterest I feel represent the style and the characters personality best. I also added a few pictures of a range of characters from DotA 2 and League of Legends, this I feel will help me merge the two styles of real fashion and in game fashion to create a perfect mix of the two. Something a player could look at and see it being a practical outfit for the character to wear but also seeing the real life fashion that has inspired the outfits.
ART STYLE
For this project I am planning on using an art style that is similar to that of Arcane, the League of Legends show, which visual's alone won two awards at the Annie Awards.
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Best Character Animation – TV/Media (“The Monster You Created”)
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Best Character Design – TV/Media (“Some Mysteries Better Left Unsolved”)
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I plan on having the characters colour scheme and design match their home country and personality their show throughout their design, as well as giving each character their own signature colour that continuously pops up within their design to help show them off against the MOBA environment.
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I specifically chose the semi-realistic art style as I have found I really enjoy creating characters of that art style and I can show allot more personality through their faces with that style opposed to the anime influenced style I usually draw in which suffers from same face syndrome. The work I produce in this style is also often some of the best work I make and I would like this to carry on through to this project.
EARLY CONCEPTS
These were my first ideas for characters which were in an anime art style, these characters inspired me to use their countries and personalities in their designs. I based these of architypes of the MOBA genre, the assassin, the elf and the inventor.
I made these in Procreate so this also served as a warmup for me getting used to the drawing software and although my art style has evolved allot since I made these characters their influence can still be seen in the end products of my characters,
My first character idea was a steam punk inspired character who was a mechanic, hence the goggles and suspenders. My idea was for him to fight with a wrench and have a more of a support role for the team using turrets to fight for him.
My second character idea was an assassin from the desert who would fight with small knives and would mostly roam jungles and be used to clean up lanes when team mates are struggling. He would have a high damage rate but have low health.
My final character in this style is my elf princess. I view her as being from a dense forest and she fights using a bow and arrow being able to keep her range. She is an attack damage carry which means she has a high damage output but a low health and is weak against assassins.
MAP PLANNING
I wanted to have a map with at least 4 areas for characters to come from. I began by going into photoshop and merging together a few continents I used for my base and then removing notable features of each country and adding in mountain ranges and rivers.
After splitting up my map I started writing short descriptions for all of them.
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1. The country of Eshon, home to the city of Tortuga is a haven for criminals. The city is home to pirates and thieves who won't think twice about killing a traveller and leaving them dead in the bay. As the first nation to slay one of the many dragons plaguing the world they believe it is their right to have access to the Bisslands and will capture successful criminals to use in the Tournament of Oldion with the promise of receiving riches in return.
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2. The country of Cinopex is home to the city of Lepiota. The city is the worlds main source of agriculture and their in touch lifestyle with nature has gifted their people as they evolved into plant and animal hybrids. The nation isn't happy with the violence the war caused nor the aftermath and birth of the Tournament but saw it as a lesser of two evils, whilst Cinopex themselves don't put forward applicants to join the tournament a small group of Lepiota citizens took it upon themselves to win the Bisslands games to help increase the production of its farm lands.
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3. The land outside of the city of Naours became a wasteland after the war and after the last dragon fell from the sky it crashed into their city collapsing it into the mines below. With no where else to go the people followed their homes into the mines and now the Naours citizens live underground. A nation of innovators and inventors the city thrived and is now the largest exporter of goods in the world despite their prior set backs. Ready to prove themselves Naours was more than happy to send fighters to the Tournament of Oldion and has since opened an academy to train young fighters in hopes of gaining the magic to one day restore their country and leave the under ground.
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4. The country of Kerrowell is home to the city of Newvern a city based high up in the trees of the forest who use magic to keep themselves safe. Newvern has a long lineage of royalty which enforce the magic of the forest to keep it from dying and ensure their city prospers but as of recent years the magic is dwindling and they need the magic of the Bisslands to keep their city strong. Nobles of the Newvern see it as their responsibility to defend their home and as such fight in the tournament out of their own free will.
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5. The country of Memphis is home to the small city of Karnak a desert for those who seek an adventures life and aren't afraid of the danger involved. The country suffered the most from the war and lost a large chunk of the city and has since failed to rebuild back to its prior glory. The people to still call Karnak their home are mercenaries, hired to kill anyone or anything, and are too stubborn to give up on their home. They band together and join the tournament to gain the magic of the Bisslands and restore their city to what it once was.
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6. The Bisslands is a land full of magic home to a small population of settlers from around the globe. It is where inhabitants of all countries come together and share their cultures. Those who live on the Bisslands do not compete in the tournament as they have nothing to gain from controlling the Bisslands magic.
MAIN STORY PREMISE
After the reign of the Dragons ended each country went to war fighting with their neighbours to claim land before the others, or kill whatever was there in its way. In an effort to stop the bloodshed those who watched over each country came together and formed the Tournament of Oldion, a way to gain land without war. The prize for winning the tournament was the control of the Bisslands the most fought over piece of land which housed unlimited magic and could be used to do all kinds of things to help their home countries. The Bisslands are given to the winning country for only a year before the tournament fights again to determine the next winner.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENTS
Before I began doing any character work I looked into drawing character turn around sheets/ model sheets. Brookes Eggleston's How To Make Character TURNAROUNDS and Sheets! video was very helpful for me to learn how to make a successful turn around video. He talked about the variations you can have and how to properly ink them as well as covering why they are important to do as it helps whoever has to actually make the character with the proportions and where things in the design begin and end.
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I also started studying George Bridgman's work as he is great at anatomy. However he is hard to study from as it is written in old English and he drew these studies using a long stick so he was using as few lines as possible.
CLASSES
MOBA characters are most often put into 1 of 5 classes that simplify their play style.
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Assassins are designed to quickly kill an enemy, usually a single target being able to get in and out of a fight quickly as they have hyper mobility.
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Tanks are designed to have allot of health and are made to soak up allot of damage and deal out crowd control such as stuns.
Fighters are high damage characters with low mobility. They aren't as tanky as tanks.
Mages rely on abilities to deal out big damage attacks usually AOE and attacks that stop enemies from moving.
Warden protect the ADC/Marksmen characters and lock down enemy ADC (attack damage carry).
Marksmen are characters that rely on ranged basic attacks to deal high consistent damage.
Enchanters apply buffs and shields and healing to their teammates.
Specialists are characters that don't fit into the classification system.
ROLES
Role are one of the most important aspects of MOBA games and define a characters character design and play style. Allot of MOBA follow the trend of using stereotypes of the role to define their character and there is nothing inherently wrong with that it just makes a big batch of your characters feel alike.
In more recent years games are making characters which go against the archetypes of their roles such as Senna from league of legends who is an attack damage carry, a predominantly bot lane role but yet she plays in the support lane.
Top Lane
Tank
Mid Lane
Any
Bot Lane
ADC
Support
Warden
Jungle
Assasin​
CHARACTER DEVELOPMETNS
Using the descriptions for each country I wrote I made a Pinterest which represents each country and the style I am going to use for each character, this is going to help me have a clear aesthetic in mind when I make each character which I can also use for references.
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(Eshon)
Bonny Fisc, based loosely on the pirate Anne Bonny, a pirate who knows nothing outside a life of crime. A fiery tempered red head who seeks revenge on those who killed her and are using her shackles to life to force her to fight for the Tournament. - Dead Pirate Fights with a cutlass, blunderbuss. (ASSASIN BOTLANE)
(Naours)
Lucian Steele, a steampunk inventor and student of the 'Naours Academy' fights to purify the land the war corrupted as it took his fathers life. Fights using his inventions - turrets, robots, bombs. (SPECIALIST TOP LANE)
(Kerrowell)
Nayfe Fenna, an elf princess, devotes her life to restoring the forest where she and her subjects live which is slowly loosing it's magic. Fights with plant and light magic. (MAGE MID LANE)
(Cinopex)
Alette Amanita, a mushroom fairy hybrid and the daughter of a struggling farmer who believes the magic of the Bisslands could bring riches back to their country. Fights with a staff. (WARDEN SUPPORT)
(Memphis)
Nyx is an mercenary from the destroyed section of Karnak who put himself foward to see his home once again.
Fights with daggers. (ASSASIN JUNGLER)
CHARACTER POSES
I used the website justsketch.me in order to pose my 3D models in the stance I want to draw them. This helps me further their personality and let me keep my drawings anatomy correct as the models wont move in un natural ways. I am also using it to pose their weapons.
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For my first attempt at poses, I used a model I could pose in person but found the limbs weren't very stiff so they would move allot after I posed them and I had trouble fitting the different hands on, so I decided to use an online poser which gave me allot more freedom in the body types and movement of the models.
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WEAPONS
I'm giving Nyx, my mercenary character, daggers which I have styled around Memphis. I've added ropes and small jewels to the design to bring forward the desert upbringing. I also posed him as he is ready to jump into combat.
Allete my fairy support character I gave a staff and a small mushroom magic based weapons. I wanted the staff to be simplistic as she isn't from a rich family or country and a more simplistic weapon suits her personality.
Nayfe's weapons are focused on magic. Plant and light magic which I want to incorporate into her final design by bringing the plant leaves up her left arm and adding charms to the character that light up when she uses magic.
Lucian's weapons are focused on being there to fight for him. His turret and bombs make up the most of his attacks his wrench only being used in close combat or when mana is running low.
Bonny's primary weapon is her musket her cutlass only being used as her ultimate attack. I want to keep her weapon wooden with some small silver details to have the same colours as a pirate ship.
FASHION BOARDS
Using the pinterests I made for each region/character I picked out a few key pieces of the visual aesthetic I was trying to achieve, as well as colour pallets. I wanted to make sure each character would be recognisable to their region from a first glance just by their attire. I also picked out key colours of each genre and items that popped up over and over again such as belts and corsets.
LUCIAN STEELE
I used procreate to create 3 outfits for Lucian, I then put them on a google form and had people decide which they liked the most and what they liked about each design.
I took peoples feedback and made Lucian's final design based off that as well as what I personally liked in the characters design.
From design A people really didn't like the shorts and thought it made Lucian look too feminine however they liked the arm and most of my positive feedback surrounded the arm.
From design B people liked the mask and the mix between modern clothing styles and steampunk however the lack of detail in B was allot of the focus from the feedback I received.
From design C people liked the mask and his apron however the colour scheme was mostly dominated with browns which people did not like and it didn't feel very steam punk to people.
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From my feedback and the votes I received I decided to use A as my main base for the character as that was my personal favourite. I really like the final product I came up with and think it suits the steam punk genre very well encompassing the formal mechanical wear that comes with characters of the genre.
I decided to use Steampunk for Lucian as he is from Naours which in my head I think of as a city powered by steam as it is underground and is a mining colony so having access to fuel would be unlikely I also feel it fits his character very well, him being a young inventor chosen to attend the academy.
For Lucian's design I really wanted him to embody the steam punk genre so I focused his design on classic steampunk design rather than a subculture of the genre. I think doing this really helps his design more than it does limit it as it clearly shows what he is supposed to be in terms of the game. The small details in his design such as the dirt on his shirt, the attached small bag to his hip and the pocket watch help to showcase him more as an engineer also.
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Lucian's colour pallet was important when creating his concept, in MOBA games characters need to stand out against their environment which I wanted to keep in mind when creating Lucian, however I also wanted to keep in the classic Steampunk colour pallet consisting mostly of browns. I decided gold detailing and the contrast of the cool grey jeans against the otherwise brown colour pallet let him stand out against what would be the earthy toned pallet of the games environment.
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Because I am relatively new to drawing full bodies I decided to start with practicing some anatomy and studying George Bridgeman, this helped me understand proportions and how to properly pose characters. I also used allot of references when making this concept of Lucian, I had a few friends recreate the poses to see what comfortably felt natural for the pose and used them as my base.
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Lucian was the hardest character for me to design as it was my first time drawing the full body of a character that I wasn't going to cover with loose fitting clothes, so the anatomy was very important for me to get right and he took me the longest to design because of this as I was constantly finding errors in the anatomy and going back through and changing the design to fix the issues.
BONNY FISC
I decided to use Sailor and Gothic Lolita fashion for Bonny as she is a pirate from Tortuga I wanted her outfit to be instantly recognisable as pirate wear however when I was looking into Lolita fashion I thought I could use this to emphasise her character as young as she is dead and is never going to age so she will be young forever, as eternal childhood is a theme of Lolita.
Using procreate I made 3 different outifts. With Lucian's design I kept the outfits within the same subgenre and they all looked loosely based around the same thing. With Bonny's design I decided to try make the clothes cover a few colour pallets and a range of ideas whilst still keeping the pirate lolita feel to their designs.
I took peoples feedback and made Bonny's final design based off that as well as what I personally liked in the characters design.
Design A was the highest rated design with 75% of the vote. From design A the feedback I received was minimal just people not understanding the context of certain things within her design or the clothing genre she was presenting however the colour palet and pirate theme throughout was well received.
From design B people liked the boots and corset the most however the colour and headband were not a big hit. The metal petticoat also received mixed reviews, some people liking it the most from the design and some people hating it.
From design C people liked it and could see themselves wearing it however it was too modern and felt a bit plain compared to the other two designs.
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From my feedback and the votes I received I decided to use A as my main base for the character as that was my personal favourite as well as the people I received feedback from. Because the three designs were so different it is harder to combine them like I did with Lucian's design.
For Bonny's design I wanted her to represent the Lolita genre specifically the Pirate Lolita genre which falls under Gothic Lolita. I think this really helps to further her background of being young whilst also being dead something of a stereotype in the Gothic genre. Bell shaped dresses are an important piece of clothing within the Lolita fashion genre and are what most the outfits are cut to look like, so I wanted each outfit to fit into this silhouette as it's the classic Lolita dress. The small details such as the chains and gold lining also further represent her link to undying as in ancient Egypt gold was associated in eternal life and the god Ra.
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As Bonny's colour scheme is allot darker than the other characters I emphasised her skin tone and hair colour to be quite pale and slightly off colour in order to further make sure she stands out against the maps earthy colour scheme. Where as the black base of the outfit may blend in the cream ruffles on the skirt bring it back from the environment and clearly show off where Bonny is to players.
Here you can tell I am getting allot more comfortable with drawing anatomy. I originally started with a pose which showed off a fighting stance but I felt it was too generic and instead moved to a stance which I felt showed off more of Bonny's personality. I did the same thing as before, having my friends recreate the poses for me so I could properly see what felt comfortable in the poses and what was too forced.
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I ran into a few issues when I was creating this character due to the proportions of her. I kept making the legs to long and spent most the time drawing the character fixing the feet which I had to redo several times in the designs as the boots designs kept changing.
ALETTE AMANITA
I decided to use Goblin core as the fashion type for Alette as they are a mushroom fae (fairy) and the environment they are from is rooted within nature. I feel because Goblin core is all about nature and nature that is not regarded typically as beautiful such as mushrooms it would be the perfect fashion genre to represent Cinopex.
Using procreate I made 3 different outfits for Alette. I first started by entering a few groups dedicated to goblincore and messaged members about key pieces of the genre such as sweaters and jewellery.
I took peoples feedback and made Alette's final design based off that as well as what I personally liked in the characters design.
Design B was the highest rated design with 50% of the vote.
From design A the patterns on the overalls were a big hit and was most of the positive feedback for that design, people also liked the green accents in the clothes as it reminded them of the forest. People did not vibe with the sweater in the first design which is fair enough neither do I.
From design B the vest was people's favourite part, a few people mentioned the colour scheme which they preferred out of the three options. People did not like the cut of the shorts or the mud the character sports in that design.
From design C people liked the jewellery I added to the feet and the leg strap as well as the vest. People did not like the shorts due to the ruffles at the top, a few people also pointed out the colours blend into Alette's skin.
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From my feedback and the votes I received I decided to not use a main base for the character and instead combine them all like I did for Lucian.
For Alette's design I wanted them to represent the goblincore genre, to do this I first researched some key clothing items of the genre using Pinterest and asking people who following the aesthetic. Overalls and sweaters were the main clothing item which popped up over and over again in my research and was what was suggested to me to dress Alette in. The small jewellery pieces I added such as the crystals hanging from the leg and overall pocket also reinforce the goblincore genre as collecting shiny rocks is part of the lifestyle.
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As Alette is based on goblincore and has an earth based colour pallet I had to think about this character allot more than I needed to for the others as they could very easily blend into the maps environment. The small yellow wings I added and red accents on the overalls help bring Alette away from the maps environment and let them be seen allot easier. It also clashes slightly with the other colours which lets the earth based tones stand out rather than blend into the environment.
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For my final character I became allot more confident in my own anatomy skills and I think it shows, I stopped using boxes and instead added some shape to the torso after someone suggested I try doing so. This character was the one I struggled with the most in terms of clothing, goblincore is a fairly new thing so there isn't much diversity in the fashion online and I didn't want to put them in an outfit that felt too modern and clashed against the other characters but I also wanted it to have it's own identity in the world.
The hardest part of creating Alette was drawing the hands, the reference I used for their hands was blurry and I couldn't see what I was trying to draw well so I had to retake a few pictures of hands in order to be able to accurately draw them. It took me around 30 minutes to actually draw the hands and I ended up simplifying them as the more detailed hands I started with looked too detailed compared to the rest of the character.
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If I were to do a project like this again I would defiantly put more time into my google forms as allot of the feedback I received was clashing with the ideas in my head as I obviously knew the direction I wanted to take the character and why they were dressed in certain ways but my audience didn't know that, such as why Alette is barefoot.
ISSUES RECIEVING FEEDBACK
For most of my feedback regarding my characters designs I mostly went to friends or small community discords I knew weren't bothered by me posting google forms however in the last project most of my google forms on reddit were deleted by moderators as they went against the rules of the subreddit, asking for community feedback, and allot of the bigger discord servers I looked at posting my forms went against the rules against self -promotion and links and the servers I could post in were not targeted at the right audience.
CLASS LOGOS
For the final character sheet I want to add a bit of personality to the sheet adding a logo to represent each class and person will help me achieve this. Smites logos are allot simpler than League of Legends but they both are single colour silhouettes that represent the role. Smites logos are all circles with a few weapons inside that best show the role where as LoL plays around with using the weapon with the background allot more.
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I decided to focus on only creating logos for the roles of characters I am creating to help focus my time more effectively. I chose weapons and symbols that best represents my classes and styled them in the colours of my logo.
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I looked at semiotics to help further my logos designs. Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation, from this I tried to give each role a sign that summarised the role in its simplest form.
For supports I decided on a logo that looked like a vision ward, which is the main goal of supports - to gain vision.
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For assassins I decided on a simple two daggers as that gives off a sense of danger.
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For the specialist role I decided on an infinity symbol as the class doesn't have a designated weapon, playstyle or anything that is specific to the role.
PRESENTATION
I wanted a unique way to present my characters whilst fully including the lore of the characters, world and countries. So I looked through a few other MOBA games and how they present their lore on their sites and decided to use the format that League of Legends use which is to have a region section that then presents characters to you and gives you a small section of their lore and their class. DOTA 2 has all their characters on one site which is allot of information to present to a player at one time and I found myself skipping over most the characters and instead focusing on the ones I found visually interesting.
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I am going to focus on replicating League of Legends style of presenting their cities as I feel this is a great way to showcase the world I am creating with the characters at the same time and allows me to go into more detail of the world I am presenting and the part they play within my game.
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However for the characters themselves I am going with a more original approach for presenting my characters as I want to showcase their designs more than curerrent MOBA games do on their sites, which is focused mainly on showing the splash art and abilities of the characters
For my site I have decided to make all my titles for charatcers, roles and the cities in Procreate rather than using a font available on Wix as I want the whole site to feel like the game the whole way through and clearly be linked together. However this is very time consuming and each title takes me around 30 minutes to make and the first ones I made on the site I did incorrectly so I have to go and fix those which is going to take time away from other things I could be doing.
As I used a clipping mask to add in the highlights to the text if I merged the texts together in the wrong order the outside layer becomes very thin and it ruins the look of the title, however when making the titles I didn't realise this until I did all of the titles for the Tortuga page so now I have to go back thru and remake those.
If I were to go back and do this again I would have made my own font and downloaded it onto Procreate as I would have saved allot of time but I didn't realise that was an option till I was already half way through with all my titles.
From the League Of Legends site I like how they split their site into regions as they have over 140 characters this makes it allot easier to digest and stops it from overwhelming you. It also showcases their world building as well as just their characters. I don't like how the actual characters are presented however, there is too much going on in the one small section of the characters page and you don't get to see a full body image of them and their design.
Dota 2 is my least favourite of the three I am covering. The site just gives you 122 characters on a page which is very overwhelming and the quality of them changes allot as you scroll through. The actual character pages are nice however, you get to see a picture of the character with their abilities to the side and their lore is next to them, the site gives quite a bit of space to show all of this information which makes it allot easier to digest compared to League of Legends.
From the Smite site I liked how you could search for characters by the Pantheon they come from aswell as the role they play as. Once you click on a God it gives you some more information about them, like where they come from and their fighting style and you get to see a video that showcases their abilities. The way Smite also presents their God's lore also allows the player to choose how they want to digest it as they offer a video or a written paragraph you can choose from.
Once I finished my site I sent out a google form. This helped me identify the weak areas of my work and I was able to correct them, it was mostly small things like the word 'Eye' showing up when you hovered over the logos or making the site a bit more obvious of where the player is supposed to go.
I also asked a few directed questions about the site regarding the characters and the overall looks of the sites, everyone thought the site was visually aesthetic and 8/9 people thought the site showed off the characters well - which I agree with.
A few of the suggestions I got regarding things to change were things I would have liked to do if I had more time for this project, such as adding side profiles for the characters. Other things I am simply limited by Wix and my knowledge of how to use the site such as adding a drop down menu under the home button, something I am currently unsure of how to do.
UNUSED ASSETS
I had a few assets I made for this project I ended up scrapping due to running out of time or it not fitting the overall aesthetic I was creating with my game.
Originally I wanted to make my site abit flashier by having it laid out to look like it was on a scroll so I created an asset in Procreate, I tried it out on the site and it just looked tacky and so I decided less is more and removed it which was defiantly the right call.
In my original plan for the characters I also planned to have 3D modelled some houses for them also as I wanted to show of my 3D skills as well as my drawing skills but I didn't have enough time to actually do this so instead I have a few rough models I worked on shortly before the project.
The first house was to belong to Alette and I designed it off a few tavern designs I saw so there are lamps and barrels around in the design.
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The second house was to belong to Lucian and had a few steampunk influences such as the cog which was to fit onto the side of the hill the house is placed on and the various tubes that run around the house.
