3D Concept of Evil Wolf

the same routine follows again: I bring  3d render of evil wolf and a maquet environment to photoshop and play with things there to make some nice visual representation. Hopefully the "infinite" space is clearly drawn where  his "steam" goes.

 The Progress :

 I have developed the environment  in relatively good detail, but then had to take it back to bring up some theatrical lighting. Possibly these concepts can serve for our animation lighting ideas.

And that would be it from my side :] Time for some proper Christmas holidays :] Family finaly comes at my totaly empty student halls :D
Wish you merry Christmas! :]

3D Concept of Good Wolf

I have read a while ago about this new approach artists are using for creating beautiful .. 3D Concepts. It involves making anything from making a quick 3D maquet to resolved 3d models and bringing them later to photoshop to push the visual idea there. This is my first attempt, the 3D concept of Good wolf.

I was trying to blend the the character in the scene seamlessly. I also used a more dynamic angle, so it made the task more interesting. Perhaps there is some conflict between the very defined 3D model of the wolf and very stylistic and relatively loose environment.

 

I’m hoping to do something similar for the Evil Wolf as well and then finally my family will arrive and it will be time for Christmas :]

Character Fixes

Friday we have discussed designs and if they work from the side and front views , for the wolves. Also, it was clear that the previous soul design was to distinctive where a more general design would suggest easier identification with it.





The wolf’s nose wasn’t following design language of the body that was changed. Also, in the front view, had various issues with legs, width, and head. Hopefully overall, now it is working much better. However, front view often tends to look strange, cause we are missing back legs and all.

 

For the good one, only little changes in leg positioning ( so it doesn’t feel like falling over) and tail proportions.

Concept Shrine Environment #02

Second concept piece of the shrine.






To further suggest the transition into more man made influences as we arrive at the forefront of the human spirit, the environment is now more reflective of Native American influences with totem like elements. This also helps to distinguish the final confrontation with more significance.

Soul Representation Concept

Discussions lead to development of soul representation concept. This one combines ideas from three other dolls. Also, in Leo's concept I noticed he'd draw it white so I gave it a go and this prooved  to diminish the sinister qualities  "soul " designs  had before.

 

It was guided, as always, by the reference sheet of native american dolls

Wolves Orthograph Views

I've used basic orthograph views to resolve the design further and make any changes after discussions with Leo and Justin Wyatt. Also, I should be thanking Justin, Andriana and Dom for their feedback, when I stopped seeing designs objectively. So, hopefully character fronts are as interesting as the concepts themselves. If these will be 'approved', I'll move to fully resolve them ( back views, 3/4 view for the good wolf, and details) and move to modeling stage.

The bad wolf.

tied with black matter his shield-like body moves lucely, by parts separating and coming together as he moves. When solving his front and side designs, bulky, sharp and mean qualities were kept as he represents Anger, hate, and greed.

The good wolf.

Changes to this one were in legs, referring back to dogs anatomy. It should be expressing that he is peace, hope and serenity.

Concept Shrine Environment #01

Concept piece of the shrine environment which holds the human spirit that the wolves seek to control. The presence of the wolves agitate the flames evoking the spiritual nature of the environment as the ruins resonate from within.







Rather than literal representations of Native American structures, I opted for more abtract/suggestive representations of rock-like material. However, this may need to be further resolved to suggest a more significant shift to a man-made environment. After some discussion with Jolanta, we have some fresh ideas to try at this key environment.

Some initial designs of the shrine


References

Soul Designs

I quite like the one which is formed of floaty cloth. It keeps the idea of using a doll to represent the soul but pushes it at the same time to suggest a less obvious nature of it. I see it working quite charmingly with the light stream idea

Good Wolf Concept #02

Another concept piece for the good wolf and his effect on the environment.







Moving away from the initial idea that the wolf brings life to the environment with elements such as plants and trees, the environment is now more consistent with the evil wolf with neutral rock type cliffs. Where the evil wolf brings chaos to the environment, the presence of the good wolf allows the rocks to form back into whole forms awakening the Native American markings in the process. In this way, the logic and design is also more consistent with the setting of inner space with other worldly elements.

Character Fix

Tuesday was a day of feedback on wolf Characters. After discussion with Leo and Phil, I also talked to Justin Wyatt. In short, it was obvious designs needed some problem solving and revisiting.

 For the good one things seemed to go over the top:  decorativeness  and saturated in complimentary colours  were obfuscating the shapes. I've added some mass to his neck and change the 'face make-up' .A little nice touch, suggested by Leo, was to get rid of eye pupils.

In contrast , the bad wolf , presented other set of problems. Mainly regarding shapes of the back  part of the body and how it would work in animation. He was looking stiff as a statue figure. The challange was to figure out how he'd work. So I've come up with this idea, which was kind of evident in the design already, that the bad wolf is tied with an anti-matter/black matter which is holding him in place. So when he moves parts come together and distance away.

I added tail ( finally :D ) and fixed the spine line.

I came across this truly useful video when understanding wolf movement:

Will  sure be used again

Wolf Terrain Suggestion

I thought to give it a go and create a suggestion of environment to express more clearly what kind of thought I have about it. I find it quite hard to describe it in words.

It is presented in flat view so we see the transitioning from the bad wolf 's affected  environment to the good ones. Also, keeping in mind it is a race from unconscious to conscious , I was imagining the environment would correspondingly  build from 'nothingness' to a fully crowded space.
This concept is also testing the idea for the environment to be quite desaturated in colour. Lighting would be quite colourful: Green (blues, violets) for the bad wolf , golden (whites, oranges) for the good one.

Good Wolf Concept #01

Initial concepts for the good wolf. In contrast to the evil wolf, the later restores life to the surroundings with light and colour.





Looking back at the piece, the current setting of a forest now feels distracting and perhaps underwhelming to the idea of inner space that the wolves are racing through. Needless to say, I will be experimenting with some more concepts to resolve this one.

The Black and White Wolves

Last week I have chosen two wolves for each, bad and good one. For the bad one there was a debate, both seemed to have their own strengths.

Therefore I tried to compromise the design and came up with this third wolf. I believe it is nicely encompassing ideas of both of the previous wolves.

Friday , we both with Leo have discussed the visual development and approach for character resolution in terms of colour and texture .  So these are close to resolved character designs for both of the wolves .

 

The dark one was developing quickly and soon I realized it will be quite a challenge to make the good one‘s design as interesting. The idea to make it purely white with only accents of other colours soon proved to be insufficient. Because his also less saturated in shapes in regard to the bad one, so it seemed like he would loose  0:2 if shapes and colour don’t  come across as “complicated” as the bad ones. 

These designs doo capture how I’ve imagined them to look like. However at this stage I’m still ready to change/redo designs if our further discussions would ask to do so.