I’m DONE with my first year of college! The last day of classes was Wednesday, May 9th, and I was lucky enough to have no finals this semester. What I did have, however, were some massive art projects. For my digital imaging class, we were allowed to get creative!
As you guys know, I’m an art major. I’m also a HUGE fan of video games (one of the essays that got me into this college was about that!), and I one day hope to take my art into the video game world as a concept artist. Since we were allowed to pretty much do whatever we wanted for this final project, a very talented friend and I came up with the idea/storyline for a video game and then delegated who should draw concept art for what. I designed and drew concept art for the characters while she did the scenery. I drew character sheets, line art, and a final print for two characters: the protagonist and an enemy. Meet Akio the wolf deity and one of the enemies in the game, Piccolo! Both were done in Photoshop and took me 18+ hours together.
Final print of Akio, 11×16
Final print of Piccolo, 11×16
Here’s a brief synopsis of the game’s storyline:
The player takes on the role of Akio, the faithful friend of a powerful goddess who has lost her son, Haru, to an evil rival. Akio sets off on a journey to bring the boy back and travels through fantastical landscapes ranging from cityscapes to waterfall oases to the frozen tundra. As for the battle mechanics of the game, Akio carry’s scrolls (seen in character sheet below) that control several elements that he pulls out with his mouth and tosses upwards to unroll and activate. Upon reaching the forbidden castle where the evil goddess resides, players will notice that Haru seems to actually be happy and treated well, facing players with making the moral choice of bringing him back to his mother or leaving him with the actually-not-so-evil goddess who just wanted something to care for. It’s a bit rough, yes, but the art was sure fun to design!
Akio’s character sheet
Piccolo’s character sheet
And here’s the awesome piece my partner, Robin Wilson ’14, did!
The beautiful level concept, 11 x 16
Putting all the pieces up on the wall together was really incredible. It was awesome to stand back and see the final product of our hard work! I’m really happy with how it all turned out, and I’ll definitely add it to my portfolio. I’d say my first year of college was definitely a success. Game on!