ECLIPSE | PART 2 - NYX
We are now at part 2 of this project! For this blog post, I want to talk to you about my character, Nyx.
She is the playable character of my project ECLIPSE and I wanted to put a little more attention to her design in concept, but also think about what it implies in my level design and her interactions with the world.
We know she's part of un underground band of warriors, but is there anything else cool about her that I could play with in my designs?
1. The research
When came time to design Nyx, the first thing I did was doing a little research on the internet.
I wanted to know what kind of symbols are associated with the night, was there anything I could use to enhance my design and give it a little more personality? I also researched references for costume and likeness.
I first created a complete chaos of a PureRef and narrowed it down to a couple of key elements for my design.
My PureRef Chaos! You can see many references for different elements of costume I thought could be interesting to try.
These are the main references that inspired my design. It's the overall feeling of what I wanted to do with Nyx's design.
I tend to gravitate toward dark fantasy as this is my favorite genre, but I also wanted it to feel inspired by history.
I decided that I would design 2 versions of Nyx: A civilian one, and The Umbra Bellator; Shadow Warriors (They now have a name!)
I didn't know yet what would be all of her abilities, but I knew I wanted her to be able to interact with the shadows in some sort of way and I wanted it to be reflected in the design.
With my research done, I then go to sketch some things!
2. Sketches
When I sketch for myself, I often like to sketch faces first as they are a small canvas where I can test ideas and feel if my character is going in a place I like. I feel I connect more with my character that way. I often mashup some photo-references together and bash them onto a blank 3D model in Photoshop. I can make a dozen of those quick mashups, and select a couple (2-3) I want to paint. I then paint them until I have something I like and I explore hair, face elements like scars or blemishes, jewels; whatever sells me her character.
I cleaned up round of face sketches
On this one, I tested a couple of different things I could test on a bigger scale:
- What if she was blind? That could make her feel more like an oracle.
- What if she was consumed by the darkness and made one with it?
- What if she had a big scar that would reminds us of the milky way?
Then, I go on other rounds of sketches to find what I like.
3. Metahuman - Version 1
When I sketch costumes, I like to make myself a 3D base character I can sketch onto or photo-bash things. I often use Character Creator for that, but this time, I wanted to work with MetaHuman Creator. I had never tested it, but I knew I wanted to use a MetaHuman in my Unreal Project to learn how to retarget it to an animation system. So I went in and created a character I liked with trials and error.
Nyx Version 1 - MetaHuman Base
I exported a closeup of her face to work with for portraits
After I have something I like, I will export some shots from MetaHuman that I can work with. I will export a closeup face shot to work on some face details, and a simply posed (or not!) shot of the body to help me sketch onto.
On many project I've worked on as a concept artist, we often needed to use base meshes from the character team and keep their proportions in mind when sketching our characters. I felt I could use MetaHuman in the same way for my project. I could even use it for other characters I would like to make to ensure a form of unity in the designs.
4. Costume Sketches
Then, I went onto sketching some ideas for costumes. When I work for a studio, I can do so many! But as I'm doing this project solo, I felt like after 3, I got enough things to know what I liked and what I did not. I made some sketches for the civilian outfit, which would be the one I would use in my mission, and the Umbra Bellator, because I wanted to do a badass warrior and I was curious to see where it would lead me!
Variations I did for the Civilian Outfit
Variations done for the Umbra Bellator costume
5. Sit Back And Assess
After I sketch, I ask myself what I like and what I don't like. I ended up liking the second one best in the civilian outfit. I felt the darker color of the outfit along with the purpleish shade would fit well. I love the idea that se would be scarred like the milky way scars the night sky, so I kept that idea. I also wanted to have some asymmetry to her so she would be more interesting form the back as this game is a third person.
For the Umbra Bellator, I like the first one a lot, but I didn't want it to be a completely new costume, more of an upgrade to the civilian outfit, so I would rework that.
When it's time to reflect on what I have done, I just really love the new draw feature of PureRef. I put all my thoughts there.
I put all my images in PureRef and I sketch my thoughts with the DRAW feature
6. Concept painting
For this one, I started to mix and match what I liked until I got the right concept for Nyx. I also painted her face to make a closeup in my callout sheets,and I painted some important elements like her necklace. I did the same for the Umbra Bellator one. No magic here, just a lot of painting!
Callout Sheet done for the Civilian Outfit
Callout Sheet done for the Umbra Bellator version
I try to think about things that are important for the gameplay, like what could she pickup? What weapon could she use?
I ended up going for a melee weapon in the civilian outfit; a dagger. I also thought she could have a range weapon later in the game (if it would be to exist),and that she could pickup some health flasks. I'm not sure yet of the name but I like the concept of the Humors in Greek medicine.
I also designed a little clan logo for the Umbra Bellator. I will be able to use this symbol whenever I want in my project.
Some notes and research about the "Humors" of Greek medicine
6. Metahuman - version 2
Now that I knew where I wanted to go with Nyx visually, I did a second pass on her metahuman version so I could export it for my unreal project.
A little turnaround of the character I tweaked in MetaHuman
7. In Unreal
Time to integrate this character in Unreal! For this project, I don't want to start a new character blueprint from scratch so I am using the ALS V4.
I found a couple of tutorials on how to retarget a character on the ALS V4.I followed those and trouble shoot what went bad, until I got something that works! It ended up being simpler then I thought. I just needed to make a simple retarget and make sure to copy all the MetaHuman parts in my character blueprints. Just make sure it's at the right place in the tree, because if it is not, contacts are not working properly when you jump or crouch.
I can now move around with Nyx!
8. The abilities
Now that Nyx exist in my project, I want to know what she can do! This will help me tailor my design right for her gameplay and make it more unique to my project. I first asked myself what could anything on her be useful for.
Lot's of questions where asked and answered here!
Some of the things I determined are more items she could pickup of interactive objects I could do for her to use. But some of those are important to prototype as mechanics as they could change how the player experience the game with this character. I decided I would focus on 4 things she can do and try to implement that in my project.
A page of my mission pitch where I explain what those abilities are
WHAT'S NEXT?
Now that I now a little more about who's Nyx, I want to work on the special abilities she can do in my world. I also want to work on all the ways she can interact with her surroundings to help me design my level.
my next steps
1. Start a gym to prototype mechanics and verify metrics for my project
I will work on blueprints I can use in my level to aid me.
2. Rework my mission pitch to better know where I am going next with this project
I want to do a second pass at least on that document to make it cool.
3. Make a first draft of my level
I will do a first rough pass with simple boxes to give me an idea of where I want to go and maybe sketch a clearer plan after that. I find it easier to go right away in Unreal with minimal sketching first. I think better in 3D space.
And that was it for part 2! I hope you enjoyed knowing a little more about my creative process. I really enjoyed exploring the possibilities of MetaHuman, and I am thinking about exploring it more in the future, I think it's a great tool for the way I like to work on things for my personal projects.
As always, I made a little video about all of this with some process and all, I am working hard on making those more interesting and showing you more of my process.
See ya!
- Caro
