Real Worlds - Thumbnailing & Development (Firefight Plague)

 

Thumbnailing & Development ( Firefight Plague)

Research of Faction

For our project this time around , we were given the option of choosing two different factions from the game Deadzone which was created by our client Mantic Games.

For one of my factions to work with , I decided upon the Plague faction. From looking into the different miniatures that Mantic Games have already released the obvious answer was the plague when it came to the organic characters of the faction , they are the zombie style of enemies however looking through the different list of characters the set I didn't see much of was different creatures as there was plenty of zombie and mechs but only 2 different creatures so I looked more in that direction compared to the usual zombie crawler.

When I wanted to look into what creature I wanted to use as my reference for my final design , I looked into different predators that are for the termite , which is what my other factions based on , so I was able to have something that linked the two different creatures together so I worked towards reptiles and how their bodies function to create my Plague Buriers.

Moodboards

After looking into how I could link my two factions together , I looked into termites predators as that was a lead reference at the time for creating my Nameless character where I created different moodboards of reptiles and frogs and how I could work that towards the Plague design due to how the plague function with having their bodies have layers and layers of muscle ripping through their skin so I looked towards different types of reptiles and how their body function to create ideas to start with.

Initial Sketch's & Silhouettes

Starting out my Initial Sketch Ideas for the Plague Faction , I started off with more smaller and versatile weapon designs as I was looking into having the amphibian being morphed And mutated that the weapon would be broken and piercing through the skin however whilst designing my lizards body , I tried implementing this idea however it didn't function as efficiently as I wanted it too so I scrapped the idea.

Working on Face Silhouettes , I designed a set of faces whilst working on other ideas besides working with a lizard body so I created different head sculpted for different situations such as more grotesque and oddly formed faces for a more humanoid idea if the amphibian design was altered later down the line due to it not fitting the original design idea.

Then worked towards my actual design elements of my characters with staying to the lizard design idea that I originally started with and worked towards creating similar body shapes for the base of the lizard however alternating the bone structure that would be protruding out of the body in different shapes and angles around the body and how it would affect the lizards base body such as in one design having its front claw occupied by the broken bone structure that has ripped through the creatures body making it harder for the creature to function and to round off the different designs I sketched a couple frog designs to see the difference as these frogs could utilise the tunnels that the Termis would crawl around through and still have the bone structure protruding out of its body in smaller amounts compared to the lizard.

Colour Variations 

Whilst looking into the different species in the plague faction & considering the feedback I recieved based on my creature and how the different species react to the environments around them change their skin tones so I worked towards that style of art with some of the colour palettes staying close together in their hues and tone whilst some of my colour variations worked on more randomised colours that wont blend together and make the creature stand out more if it was in a crowded hallway however some tones seemed too bright to work with the style of game I was looking towards.

Whilst the original idea I had whilst looking at the dead zone characters of the plague faction I believed that the features on the body represented Ice after feedback they were actually bone structures , so looking back after receiving my feedback for my different faction characters the shards coming out of the body being such a vibrant colour wouldn't make more sense now unless it was soaked in another characters blood and its stained the Plague Buriers body and it was become unwashable due to the cold lab environment that the creature was made to defend inside.

Orthographic

With being on the 3D Pathway , I had to create an orthographic for my creature so I created a orthographic side view utilising a variation of different hues of greys however I wouldn't focus on making a front view due to the plague creature not being the one modelled.

Finalised Design ( Before Review with Mantic Games )