Scene 3 – The Escape/Firefight

“The Firefight”

This is the final piece is the story of these three “revolutionaries” as they face a small force of cybernetic soldiers. I wanted to try and create a tense scene, but I feel for the most part Gyges and Nilou have combat handled. Although Lith’e did take a hit to the shoulder.

From the beginning I wanted Gyges’s armour to have an extra function. I eventually decided to have it be able to generate localized force fields really allowing him to enter the fray of any firefight.

I do feel my rendering here is weaker compared to my other pieces, but I just love the close quarters setting of this environment.

Scene 2 – The Plan

“The Plan”

This seen I’m also happy with, it’s not as intense with visuals and the previous scene because I felt it could distract from this more intimate interaction. This scene is about these three individuals coming together to formulate a plan to get some justice in their world.

Lith’e and Nilou are where my eyes are drawn first due to their lighter colour palettes compared to Gyges. They’re interacting with each other shows them both as the “intellectuals” of the group whereas Gyges standoff at the edges, slightly shrouded in darkness just watching this plan unfold.

My favourite thing about this scene though is probably Gyges back armour detail. Think just because I spent a lot of time on it and I’m happy it looks decent. Also, the back of his head cybernetics was interesting, I didn’t intend on showing this so I had to improvise and really like how it looks.

Scene 1 – The Meeting

“The Meeting”

I’m honestly really happy with this piece of work. I feel like I best capture the characters personalities here. Gyges merrily drinking his shots, Nilou drinking a glass of wine, reading her notes, whilst being very aware someone is watching her and Lith’e a timid tall figure who can’t help but stand out in this dingy bar.

I’m happy with how I handled lighting, where there is this warm sweeping light in the bar. I’ve added small hints of reflections from the neon signs littered around the bar.

I added three mysterious figures in the background, there was no greater plan to them except to make the scene more diverse with more aliens. But for me, I’d hope they’d elicit the reaction of “what are they up to?”

Final Scene Development

Above are my original roughs for my final pieces of work. These were the images I felt could best portray the story I wanted to tell. Some changes were made in the following images.

The first scene I refer to as “The Meeting” in my opening “sequence”. This I was an important scene to establish all three main characters. This is the only scene where Gyges and Nilou’s faces are fully shown. So I felt it important to make sure their personalities were on full display.

The second scene I call “The Plan” is an important sequence for the character Lith’e. As they expose a weakness in the government that this ragtag bunch of “heroes” can exploit. The interaction between Lith’e and Nilou was important to show them as the thinkers, whereas Gyges stands in the back a bored spectator.

The final scene, “The Escape” or “The Firefight” is a scene that went through the most changes. As you can see in my first roughs the fight took place in the bar, however as I tried to develop the scene it just wasn’t working in the bar. I decided to completely rework it, creating a new 3D mockup of a tight corridor in the bowls of the government. This new scene creates a much more perilous environment. With the added severity by showing lithe is injured and the situation is dire. I’m really happy with this new set up.

Story Research, Combat Analysis?

When discussing my third scene, the gunfight, with Ryan it was suggested I analyse some art that successfully shows combat in a fluid motion.

Therefore I turned to my favourite source, Matt Rhodes, once again.  Rhodes has several pieces of work that illustrate these intense moments of action. obviously, his years of working in the industry have taught him these things. I tried to look for what he focuses during these scenes and try and implement in my art.

3D Mock Up Environment

After the character creation stage, I  moved onto the Environment design.

I’ve never considered myself an environment designer, it’s not my strongest skill. But I took the opportunity here to try and develop those skills. I think I enjoy planning out the environment, figuring out space and composition.

When it comes to designing environments, I find it far easier to sculpt a 3D mockup to draw over in my work. My perspective skill isn’t amazing but seeing a visualisation really helps.

As said in previous posts, the location of this environment is a sci-fi bar. I intend on the bar being a more seedy underbelly type of establishment. Where some unsavoury individuals flock.

I wanted to create certain key locations that could work for a scene. This is shown below in the several pictures I took in maya using their camera.

Here is a wider view of the environment with the camera placement visible.

Once I looked through all the images I took, I started to then draw the roughs on top of the mockups. This was an incredibly fun process, going through several variations of the same scene, deciding which ones successfully told the story.

It was important to allocate characters and background characters in ways that pushed the narrative.

A last-minute decision was to change the location of my third scene, “The Firefight”. will be explained in future posts but the gist was that I couldn’t allocate the characters evenly in the scene and it wasn’t succeeding more me.

I needed a simpler space, more confined, which is why I thought to have the cast running through the halls of government facility escaping capture.

Final Character Designs

I wasn’t 100% satisfied with the old designs, so I went over them again, refined them and I think I’m much happier with them now.

Gyges’s armour was too big of a problem for me, but his arm didn’t feel right. So I decided to take the qualities of the old arm I like and translate it into a more solid looking arm that fits the sci-fi genre better. With this development I decided his armour needed refinement as well, makes shapes more defined and sleek, incorporating more lights into the design.  I made the boots into one piece but kept the welder style plating with added rivets in places.

Lith’e’s design was my favourite out of the group. Their design was simple yet regal. But since I was refining the other designs I felt working on it was appropriate. I basically just tweaked the hood shape and removed the unnecessary pieces of metal. The final design isn’t too far off from the original.

Nilou’s design was the design that went through the most changes. I really liked the original design, but it felt too uneven and bulky in places. Therefore I tried to take the pieces I like and make them more sleek and surgical. I liked the chest piece she had but it broke up the design too much so I decided to make it an entire piece that armours her upper torso completely.  Its smooth shapes and curves succeed where the original did not. I also altered the colours to feel more medical, changing the dark grey to light grey but keeping the golden armour and green knee pads and lighting.

Final Design Roughs

Heres are the three designs for the character of this project.

Lith’e – The Reverant Acolyte –

Lith’e comes from a race of religious beings who believe in a higher power.

Their overall race may appear effeminate but they’re are monogender and don’t conform to any gender specifically. They believe their religion defines them.

Lith’e is a young acolyte governed by their religion. However, Lith’e soon learns of corruption within it and how it connects to the large hierarchy of their corrupt government. They then research in secret trying to uncover secrets and seeks out Nilou, due to their sordid history with the same government.

Nilou – The Rogue Immunologist –

Nilou’s comes from a well-known bloodline for birthing some of the best scientists in the galaxy, therefore it was a shock when she became a leading scientist in the prevention of diseases.

She may never have looked it, but she was happy and content with the good she did. Until she learned her research was being used to wipe out large numbers of innocents. A culling to clear out the undesirables.

This sent her into a rage, where she then destroyed as much of her research as possible, but not without making copies for herself.

She then went into hiding, plotting her revenge. She has found comradery with Gyges

Gyges – The Unhinged Mechanic –

Gyges was an up-in-coming engineering student who came from a lower class background so he was seen as a prodigy.

However, his competitors didn’t like this and sabotage one of his inventions. This led to a serious explosion which destroyed much of Gyges’s left side. His academy covered it up and abandoned him in the slums where he memory was damaged.

He eventually got replacement cybernetics and made a living from mercenary work or smuggling. He found kinship with Nilou who maintains his enhancements and he’s agreed to help her with whatever revolutions shes planning.

The Poleez – Enemy Faction

For my third scene, “The Firefight”, I needed conflict between the main cast and a enemy faction. Due to the government’s corruption in this world, it felt right to have a military group called the “Poleez” (yes its a butcher of Police) who are these sentient AI that patrol space stations or planets governed by this Government.

I wanted to keep the design simple and dark but with these very noticeable luminous faces. These faces are LED screen with the Holographic capability to project images to alert citizens of threats but also to project emotion as the Poleez are largely mute so they communicate through Emoji.

To make them feel more robot I want to give them a more angular sharp body with lots of bone-like protrusions to try and suggest their sinister nature.  The rounder head though acts in contrast to this sinister image as the populace would have to reply to the Poleez to uphold the law.

Museum visit and Painting analysis