What Is Joust?

Well looking around the net for a good few hours with my cup of tea (yay) I have managed to gather some basic research. Mostly just on Jousting. Coming back though I am now looking along the game. There isn't a lot to it really with it being a old game but here is some information i have gathered.

Joust, what is it? - Joust basically a arcade game and to put everything in basic context you just fly around on either a ostrich (if you player 1) or a stork (player 2) whilst wielding a lance and kicking ass. Now the enemy computer simulator is a knight mounted upon giant buzzards . You get different speed levels and the game is pretty much static, you get the platforms and a pit of lava beneath everything. Obviously if your bird decides it's lazy today and you fall in the lava ya dead! So according to my research you can control the flight levels on your characters ect ect.

So reading this it gives me a basic idea, the videos i have watched seem to help out also. Watching people playing the game was rather amusing it seems rather frustrating. So back to my original plan. Create a character, well, update a old school character.

Throughout today I have been constantly battling out in my head. What's the best thing to do? Scrap the birds that they originally had in the game or would that actually effect future for the game if it was ever released if I was working for their company. I mean it could be like instead of having guns in Call of Duty lets just give them bananas. I understand that changing the mounts could be a way of putting more of my imagination through however I think if I did change the birds it might not be a good idea. It'd be great if I could have opinions on this. If I was to keep the birds I would probably change them a little add my own stuff into it. I think this is something that needs to be discussed with people and could probably be a good idea to add into my presentation so that people in my class can give me a little guidance.

Anyway, moving on from that. My two main characters. A good guy, a evil guy, the game gives me the perfect opportunity to do this. Looking at the cover art a swell it lets more ideas flow into my head. So I think I have that bit sorted and can start researching around a little. When looking at images of jousting i liked the black and white going on with the decoration ect but I know this isn't very original but i could easily start from there and manipulate things. I know for a fact I want a colour scheme for both characters before I do any digital pieces. It's my downfall and I need to just stick with colours I put down for myself.

So any suggestions or opinions I would love to have!

Fresh Start: Planning

So we got the basic's given to us and thats it now it is all of our own backs. So I've thought about my idea and i like where it is going so far so it's a definite for me and I'm going to stick with it now and see what i can produce. My idea flows quite well there is enough room for change if need be such as mounts could become anything out my imagination but obviously I'm going to reel myself in a little at first and just list down basic animals and then work from that starting block.

So this week i think it's wise i just start getting anything out my head down on paper. I don't want to leave myself dawdling around there isn't any point so i am going to start sketching out crap. (literally lol). I want to just keep my ideas fluid even if it's scribble as long as I can actually see the sort of character I'm going to build up his attitude through stance and the weight from his weapon ect. I don't want a character standing up perfectly straight without any strain from his weapon it just looks to fake for my liking and it's something I have never thought on before but it could actually help bring my characters to life. Maybe I could be going to far here but I just think it's time to understand things a little better and why I have the chance now I think I am going to take it and push anything I can out of my head.

So basically, Joust, what do I think? Well first off Knights, horses, weapons all sorts pops up into my head. Now think about this, if I can take that lot and just manipulate it and make it more imaginative. Maybe it could go along the lines of armoured old guys with bin lids jousting with their walking sticks. Haha, joking but it's still a idea right? This is what I'm trying to do. I want to manipulate something without ruining the whole aspect or point.

Now the first thing I could do before drawing is actually looking around and researching a little into the game Joust and the obvious medieval jousting. This will give me a basic understanding. How will my character be? Will he be full of himself? Weary? You know all this stuff, battle scared? Rough looking? Long Hair? No hair? You know this stuff just gives me the basics for my character silhouette and thats the first aspect that drives my mind crazy and gets me going on creating and using my imagination.

I think the best thing to do is start a small brainstorm this week naming everything from my research and then I will start sketching out my first basic silhouette. Just body structure, no detail, maybe a bit of stance and character to them it's amazing what you can put on stuff like this. Even if it's the worst scribble in the world I know I can revamp it up to a digital piece worth looking at.

So my list of things to do this week are:

1 - Gather the basic research on the game & jousting (just the basics for now)

2 - Brainstorm my Ideas.

3 - Start basic sketching of Ideas. (Preferably a good wad of paper on this)

4 - Compare my ideas & mix and match (So take one drawing and another and mix together)

This is what I will be doing this week.

Rufus : God I'm lazy someone kick me!

Here is Rufus progress so far I started back up on him. It'd be a waste if I didn't work into him more and try to complete the art. It's hopefully going to be completed and used on my main layout for my online portfolio.

Traditional Ways...

Well because i've always seemed to draw better on paper and i seem to benefit from it more i'm trying to get back into the habit of pencil and paper LOL. Anyway i did this peice in pencil in my sketchbook....it's a a3 sketchbook the drawing takes up most the page so my scanner is a bit crap for a good image.

Anyway here is the progress...only need to finish her weapon, her hair and arms. Her legs may seem a little wonky thats due to me holding the camera at a angel...sorry >_<.

I've also drawn a few heads lately....yes some look a bit deformed but i practised a little to know how the face structure should be on a adult male. I recently bought a domain so i will be getting up my own little site in the next few weeks for my studies and finished work...yes I'm going to force myself to finish them HAHA and try to steer away from my cartoon style...well it's 'ok' but not big flashy eyed things...need to stay clear and learn to put real effort into my work >_>

Hope you guys like i'd say more crit towards the pencil work than anatomy as it's skewed slightly from the cam... -_-'''

Colouring, Anatomy Development progress #2

And now I'm adding colour needs loads of work but my hand hurts now :P Gona take a break from it before I start hating it lmao.

Colouring, Anatomy Development progress #1

I'll be scanning a few images in tomorrow. But i've been trying to work on my colouring so here is a started of what i've been doing. Please crit hard, i like crit, it helps me get better and I want everyone's honest opinions on where i could improve in the future.

So i started by scanning a sketch i did in, i then coloured over it basically with black and white, colour to follow in the future hopefully.

...looking at them now she could do with some cheekbone work lol :P But yeh, it's not complete yet the legs aren't done, the face isn't complete ect. I'll keep you all up to date.

Making Dean Evil!!

Yeh, i unwrapped the whole thing. (apart from his arm). I started texturing his gun and face. The face isn't done i want to try and add something in there, some moles, ect.

I need to do the hair planes. I was going to re render the uv and add them in as i'm working with the unreal template anyways. I also need to add some face hair i think...gotta make Dean look more stressed and older :P haha.