hcaegeah-y2
Y2 FMP
A blog dedicated to documenting my FMP for my second year at HCA. If there is more than one image in a photoset then click on the first image and it will become a navigable slideshow, which you can use the arrow keys to control.
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Evaluation
My project started out very ambitious, with the idea of taking the iconic Greek gods and goddesses and redesigning them in a way that befits an MMORPG. I was originally planning to do something for each god, but I realised I would be spreading myself too thin, so I cracked down and limited myself to just three designs – one DPS, one tank, and one healer – in order to make sure that my designs weren’t rushed for the sake of quantity over quality.
When I was designing each of the gods, I had to strike a balance between their classical depictions, RPG elements I wanted to hit, and my own artistic freedom. It was also a struggle to think about how each of the characters would fit in an MMO setting – I really had to think about how I wanted each character to hypothetically feel to play, which is something I barely considered when first organising the project. I needed to apply my knowledge of games in order to create concepts that would feel satisfying to a potential player; I had to draw inspiration from other MMOs I’ve played to understand what works and why it works, then apply it to my work while putting my own unique spin on it.
Throughout the project I was constantly asking myself things like “why would this design be practical for this role?” or “how does this design convey the nature of the character?” – at the beginning I didn’t think about how much I would be questioning the design decisions I made so it was a bit of a learning experience in teaching myself how to look at my work in an objective manner, not letting myself get too attached to any one design that I made.
At the start I was originally going to fully render the final designs for each of the gods I created. I decided against this since I, primarily, wanted to push myself to stop being a perfectionist, as well as to emphasise that I’m a concept artist more than an illustrator; my job is to create things quickly while having them be readable and understandable to others. Looking at my work, I’d say I’ve succeeded in that, especially on the design front.
If I could go back, I would probably have started cutting myself down a lot closer to the start in order to save myself a lot of time and stress worrying about having to design every single one of the gods. That said, I’m happy with how the project turned out – especially the character designs!
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Sketch, Flat Colour, Colour, Final Design
To make him recogniseable, I gave Apollo a very flattering figure, as well as a handheld harp along with a quiver of arrows. Though he is typically seen with a lyra as opposed to a handheld harp, I chose to give him the harp to further exaggerate that bard stereotype seen in many RPGs.
Since he’s a healer, he doesn’t need to be wearing heavy armour or holding a bunch of weapons - his music is his tool. Not only does having him draped in a loose cloth make it easier for him to move around and strum his instument, it also is faithful to many depicitions of him.
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YUSUKE MOGI
Yusuke Mogi is an illustrator and character artist who works for Square Enix on many of the same games as Akihiko Yoshida - Final Fantasy XIV specifically. His artwork primarily focuses on character illustrations.
His style is much more saturated than Yoshida’s, making use of more vibrant colours to give his work life. His poses tend to be very fluid and have a lot of movement, especially with the fabrics in the illustrations - he uses these pieces of cloth to add to the composition of his work. I also like to make the fabric in my pieces very flowy and loose, as it adds the feeling of there being a living environment around the character even if it isn’t depicted.
He also uses linework to create textures and shadows in his art, but in contrast to Yoshida, his use of the technique is much more subtle and works with his coloured shading to emphasise the forms of things.
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AKIHIKO YOSHIDA
Akihiko Yoshida is a concept artist and character designer who’s worked on many games that I’ve played and am inspired by, such as Final Fantasy, Bravely Default, and NieR:Automata. His work mainly centres on fantastical characters, though he sometimes does concept artwork for locations and landscapes.
His style takes advantage of line, as he uses it to create and emphasise texture in his work. He also prefers to use slightly muted and more earthy colours, which makes his artwork somewhat reminiscent of old Japanese tapestries and paintings. I tend to prefer more saturated colours myself, but the colour choices definitely lend themselves to his artwork and make it aesthetically pleasing to look at.
Yoshida’s manages to use line and shading to create texture in a piece. There are a variety of ways in which he does this: when creating texture, he places small hatched lines in areas that should have emphasised shadow (metallic surfaces, fabric folds, fur, etc.) such that if you were to remove the colour altogether, the shading would still be visible via the linework. This technique is one I really like the look of and someday hope to learn myself.
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Sketch, Flat Colour, Colour, Final Design
I made Ares’ silhouette very static and broad to establish him as a Tank. He has his typical plumed helmet, similar to Athena’s, except his face is more covered and his ears are protected.
I decked him out with traditional gladiator armour, as well as a short spear and a shield. His legs and arms are protected with greaves, and he has sandals as opposed to caligae.
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Sketch, Flat Colour, Colour, Final Design
I wanted to make it recogniseable as Athena by including things which she’s typically depicted with, such as her red-plumed helmet an her breastplate over her dress. Her weapons have a peregrine pattern to mimic owl wings, the animal associated with her. While it’s said she is often depicted with a long dress, I opted to make it shorter with a sort of red scapula for the sake of practicality and composition (mimicking the red feathers above/behind her head).
I gave her traditional greek weapons (minus the scythe which wasn’t typically used as a weapon) which she can switch between - dual kopis, dory, and scythe - as well as armguards and caligae.
Since she’s a DPS I didn’t want to give her big bulky armour which would restrict her movement, and also to make her appear more agile and capable of dishing out damage.
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Weapon concepts for Athena, as well as weapon properties and possible weapon switch animation.
In the weapon designs I incorporated the motif of the owl wings, not only to provide consistency between the weapons but also to include the owl into the concepts without just having it be a familiar or pet.
The weapon switching animation concept has the user starting in dory form, and spinning the weapon to cause it to transform into a scythe.
The weapon properties are ideas for the different gameplay aspects of each weapon - what would cause someone to choose one weapon over another? I don’t know just yet if I want the forms to be up to the player and they can switch whenever they want, or if I want to have the rotation take the player through all the weapons.
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Current Ideas
- instead of doing all 14 main gods, tone it down to just 4-5 and really refine the concepts
- try out different genres idea-wise. instead of MMORPG, try MOBA or top-down
- implement greek clothing into designs, but modernise them to make them both recognisable and practical
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Dionysus/Bacchus - God of wine, fruitfulness, parties, festivals, madness, chaos, drunkenness, vegetation, ecstasy, and the theatre
In artwork and stories he is depicted as either an older bearded god or an effeminate, long-haired youth.
Symbols: thyrsus, drinking cup, grape vine, crown of ivy
Sacred animals: dolphins, serpents, tigers, and donkeys
I think that Dionysus would be a melee DPS, using his thyrsus to attack his enemies while drinking different kinds of wine to augment his attack. I think he would also have some kind of ability where he drinks a large amount of wine to increase his attack by a lot, but in return his movement speed is reduced for that duration, or something to that effect.
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Demeter/Ceres - Goddess of grain, agriculture, harvest, growth, and nourishment
In artwork and stories she is depicted as a mature woman, often crowned and holding sheafs of wheat and a torch.
Symbols: cornucopia, wheat-ears, the winged serpent, lotus staff
Sacred animals: pigs and snakes
Demeter is definitely a Healer. She’s always depicted as a serene older woman, and I want that to feed into her role and class. I feel it’d be fitting to have her wielding her iconic lotus staff and isolate her as a strong Healer kind of character. I think it’d be cool to incorporate her agriculture as well - perhaps have her give her allies different fruits/berries/grain to augment their stats for a short period of time.
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Athena/Minerva - Goddess of reason, wisdom, intelligence, skill, peace, warfare, battle strategy, and handicrafts
In artwork and stories she is depicted as being crowned with a crested helm, armed with shield and spear, and wearing the aegis over a long dress.
Symbols: spear, olive tree
Sacred animal: owl
Athena is going to be a DPS. I’m going to diverge a bit from the depictions and leave out her shield in order for her to be more distinguishable from Ares. I’m going to build on her being the goddess of warfare and battle strategy, and I’m going to do so by having her weapon be able to change forms to fit any situation - a strategist need be prepared for anything! I was thinking of having her spear (dory) be able to split in two and shift into dual shortswords (dual kopis). There could be more forms, but before I think about that I need to decide on what the primary weapons for all the other gods are going to be.
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Artemis/Diana – Goddess of the moon, the hunt, wilderness, animals and young girls
In artwork and stories she is depicted as a young woman dressed in a short chiton, equipped with a quiver of arrows and a hunting bow. She is the sister of Apollo.
Symbols: hunting spears, animal pelts, deer and other wild animals
Sacred animal: deer
I want her to be the antithesis of Apollo, with her being a DPS and him being a Healer. Their bows are going to be different, with Apollo’s being a shortbow and Artemis’ being a hunting bow (in reference to her depictions). Since her deer is very important to her, I want to include it too. I was thinking of having it be a summonable pet/companion which attacks the same target as Artemis. It’d have an independent health bar, so if it takes enough damage that it dies it can’t be re-summoned for a fairly long cooldown.
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Ares/Mars - God of war, bloodshed, and violence
In artwork and stories he is depicted as a beardless youth, either nude with a helmet and spear or sword, or as an armed warrior.
Symbols: helmet, chariot, spear, flaming torch
Sacred animals: vultures, dogs, venomous snakes, and boars
Ares is going to be a tank. Between his heavy armour, shield, and spear, it’s pretty obvious that he can take a few hits and return them in kind. He can use his shield both offensively and defensively, while his spear can be used up close and to parry attacks, and also thrown from long range to aggro enemies.
Taking inspiration from FFXIV, as a tank he will have two stances that he can assume. The idea I have is that, since Ares typically holds his spear in his right hand, he’s right-handed - now, I’m not completely set on the name or anything, but the concept is that Ares swaps the hands his shield and spear are in. If his shield is in his right hand, it augments his defense and his aggro is increased; if his spear is in his right hand, it augments his attack and he gets no bonus to his aggro.
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Apollo/Apollo - God of music, arts, knowledge, healing, plague, prophecy, poetry, manly beauty, and archery.
In artwork and stories he is depicted as young, beardless, handsome and athletic. He is the brother of Artemis.
Symbols: laurel wreath, bow and arrow, and lyre
Sacred animals: wolves and dolphins
Apollo is obviously a stereotypical bard archetype, wielding a lyre (and bow). A lot of bards are in the supportive DPS category, having their songs buff allies and debuff enemies, while they deal damage with their bows. I kind of want to branch out and be a little different, and perhaps have Apollo be a healer - he uses his songs and ballads to heal those close to him in an AoE, and can use his bow and arrow - infused with some sort of healing magic - to heal those far away from himself.
For his weapon, I want to combine the lyre and the bow together for the sake of convenience - in a somewhat realistic setting, having to switch weapons mid-battle would waste precious time in which a teammate could die.
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Aphrodite/Venus - Goddess of beauty, love, desire, and pleasure.
In artwork and stories, she is depicted as a gorgeous naked/semi-nude woman.
Symbols: myrtle, roses, scallop shell
Sacred animals: doves and sparrows
When I imagine what role she would be, I’m torn between DPS and Healer. In terms of her kit, I could either have her be a Healer whose gimmick is that she uses her love to heal others, or I could have a DPS whose gimmick is all about seducing enemies to lower their defenses/attacks (supportive utility-based DPS).
As for her weapons, since in a lot of artwork she’s shown wearing a light silken robe/veil, I want to incorporate that. I was thinking of having her weapon be a long silk scarf which is wrapped around her wrists, but at each end there is jewelery to provide damage when whipping or slapping an enemy with it.
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A bit about roles and classes
In both online roleplaying games (MMORPGs) and single player roleplaying games (RPGs) there tend to be 3 main roles for classes to fit into. These roles are Damage Dealers (DPS, an acronym for Damage Per Second), Healers, and Tanks. I will use a game that I love (and am very much inspired by) to demonstrate these roles and what they mean for a player: Final Fantasy 14 Online and its jobs.
Key:
AoE - area of effect
AoE heal - a heal that has a radius around the caster
cooldown - the time until you can use an ability again
DoT - damage over time
DPS - Damage Dealer role
dps - damage per second/damage
FFXIV - Final Fantasy 14
healing AoE - an area of ground that heals all party members standing in it
HoT - heal over time
job - another word for "class”
jump - an ability which instantly moves the player to an enemy
MP - mana/mana points
Raise - resurrection (of a teammate)
shields - a magical barrier that nullifies damage
utility - buffs/assets a job has for the party
DPS
DPS have high damage output and focus on taking down enemies as fast as possible. Their skills have high base damage, and they can give themselves buffs which can make them deal more dps.
In FFXIV, a job which encapsulates the DPS’s core role would be Samurai - it hits hard, it hits fast, and it has amazing damage output. However, it’s not a very well liked class compared to others. Why? Because it has no utility. All it can provide is its raw damage. In endgame content, having no utility is a pretty big deal, especially when you compare it to other jobs such as Dragoon which have high damage outputs and can also buff the party.
It’s not just melee that has these elements either. Black Mage is basically the Samurai of the magic jobs, in that it has great damage output but gives nothing to the party - it’s a very selfish job. At the other end, you have Red Mage: it has great damage (ignoring the skill floor), but on top of that it can heal, as well as Raise fallen party members. You’d simply much rather have a Red Mage than a Black Mage in your party.
When thinking about DPS, I need to think of what utility, if any, a class would have. What weapon do they use, and how can that augment their damage? What kind of buffs would they provide, given their class?
HEALERS
Healers... well, heal. They use their MP to keep the party alive with healing spells while dishing out some damage on the side. At a basic level, the general healer kit has one healing AoE, one DoT spell, one damage spell, a Raise, 2 single-target heals, and a 2 AoE heals.
The staple Healer job of Final Fantasy is obviously White Mage. In XIV it’s got strong heals, an awesome HoT, and can do some amazing dps on top of that. It’s pretty generic; a safe but powerful job. On the other hand, you have Astrologian, which can bring a lot more to the table. Its heals may not be as strong (based on numbers alone) as White Mage, but it makes up for that with the sheer amount of utility it has. Astrologian can give its teammates buffs, shields, HoTs, and it can also deal pretty decent damage.
In a healer, do I want it to be a strong healer, and nothing else? Or do I want to tone down the healing for the sake of utility? Does the healer provide shields or HoTs? What kind of healing AoE would it have?
TANKS
Tanks take hits for the party. They have high defense and lots of health, but don’t do much damage.
The job that most people think of in terms of Tanks would be Paladin. It carries a shield to block attacks, has very high defense, and can also use “cover” on a party member to take damage in their place. Its defense-boosting skills are powerful, but have very long cooldowns. Despite being a tank, it can also heal, which is amazing for its utility and self-preservation. Then, you have the antithesis of Paladin - Dark Knight. Dark Knight doesn’t have as high defense as Paladin, but it makes up for that in its personal shields. It doesn’t have much utility, but what it does have is very useful: it can put shields on its teammates which absorb lots of damage - and it can do this with a very fast 15 second cooldown.
Should the tanks focus more on utility and adaptability, or should it do its gimmick to the best degree? Should its cooldowns be long to compensate for strong defensive abilities, or should it have short cooldowns for defensive abilities that aren’t quite as strong?
IN SUMMATION
In essence, when thinking about the classes I create for each design I do, I also need to imagine how they would play in that kind of high-end setting. I need to ask myself questions such as: what would they provide that other classes can’t?; why would someone choose this class over another?; what makes it fun to play?
I also need to think about what kinds of utility or lack thereof would be present for each class. I need to see how I can incorporate different aspects of their class into their design - see if anything in there can be used for abilities and such.
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Project Concept
The concept of my project is to redesign ancient Greek gods into a set of somewhat modernized RPG/MMORPG characters and classes. To do this, I need to research the gods themselves and find out how they were portrayed/what kind of person they were described as/what they were the god of. I also need to research Greek clothing, as well as clothing from my main video game influences (Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy).
My idea is to form character designs and class concepts from each of the gods, such that they fit into a theoretical RPG/MMORPG setting. They each need to be unique in what they would do, how they would play, and what role they would have in a team setting. I will work digitally in Photoshop so that I can easily view and lay out my references, as well as make notes and sketches. As well as this, it is much easier to make quick changes when working digitally as opposed to traditionally, on top of it being cleaner and easier for a viewer to read.
I mainly want to do this because I think it’d be interesting to see a modern take on ancient mythos, as well as making me push my limits by building upon pre-existing characters as opposed to being able to make my own from scratch. I want to create a believable set of classes that people can look at and think, “That’s a cool idea, this could probably be a real game.”
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