Since I don’t have enough time/skill to do everything by myself, from time to time I try to find someone to help. This time I’ve found a couple of sketch artists.
Giving the task itself is a bit tricky. One can not open a freelance site and pick an artist like an orange in a grocery store. It takes time to find one that is capable of drawing in similar setting, in a style that suits us. Otherwise we could end up with a Dead-Space-Gore professional who struggles with drawing vigorous country life, with sunshine and hopping rabbits. Not all artists are available at once either, some are booked weeks ahead. Then there’s also negotiations phase, where artist examines examples of our needs (did I say – a lot of reference material is required up front) and level of quality is agreed on. Prices are named. Artist takes a test-task. This test reveals if we can communicate efficiently about task details and if artist skill matches his portfolio. After that we make a decision – if both parties are happy with the process and result.
The task was to create a sketch of a house (basing on which a more detailed 3D model will be made later on). For such sketch, shape and layout are most important. Colors and minor details are less so.
It takes a lot of time to get started, to tell the artist the theme of the game, elements scale, colors, etc. After a total of 8 iteration we have arrived to what could be a final look of the Camp:
At the moment there are 3 houses and 2 more are wip.
We plan for around 30 houses in total. Once we have more of them, we can stitch up a virtual town and see how the houses look when they put together. This will allow to make some “big picture” tweaks, so that each house has a different character, yet they all look to belong to the same village.
I love it, I can’t wait to see the other houses, on this sketch it actually looks like a busy little camp !
Do you intend to animate serf in that camp? So whats about proportion ingame?
Nope, I was planning the camp to be just a house. However this is a good idea, to liven it up a bit 🙂
Maybe little things like flattering chicken will be enough.:D
They look amazing! I have a bit free time on my hand and was reading your posts since the beginning. Thank you sharing the development and your insights; it makes me feel part of the project!
Do you plan to include a lore or game manual where you can use these drawings and many others with texts detailing how they operate, their history, etc.?
Hi Ozan,
Thanks for writing!
I’d really love to have lore and such. Unfortunately I’m not good at writing.