Concept World - Dead Ego

Concept World - Dead Ego

SYNOPSIS: In the year 2065, Arasia, a new future state in the United States of America, has been infected by a virus called The Pestilence. The virus changes the brain structure once the Id overrides the Superego, which causes the physical appearance of the human to change into an eldritch horror and the mutated will start to behave violently. The mutation lasts for several hours before they revert back to normal.The United States government threatened to bomb the state of Arasia as it poses a threat to the rest of the country. In order to prevent the bombing from happening, a pill was created which keeps the virus from mutating the human body and keeps the ID away. Thus, the citizens of Arasia would be able to survive without the fear of being killed or mutated.

Some people produce an excess amount of virus in their body, hence their mutation can last longer and pose a threat to society. Most of them are hiding or are living in plain sight. The main character, Lucius, is a task force agent working for a major corporation. His main objective is to capture these individuals and hand them over to the authorities. However, this mission will change his life forever.  

Overview of Design Process

My IP, “Dead Ego” is inspired by many games such as Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Ghost Runner, Dead Space 2 and more. I want my IP to be set in a futuristic setting as I wanted to challenge myself in creating cyberpunk and futuristic designs.

I focused a lot on shape language and detailing as I was studying from cyberpunk references. I tried to incorporate more organic shapes as well geometric shapes into my designs. Additionally, I applied some colour scheme from references I gathered of racing cars and applied them into the costume design of my characters. It helped to make them more flashy and striking. Lastly, I also spent some time researching of joints in a robot as my character, Sol, is a machine so I had to make sure that his exterior Shell could support his mobility.

Character Design - Lucius

This is my main character, Lucius Yamashiro from my IP, Dead Ego. Lucius is the only human who is immune towards the Pestilence virus and the only one not affected. He used to be an Aristol Task Force agent until he failed his mission to capture one of the targets with high concentration of the virus. Lucius is currently wanted by the military police.

As he was chased after the military police, he had to throw away his old life and don a new identity as the “Rogue marker”

Character Sheet, Daily, and Progress

Sketch & Layouts

Character Design - Hyuno

Hyuno is a singer and dancer in the K-pop group called “Chic n Spice”.

She was saved by Lucius from a group of gangsters trying to rob her. Hyuno persuaded Lucius to teach her self defence skills so that she can protect herself from danger. Lucius agrees to train her and she currently tags alongside Lucius.

Character Sheet, Daily, and Progress

Character Design - Osvaldo

Osvaldo is the head of Aristol Corporation, which is currently the most powerful corporation in Arasia. He is also the foster father of Lucius as he took him in after the death of Mykel and Lenora. Osvaldo used to be an ex-employee of Eden until he was fired by Mykel, who is Lucius’ father. He is the main culprit responsible for infecting the whole state with the barbartos virus, as well as killing Mykel and Lenora.

Black Mamba is Osvaldo’s alter ego. Fueled by his suppressed emotions, he created this alter ego to enact justice through violent means.

Character Sheet, Daily, and Progress

Character Design - Sol

Sol is a prototype created for the Neotech AI security and defence program.

Since he had a live consciousness, he was discarded. His creator whom he

regarded as his mother, was kidnapped by Aristol Corporation to make their own robots for military purposes. He is currently searching for her and hopes to one day crush Aristol Corp to the ground.

Character Sheet, Daily, and Progress

Environment Design - Catetown

Catetown is where there is little security and crime rates are high. Many of the illegal activities are done here as Arasia pays very little attention to the activities in Catetown.

Catetown is divided into 5 regions, North, South, East, West and Central. Each area is ruled by a different criminal organisation.

You can find underground doctors and information breakers. People who reside in Catetown are usually those who are either hiding away from the government’s radar or simply have nowhere else left to go.

In the story events, Luicus the main character of my IP, “Dead Ego”, is on the run from the government, so he and his team which include Hyuno and Sol created a hideout in Catetown. 

Map

Key Visuals

Character Design - Noble Gunslinger

This is an original character concept design that I made a couple months ago for a school assignment. Since I was used to drawing female characters with a slim and busty built, I wanted to create a noble female gunslinger that had a bigger body frame. The theme that I went for was steampunk as I wanted to challenge myself to take on a theme that I have never done before. Hopefully, I managed to bring out the steampunk vibes in her design.

For those who are wondering, her name is Dominique and she belongs to the Libertina house in my IP.

Character Design - Rebel Poor Grenadier

This is a character concept art that I did for a school assignment in 3dsense.Her name is Leona and belongs to the rebel poor faction. She is meant to be portrayed as a cute character but she uses dangerous weapons.Initially, Leona is meant to be an engineer but after some alterations and edits, I went for a grenadier concept instead. She is part of the same IP as Dominique.

Prop Design 

For the prop design, I chose to go with a vintage theme as I was thinking of making props for my character Dominique.Since she is a rich noble and a gunslinger, I felt that she would have her own office desk where she will be signing paperwork and a record player where she can play music from. I explored different design choices as well as colours to find which variation I think would scream “noble” in the design. After some narrowing down of designs, this was what the final render is. 

Card Illustration

For this illustration, I wanted to portray my character, Dominique, as a femme fatale who is seductive and dangerous at the same time as her character is inspired by female roles of film noir. I sketched out some scenes to explore her character and personality and ended up choosing the best composition to showcase her in. 

Perspective Lines

For one of my perspective assignments, the brief was to create a 2 point perspective of a bedroom interior that is accompanied with an elevation plan and a floor plan. I went with a Joker theme room as he is my favourite comic book character.

For the remaining two perspective drawings, they are meant to be a paired piece, with one being an exterior of a Victorian English pub while the other is the interior of the pub. 

Interior Perspective

Exterior Perspective

with inkwash

2-Point Perspective

Environment Design

For my environment piece, I wanted to paint a scene of a small village in the snowy winter, but I was conflicted choosing between a tribal theme or a viking theme. After some consideration, I decided to go with a viking theme village as there were little tribal village references I could take inspiration from. After choosing the theme for the village, I began to collect some references of some artist's depiction of viking villages on Artstation and decided to ideate from there. In the end, I picked a composition that consists of a stranded village on a frozen ice cap. Even though the concept theoretically would not make any sense, I was thinking it would be interesting if a group of travelers were to wander upon a mysterious village in the middle of a body of ice. 

Creature Design

For creature design, the brief was to create a creature that could exist in the real world but it could not be a chimera since it is a hybrid of different animal parts. I explored different silhouettes and shapes, bearing in mind the skeletal structure as the final result was supposed to be a creature poster where the anatomy will be showcased. After making the many silhouettes, I decided to narrow it down and add in colours to assign a material and texture to different parts of the creature. Afterwards, I chose one design that I liked and made different body types but with the same exterior texture and colours.In the end, I chose the land creature body type to be part of the creature poster. 

Process

Final Month Project - The Hunt

For my final month project, I wanted to create another character. His name is Ryker and he is supposed to be a vigilante, and a rival to Dominique. He is part of the same IP as Dominique and Leona. I decided to give him a shotgun and reused a scrapped design of another character. Through some changes, I tried to make him as minimalistic as possible to fit in the rebel poor faction. After creating the concept art of Ryker, I wanted to do an illustration for his character. The plan was to show Ryker as a vigilante who hunts the streets at night and fights crime. In the beginning, I did not have a clear idea in mind and the initial sketches made Ryker look more like a villain than a vigilante who fights for justice. 

Process

Miscellaneous Illustrations

Here are some fanarts I did while I was studying in 3Dsense media school. I applied the different art fundamentals I learned into my personal works especially the concept of ambient occlusion, colour and light theory. With the newfound knowledge I gained from the lecturers, I was able to create art that felt more three dimensional.