Viking Bounty Hunter Project

Initial Environment Thumbnails

To start the development of the project, I began by gathering reference relevant to the project, this included various structures such as old ruins, castle walls and caves. This was to further understand the overall scale and what could be included within my environment. After this I began to block-out a basic scene within Blender along with a basic lighting set up. Doing this allowed for a lot of free reign and customizability in the scene.

Environment Loki's Temple Designs

Early on in development it was crucial to design something eye catching yet mysterious. This particular structure houses Loki banished away by Odin. Loki is now locked within a face placed within the centre of the temple like structure. This is where Loki now deceives and manipulates the gatekeeper turned bounty hunter 'Bjorn' into doing various bounties in an attempt to free himself from Odin's spell.

3D Render to Final Outcome

After modelling, lighting and rendering in Blender, I then take the renders into Photoshop for some post processing, this is particularly my favourite part when designing an environment. In this particular piece I was very fixated on the overall mood, I wanted it to feel ancient and mysterious yet cosy. I definitely think I managed to achieve that with the warm campfire from the bounty hunters camp.

Character Ideation

Once the overall mood and tone was set for the project with the completion of the environment, I then started to explore what the bounty hunter may look like. 'Bjorn' an old gatekeeper turned bounty hunter is deceived and manipulated by Loki into doing various bounties. In return an answer to the whereabouts of the missing gatekeepers. 

I started off by sketching various designs, I wanted the design to look menacing, heavy duty yet agile. Throughout this stage I designed various different armours in order to get the right feel, the first couple of designs didn't work they felt far too generic, but after experimenting with a helmet and more of an armoured look, It really started to take shape. 

After I had settled on a specific look for the character, I tried out a dark energy variants, these involved my character emitting dark energy, the idea was Loki was slowly taking over but I quickly scrapped it as it didn't work or match the style I was going for. I was after a more well rounded gritty looking character.

Character Colour Variations

Following the ideation phase, I then took my favourite design and overlayed colour, I experimented with a broad rage of colours I felt was acceptable the design. Originally I was going to go for a red to further but the villain ideology but I quickly reverted to design 9 which was more of a dark blue. The reason for this choice was due to it being a darker shade and it contrasting well with the leather straps and chainmail.  

Character Head Variations

Character Orthographic View

Character Final Outcomes

Bounty Hunter Character Sheet 

For this sheet I wanted to pair all relevant images together, for example relevant callouts, orthographic view and final character outcome. With all these paired together it's created a very readable piece that showcases the character well.

Weapon Concepts

Similar to the character concepts, I did a couple of sketches to get an overall feel for the Axe, whilst designing the shape of the blade and handle, I was trying to think about how it might move in real life, and how weight distribution could negatively or positively impact functionality. Throughout my designs I've tried to keep all the axes at a similar lever in terms of shape, just to ensure they aren't straying too far away from the lightweight battle-axe idea.

Weapon Final Outcome

This is my finished rendered battle-axe, I've tried to make it as visually interesting as possible whilst also keeping it grounded and similar to the real world. After I completed the battle axe I decided to create a hatchet that follows a similar visual style.

Thank you for taking the time to view my work!

If you'd like to view any of my other work feel free to check out my portfolio over on Artstation and feel free to connect with me over on LinkedIn

- My Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/kylerobinson18

-My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-robinson-9b67a6204/