Garden Veil
Character design and world-building for a fantasy setting
My roles
Design of character props, environments, and creatures
Context
An academic project with a brief to create and design a series of concept art pieces for a fantasy world adapted for a video game.
Process
I first chose exploration horror as the genre underpinning the game’s narrative, then wrote out how the game would unfold, along with the profiles of the two main characters: Liora and Pendria. Extensive design, color, and costume tests were done for both characters, built around key symbolic elements: the lily of the valley for Liora, and a centipede for her mother, Pendria. With the characters set, I moved on to weapon and vehicle tests for anything Liora might use at some point in the game, which ended up being a scythe as her main weapon and a flying bullfrog named Brün as her vehicle and companion. The process wrapped up with sketch studies of the proposed environments, two of which were selected to be fully developed. This entire process was compiled into a printed booklet.
Impact
The concept art project was well received for its narrative, along with the design of the elements and characters, whose designs subtly supported the story. What stood out most were the final designs of the two characters and their level of detail and contrast while still maintaining visual cohesion.
Learnings
I learned about different tools and techniques for rendering certain fabrics on the characters, as well as how to sketch more proposals within a limited timeframe.
