[chipsandsalsa]

Hey Guys, I wanted to share my process of silhouette ideation as I develop concepts for a game I'm helping out on. Perhaps by sharing my process here and opening it up to critique and insight of the community it can clarify the strengths and weaknesses of the process for me and anyone else trying to learn the working methods of this field.

I'd like to take you through my whole process, start to finish, since the whole idea is to come up with a lot of ideas but at some point you have to have something deliverable and shiny to show.

[chipsandsalsa]

I'm starting with some crates, I was thinking a long crate, for rifles or rpg rockets. It's a sci-fi, post apocalyptic future game focusing on assassin combat. I used the silhouette method to come up with some ideas in 3/4 view. In retrospect I think this was alot to tackle and maybe could have chosen on view. Or maybe these cases dont have that exciting of silhouettes...

[chipsandsalsa]

Now I've gone back over the silhouettes with line to interpret the shapes. I had some idea of what various knobs and such would be while I was painting them but there were a couple areas where I had to use line to correct the silhouettes, cutting into the shape. For a couple I tried to define the form with just tone thinking it may have been unnecessary to get so involved with line at this stage, but I want to hear what you have to say.

[chipsandsalsa]

Didn't have much time today. Here are the four I chose and the detail painting for one, about 3 hours on that painting. Reference is very helpful. Since it's post apocalyptic they obviously shouldn't look new, want to try thinking beyond typical olive drab with the next ones.

[chipsandsalsa]

Finished Concepts! I had some observations toward the end of the process and I guess that's the whole idea behind doing these exercises. If I were to approach this particular problem again, I would do more sketching/research into cases, to build up a visual library. I feel like putting a silhouette into perspective can be a bit too much to think about at times, however here I could have played around with the mostly rectangular shape of the crates a bit more. These boxes from rage have an interesting shape from above, a bit like a treasure chest. It was mostly a problem of me not setting out with a "story." Off to study more!

[chipsandsalsa]

Alright, next round. This time large crates, (maybe there are smaller crates inside.) Because of the previous exercise I'm just trying a side view here to see if that works better for me later on.