Synapse: An Introduction

Been a while since my last activity here, so hello again! The final big game production of the university year is in full swing, so I’ll be tracking my process via this blog.

The concept I created, and is now working on, is the game Synapse. To sum it up in as few words as possible, it’s a touchscreen tablet game where you explore the functions of a neurotypical, and non-neurotypical brains, by guiding nerve signals to various parts of the brain through the nervous system.
Each section of the brain is responsible for a certain set of functions, and in the game, those will be represented by different 2D character animations. It’s those animations I will mostly be talking about in the weeks to come, as they are one of my main responsibilities within this project.

The first couple of weeks I spent mostly on detailing out the concept itself, and finding a group of people who were eager to work on realising this into a fully fledged game with me. Once enough people were gathered, I wrote down our design document, a.k.a. our “Put These Things Into Synapse” instructional pamphlet. Once that was out of the way (for now), the artists within our group could get crackin’ on drawing all the animations we’ve planned to implement.

My task here is to sketch + ink key and breakdown frames, as in the main poses of an animation, to be sent off to one of the tweeners in the group once done, where they will fill in the gaps between the main frames. Due to my experience and practiced skill in lineart work, this was an obvious choice, as the key and breakdown frames has to be top notch.

There isn’t much more to say about this at the moment, so I’ll wrap this post up with previews of some frames I’ve done so far for a couple of animations featuring our neurotypical character.
See you folks next time I have something more to share!

Character Construction & Turnaround

Last weeks assignments were to pick one of our previously made character thumbnails, and continue building onto the one we chose. To do so, we were to draw our chosen character from loose pose sketch to clear lines, and an orthogonal turnaround as well. For extra credit we could also provide a close-up of the head.

Loose sketch –> roughed out details –> first clean-up

Orthogonal turnaround, with a detail of the sides of the shoes facing inwards

Close-up of the head

Basic facts about this character:

Name: Muir

Sex: Female

Age: Young adult (roughly 22 – 25 years old)

Strong and somewhat agile. Has good stamina but cannot run very fast. Can grab objects with her tail.

Adventurous and eager to help out in situations where her strength can be displayed. Overly confident to the point of where she’s often cocky, which leads to her ending up in trouble a lot. Trouble usually resolved by fighting her way out of it, or by the wit of her two close friends.

All in all, this was an interesting assignment, and my first time doing a full-body turnaround. If I ever get the chance to, I will redo Muir’s turnaround just to see how I can improve upon it.