Weird Stories and Creatures
- amandabruce49
- Mar 5, 2016
- 3 min read
Monday began with shifting some characters around in my time plan. I wanted to focus on the more important character firstly so I could make better use of my time and complete the more important designs to a high standard.
One of these main characters is an Inuit boy from stories of folklore told amongst the Inupiat people. Here's a brief version of that story. The young boy's name was Kassassuk or Kagsagsuk, there are multiple names for most things in the Inuit culture.
Kassassuk was an orphan and was sadly mistreated by others, they would leave him to sleep with the dogs in the cold and throw him out by his nostrils. This is why one of his main features is his large nostrils. One day Kassassuk left his tribe and ventured into the wilderness, here he stumbled upon a creature, sometimes in the story it is an Amarok or polar bear spirit. This creature tells Kassassuk that if he comes back everyday and does what he says then he will gain enormous amounts of strength. Obviously Kassassuk does what the creature says and he obtains the strength of a giant, with this new strength he returns home to the tribe and slays 3 polar bears. Taken aback the others are frightened of Kassassuk and never mistreat him again.
I found this character really interesting when I was reading the story and I was trying to think of ways this character would interact in our game and what role he could play. I thought that a great way to fit this character in with the game would be as a companion for the main character. For example Kassassuk's strength could come in handy for a puzzle in the game where the main character is not strong enough and they would have to work together to progress through the game. This also opens up interactivity and makes the game more interesting.
When I started designing Kassassuk I began by drawing some Inuit children so I could get the correct features and build. I then moved onto value studies, doing a lot of different iterations, exploring every avenue for this character.
When moving onto colour iterations I constantly was looking at the designs for the main character so they would fit together colour palette wise, I also made sure the clothing didn't clash or look too similar. Georgia then gave me some feedback and we decided on the final design of Kassassuk, which I then did a quick final painting of.
At the end of working on this character I also did some sketches of Kassassuk and the main player interacting, this makes the character's seem more realistic and makes it obvious they work together throughout this part of the game.
By Wednesday I was tired and burnt out, however I figured that starting on another new character might give me a boost in energy and motivation, both of which I was lacking. I started on a new character called Inugpasugssk, bit of a mouthful I know. Inugpasugssk is a friendly giant who helps the Inuit people hunt and gather heavy things. I only really managed some initial sketches done that day as I was exhausted, but it was fun.
At the end of the week I had gotten started on a new weird creature! It's called A-Mi-Kuk and it's a sea creature with slimy skin, 4 arms and the tail of a fish. I began with numerous ideas but after feedback me and Georgia had wittled it down to a design which we both preferred. I then got working on value study iterations and next moving onto colour. Finally I had the final design painted up and I tried a few different things when painting it. I'm being a lot more experimental in Photoshop now which is fun but I'm still learning.
