Medieval Me

Remember Delia? She works with instructor Anna as part of Game-U’s New Jersey Accelerate program, and she’s all about art – especially character art. To learn more about creating realistic characters, Delia practices making 2D avatars of people she knows!

Character art plays an important role in game design. Artists like Anna or Delia conceptualize a vision for a player, an NPC (non-player character), or a villain, so that the character can take shape as a 2D animation or a 3D model. While most conceptualizations are of fantasy characters, they still need a healthy dose of reality to make them believable and relatable. As Delia studies art in general and character art in particular, she completes 2D design exercises on web apps like Azalea Dolls or Doll Divine. Using the app tools, she builds figures from the ground up, choosing facial features, skin tone, hair, clothing, and backgrounds. Delia even develops narrative backstories for some of her characters, enriching her conceptualizations and making her characters more appealing. To make sure her designs stay grounded in reality, however, Delia often creates fantasy versions of actual people – like Game-U instructor Rebecca!

When Anna suggested a few people Delia might conceptualize, Delia immediately opted to create a “medieval” version of her former instructor, Rebecca. She and Anna brainstormed what kind of person Rebecca might be in medieval times, and started matching Rebecca’s features on the default “doll” in their web app. They looked at things like shapes, proportions, lines, and shadows to make Medieval Rebecca appear as close to the real Rebecca as possible. Because Real Rebecca has long brown hair, Delia gave the character similar hair – but styled it in the way she imagined Medieval Rebecca would. Delia applied the same principle to Medieval Rebecca’s costume, and included a brown traveling cloak to go with the idea that Medieval Rebecca is traveling. Delia and Anna both agreed that Rebecca has a maternal personality, so as a finishing touch, they also gave her avatar a baby to cradle. Meet Rebecca’s medieval doppelgänger!

Cool work, Delia! We love your sense of humor and your eye for detail. Keep up the good work! We’re excited to see you take your first steps towards becoming an artist, and we’d definitely love to play video games that feature your character designs. Don’t forget to let us see any other instructor avatars you create!