Rowan is a pursuit based RPG, where the player must catch criminals that threaten the peace of the empire. You chase and catch criminals by moving through the environment, quickly dodging incoming objects and enemies.[UE4] Rowan - Games Art Project [WIP]
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Rowan is a pursuit based RPG, where the player must catch criminals that threaten the peace of the empire. You chase and catch criminals by moving through the environment, quickly dodging incoming objects and enemies.Team:
Louis Stelfox – Art Director/Lead Environment (https://www.artstation.com/louisstelfox)
Bethany Fox – Environment/Props (https://www.artstation.com/hixalupa)
Owen O’Hara – Character Artist
Amelia Tzemis – Character/Concept Artist (https://www.artstation.com/faunwithafez)
Adam Souster – FX/Particles/Lighting (https://www.artstation.com/adamsouster)
Freelance:
Viltė Bendžiūtė – Concept Art/Animation (https://www.artstation.com/vilteben)
Dominik Nankivell – Concept Art
The Project:
We want to create a combination of an environment fly through and a gameplay walkthrough that transitions between day and night through a cinematic trailer. We will include a monologue over the top of the trailer to add exposition to the story. We want to have a moving player character that can walk around the environment, but our primary focus is creating stunning characters and environments.
Narrative Synopsis:
Our protagonist (Rowan) is sent to the city of Connacates on request of the Duke of Bellona (the ruler of Connacates) to recover a royal jewel stolen from the family. A festival is taking place towards the richer district of the city as the streets start to become barren, but dark forces lurk in the shadows ready to execute a sinister plan of reviving the wildebeest.
General Moodboard:
Style Reference:
Initial Environment Concepts:
Viltė Bendžiūtė
Environment blockout so far (Plus props):
We primarily referenced Venitian architecture for the houses and Roman architecture for some of the older structures such as the aqueducts because we were inspired by games such as Assassins Creed II and how they handle combat and moving through the environment. We want it to be semi-realistic with some stylised elements in, mainly through the forms and textures. We have a finished Wildebeest skull (Beth) that needs some vertex painting to blend in with the environment, along with some textures made in SD (Louis).
Well Prop (Beth):
(Password: rowan)
Characters:
We were heavily inspired by the premise of Puss and Boots for this project so we have channelled this into our design for the protagonist. We wanted a blend between some western elements like the poncho, along with the Italian themes we are using for the environment, so that the character feels like an outsider rather than part of the city. With the antagonist, we referenced shaman and cult robes for the design so he looks like a rebel and a contrast to the citizens of Connacates. We have plans to do a guard character if time permits so the audience can see what the inhabitants of Connacates look like.
Amelia Tzemis
Owen O'Hara
Our project is still very much in early days so any feedback or cit is much welcome 
We are also looking for a dedicated rigger and any character artists interested in creating some background characters. If anyone is interested email: louisstelfox@hotmail.co.uk
Thank you!
Replies
HELLO WORLD!!!
I'm currently working on the main antagonist.
What I am about to show you is definitely WIP but feedback is always appreciated.
These models aren't very detailed as they will be retopologised before sculpting all the finer detail.
So first, I'll show off the clothing concepts I did. They're quick and dirty, but they work.
We all kinda agreed that the 4th one was the best. It was a mixture of drawing 2 and 3 and it just looked cool but not overly complicated to the point no one can understand it. Having the arm chopped off could have been very cool but it just doesn't work into the story too well.
After that, I did a couple of versions of the warthog head. Here's the first one.
Here's the second version:
Finally, here's the third version of the warthog head. This one is the best in my opinion.
Then I made the body. I'm still deciding between two body types. Probably going to go with the second one.
Body type 2:
As you can see the model still needs a lot of work, but we're getting there. I should have the body shape finished very soon.
We did find an interesting piece of concept art on Google that we may use for the hands. What do you guys think?
As always, thanks for any given feedback.
Also I created some decals out of the graffiti Vilté made and scattered them around to see what they'd look like
I've started to scatter the buildings around the scene while reworking the lighting a bit. Some of the windows light maps are a bit broken at the moment and they all still need to be worked in with vertex painting but any C&C is much appreciated
The colours of the building are randomised based on its world position (special thanks to Will for helping me getting it to work) between a hue range so there are no greens, but I'm gonna try and tweak the range so we're only getting reds, yellows and blue. Adam has been working on some confetti which you might see scattered around but we're gonna try and tone that down a bit.
We also have some low poly foliage for the rest of the environment created by Adam