Gooky / Gooky's Mods
This was one of the bigger projects I did, as it entailed me learning many new things. It started with the continuation of the "Space Station" idea, where I had envisioned this weird character selling underground stuff. From there, it evolved into a whole scene of his store, his character, his animations etc. In fact for this project I learned the basics of character design, 3D animation, sound design, music composition and particle effects as well as improved my texture-work, digital art, environment design, shaders, UI design and UI animation. Everything seen and heard on the scene (barring sound effects) was made by me.
The store logo
The entire concept started with a logo, inspired by a great podcast group "Cold ones". The neon aesthetic to me was (and still is) very exciting as it grabs attention quickly, works well with many colour combinations and has this "underground" feeling to it. I had two possible combinations in mind.
The character sketch
After deciding to make an illegal car parts store for the game and using the name Gooky, I thought about a character that would best emphasize this concept. The parts (or mods) are supposed to be functional rather that well designed with a "tacked-on" feeling to them so the general concept of Gooky was this mess of parts looking as shady as possible. Kind of like a token drug dealer but not fully.
3D model of Gooky
From 2D drawing to a 3D model, I used many simple shapes to combine them into a complex shape that is Gooky. It's not the most complex character design so I could add many different types of details that weren't on the original drawing.
Gooky's idle animation
The new thing for me was 3D animation as I had never done it before. I had to learn how to rig up the character with bones, specify vertex groups for those bones properly as well as use the Blender's 3D animation framework to create the animation. This was my second (revised) idle animation for Gooky. He is to appear semi stressed/busy as well as a bit paranoid (looking around)
Another, shorter animation of Gooky when moving
Wanted to add a little comedic side to this character by having his arms both flail in the air when "zooming" around
A final version of Gooky in Blender
With all the textures applied in a pose.
Textures made for different parts of Gooky
From a coat, hat to his tentacle and name tag. All made from scratch in Photoshop.
A (almost) final vesion of Gooky
With all textures turned into proper shaders in UE4. In a pose from his idle animation.
- The Store environment -
The store sketch
After the work on the character was mostly finished I decided to model his little hideout on the space ship. Since it was hidden away it needed to look messy rundown but since Gooky was also a good business owner, there were also elements added to make it "look" like a legitimate store. In the end, this would again feel like a mixture of two worlds, a concept close to Gooky. The poster was added to give the room that much more personality.
3D models of all of the objects to be used in the room
Some where done using the sketch and some on a whim.
3D models used in the store with all their materials
Rendered in UE4
The textures made for the models in the store
Made from scratch in Photoshop
The poster in the store
Had to paint the model using a drawing tablet, which was another skill I had learn to fully shade the model. The background the pink font and the splash effect are not made by me (though they are modified). The composition and colouration was to be tacky 80s Florida/California party styled.
The evolution of the room as it was modeled/filled with features
Image 1,2 and 3 are in Blender and the rest in UE4.
A few detail shots of the final room environment.
- Audio, particle effects and UI -
Music composition
While working on the environment, I had decided that I would also learn how to compose and edit music. Using FL studio I made a simple composition with a jazz theme in my mind. This was because jazz can sound very comedically shady, something I think fits Gooky well. Used FL studio and learned how to make music, add effects to it and combine different sounds to make an atmosphere. This is also the reason why the radio is added to the room as in later stages as I wanted the music to come out of the radio and only after the menu is opened to switch into the full unmuffled stereo theme. This sound design decision is shown as the Image 3.
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The theme can be played here
Particle effects editor
Using UE4's Cascade editor to create simple particle effects. I decided that it would be a great opportunity to learn the way it works as I needed to add the dripping water from the pipe to the scene and a particle system would be the best answer for that. To learn in a practical way, I also made the electricity sparking effect and decided to add it to the scene where it made sense the most.
The UI screens and design for the store
The camera blurs the background to better divert the attention on the menu items. The UI switches when opening and closing the store
The UI elements shown individually
Designed in Photoshop.
The final version of everything together in a video form
The quality is compressed for the web