Art. Lots of it.: Fallout Research

This week I have been focusing on what kind of character design I will be using for this project. A lot of people start the design phase by drawing characters in the silhouette form allowing them to focus on size shape and stance, without getting bogged down by the smaller details. For other projects I have always had a clear idea about what I wanted to create so this is not something I have approached before, however I decide that a project that was so centralised on character creation, and inspired by a game like "Fallout" that puts so much importance on characterisation, would definitely benefit from this practice.
Though it does not seem like a complicated process, I looked up several tutorials, such as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mySsKfhBrlo , on character silhouettes just to see how people approach this. Google images also managed to give me many samples such as the one below.

At this point I have pretty much decided that I want my character to be able to fit into the fallout universe, however I want my model to be more realistic than from the current Fallout games, which are at this point reasonably old. As the guidance I am using for the project comes mostly from the book "ZBrush Studio Projects- Realistic Game Characters" this more realistic style will be appropriate based on the kind of methods eg. level of sculpting, I will be using. With this in mind my final character should look like it is a familiar part of the Fallout universe, but more visually familiar to a new release of the game, if such a thing currently existed.

In Fallout there are three types of human or humanoid characters. First regular humans, these are usually either from the vaults, nuclear fallout shelters that humans hid in during the nuclear war, and identifiable from their blue overalls. Or else they are committed to one of the many other factions of the wastelands, whether their motives be good or bad.

Then we have super mutants, these are genetically designed humans originally design to be a superior race, whilst physically dominating their opponents however, the majority are intellectually inferior and this shows....

Finally the ghouls. These are humans that have been exposed to extreme radiation that has led to necrosis across their bodies. Some are still in control of their faculties whilst others have been too severely affected and have become feral.

I knew I definitely wanted something resembling a human as my character model, but I had not decided which of the three I wanted to use. Therefore I decided the first three of my silhouettes should be based on deciding this.

I decided to go with a human character for several reasons. Firstly as this is my first character project I figured I would benefit from making a model that I could find real life references for. Secondly my book that I'm using as a guide shows the creation of a human character and seeing as its the only decent start to finish tutorial I've found, I feel like that is the way to go.
As I have decided on a human character there is more to decide. In the Fallout games, and particularly New Vegas, humans are normally attired based on their allegiance to various different factions, these often tend to look pretty distinctive from each other, some of different kinds of attire are listed below.

Power Armour

Tribal/Raider

Combat Armour

Pre War Attire

Vault Jumpsuit

When drawing my different silhouettes I tried to account for each of these different styles.

I have not yet fully decided what faction I might want my character to belong to however whichever it is I should bear in mind, when deciding the smaller details, where the character would have sourced the armour, how/when was it made etc? These are important details when making a character fit into the Fallout world.

The Companion Cube work discussed earlier in my blog has been preparing for the part of our project where we create our own replica of a door/window that we have found within a game.
The game I have chosen for this task is Fallout 3. This provides a fascinating example as the architecture contrasts so much. Though Fallout is set in the future, within the plot the earth's development became somewhat dysfunctional around the 50s when the wars started. This means throughout the game you consistenly see sci-fi technology couples with old fashioned advertising posters, sporting equipment and general decor. Another consideration has been that with environmental features such as burned out cars, constructions put together from scrap etc. These also have to reflect the 50's era as they are residue from that time, and seperate from the technological advances of the present day within the game. The video below is the intro of the game which I feel effectively sets the scene.

When focusing upon the achitectural style of the game it is important to take notice of the sense of total delapidation throughout. This is a world where industry and mass production has long since been extinct. The "Capital Wasteland" is exactly that, and abundence of decay and destruction. The next video is an example of someone's own version of the Fallout world. Whilst not directly related to what I am doing, I found it both interesting and benificial to see which elements of the environment, and the game in general, had been carried across.

Below we see examples of the traditional style posters, and what these add visually to the game. As you can see they encompass the idea of the American Dream, and the marketing formats through posters and leaflets in that time.

Now we see some examples of the heavily featured, extreme sci fi, tech in the pictures below- and furthermore just how extensively these contrast with the 50's theme.