Visual design school work

I've been taking a visdev class this semester and it has been suuuper fun so far! I feel like I'm really I'm really learning a lot about my own personal style and what I'm capable of doing. We've finished 2 of the 4 projects we're doing this semester already.

The first project was especially fun- we had to design an environment and character based on the original legend of El Dorado which was based on the initiation ceremony one of the rulers of the Muisca people called the Zipa. The Zipa would be painted in gold dust and dive into lake Guatavita [near present-day Bogota, Colombia], and then toss gold into the lake as an offering to their gods. One of the stories about the Zipa involved a serpent god of the lake and I just took the idea and ran.

Basically my Zipa is a bad guy who wants to make a deal with the serpent god for power in exchange for gold [I’m thinking my serpent is kinda like Smaug haha]. The fine print is that the Zipa is basically possessed by the god and turns into a monster. Yay!

These two were the final pieces:

  

Aaand the following is the progress:

The second project was to design exterior, interior, and owner(s) of a flower shop set in 1980s New York City.

This project, while interesting, kinda had me in agony because it was so environment-focused and environments are definitely a weak-point for me- ESPECIALLY interiors. But I think I came out of it for the better! I now have more of an idea of how i should approach environments in general and how do design them according to my style. I also learned that putting a few hours into creating lit block mesh renders in Maya, while tedious, is SUPER helpful in making the final product look more solid.
and of course i had the most fun with the character designs haha. my story with them [and by extension the flower shop] is that the old woman [I think I named her Isabelle] runs the shop with two of her sons, Mikey [the rounder one] and Anthony [hella arms]. The twist is that the mother is actually the matriarch of an Italian/Sicilian mafia and the store is a front to launder their money. So when the brothers aren’t helpin their ma, they’re out breaking some hands and maybe some faces [tho Mikey honestly prefers to tend the flower shop]. And don’t think that Ma doesn’t keep a loaded shotgun under the cashier counter so no funny business!!


These first three are the final pieces:

These next ones are progress: