This started as an Ipad sketch which evolved into an in-class demo on how to color character designs. The following is a step-by-step breakdown of the process:

Dug out an old lineart drawing I did for an assignment during my DigiPen days and decided to colour it. For the colouring process, I tried for a different style by following a Gumroad tutorial. The experience was definitely unique and I'm quite happy with the results I got considering that I painted this while I was feeling really ill.

Last year I continued to collaborate with WhaleRabbit for the second toy in the Dualle link, Miktus. As usual my task was to create the artwork that will be printed on the box sleeves and the art prints inside. The concept for this location is the "Mischievous Forest". How do I portray that whimsical feeling on an environment like a forest?

I recalled the forest designs that I did for Mekazoo and drew immense inspiration of the color and other features from my own artwork. The toy designer wanted a tree with a white trunk to be the focal point of the piece, which made the task even more challenging in terms of painting in the sense of depth. 

​Here are the sleeves that were designed for this project:

Here are the thumbnails for the environment design:

Through my experience working on Mekazoo, I learned that level paintovers are an excellent way of communicating my ideas as an art director to the rest of the team. In the following Breakfast Art video, I go into detail of my process.

I'm actually going to build a game level based on this paintover using Construct 2, so stay tuned!

I saw an artwork of Anubis on Google Images that portrayed him having 2 pairs of upper limbs. I really liked the idea (this was before I started work on the Hindu gods, who coincidentally have multiple pairs of upper limbs as a common design motif) and decided to incorporate that into Mythosphere's version of the character. 

More information about the character:

Anubis

Role – Carry


Skill 1 – Gatekeeper’s Grave
Anubis casts a spell that accesses the enemy hero. If the level of the selected enemy hero is divisible by the level of this skill, the enemy is dealt with heavy damage.


Skill 2 – Cry of the Dead
Whenever a friendly ally or enemy hero dies near Anubis, his stats increase.


Skill 3 – Throne Ascension
Anubis casts a magical veil that encapsulates his body, giving him temporary magic immunity.


Ultimate Skill – Underworld Ticket
If the selected enemy hero’s HP is below a certain percentage, Anubis immediately executes him or her. The enemy hero’s respawn time is increased.

And that's all folks. All 18 characters from the 1st version of Mythosphere has been designed. I'm referring to it as the "1st version" because I have since made some amendments to the Game Design Document, replacing the popular gods among my students with other candidates for the next batch of students to pick from. I'm not sure if I will design any of these new batch of gods as I aim to focus on Inktober and then on polishing up my 3D sculpting and texturing skills in the upcoming weeks.

​Till next time.

There are a lot of similarities when it comes to the process of designing Egyptian and Hindu gods. Both cultures have animal inspired deities and they tend to have a ton of ornamental accessories and a funky color scheme. I explored these features on Horus and on tomorrow's Anubis.  For this variant, I went for a younger teenager proportions.

More information about the character:

Horus

Role – Initiator


Skill 1 – Falcon Flight
Horus leaps and glides to the selected area.


Skill 2 – Falcon Punch
Horus punches a random enemy at melee range, stunning the enemy for a long duration.


Skill 3 – Pharaoh’s Tomb
Horus encases himself inside a tomb. While inside the tomb, he casts an aura that increases HP regeneration for himself and nearby allies. He remains immobile within the tomb. The tomb has 1000 armour but has 0 magic resistance. Horus dies if the tomb is destroyed.


Ultimate Skill – Eye of Horus
Nearby allies gain +1000 armour for a certain duration.

Osiris was interesting to design as there were so many different directions you can take for this character. I lost my thumbnails, so unfortunately I can only show the final design. Drawing ellipses in perspective has always been an issue for me. For the anklet behind Osiris, I had to seek the aid of 3DSMax to provide a reference.

More information about the character:

Osiris

Role – Pusher


Skill 1 – Dark Resurrection
When this spell is off-cooldown, Osiris has 2 lives.


Skill 2 – Dark Whisper
Osiris can convert any enemy or neutral creep into a friendly ally.


Skill 3 – Dark Aura
When activated, any unit (friendly or enemy) constantly looses Mana but their HP regeneration rate is increased.


Ultimate Skill – Mummified Golems
Osiris calls raises Mummified Golems from below the battlefield. These Golems are controllable units that deal large amounts of damage to enemy structures.

Tsukuyomi turned out to be the only gender-bended character I designed for Mythosphere. I went with a few approaches, including one with a similar concept to her sister, Amaterasu's final design where there is a design motif at the bottom of her gown (in her case, some wispy smoke). Eventually, I decided on the first concept, which was inspired by the concept of bats.

Tsukuyomi is a god of the night, and bats were a fitting representation of it. I gave her a blindfold and wings, both the signature characteristics of a bat. To spice things up, I added the aurora borealis on her wings; I just enjoy painting that natural phenomenon. 

More information about the character:

Tsukuyomi

Role – Pusher

Skill 1 – Dark Soul
Tsukuyomi uses half of her total HP to create a clone of herself. The clone has half of her stats and can be controlled by Tsukuyomi. When the clone dies, she dies.


Skill 2 – Wave of Terror
Tsukuyomi unleashes a wave of dark energy that damages any enemy within an AoE in front of her.


Skill 3 – Death Pact
Tsukuyomi uses her HP to deal damage to a single enemy or enemy structure.


Ultimate Skill – Soul Steal
If casted during night time, Tsukuyomi swaps her HP with an enemy.
If casted during day time, Tsukuyomi swaps HP with an ally.

I wanted to explore the darker side of Susanoo for Mythosphere's design. In this variant, the slaying of the eight-headed Orochi has ignited the bloodlust within him. He now hunts for new prey to satiate his hunger for battle.

In hindsight, I may have designed the character a little too dark for the LUCENT faction.

More information about the character:

Susanoo

Role – Initiator


Skill 1 – Ccccharge!
Susanoo charges into a selected area in front of him, dealing damage to the targeted enemy and himself.


Skill 2 – Mana shield
When activated, whatever damage taken by Susanoo is inflicted onto his Mana pool instead of HP.


Skill 3 – Storm Cyclone
Susanoo spins so quickly that he forms into a tornado. When in this phase, he has increased movement speed, his attack becomes AoE and he is magic immune. However, he takes 1.5x more damage.


Ultimate Skill – Orochi Slash
Susanoo moves at lightning speed, attacking 8 times at any enemy. The attacks may be focused on 1 single enemy if it is the only enemy nearby. When attack, he exclaims “Ryuu ga waga teki wo kurau!”

Japanese deities are really fun to design. Perhaps because they are so overrepresented in popular culture, the artist actually has the liberty to explore more adventurous designs. For Amaterasu, I tried a more traditional Kanon-esque approach and a child, shrine maiden variation.

I ended up with the design that was inspired by the game Okami. The main character of the game is a wolf who receives power from Amaterasu to restore balance and peace upon the world. When running around, the wolf leaves a trail of flowers, symbolizing the life-giving power of the sun. I thought the idea of a life-giver was pretty neat and decided to try it out for the 3rd design. The end result looked great (and unique) so I went with it for the final.

More information about the character:

Amaterasu

Role – Support


Skill 1 – Firestorm
Amaterasu casts a wall of fire in a selected area. Enemies standing on the fire will get damaged and burned. Allies standing on the fire will get healed.


Skill 2 – Passing the Torch
Amaterasu can channel this spell to a friendly ally. When this spell is channelled, the ally will receive an increase in HP regeneration rate. Amaterasu is immobile during the channeling.


Skill 3 – The Chosen One
If Amaterasu has more than half of her Mana pool remaining when she dies, she is instantly revived.


Ultimate Skill – Praise the Sun
Amaterasu directs the sun beams to a selected area. She teleports to that selected area, healing everyone (both ally and enemy) to full HP.