This week we’ve started working on
initial character designs with character designer, Daniel Fu, of
“Daystorm Productions”. Daniel is the author of a webcomic series, “The
Retriever” and has an excellent portfolio. Daniel was my first choice on
this project, because I’ve worked with him before, because he has a lot
of artistic range, and because his designs have a good sense of volume
and 3D form, which will be essential for our designs which will be
modeled in 3D.
Character Artist Daniel Fu
I first met Daniel Fu online about 11 years ago when I started an
open-source game project based on “The Light Princess”. He did some
excellent character concept artwork for us. Sadly, the project didn’t
get very far due to technical limitations, so not much of the art was
ever realized in a final form. Still, I kept the artists in mind, hoping
to find a better opportunity. Since then, I’ve been in contact with
Daniel a few times on potential projects, and I’ve kept track of some of
his projects, notably his web-comic, “The Retriever”. When I started working
on “Lunatics”, I knew I’d want to commission character designs from an
experienced artist. I immediately thought of working with somebody from
“The Light Princess” project, and I thought of Daniel Fu in particular when
I realized we’d be working in 3D — his designs have always had a good use
of 3D form, so it seemed like he’d be able to handle design for 3D modeling.
In the end, though, it was Daniel’s online portfolio that sold me on asking him
to do the character design for Lunatics. His designs span a wide range of styles
and I knew we’d have a bit of a challenge finding the right mix of stylism versus
realism for Lunatics.
Currently, we’ve begun an initial commission in which Daniel will
create sketches for four of our characters. This will give us a basis to
work out any details on the full commission and also give me something
to show in finding potential 3D modelers to realize the designs in
Blender (and also, of course, to figure out from those conversation what
exactly should be specified in the drawing Daniel will do for the full
commission).
I think we’re officially having fun now. 🙂
