Progress Update 1
The time devoted to the project these last few weeks has been spent writing the project and time plans, performing some research, looking for visual inspiration and doing some (rudimentary) sketches. I will add the finished documents, as well as some of the skeches, shortly.
I am also fairly certain I have settled for a theme. It was not an easy decision as I had lots of different ideas that I liked flowing through my head. In the end I went for a historical setting. More precisely my scene will “take place” in the remains of a german town pillaged by swedes during the Thirty Years War. There are several reasons I chose this setting. First of all I think it’s a relatively unexploited (even unknown) historical period — as opposed to, for instance, the Second World War or medieval Europe. For me this makes it more interesting to work with. Secondly, seing as how it is set just before the use of military uniforms became widesread, it allows some freedom in terms of clothing style (that being said I still intend to keep it reasonably historically accurate). Choosing a historical setting over fantasy or science fiction also has the inherent advantage of having to do less concept art work. While I do not generally mind sketching and drawing — in fact I rather enjoy it — I don’t consider it a focal point of this project and I know from experience that it is easy to get bogged down in complicated designs.
The main character will probably be a rather unpleasant captain, in a game he would be your enemy. He will wear fairly typical early/mid 17th century clothes, with some curious details and several weapons. As for the scene itself, I’m thinking in terms of a small cobblestone street or backalley with partly destroyed building walls and various props like barrels, horse carts and wine bottles.
More to come soon!
Nils