Rusty Motion

"HUATOKI"

INTRODUCTION

A project i have somewhat struggled with, having so many ideas and investing so much time, the end result is a hike back to the first idea.

one that was inspired by the happenings from a film project based on the events of the

GET-UP festival, a event that is a collective of mural based works from graffiti artists from all over the country that's held in New Plymouth once a year.

it was the events that happened within this that ended up being the striding continuing of this work, which what i thought would be a pretty relaxed normal day turned into a very windy very wet project, it was under the bridge that i really seen just how passionate these artists are, fighting against the high tide, the gusts of wind and forceful rain.

knocking these artists over, equipment being taken by the river, photographers fearing for their equipment, it was really something remarkable, something that stuck with me throughout the year, running with this idea, it was somewhat inspiration i found that all i needed was a fun way of incorporating this into a project, so i went with something related to some other things that inspire me, more specifically the artists who i feel are underrated the ones who would create Boxart for the videogame industry.
As a kid i was always suckered into buying crappy games just by how the artwork on the front cover looked, the artwork always looked amazing but often when you would play the game it would never actually be anything like that, i was often more interested in having a collection of beautiful box art than playing the games so with that i decided to have a go at recreating something along those lines.
Taking inspiration from the console i was raised around the Nintendo Entertainment System i based the designs on some of the classic games i can fondly remember the difference though is that i was to be working with digital media and not with any traditional  air spray methods, so i had to be careful with certain techniques as it would come across as appearing far too modern and digital this lead me to having the final result looking quite aged and worn, loss of color.

As you can see here, it wasn't exactly the best place to be working.

REFERENCE

Super Metroid cover art. Retrieved from http://metroid.retropixel.net/games/metroid3/

Castlevania cover art. Retrieved from http://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/index.php?topic=6835.0

After searching through some classic artwork i found these two to be quite interesting in design and technique, and ended up being my main inspiration to capture the atmosphere of Metroid and using design elements of Castlevania (the lines breaking up the imagery and having elements come outside the frame)  

CONCEPTS

This character (who is non gender specific) is representative of the Artists under the bridge, i have given the character a shield made of spray cans to help bring some correlation between  this character and the GET-UP festival, intergrated boots with wings to help with the connectivity of the whole Videogame aesthetic. 

The original box i was working with was going to be based off the Super Nintendo era, i decided against that and to go with a much older NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) box art instead, i used the Airbrush tool over the line work to try and help bring some authenticity from the 80s  and then used the Nintendo seal of approval logo and redesigned my own Rusty Motion logo to a more 80s esque feeling. 

Here, i decided to use my extra time to create another character who i am still out of all honesty not that fond of, at least as far as the final product goes.

The idea for he was that many video games of that bygone era always had a damsel in distress and i felt that it might help build on the atmosphere, i integrated water elements to help give her some kind of sorcery.

PIXEL ART

here is where i decided to create some levels that somewhat represented under the bridge but i wanted it to be far more interesting, so i added things like a chest for items and a tree for a goal and focal point.

I went though a few revisions trying to make the contrasts work as the water was far too busy in the beginning so it ended up being a struggle of balancing detail with lack of, the each part of these screenshots were created as separate sprite tiles and then reassembled into one final piece .

To stick with the authenticity of the design and era, i felt i should create a series of sprites, each created in true pixel by pixel fashion.

This design is supposed to be representative of the Eels and the river itself, i wanted to make it more interesting so i made him hunch and had watery elements dripping to create the illusion of a staff, this way he comes across as a much older being (like the Eels) who is in power.

END RESULT

I felt that i have somewhat achieved a satisfying result, i still feel there are some changes i would like to have made but i certainly had enjoyed this project and i'm glad after all the struggles i finally had something to show, i have been though numerous redesigns and process thoughts i wasn't sure on if i would even finish this project but i'm glad i stuck to it, this has influenced me to venture into the path that i have been fearing for a long time.