I felt I needed to create some concept pieces that would reflect how to player will view the environment in the game level. Doing this also helps me to come to a decision on the final colour palettes, after taking inspiration from my visual research on films, video games and real life settings.
On Tuesday I played with a new painting software called 'Mischief', keeping with the dull blues and greens of a cold countryside scene which I have used in my previous concepts. This time I tried adding a little red in the leaves of the trees for an autumnal feel. I think it works nicely with the scene as a whole, and it doesn't feel too out of place. I'm not sure if takes away from the 'scariness' of the environment, I will have to ask for some opinions from others on this.
The house in this drawing is probably a little smaller than those in my previous concepts, I was experimenting with the idea of scaling down the grandness of the house. However I think a larger, more extravagant style works better to create an intimidating feel for the player.
Today I drew up a mock-up of how I envisioned the opening cut scene, from the player's point of view. This is the angle from inside the carriage as the player is arriving at the manor house. The carriage interior consists of a lot of dark blue, purple and grey to reflect the Gothic style, inspired by my visual research into the Gothic horror genre. In the windows (which I've made to look a little fogged up and slightly dirty) you can see some of the outside scenery. I've used the dark green, blue and reds similar to those in my previous concept piece.
After some feedback from Hilary, we agreed that maybe a more effective angle for the camera would be to face out to one of the side windows, as though the character is looking out at the scenery. So in my next drawings (including storyboarding the cut scenes) I will try out this alternative viewpoint.
