Overal Evaluation

My overall attitude to this project on War Horses was very excited at first but as I got into it I found it to be quite... Sad. I enjoy horses and animals and such, but seeing horses killed and hurt among other things was quite upsetting. Made worse by other peoples lack of consideration for the creatures. Tom often commented on how 'It is just a horse' which deeply disturbed me. I wonder if I am just overly sensitive of animals feelings or if really other people just are cold towards animals.
So many times I was asked 'Why would people care about a horse?' and despite my vast research into empathy for animals within films and books- no one really took notice. Even when using their own pets- they still commented how they did not care.

My lack of ability to see past my own feelings held me back while developing my ideas. I really need to work on that and being able to understand why others feel that way.

Otherwise, my digital illustration skills seem to be improving! I was pleased with my final illustrations, my two beat boards (alas I would of liked to do more but time and illness but a halt on that) and my sweet little sketches and colour ideas. I enjoyed designing colours for horses based on real ones but found other peoples feedback on them to be so extremely varied (many saying they hated one while others say they loved it) that it confused me.

 I need to focus more on what I feel is good, follow my own instincts and not keep trying to do whatever other people like who are no part of my process. My team works and myself are who I should listen to- not my friends. 

As for working in a team with Tom; I did not really like it. Not anything to do with Tom; but I just do not like working with just one other person because when we disagreed- it was 50/50. In a three person group we could of voted on it 2-1. Which would of settled it. I will not be in a duel person team again. But four or five people would of been too many I still feel, butt hats just be me being roughly anti-social.

Three person groups or more should be attempted in future; not avoided for the sake of my own comfort.

Otherwise... For this project I did a huge amount of research that really shows off where I have come from with my development process. I hope to continue with such work in future as I feel this amount of detailed research is perfectly right! Despite my friends feeling otherwise.

Detailed research and picking and choosing what to follow is an effective way of improving my own ideas.

I hope my project is exciting and fun to read. And that we will not bore people with our work. I try hard to make my blog fun, exciting and more casual so people can see the real me and not some professional machine sat behind a desk. I am a real person with real ideas and concepts!
Thank you for Reading

Final Illustrations

Finished illustrations for the War Horse game. Putting them all Up now real quick.

I know my style is anime Disney fail face. It upsets me. But I don't think I can dig my way out of that one- especially not in time for this project. But it is pretty disheartening. Tom picked up on it really fast and I felt kinda bad; I did try to make it less cute and 'animuuu'. But honestly I like my human faces like this... Oh no. I am objectively deciding what to do with my art and avoiding certain things in pursuit of.... a style??? oh dear


Never mind; here is some body language of horses shown mostly with the ears.
And then with the bodies.

In our game your horse can be trimmed in the stable (as well as have your health and stamina improved by eating and drinking) to the players preference and depending on the weather of the mission.
Having the certain cut (the colour of the cut fur is slightly a lighter shade as you can see) will improve your horses performance slightly when used in certain situations. Basically for the seasons. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

As an example- for the Ice Fields mission- the lowest cut (Belly and Gullet) should be chosen if any at all. This means the horse has a lot of fur to keep him nice and warm but wont get ice forming on his underside where his sweat runs to.
For the summer Air Rescue mission, the top 'Hunter' cut should be chosen to shorten his coat so he does not get overly hot.

These sort of choices make the horse feel more personalized as well.

The grasses are an 'item' one would come across in the game while walking through fields. The player can choose to eat which grasses much the same as you can choose to 'Pick' flowers and weeds and such in Skyrim when you approach a bush or mushrooms etc
Your horse will graze on the grass you decide on- the grasses on the top in red will improve your horses health slightly but nothing else.
Picking the grass below in green below will improve your health and your stamina by certain high amounts based on the grass.
You can only eat so much grass before the horse is full up and can not eat any more. Over eating will make you gallop and canter slowly (because you are overweight and heavy- just like when you are carrying too much equipment).

More horse research

Here are many more horses I used to research with. I include them all to just show where I am coming from. I feel it important to picture everything I have looked at and also because I can look back here one day if I need once again to research horses.

 

Baby foals are so sweet and show a great amount of innocence.

Lovely facial markings.

These sort of red colours are of course are due to lighting and photoship, but I still feel they are very important and sweet.

And that is the end of my horse research. I hope the tirade of horses has at least shown that I have really looked and picked from a wide selection, not just googles front page.