avatar design #7 more environments

In between posting I've been quite busy cracking on with thinking up environments and all the pieces that will make up that scene.

I went back to the original office/arcade design, and decided to look into it again.

I've 'refined' it, hopefully picking out all the best bits from the first attempt and honing them to be more representative of what I like.

I wanted it to be a light airy modern office, with stainless steels, light pines and shiny glass surfaces. I decided to add modern fixtures as well, such as a large big lamp, bright window and big LCD computer screen. Just the sort of office I'd like to find myself in, the sort of look I like. Contemporary, stylish... cool!

I made a render in Blender (ha, little rhyme for you there!) It doesn't feature everything but it's a good enough impression.

I like it. The light blue, the style of the desk legs, then the curved stylish shelf in the corner. Even the little touch like adding a screen with iTunes is a good one. It is a very pleasant environment. My video glasses would sit on the desk, and become the main focus of the piece, fitting in with the modern style around.

However, I don't think I'm fully exploiting my identitity in this design. To me, it just seems a little... basic?

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So I've gone back to the drawing board again! And this time, it seems to fit more instantly.

Focusing on my Nintendo Fanboy, the level design for Super Mario Bros I thought was a good premise. This image above is from the early NES days, the 8 bit era, where games were made up of a few blocks. Translating that into 3D Max would be very simple. I had a go and it took about 15 minutes!

So I progressed along the line a little and looked into Super Paper Mario. It's out on Wii, and sort of humours the old 2D gaming. Obviously being alot more technically advanced, the colours, graphics, animation, sounds are all far more improved. The main aspect of the game is the ability to transition from 2D Mario to 3D Mario.

So this means plenty of potential for me to use. Plus, the bright and bold colours, the qwerky, jubilant music, Nintendo roots, and the competitive edge to gaming means it fits very well for my personality/identity.

I've had a go at drawing up a few level designs. How I see it working is to have my video glasses will pop up instead of a coin from the ? box. I attended the surgery, and Roma suggested putting a bright colourful sun in, and then having the goompas wearing sunglasses. At first, you'd watch thinking, 'what?!' but then at the end it'll come clear when the glasses pop up!

I am thinking on using the last design here, it has a number of iconic Mario level design pieces, whilst also being able to incorporate some nice graphics, and 3D shapes. It also draws the eye, what with the path bending and altering direction - it leads you down into the level. And I decided to put the ? box at the end, so it's the final thing in the journey, it sort of builds up to it, by having to go up the levels as well.

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