Chiara Caramaschi- Concept Art and 2D Animation 2024

Back Home

Follow a nameless soldier during the aftermath of the First World War in this adventure in which fear, anger, and uncertainty become the background of a dangerous journey to come back home

Back Home is a 2.5D puzzle platformer being developed by One O One Games. In this game, the player assume the role of a soldier returning home after the end of the First World War. Throughout the journey, he confronts the psychological wounds left by the war and learns to cope with them.

A small team of BigRock School supported in creating concepts for the development of this game, a trailer and also a playable demo in Unreal 5.

As a Concept Artist, I played a role in various stages, starting from initial concepts and level design visualisations, to storyboards and 2D silhouettes for the actual game environment.

Concept Art

My initial role in the project was to explore the visual style with concepts of a devastated countryside, depicting the defeated nation's desolation through burnt trees, abandoned farmhouses and ruins.

I began by searching for references of locations that could effectively convey the story and resonate with the soldier's emotional journey. By visualizing key story points and seamlessly connecting these scenes, I came up with these designs.

Since the game logic was heavily influenced by emotions, I created atmospheres with One O One Games that highlighted the soldier's feelings through strategic use of lighting, color palettes, visual elements, and composition. My goal was to guide the player on a parallel emotional journey, mirroring the soldier's inner world and visually orchestrating shifts in mood and situation. I aimed to make the player feel a deeper connection with the soldier and to empathize with him.

Level Design Visualizations

After the realization of the concepts, I started to put in practice these ideas, visualizing the story. 

In this phase it was important to be as clean as possible. Avoiding excessive detail made the visualizations  clear references for the 3D department. They were useful to identify materials, props to be modelled, incteractable objects requiring blueprints, VFX and also lighting.

The visualizations needed to be clear and concise for the 3D team, yet detailed enough to convey the overall mood and environment and to enhance the narrative provided by One O One Games.  As for the concepts, I also focused on capturing the soldier's emotional journey:

For example, in the first visualization, I aimed to create a scenario where the danger gradually escalates. This builds a sense of increasing fear and anticipation in the player, leading him to expect something terrifying. However, in the end, the only thing he encounters is a dog.

This mirrors the soldier's tendency to overestimate threats due to war trauma, allowing the player to empathize with his experience.

In the second visualization, I took the opposite approach. The player walks through a city designed to appear abandoned, lulled into a false sense of peace by the desolate surroundings. However, as soon as he passes a destroyed building, he is suddenly chased and must make quick decisions to survive, like in war. 

He never questions whether these people were a threat in the first place. He just takes it for granted. 

Game Environment

Since the game was a horizontal scrolling game, not all assets needed to be 3D. Elements that were not close to the soldier's path and could be unaffected by light would be 2D silhouettes, such as those in the foreground and background.

These silhouettes were used to mask planes in Unreal Engine, allowing them to be positioned within the 3D environment. The silhouettes not only unified the project visually but also enriched the atmosphere and environmental context. Designed for versatility, many could be partially submerged in the 3D ground, transforming into ruins or generic vegetation, adding depth to the environment.

As seen in this environment, they can be used to create various visual elements, especially in the background, where the fog softens their details. The silhouettes seamlessly blend into the scene, creating evocative elements that contribute to the overall atmosphere.

Silent ascent

A world below, a sky above

Atop the world's gaze, a young man ascends, the falling snow seemingly pausing in reverence as skyscrapers bow beneath him. The world below falls silent, suspended in his wake.

Is his gaze one of anger, contemplation, or something else entirely? Does this ascent represent a temporary escape from the world below? Where did he come from before this solitary ascent? Does he come from the city? Where is his journey taking him? What destination awaits him beyond the rising elevator doors? Is this elevator the right place for him? What story does he carry with him?

About the artwork

My aim was to draw the viewer's gaze towards the eyes, the intricate details, and the sky, ensuring they become focal points of interest. I aimed to create a visual journey for the viewer's gaze, shifting between these elements to encourage contemplation, mirroring the protagonist's own thoughtful state.

To emphasize the suspended dreamlike atmosphere, I chose brushes that created a soft, textured effect (like slightly rough pencils), particularly in the lights and shadows. 

However, I wanted to avoid a purely delicate aesthetic and maintain the urban, almost dystopian vibe of the scene. Therefore, I balanced the soft rendering with strong, sharp shapes and high-contrast lighting.

In this drawing process the way I balanced strong shapes and soft render is evident. I utilized the lasso tool to establish the initial, bold shapes, followed by a softening process with specific brushes on edges, lights and shadows

My creative process often involves embracing the evolution of ideas. I allow myself to be inspired by the work itself, letting it guide me towards unexpected directions. 

In this case, the major change occurred with the mood. At first the artwork had vibrant colours and a pop urban mood. However, as I progressed, it transformed into something more unique and personal, reflecting my own emotional state at the time.

Juggling cat

When I started this personal project, I only knew that I wanted to create an animated GIF featuring one of my original characters. My goal was to create a hypnotic animation with an engaging rhythm. So I came up with this design of a charming and mysterious juggling cat

Although I typically prefer Harmony for animation, the movements I envisioned were simple and more suited to motion graphics, so I decided to use After Effects. 

About the animation

Once I designed the character and determined the types of movements he had to do, I organized the file accordingly. I used all raster layers because I intended to use the puppet tool to create a smooth animation, and the puppet tool sometimes creates artifacts with vectors. Therefore, I minimized the use of vector layers. As you can see, I decided to use a shape layer only for the body, as it was the part of the cat that needed to deform and change shape the most.

Here is a sequence of images that well demonstrates why I chose to use a shape layer for the body. The Bézier curves provided much better control over the animation compared to using  the puppet tool on a raster image. 

Due to the tight deadline,  I needed to prioritize certain elements of the cat to quickly achieve an overall sense of quality. After analyzing the concept,  I identified the hat's overlapping as crucial for giving the animation personality. Drawing inspiration from 1930s American animation, I decided to delay the translation of the hat if the cat moved fast. Additionally, the balls and the tail had to be well animated and support the cat's movements effectively.

I strategically used motion blur to enhance the animation's speed and dynamism. However, I intentionally avoided applying it to the eyes and ears of the cat to not lose the viewer's attention.

Once I finished the animation, I had the idea to create a composition with a kaleidoscopic pattern, using a comp of the original animation as a base tile. This created an even more hypnotic effect than the original animation.