Vantiira - Concept World

Vantiira is a personal world and IP that I have created while at CDW Studios to tell stories and create characters in. It's a fantasy world with elements of Magik (magic) that circulate through life using energy stones and crystals. I have been working on writing and story-telling in this world for the past few months and have decided to base a lot of my personal work in classes in this setting so that I can make connections and bridge paths to help create visual lore and worldbuilding. I hope you enjoy exploring it!

Nomad

This is the first sketch of my Nomad character that I made. I love working with harsh angles to create interesting silhouettes, but also adding areas of softness like the feathers.

My main goal for this story was to make the main character a non-human. I took most of my inspiration from birds, especially owl faces and beaks. I'm deciding if in the future I want the face to be a face plate, or part of the physical persons outer skull area. I'll be deciding that hopefully in the future.

I couldn't decide what color for clothing I liked better, but I ended up going with the Blue coat and Red scarf because I liked the color scheme compared to the others.

I don't get to make characters very often, but want to strive to make more while working on this project.

The Nomad wears a thick blue coat with weak Magik symbols to help protect it from minor foes like bears or foxes. The coats Magik pattern is embroidered using the essence of Magik, which can only be done by powerful wielders. They also wear a red scarf to help keep the chill off of their neck, and carry a hand made wooden sled of their back for terrain that's too harsh or steep to walk along.

Paintings

Perseverance through the snow

This was the first landscape key that I made for this project, and I think it's one of my favorites so far. I based this key off of something I learned about called a Whiteout. I've never seen snow before, but in footage, the sleet can sometimes be so thick that you can lose sight of the road or your companions while travelling, making it extremely dangerous. I've seen images of this happening in the heavily snowy places, and it gave me the inspiration for this painting. 

Thin Ice

I love having very angular textured shapes in my paintings, so I always tend to include them when digital painting. I prefer having lots of strokes and texture in my paintings, especially when they're still in the concept phase. For this image, I looked at a lot of photographs of ice glaciers and frozen oceans. I decided to add more color and contrast to help make the character pop against the backdrop.

A Nights Respite

This is one of my last landscapes that I created for this project. I hope to use all of these images in the future for storytelling purposes. Here, the Nomad has finally arrived at a moment of piece, and will enjoy the cold night under the Everaurora.

I decided to make the solar system that acts as a moon during the day, but is actually a gaseous form of star clusters at night that wrap around this planet like rings. I was inspired to do this by the recent Aurora Australis that I was lucky enough to witness.

Most of these paintings come from abstract thumbnails. I love using this in the process because of how much freedom and interpretation there can be. There's less structure at the beginning, which allows me to really enjoy the nitty gritty parts of painting. I mostly use these abstracts as a way to block out my general large shapes and structures, along with testing different compositions.

This is a keyshot that I would love to keep working on. I love using this simple technique to create bright eye-catching images, and want to use it further into the future.

For this project, I really wanted to create pieces using a color pallet I'm unfamiliar with. I wanted to develop my skills in tone, without worrying too much about what colors fit well together. This piece was one of the few that I blocked out first in blender to make sure my light sources were correct. I love painting over blender scenes because they make a great base.

In this scene, the Nomad has travelled underground and managed to find an Energy Crystal, an energy force that radiates Magik. Most of these crystals have been damaged or lessened with power over time, but this one remains in tact.

Cover

I wanted to create a faux promotional image that could be used to demonstrate the potential of this project if it were submitted in a pitch deck to a company. I was inspired by traditional simple movie posters, such as The Dark Knight and Guillermo Del Toro films like Pinocchio. I wanted to create a poster with mystery, yet life.

I illustrated this image the same way that I had for my landscapes, just with a few extra steps. I did this so that the style would be more consistent and controlled, giving me a blocky and angular finish that I really love.

Thank you for reading about Vantiira!