Creating Characters
While a storyboard is created, designers start to develop characters. Primary characters are sketched and re-sketched until they are perfect in appearance. Refining of characters is crucial at this phase because later changes will be more costly. After finalising the character design, designers will then transform the sketches into controllable three-dimensional characters.
A Game Storyboard
On average, it takes around five days to design and program a character, says Gas Powered Games art director, Steve Thompson. Why so long? This is because the sketches are scanned into the computer before a digital exoskeleton is created to define the character’s shape and to give the computer the control points required to animate the figure. An exoskeleton needs to be as detailed as possible to make the character’s motion as fluid and realistic as possible. Layers of skin, colour, and texture are subsequently added to the exoskeleton.