The Gallantry
Design Journal Entry #3
The Gallantry
Design Journal Entry #3
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Sketches by Xavier
I'm not much of an artist at all. However, I find that rough sketches in pencil often help me make good creative decisions. Characters in particular, are more clear to me if I draw them. So on this page are a bunch of my own concept sketches. You can click on them to view the full-size version, as they are scaled down on the page.
Lt.
Commander Robert Eustace
Here's a pre-Christmas sketch of
Robert Eustace, the cynical, world-weary, stodgy Brit of a Lieutenant
Commander. I wanted to make this guy tough and physically strong - he's seen
plenty of action as a Marine
in his younger years/ In fact,
Eustace has served under nearly every branch
of the
Dorasidan Military.
But he IS getting old and is no longer as spry as he used to be. I must admit I
don't like this old sketch too much. He looks a bit too fierce; too thin in the
cheeks as well - he reminds me of a combination of Russia's
President Vladimir Putin and
Daniel Day-Lewis. The scrawled note under
his name in the sketch reads,
"minus the receding hairline" - yes, that's
right, originally I'd pictured
Eustace as a man with a half-bald head,
something like Star Trek:
TNG's
Captain Picard.
Probably the combination of British/older man/balding head I'm looking for is
closest to Rainbow Six's
Eddie Price, who looks a
LOT like a thinner, more fit
Anthony Hopkins, the actor famous for
creating the terrifyingly brilliant, man-eating
Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
Judging by the diversity, fame, and greatness of the men that inspired his
creation, Robbie Eustace
has a lot to live up to.
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+ |  |
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| Vladimir Putin,Russian President | Daniel Day-Lewis, Actor | Jean-Luc Picard, Starfleet Captain |
 |
+ |  |
= |  |
| Edward Price, RAINBOW Team Leader | Hannibal Lecter, Cannibal | Robert Eustace, DSS Gallantry Bridge Officer |
Nolaran Crusader Infantry
Standing at a height of nearly three meters, these monstrously strong
Nolaran soldiers are the
result of centuries of genetically enhanced breeding, trained from birth in all
manner of hand-to-hand combat, including utter mastery of the preferred
Nolaran melee weapon, the deadly
Crusader Sword. These weapons utilize laser-sharp blades with
molecularly-tempered metal, making thousands of molecules come to a single point
at the tip. This gives the
Crusader Sword the ability to
slice/impale/penetrate virtually any known substance with ease, given the
tremendous physical power of trained
Nolaran warriors.
They are
capable of outrunning
Terran Vulture Hoverbikes on
foot with their genetically and cybernetically enhanced legs - the typical
method of attack favored by
Nolaran Crusaders is to charge the enemy
surreptitiously at high speed, then to slash their targets into confetti with
their swords.
Nolaran units are equipped
with Personnel Shields
that are very similar to the inferior
Protoss Plasma Shields.
Some
Crusaders have also been
seen using hand-held shields
made of some incredibly strong substance - no beam or projectile weapon thus far
has been able to penetrate this ancient but apparently highly effective
defensive tool. The armor worn by
Crusaders
is made up of a weaker material that is still generations ahead of existing
Terran, Zerg,
or
Protoss personnel armor. Despite their
incredible speed, strength, stealth, and fearlessness,
Nolaran
officers regard these great warriors as mere frontline 'grunts.'
I wanted to make the
Nolarans extremely strong
and technologically advanced, while at the same time give them the cultural
depth and history of a race such as the
Protoss. This is represented
by the handful of in-game units the
Nolarans will have as the
campaign progresses.
Crusaders are melee warriors
because this makes them elegant. A race as advanced as the
Nolarans
can surely field ground units packing ranged weaponry - but instead they favor
melee soldiers using fighting techniques and weapons that are the same as their
primitive ancestors. Their true military might of in the fact that their army is no less effective despite this.
Original Nolaran Insignia
This is an early sketch I drew of the emblem of the
Nolaran Empire. It had a shield-eagle-type of background which was
removed in the final version. There is the
Crusader-style sword/dagger behind a circle
with a single character. Militaristic yet sleek and sharp-looking. It took me
several sketches to get to this point. At first I had some sort of an animal - a
combination of a raptor and a hawk that I had decided was native to the
Nolaran homeworld - in the circle. Didn't
work, and besides, the animal ended up looking like a goose with claws. Nope, it
was time to try something different... I got to wondering what the language of
these aliens were like, and came up with something like I have in the sketch.
Finalized Nolaran Insignia
Ahhh... the final version of the emblem of the
Nolaran Empire, courtesy WarGiant.
It's now very high-tech and has a distinctive sci-fi look. Yet it retains the
sword, which has been elongated and given a ghostly sort of translucence. The
circle isn't quite perfect in roundness but rather has small rectangular ridges
like some sort of a revolving door, maybe for a spacecraft hatch or something.
But this, combined with the addition of glowing, soft yellow light, adds a
definite technological edge to the emblem. Originally WarGiant had the light
really bright, making the circle perfectly round, but it was literally hard to
look at, so it was dimmed and now we have this. I'm quite happy with it, and
looking back at the process we went through, this finalized version is a
perfectly logical end-product.
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