Barzai knew so much of the gods that he could tell of their comings and goings, and guessed so many

of their secrets that he was deemed half a god himself Atal was only the son of an innkeeper, and was sometimes afraid; but Barzais father had been a landgrave who dwelt in an ancient castle, so he had no common superstition in his blood, and only laughed at the fearful cotters

This adaptation is based on the story of The Other Gods, by H.P. Lovecraft. The aim of it is to design the characters for a platform game for kids based on this story. We can find on it two main characters: Barzai the wise and Atal. In here it also appear two kind of gods: the Gods of Earth and the Gods of the Outer Hells. In this book is shown the development of the characters, especially of the two main characters.

Pipeline: From short story to character design for game. Story: The Other Gods, H.P. Lovecraft Target: 7+ Game: 3rd person platform game, cell shading graphics

Synopsis
Gods have been pushed to the highest peaks by humans. Barzai the wise and his pupil Atal begin a quest in search of new knowledge about gods of Earth. After a large journey they finally get to Hatheg-Kla, but in his propose, Barzai profane the sacred peak of god's mountain and he is punished by the other gods, the gods of the outer hells who take care of the gods of Earth.

Lovecrafts World
The story is set in a imaginary world called The Dreamlands. Lovecraft created a whole new world with historical characters (Sansu), cities (Kadath, Nig, Ulthar), mountains and rivers (Hatheg-Kla, hill of Ngranek, river of Skai), Gods, sacred books (Pnakotic Manuscripts, Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan), etc... The sacred book that explain the religions in this fantasy word created by Lovecraft are based in different mythologies. The ones that Barzai study on The Other Gods are analogue to the I Ching, one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts.

Barzai The Wise

Barzai is an old man, respected by all the people in the city of Ulthar. He is called Barzai the Wise because his huge knowledge about gods and the sacred manuscripts. Personality: Brave, curious, reckless and arrogant. Age: 65 years old. Props: Cane, Backpack and Hat In the story see the gods became an obsession for him. At the end he is turned into a rock and nobody knows again from him. People believe he was punished by the other Gods.

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Atal the Disiple

Atal is Barzai's disciple, he is a young boy. He is loyal because he follows his master although he is scared. He also is realistic and god-fearing. Personality: Realistic, god-fearing and loyal. Age: 12 years old. Props: Straw hat and Slingshot. In the story he follows Barzai to his fatidic end. He is the one that founds the symbol in the rock at the top of the mountain Hatheg-Kla.

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Action Pose & Turnarounds - Barzai

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Colours - Barzai
# FBC09A # FFFFFF # 704E3D # E59D72 # D8DAD9 # 493127 # 251711

# FBB53E

# F69339

# 3C3E40

# 1F2326

# 00000

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Action Pose & Turnarounds - Atal

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Colours - Atal

# FBC09A

# E59D72

# C29278

# 66BC4D

# 517F41

# 3B532F

# 793D25

# 502919

# 351813

# F5A1AD

# F182B3

# F27E8C

# E46E7E

# FFFFFF

# D8DAD9

# 000000

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Facial Expressions - Barzai

Normal

Happy

Thinking

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Sad

Angry

Surprise

Facial Expressions - Atal

Normal

Happy

Angry

Worried

Dizzy

Sad

Scared

Cheeky

Suspecting

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Size Comparison
1,77 m

1,35 m

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Other Characters Designs - Gods

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Concepts

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Modeling Atal
Once the designs were finished, the next step is make this 2D character become 3D. To do that the software used was Autodesk Maya.

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As the final goal is game character there were some things to have in mind during the modeling process.

Making of - First Step

The fisrt it is need to be done is to draw the front and side views of our character. Using them as reference, it is possible to give volum.

Game characters can have trianglar faces in their polygonal mesh. Smoothness is acquired by facing the normals of the polygons to the camera (soften edge).

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Making of - Second Step

UV maps are used for project a 2D image into a 3D object. In this case I used flat colours to paint my character. There are only some details like the T-shirt or the eyes.

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Making of -Third Step

The next step was to make him pose. For this I created the skeleton using the joint tool. Giving the joints a specific hierarchy permits to simulate human articulations. Also, it is recommended to add some controllers on the joints. Then it needed a skin to make the body follow the skeleton movements. That process is called skinning, and it consists on telling Maya which vertices belong to each joint.

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3D Process

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THE END