Strix - Character concept art
Strix is a student game made in four months in a team of four students. It is set in a dieselpunk universe where human populations are going through a nuclear winter and spend most of their time on airships. The player must repair and defend their ship against a gigantic flying creature. We had half the usual time (4 instead of 8 months) to create the game from scratch. So we had very limited time to create the environment, characters, and props. It was pretty challenging but we learned a lot during the process.
I was the only concept artist on the project, so my task was to design the main character, the monster, and the overall look of both the exterior and interior environments. For Nickela, we wanted a female character with a strong-willed attitude, to contrast with the more masculine and negative dieselpunk world. She's independent and works alone. The gauntlet was first created to reduce the number and complexity of animations. It was nice to have the opportunity to design this character!
Special thanks to my mentor Victor Lahlou, who provided advice and feedback on the concept art throughout the semester!
Go check out the magnificent work of the artists who modeled and animated Nickela!
https://www.artstation.com/alexandreruel
https://www.artstation.com/amphybius
Team:
François Chiasson (3D modeler)
Alexandre Ruel (Character modeler)
Virginie Juteau (Concept artist)
Nickolas Ménard (Technical artist)
Nickela is the main character in Strix. She used to be in the military, but now spends her time salvaging and doing repairs on her ship.
In our first explorations, Nickela was only a mechanician. We liked the idea of giving her a more military look, so we followed that path. She was also very cartoony, but the final design was adjusted so that it fits more with the environment.
Nickela uses a mechanical gauntlet to repair and interact with the weapons by using magnetic technology.
We explored several variations for Nickela but we kept blue since it was very visible in the mainly green ship environment. We also wanted her to have her own pilot jacket logo. Thanks to Alex for providing basic blocking for drawings at the bottom.