What is The Fifth Suit?
The project is essentially an expression of our interpretation of the values from Alice in Wonderland on some of the real world issues in which we depicted through a somewhat ominous story line. The time in which the plot is set in is 2016, during a period in which scientists are attempting to create a time machine by creating a new energy from a large hadron collider (LHC) but encountered an issue. 300 years later they try to make a pre- future world and though the world around them has changed, the issues the issues that lie in the grim reality still remains; humanity itself plateaus into its typical nature. Just as Alice is deeply immersed in the “wonderland” she experiences, the reality that not everything is a happy fantasy yet a temporary escape that is does not bring us everything that we so desire.
Our approach to the project
For our project we split into three outcomes that we partitioned into a website, art book and demo. The Fifth Suit was a medium through which we used to push ourselves as a valuable learning experience where we could upskill ourselves and experiment through different means. As a group we consist of a selection of unique skill sets and we wanted to expand and refine them in a creative manner. Aldo was team leader and project managed, worked on storyline in addition to website design + hard book, Sujay was the programmer for the mechanics of the demo alongside working with animation integration, Steven was the 2D artist (of whose work is featured in the hard book) and also worked on the story line while I was the 3D modeller and level designer of the demo.
Process
Throughout the project, my personal contribution revolved a lot around Steven as the concept artist. This workflow from Steven to me was quite common in the beginning, though I found at some point there was room to both improvise and explore. The general nature of the character designs were quite complicated and hard to follow as they were artistic rather than technical, though it was good practice for me to judge and work around a scenario in which the workflow was not directly A to B. Due to the fact that there was minimal time given the group ambitions, I took on level design in addition to character which meant that I would have less focus learning 3D character modelling. This was another challenge that came into play because character modelling requires a lot of time and dedication and it often takes several weeks and even months for even the most skilled to produce.
Due to the tight time to learn and produce, I found that rapid iteration worked for me. It allowed me to explore different methods and techniques in new software, making the task somewhat more engaging in terms of character modelling. As I took on level design I used Stevens art for close reference at first particularly for the jungle map which was originally more of a 'forest.'
Due to the tight time to learn and produce, I found that rapid iteration worked for me. It allowed me to explore different methods and techniques in new software, making the task somewhat more engaging in terms of character modelling. As I took on level design I used Stevens art for close reference at first particularly for the jungle map which was originally more of a 'forest.'
Level Design
Character Modelling
Left to right, beginning at the top was my character modelling experience. A large part of this was treating the modelling as a learning experience.