Personal Project 1 - Nuka Girls Brief

Throughout the summer I will be setting myself different briefs to complete which will help me build a solid portfolio, as well as continuing to improve and enhance my existing skills.

This is the first one I have set myself, which is inspired around Fallout 4 and the 'Nuka Girl', which is a character heavily advertised in various areas of the game such as on billboards and posters.

The Fallout 4 Nuka Girl

Brief: - Design and iterate concepts for 2 different Nuka Girl versions ( Nuka Quantum and Nuka Cherry) staying true to the original Fallout 4 art style

- Create 2 finished asset sheets

- Create 3 promotional art pieces, one for each of the characters designed as well as a group shot

To help me prepare for this brief I wanted to do some studies of 1940/50's pin-up art, as this is the style which is shown in Fallout. I thought this would also be a great way to practice colouring skin which looks vivid and vibrant, as it's something I personally struggle with.

These are all paintings by Gil Elvgren, my favourite pin-up artist.

Top Left: 'Mona' - 1959

Top Right: 'No You Don't' - 1956 Bottom Left: 'The Final Touch' - 1954 Bottom Right: 'Dream Girl' - 1945

Here are my finished studies! I wasn't particularly aiming for a complete likeness to Elvgrens paintings, but mainly focusing on the skin tones and colouring.

Now that I feel a bit more confident with colouring skin, I'm going to start researching into 1950's fashion and start iterating outfit designs! Here is a moodboard with some of the visual imagery I found, which mostly features large skirts with multiple patterns and dresses with cap sleeves or a halter-neck style. I want the Nuka Cherry girl to look closer to how the women dressed at the time, whereas the Quantum one will look more retro futuristic, with shinier materials.

Here is a moodboard which takes inspiration from retro futurism clothing and artwork which will help me design the Nuka Quantum girl, since the drink is more space themed.

I will be iterating my characters similar to the Bethesda workflow and placing similar variations of outfits next to each other. Unfortunately I couldn't find these pictures online so I took some quick photos of them to show what I mean.

These are my Quantum Nuka Girl iterations, where I have first drawn a nude base and then added clothing to it.

I really like the combination of the blue, purple and orange because it represents the branding on the Quantum bottle well. I did think about adding more blue to the outfit since it was the main colour of the quantum drink, however the original Nuka Girl is the colour of the branding and not the drink itself - so I stuck with this idea in mind. I also think it makes more sense and adds to the believability in the game that the brand would be the main focus of the design.

#summer #personal