Research Dossier: Factions


Faction Research: Japan

The Japanese forces have a common theme of using exoskeletons and ghost warriors as well as many forms of mech.  The Japanese Scorpion Light Walker particularly caught my eye. It is a mech in the shape of a scorpion, and the stinger aspect of the design is used as a turret. This particular unit looks to be more agile in combat due to its compact design. I think it is also a lot more stealthier as the mech stays low to the ground whilst the turret is placed a bit higher to aim at its targets. The general theme for Japanese units looks to prefer stealth and agility as ghosts are typically associated with not being spotted. 

The main distinguishing aspect of this faction is its heavy use of metallic armour, mostly square shaped. Many of its miniatures use warm colours like gold, yellow and brown for the soldiers. Konflikt '47 seems to take a lot of inspiration from Japanese anime and other sci-fi concepts to create these designs. The Japanese faction is influenced by occult powers giving it a supernatural approach with the units, particularly with the ghost warriors, which is different from the other factions. 

This faction has a very unique style of armour that is reminiscent of traditional Japanese samurai armour. Red, black and gold are the most prominent colours in Japanese culture. They also have very unique helmet called a kabuto, which Konflict '47 takes inspiration from. I will take inspiration from this myself, incorporating the colour scheme and shapes used in Japanese armour into my sketches. I'm thinking since the Japanese are very stealthy and sly during combat, my character will take on a passive role, a spy, perhaps. 

Miniatures



Faction Research: Soviet Union

The Soviet Faction takes a more active and aggressive approach to combat, incorporating that aspect into its units. It focuses on overwhelming force and massive firepower, giving it a destructive and powerful appearance to its units. It takes after the Soviet forces from World War 2, and are resilient, fighting even when the odds are against them. Its units take blunt-force approach, the Soviet forces are willing to sacrifice their troops to overwhelm their enemy, which is both a strength and weakness. The forces don't focus on finesse and precision unlike the other factions. This aspect about Soviets makes them unique to the other factions. 

The Soviets use a weird science technology that turns their regular weapons into even more deadly versions, enhancing their arsenal. It has a heavy focus on powerful infantry and tank units which is emphasised by their vehicles. The vehicles are large, heavily-armoured and tanky, an example of these are the T34 and their mechs, the Mastadon Heavy Walker and the Mammoth Walker. This combines the Soviet Union's heavy tank designs with experimental technologies. These tanks are often slow but extremely durable, making them formidable on the battlefield. The Soviet forces utilise heavy weapons like flame throwers, anti-tank guns, and rocket launchers, emphasizing their brute-force approach. The environment of the Soviets is defined by a harsh frozen landscape and a rugged terrain, often covered in snow and ice and dense forests. Its structures include broken down buildings and ruined cities. 

Considering the piercing cold climate, I must consider that the character is likely to look more bulky to preserve heat. Since this faction is fixed on offense, I plan to create a design that looks big and powerful. Much like the current miniature designs, they seem to follow a pattern of muscular non-human creatures, as well as machine-guns and dark colours. Due to the advanced technology, the Soviets have used mutations produce creatures with beast-like features. These tend to have thick fur to handle cold environments and look like powerful werewolves. The most notable cultural influence on the Soviet Union faction is their revolutionary ideals. More specifically, the ideology of communism is displayed in Konflict '47 with collectivism in their designs. 

The character that I will develop for this faction will be an elite unit which wields a sniper. I am thinking this character could be non-human, specifically a wolf which is an animal acclimated to snowy environments. The soviets use red, which symbolises danger, and gold, which embodies the idea of power, luxury, and status.

Summarise the design language of this faction. 300 words

Describe how this faction is unique from other factions. 300 words

What cultural elements do you feel you may need to look at to give your designs greater depth?







Miniatures




Mood Boards


Various sources used for the mood boards.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction

Image
Hello, my name is April. I am 19 years old studying the Games Art at Confetti, Nottingham Trent University. I am passionate about creating and inspiring others with my work. I do digital art as a hobby with a goal of becoming a character artist, however, I would like to generally work in the creative industry. My online handle is @aprilbunnyboo on almost everything! I would highly recommend checking out my online portfolio that I made in 2023 when studying VFX and Animation! Pre Arrival Task Before starting at NTU, I was tasked with designing five hero/villain self-portraits as well as research an art style. In this blog post, I will go over my research on the manga art style as well as designing a couple heroes and villains and my thoughts on them.   Manga Research   I have decided to research about the manga art style as it is very popular . The art style is very unique , it is portrayed differently between artists and has been developed for centuries , oldest dating back to...
Read more

Designing a Game World: Formative Submission

Image
Premise For my first project, I will be designing concept art for one of the main locations in a new RPG game. I have been given a list of prompts for the location and some ancient artifacts to influence the theme of the location. Using the given prompts, I attempted to create designs of internal and external structures. One of my main ideas was to use the Tagar style pot with the witches cottage as it reminds me of a witches pot. I am using Tagar culture as inspiration when creating my thumbnails. My plan is to use earthy colours and make these structures very nature based, covered in moss and vines.  Artifact Culture Research I found this very helpful PDF about Tagar style artifacts, this will help influence my designs. Daggers of different cultures. Dagger B is of Tagar Culture Thumbnails When creating my thumbnails, I wanted to follow the witches cottage prompt so I started out with sketches of what I want the general shape of the structure to look like. Since witches are often...
Read more

Perspectives - Game Artist Toolkit

In this blog post, I will talk about what I have learned about perspectives, what they are, what is the different terminology and drawing shapes in linear perspective. Basic Terminology In perspective, we have 3 axes (X, Y, Z). X = Width, Y = Height, Z = Depth . Linear perspective is a technique using an oriented space to create the illusion of 3 Dimensional objects. The Horizon Line in perspective is the line that dictates where the ground and sky separate. This can also represent the eye level of the viewer. Anything drawn over the horizon line will be viewed from below, meaning you can see under the object. Anything drawn below the horizon line will be viewed from above, meaning you can see the top of the object. The higher the horizon line, the higher the camera/eye level. The lower the horizon line, the lower the camera/eye level. The Vanishing Point is the point on the horizon where a specific axis converges. This is a key to creating the 3D illusion. Orthogonal Lines are guide ...
Read more