The Blacksmith and Her Forge
After publishing the Steam page, I’ve switched to working on a Demo for the AdventureX conference. I already have the more-or-less complete write-up for it, so now I need to implement all the required characters and scenes.
I decided to start from the Blacksmith because I had quite a clear vision of the character and environment. Oh, and small side note before we start: wishlists quietly crossed 50 last week. Tiny in Steam terms, I know - but still a nice little milestone. Thank you!
The Blacksmith
It all started from scratch - a few scribbles, a lot of erasing.
I wanted someone strong, powerful, and obviously hammer-for-a-living - broad shoulders, heavy boots, a proper tool belt. And since this is a zombies village, she's a zombie too - just a bit more muscle and a bit less decay than the others.
It looked quite promising, so I proceeded and got the concept version:
Green skin, silver ponytail, leather apron, a red-hot piece of iron in the tongs. I was pretty happy with how she turned out.
The animation detour
And here I ran into some trouble with the animation. This is a fairly minor character, so I didn’t want to spend too much time on its animation. But the pose I originally picked - an almost frontal one - required quite a lot of extra intermediate keyframes with a different layout.
The thing is, using such a viewpoint requires making her hand sometimes behind the body, and at the "smash" point, in front of it. And the visible part of the hammer is changing a lot.
After some experiments, I decided to change the position and use 3/4, to keep her hand always behind the body.
And the trick worked! Of course, a lot more animations and poses are still ahead, but the idle is ready.
The Forge
In parallel with the character, I started blocking out her forge - the scene where the player will actually meet her in the demo.
The first pass was very drafty - almost pure line-art, with the character dropped in just to check scale and composition:
The goal at this stage is not to make it look pretty - it’s to plan items’ placement and leave enough space for character navigation. Boring but necessary stuff - I already learned once that pretty mockups aren’t the same as playable scenes.
A couple of days later, with colors roughed in and the background filled out, it started to feel like a real place:
Step by step, the forge becomes a real scene. Of course, a ton of details are still ahead, but the skeleton is there and it’s navigable.
What’s Next
- Finish the Blacksmith’s remaining animations - resting, talking, a couple of reactions
- Polish the forge scene - from coloured sketch to shippable art, plus hotspots and navigation
- Move on to the next villager - I won’t spoil who, but the write-up has them ready
- Keep AdventureX in sight - that’s the deadline driving all of this
Thank you for being with me, and stay tuned!