Introduction & creative direction
Trying a different fantasy tradition
I chose The Whispering Relic because its emphasis on adventure and discovery gave me an opportunity to work with traditional Western fantasy. I enjoy fantasy design, but my earlier characters and worlds had often drawn on Mesoamerican mythology. I wanted to try a direction I had not explored before and broaden my experience.
Creature design was another reason for choosing it. The brief included an optional shadow monster, and I particularly enjoy creatures that combine living forms with magic or plants. That interest remained important as I developed the cursed forest, its inhabitants and the idea of giant guardians.
An early gameplay direction
After reading the four supplied chapters, I considered presenting the story as a prologue cutscene within a larger game. My initial gameplay direction was a third-person adventure with a freely controlled camera, environmental puzzles, useful props and cooperation with NPCs. I considered either light combat or no combat.
I already wanted two protagonists with distinct abilities, controlled by one player through switching. Liberating cursed areas could bring back their inhabitants, who might help with skills or equipment. Side quests would run alongside the main journey and offer a way to discover more of the world.
The submitted narrative-art portfolio
This part of the project brings together my character designs, storyboard development, promotional key scene and supporting visual research. It follows the narrative-art work submitted for my undergraduate course, alongside the worldbuilding notes that developed with it.
View the original submitted boards
Genre & visual research
A third-person adventure built around cooperation
My genre board brings together The Last Guardian, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, It Takes Two and Stray. The annotations focus on a third-person free camera, dual perspectives, narrative puzzle-solving, cooperation with characters or creatures and the use of props.
For visual direction, I collected references from Horizon Zero Dawn, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Hogwarts Legacy. The board separates natural environments such as canyons, grassland and mountains from castles, towers, walls and interiors. I also marked darker colour treatments for the cursed forest and connections between the environment and its creatures.
Breaking the brief into places, bodies and objects
I highlighted visual keywords across the four supplied chapters, from the king’s command and cursed forest to the underground chamber and final test. These marked passages became a way to organise the reference search around what the story would need.
The resulting boards cover the castle and throne, clothing and armour, the cursed forest and creatures, the archway and spiral stairs, the chamber and runes, the relic and pedestal, and the shadow guardian and blade.
View the original submitted boards
Castles, clothing & the corrupted forest
Thresholds, chambers, relics & guardians
Rewriting the story
The relic that should have saved a kingdom
In the early version, a flourishing kingdom descends into war and disorder within a year. Its king sends his two best knights into a cursed forest to retrieve an ancient relic said to restore the kingdom. The legend already sounds unsettling, but they follow his command.
Inside the forest, the knights discover that the supposedly sacred relic has the power to manipulate people. They decide to destroy it. Its destruction disturbs the surrounding space, and a fleeting apparition suggests that the danger has not ended. Following that trace leads them towards the secrets concealed behind the kingdom’s crisis.
Expanding the conflict beyond one kingdom
In my later notes, I reconsidered the worldbuilding and planned to rewrite the storyboard around the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and an inverted counterpart. The inverted tree became the source of corruption. The kingdom’s crisis grew into a conflict across connected worlds.
In this version, the Church commissions both knights to travel between realms and carry word of the spreading corruption. Much of the wider world has already fallen. Their home, Malkoth, lies at the lowest end of the World Tree, making it one of the last places affected and the birthplace of a final hope.
The relic encounter remains the prologue, but its meaning changes. The object they were told would stabilise the corruption turns out to be one of its sources. Through working together in the forest, the Black Knight recognises the White Knight’s potential to address it. Their abilities become a reason to continue travelling together.
View the original submitted boards
Worlds, time & guardians
Ten realms with different relationships to time
I imagined ten island-like worlds arranged according to the positions of the Tree of Life. Time would not run in synchrony between them. Something that has just happened in one world could belong to centuries-old history in the next, creating opportunities to use the difference between local histories in play. The main journey would not necessarily visit all ten worlds.
Travel between worlds would be restricted to the Church, royalty and other privileged groups. Ordinary people would know distant realms through rumours, sacred texts and stories carried along trade routes. This restriction shapes how much the inhabitants can know about the spreading crisis.
The worlds the player visits would be close to falling. Those that have already fallen would lie deep among the roots on the reverse side of the World Tree.
Corruption written onto living bodies
Each realm would have a giant guardian associated with a quality of its node, such as mercy or authority. The extent of corruption would be visible on its body. I also considered region-specific runes derived from each guardian’s patterns.
Earlier notes imagined altered guardians falling into sleep while their attendants became shadow creatures. Destroying a regional relic could purify an area, restore its inhabitants and open support or side stories about missing people. I also considered allowing a recovered guardian to accompany the protagonists, while a hostile guardian might remain hostile on a return visit.
These ideas belong to the broader world and creature-design direction. The current playable work concentrates on the first root-bridge encounter.
View the original submitted boards
White Knight · character development
The White Knight — the world as it should be
The White Knight is recognised by the World Tree’s upright side and follows the oaths of a templar. Their allegiance is to order, doctrine and the kingdom. I described this perspective as seeing essence, the ideal state of the world, the original direction of a broken path or the restored structure of a building.
The world looks clean through this perspective, but that apparent completeness can conceal dangerous gaps. In the root-bridge prototype, this becomes structural perception. The White Knight can identify hidden connections and load-bearing anchors, but cannot directly awaken the dead roots.
Light armour, expression and colour alternatives
For the first character, I compared light and heavy armour and leaned towards a lighter outfit. My reference annotations also considered predominantly white armour, gold accents and a character closer to an adventurer.
The drawings develop the character through costume alternatives, full-body poses, head studies and facial expressions. I tested several palettes before the final blue, white and gold treatment. The final illustration is shown alongside those earlier choices.
Black Knight · character development
The Black Knight — the cracks that offer a way through
The Black Knight initially appears to be an accomplished free knight following a personal path. In the later story, they are revealed as a former giant guardian from an upper realm, driven into the lower worlds by irreversible corruption. After that revelation, I planned for their role to shift from Dark Knight to Gravekeeper.
I described this perspective as seeing form, energy flows, curse marks, hidden lines and roots of the inverted tree. The world is broken, yet its cracks can reveal ways to resolve a problem. In the prototype, the Black Knight sees and redirects dark red corruption energy, but cannot directly see the structural guidance available to the White Knight.
A heavier, concealed counterpart
I wanted the Black Knight to contrast with the lighter White Knight. In the reference notes, I considered heavy armour and a helmet that would stay on for most of the journey, perhaps almost never showing the face.
Sharp horns would suggest danger. Because the face might be hidden, I considered other identifying details, including glowing eyes and patterns on the armour. The sketches explore helmet profiles, alternative facial designs, poses and colour schemes before the final dark red and violet treatment.
The relationship behind the designs
Why cooperation becomes a personal conflict
The White Knight’s doctrine demands the removal of every source of corruption. Once the Black Knight’s identity is revealed, that doctrine includes the person travelling beside them. The Black Knight understands where the corruption comes from, but also knows that cleansing the World Tree would erase both their fallen home and their corrupted self.
One begins by acting for the world, the other by trying to preserve their own. Their disagreement over whether a completely corrupted world should be abandoned turns cooperation into a conflict between beliefs. I planned for the relationship to develop from mutual use towards caring about the other person’s choice.
Four proposed endings
Complete purification
If the White Knight insists on removing all corruption, the inverted tree is destroyed and the fallen worlds are cut away. The Black Knight disappears and becomes part of a sealed record of disaster. The world is extremely stable and filled with light, but its surviving inhabitants have lost some of their emotional connection to the past.
I wanted conversations about that past to feel as though people were talking about a stranger. This ending asks the player to encounter the horror of a world that has become completely clean.
Saving one world at the cost of the others
If the Black Knight insists on restoring their own world, they bargain with the inverted tree. The bargain opens a direct route for corruption to reach the upright worlds. Life briefly appears normal again, before the wider world rapidly falls into the curse.
A temporary seal
In the normal ending, missing a key item or event leaves the knights with a temporary solution. They seal the corruption, decline the role of guardians and return home to ordinary lives. The threat is suppressed for generations, but remains capable of returning.
A new order of guardianship
For the true ending, I planned a change in what each knight is willing to protect. The White Knight comes to accept that light and darkness must coexist, and that removing this outbreak would not prevent future curses. They remain at the core of the upright tree to help contain the darkness on its reverse side.
The Black Knight moves from seeking redemption only for their own world towards guarding all the fallen worlds. They remain on the reverse side of the tree. Together, the two establish an order in which light and darkness continue to cycle. These four outcomes remain part of the narrative design beyond the current prototype.
View the original submitted boards
Storyboard research
Collected sequences and artist references
My submitted research includes storyboard sequences credited to Allen Ostergar, Bruce Timm and Tom Owens, with the Batman colour work credited to Eric Radomski. These reference boards accompany the development of my own sequence below.
The submitted prologue script
A first meeting built around incomplete knowledge
The submitted storyboard script develops a different opening from the earlier kingdom version. Countless worlds grow upon the World Tree, but a Rift opens beneath its roots. Corruption spreads like blood through its veins, reshaping living beings and bringing down the old order.
In one of the last resisting kingdoms, the White Knight kneels before a priest and hears that the border shrine has fallen. Its relic has been taken by corruption, allowing the Rift to spread deeper into the kingdom. The White Knight vows to retrieve it and leaves alone along an abandoned pilgrim road.
Inside the forest, roots turn into false roads and direction becomes uncertain. The White Knight can still perceive the true path beneath the illusion and realises that the relic has been dragged further into the woods. Above the trees, the Black Knight follows dark currents, unstable energy and the forms that corruption reveals.
A corrupted beast attacks. The White Knight cuts through its outer body, but its core keeps shifting. The Black Knight drops from the branches and pins the creature’s shadow, exposing the place to strike. The White Knight follows the direction and destroys the core.
Their first conversation remains guarded. “I have no reason to trust you.” “Good. Neither do I.” Both are following the relic, and both recognise that their own perception will not be enough to reach it.
They agree to a temporary alliance until the relic is recovered. The sequence closes as they enter the deepest part of the forest, where an altar waits beyond the red mist and the route towards the Rift begins.
View the original submitted boards
Storyboard development
Line sketches and camera notes
The sketch sequence moves from the World Tree and temple to the forest, the beast encounter and cooperation between the knights. My handwritten notes mark camera movement, zooms, actions and the later addition of light and texture.
Value development and two perspective colours
The developed boards add value, light and atmosphere to the sketches. The annotations identify blue with the White Knight’s point of view and red with the Black Knight’s point of view. This colour distinction also continues into the later playable prototype.
Key-scene illustration
What should a key scene show?
In my key-scene research, I compared images that foreground the environment with those that focus on a character. Some communicate the challenge ahead while showing the world, while others show a character’s personality or a moment in the story.
I explored several compositions before developing the chosen illustration through colour alternatives. The final image centres on the armoured Black Knight among pale curved forms, against a strong blue and orange background. The earlier compositions and colour stages remain part of the process shown here.
Additional spatial & gameplay exploration
Layouts, encounters and creatures
The final two pages of the submitted portfolio include additional work outside the drawing exercises. A whitebox layout and annotated route sit alongside exploratory gameplay, prop and creature drawings. These preserve other directions considered while developing the project.
Creature design
Start with the habitat
In Digital Image Techniques, I developed a fantasy creature, a feeder and an enclosure as one design study. I wanted to work out how the creature would move and feed before deciding what it should look like. I started by comparing four habitats and asking what each would demand of the animals living there.
In the glacier references I marked the ice surface and the interiors of ice caves. I considered animals such as penguins, seals, polar bears and orcas, and noted insulation and waterproofing as possible directions for a cold-adapted design. The dunes raised a different set of questions. I looked at camels, fennec foxes, lizards and snakes, marked shelter in rock openings and beneath the sand, and considered how an animal might store water in extreme heat.
In the forest, I was interested in how an animal could move quickly through dense growth, climb through the trees or use mimicry to disappear into its surroundings. For the ocean I compared shallow-water animals, deep underwater spaces and the movement of shoals. The references ranged from shrimp, crabs and sea slugs to sharks and whales. Each habitat suggested a different relationship between anatomy, behaviour and surroundings.
What can an unfamiliar shape tell us?
I chose three animals for closer study. The star-nosed mole’s flower-like nose is made up of 22 fleshy rays and compensates for limited sight by exploring through touch. I noted both the striking silhouette and the way the structure fits an animal that spends time in damp ground.
Chinese water deer gave me an example of appearance suggesting one thing and behaviour another. Neither sex has antlers, and the males have prominent canine teeth that give the animal its vampire-like appearance, although it is herbivorous. I compared the skulls, the exposed teeth and their positions in grazing and confrontation.
Birds of paradise offered another approach to a distinctive silhouette. I compared the neck plumes, sickle-shaped tail feathers and iridescent areas of several species. Their courtship displays were especially useful because the feathers can change how the whole body reads when they are raised or spread.
How a hybrid body could move
I was considering a winged creature, so I collected bird wing diagrams, feather arrangements and flight sequences. I used quick studies of bats to compare membrane-based flight with feathered wings. For movement on land, I looked at big cats, bears and deer, including the pounce of a tiger or lion and the way deer lock antlers. Snakes and marine animals gave me references for turning, curling and changing posture without relying on a running gait.
I also collected work by other fantasy creature artists. Some combine animals with insects or plants, while others borrow selectively from existing species. I annotated examples of gliding membranes, bird- and bat-like wings, insect and butterfly shapes, fish-like tails and plant-inspired forms. One design used dorsal fins that unfold and emit light. That was useful to think about because the same feature changes the silhouette and does something the viewer can see.
I noted how a gliding membrane could draw on the sugar glider, how a plant-like animal might borrow from a Venus flytrap, and how the head and body could combine a jerboa with a bird or a crested dinosaur with a goose. I also marked a shark-like tail and insect-derived head shapes. In the moth references I was interested in the dark upper surfaces and the vivid patterns revealed on the other side. These were different ways of making a hybrid feel specific before committing to one creature.
From loose silhouettes to a body I could turn around
My first sheet tries out several bodies, from compact, heavily crested creatures to long forms with wings, fins or tails. I developed the winged design with branching head shapes and a long, finned tail. Its broad wings and small legs sit on a streamlined body, so I could keep both the airborne poses and the aquatic character I was exploring.
I drew the design from the front, back and side and compared the wings raised with the wings lowered. The back view let me work out where the large wings, the smaller paired projections and the tail meet. The side views helped me see how much the posture and silhouette change when the wings move.
Four palettes on the same silhouette
I kept the views consistent so I could compare where colour drew the eye. The first version paired a light green body with gold branches and blue and yellow wing markings. The second pushed the body towards black, with violet wings, pink branches and a bright back pattern. The third tested a pale body and wings with turquoise branches, warm feathers and smaller touches of violet.
I carried forward the fourth version, which uses deep blue across the body, green and yellow on the wings, gold on the head and turquoise markings along the back. The detail sheet tests the design in motion and isolates the head and wing. It shows the three orange marks beside the head, the layered wing shapes, the paws and the way the narrow tail opens into fins.
Translating the drawing into volume
I built a first model in Blender from the drawings, using front, side and back views to check the main proportions. The first pass was angular. I smoothed the body and adjusted the curves of the wings and the tail so they would flow through the pose. In ZBrush I developed the wing surfaces, shaped the tail more clearly as a fish fin, and refined the paws.
I then put colour on the sculpt and compared front, side and back views before adding lighting. The neutral views show how the green wings and turquoise back pattern follow the model. The lit views show how the same forms read as a blue creature in a darker setting, with the gold branches and orange markings still visible at the head.
Feeder design
What should the feeder look like, and who can reach it?
I compared two scales of real feeders. Small bird feeders are often hung under eaves or from trees, while the ground-level feeders I found in woodland and mountain settings have sturdier frames and room for larger animals to approach. That difference helped me think about who would reach the feeder, how it would be supported and whether the feeding point had to be at the same height as the controls.
My sketches try out bowls on supports, containers with visible tubes and vessels shaped like creatures. In the version I developed, I kept the curved head-like spout and the tray beneath it, with a handle within easy reach. I compared a blue-violet version with orange details, a warm red and peach version, and a blue and green version with yellow accents. The last one carries the creature’s cool colours and curved markings into the prop.
Let visitors feed the creature from the bridge
I designed the feeder around three kinds of liquid food. Visitors can choose from the three containers and use a joystick to dispense it. The detail sheet includes both a ground-level version and the version placed on the elevated bridge. At ground level, the outlet can feed directly into the tray below.
On the bridge, I wanted visitors to be able to reach the controls while the creature could still feed below them. Because the bridge sits high above the ground, I drew a series of sloping guides to carry the liquid down in stages. This let me keep the same feeder in reach of the visitor while giving the creature a separate place to approach the food.
Make the outlet, tray and handle legible in 3D
I modelled the feeder from the front, side and top, and checked the joystick and the route of the liquid separately. I smoothed the first blockout, added the circular markings near the outlet and the raised curves along the side, and prepared the UVs. The untextured view also shows how the tray feeds into the separate guides used when the feeder is mounted above ground.
I used a colour attribute in the Blender material and compared the model under different lighting. The front and top views show how narrow the prop is relative to its side profile. The final renders show how the spout, lever, support and tray sit together, with the colour and linework tying the feeder back to the creature.
Enclosure design
Give a semi-aquatic creature both land and water
I took the axolotl as a starting point for a fictional semi-aquatic creature and designed the enclosure with both a pond and a dry area. I collected references from outdoor animal enclosures, aquariums, glass viewing corridors and habitats with rock and tree structures. I wanted visitors to be able to see what the creature was doing underwater, so I considered an aquarium-like glass panel at the pond as well as a route above it.
Try different connections between the water and the upper level
I sketched a land platform over a pool with a feeder and a curved tube or slide. I also tried a layout with a jumping ledge, side glass and a cave, and a tree-based layout with suspended objects over the water. On the second sheet I compared a water opening beside a branching tree, a bridge over a rounded glass viewing area, and a raised pool set into rock with a glass side.
I developed the bridge option further. In section, I placed the water, glass and sand below the bridge. In the perspective sketch I worked out how the rocks, tree and open area sit together, with hanging elements and a rope net at one side. The colour sketch uses blue for the water and violet for the bridge, so the visitor route reads separately from the sandy bank, rock, and planting around it.
Build the bridge and cliffs before dressing the scene
I blocked out the bridge, its two banks and the rock walls underneath, then checked the shape from the side and top. I gave the bridge more sag once the banks were in place. Behind it, I built a tree and added rising rock shapes. I adjusted the terrain around the base and added rocks and bushes to break up the edges.
Once the main volumes were established, I tried existing 3D forms alongside my blockout and added more rocks, foliage and colour. I used the front view to check the bridge, its banks and the opening below it, and the side view to see how far the rocks and tree extended. The closer render shows where the bridge boards meet the rock and where the guides for the feeder sit.
Final model & painting
Bring the creature, feeder and enclosure together
I placed the feeder beside the bridge, with the creature among the rocks below. The wide view shows how the tree canopy and the rock walls frame the bridge. In the closer views I checked whether the creature could still be read below the walkway and whether the feeder and its guides were visible to one side.
Use the painting to connect what happens above and below the bridge
For the final painting I worked from the closer model view, with the bridge crossing the upper part of the picture and the creature coming forward between two rock faces. I painted the rocks and vegetation around it, kept the feeder visible at the left end of the bridge, and traced the liquid down through the angled guides. The turquoise lines connect the feeder to the space below, while the orange head details and bright markings keep the creature readable against the cool shadows. The arrangement brings the creature, its food and the visitor route into the same view.