Behind the Scenes: Prospero

[Broomie]

Propero - "Mr Magic"

So who is Prospero? Where did the inspiration for his look come from? Jen Pattison, aka Corrigan who is our portrait artist for Quest for Infamy explains how she designed the character, the technique and the process behind it and other cool little details.

"He is an elderly wizard from far off lands, so I needed to age his face a great deal after the initial sketch to reflect that.  I played around with it to see how far I could push that aspect and also darkened his skin to give him a tanned, weathered appearance.  We have quite a mixture of stylistic influences in the game, with characters and architecture/furnishings from many different cultures.  We have also attempted to stay away from too many fantasy clichés, so I kept that in mind when designing his hair and beard.  This portrait was done entirely in Photoshop CS5 with a Wacom Intuos4 graphics tablet, from initial sketch through to the finished artwork.  I work at a high resolution, normally 300dpi and then scale down for in-game use."

Click the animation for a closer look at Prospero's process.

So how does he fare in game? Find out by downloading the Quest for Infamy demo and backing our Kickstarter campaign.

[Veritas1325]

Prospero turned out great! Any relation to Shakespeare's protagonist in The Tempest? And, does he have no pupils or are they just very light?

[Blackthorne]

Yes, Prospero is of course named after the character in the Tempest.  I always liked the name, and I've always enjoyed the play.  I thought it would be a great name for our Sorceror.


Bt

[Veritas1325]

I agree. Great name for a sorcerer.

[Corrigan]

He does have pupils, they are just very small, and there is strong light falling on his eye so the highlight covers a lot of it, but I think it makes him look more magical and slightly creepy.

[s_d]

The effect is aided by the strong and mysterious brow... which also serves to shadow his pupils.  I was going to clip out and ridiculously zoom the eyes of the portrait and draw little MS Paint-style circles around them to prove that the pupils are there, but she answered the question.  Ah well... I snooze, I lose.