Gianna's Design - Maddy Smith

We're back from a short break, coming at you with Character Design. Gianna plays such a key role in the game, and we've heard a couple questions about how she came to be who she is so this week I sat down with Maddy Smith.

• Who are you and what do you do on the team?
  • My name’s Maddy Smith and I’m the character artist for Super Cool Dudes. I conceptualize, model, texture, rig, and animate the characters for our games!
• What was the design process for coming up with how Gianna looks?
  • Gianna was modeled after Gordon Ramsey. She’s a sassy, strict woman with a renowned reputation as a chef. The artists decided to go with a stylized look to maximize our time. I researched plenty of chef uniforms and settled on a white uniform. Since Hell Yeah Burgers is similar to boot camp I decided to give her combat boots. I gave her red hair to fit the hot-headedness (I know it’s a stereotype- sorry to all my beloved redheads), and (flat?) eyes to indicate her level of... doneness. She has some wrinkles too- I guess I pictured her somewhere close to Ramey’s age. Hot mama? Is that weird? Anyway. One of my favorite things in this process was designing her expressions. I love strong women, so it was fun playing with various concepts.
• What were some of the challenges you faced?
  
  • For me, the hardest thing was texturing. I love character design and modeling is relatively easy for me, but throughout my time pursuing art I’ve shied away from texturing. It was difficult picking a color palette. Since the game is stylized there were just so many routes I could’ve taken. Moving forward I’m definitely practicing my butt off with color theory and shading.
  • I also found animating stressful. I first picked up modeling about 2 years ago, and rigging was easy to learn. I don’t have as much practice animating, and I honestly felt a lot of pressure from it. I got a lot of practice in with this game though, and I think it made me a stronger artist.
• What games have inspired you?
  • For this game I took a lot of inspiration from Pokemon. Sword/Shield had just released and I loooove its look. I looked into Cooking Mama as well, since Mama’s personality fits the role Gianna plays. I almost went with that art style as well, but I didn’t want to roam too closely to Work Simulator’s simpler style.
• What are future features of Hell Yeah Burgers that excite you the most?
  • I think.. maybe being able to hit Gianna with the shrink ray. It’d be fun if we could change the pitch of her voice when she shrinks. I think animating that properly would be fun (shout-out to Jacob, our new animator. You saved my soul.)
• Where can we see more of your work?
  • The link to my portfolio is maddyart.com. Right now it’s filled with 3D art, but I’m working on transitioning to character concepts. It means a lot to have people check out my work, and I always welcome feedback.

That's all from the team for now! Next time we'll be talking with our Sound Designer! Thanks for reading!

-Zoey