BACKSTAGE PASS ARTBOOK

BACKSTAGE
P A S S
STEPH RAMOS

INTRODUCTION
Hello! My name is Steph Ramos, I am a character designer and 2D artist. This
book will feature all the art and process that went towards making my FMP; a
small game made in Rpgmaker MV, as an alternative way to view and interact
directly with my artwork and portfolio.
I wanted to create a small game, over an animatic or artbook for my final
major project, since I wanted to challenge myself and attempt something that’s
always been in the back of my mind; I love to create characters but I feel like
I never get to truly show them off without having people directly talk to them
and let the characters speak for themselves.
Throughout this book, you will see the ideas that went towards final designs,
drawings and sketches which helped me design my characters, as well as other
places of reference I looked to, and the final in game art.

When I had pitched this idea for my FMP, I was going to make the game about a
mailman, or a messenger that documents monsters. I created this narrative with
traditional narrative methods in mind, having multiple characters introduce
themselves, a dilemma that makes them come off track. But because of this, it
ended up becoming more about the story and the narrative rather than my art and
showcasing my personality and portfolio. Initially, I planned to have four
environments, possibly loosely based around the seasons just to give myself a
theme or continuity, and then go from there with the characters. Here are the
moodboards for the characters, and some art I made towards this idea.
ORIGINAL
I D E A
One of the only characters I fleshed out or drew was this mage, an old woman who
was part human part animal, in this case I chose a bird, since I felt inspired by the
idea of making her really fit in with her environment which was the forest. I wanted
to make her clothes look as though she made them herself from parts of the
forest, and give her a pouch with ingredients such as leaves, flowers and maybe
weird looking rocks or goop.

THE BAND
After spending so much time bouncing back and forth between characters and
references, I decided to leave the messenger idea and set my game in a small, self
contained environment where the characters feel quite immersive for how small
the environment is. I had spoken to my tutor and he mentioned possibly
basing characters on myself, my likes or dislikes. Initially, I really rejected this idea,
but then I thought about taking parts of my personality and exaggerating them,
which is how I came up with the idea for Max.
Then, I thought about basing it in a concert, since I just love being at concerts, and I
love how crazy singers or fans can get. I really liked this idea, and from the
get-go I found it really easy to brainstorm potential characters or environments,
bits of dialogue and parts of the environment that would really stand out or have
the most charm. I was really inspired by Paramore and most pop punk bands, but
also fictional bands like the Squid Sisters and Off The Hook, from Splatoon. As well
as most old video game soundtracks, most particularly Pokemon.

Max is a shy, introverted demon who works as a librarian during the day, but at
night is a rockstar and tears it up on stage! She loves retro video games, books +
loud music.
Going into this I knew I wanted to create characters that were very different
offstage + on stage. I liked the idea of creating a character with two sides to them
that contrast each other, and I found the idea of a loud, extroverted lead singer
being very shy, introverted and soft spoken outside of being in a band. I liked this
idea of first impressions, and would constantly think back to how in secondary
school/sixth form no one would really expect me to be the type to go to concerts
and listen to the kind of music I did.
MAX
T H E S I N G E R
I already had a vague idea of what I wanted her to look like in my head, I liked
the idea of her having horns and a little bit of hair in the middle to mimic the
“horns” hand symbol people do at rock concerts. But also, I just wanted to make
the band a band of weird but stylish monsters. So, I drew her over and over
again to get a feel for what I liked until I eventually landed on a few drawings
that resembled what was in my head.
So, first came the head and then the body. And once I was happy with those, I
did some poses to figure out her character, some expression sheets and finally,
a turnaround and some finish, polished drawings. This is my typical process of
doing a character.

LIV
T H E B A S S I S T
Olivia, or Liv, is a fashionable snake-haired lady who runs the social media and
looks for the band, she’s the only one of the trio whose main job revolves
around the band outside of the stage. Offstage she’s very proper and always
looks like she’s heading to a really important meeting, but on stage she
changes drastically and lets go to be the fun-loving carefree person she really
is.
Much like Max, I started the process of designing Liv with a moodboard and
then some sketches of her head, body and then the rest. Unlike Max,
however, I didn’t have a set idea of what I wanted Liv to look like, I knew I
wanted some diversity in my trio, and I want Liv to be tall whilst Max is very
small.

I didn’t have much to go on for Liv besides I wanted her to be elegant and
fashionable, I was finding her character as I went along.

BARRET
T H E D R U M M E R
I love the gentle giant trope in films/tv/animation so I wanted to make the
drummer a character that had a big silhouette and seemed quite mean and
intimidating, but is actually very nice and emotional. I also wanted to challenge
my drawing skill, as I usually tend to lean towards small, round and feminine
characters. So I wanted to draw a character with a bigger silhouette and had
masculine features.
Some big influences to me throughout this project has been Foster’s Home for
Imaginary Friends, I love the designs of the monsters and the shapes, and I
just love how unique their personalities are.

Whilst experimenting with head shapes I was really focussing on the T
shape in character design, and really playing around with it to create
his character, I didn’t have an idea of what I wanted him to look like
but in my head I could almost see this character with a big silhouette
just sitting over his drum kit, so I tried to channel that.

MISCELLANEOUS
CHARACTERS

Unlike the other, initial environments I designed, I found doing interiors a lot
harder. I found the perspective and symmetry of interiors a lot harder to
design, whereas with fantastical exterior environments I found it easier since
I could bend the “rules” a little bit and put more of my imagination into it. So,
when it came to doing these rooms I tried really hard to look at my references
very closely and look at key features of what made those environments look
convincing.
ENVIRONMENT

FINALS

I N - G A M E
A R T