Obsidian Live Action Quickstart Layout and Illustrations

Obsidian Live Action Quickstart RPG.net entry | Available at Drive Thru RPG | Character Sheets

I created the art, graphics, photo illustrations and logo for the Obsidian Quick Start, as well as doing the typography and layout for both the quickstart and the character sheet.

I did two different photo shoots that coincided with playtests of the system (most of the people pictured here are also playtesters). I approached the illustrations as still shots for a story that would play out across the book and continue into other media.

That meant starting with the outline of a story and a whole cast of particular characters. My production list looked more like a script breakdown than a photo shoot: I broke props and costumes down by scene and scheduled people accordingly.

I also did the layout and other graphic elements in the Quickstart, including the type treatment, the page ornaments, and the cover and character sheet.

Scroll down to see more illustrations and some notes from the shoots.

I like to use uncommon angles in my work, and to get right into the middle of the action.

One sequence involves a character being chased down and beaten by cultists, and to get the proper feel for that, I laid down with a camera and had them “attack” me (that’s me on the ground in the first picture). That gave the images a sense of brutality and intimidation, and immediately put the viewer in sympathy for the victim.

Here’s a few images from that sequence. Final images would have been cut out from the background as you see above.