Let’s have a closer look at on of the Gala Coral scratch cards, we wanted to create a range of games that we could cycle and promote every month. Astrology being a popular theme amonst the Gala audience seemed ideal.

All the astrology range have quite alot of research behind it, we wanted to make sure that we wove some of the myth behind each zodiac sign into the picture, providing some background and story. Each Scratch card has a txt box area that explains the sign in a little more depth to reinforce the graphics.

The Zodiac sign Capricorn is represented by a sea-goat, part goat part fish.

“This constellation is sometimes identified as Amalthea, the goat that suckled the infant Zeus after his mother Rhea saved him from being devoured by his father Cronos (in Greek mythology). The goat’s broken horn was transformed into the cornucopia or horn of plenty.”

“Capricorns strive to conceal their vulnerability beneath a confident veneer of ambition and material success, but passionate Mars is always bubbling just below the surface. When the curtain is lifted, the passion flows like lava from an erupting volcano.”

Step one was to lay out the basic elements that are present in all 3×3 scratch cards. I’ve left off the rough sketch of the background but obviously that would be the key step before moving onto refining the main elements in the scene. Then I started adding imagery that related to capricorn, the goats head, the horne of pleanty (cornucopia), some Capricorn symbols (in the candle stand).

I’ve used the pose and dress to suggest the tail, and tried to suggest horns with the hair style.

Colour wise I wanted to use golds and emerald green, colours that are related to the zidiac sign. For lighting, a contrast between red and blue lights as the sign is somewhat conflicted.

Using flash I aimed for a quite realistic style. Bearing in mind that there was going to be some animation I couldn’t go into too much detail and there is always an emphasis on keeping file size down as well.

I this close up you can see how there is a suggestion of detail and shape through use of gradient.

And finally everything put together and fully rendered. Again you can see recurring themes gold and green, the cornucopia, sea-goats and other symbols repeated around the scene.