Operator Icons.

As part of my project it was important that I had a look into operator icons and their look and feel. These are simply little image which are associated with the operator and their gadget/theme and are usually coloured to represent their special branch. Although they don’t appear to be to important I think they are a great little detail which will help bring my characters to life. A few great examples of operator icons are Sledge’s, Pulse’s, Lesions and Smokes.

Sledge is an attacking operator. The role of sledge in the game is his sledgehammer which is can use to break through walls, doors, windows and also destroy gadgets, barbed wire and cameras. He can also (if extremely lucky) kill opponents by hitting them with the hammer but this does not occur to often. He is one of the many operators who came out with the game and is still very popular. He is a part of the SAS. Due to his gadget his icon represents that as it is clearly a hammer head coming into contact with an unknown object. Although not very large or important, it instantly gives you an idea of what he does in game and what his role is.

Another popular operator is Pulse, who is a defence operator. He is part of the SWAT. His role in game is to roam around the building and catch enemies off guard, picking them off slowly one by one. His gadget is a cardiac sensor which allows him to see enemy heartbeats through walls, windows and doors. He is vulnerable whilst using his gadget but in the right hands he is very powerful. His icon helps to present this as it shows a radar with blip of enemies on it with a background of an eye, as Pulse sees all. This icon is much more artistic, whilst still making sense.

Lesion is also a defence operator part of the S.D.U. His gadgets are called Gu mines and are invisible poisonous mines that Lesion can throw around the map. When stepped on these begin to poison the target until the needle is pulled out, which temporarily prevents them from doing anything. he is very useful for controlling an area. His icon simply depicts an image of one of his mines and again you instantly have an idea of what he could do.

The final operator icon I am looking at is Smoke, who again is a defence operator. Smoke is part of the SAS and his job is to throw out canisters of compound Z8 gas which he can manually activate using a detonator. He is used often in the game and is popular in ranked and Pro-league due to his range of weapons, speed and ability to shut down areas across the map. His icon obviously displays a gas mask with toxic fumes in the background. the mask is made to look like a skull to present how deadly his gas is. I believe that this icon is great and as both Sledge and Smoke are in the SAS their icons are the same colour.

Overall these icons and looking into what they mean has been vital for me and has proved invaluable for my project. When creating my icons for the operators I need to take into account what I am creating and why. Due to the minimal space I have on the icon I need to make sure that a lot of thought goes into the design and it’s connotations such as Pulse’s eye and Smoke’s skull and gas mask. I will consider these when building upon the final design and will be drawing sketches soon.