Reflection on year one, and ambition for year two

Reflecting over the summer, I think that I have developed a lot in the last year. I have learnt how to use computer software that I had no experience in, mainly 3ds Max, and improved in traditional drawing techniques and the range of medias I can use. Last year I found the designing projects using research the most engaging and productive for learning. I think this was due to the high level of creativity the tasks required. I hope to see plenty more design tasks like last years this year, but this time with more detailed specifications because I like to have strict guidelines when designing, too much freedom makes my mind wander. Now fundamental skills have been built up from the first year, I would like to move towards a more specific field within game art and develop a unique style to my work using a combination of traditional and digital techniques. I am kind of torn between two paths that I would like to do, either a concept artist or art director within game and or films. I’m particularly inspired by the likes of Ridley Scott and Sylvain Despretz story boarding in Black Hawk Down because I can see strengths of my own in their work due to both coming from a traditionally art taught back ground. 

From the course this year, I would like to see more encouragement in using digital methods because I feel confident with the traditional side to art now and would like to broaden the ways in which I work. I would especially like to use digital media when it comes to environmental aspects of game art. I am particularly inspired by digital matte painters like Dylan Cole (http://www.dylancolestudio.com/) Although I am keen to progress digitally, I think the constant reinforcement of using traditional methods is crucial to what makes this course stand out and improved my abilities so far so I wouldn't want that aspect to have any lesser role this year. 
I would also like to see tutorials on color theory so that I can get a better understanding of it and introduce color into my work after focusing mainly on black and white studies last year. When it comes to game production, whether it’s through tutorials or self-taught, I would like to experiment a little in Zbrush. I wouldn't want to over use it this year because I know from the first year it is important to be able to low poly model in 3ds, which I am still developing in. I think it would be good to learn in preparation for third year FMP’s just so that it’s an option I can use if I would like to. The aspect of modelling I struggled with the most last year was characters, so this year I would like to see a few character projects so that I can develop more on my organic form modelling.

End of Year Review

As a whole I'm generally pleased with my game art course. There's been a wide range of areas focused on throughout the first year like drawing fundamentals, 3D modelling basics, recording design and thought processes, life drawing, character design and environment design. To be honest, I've covered so much I apologise if I've missed anything. It's been quite tough dealing with the work load at times but I always knew I had a mountain to climb when signing up to the course.
The two main aspects I have enjoyed so far is the character and environment design. I'm a creative person so the research and designing suits me really well. Something I particularly struggled with in these tasks, oddly was the huge amount of freedom we had. I find it a lot more constructive to have set restrictions so that my mind doesn't wander too much during the design process. So for me I would like to see some more constraints put in place for future design projects on the course, similar to the way 3D projects have a range of constraints.
I would also like to see a bit more emphasis on environment designing. The project that covered this was the one I found the most engaging and interesting to cover. So much so that it has kind of swayed me to want to focus on this area as I break into the games industry.
I have found the design tips and examples of design really useful in my critical studies sessions. It brought my attention to the small details that designing something like a character needs to make it a success especially when it comes down to how they are posed, clothing that fit them to the game etc. These are aspects that I take on board now when I design, taking on a slight graphic design role, making my characters more interesting. I definitely focus on silhouettes a lot more as a result of this because I think it's a good tool that gives you a good idea on whether a character will be eye catching and interesting to look at. I often get my flat mates to crit my designs during the design process to help me get a better understanding of what players of games want in a character or environment. This idea came to me from the great social network account that the course encourages students to leave feedback and view others way of working on. I also like the way that projects we get set encourage us to try things that we aren't particularly good at or never even experienced before. For example I have never used sculpey but I gave it a go for a character project and to be honest it turned out to be a complete disaster but I learnt from it and doing things like this build up a habit of teaching yourself things rather than relying on others which I think is a good mentality to install into us early on.
My passion is drawing, so for me as much as the course gets me to draw and express ideas then it can't go wrong in my opinion. I have learnt a lot from the first year and I am looking forward to what we will cover in the years to come.

Environments

Where to next? It's always frustrating to go back and forth in a particular area of a game not knowing where you can progress further isn't it? When constructing and decorating an environment the designers can utilize different methods to help guide the player to where they have to go. A particular technique that's used often is lighting.

This is a really simple example but if you entered this room, scavenged for supplies and could see no other option out, this piercing light that illuminates the human size crack in the wall would trigger your mind to automatically relate that as an exit point in that room. Exit point lighting is just making the goal obvious to the player, in theory acting as a huge sign saying 'hello, there's something interesting over here.' A similar technique is path lighting. This method is just an extension of exit lighting, highlighting a direct route that the player should take to get to the goal. In most cases, this method highlights the only route that's available making the game play seem more restricted and less realistic.

A particular method that I have experienced that helps navigate you through stages of and environment was in the Assassins Creed franchise. When entering a checkpoint in secret caves, the camera would take your view in a short cut scene, stopping at areas that you should head to, that suggests there are obstacles there that will help you reach your goal. This style of navigation is a little less straight forward than the previous two but I think it gives the player more freedom because even though the route shown is the highlighted one it's not necessarily the only one or most interesting one.

Another method I've witnesses used a lot is hinting. This is exactly how it sounds, giving clues to the player on where they can find secrets along the way. The key isn't to make the hint to obvious though. You could use the lighting techniques above to highlight routes for the secrets or you could add hints during loading screens. A game that applies hints to loading screens very well in my opinion is 'Rage' published by Bethesda. A hint often displayed is to 'scavenge' for items as much as possible to sell. This is particularly useful because you explore the environment more than you would usually and with the idea of scavenging embedded into the way you play you find yourself navigating and finding things more independently.

'Rage' is a game that particularly springs to mind when thinking of environments because it achieves everything I look for. The graphic aspect, developed by id software is phenomenally good. I can only describe rage as crysis 2 graphically with fallout 3's game play. The amount of detail built into Rage is staggering. It's easy to be overwhelmed with awe at the sight of rocky canyon walls that never seem to repeat and the meticulously designed cities. The story depicts an asteroid impact that wipes

Using 'Rage' as another example, I think that the environment, without a doubt, influences the atmosphere of a game. The stunning visuals of rocky terrain and abandoned, decayed cities is a big factor of what makes the simple story to 'Rage' much more believable and immersive.

The general style of 'Rages' environment seems to emulate the Colorado river in the united states with the orange tinted rock faces that contrast with the dusty polluted atmosphere of what's left of the cities. 'Rage' is highly stylized because it is depicting what people and places would look like after a natural disaster. On top of that the story is set in 2029 therefore the game shows stylized technology. I don't think any of these aspects hinder the realism to the game because the story plays with our perceptions, convincing us something similar to this maybe possible in the future. The designers have got the fundamentals of realism correct like people, movement, interaction and overall look of the game which strikes an important balance giving them a degree of lenience when it comes to stylisation of technology and cities.

Environment Project

To kick off the project, I wanted to overload my thought process with imagery of environments and existing game genres that I could take and adapt to make my own. I always make the habit of changing my mind half way through the design process when I have hardly any time left because I don't plan as deeply as I should. (Note to self, fully weigh up all options before concepting begins.) I'm already a big fan of the zombie/apocalyptic/survival genre, especially films like mad max: beyond thunderdrome, with baron wastelands and barbaric hordes of rebels held up in self built fortresses. I think looking at something I'm a fan of is good area to start off in because I am stilling doing something that's needed of me but I can relate to it making the process of designing more engaging. Having said this I need to keep the player, audience and game community as a design priority because this final outcome isn't for me. So the first rule of design club is 'what will they get out of this?'.

To add a new dynamic to a genre that already exists, I have looked at a variety of real environments like third world shanty towns and picturesque Venice river fronts. I have also looked at traditional paintings like Claude Monet's house of parliament . I crammed all my imagery into a few A3 mood boards to refer to throughout designing.

To research a bit further into the apocalyptic genre, I looked at a TV documentary called 'Life After People' which shows what would happen to the world that we leave behind which relates to there being much fewer humans left on earth. The documentary gave me an incite into how cities decay when unmaintained, threat of pandemics, natural disasters and the animal kingdoms survival of the fittest. Here's a link to the documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbr6mnX95iE&feature=related skip to about 26 minutes in.

Whilst researching, I was devising more rules that would lead to effective design of the environment and characters. I split them into environment, character and final concept sub categories to get consistency throughout.

RULES

Environment- 1. More is less (don't over do things)

2. Maintain continuous derelict feel to surroundings

Character- 1. Characters must be simple with an exaggerated main character as vocal point

Final Concepts- 1. Composition, mood, how well does it engage the viewer

2. Leave audience to conclude the events that have come before

3. leave as much to interpret as possible

From the rules I began to concept the environment for my

chosen apocalyptic genre. I wanted to design the general state of the world after apocalyptic disaster and the area the majority of the game would take place. The story I decided to go with was a brake down in technology in the future that caused nuclear weapons to launch devastatingly wiping out the majority of the planets population. Survivors of the blasts that were caught by radiation were disfigured and in some cases transformed into mutated beings.

I wanted to take the player through a specific area where I thought there could be a high level of threat and a good place that could influence the style of enemies. I decided upon a mental asylum. I took a silhouette and played about with numerous to create a derelict building that had looked as if it had been inhabited by its once patients and sinister travellers.

Task 10: Characters

I could talk endlessly about characters that I have come across since I've watched TV and read books, but at the moment there are a specific group of characters that I would like to focus on. I always haven't been able to get enough of post apocalyptic movies like mad max and resident
evil but the American TV series 'The Walking Dead' brings a new dynamic to the genre. The series is based on a comic book by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard. The story starts when a county sheriff named Rick Grimes wakes from an enduring coma to find the world he used to know no longer exists and is now plagued with flesh craving 'walkers' or as we callthem zombies. From there on the series documents a husband and fathers journey to finding his family. From the outset the plot of the show makes you think about being in the main characters shoes and how you would cope not knowing whether your wife, son and family are still alive and dealing with what you perceive as reality being torn away from under you like that. Eventually Rick does find his family that are held up with a group of people and you imagine the relief and happiness that must over whelm you, providing a short escape from the new reality you face. On the other hand, without trying to sound heartless, would it be a burden that you have found the ones you love instead because now it's your duty to protect and reassure them with that doubt in the back of your mindthat you may fail in doing so. Would it be better if you only had yourself to
worry about?
As trust and bonds build, Rick becomes a kind of leader for the group, main protector in a way, saving lives, sheltering and feeding the group. I think this aspect to the character is easily related to men in general because we like to see ourselves being the alpha male and possessing the
ability to protect . Another emphasis on the character being there to protect is his title of 'sheriff' because we associate the police as being there to keep us safe and maintain order.
After a longer period of time the group are forced to live this dystopian lifestyle, where a planned and structured routine begins to form in order to stay alive which starts to build characteristics for other characters. States of depression, rebellion and friendships arise under the large amount of pressure there under up to the point where a dominant character Shane, sacrifices another person to survive a horde of walkers. In this situation what lengths would you go to in order to stay alive? In my opinion I don't know whether I would have it in me to do something like that or whether I would like the person something that extreme of a situation could bring out of
me.
A lot of emotion is portrayed well in this TV show which entices you to relate and produce these thoughts about the things that happen. The strain that is put on relationships in extreme circumstances and how its overcome is demonstrated continuously which I think is a good message put across by the actors and script. Another aspect I particularly like about the main character Rick is the burden he willingly takes on when it comes to being the constant, the rock of the group and reliability of decisions he makes. For example when a little girl in the group is chased into woodlands by a walker, without a thought he is the only person in the group to react and try to save her. Obviously all these characteristics are exaggerated in this type of genre but there all aspects of life that relate to us as the viewer trying to inspire the best in us.
The reason I think I become so engrossed in the post apocalyptic genre is because I have always wondered what it would be like to have something like that happen, how I would react, how it would change me as a person and how things would end up.

Task 9: Elements of game design, part two: art direction for games

In the art department of any game, There will be one
driving force that pushes the all important vehicle of art forward, this force
is in the form of an Art Director. An Art Directors general role is to set the
visual tone, quality and style to the game making it aesthetically pleasing to
the player.
An Art Director
that is confident in what he or she is doing will consider how all assets will
look, what moods they'll create and so on. Everything from main characters to
fine detail will be careful designed to create a continuous flow of design that
supports the story and setting of the game. Sometimes it's the small detail that gives a
game the appropriate illusion of realism and a good Art Director has a keen eye
for that detail. As gamers we all rely on a game looking good to make us feel
involved and apart of the realism it is attempting to convey, therefore being responsible of how people relate, react and
enjoy visuals within game is extremely in depth.
When it comes to creativity, I think a successful film or
game will come from a highly creative individual, so creativity is pretty much
what defines an art director in my opinion. For example two highly creative and
talented artists worked on the storyboarding and concepts for black hawk down,
Ridley Scott and Arthur Max. Arthur Max was the art director but both
contributed which basically made the entire look of the film from start to
finish. They produced endless amounts of storyboards and concepts, Which Max
explains in an interview I watched that the majority were scrapped. They
quickly got down visual information using simple pencil drawings picked up from
Ridleys traditionally influenced art education.
Some of the Storyboards were near enough exactly how the final shot looked in
the film. To visualise situations accurately using convincing lighting and
perspective is extremely difficult, taking a great deal of knowledge and
creativity. I should know as this is the main aspect I'm trying to master
within my game art course which I am nowhere near reaching.
To reach a similar level as the Art Directors I would in
theory be competing with if I was to become one, I would need to quicken up on
getting the visual information down on paper to generate that mass of visuals
that is needed. I'm not expecting this to come overnight because its going to
take trial and error to find out how I can through practice, and what art
materials suit my style of working most efficiently. I am quite confident when it comes to
accurately showing light and tone within my work but I do struggle with my
perspective which with practice I hope to overcome and so far it's getting a
lot better than when I first started the course.
Game and Film art direction is pretty similar in most
areas like gathering source material, storyboarding and concepting. I would say
that a difference would be the extent that they both need to concept. Some
films use characters that already exist like a US marine for example which
would only need storyboarding because we can already visualise what that
character would look like, act like etc, whereas in a game aspects like
characters are designed from scratch because their perceived identities don't
already exist, everything is new idea even if it's an alien, robot or human.
This is what I think appeals to me most, being able to harness my creativity to
form entirely new identities, in almost a 'God' like fashion.

Task 8 Elements of game design, part one: from Pong to next-gen…

I've reached the stage now where I've looked at the fundamentals of game art but now I need to read into the elements of game design and what it takes to design a successful game. First of all, what is game play? we all play these games and kind of over look what were actually doing. Game play is the action the person controlling the character for example is carrying out to achieve something, like advancing to the next level or an objective.

Development of the games we play today are undertaken by a games developer that can range from a single person to a large business. Mainstream games like Call of Duty for instance are funded by publishers and can take a considerably longer time to develop.

Games are usually developed in phases, initially with pitches, concepts, prototypes and design documents that convey all main aspects of what a developer wants to make. If the idea is approved and the developer gets funding then development gets under way. Development requires a large quantity of people working on it with different responsibilities. These responsibilities range from designers, artists, programmers and testers. The next stage is the development alpha and beta stages until they are ready to market and showcase to the public.

Like most industries out there, a minority have the final say about whether a game gets the go ahead or not, but I don't think the final say or responsibility is given to a single person with a games company because a lot of other people have influence on the game development. The standard and how well an idea for a game is portrayed is by the development team making it a responsibility as a group.

When it comes to the principles of how games of different genres are made, I no longer think that there is much difference between them. A comparison between Pac man and the fairly modern F.E.A.R 2 was brought to my attention and I saw that something as simple as Pac man is still similar to modern day games. Obviously the visual experience is completely different but they both have a story, designed characters, levels, incentive to progress for example enemies chasing you and aims to succeed within the game. In my opinion it's just the aesthetic exterior of a game that makes it different from others.