Evaluation - Character Dichotomy Project (part 5)

Week 10

Evaluation -Character Dichotomy Project (part 5)

Q. How did my abilities improved during the project lifecycle?

• Improved texturing
• Gained familiarity with UE4
• Produced quicker and more interesting 3d models
• Higher quality concepts

Q. Any difficulties during the project?

The design and creation phases of the project was pushed back due to extension of concepting process.

Q. Was this project successful?

Based on the model, textures and maps, the project was successful, however, if I had I not been delayed at the beginning of the project, I would have liked to rig and completed other stretch goals.

Q. How would I approach the project next time?

I would try to push the designs further and work more with the silhouettes to create more unique designs. I would also try to paint fabric textures to add more realism to the character.

Character Dichotomy Project (part 4)

Week 9

Character Dichotomy Project (part 4)

The project is almost over the last task was to import the model to Unreal Engine 4 and here are few renders of my final character.

Character Dichotomy Project (part 3)

Week 8

Character Dichotomy Project (part 3)

This week I was ready to model one of the characters, I decided to model the elf as I thought modelling and texturing this character will be challenging and exciting.

modeling my character...

The final albedo map 

Character Dichotomy Project (part 2)

Week 7

Character Dichotomy Project (part 2)

During this week I was still working on the concepts for dichotomy characters. I finally came up with an idea, I used a quick sketch that I did and manipulated the silhouettes to create a more a dynamic character. (On the image you can see the process I went through)

I have decided to create Santa Claus and very shy, hardworking elf. I started with sketching different hairstyles and clothes for an elf. For the clothes I had a rough idea of what it will look like and I also did a quick colour combination just to make sure the colours look right together.

Lastly I was left with orthographic drawing for modelling, which I found quite challenging since I had to imagine the character from all angles and designing clothes and other aspects happened to be pretty difficult.

When designing Santa I took a different approach, just like with elf I had a rough idea and a sketch to start with.

I Started with painting quick silhouettes, I have then sketched some faces and clothes on those silhouettes, when I was finally happy with one of the designs I then did quick colour study and orthographic drawing.

Character Dichotomy Project (part 1)

Week 6

Character Dichotomy Project (part 1)

This week we started a new project, the character dichotomy project, the brief is to design a pair of characters whose styles indicate that they belong in the same universe, but show polar opposites in certain aspects of their appearance.

To begin with, I used Pinterest as my inspiration source and I created a mood board which I then used for creating characters. I have decided to create characters based of animated movies such as Monsters Inc. or The Incredibles, the idea was to create characters based off just primitive shapes and I thought Pixar and Disney used that technique quite a lot in their concepts to develop interesting and iconic characters.

Mood board

The next step was to create some characters, so I used simple shapes and I created silhouettes. I found this method of creating characters a bit difficult as it was very challenging to imagine or design a character from complete black shape however, this was a good start and good practice to get some ideas flowing.

Lastly, I have created more detailed and developed sketches of different characters. I had several ideas and various polar opposite combinations in my head to start with.

• Beautiful - Ugly
• Happy - Sad
• Rich -Poor
• Young - Old
• Tall – Short

Evaluation- Sentry Gun Project

Week 5

Evaluation- Sentry Gun Project

Q. What went well?

I think designing the turret was pretty tricky because I didn't take in count the budget that I was given for modelling. However, it’s safe to say that concepting went well and overall I’m very happy with the design, nevertheless I struggled with it at the beginning, but at the end I got it right. Furthermore, modeling was very fun, easy and quick which I enjoyed the most during the entire process.

Q. What needs more improvement?

In this project I could point out several things that could have been done a bit better and one of them would be texture maps, I am not very happy with how it came out at the end. I think some of the textures need a bit more details, especially the brass texture that's applied to the entire body as it's the first thing you notice on the turret, I think it would help, to research a bit more into texturing metals as well as to add some additional dirt and rust to the model to give a bit more character and realism to the turret. At the moment it looks a bit too shiny and instead of old rusty steam punk looking turret, it looks like it was made from gold.

I also think the turret would benefit from additional features on the texture such as nails or perhaps a ventilator that would just give a nice realistic feel to it, following by some improvements on the high map which would just emphasize the look of the entire model.

Q. What did I learn?

I think this project was a good way for me to practice texturing metals, moreover I am more familiar with importing and generally using the Unreal Engine.

Q. How would I approach the project next time?

If I was to do this project again, I would keep in mind the entire budget before creating any complicated designs, which then this would give me more time to improve the final appearance.

Sentry gun project- (Part 2)

Week 5

Sentry gun project

Previously I have created quick silhouettes and this week I have used those to develop more detailed ideas I haven't spent too long doing this as I thought the idea I came up with was pretty strong.

I have then created a drawing of the final idea and I finally produced my first concept which I modelled and half way through, I realised I was already over the tris limit, so I was forced to create more simplified design.

Final Design 

Sentry gun project (Part 1)

Week 4 

Sentry gun project

As soon as the film room project finished, I was introduced to a new project which was the sentry gun. In this project I was asked to concept the sentry gun the aim was to create a 3d model that will be then placed in pre-designed setting.

The Turret must:

·         Track the player

·         Rotate

·         Spawn particle effect and eject shell

·         Fire

The idea for my sentry gun was to create a steam punk like turret a bit of wear and tear here and there, perhaps create additional setting with moss and long grass to place the turret in. I started constructing quick mood boards to help me perhaps sketch some ideas or just use those images to photo-bash a quick silhouette.  

Mood board

 Then I started to create quick silhouettes using the mood board above and from there I developed more and more concepts. I have mainly used photo-bashing and just getting some details with few brush strokes.

Concepts

Film Room Project (Part 3)

Week 4Film Room- Reflection 

My model of the TV

So what went well, what didn't, what did I learn, how would I approach it next time?

Model of picture frames, a plant and a radio 

During the process there were quite a few things that didn't go as we have planned, e.g. we have picked a very detailed room and we have spent a lot of time on doing other things that were not as important and we were left with very little time to model and texture all the object so we ended up not completing the entire room. Also each one of us was given a lot of assets to model and texture which was just impossible to do in that amount of time.

However, not everything went downhill, 

we have managed to model all the assets and put them into a perspective scene and present it, also this experience gave us a chance to see how time management and organisation is important in practice.

Finally, if I was to do this project again we would definitely have another person in our group to help us split the work equally, we would also start doing everything much earlier and we would organise our time a bit better.We would also test all the texture if they look correct before putting them into the final scene. 

Final Render

Film Room project- (Part 2)

Week 3

Film Room project

This week we have mainly created concepts and orthographic drawings to help us with modelling. After we have created all the assets we have then organised the texture sheets so that we are aware exactly as to how many we should use and and how big. Overall it was a difficult week for me and my group, I found that texturing the assets have taken more time than I have expected and as a personal note I should give myself more time for texturing next time also we haven't finished texturing all the assets in the scene however we have managed to finish on time and make the scene look to a point that is presentable.

Concepts & Orthographic drawings  

Film Room Project (Part 1)

Week 2

Film Room Project

This weeks project was to recreate a specific scene from a film of our choice in 3D. This project will last for another two or three weeks and I must say after a lot of confusion between groups and the assignment, we finally got around it and i have to say it is pretty fun. So far each person in my group had created a mood board with different scenes that we found interesting in terms of lighting, composition and interior design.

Mood Board

At the end we have decided to pick a scene from a film called 'Pulp Fiction'.

We have decided that this scene look fairly simple to model (as we have budget to keep in mind) and overall the lighting gave an interesting, colorful and welcoming feel to the entire scene. 

The Final Scene

Asset Swap

Week 1

Asset Swap

Finally, new academic year has officially started which brings exciting but at the same time challenging experiences. 

So...where do I begin? This year will be mostly all about working in teams (its actually more fun than I expected), as also about using the unreal engine 4 for all our projects (another thing I need to look into). Last week we have been set a small group project which involved concepting, modeling, unwrapping, texturing, and placing all the assets to a pre-made scene.

My final asset

I think the project was set for us to get to know the unreal engine 4 a bit more as we all started by concepting a different asset (in my case it was a barrel) and the idea was to pass the asset to a different person so that everyone gets 

a go at a different stage of making , however because I have joined the group late I was given one object to do all on my own without passing it on and to be honest I think it all worked out in my favor as I knew exactly what to do and I could organise my time more efficiently.

The Final Render

Art Direction

Not long ago I have given a presentation in my Critical Studies module about an artist that really inspires me with his work - Mattias Adolfsson. In this post I will talk about him and explain what it is about him that inspires me.

Here I have put all the images that I have used in my presentation and beneath you can find a small summary of each point.

Composition:

His work is very unique as he puts a lot of details into his drawings and he avoids leaving any negative space while at the same time, manages to make his drawings seem unique.

Shape/Form:

He is a 2D artist which has a way of making his drawings look 3D when he finds it appropriate. The main themes in his work are modes of transport/architecture as also all kinds of animals.

Colour:

When it comes to using color, he is really careful and his colour usage can vary from fully covered drawing to just simple line work. Sometimes he uses one colour just to visually separate objects.

Lighting:

To be honest it was a quite difficult to find a good example of him using lighting as he does not use colour as much, but when he does he keeps it subtle and with previously mentioned use of colours he uses, it only adds to the 2D/3D effect.

Atmosphere:

The atmosphere in his drawings tends to be, in my opinion very innocent, child-like and very friendly while having this old school, 1960's feel to it. The bizarre nature and the oddity of his pictures make them seem interesting as well as welcoming.

Why is it awesome?

The reason why I like his work is because, you can really see that there are no limits to his imagination. The connection between vivid imagination and childhood makes you feel like there is no hostility in his drawings.

Story:

Also I like to think that each of his drawings tells a story for example; I can't help but to think that the crew on the ship has its own history and the pictures are just capturing one of the many moments.

Machinarium:

In response as to how his style could be used in a game, I want you to consider that games nowadays are all about hyper-realistic graphic and visuals but there is very little creativity and I think Machinarium its a good example to show that this type of style can be very interesting in a game concept.

In my spare time I work on expanding my visual library. I do this by collecting all sorts of different images that I find interesting for example bizarre fashion or paintings in all sorts of media, I also like to take my own photographs of different object or places that I find beautiful. Also apart from this I take a lot of inspiration from magazines about Photoshop and digital painting.  

Game Art Career

A couple weeks ago I was given a task to look into careers in game industry and I have been ask to do a little research about the career I would like to undertake after I graduate. I must say that it was a bit confusing at first as I was just unsure what exactly I would like to do, as there was so many opportunities of all sorts of different roles and titles and many developers to pick from.

I really enjoy working in tradition way as well as in 3d. I also like designing characters as well as drawing environments. In addition I thought that creating concepts is very interesting as well as modeling and this is where I wasn’t sure what I would like to do, so I decided to do my research a bit differently I have basically looked into jobs such as ;

• Concept Artist
• Environment Concept Artist
• Environment Artist
• Character Artist
• 3D Artist

I haven’t found the exact job title but I looked into many different developers and different jobs that seemed interesting and I have selected the different requirements that I have seen continuously.

• Ability to create efficient UV layout for texture map both hard surface and organic models
• An exceptional understanding of space, form, structure and shape in regard to modelling
• proficiency in Autodesk® 3ds Max®, Pixologic® ZBrush® and Adobe® Photoshop®;
• Must exhibit strong traditional art skills including: illustration, colour theory, composition, architectural design and game level design.
• passion and enthusiasm for video games
• Must have demonstrable knowledge of lighting, colour, and composition
• Must have excellent organizational skills
• Must have strong written and verbal communication skills
• Being able to work as a part of a team
• Strong art skills and good knowledge of human anatomy.

Those are some of the most common requirements I saw in the different job titles that I looked into.

While I have improved in many areas like human anatomy drawing, observation skills and became more proficient in programs like Photoshop and 3ds Max, I think it goes without saying that I’m not at the level that I should be, if I was to apply for the position now. However if I will be improving at the rate that I am now, I am confident that with a bit of dedication and hard work by third year I will not have much problems to meet the required criteria when the time comes.

Personal enquiry

Why do people not finish games anymore?

Lately I found myself not really wanting to play any games as much as I used to when I was younger. For a while it really bugged me as I could not find an answer to the question: Why do I keep starting a game and never get to finish it? Is it because they are not interesting enough? Are there too many games in my library? Maybe I'm getting too old for games? In search of the answer I used both my brain and the internet and I came up with some reasons as to why not only me but the gamers in general don’t finish games any more.

One of the main reasons as to why most gamers do not finish games is most probably because people find less time to enjoy themselves nowadays due to their grown busy lifestyle they had to adopt as they stepped in the reality of life. From my own experience I have noticed that as I have aged I adapted more responsibilities not only in school, and at the moment in university but also in my free time. Time and time again I found to have less and less time to relax and just simply enjoy the game, and I do believe that nowadays there are more people facing the same problem. Also as we became older games stopped being a once in a year Christmas present but become more accessible due to us paying for ourselves and it is no longer something special but something regular.

Another possible problem is that more and more games require a lot of hours to be fully completed e.g. Skyrim or Monster Hunter series which to complete, it takes 200-300 hours each. While they are very good games we have to bear in mind that to sacrifice that kind of time on a game, we need to have this time in the first place which many people don’t have, when they work the whole day, five days a week. If on average an adult gamer has 5-6 hours to spare weekly, he either will not want to commit himself to the game that he knows is that long or he will try and complete it, but when he realizes that it will take him a long time to progress, he simply gives up on it and looks for a different experience, which, with the amount of different companies trying to get gamers attention is not a hard process which brings me to my next point.

When looking at how video gaming industry has changed, it is obvious that indie gaming is becoming larger by the day and that inevitably means that gamers are being constantly showered with new releases. In many cases gamers end up with libraries flooded with games which they will never play or they won’t even know they had in the first place. From my own experience I know that having a lot of games at your disposal provides, in theory more entertainment because of variety, but in practice unfortunately means that I often can't focus on one game and finish it before starting a next one. Apparently I am not the only one suffering from this problem as CNN report from 2011 states that 90% of gamers do not finish their games.

Also another matter that can easily discourage us from completing the game fully, can be artificially lengthening game play that can be spotted in open world games (pointless bonus collectibles to collect) which can lead to repetition because of the nature of your usual side quest (Do this, Kill this, Go from A to B ZZZzzz...) .Because of those cheap tricks to feel like we are getting more value for our money we tend to get carried away (if you are a completionist like me) easily and most of the time we frequently end up not finishing the story as we simply get bored of games like Fallout 3, New Vegas or Assassin Creed games where we can just feel overwhelmed with the content. Grinding is also frequently used as game play stretcher and can mostly found in RPG games like Final Fantasy which, after a long period of time changes our experience of the game from pleasant and exciting to tedious and eventually frustrating.

The majority of games, now and before have bugs where it will be a game breaking glitches or sometimes the ones that makes us laugh for example when I first played Final Fantasy X on PS2 back in the day, a terrible glitch in the game caused my save file to be corrupted which as you can imagine rendered all of my 24 hours of gameplay useless and in effect I never really wanted to do it again and finish it. Also while that experience has ruined one game for me for a long time, there are more known and frequent glitches out there, arguably the most famous one being the cannon room glitch. This one can be found in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess this glitch happens when you enter the cannon room and you save you progress then you turn off the game completely and you try to turn it back on, after this you are forced to go back to your other save if you have any or else you will have to start the game again.

In conclusion, what makes us not finish games anymore? Is it us or is it the industry? Looking at the reasons I've given above I would say that it is both. While we are constantly flooded with new titles and distracted from our current endeavors at the end of the day, we are the ones that buy the games, we are the ones that dedicate our self to complete a 100+ hours long game and we are the ones that fall into the same trap over and over. What's the solution you ask? Maybe shorter games, or maybe we should just stop, take a deep breath, relax and enjoy games like we used to 10-20 years ago.

References:

http://www.gamefront.com/why-dont-gamers-finish-games/

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/17/finishing.videogames.snow/

http://www.1up.com/features/gonna-finish?pager.offset=0