Visual Composition

 I think it is vital for anyone trying to develop their skills in art to understand exactly what meaning of visual composition is. The term composition means ‘putting together’ this is basically elements put together by conscious thought, it can also be thought of as the organisation of the elements of art according to the principles of art. Understanding this principle and being able to develop it in my work is a professional skill I need to acquire. When looking at successful piece of work you can see how and why that person has placed the elements in a particular order, for either realism or for the image to have impact and make the audience feel a certain way. For example if a  photograph was taken at a man’s level this would treat him as an equal, if one was taken from below it could result in an impression of dominance.

 

 I have recently tried to incorporate good composition into my 3d work, I haven’t had much feedback from the design yet but I’m hoping the way I have laid out specific objects creates and impression of realism, which was the brief to create a realistic grouping of trash as seen outside on the streets. Admitting the background of my final render needed a bit of tweaking as the colours didn’t really fit well within the scene and the lighting I used didn’t compliment the brick wall. I spent quite a while arranging the different objects and making duplicates of assets to make it more interesting, I think it’s easier to apply good composition to something you can already move around, this is why so much planning and concepting is important before attempting to start a final piece.

 

 A few principles of organisation which can affect the composition are shape and proportion, negative space, colour, contrast, geometry, lines, lighting, repetition and perspective. This is important to remember when developing any work, another technique visual artists use is the Rule of Thirds.

 The rule of thirds is a guideline followed by some visual artists. The objective is to stop the subject(s) and areas of interest (such as the horizon) from bisecting the image, by placing them near one of the lines that would divide the image into three equal columns and rows, ideally near the intersection of those lines.

 I struggle to understand and put this into practise myself with my images but I am going to start using these guidelines and see if my work improves, if so my work should be aesthetically pleasing which means the elements must be arranged in a composition ally balanced way. Overall practising these techniques can only improve my work and then eventually I can develop the understanding of where specific elements within UDK should be placed. The sooner I learn this the better, better knowledge of this will help create decent level design and help me with our group project in the future.

 

Planning & Concepting

 This blog is still about elements of game design but I will be talking about the planning and concepting that goes into producing a successful product. The games industry relies heavily on the good solid initial planning, similar to writing a brief before you start modelling on 3ds and basically any design work in general. All artists require a base to work from, ideas need to be visually explored before they are processed and developed. I remember watching the ‘Black Hawk Down in the making’ documentary and thinking how amazing it was that this whole idea and art direction had come from small thumb nail concept art, a lot like a comic book. I found this interesting because it’s easy to assume that films/games are made from just random activities churned together in a sequence to look visually pleasing.

 Concept artists will be given an idea or a brief on the project, the artists will then take this idea and sketch from ten to a hundred thumbnails exploring the possibilities and designs. Then out of all these only a handful will be picked for further development. If this process is not carried out the likelihood of the project being a success is already at a low.

 I have recently taken a great interest in the game soon to be released called ‘the last of us’ unfortunately only on the ps3 platform and i believe to be inspired by the film 'I am Legend'. Visually the game looks stunning with such high intensity detail and game play, very similar to ‘Uncharted’ made by naughty dog. I have found that the artists James Paick from the USA actually contributed towards both of these games, designing brilliant concepts for both environments, below are a few concepts he put together for the last of us.

 

  I know these pictures don’t show the development of the concepts and only the final product, but they just so brilliant and detailed you could actually spend a long time looking at them. You can automatically tell how much work has gone into one of these images, the colour and atmosphere creates such an great image for the audience, and let’s be honest if you can accomplish this people will want to play your game. Concepts art like this makes the games so appealing for example Uncharted was so popular because the environments were so realistic and stunning due to the planning that gamers were quite happy just to walk around the level. I believe the to bring this kind detail into the game the 3d modellers have to work very closely with the 2d team trying to being the concept to life. The concept provided is never an absolute but its more than a guideline, obviously there are technical challenges to overcome so you have to allow change with assets etc. I hope to achieve this level of organisation and one day develop something as stunning as this.

Reflection & Ambition

Now I have finally made it into the second year I can start to see how much I have progressed through the first year, not just with 3ds max but with drawing, Photoshop and adopting a way of learning that suits me. Having these fundamental skills gives me the ability to concentrate less on the finals and how I’m actually going to do them and more on the ideas, concepts and planning of any projects.

For me, a stressful first year was all about learning the foundations for example, learning new software, presenting work effectively and how the course runs. I know the second year will be a lot harder and probably even more stressful (I hear in the group projects) but I have already found in this first project that I’m not worrying about as many things. Projects this year will be a lot more interesting as I have found already. This time last year I would have been panicking about weather I would have finished the work in time for the deadline, now I have finished the work with plenty of time left to so anything I don’t think is right again and I can think about the best way to present my work professionally, I have even been looking into how to make a quick video of the project. Having developed the skills and knowledge in first year allows me to think about the projects in advanced way.

‘For me. Life is continuously being hungry’ this is part of a quote from Arnold Schwarzenegger in his body building documentary I watch a while ago ‘Pumping Iron’. In this documentary Arnold is constantly eating he needs to fuel his body with high protein, high carb meals as a body builders diet is essential to succeed in any competition. Although I am interested in sports and often go to the gym, this doesn’t have much relevance to what I am studying but I found myself always using it to motivate myself. I talk about this because it’s exactly how I feel about the second year, I find with the right motivation and dedication I can succeed this year. I’m excited about the new projects and also the thought of possibly finding myself work experience through the summer!

My ambition for the second year is to leave with more than 60%, I hope to achieve this through all 3 modules but am yet to find an area I wish to pursue. A lot of people on the course know which direction they are headed for example, they want to be a character artists or environmental artists. Hopefully as I progress through the year I can think about it more and decide on which area I would succeed in. I have recently taken an interest in weapons but I’m not sure if that’s because I have been playing Borderlands 2 who won the award for the most amount of weapons in a game! Look how good these are!!

 

 

Year 2!

 

  Year 2!!!##


Well here i am in the 2nd year! Right now the emotions are high, i already have the the first few projects to complete and have had so long off will take me a few days to get back into everything! i decided to go travelling for the summer which seemed like a good idea at the time but now I'm struggling to remember anything on 3ds! Anyway i had an amazing summer in sunny Europe topping up the tan and taking plenty of photo's! I actually stumbled across some amazing architecture in Croatia as literately none of the houses are the same, everyone is unique which is far from what we have in the UK. I had so many ideas for environments for levels, the use of colour in Europe is used so much more.



So our first Game Production project is to model and texture a trash box with rubbish, i have been doing some research and taking photos around town and finding random things people would throw away. I think i will try and add a PG tips box, cereal box and a banana skin into mine as they seem like the fairly generic thing to see in trash. The brief sets a fairly realistic scene so i think ill stick to what i see out in public and add a few personal touches. General modelling of the project shouldn't be a problem, although the texture of the bin bags does look like it could be a little tricky. I think spec maps and lighting will be vital in making this look aesthetically pleasing and realistic!

 

 

This picture gives you the general idea but a bit too much for what I'm modelling. Mine will be about 4 bin bags a few box's and some cardboard. I think i should include a brick background and pavement to make it look a bit more real to life. I have 3 weeks to complete this project so hopefully it will be looking like a good bit of trash!!

 

I'm exited starting the second year and looking forward to the group projects! I will be working alot harder this year as it all counts from now on! I also attended an interesting demo given by mike about a few characters from games and how they were put together. A very useful talk gives a good understanding of how to be the most efficient you can be and how useful all the maps are because they produce such a good finish to the final!

 

Final Post

Through out the 1^st year on this course I find I have been constantly struggling to find out how I can specifically improve on different areas. Although I know we feedback sheets, which are barely readable, but they do provide us with information to help with our development, however I would love to suggest an increase in the amount of time we actually get with a lecturer. I feel that even though I have been here a year I haven’t spoke to any of the teachers for longer than a minute, obviously I understand that there are 60 students which all cry attention or maybe I’m being stupid and I’m used to the usual college teachers that nag on at you to get on with work. 

 Looking at the current state of the industry and game development I can only agree with the structure of the course no matter how intense it is I think its only preparing you for what’s actually expected at industry standard. The drawing, writing and 3d work is only increasing your chances of landing a job at the end. In a way I wish I could just learn the beast of 3ds max and solely find a job in doing so but I believe everything is just as important, developing drawing skills will make your models look realistic and believable. I do love working on 3ds Max and sometimes annoying as it is, when I can see the finish line I find it quite therapeutic.

  Looking at my own feedback sheets I am struggling with visual design, I have not passed one formative assessment yet and I am worried that what I have done won’t be enough. Practice is the only thing that helps in this course but you should always be able to see yourself improving, which I think I can.

A very important issue, which I know a lot of people, feel the same about is the labs not being open later. At the beginning of year this was a real issue for me as my unfortunately my laptop wasn’t powerful enough to run a lot of the programmes we needed to use. Now this would mean I could only use the lab computers but there not open on weekends so realistically I only have 2 days to use them. I know everyone would much appreciate the labs being open later especially 3^rd years. 

 Not sure if this will be a useful suggestion but I have wanted to look at a very successful piece of 3^rd years work in detail. I would like to see how they actually got to this idea and the process they went through to develop the work into a decent project. I think more of this would give 1^st years a better insight of how to approach their work and develop their own ideas. I know there is pictures of work posted up around but none of the initial ideas are, just a thought.  

Environments!

‘There is nothing more amateurish than arbitrary architecture’. This statement highlights the necessity for systematic and life-inspired environments within a game, which provoke a sense of realism and belief in the mind of the player. Game designers therefore have a high level of duty in determining how successful a game is through its setting and ambiance. In this way, the atmosphere of a game is essential. For example, in order to create a scary and intense atmosphere, the environment should be bleak and dark. Not only this, but the smaller details of the game e.g. features of a room or building should assist in dictating the overall ‘feeling’ of the game. Furthermore, the accessibility of a game is also dictated by the environment. Sandbox games provide this accessibility by allowing players to utilise all props and features within the game and also allow players to go anywhere they like without boundaries. In order to achieve this sense of openness, the environment must provide exciting new experiences, so that the player indulges in the exploration of ‘never-ending’ space.

 Cevat Yerli, the CEO of Crytek, admires the ‘choreographed sandbox’ style of game, which combines the freedom of sandbox games with intermediate choreographed sequences, which create the cinematic experience within the game that is so successful with audiences. Collapsing buildings and falling skyscrapers are powerful images that unfluence the atmosphere of a game. The balance between realism and stylisation is important to control, as with all aspects of the game, it is vital to maintain a realistic environment. Falling skyscrapers etc are ‘acceptable’ cinematic additions, that although are relatively fictional, help to enhance the intensity of the game.

 This is a screen shot of a game produced by Techland called Dead Island, the reason I picked this image I recently went to travel around Bali and looking back through my pictures I found that most of them look like the game environment! I love the holiday feel to the place, the colours are very vibrant and reminds me of places I have been in the past, which would make me want to play the game. I believe the concept for the game is situated in 5star hotel called The Royal Palms resort which i believe is also a hotel in Miami. This blends in with the natural beauty of Banoi just off the coast of Papa New Guinea. The game is an action packed FPS which concentrates on the close-up melee attacks, there are a vast array of weapons and combo's however this can prove to very repetitive. Although the games has negative reviews i find the environment interesting with believable architecture and a flawless tropical beaches which i think the audience can easily relate to.  

Level designers are responsible for designing and decorating a level in a way that prompts a player to navigate in a certain way. A back story is essential to achieving a play pathway. A realistic storyline, which can be realised on screen, enables all departments to express it through art, animation and sound.

Characters

 The expression ‘you always want, what you can’t have ‘is very fitting when talking about characters in books, games, TV and films. I think the audience creates an emotional attachment to that character in different ways for example, women fall in love with Edward Cullen from the twilight series because he is seen to be the perfect man where as men like him because they want to be him.   Personally I love characters that possess individual qualities/special powers that I could never have, for example Dante from Devil May Cry is a demon mercenary that uses super human abilities to make his way through objectives. I don’t like him just because he can jump around using multiple combo attacks on people, that’s a bonus, the storyline, his personality, looks, movements, style, flair and voice all contribute into a very likeable character which you want to interact with. Every quality is as important as the next and I think if you get all these correct your character will be a success in any category. I believe game company’s know that they have to tick all the right boxes when developing a game but originality is the difficult part, finding something that’s new and exciting but will interest core gamers to keep playing and wanting more. I find characters at the moment are always quite eccentric, they stand out in a way that captures your attention, and this is just one of the many techniques developers must use to create a successful character. Attention to detail especially in game characters is so important as this is what the gamer will be looking at for the majority of the game, in most cases the character you play with will be very easy on the eye, so facially good looking and attire instantly make you like the person. 

 The script is very important as I think trying to make the connection between story-line, character, drama and environment is  very hard, if this is wrong the game would end up uninteresting and boring, a failure. You will know how important acting is from films, bad actor means bad film it’s the same principle with all media except games are not as realistic. First impressions mean a lot in games so the appearance of a character can determine the same of that game, personally if I pick up a game and see how cool the character looks and I like the concept I’ll most likely buy it. I have a very bland view on what’s right and wrong with stories and almost all of the time its good vs. evil and then good win. I suppose it’s all about what happens within that story and weather gamers will be interested in it or not however I don’t really have a favourite plot/storyline I could pick out.