It was a while ago now, however I recently revisited this project so I'd like to give it a mention. I really enjoyed this project as well, just the same as I have enjoyed the other character design projects so far. I really love the process of going from research stage, exploring possibilities, to finalising the character. I liked this project the best so far, because I felt it was quite versatile and open for all sorts of possible outcomes. Really, our only specifications for this project were to produce a humanoid character based on the 'Reef'. Interpreting this as the barrier reef, I started to search for research material and produced these mood boards.
I was finding most of my research from Pinterest, which I found an such a valuable source for finding interesting and inspiring pictures. I realised whilst I was gathering my images that I was maybe even too inspired. What I mean by this is that everything I found was inspiring me in some way or another. I had to narrow my searches. I chose a few creatures that interested me the most and created further mood boards.
From the mood boards I compiled, I started to produce quick silhouettes of potential characters. At first I found it quite difficult to come up with different ideas and different directions to take them in, but I realised that this was because I was becoming too quickly attached to certain ideas. Oh dear... From the silhouettes I developed my favourite further unto a more established design.
There are elements I really like about this design, such as the main lobster body being used as a sort of helmet and covering her eyes like a visor. It looks like it could be armour (admittedly sparsely situated armour) but I quite liked the idea of her being an un-willing experiment, an attempt of making a super soldier sub-species.
After I had finalised the elements of my character like colour etc, I had to start thinking about setting. I decided that she would have escaped and would be in hiding, somewhere abandoned and derelict. After I had decided this, I created a couple of idea sheets for inspiration. After picking one of my favourites I created a final of her in that situation. I would like to experiment with some of the others at some point though, if I get chance.
We then had to start modelling our character. I used a material that I used to use a lot when I was younger, called Fimo. Unlike the clay material I used for my last modelling project, it was incredibly easy to mould, so I was able to get a lot more detail into the finished model. After I had finished modelling it, I wanted to paint her. I used acrylics to begin with, but I hated the finish. Using half of my makeup wipes, I removed the paint and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the residue paint left a lovely bone effect on the model. I'd love to say I did this on purpose but nah, it was a happy accident. A technique I'd like to adopt for the future though.
I felt like I never did a proper final for this project though, not one that I could be really pleased with, so I decided to do another piece to revisit this project. I am much more pleased with this piece, and I feel like I really understand the colours and anatomy of my character.
As of last week, we first-ies of DMUGA have been presented with a horrifying task. We are to give a presentation, following a sort of 'Pecha Kucha' way of presenting. Working to such specific time lines feels quite daunting, especially when I, at the moment, have no idea what to talk about.
I suppose I need to think now about what interests me? What, when I look at it, sparks an intrigue in me, making me want to take a second look? What do I look at, with a growing urge to pick up a pencil and draw? The list is too great to even begin, so I suppose the problem isn't being that I can't find anything, perhaps more that I need to be more selective in my choosing.
At the moment it seems to be one of two things, which can often intertwine. I like things that are maybe a bit unsettling, like Victorian post-mortem photographs, for one example. Well, actually, I hate them. But I am strangely drawn to them at the same time. I have no idea what that is about, it's the same impulse to watch movies that you KNOW will stop you sleeping, but you go ahead and watch anyway, because you secretly love the thrill of the uneasiness you feel. What I mean by this is that images that seem slightly spooky are very interesting to me. Not if it's in an obvious way though.
This photograph for instance. It's haunting and beautiful and I feel like there's a story somewhere here. I don't know, it may just be a thing personal to me, but I love the unsettling feeling in this, even though there is nothing actually.. wrong here- wait! What's that shadow at the the top of the stairs? A fantastic video to maybe watch is a video by YouTube channel Vsauce. In this video, he explains about a lot of what we find creepy is because of ambiguity. Same as all of Vsauce's videos, this is very interesting, and yeah.. a bit creepy.
On the other hand, I like history a lot. Yes, in the sense of textbook learning, I am unashamed to admit that history was one of my favourite subjects, and actually one of the things I miss the most about school. Visually though, I mean history more in the sense of decay and abandonment. This in part is actually where my fascination with the Chernobyl Disaster comes from. I love looking at photographs of long ago deserted places, places that are still littered with relics of their past. I don't know, this may be part of that uneasy feeling they cause perhaps? Pinterest is filled with fantastic examples of this.
I absolutely love images like this because I think they have a fantastic atmosphere. They're so derelict and empty and it truly looks like it was just abandoned over night. I mean, in this case it was, but there's an eerie sense about them that truly gives the indication of a ghost town.
It's not just this though. Some of my favourite inspiration comes from artists that I love. Keith Thompson for instance, the subject of my previous post, has been a favourite of mine for a long time. It's a strange thing that only now do I notice I use the same key words when discussing his works. EERIE. STRANGE. UNSETTLING. Maybe I need to broaden my views.
Other artists I love.. hmm. Well, a lot of my favourite art is from games. I LOVE the art in a game by Arcane Studios called Dishonored. I think the whole game is beautiful too, but the concept art is especially brilliant. I think, actually, that I like pretty much all the design elements of this game. Even down to small elements of the game, like in game posters and portraits, are just so beautiful in their own right.
These are some of the character pieces for the game, and what I love about them is that they're a little bit stylized. This caricature kind of style is something that is carried through into the game and I think it makes it more intriguing.
A good example here with the 'Outsider'. The model even seems to carry across the same painting-like quality that the concept images have.
The poster art is beautiful throughout too. I think I like the posters so much because they remind me of vintage advertisement posters, which in my opinion are way more pleasing to the eye than today's advertisements.
See what I mean? They have a more illustrative quality that really appeals to me. They're dreary, but written with the same sort of upbeat, urgent kind of advertisement. Now! Do this now! You need this now! Compared to the style of the adverts of now, they're way more visually appealing. Of course, it may be because they have that kind of vintage look of old fashioned posters, which makes sense because for some reason or another, vintage INSTANTLY seems to be quite attractive. Maybe because around the 50s, culture was becoming more adventurous and sex was becoming fashionable. Back to Dishonored though.
Art Direction Task
How would I write about this game, or even start to present it? I should try and understand WHY it has appeal and to do this, I need to consider composition, shape and form, colour, lighting, mood, personal appeal, etc.
This is an environmental piece for Dishonored, showing The Golden Cat, which is a pleasure house in the game. This bit is actually quite grim, as the back rooms, where the girls live, are dingy and dirty. The composition of this piece is quite subtle. It vaguely uses the rule of thirds, which is good because it means that it's not central and symmetrical. If it were, our eye would be drawing straight to the centre, and probably wouldn't stray around too much. This is only really good if you want your audience's eye to be drawn straight to the centre, if that is your obvious subject. The balcony section curves round, which takes our visual field across the whole of the image. A lot of the other shapes in this are curved or circular, the seats being in a cylindrical fashion. The colours are in parts quite rich with reds, golds and greens, but also a little dark and dull. I think that this reflects well the nature of the place, because it's made to look quite grand and luxurious, however a lot of dark deeds go on here. The lamps are the brightest section of the image, so our eyes are drawn to that. They illuminate the plants below, but cast the figures in shadow. The other point of light in the image comes from the woman standing against the wall on the far side, where the light hits her. The mood is calm, but as I said previously, the darkness in the image indicates the dreariness and depravity in which these girls live, and the other dark happenings that take place. It seems to be a way of saying, on the surface, all is good. It appeals to me for these reasons, and I just love the lighting and subtle detail in this piece. It achieves a lot of complexity with less marks and shapes than it would actually first appear.
Last week marked the end of the Gladiator project and the beginning of more stressful beginnings. Meaning, we are now learning how to use UDK.
Back to the Gladiator though! I adored this project! Apart from rigging. That can go away. I think part of the reason I enjoyed this project so much though was because I was starting to incorporate some of the concept and design techniques that I had learnt in Visual Design. I started by researching classes of gladiators and creating inspirational mood boards to help me whilst designing my own.
From here, I started creating some simple designs to build on, picking my favourite variation and taking it straight to orthographic designs. I was working out the problems as I went along where possible, but I didn't want to labour too long on these possibilities because I knew that time was draining away with this project.
I drew a very quick digital final, eager to get on with my model. I enjoyed the modelling process, because I feel I am becoming quite comfortable with that now. It certainly doesn't cause me the same stress that it did in the beginning! UV unwrapping was a bit tricky at first, but that worked out fine too and I was really proud of my textures once they were done. The design of my model changed in very minor ways as I went along, so I did another final piece. I spent longer on this, and drew it to look like the model I had created.
The only thing I really didn't get on with was rigging. That's unfair, I suppose. The main problem with rigging was that it felt kind of like treading on eggshells. The labs were filled with voices of 'Whatever you do! Don't collapse the skin modifier!' and someone groaning when trying to reset the x-form and the model practically imploding. Those groans may or may not have been from me.
I think that really, like with the rest of Max, I will become more comfortable with it in time, and with practice. Which is what I intend to do! Practice practice practice!
This is a final presentation of renders for my model for this project. I am most proud of the textures on this model, and although it isn't perfect, I can honestly say I have enjoyed this project more than any other in Game Production so far and raised the question in my head... someday, could this be what I want to do? Be a 3d character artist? I would have to practice like crazy to nail the rigging down to a T, but conceivably, I think it would be something I would enjoy doing, and is something I'm starting to consider for the future.
