GAC-Game Art Conference 2014

This week I attended an extended critical studies session in the library called the Game Art Conference, and it was pretty awesome. Based on past experiences of things like this from previous education, where you would spend the whole day listening to people talking constantly but not actually saying anything. I thought this wouldn't be inspiring or informative but I couldn't believe how wrong I was.

The day started up bright and early as the year sat down for the introduction talks setting up the structure for the day. The day was to be divided into 4 time periods where you could choose to attend one of three different time classes in these periods. This was a fantastic idea because it meant that you could choose to tailor the day to your own needs and maximize your growth in the subjects.

My first session I attended was called "Learning From Your Peers" in which some of us first years got an opportunity to hear what the course was like from a third and second year perspective. We got to explore how the course has changed since we came and talk about the effect moving to a new faculty and building had on the community. This gave us a chance to understand more about why this course is good because we share ideas in a studio based environment. I've come to the realisation that I really do need to spend more time in labs on the higher floors so I can get more opportunities to learn from fellow students who have already gone through my plight and learnt so much.

After that I attended a "Have a Go" session where we got to review our blogs and do some more posts. I took this opportunity to finish some drafts of posts I was writing (see my digital painting post). One thing that also happened out of this was that I got a chance to look through other peoples blogs which I hadn't actually seen before. This put what I was doing in perspective and gives me a benchmark to use. This has affected me and I'm now going to follow more industry professionals blogs so I can see what is out there, what to work to and what I've got to become better than if I want a job.

Next session was another informative period where Chris and Mitch (VD tutors) took us through an exploration of our critical thinking skills. We looked at the art direction of The Last Of Us and saw how the creative language provided to the concept artists helped shape the game visually. This jumped out at me because I was always unsure how producers and publishers who are sometimes extremely un-artistic might plan and pitch games which could have such amazing visual meaning behind it.

We then applied the skills we just talked about in a group exercise where we evaluated stills from movies like Aliens and... Blade Runner (good thing I just evaluated that). This was a fun practise of using verbal communication to describe the visual side of something.

Next we had to verbalise key words in 30 seconds and then describe a scene for the future Last Of Us film.

My one was the idea of having two figures in the foreground on a sun-baked road in a city where the evening sun cast long shadows from the dark dilapidated buildings. A light sky contrasts the dark purple/blue shadows. On the side of the road there is a ruined signpost that is being engulfed by trees and or weeds that entwine themselves around the metal and block out the name of the city representing how the civilization of man is lost now and nature is reclaiming it. Trashed cars show how man has abandoned the old lifestyles and gone to live in the wilds. Ellie and Joel are now walking through this ghost town.

What was crazy is that my description got chosen to be visually interpreted by Mitch who turned it into the coolest concept art! Check it out!

Remember this was made by Mitch Small I was just the art director.

I really thought the day was a well constructed day with plenty of things to learn and because of the choice you felt like you controlled your learning process and not like you were being leaded along. I would really like this to happen every year and If possible bring the other years into it more so it becomes a real mixing learning together situation. Also it would be great to see If any ex-students turned professional could come join in with future ones and eventually make it like a proper conference.

Make way GDC here comes GAC!

Digital Painting update

If you remember a couple of weeks ago I had the reef character project where I did enjoy some aspects but during the project I stumbled when it came to digital painting. Since then I've been doing a bit more digi painting and in such a short time I have noticed a slight improvement which is encouraging and I know I need to do more if I want to get good. I'm still having some trouble with colors so I'm going to read up some books on color theory and start doing simple paintings that are more about color then shape or form, so lots of seascapes is a good idea because I can get used to getting color right and also brush types and what kind of brush is best for me.

I have been seeking the advice of some of my peers who are very talented at digital panting and so far have received many opposing views for a beginner like me so I coming to a conclusion that many have sort have figured it out by themselves and it's a very personal journey. Some say find brush that suits you, others to only stick to the standard default brush until i'm more knowledgeable. Many different techniques are being thrown my way and I'm not quite sure where to go.

Just because i'm confused it doesn't mean that I can't try things out anyway. I recently did a digital piece of a still from the film Blade Runner this was just a grey scale but I was taking more time to blend the strokes to make the values work.

I've also done some color thumbnails for the recent Bradgate project. I had some trouble with color and changed brushes so I could try different ways of working.

I'm quite happy with my progress but I still realize that I have along way to go.

Career Roadmap

Even though I'm still not 100% on where I want to go in my career I understand that I need to be planning for the future now. There are many amazing fields to get involved in concept art, environment artist, 3D artist and Animators are roles that particularly interest me and are subjects that I want to get involved in. However, every time I research more about roles in the industry and further explore sites like Gamasutra I find that there are lots of different jobs that are less well known but still things I find interesting. Things like storyboard artists and pre visualization jobs get my mind flowing with ideas and make me question exactly where I want to go.

This doesn't mean that I shouldn't walk around unsure of what to do. The best course of action is to keep learning in my own time and concentrating on practising my skills. I will also make a roadmap towards a career I'm interested so I can work on what skills to improve upon and learn. I will do this by going on the companies websites and look at what the requirements for a job are.

JOB :

Environment Artist at Arkane Studios in Lyon, France.

Responsibilities:

The main responsibilities of the job will be to model and texture 3D assets using concept art and/or reference materials to assist me. Follow the Art Directors  standards so the games style is the same in the modelling, lighting and textures. I must also make sure the work is compliant with technical specifications and create feedback for the Lead Environment Artist, Art Director and Level Architect.

Requirements:

Advanced knowledge of  Maya(3D) and Photoshop skills are required as well as a strong passion for iconic culture (comics, movies, books and other games). I must also have a good knowledge of normal map creation software packages like Zbrush or xNormal. Experience with engines like Unreal, Cryengine and Unity is a plus. Good English communication skills (written and verbal) are also required.


My Response:
So there is lots to learn, the software packages like Maya, Zbrush and xNormal are something I must study further (as well as improving my photoshop skills too of course). It said engine experience is a plus so it will be fantastic to learn those to improve any chances. Looking at soft skills, good English communication is massively important especially when you have to go back and forth between the Art Director, Lead Artists and Level Architects. I have spotted something else that might be a plus. Even though English is required the studio itself is in France so being able to speak French is also a plus in case any employees are better at speaking in French and might find it hard to verbalise complex directions in English.


Plan of Action:
So I was already starting to learn Zbrush but over Easter get to grips with it some more and keep setting projects for every two or three weeks for the rest of the year. I will also take a look at Maya in the summer and see more about that and as I improve on my 3DSmax skills also see how to do the same things in Maya. Photoshop skills will constantly be improved in my 3D and 2D lessons so just keep doing work that is set as well as personal work and it should be fine. Learning French has already begun because I'm planning on visiting Canada but I must remember to really keep it up. My dad speaks French fluently because we used to live there and I must practice by having conversations with him in the language. My writing skills really need to improve as well as my grammar and spelling is quite atrocious (spelt that right first time).

References:

Job details and information
http://jobs.zenimax.com/requisitions/view/527

Space Centre: Where I Am Now

Right so just before Christmas I was given the task to draw some thumbs and a final at the location of the National Space Centre here in Leicester. This is quite a funky looking building and has some cool exhibits inside so I was quite excited to get this project under way. When I look back at that project I realise that this was when I was starting to up my ante and I was just beginning to really push myself to put in the time and effort. I was doing more self directed study and throwing myself into new tasks which was admittedly not exactly what I was doing before. I did 5 A3 pages of thumbnails and a final of the sputnick replica.

I was quite happy with some of thumbs and I was definitely showing progression from my earlier drawings on the course.

Since then I have really upped my game and every week I do a secondary project on top of all my other work. I have now been able to use time management to increase my productivity and I attend labs everyday so I can focus better (I'm typing this in the labs now when back in the 1st semester a blog post like this would take twice as long because I would have all the distractions at my flat). This increase in productivity is something I am really enjoying and the more I work the more I enjoy what I get out of it. When I first started working at the labs I would go home and have a rest for a couple of hours before bed but now I even start doing work. Little bit at a time I do slightly more and this will start reflecting in my skills soon.

Now back to the subject of the space centre. Recently we were told to do another space centre project to show improvements from the earlier attempt. I did find this quite funny at the time though because I had just a couple of days before done a self directed study of the space centre during my reef and gladiator projects. So I used my time to do 4 A3 pages filled with tightly packed thumbnails that were of a nice quality and a A3 final. I decided to combine this work with the self directed work because they were done at the same time. My technique has improved and my speed at doing the thumbnails has increased.

I think even though the quality hasn't improved loads I know my speed a the amount of work I do has. During this space centre project I also finished a 3D project made a presentation (about Blade Runner) and I did a self directed project on the Abbey pumping station. I've learnt how to keep working and the more I work the better I will become.

Reef character... and new lessons are learnt

Recently I had another character project to work on but this time it had to be inspired by the motif "Reef" this could be anyway I wanted, shape and form, colours, rhythms etc... So I started this project as strong as I could by getting books out from the library on reefs and sea sides. Moodboards were made and I looked at the colours typically found in coral reefs. I really liked the idea that the reef was alive and there was personality to the different structures and rhythms inside it.

After the moodboards I drew some pictures a creatures from the reef and reef based humans (fishermen). These thumbnails were done so I could understand some of the qualities of this reef motif. Drawing turtles particularly interested me because they had this bored lacklustre feeling about them. Like they were tired but knew they had to do what they were doing. They also had some interesting patterns on the shells and the silhouette of the head was quite angular and squared off.

I continued exploring shapes and silhouettes in many ways. I couldn't find one thing that particularly gripped me. I did many early designs and found it hard to develop one I felt was strong enough after lots of thumbnails both of silhouettes and little sketches.

I eventually settled on a design of a scuba man. He has quite a square head with the facial features disguised by his breathing apparatus. I imagined him as this slumped not happy henchman for a sea theme super villain. Just tottering about doing his job from day to day ( a bit of a yes man).

So the next part was testing out this design and making some changes to the body and head. To do this I decided to use digital painting because its something I'm still trying to understand. With the head sections it went really well and I've found that I'm ok in grey scale. The problem was doing the finals where I used colour I realised there so much I've got to practice and work at before I can do any decent designs. So what I got out of this project was that I'm understanding the process now and I know how to generate ideas but I need to work on my skills so I can put these concepts down effectively.

Blade Runner: Art analysis

First things first before you read this I strongly suggest you go and watch Blade Runner because this post is just an art analysis of that film. If you don't want to listen to my advice because your some sort of rebel maybe you will watch this fantastic piece of cinema after you read this.

Blade Runner is a science fiction film set in a cyberpunk vision of Los Angeles in the year 2019. This is a world where industry and commercialization has grown and throughout the city advertisements are everywhere. It's also technologically advanced and the plot revolves around a Blade Runner name Decker who has to hunt 4 genetically engineered robots called replicants that are violent and look just like humans. The amazingly well crafted world that it takes place in are what really brings it together and every environment in the film reinforces what's happening in the story. The awesome cinematography, music and concepts make the world seem as real as can be.

LA 2019

Blade Runner borrows many parts of both its themes and style from Metropolis which is essentially the first big sci-fi film and has defined many aspects of science fiction. Made in 1927 it shows a far off future with massive and crowded cities where towering skyscrapers are entwined with many overpasses and networks of roads. Hundreds of connected buildings tightly packed where manufacturing plants are toiled over by the masses. The architecture and look of the film uses Art Deco which was a new movement at the time and the film pushed it onto the big screen.

Metropolis and it art deco style also helped influence Bioshock.

The plot of Blade Runner is very much a detective story and there is a strong sense of film noir coming into it. Scenes with lots of important dialogue use lighting conditions and the colour pallets to give deep impact to scene and help set the visual tone which reinforces the characters exchanges.

The aesthetics of the film use retro-futurism to ground the sci-fi elements of the film in reality by using styles that exist. In the case of Blade Runner the costumes of the characters are all inspired by the fashion of the 1940's and the 1920's. The bar scene has lots of designs that scream of the old vaudeville acts of the 20's and the main characters attire is that commonplace in 40's america. The architecture has an art deco feel to it and these towering structures have lots of decal and signs in light which was popular in the 40's. The ending takes place in the Bradbury building which is this old building that perfectly demonstrates this retro futurist vibe with old style lifts and awnings that have this old feel. In the films its run down with garbage and rubbish on the floors but your reminded that there's this futuristic world out side by these powerful beams of light cutting through the cracks and the blinds where flying cars and ships drift around outside.

The Bradbury building was also in 500 Days of Summer

The film really has two different colour themes running throughout the film and one of them will always dominate a scene depending on what's happening and where its happening. One is comprised of rich yellows and bronzed oranges which harken back to Art Deco in some ways. This scheme is often used in the high rises and the rich offices the Tyrell corporation. It's also used in the extravagant bar scenes where vaudeville acts occur.

Syd Mead's awesome concept art

The second colour scheme uses the colder colours with mainly blues and some green hues to show the gritty city and have this dark moody feel throughout the film. This colour theme is used more on the city streets and in interrogation scenes where a dark cold atmosphere is used to keep this noir feel.

Here I have two of my favourite stills from the film here. The first one shows this excellent shot of one of the characters running out of the door. The strong lines of the light and shadow on the floor lead into the figure in this very active pose with lots of movement. The dark surroundings are illuminated by the neon lights which are place diagonally so they are again leading the eye to the character.

The second still is towards the end of the film and shows the main character looking around a room of mannequins searching for a replicant who is hiding in the scene. All the heads of the figures in this shot are in line breaking up the image and leading your eye along the line so you see that they are similar so the replicant is hidden. The mannequins are shrouded in this orange colour and so the main character is pushed forward by the subtle blues that surround him. The white light creates a gradient on the still from the top left to the bottom right and heavily illuminates the mannequin that is actually the replicant in disguise.

Blade Runners living world that is filled with mood and tension has now become a land mark in sci-fi and has gone on to inspire many of the things we see and play today. Fifth Element, Deus Ex, Cyberpunk 2077 and ghost in the shell to name but a few.

Cyberpunk 2077

References:

  http://d2vo5twcnd9mdi.cloudfront.net/uploads_ca52e37f-d3e5-4cb0-9b0d-8e10f2adb724-blade-runner-2-movie.jpeg
Blade Runner Poster

http://frankensteinnow.wikispaces.com/file/view/Blade_Runner.jpg/92840908/Blade_Runner.jpg
Image of a still from the film Blade Runner 1982

http://www.leninimports.com/metropolis.jpg
Metropolis poster. photoshopped image of original Fritz Lang poster.

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/cinquevolte/Blade%20Runner/2-13.jpg
Image of a still from the film Blade Runner 1982

https://derricklferguson.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/blade_runner___rachel_by_maxhitman-d39c7r5.jpg
Image of a still from the film Blade Runner 1982

http://www.sauceforthoughts.dreamhosters.com/wp/home/.mashenka/edwardlcohen/sauceforthoughts.dreamhosters.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Blade_Runner_Concept_1.png
Concept art for Blade Runner

http://wharferj.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/bladerunner_bradbury_1.jpg
Images of two stills from the film Blade Runner 1982

http://www.pinterest.com/caseorganic/bladerunner-concept-art/
Concept art pieces by Syd Mead

http://payload42.cargocollective.com/1/0/128/3149179/40-deckard-arrives1_905.jpg
Image of a still from the film Blade Runner 1982

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/8200000/Blade-Runner-Promotional-Still-blade-runner-8230044-2560-1070.jpg
Image of a still from the film Blade Runner 1982

http://www.overclockers.ru/images/soft/2014/01/23/cyberpunk_1_big.jpg
Image from the trailer for Cyberpunk 2077

Are you not entertained?... Gladiator Project

Making a Gladiator

Right so recently I've been working on my 3D skills and as a project I made a gladiator. This is my first time character modelling and it was an interesting exercise in making the topology flow around the model to create the organic shapes of a human. The tri budget for this gladiator was 2800 tris and we had to rig it with a budget of 28 bones. I did enjoy this project because I used a lot of new tools and modifiers for the first time so it has broadened my knowledge of 3ds max and modelling in general. Because I rigged it I also had some fun loading in animations and testing the rig. I also eventually animated the camera so it followed the gladiator as he did a dance.

I used box modelling to make the body, hands and head separately referring to the same references so they all matched. I then attached them all together to form the complete body. I then modelled in the armour and weapons and attached them to the object. As part of the armour I use the poly draw tool which allowed me to draw planes around the shape of the gladiator. I used pelt unwrapping and view port canvas when making the textures and unwraps where my knowledge of unwrapping increased. I made use of welding the seams together in the unwrap so I could remove as many seams as possible however this did mean that the texture space wasn't used as effectively as possible. Using these new tools meant I was understanding more about how to make my models and reinforced the skills I already knew. During the last 3D project I was just trying to grasp the way a good topology would work but as I worked through this project I am truly starting to understand it. If I keep working hard eventually I might be a decent 3D artist. And seeing as I'm doing lots of 3D work when I'm not drawing I probably will.

What I've learnt the most though is effective time management. In the past I only really applied this to manage my 2D process because that was something I struggled with but as I have been upping my workload and productivity every couple of weeks I decided to apply it to this project and it worked wonders. Normally I must admit with the 3D projects so far I will be quickly finishing it on the hand-in date but with this project I have finished with 4 days spare. This has given me time to present the work well. I have added a camera to one of my saves and rendered it out as an animation where the camera follows the gladiator around.

I'm definitely going to continue putting my all in especially now I see that balance between my 3D and 2D pays off. My gladiator is also on my sketchfab page.