Side-scroller Art Dump!

Just for the sake of it, here is a load of the concept work i completed for our side-scroller project! Including the ugly stuff!

Hot air balloons anyone?

Some concepts looking into enemy plants, these were scrapped as they weren't happy.

Year 3 Side-Scroller

Side-Scroller Project

Throughout the last seven weeks we have been working on creating a four level side-scrolling game that functions well with mechanics within the UDK4 engine. Four levels split up, one level between three environment artists, one concept artist and one character artist. We looked at similar games such as Trine, Limbo, Rayman etc - we eventually decided we wanted a more realistic look with a touch of fantasy, similar to Trine. 

Happy!

Out of the four key words for each level; Hot, Cold, Happy and Scary we were given Happy. Now originally when the word came up I did scowl a small amount at the screen, I felt this would be a very difficult word to work around considering each level had to be from the same world and all had to link together in a similar style. Our group struggled through the first couple of weeks getting any basic ideas thrown out, as it seemed the information we were being given by tutors was very contradictory. Something along the lines of “Don’t just use your idea of happiness, get out there and find out what makes most people happy!” But then giving us reference images of candy and “Pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows.” Now I actually wouldn't have had any problem working on a candy based level if it was separate from this project, however as all the levels had to look like one world and had to link like the environments were possible it became very stressful and most of us became quite disheartened very early into the project.

We originally were looking at zen gardens and the idea of having a resting place level after starting quite intensely with hot, however everyone kept asking "but is it happy?" and in the end we were suggested to drop it and make something more obviously happy. RIP Zen Garden.

So then we began looking into colour schemes, things more obviously happy (bubbles, dandelions, autumn etc.) But again we struggled a lot coming up with something solid we all liked. This is something we messed around with for about a week until we came to the realization that nothing we were drawing matched what the tutors really wanted from us.

 Luckily we managed to come up with a basic layout and colour scheme after realizing we had to stop listening to what we were being told to do and just take over to create something we believed would work better. After many smaller thumbnails this became the concept everything started from:

The colour palette of the sky barely changed from that of this original to our final product on hand in day.

From this point onwards our main concept artist and ourselves as a team started bashing out ideas around this skeleton until finally we settled on something we would work from.

 I personally worked more in 3d as concept art was not my strong point, even though I did a fair bit of drawing. So I took up white boxing (the original white box I created did not function as well though and was later re-made using my white boxed assets.) From there we could do some paint overs and start bashing out some smaller finished assets.

 Now note I was suppose to be an environment artist during this project it seemed that instead I worked into concepts and character artist as well, originally I just created a white box, then a hot air balloon static mesh, however I then moved onto working on Fin’s space whale design. This gave me a chance to learn some Zbrush – a bit late really but now I know how it works at least, also a chance to work with setting up bones and animations back in 3ds Max. I wasn't majorly happy with the animation but it served as basic movement for what we needed it to do.

Then towards the end I worked on a couple of smaller assets, a bonsai tree and texturing the lily-pad tree just so it had something on it (although this was also remade by another member of our team.)

Overall I feel we could have been much happier with our outcome if we weren't so stressed out trying to figured out how to make our level feel happy, I feel this project has been quite unorganized however it has also given me good experience in a project like this. Although I would suggest scrapping the word happy and using something more literal, rather than something physiological. I also feel like a lot of time was spent doing bits and pieces that I didn't have many final finished assets to show off compared to our last project that was only two weeks long. I'm not disappointed in our group or our final outcome, far from it. I feel we all worked our best considering all the problems we faced, I just wish there was something more to see by the end of the project, which is a little bit of a let down. Hopefully this will change during FMP.

King...Queen of the Dead

It's almost Halloween, that time of year every dentist hates; kids running around asking for sweets in their homemade costumes spooking all the neighbors(well not really but don't tell them that!) What better way to  begin October with such a spooky project, or so we thought...

 "King of the Dead" - what does it mean to you? To me I see a big looming guy on his chair of skulls, or maybe a throne of corpses from the zombie apocalypse with the human smugly sitting, guns in hand and smoking upon his kills. You get the idea, some big scary presence on a big scary chair looming over his subjects. However the title does not have to be taken so literally... Which you will see a little later on.

So first we got into our groups and brainstormed, pinterested(?) and designed our original ideas, going down the route of voodoo and New Orleans, bringing up some interesting concepts. However we had the problem that everyone had different conflicting ideas of how the level should look, gender and design on the character and such, not only that but the level was becoming very dark and dull, it seemed overdone and boring. So we began anew...

Yeah this is an awful drawing, so why did I put it on here? Because this bad drawing is what began our chosen project, who could be a more fitting "King of the Dead" that a chubby 10/12 year old kid hiding in his room playing MMO game such as Call Of Duty or Halo online? of course he has to be good at it, but we all agreed that this idea could be pulled off and could work well. It was unique and interesting, plus we all pretty much knew how we wanted our level to look. Sure it had a lot of changes throughout.

Our level concept moved on quickly based around this idea, I found myself in charge of face concepts:

We decided to follow a pixar-style theme with our character, as there are so many examples of good character design throughout their productions, we didn't want to create a character who would look disturbing or unfitting, for example this:

Just no. So instead we concentrated on making everything more exaggerated and colourful yet still maintaining some realism.

Although I quickly left the character design to another member and moved onto asset design. In total I created five assets for our scene using 3DS Max, Mudbox, Photoshop and eventually UDK. This was another great chance to learn a new program. i am very late on the scene for using Mudbox but decided to finally give it a try for texturing and a little baking. The final results are as follows:

Two weeks, concepts and models complete our level looks good, yeah there are things we could've done better, but overall our team worked well together, kept in contact and overall produced a successful project. At the end

End of the year!

May 2014, another year has come and gone so fast yet  feel I have learned so much. Concentrating more on visual design I have gone from drawing thumbnails like this:

To these:

 

 

 

 

And a piece like this, that took me approximately 12 hours:

 

 

To this, that took me 5:

 

 I feel like I have developed my skills much faster than I thought I could. It has been an enjoyable year and although stressful at times -  mostly down to bad time management, I feel like I have learned a lot.

  People come to university to learn specific skills, without it I would not have had the chance to learn what I have. For me specifically, where else could I go to learn 3d Art Design? College offer small courses and I can learn so much for independent study, but those options don’t particularly offer contacts in industry or the technology to create what I have today. People go to university to learn and develop skills which they are confident in, or to learn something new. I go to university to continue my education in a more specific area. Also partially because I didn’t know what to do after school, which is a scary thing to know.

  I hope, after I leave university I will have industry level skills in 3d design and concepting,  or atleast very close to industry standard, so I can then continue to practice and over time be desired by companies for a more permanent contract. I would prefer to find a placement in a company that freelance, but in our current generation you take what you can get.

 There has always been higher education, but nothing like what we have today. We have access to resources that didn’t exist a decade ago, there are courses for pretty much anything you could want to study. Starting this year courses have become much more expensive – depending on where you live and circumstances of course, but on my course the teaching standard and work has been worth every penny.

It is not just about the work or what I learn in classes, but about general life skills. Paying those first bills, learning how to run a house, living on your own and gaining that independency has been an interesting ride with ups and downs. But I must admit it has been nice living alone.

 

 

 

 

  I feel that  have lied to myself over the past year, saying how “I will get better with my time management! Promise!” yet here I am doing this blog last minute. Actually past last minute.

  I really do hope I can get my shit together in time for next year, in time for final major project. I plan on spending the summer in Leicester more so than at home (par a holiday in the middle) and I plan on spending that time practicing in 3d and visual design. Although I have gotten a lot faster over this year at producing high standard (or so I hope) work, there is always room for improvement.  I also hope to get a few blogs including work out and the process I will go through on each piece. Maybe some speed painting… I don’t know! Let us see what this summer brings.

 

Srs Bsns. University, Life Changing or Career Building?

'Why spend three years teaching folk what we already know?' 
* 
Warren Spector, GDC 2006 

 University is NOT the same as high school or sixth form. You will not be spoon-fed all the information you need to know to pass. The tutors will give you tutorials and information on your tasks, but other than that it is up to you to go away, research and produce work to make you pass the course. If you fail its due to your own negligence, not up to the tutors because they didn't give you the exact piece of information you wanted to know.

 

 I would imagine the industry to be exactly the same. You will not be praised for every piece of work, you will not be comforted when you stress over an asset or design, you get stuck in and find out what you need to know to get the job done. It is difficult in a course like mine to be taught everything as there is so much to know. To most people starting the course they will have never touched 3D, never heard of an engine or know anything about what it is that makes a game yet within just two years I feel like I have learn't an equal amount on my subject to all the work I have done to get me to the point of university... If that makes sense. Basically I have learnt a lot. 

 Sadly the industry we strive to enter is always changing. There will always be new software to learn, always a trick that you didn't know about before and it is us who has to make sure we know everything and to keep up. If you spend all your time becoming amazing in one specific engine then great for you! You are good at one engine. Now you're a year behind, so forget that one and go learn the newest software. It is like trying to keep up with technology which is bloody hard when there is so much else going on in the world.

 So what is it potential employers will look for? Is it being amazing at a specific subject (specialization?) 

Is it being good at everything rather than one specific thing? Is it who you are as a person and the soft skills you have? Why can't it be all of the above?
 Simply put, an employer can look for whatever they want in a person. If you don't have it you won't get a job, simple.

 You need to remember to research fully the company you're applying to and what it is they're looking for. Some companies prefer highly trained individuals and some prefer people they can teach. I would say it would be best to keep your cup half full, or if its already full of knowledge, then be flexible and open minded to learning new skills. You need to be able to take criticism and to improve on the comments you have received. Your work could look amazing to you but not necessarily to industry standards. It is good to stay open minded as you never know what new information you will need to learn in the future for work.

To answer the question asked in my title, you take your skills you learn at university and apply them however you want, whatever feels right. It is difficult to teach what is constantly changing and updating, but if you yourself can keep up with these changes then you will hopefully go far. I hope your time in University has been as amazing and life changing as mine has been.

 

(Sorry guys no pictures here, I don't have anything witty to write about, this is Srs bsns.)

Creativity

"What is creativity?" if only there was one definate answer to this question. Creativity manifests itself in many different forms. It is not only referred to as an artistic trait, creativity is found everywhere and throughout our lives, but what IS it?

                                                           These are creative:

And yes, even this little guy is creative... Like it or not.

Everything our brains do is creative, every movement is being created by impulses in your brain. So lets try and be more specific shall we? I shall shrink this topic to discuss creativity in the world of art and gaming.

So... Born with skill? or does it just take practice? lets see what other people believe before I comment my own thoughts on this topic.

 Note: the following are some quotes I have taken from various sources.
 "I think talent makes it easier. I think even talented people need a lot of practice to succeed. Ultimately its the passion (and practice) that will enable success."

  "Talented wins out over working hard almost every time. Consider the synonyms: flair, aptitude, facility, gift, knack, technique, touch, bent, ability, expertise, capacity, power, faculty and so on. While hard work is simply that. Sweat, diligence, perseverance, industrious and requires enormous amounts of energy to sustain. 

Of course there are those who excel at both, but for sheer efficiency of energy and time, talent will probably produce far more personal benefits and returns than hard work ever did."

  It seems most people argue a pointless argument, they all argue the exact same point but worded differently. Yes, having talent for a certain subject helps but if you do not press that talent forward how can you expect to be successful? Sure you could count on luck but you can not ride luck throughout life. Hard work pays off.

 

   When it comes to video game development creativity and imagination couldn't be more important. It is not up to just one person to be creative - for example, it is not the concept artists job to be the only creative one, nor is is just the job of an art director or artists. Even the programmers need to be creative to make the game interesting. A team works as one body, everyone functions from the brain and like i said everything the brain does is creative, as is everybody in the team. A game artist may create an asset, but a programmer could comment and give pointers to how that asset could be improved and changed to make it more visually pleasing and interesting.

   Talent may be important in some ways, but I believe an employer is more likely going to employ a person who works their socks off and is pretty good at what they do than someone who is equally good but puts no effort into what they do because they are considered "talented" in the field.

   Creativity can be expressed through the artwork and style for a game, the music, the writing, the players interactions and how they choose to play the game - we all know the phrase "get creative." It can even be choosing which part of a building goes where, the coding too. At the end of the day a game is created from nothing, it is a creation of many minds put together to form an idea, that idea then blossoms into their game.

The difference is there is very little limit on what you can produce inside a computer. Compared to other industries and businesses you have to be very specific in what you're creating, the audience it is intended for and its function, whilst games can blossom from literally any idea. Sadly the limitations grow larger as the creation of the game goes on as the ideas become more specific, yet there is always room for imagination.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/193967/Video_Three_talks_exploring_creativity_in_game_design.php

   An interesting speech and discussion on creativity found in games and how the limitations affect the end product. Warning it is long, but an interesting interpretation on creativity.

Creativity is whatever you want it to be, decide for yourself what you consider to be creative and whats not.

                                      Although I don't understand it, fashion. Creative. Above.

References I read up on:

http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/136901/hard-work-beats-talent
http://www.ted.com/conversations/21284/which_out_of_talent_and_hard_w.html

Welcome to the industry. Specialization?

                   

^ Shamelessly posting a piece of work.

One thing I have learnt in University is that it is better to be mostly specialized in one area of your course, but adaptable to other parts as well. For example it would be better to be very good at environmental design and shave basic skills with characters/UI design than to be mediocre at all subjects on your course. Or at least this is the principle I have been following.

 We often see how companies employ freelancers who specialize in a certain area of games design or animation for a short time rather than employ someone full time who is relatively good at a specific role but are not quite as good as a specialist freelancer. That doesn't mean the jobs aren't there, but to me it means companies would prefer short time contracts with professionals than people who are mediocre at lots of areas. Work is there, building up contacts and accepting smaller jobs until you get enough recognition for a permanent contract - which aren't offered out as often anymore.

http://www.animationarena.com/getting-into-video-game-industry.html

Above: An article I found useful reading.

Industry now expects good skills in understanding shape, form and how assets sit in a real world environment, how light disperses through the skin and how that could be recreated in engine - as an example.
 Time management - in my case a bit of a lack of, and a larger work load is also important to employers. You want someone who works fast and to a good standard, this is what I am working to perfect with hopefully lots of practice over summer with daily paints and modelling. For me the current goal would to become a Games Artist. I enjoy creating the environment and seeing my work placed in engine. This means I need to be fluent in drawing from life, understanding colour and composition, have strong observation skills and imagination - which I certainly have. However I must also be able to work well in a team and alone. There are many skills needed for such a job role, one I believe with more practice, would be perfect to me.

 You may have noticed that my skills in English are not the best. I am not brilliantly coherent and things which make sense in my own head may not make sense to others. This is why I have always been striving to be best at the visual arts. They say a picture is worth a thousand words right? I can only hope this is true, as drawing is all I have really ever wanted to do - if it wasn't then I wouldn't be on my course right now. I feel this blog is a way to get to know me, as well as a chance to research further into the topic of gaming I love so much, so why shouldn't it reflect what I am like too?


  It is important to have an up to date portfolio available and easily accessible to employers, the industry is hard to get into for a reason. You want to show the best work you have done and make it easy enough to navigate so potential employers do not waste time on your website. The industry demands professional people with the imagination needed to create a beautiful game, I only hope to contribute to this myself as an artist.




Links and references:

http://creativeskillset.org/creative_industries/games

Technology in gaming

  It is obvious that over the years the design of a gaming console or controller has become more and more important, to the point where we will indeed judge a console by how it looks and by the feel of its controllers. This can even override the games being produced.

 If we look back to 1998, when they released the Nintendo 64 console and the controller that came with it.

  This was the standard controller that came with the console. Although the machine became popular the controllers basic design was clunky and uncomfortable to hold - it's design was made to work with Super Mario 64, so the player could hold the controller in different ways depending on how they played. Even so the shape of the controller was overlooked as it contained the much ignored analogue stick, something that was mostly ignored or deemed unnecessary up until this consoles release. The analogue stick allowed full movement in 3d games, unlike its D-Pad predecessor that majorly limited movement in game. This is where the trend for analogue sticks on controllers began.

 Now when we look at our newest members of the gaming family, the Xbox one and Play Station 4. With graphics on screen becoming pretty much as good as they can get it was time to look at the more physical aspects of game play. The comfort of the player, how the controller would sit in the palm, how large the console itself would be and it's style. With the aesthetics of consoles becoming more important to a buyer we see more reviews and arguments as to which console "looks" better rather than how it plays. 

 I know personally I am a total sucker for a nice sleek design, chuck in a limited edition design and they can take my money... If I wasn't a student that is.

 I remember, back in 2006 the hype of the release of the Nintendo Wii console, with its revolutionary controller and how everybody hyped over this being the next big thing. Which it was! That is until the Playstation 3 released its own motion controller along with the Xbox 360s Kinect, rendering the Wii relatively obsolete due to out of date graphics and none normal controller - yet it was that intuitive thinking that pushes us forwards in the games industry. The combination of motion control, sleek design and function in the latest consoles - and PC of course, shows how far we have come from just ten years ago.

 

  We have seen the recent release of the Oculus rift, the ability to see directly into the game and your movements effect the player. This has again opened a whole new world of possibilities for game designers, where so many game ideas have been reused over and over, the creation of new technology such as the Oculus gives us a chance to create something new. The limitations of our imaginations are slowly fading away allowing more freedom in design not just for story and graphics, but for how our games can be played as well.

 We see cartoons released years ago showing people playing games directly in their minds, or simulators/holographic characters and to me it seems like we are getting closer and closer to such inventions, with a little bit more time we may not need controllers, or may not even need to move, just play in our heads. Now isn't that a scary thought?

Links and References:

http://sega.wikia.com/wiki/Sega_Mega_Drive

http://www.nowgamer.com/features/2168345/ps4_vs_xbox_one_console_design_review.html

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2014/jan/23/oculus-rift-valve-virtual-reality-kickstarter

Sound and music in games

Better grab a seat, I could go on about music and sound forever! Oh and be prepared for videos.

  Sound and Music in games add a whole new level to your experience as a player. I for one have always been a huge fan of horror games such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Silent hill. Turn the music off and any suspense or horror really floats away, without sound you are constantly realized that the game you are playing is not real. No the monsters won't jump out of the screen or come smashing through your door. I am sure that big boss over there is friendly, not like there is any sound to tell me otherwise.

 In this blog I will be discussing music and sounds more personal to me and how they affect my own gaming experience. Everyone has their own opinions, their own idea of a good song or good sound, but the following ones are my personal favourites.

   Firstly lets talk about soundtracks. Now I may just be a typical emotional wreck of a girl but for me music in the right part of a game can make me feel tremendous joy, horrible sadness, longing, excitement and many more feelings which a story on its own couldn't create. There are many big names in the gaming industry for music, some such as Sam Hulik (Mass effect series) and Martin O'Donell (Halo 2.) It isn't just the composers who get interested. Many well known music artists, such as Florence and the Machine (dragon age 2) also enjoy creating music for video games.

For this example I shall take the game Bastion.

  Here is a game which revolves around sound and music, without it the game would make no sense (albeit it doesn't make much sense with the sound either.) You live on the Bastion after you wake up to find your world destroyed and all the people you knew are dead and gone. You meet an older fellow by the name of Rulf with a voice that could melt butter - I'd go as far to compare him to Morgan Freeman but that may be pushing it. You are then thrown into a world of music and narrative sided with fighting. There are two particular songs that when I head them, in one case I felt joy - it mean't another human. Then the other song made me heart ache for the poor boy. Yet at the end there was a song that mixed the two together, causing the game to end beautifully. That experience will be remembered for both its story and music much more than the gameplay itself. Heck half of the game I forgot I was even playing, as you just zone in and out of the action to hear the narrators voice and music in harmony.

  Another similar case would be Hotline Miami, although this is not one I can talk much about myself as I haven't played it... but I have friends and other people who love the game because the gameplay along with the music is quite psychedelic - leaving them in a state that would be hard to replicate by other means. Yet the game on its own would most likely not stand.

  Then there is sound in games. I ask you to watch this clip with sound:

  Now watch it again on mute. Ok, so you knew what was coming, but I would hope you noticed how different the video is without its sound. Sound creates atmosphere, which couldn't be more important for horror games. Even the small recognizable sounds of getting an item, or even just footsteps are so important within a game to make it seem realistic. If my horse made the same sound galloping on sand to it running on rocks I would know something went very wrong in the development - although I suppose some smaller companies could be forgiven.

   I'd like to talk a little more about Amnesia specifically. I have watched many horror movies - laughed at most, I have played many games, but no game has successfully made me hide under my covers in fear quite like Amnesia. I have played it far too many times, I know where the monsters are and all the needed items (I tend to enjoy messing with the monsters too) but it still terrifies me. Why? the insatiable noise of grinding teeth in the dark. The different grunt sounds that make you want to run in fear, the little sounds that mess with you as you wander down a dark corridor. The ambiance throughout the game is beautifully crafted with use of lighting, sounds and how it gets into your head, plays on your sub-conscience... This to me, is how powerful sounds can be in a game and how it can really stick a game in your memory.

  Now I leave you with the following videos of music in games that can bring a lot of emotion and feeling:

                                           Mass effect Leaving Earth - skip to about 1:30

                                                          Those Childhood memories

                                                              And who could forget?

Car engines? No, the gaming kind!

Without an engine, the worlds we create in our minds cannot be brought to life.

So, what is a game engine? I am sure if you are reading this you already know the answer to this, but for those of you who do not know: A game engine is the basic frame of a video game. It is the software you create your world in and it is the software you play a game in. For me it is what I use to stitch together my assets to create an environment.

 There are many different gaming Editors out there available for those who want to experiment. Currently I am working in Cryengine but know a fair amount of UDK as well. Within those editors you can create a map - a world if you like, which you can then populate with your assets or just use the basic items already found in engine.

So why are engines important?
 Well without one there would not be a game - so yeah, they're pretty important. Be it on your new Xbox one or your android phone, they all have engines but different companies use different ones. Some even use their own personal design. I intend to explore just a few of these engines today.

Cryengine 3 - Known for games such as Crysis and Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2.

Might as well start with the engine I know more about. Using Cryengine has been a lot easier for me in comparison with UDK as I found its interface easier to deal with. All you had to do was put the right file in the right folder and your object was in, setting up a material for the asset could be done through 3DS Max or through Cryengine itself, but it was simple to set up and easy to remember. The nice thing about using CryEngine is that no coding is necessary. I am familiar with some basic HTML coding but not with other types of coding.
Being able to move my assets, place, scale and even create collisions directly in the engine is incredibly useful if your proportions seem slightly off.
As for functions Cryengine has the ability to port to new gen consoles, PS3/Xbox 360/PC and even Ios and Android, considering how powerful mobile phones are they're becoming a larger and larger part of the gaming industry world - this gives users of Cryengine a much larger market, rather than only porting to a single console.

Overall Cryengine 3 has a nice easy interface to understand and is capable of working with many platforms. Now lets look at a more specific engine.

GameMaker - developed by Yo-yo games and typically known for Hotline Miami.

This is an engine mainly used for mobile gaming platforms and PC/web hosted games. It is relatively cheap in comparison with some of the larger engines available. The nice thing about this particular editor is that is it easy to use, be it used by a novice or long time experienced game creator. It specializes in 2D style games rather than 3D but can be used to create games quickly. Larger companies could spend a year working on a game in an editor like Cryengine or UDK, whilst a nifty little engine like GameMaker can have a single person create their game in a matter of weeks. The editor also has real time physics available and Open Source Audio.

Of course there are disadvantages to go along side its advantages. The market is cut by a relatively large amount by not porting to Playstation or Xbox arcade, meaning many games created can only be placed via PC or Mobile- of course this is no problem if the game you are developing is for PC or Mobile.


There are many engines out there for people to try, you just have to find the one you work with best and hone your skills using it. There are plenty of tutorials to help people along the way.







Links and references:
http://www.develop-online.net/news/the-top-14-game-engines-the-list-in-full/0114330
http://www.deluge.co/?q=what-is-a-game-engine
https://www.yoyogames.com/
http://www.crydev.net/