Studio Project - Renders

My final three renders. I am pretty pleased with how these came out. Daytime, sunset and night time.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories

1. What is ‘Haroun and the Sea of Stories’ really about: can you show that meaning through selected quotations?

Primarily I think Salman Rushdie is portraying events in his life and general life lessons.

“Happy endings must come at the end of something,’ the Walrus pointed out. ‘If they happen in the middle of a story, or an adventure, or the like, all they do is cheer things up for a while.”

This is one of my favourite quotes from the book because not only does the principal occur throughout the book itself, there is conflict throughout which is resolved. This also applies in life, life is not like a movie with a beginning, a problem and then a solution, life is riddled with various problems and conflicts. However each time you overcome them. 
The next quote is from the character I chose; Mudra. 

“...in the Land of Chup, a Shadow very often has a stronger personality than the Person, or Self, or Substance to whom or to which it is joined! So often the Shadow leads, and it is the Person or Self or Substance that follows. And of course there can be quarrels between the Shadow and the Substance or Self or Person; they can pull in opposite directions...but just as often there is a true partnership, and mutual respect.”

He is referring to people in general, almost like we're all a coin with two sides, the human side that represents a person’s individuality and someone’s human nature. Then the the other side, the shadow, that is created by society and outside influences. Rushdie proposes that these two sides can often conflict with each other, such as when religion causes a person to undertake unjust acts.

2. What has influenced your choice of characters?

As I was reading through, I came to this story and honestly the primary reason for my choosing of this character is because he sounds cool. He’s always been the type of character I connect with, the silent, stealthful kind, lurks in the shadows etc. Also whilst I was reading through I began creating him in my head, which I hadn’t done with the characters in the stories beforehand, nor did I with the characters in the stories after that one, primarily because I was so hooked on this character. I began thinking about how he might move, how he uses his gestures, are they angry gestures, or are they quite passive, are they fast and a little aggressive or perhaps rather slow and elegant. With each of these I had images of long wisps of shadows following his every move. I was in love with this character.
The other thing I liked was his background, him coming from a military background. This could have an effect on the way he holds himself, he could be both very upright and composed or because he left he’s the opposite, quite slippery and likes to eavesdrop etc.

3. What factors have influenced your design?

Primarily the lack of description of Mudra in the story. The things that came into my head whilst reading were the following things; shadows, mime artists and ninjas. I imagined him as being a mix of all three.
One thing that was brought up was the Commedia Dell’arte. At first I had no idea what this was being looking into it it was familiar, it’s a form of theatre primarily coordinated around masks. These were the stereotypical masks with the section covering the upper half of the face with an elongated nose. The primary thing I loved about these was simply that, they are creepy. Also with this you can have expressions without the use of a face. The brow lines and the forehead wrinkles can say a lot about expression. 
A small external thing I ended up playing with was my incense burner, they let of a continuous and extremely elegant wisp of smoke which you can put your fingers through and swirl around. As I was doing this I realised how fluid like smoke can be. This is where my idea for playing with particles and wisps coming from behind my character. It would effectively be like, black smoke.

4. How will your characters give a player a fun and interesting experience?

Well the first and most important part of character selection is, the first impression. My character will draw a player in just on their looks. A large slender character with shadow wisps. The epitome of cool.
Beyond first impressions is the characters abilities, strengths, weaknesses and the way the character plays (movement, animations etc). The one trait of Mudra that would capture people is his special abilities, the first of which is his shadow powers. One of the first ways he utilises shadows is in the form of transportation. Whenever you come across something that may not be doable or perhaps there’s some invisible enemy, you switch to the Shadow. This sends you to a dark and twisted version parallel universe. Whilst in this universe you play through the same level but there are advantages such as being able to creep by things unnoticed or go under, over or around objects that you wouldn't be able to as Mudra. Now this sounds good and players would question why change back to Mudra, but there would be obstacles that only Mudra you face up to, interactions being the most significant, eg combat.
Mudra has his advantages as well. His primary combat ability is the use of shadows as weapons, but not in the traditional sense, he’d conjure up shadows and make them swallow people or things. They could also be used as a giant tool to help manipulate something. This would be especially useful during puzzles.

With the abilities and powers aside, the design of my character would keep people in awe, as you move the shadowy wisps coming from behind you, the long sweeping movements of Mudra and the sharp, agile movements of the Shadow. He’d just be a wonderful character to play as, both in aesthetics and practicality.

Life Drawing - Session #3

This was at the Cathedral again only this time we were doing perspective drawings. Will took us round the back of the Cathedral where the various layers built on top of one another to create a stacked look. It wasn't too challenging to map out fairly quickly. The only problem I had was making it fit the perspective, as my eye level was low, the building should've been coming into the centre point at I was drawing it as opposed to straight up.
I am happy with the end result, I felt I captured the light correctly and kept the drawing accurate to the subject.

The next task we had was to draw what we had just drawn, or something similar, but with our own imagination added, so manipulate it in some way. I decided to go with a worn down/derelict feel. Including trees and vines coming out of the Cathedral as well as sections that had worn away.

Commedia dell'arte

'A type of comedy developed in Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries and characterized by improvisation from a standard plot outline and the use of stock characters, often in traditional masks and costumes.'

This was a suggested topic for me to look into because of one of the ideas for my character. As Mudra has no dialogue and communicated using gestures, I decided to go towards the masked appearance of french mime artists. This lead on to this, as Commedia dell'arte is based around masks and is actually where Punch and Judy originated. 

Castagno posits that the exaggeration and distortion of the masks features is typical of the 16th century Italian artistic Renaissance. In the Commedia, the characters within are each given a specific emotion through their masks, for example happiness, sadness, confusion, mockery etc.

Studio Project - Normal & Specular Mapping

Wrapping my head around this was a little difficult to begin with but once I had done a couple of textures I found it easier. I downloaded a piece of software called Crazybump to create my normal and specular maps which proved effective.

                   

Life Drawing - Session #2

This session was with Nigel at the Norwich Cathedral. This session was on composition, composing a drawing built from multiple sections of buildings to look right.
The exercise we were given was to pick out bits of the cathedral and draw them. The point was to create boundaries, so we'd draw within an even rectangle to give a nice framed image. I found this interesting and quite enjoyable especially as I got to draw in detail. Plus the Cathedral is an interesting building.

Studio Project - Texturing

 



Above are some of my 'flat pack' buildings. Below are a sample of some of the pictures I took to create my textures.

Studio Project - Model

Life Drawing - Session #1

These two drawings are based in Norwich Castle Museum. We went to the castle with Will and went to the keep. The purpose of the exercise was to capture perspective and give our drawings depth as though they were 3D. This was my drawing for the exercise.

I am fairly happy with how it turned out. The one thing that was mentioned about it was that I'd made the rear sections quite dark in places, this brought them forward more than they should've been, confusing the perspective a little. From a technical aspect I feel it's an accurate representation of the subject.

The next task was to draw something in fine detail, one small section or item within the keep.

I chose a suit of armour because I liked the way the lighting fell on it, leaving all the bumps and nooks in the armour. Thus making for a nice detailed rendering.

The final task was to combine the previous two into one. So an 'environment' and a focal point.

I chose to the casing for the armour because I felt it stuck out slightly anyway, a large, polished metal and glass structure within an old keep composed of wood and iron. To add to it I drew the background section in pencil and focus in pen, to bring it out of the page. This allows for a very clear point of focus.

Character Comparison

For this CS task, Sharon asked us to contrast and compare 2 characters, she also told us to choose very different characters, so I decided to go with the Dragonborn (Dovahkiin) from Skyrim and 47 from the Hitman series.

We have a set of rules we need to follow, similar to BA1, we have to use our Contextual Framework, Structural Framework, and Visual Framework, as well as add our research to this blog post to show evidence of our analysis.

Contextual Framework:
- Origins: is there a literary/visual/arts connection?
- Cultural Influences
- Company (Do they have a ‘House Style’?)
- Target Audience

Structural Framework:
- How does the character function within the rules and conditions of the game? How has their function affected their design?
- What point of view does the player occupy in relation to the character?
- What interactive experiences does the character provide for players in the game?
- Does the character’s design express ‘true character’(in McKee’s definition)?

Visual Framework:
- What does the character look like?
- What are the possible visual influences?
- Does the character reveal intertextual references? If so, what purpose do they serve?

Dragonborn - Dovahkiin (The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim)

This is the playable character from the most recent RPG single player installment in the ESO franchise. This game, as well as the previous games, takes a heavy influence from medieval times, set in a fantasy world where dragons and magic exists. There are countless medieval resources such as old weapons, pieces of armour, tapestries etc to go off for this game. I think that's part of the appeal, it's like Grand Theft Auto but takes part hundreds of years ago where you make your own armour and smith your own weapons.

It could be argued that it's also set upon quit a fairytale base, the protagonist pursues on quests set to him by the lords of the land to reclaim certain items or to slay some creature. It's got a folklore feel to it.

The game was created by Bethesda, and I believe they have quite a strong house style that spreads across their games. In particular the most recent fallout games as well as the most recent ESO games have many similarities. To list a few; User interface and inventory, weapon stats, carry weight, physics, combat, map and marker placements as well as mission structure.

I think this is usually done to hit a very wide audience, partially to keep it generic for those more casual gamers, however as there is usually so much freedom within what you do, it keeps the die hard fans entertained with complex lore.

As far as rules within the game go there are very few, besides physical limitations such as flying and walking through walls (even that's achievable on the PC version), the game restricts you in a very small way, either that or they do a fantastic job of leading you in circles so you never really see the edges of the game. The second is something I like to believe happens other open world games such as Grand Theft Auto.
Third person or firstperson, the game lets you choose for different scenarios/personal preference. I think that firstperson is more rewarding whilst exploring and discovering new things as it scales you down and makes everything feel bigger. Third Person is more useful for combat  or if you're looking for something in particular.
The player has huge reign over the characters weaponry, armour and skills. This allows you to create a complete unique character. I think this is the reason as to why so many people adore the game, it's personal.

The character looks very medieval during the beginning stages. Iron armour, wood and leather. This takes it's inspirations from it's surroundings. When you start in the game the towns are made from stone and wood, it's all very basic, as it would've been. Therefore the armour is basic too. It's only when you go seeking out other materials that you can make new forms of armour.

47 (Hitman series)

47 is an entirely fiction character, but with heavy western cultural influences. His clothing, weapons and the cars in game all seem very modern. The settings in which the missions take place are often actual places or based upon real places. Either that or the buildings are created very closely to real world counterparts.

The thing I always loved about these games is how down to earth they are, admittedly a super-assassin isn't what I mean, but the technique of the kills and the settings often leave you wondering, 'could this have happened'. I find that because you have the possibility of completing a mission flawlessly that it is something that could be done outside the game.

Within Hitman the rules and conditions are very strict, there are certain things you can and can't do, but what does vary is the way in which you do those. It's heavily story based so you're steered through levels entirely, it's the opposite of a sandbox like game. 

The game viewpoint is third person throughout the game, this allows a wide view of your surroundings as well as being aware.

The character's career is moulded by the choices you make throughout missions. This gives it a personal feel, any actions you take you have to face the consequences.

The character 47 has a very clean look. The way you'd imagine a modern assassin would look. As good as he looks I've always found his attire confusing, I know it's become more of a status symbol but someone in his position would want to blend in as much as possible, not be wearing a tailored black suit with a red tie, it'd make you stick out. 

I feel I've chosen two characters that are quite conflicted, opposite ends of the scales. Playing as the dragonkin you're dropped in an open map where exploration is the key. You develop your character entirely from scratch starting with next to nothing. You can play through the whole game discovering a lot of it and creating the best weapons and armour within the game without actually getting far in the storyline at all, developing your character and the storyline are almost two entirely separate things. 

Hitman however is the other end of the scale, you're put into the game with a pair of pistols that you can use to complete the game. Each time you spawn you're in a new level which you play through, usually, without going back. The storyline is everything within Hitman.

In conclusion two totally different games but equally as satisfying due to the freedom of choice.

Designs

I found beginning my castle difficult. It's not something I'd done before and laying one out is harder than I imagined. Well laying one out that looks aesthetically pleasing. Below is an initial design.

 

I started with a very generic fantasy castle, upon a hill with a spire etc. But designing it to look simple yet have build up areas was proving difficult. My main building ended up looking more like a church than a castle. Whilst this design was fun to draw and try out, it was proving impractical for me. 

The next design was one that I stuck to quite heavily

As you can see from this image and my final building, the two are very similar. This is the way I wanted it to be, because I layed it out like actual building blueprints (with a small thanks to my flatmates, both architecture), it made it much easier to model in a technical program such as Maya. 

The reason I chose to do a blueprint straight away is because I could play with lines on the go. It's slightly improvised, I had no previous designs. It's from a built up memory of things that I've already seen.
I have strayed quite far from my initial designs and research but I didn't mind so much, I found this process helpful in the way that I realised I have to stick to my limitations in a program such as Maya, of which I have no experience. It's certainly been a learning experience.

Character Narrative

Clive was a fairly simple person; he liked the little things in life. Things such as his flowers growing perfectly in the spring, freshly cut grass and the smell of the new wood varnish he put on his front door the other day. His daily activity rarely strayed from popping to the market, selecting a few pieces of fruit for the day as well as some milk, trimming his rose bush or saying hello to the neighbours.
One day however, his whole life was turned upside down for a few hours. He was on his way to market as usual at 10:15am, when he heard shrieks and a frantic horse. As he turned the corner into the market square there was a horse lying on the ground calling out, it'd been wounded by several arrows and wasn't going to last much longer.
This distressed Clive, being a lover of all things natural; he turned around and went home. He arrived at his front door and went to unlock it. It was already unlocked, ‘strange’, he thought, ‘I could've sworn I locked it…’ He shrugged it off and went inside. He stopped in his tracks, frozen solid; there was a man on his floor in the lounge surrounded by a small pool of blood. He was barely alive, coughing and struggling to move, he had an arrow embedded in his abdomen.
Clive had a wave of discomfort wash over him, followed by that of slight relief, realising this man was in danger and would be no threat. Then, as the man was no threat, his practical head was on. He rushed to his bathroom and various cabinets to look for ointments, bandages, anything that could help him. Being a former medic of the village, as well as a pharmaceutical vendor, he had plenty of supplies.
He worked tirelessly on the man, who was dipping in and out of consciousness, removing the arrow, pouring disinfectant on the wound and making the man smell some salts that would help numb the pain. He opened the wound and began stitching up a deep inner wound that was causing the bleeding, cleaning it up, sealing up the muscle and stitching the skin together. After 2 hours of patch up surgery he rushed off and brewed some strong herbal tea and made the man, who was regaining his consciousness, inhale the fumes to bring him to his senses. After an hour of sniffing the strong herbal fumes, the man was able to talk. All he managed to croak out was ‘thank you…’. Clive nodded, gave a little smile and went to his bed to have a nap. He assumed the mysterious man would do the same.

He awoke the next day, the surgery had taken it out of his, he hadn’t focused so intensely in a long time, it tired him greatly. He went through to his lounge to check on the mysterious man, but he wasn't there. Instead all that was there was a letter, he heard a loud CRACK, he looked out the window and a very large and ornamental looking carriage was whisked away by four of the largest and most impressive horses he’d ever seen. He opened the letter to find the following;

“Dear kind stranger, I cannot thank you enough for rescuing my son in such a dire situation, I’m sure it must've been distressing for you. I cannot reward you unfortunately as I don’t want to risk your safety by making it clear we were in contact. I have people that dislike me and my family and I wouldn't want them thinking we were affiliated.

Just know you have someone powerful looking out for you, I cannot thank you enough.”

Clive looked for some kind of clue as to who left this and who left in the carriage, as well as whom the young man was. That’s when he saw it, something that took his breath away. The realms royal seal.

Research

To begin the project I had to do some research into castles to gain an initial idea of what I wanted to model and how I wanted to go about creating my very own castle.
After looking at a few castles I ended up steering towards Scottish castles, I feel these are the ones that look like some of the more traditional castles, with the square buildings and cylindrical spires. With choosing this type of castle I've also chosen a slightly easier job for myself, the general shapes within these castles are not very complex.

Below are a few examples of castles I've been looking at.

Castle of Mey

Glamis Castle

 



Alnwick Castle

 

 

 The castle I think I'm going to choose for the primary shape is Alnwick castle, for two reasons, firstly I think it's one of the most striking castles, it's size and shape is stunning. The second reason is because I have actually been there several times, I have primary research images taken on my phone which I can use when trying to capture some of the finer details.

Having said this I will probably use some elements of the other castles that I like such as the cylindrical towers and the multi-layered square sections.

BA3 - Connections

'Focusing on technical process and contemporary theory, this project complements and expands on the previous project into the preparation of game-ready assets for the production environment.


You will be introduced to efficient digital modelling, UV mapping, attribute transfer, re-topology and preparation for animation/game engines. These complex digital processes will be delivered to you each week through orchestrated tuition, providing you with skills to build and critique production ready models.

Efficiency in games is essential not only for in-game assets, but the production pipeline itself. We will introduce you to examples of historical and contemporary workflows to support your learning and role awareness.'

Final Model

My finished 3D model. There are bits that would need attention and improving but I am pleased with the end result.

Colour Renditions

The next step was to decide up the colours I wanted to use. I decided on quite soft colours for the staff and robes, I didn't want anything garish because that would go against my chosen virtue; patience. 

I had a look at various types of yew tree and branches, how the weathering and environment around them can have an effect on the aging and texture of the wood. As well as the effect of different types of lighting have on the wood. I ended up choosing the middle one because I loved the soft colour of the wood and the subtle shades within it, as well as the green moss beginning to grow on it. This just felt like the most natural staff and the best choice.

The next step I wanted to take was lighting, this was more experimentation than determining anything about my character, besides perhaps positioning. I wanted to have a play with a different source of light, one in particular I've always enjoyed the effect of, fire light.

Values

My next step was the value studies and positioning too, so using my old man idea I tried out various poses that would suit the character by not conflicting with the withered characteristic.

Z-Sphere Models

My 5 Z-Sphere models. I really liked the look of the dragon so I took it further and began sculpting onto it.

Silhouettes

I started in alchemy for this project rather than sketching out shapes in Photoshop. I did this because I felt it was slightly more random and creative. It leads to more inspiration as you only have limited control over what you can create but in turn when you look at the shapes you can generate more ideas.

I chose the one on the left, in the middle of the two large ones, this, to me, looked like the one that portrayed patience the best as it looks like an old man resting on a rock. 

I enjoyed alchemy for creating the initial silhouettes and will continue to you use it on personal projects.

BA2

Research

This project was about portraying one of the seven virtues within a character. Out of them all I chose patience, because it's something I believe quite strongly in, good things come to those who wait etc.
When it came to researching it was difficult until I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do, starting with alchemy I drafted out a load of shapes, mostly quite complex before I made one that looked like an old man sitting down. I couldn't think of a better portrayal for patience than this. So I began to research into just how men over the age of 80/90 look and move, so I could create a character who looked withered by time. 

After looking at images like these I began to get a clear picture of an older mans stance and how he composes himself. 

The next step was to find an object that added to the realism of this character, so I wanted a walking stick/staff. My reasoning behind this is that with staves and walking sticks you can make them look as old as the person carrying them and older, especially with wood. The wood can be cracked and worn from years of use and because it's wood this can be easily shown.

I wasn't 100% sure on what kind of staff I wanted to give me character so I began to look up trees and tree branches to see if I could find the right type of tree that would give a withered wood that looked right for my character. I also wanted something a bit twisted and deformed, not a perfectly straight staff, I wanted something that looked like it could just been picked up off the ground and maybe whittled a little to be a personal belonging.

Having looked at several different types of tree such as oak, pine, maple, and willow, I decided on this one almost immediately, I chose a yew tree branch.

      

The yew tree has that perfect deformed and twisted look that I wanted. I then took this knowledge into Photoshop and began concepting a few ideas.