Environment Thingie

I have kinda finished? My environment thing, I thought we had a third week but managed to rush together some images.  

I did read the three articles "What Happened Here", Uncharted, and Deus Ex art books.  I found the Deus Ex one pretty much useless - they basically robbed modern day objects and added sci-fi elements - the guns were particularly unimaginative and are current guns with triangles everywhere... The character work was pretty nice - the female outfits in particular.  I have to say they did blend in renaissance and modern design well.  The uncharted document however was really informative (Yet horrible laid out) - Lots of in depth images on environment and level design and looks pretty nice - kinda reminded me of Tomb Raider, but that is just a culmination of real world sites with an imaginative twist.  The "what happened here" was my favourite - it made me think a lot and all made sense and the examples they used were good.

I had an issue when I tried playing Bioshock... I got very bored very quick.  I think I might be immune to empathising with games.  I got bored very quick in Skyrim too - I even still try it but... "Yawn"!  That’s a reason I enjoyed todays Blitz talk about Lumo Kumo.  Games are for playing, leave the stories for books and films.  I enjoyed Tomb Raider because it had nice puzzles, wonderful scenery, and sexy character who can perform acrobatics you would love to... Not because I wanted to uncover the truth behind some legend or whatever her motive was - it all fitted together though and made the game more engrossing.  Bioshock puzzles were laughable, the combat sucked, I don’t get scared playing games... The style and scenery I liked, apart from 70% of it was box-like rooms and corridors... The story?...  Who cares?  Steve was very knowledgeable a

I saw Avatar for the second time last Sunday with my "artist's eyes" in, and was going to go into a massive rant about how precisely put together and shit it actually is.  I just basically said it all just there - Is like a parody of what western films have become over the last eighty years... That’s basically happening to games, they are getting more and more "pop" - The money making machine that can't be killed.

Anyways - Environment Project!
I was going to draw a tower for a dungeon slasher game and started with a tree as a base/reference.  I kind of wanted the tower to be epic and mysterious.  I started with its origins - How a giant tree would function and evolve into a tower to accommodate what I wanted.
I did a little practical work for the dungeon - genres for each floor (Dungeon/ice/nature/poison/fire) etc. But dropped it as I already had amassed a lot of info about plants and forests - Anyways I learned a lot and it sparked a lot of interest - plants are more important and interesting than most people give them credit for.

I'm not happy with the final pic I did - I think I may be better of using traditional media then colouring in Photoshop, but I figured I need the practice.  It turned out pretty standard and has a distinct lack of detail of fancy lighting.  I'm going to have a few more stabs at getting my image across better on my own time.  There are quite a few digital art tricks I need to learn.

I spent so long researching plants I didn’t have time to design simple accommodation structures - This only takes a moment damn it.  I used to love doodling wood houses.  I think I'm going to carry this project in my own time - I haven't finished a proper image of the full tree and think my initiation doodles are actually more interesting.  Live n learn.

 Reminded me of the Ewok Village in Return of the Jedi - I stop drawing after I get the general idea

I have been thinking about the subject for my environment quite a bit – I eventually came up with an idea I really liked… But was convoluted and a bit vast for the three weeks we have.

I really like adventure and role playing games – The most impressive and imaginative environments I have seen are in these kinds of games.  Being a huge fan of “Dungeon Slashers” (Role playing games which involve delving into vast dungeons and collecting treasure and finding powers to ultimately reach the end/final boss) I have decided to do either a really tall tower or a really deep dungeon.

I basically want a general Idea which I can refine and alter as I go.  I have decided to create a massive tower… which can also go down if I felt the desire to play with dungeon design.  We are all influenced by everything.  Images that spring to mind include , Megadrive: Corporation (FPS) PSX Azures Tower (Hack n slash), Castlevania series, Zelda (Mainly for their forest designs).  I also recently saw an Anime film thing “Lupin the Third” (which was pretty cheesy) but had a brilliant concept of an independent country’s castle – purely for opulence and defence this castle had hundreds of floors involving dungeons, sewers, mechanical workings and of course a tower.

On a classical art note there are many ye olde artists to draw inspiration from. Edgar Alan Poe stories are pretty nice.  I originally thought of the tower of Babel, which is a fictional tower of biblical proportions.  I remember this image well – when I was about eight we did a jigsaw of it one Sunday… I still remember thinking it was fuckin’ cool at the time.

Video games often refer to real world lore (Final Fantasy pillage all their names from Nordic legends among others)… “Ragnorok” Old stuff is cool and we unwittingly have absorbed its resonance indirectly through one source or another.  I remember a game on the Megadrive “Soliel”or “Ragnecity” where they had a babel tower.  I like it when games use real history – is almost educational in a way… and isn’t another fucking ruined temple.

So I got to thinking of my tower, I don’t want it to be blatantly copied from say Lord of the Rings or any game but I don’t care to create something totally original – if that’s even possible.  Anyways, I was thinking about how the tower was made and how it would fit and create my universe around it.  I like nature programs and trees are interesting – the skioya tree is the tallest living thing on the planet.  There are some trees around five thousand years old… Born before the pyramids and Christ were and a lived through a lot of wars took place.

So my tower is actually at heart a tree.  I started doodling just to get the scale, original surroundings and general mood.  I guess there is a time-line as I do want to medieval it up.  I want to somehow make it biblical like the Babel tower (those dicks thought it would actually reach to heaven).  So it’s going to be an epicentre for the people.

I was half considering making it a little “timeless” and incorporating subtle sci-fi technology –like maybe the tower is eternal and has outworld visitors or something.  I may implement this but don’t want to get too far ahead.

So this week I have decided on…

Genre:                            RPG/adventure game    ie. Diablo, Spiral Knights

The subject:                   An epic tower – Can look at interior later on

Artistic influences:          Zelda, Alundra, Castlevania, Spiral Knights, Castlevania,                   Mount Roraima, Tower of Babel

Plan of action:                   Origin & surroundings – initial tower creation (narrative) – Full blown medieval/nature state (playable)

Final outcomes goals:     Scale of tower – Interesting incorporation of nature & mechanical technology (not Avatar)

Something missing… the mood of the tower?

I have done several pics and did a 10 minute model in 3ds Max to help construct the tower/tree and its surroundings.

 

I worked a lot out in the above image – scale, overall shape, its function and how it may work – details. I was considering having it upon a high plateau (mount Roraima inspired) but now think this may detract with the proportions I have chosen.  Will try it larger so it doesn’t look like a giant plant pot(bottom of page)!  A major thing here is scale – it needs to be massive to create the feel that you are unlikely to see all of it and it has long lost corners within it.  I was thinking cable cars for transportation – this would look cool between branches and roots – giving a greater feel of size.  It’s a real challenge to show objects to get the scale – I did a pyramid here (we all have an idea how big they are) but in the final image there won’t be a nearby pyramid.  Will have to involve settlements and characters, possible in foreground.

I am also considering the climate and trying to fit all the bits together to make it seem a little more realistic – What plants and wildlife may be there, local materials for construction, having a half convincing reason behind the towers creation. There is almost too much to consider, which would be a hindrance so must make quick executive decisions and lay quick-solid foundations.

Get Carter

So, we’re pretty far into the course now and I think there is a slight lull in the torrent of work we have to complete.  Theoretically we are currently drawing an interesting 70’s character for 2D, and have a texturing competition for 3D.  I have been finding lots of the lectures recently slightly irrelevant or redundant – Think I may just be a bit arrogant but gonna state my opinions.

Lots of the lectures on character design seem very fundamental – Make the character interesting and original (very basically).  The example used in critical studies “No one lives Forever” is pretty good, but I can see that the character and theme is not so original…  First of the organisation H.A.R.M is stolen from a crap 60’s spy movie called Agent from H.A.R.M, the femme-fatal protagonist looks amazingly like Dianna Rigg from the 60’s show “The Avengers” (and many other female characters from that era), and the patterns used could be referenced off a quick google image search.  I’m not disputing that Cate Archer isn’t cool and that the universe isn’t coherent, what I’m saying is that it isn’t original.   I’m getting the impression that students are expected to not generally take influence from far out of their immediate comfort zone, and so their work lacks strength from that.

Everything is inspired by something.  I recently watched an Anime called “Cowboy Bebop” which is a weird mix of sci-fi and noir with heavy musical influences.  The intro to this show I loved… Looking into it a bit I saw they also ripped of 60s/70s spy shows (The Saint/The Pursuaders for example), which has also been duplicated for the recent adult animation “Archer”.

I ripped off this image to present a quick pic of a character.  On one hand it looks striking and suits the character, on the other hand it is not original in any way.

I guess the more shit you pay attention to or if you are lucky have an interested the better.  I don’t think I’m in danger of my work getting too stale as I have lots of influences and a general idea of why it works.  It is also very boring churning out the same old crap, especially if you have to spend a lot of time on it.

 

Here is an example of ripping off a character.  Street Fighter’s boxing character… Originally called M.Bison and looks a lot like Mike Tyson who was most famous during when this game was produced.  For obvious reasons they switched his name with another character for release outside of Japan. It is almost a caricature of Mike Tyson and it works really well, clichéd but some reason very appropriate – The character plays like a big bruiser and now says dumb stuff to suit.

Anyways on a more casual note… the film “Get Carter” (1971)… The character Frank Carter… Brilliant!! I have a soft spot for Michael Cain and even enjoyed the film “The Swarm” thanks to his passionate role as the world’s leading bee expert.  The character Frank Carter is great in so many ways, first off look at Cain – he don’t look like a hard man, he’s no Chuck Norris or even Pacino but his role in this film depicts him as a badass mother fucker.  The fight scenes are basic and reminiscent of old Star Treks – Cain even slaps a man but he somehow pulls it off.  He is merciless in this film as he returns north and seeks revenge for his brother.  My band mate watching it for the first time with me was a little upset and said he doesn’t like this character as he’s too mean, this is exactly why I love him.  There’s a part when he shags a slag, gets information from her, and puts her in his car boot – Later on in the day he gets into a gun fight and the posse push this car into the canal… The emotionless expression on Cain’s face as his beautiful car (slag included) sinks is priceless – He is too cold and only cares about his vengeance – amplified in this one moment.