Friday 31 October 2014

Material Studies|COP3

Before starting any color work on the character concepts I decided to do some material studies. In order to make different textures recognizable I felt like painting few of them in form of spheres. Why spheres and not the exact copy of the studied object? First of all with this method I'm able to concentrate on painting and understanding how light and shadow works. Second reason is that I'm just interested in texture, not the shape of the object.

As a starting point I did a shiny metal sphere, a bit rusty and the furry one. They were really challenging for me but I also did learnt a lot during the process. I've also did few other one, like leather, and might upload them on the other occassion.

Thursday 30 October 2014

More info on races|COP3

After a quick chat with Annabeth I've decided to change Orcs to some sort of water creature race, mostly because Orcs been done many times before. However I'd like to include them in the futher development of this project (extended practice perhaps).
I've looked into various water creatures, like mermaids and syrens. The following 3 got me really interested:
  • Nixe - water spirit that can shapeshift into different creatures; German, Norwegian, Swedish mythology; play songs to drown people in lakes; usually harmless, but they can be malicious; both male and female can shapeshift and lure humans with their beautiful songs, can take human form but there will still be some clues indicating their origins (like ears or wet clothing);
  • Rusalka - water nymph, female spirit in Slavic mythology (''red-haired girl'' is the direct traslation of the word русалка ); originally seen as a friendly creatures linked with fertility, however, after XIXth century they started to be assosiated with unclear spirits, somehow dangerous; rusalkas are women who commited suicide by drowning or who were violently killed by drowning; during Rusalnaya (Rusalka Week) they're the most dangerous and drag swimmers into the depths of lakes and rivers; Rusalkas hair are usually red or golden, very long and wet, eyes are blue or turquoise;
  • Hulder - seductive forest creature; Scandinavian folklore; male and female, both can shapeshift; females have long gold hair and wear flower crowns, however they also have cow tails; usually friendly creatures, keepers, like to be treated with respect;
I've decided to go with Nixe race, although I really like the story of two other creatures.
Since Nixes are water creatures living in lakes and rivers, the whole conflict between two races is very tense. Most of the technological artefacts are located near lakes and rivers, which makes human attacks often (afterall they're the ones who posses enough knowladge to use it). Nixes aren't a warrior race, but use their shapeshifting ability very well, by changing into other creatures, like water-wyrms, to attack boats. Moreover, with their enchanted song, they kidnap young kids from human settlements.
Nixes live as a small tribe, Lorelei being their queen/ruler, even tho she doesn't like to be addressed this way.

Human race, as mentioned before, in this region, is far more advanced, but due to the limited access to technology, still locked in what could be described as mix of medievil Germany with cruelty of Vikings. Outfits heavily inspired by both eastern MMORPGs (Final Fantasy-esque) and western fashion from that time. Military orientated, tyranny from the king, both males and females are trained to fight and become warriors. Some of well educated men can become mages (need to come from high clans and be able to use magic) and their daughters, who also posses magical powers, can become dancers.

As for now, my design task is to come up with characters for both fractions - warriors, mages and dancers for human race and male/female versions of Nixes plus their ruler Lorelei.

Wednesday 29 October 2014

World settings|COP3

During the second tutorial, which we did in small groups, I presented the work I done so far for the practical element. The feedback I got was mostly about what the world settings/history are and how it informs design decisions. I've a idea of what my world will look like in my head, but after the session I decided to write it all down.
The aim of my practical element is to create a set of characters that will be appealing to the mainstream audience, people who are either in their teens or older and play a lot MMO games (wherever they are player vs player arena based or more traditional role-play games). I'll look at the eastern MMO games, like Final Fantasy XIV or Ragnarok, to inform the style of the concepts.
World settings: fantasy, inspired by Final Fantasy series, magic and technology blends together. There are races that are less advanced than the others and don't use the advanced technology that is scattered around the lands. For the purpose of this brief and time constraint I got, I'm going to concentrate only on two different races that are in a state of war and fights for the land and better resources (the futher development of the conflict history could be done as a part of the extended practice, where also more sides could be introduced).
Since I was asked to scale the number of races I'm looking at down, I've decided to work only on two different fractions that will compete in this world. Humans, first race, are going to be the technologically more advanced than the other fraction. They'll still use traditional to the genre things, like swords, horse carriages, leave castles or houses build from bricks. However, the remains of advanced technology they have access to, like medical inventions or more complex methods of creating swords/access to the better materials (resources), have impact on the way they dress and act. At this point I want to make it clear, that I'm not after creating a fantasy mix with steampunk, I really want to stick with the only one genre and only indicate via the designs the availability to the higher technology. As mentioned, I'll be looking at the eastern RPGs, however, designs will be influenced by medievil armours, town structures and way they build they houses will be based on the German and western-south Poland architecture.
Second race I'm going to introduce are Orcs, which are going to be still in the prehistoric era. They built their houses on the remains of the past, most advanced technologies, which are unable to use it. They have a very spiritual orientated tribe, with shamans and warriors. Weapons they have are really primitive and made from basic materials (also basic set of tools and skills). African tribes are going to be main influence when it comes to clothing, color pallete, marking on faces.
With this setting I'll be able to work with two opposite color themes, gold-white-blue for Human fraction and red-orange theme for Orcs (long list of ethnic groups in Africa on wikipedia, but mostly I'd mostly look at the Maasai tribe, since red is their favored colour; red also connects with warriors and bravery; and at the Ndembu - red is a symbol of life and health).
Type of game: MMORPG game, where player can choose to play either side of the conflict. As mentioned before, I'm only going to outline the basic reasons of the conflict in this module, but there is potential for the further development during the extended practice. Player will have to choose a character from one fraction and join a guild to battle enemy.
Next step is to make another list of the character classes I'm going to work on and look closer into the meaning of colors in various cultures.

Tuesday 28 October 2014

Knight Thumbnails|COP3

This time I followed the usual workflow, started with simple, blobby thumbs to create few different silhouettes, from which I chose 3. I drew them bigger, trying to have variety of body types for my knight - usual, well build guy; chap with small shoulders but massive arms and round belly, short-ish; and a guy with wide-shoulders, massive chest and total blank stare (not like two others have blank stares now ;) ).
Next step was to duplicate the layer with figures and create a new one for the armour designs. I tried to stick to black and grey and rather bold strokes, avoiding over working some areas. Main aim at this stage was to create a range of different armour designs, each to be easy to recognize and unique. I feel like incorporating a little bit of fur or cloth into the design will help in making it more interesting (also it'll be a contrasting texture to shiny metal of armour). Cloth can be also used as a way of displaying which guild character belongs to (like a small emblem). At this point I'm still unsure which design or body type I'll use. I kinda like the middle guy for his big arms and hands. However, it's not your usual, safe, typical fantasy knight. In the end I might end up doing both versions or just stick with this funky fellow to make my bunch of characters more interesting.

Sunday 26 October 2014

Initial knight design ideas|COP3

Below are 6 rough knight concepts I did recently to test out massive Cintiq we got in college. It took me a little bit over an hour to do all of them and there was no planning involved - I just went for it. Therefore, I'm not really going to use them in later stages, going back to the starting point and testing out shapes and silhouette.
So, why I've done this batch and why am I showing it here? First of all, I think it was a good warm up exercise for me, person who's normally not drawing fantasy (which doesn't mean I don't like it). A little bit outside of my usual, monster-alien creature, comfort zone. Second reason behind posting this image is, that even though I haven't done much planning with it, I still applied some of the armour knowledge I gained recently from compiling moodboards. This experimentation will be benefitial in later stages, as I had a chance to design some crazy looking armour parts (still not as insane as some knight designs seen in fantasy art). Still, I need to get a bit bolder with my designs if I want to portrait a typical fantasy concept art usually seen in RPG games.

Thursday 23 October 2014

Business of Design|COP3

I've mentioned Feng Zhu videos few times before, this time I wanted to take a deeper look at this two part episode of Design Cinema. Business of Design, as title suggests, look closly at the production pipeline and the use of concept art.

In the first part Feng talks about the process of creating, in case of this demo, a dragon design for a game. He looks at the things like references, context, mythology, target audience, budget, wherever it's an indie developer or AAA title, client point of view and difficulties that certain designs can encounter during production (e.g. rigging and animating). It's important to figure out your target audience before drawing, look up and collected references that will influence design. When designing, keep in mind how the actual thing could work - even basic knowladge of 3D software comes in handy. Client point of view is also important - everyone would love to spend months on designing crazy looking, unique things, but at the end of a day, you have to listen to what client is saying and expecting from you.
Second part looks at actual process of thumbnailing and designing a dragon, that suits either a safe playing developer or adventerous indie taste. Feng discusses his thumbnailing process and how he arranges designs and prepare them to the presentable level. Even though I'm familiar with this workflow (I've been watching Feng's videos for years now), everytime I find something new and useful.

In case of my practical element, I've already started collecting reference images in form of moodboards, but I'm going to do some futher life studies of armour and weapons in Royal Armouries next week. I'm also going to spent a little bit more time thinking about audience for my concepts and take it into account when drawing.

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Moodboards|Practical Element|COP3

Before starting on character concepts I've decided to create few moodboards, which will influence my drawings.
Fashion shows were one of my main inspirations, mostly Alexander McQueen (fall 2011 is full of medievil inspired dresses and accessories). I've also google searched for medieval armour and renaissance clothes. There was no trouble in finding a knight armour referance for men, but complete lack of female armour somehow suprised me. Purposedly I've avoided 'chest plate' (or 'boob plate') skimpy and impractical armour, that shows more skin than it covers (whats the point of fighting in it?). The only decent armours I was able to find came from LARP communities, but it's not historically correct. As suggested by Annabeth, I'm going to contact someone from Royal Armouries and see if they have any records of female medieval armour in archive.
Also, I avoided putting any fantasy art in my moodboards, as I feel that will limit my creativity. By using photographs I'm leaving more room for interpretation and not just coping already existing designs.

Chapter plan and approach|COP3

Chapter plan:
  1. Introduction - aims, methodologies, approaches
  2. What exactly are online games? -brief introduction to the different types of online games.
  3. Where the fantasy artwork created for MMO games comes from - a brief origins history.
  4. Analysis of the artwork and style of the MMO games and why they are successful.
  5. Conclusion
Methodology :
  • ludology (game studies) - definition from Oxford DictionaryThe study of games and gaming, especially video games; Origin: 1960s: from Latin ludere 'to play' + -ology.
  • narratology (theory and study of narrative and narrative structure and the way it affects our perception) and storytelling. Narratology in games - games can be analyzed in the same way as any other form. Janet Murray ( Hamlet on the Holodeck) look at the computer as a new medium for storytelling, with the hypertext and interactive chat as a new expressive possibility. Espen Aarseth disagrees with this statement in his book Cybertext "to claim there is no difference between games and narratives is to ignore essential qualities of both categories" (Aarseth, 1997).
  • humanities - "What meanings are made through games?"- argument between narratology vs ludology when analyzing games. 
  • industry approach - searches for the new way of improving games, asks the questions like ''How can we make games better?'', there are different approaches, since the industry point of view is very complex. Games can be analyzed in terms of game play (similarities or differences), design, players experience. This approach is also very product and design driven.
  • gamification - use of game mechanics in a non-game environment, like Fitocracy app awarding points for doing exercises.
With the dissertation topic in mind I'll use game studies (ludology)  and narratology approach when researching and writing. This will be my main methodology, however I'll also have to take industry point of view into account, as their decisions impact the players, and look into a social aspects, like what motivates people to play games. After the first tutorial with Annabeth I've decided to drop the subject of MMO addiction in favour to more case study orientated essay. I'm not dropping my interested in MMO games, simply put, I'm changing slightly direction to look more into the game art and illustration, become familiar with the rules of composition and colour theory (as well as meaning of colour in different cultures). This way it'll also connect better with my practical element. Moreover, a deep look into the representation topic in games will be necessary, since RPG games have a quite specific way of portraying both genres (male characters are bulky, muscly; female - slender, petite figure, useless 'chest plate' armour). This change of direction will also enable me to talk to professionals and ask 'What makes a successful fantasy art (or game concept)?' as well as do surveys - ask whenever the change in fantasy/concept art for games is needed. 
As for the practical element, I'll still follow the plan that's been posted on my blog recently, but will also work a bit more on the story of the world and challenge myself with creating not only character concept but also a very good, portfolio worth, illustration pieces. In order to create that I'll have to synthesis the knowledge I gain from analyzing fantasy art, it's origin, composition (golden ration, rule of thirds) and colour theory, film language (cinematography), photography and apply it in my practice.

Tuesday 21 October 2014

League of Legends|COP3

League of Legends is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game developed and published by Riot Games and first released in 2009. It's a very competitive game, where players use champions to battle each others (player versus player). Moreover, Riot Games organizes the League of Legends Championship Series, where 8 teams from different parts of the world compete for a grand prize.

On my search for concept art I've encountered many great artists, like Katie de Sousa (whom I followed for years on Deviantart) and Trevor Claxton to just name few. I've decided to look at overall qualities of champion (character) concept and splash art instead of focusing on the invidual artists and their styles.

Splash art (illustrations) for LoL has always been a very high quality, beautifully rendered and dynamic. Riot Games title stands out with it's colorful, charismatic characters, and their energy is perfectly transferred in splash art.

As for concept art,again there are some similarities. Pose is rather stiff, but show whole figure and costume, no lineart in finished piece, yet it's nicely rendered. Another thing worth pointing out is back view, which gives a bit more information about the costume/armour. As usual, concept art comes in handy when drawing more complex illustrations.

Monday 20 October 2014

Races and Classes|Practical Element|COP3

Below is a chart presenting races and classes I'll work on.

I've decided to go with very standard and typical races, nothing innovative or unusual. I've also skipped specifing what kind of Elf or Dwarf I'll draw, mostly because I don't want to get too attached to certain type, which could also impact my creative approach. (there is a really deep insight into classes and races in MMORPG games on this website).
As for classes I'll go with 4 typical options. Therefore, Human will most likely be a warrior, Elf could be either archer or mage, Dwarf is most likely to be mage. Beast race, like Orc, usually well known for it's size, power and violence, will have to also stay within warrior category. As for the little, weak Goblins, thief class seems to be perfect, as it enables them to sneak behind enemies and be quick (stealth!). Moreover, I'll draw a male and female version for the Human race. All other races representations will be either male or female (e.g Elf >female, Dwarf > male). At the end, I'll have to produce 6 different full-body finished character concepts, as well as all the initial thumbnails and costume/hair style variations (minimum of 3 different costumes for each race). On top of that, I'll design weapon for each class, still following the work flow I've established.

Sunday 19 October 2014

Guild Wars|COP3

Another MMO title I've decided to research is Guild Wars. It's a competitive online role-playing game created by Arena Net and published by NCsoft, first released in 2005. Moreover, Guild Wars 2 (released in 2012)  is a second most hyped MMO game according to this list.

Kekai Kotaki was one of the artists involved in creating vast fantasy world of Tyria and worked in Arena Net for over 8 years. He has a quite specific, personal style thats easy to recognize. Part of his website dedicated to art made for Guild Wars overflow with the character and creature concepts. There are many costume variations for each of the characters, they are also different to each other in terms of silhouette. Faced same direction, each set hold a repeating pattern in terms of colors and style. Similarly to Mr--Jack, figures are lineless. However, in most cases, colors are rather muted, browns, yellows and oranges being the most used ones (but there are occasional bright purples and reds). There is also a good handful of more finished illustrations.

The Guild Wars 2 category showcase more environments and illustrations, but still have a section dedicated to concept art. Again, a lot of variations and different characters are shown, with the same drawing style - lineless, just blocks of colour. It seems like there is more variety in races this time.

Alike to Mr--Jack, Kekai Kotaki concepts hold same properties and follow similar rules. With my practical element in mind, I'll have to stick to the already established pattern. However, before I start creating my concepts, I need to look at least at one more game franchise (possibly Riot Games).

Leeds City Council Animation Project|PPP3

Before finishing 2nd year I got involved in making a short promotional animation for Leeds City Council. Teamed up with Sara from our course and two girls from Vis-Com. Brief sounded very interesting and challenging. Me and Sara attended couple of meetings with council employers to brainstorm and share ideas for this project. I've produced few character illustrations and storyboard for the animated part of the video (for approximately 1 minute). Unfortunately, project had to be suspended. However, it was a great opportunity for me to learn new skills and work with the client that doesn't have art education.


I've also decided to push myself a bit futher and use work I did for creating my own, short (between 40sec to 1min) animation, mostly because the style I drawn characters in was warmly welcomed by other people.


Saturday 18 October 2014

Adobe Creative Cloud Event|PPP3

On 15.10 I've attended an Adobe Creative Cloud Event, hosted by GBM Digital Technologies at Headingley Cricket Ground. Creative Cloud products were presented by Tony Harmer a senior solution consultant.

It's quite easy to get the idea of what this event will be about from the title. First we got introduced to the Creative Cloud and the pros over the previous boxed softwares, like the ability to access brushes (in case of Photoshop) from any machine without having to take them on the memory stick - after logging to the cloud, all the settings will be downloaded.The shift we seen now in the market is driven by the growing number of people using network connected devices, such as smart phones and tablets. It's also predicted that there will be rapid and big change in the industry within the next 3 years (the changes we seen so far in the last 5 years are mind blowing).
Second part of the presentation concentrated around mobile apps that Adobe is currently developing/offering to the CC subscribers on Apple devices. Softwares like Adobe Sketch and Line looked really interesting (ability to create brushes on the go or having virtual rulers is kinda cool), however, same tasks can be done with any other app available on the Android operated phones/tablets. For some reasons Adobe prefers to develop apps for iOS and avoid Android (Katherine asked this question and the answer was: more stable operating system).
On the site there was a 3D printer and 24' Cintiq. I've took part in the short Cintiq presentation. As any other Wacom product, it looks really good, moreover, the tilt function of the screen looked really nice, allowing user to work in various positions, including standing (which comes handy during long hours). However, after I heard few artists complain about it, I'm presonaly not sure if I'll ever purchase it. I'm really used to my tiny Graphire 4 and would rather go with something like Intuos Pro. As for buying subscription to the CC, I'm still not convinced with this system and whole idea. I'm aware that more and more products are being distributed this way, but no one can answer me a simple question: what will happen if I loose internet connection (and Virgin isn't particulary quick or keen on sending engineers out)? What happeneds to my files if Adobe servers goes down? I really dislike the idea of forcing people to stay connected and relying on their broadband providers, afterall clients are not going to care about cloud. And then, who will pay for it? Sure, there are number of things that could happen to the software bought in the store on the disk, but it's mostly something that you can control (like don't use disks as coasters ;) ). I can't control Adobe servers, I can't stop them from going down because I got deadline. Maybe it's just me being old fashioned and hopefully this things will improve in the next couple of years.

Friday 17 October 2014

Interesting Stuff 3-6|PPP3

Over the summer I kept on updating my other blog with the industry related news. Below is a little compilation of posts I did, starting from the oldest one to the newest.

Interesting Stuff 03: (first posted on 30.05)
Three good thingies~

  • Free Andrew Loomis Art Instruction Downloads on Illustration Friday - do I even have to explain this ;)?
  • Project 2501 - homage to the GiTS done by a group of insanely amazing artists. 
  • Let's Draw Episode 73 - another cool vid from FZDSchool channel, this time we got 9 different color comps inspired by Final Fantasy VII. It's a part 1 and part 2 should be out soon (adding detail).
Interesting Stuff 04: (first posted on 28.06)

Two things today :)

  • Women are not too hard to animate - an interesting article explaining why Ubisoft excuse for not having a female assasin is lame. Also, kudos for Sunset Overdrive Insomniac team for implementing an female assasin in their game within few days (yes, it's a same model with just diffferent texture/clothes but hey, no complains).
  • Duet  - a beautiful, hand drawn animation, created by Glen Keane. Also, a really nice making-of explaining the technology behind this piece.  
Interesting Stuff 05: (first posted on 30.08)
I had this list in draft for ages, but still worth uploading I guess ;)
  • A really good advice on how to get to the animation industry by Dankrall.
  • Brainstorm group on Facebook with weekly concept art challenges and really cool themes. I haven't participated in any of them yet, shold fix this mistake soon.
  • 4 Keys to Staying Creative short article on creativity by Bobby Chiu.
  • Tokkun Academy - Art School TV Channel - fundraising campain started a bit time ago on Indiegogo. I find the idea of art TV channel really weird, but since places like KiwiJuice and Gumroad been so succesful with selling tutorials, the online art channel might be not that bad afterall. Maybe it would depend on type of ads they decide to air in between classes and tutorials ;)
  • Inside Velocity 2X: Animation System - since Velocity 2X is available for free with Playstation Plus offer for September, this particular bulletpoint is timed perfectly :). I've attended a Futurlad talk during last year's BAF and were already familiar with crazy amount of work they've put into animating Kai.
Interesting Stuff 06: (first posted on 12.10)
Another batch of things that are interesting and cool :) .

  • Mery Project is a free character rig made by two Spanish artists. I'm having tons of fun playing with her, making silly poses.
  • Hotel Transylvania Zombie Rig - perfect for upcoming Halloween, a free Zombie rig. If you watched Sony Pictures Hotel Transylvania you'll recognize a character. So cool that you can play with the actual character rig that such a big studio uses. Sweet.

Luke 'Mr--Jack' Mancini|COP3

Since the goal of my practical element is to imitate the stylistics of the popular MMORPG games I've decided to do a little research in who creates the aesthetics of the game world or illustrations/character art. In a sense, a use of correct art style is important for this part of the project.

Luke 'Mr--Jack' Mancini is a concept artist working for Blizzard since 2010. He contributed to the series like StarCraft, World of Warcraft (trading card games) and Legacy of the Void.
I've looked into his WoW card game illustrations and tried to list all the characteristic elements that makes them easily recognizable.

 Alundra, Sin'dorei Timewalker, WoW TGC set.
  • bold colors;
  • impractical armour;
  • spiky ears and proud posture;
  • not a dynamic pose, but still showing full body;
  • contrast between character and background (dark character on light bg).

Nordrassil Scout, card from the Caverns of Time WoW TCG set.
  • bold use of color;
  • dynamic pose;
  • crazy armour design (unrealistic and impractical);
  • elf race - really long, spiky ears, tall and slender figure, bow (or magic) as primary weapon.


 Alyna Sunshower, Crown of the Heavens WoW TCG set.
  • dynamic pose;
  • bright colours (light/flames);
  • impractical rope/armour.


In Mr--Jack gallery there are many other examples that follow same pattern from the key features I've listed. Characters in WoW are usually dressed in very impractical armour/clothes and have a dynamic poses. Moreover, a pressure is put on creating contrast between figure and background (it's either dark character on the light background or other way around). Also, all characters (at least in case of Mr--Jack illustrations) are without any line art. Line sketch is used at the very beginning, but then it gets removed.I've also looked at the progress stages that Mr--Jack used when creating one of the illustrations:


In the description he mentions number of layers and rough time spent making this artwork. I find this gif very insightful, breaking creative process into little steps. As already mentioned in presentation, I've adapted most of these steps into my own work flow, so the whole process will be more fluid when creating practical element.



Tuesday 14 October 2014

Destiny|COP3

Destiny is an online first-person shooter game developed by Bungie (Halo) and published by Activision, released on PS4, PS3, XboxOne and Xbox360 this September. Following the success of both alpha and beta versions (beta attracted 4.6 million players), Destiny was the most anticipated title of the year and broke the record of the best selling new game franchise of all time. Even with the mixed reviews it still managed to get a lot of gamers glued to their screens, trying to kill as many enemies as the can.


For this title, Bungie used a new game engine, that allows a global illumination and real-time dynamic lighting happen together. In terms of match making, Destiny took a technology that's been previously used in Halo series, and improved it so the whole process is more fluid and natural.


Players can choose different modes and missions to play, join clans, choose and edit their character - there are quite a few customisation options and bunch of races and classes to pick from. Editor might not be as complex as the one seen recently for the Dragon Age:Inquisition, yet it still provides enough options to meet needs of most players.

Another interesting part of the multiplayer mode are the possible interactions between the players. It's no longer limited to only sending messages/chat rooms, but with funny little twist in the form of funky dance that players can do.

Players can join clans and embark on the various missions together or just use the match making system and be paired with two other players randomly found by the system (yet, they will be on the similiar level). There are 3 different classes (Titan, Warlock, Hunter) to choose from and each one of them can be levelled up and upgraded. Official website is a vital part of the experience, which slowly becames a usual thing for the big budget titles (e.g. inFamous).

On the other hand, some players complained about the size of the maps and missions, as there was no much difference to the beta version (and Destiny was presented as this big game with huge world to explore). Maybe they have a right to be dissapointed, however it's releases stayed away from massive problems with servers (yes, long loading times, but at least players were able to play online, not like in DriveClub;)).

Friday 10 October 2014

Watch_Dogs|COP3

Watch_Dogs is a new IP developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. Action takes place in Chicago and, since it's an action-adventure game, story is very interesting. As a player you get many opportunities to learn a bit more about the main character, Aiden, as well as about other events.

 

For this module I'm looking at the games that have an online multiplayer mode, which is available in Watch_Dogs and allows up to 8 players to cooporate or compete in different tasks. There are some standard modes, typical for open world games, like car chases, but what's really unique for this title are the hacking missions. Depending on the mode, players can hack each other to retrieve information or steal each other files (which can be also done in a bigger co-op mode). Hacking is a one-to-one mode and as long as a player is connected to the internet, others can hack him/her. So if you just want to enjoy a single player mode and explore Chicago (which was done beautifully) in peace, better disconnect your modem ;).


Those hacking missions provided a lot of frustraction among the gamers, especially 'hide and seek' as sometimes people hide in most obvious places, but are still extremly hard to find.
Another interesting part of the hacking was the amount of people that used to stream (either on Twitch or Ustream) playing this particular mode. And some of those streams had a quite a few viewers and stayed on top of the PS4 Live list of streams.

 

Ofcourse, as in any other game, Watch_Dogs couldn't stay away from bugs and glitches and floating/stuck NPCs are somehow normal. Nevertheless, it didn't impact the gameplay that much.

Thursday 9 October 2014

Overview and key dates|COP3

It's been over a week since we got back to college and dissertation writing is a priority module for this year. Yesterday we had a briefing and presentations, today we had to fill up proposal forms. To stay on top with my work I've decided to compile all the key dates into this post. Correct time management for this 40 credit module is extremly important, it would be extremly stressful (not to say pretty much imposible) to catch up on the huge amount of work we have to do few weeks before the deadline.
  • 15.10 - first tutorial, discussion on dissertation title, literature search and bibliography;
  • 22.10 - research cluster, were we will be split into small group to talk about our projects and what we found so far;
  • 29.10 - tutorial #2, discussion on practical element. Since I've already talked quite a bit about my Practical Artefact in the previous blog post, I'm hoping to have a clear idea of which classes/races/guilds I'm working on and have at least few character thumbnails created by this date;
  • 30.10 - research cluster;
  • 3.11 - milestone: one chapter written and uploaded to the dropbox by this date (or really, by 2.11, which is Sunday, as I work on Monday mornings and wont have the access to the computer until 12-ish); one chapter is around 2000 words;
  • 5.11 - progress crit - synthesis; 15minute presentation slot in a research cluster, on the development of the written and practical element;
  • 6.11 - research seminar - synthesis; discussion and feedback session within the small group;
  • 12.11 - tutorial #3, discussion based on the uploaded chapter;
  • 26.11 - tutorial #4, discussion on the progress of the practical element and it's relationship with the dissertation;
  • 27.11 - workshop on how to make an academic poster (part of the submission criteria);
  • 3.12 - presentation of the academic poster, possibility of guests from outside the college, so make it good ;) ;
  • 8.12 - milestone - have a full draft written by this date and use dropbox to upload it;
  • 10.12 - tutorial #5, discussion based on the draft that's been uploaded earlier;
  • 11.12 - progress crit - practice presentation; in a research cluster presentation of the finished practical element;
  • 7.01 - tutorial #6, disscusion based on the overall portfolio;
  • 15.01 - deadline.
So this is the basic breakdown, it may seem quite scary, but with following all dates, deadline is achivable. Moreover, due to the fact that my due date is 8.01, I'm aiming to submit my work before the Christmas break.

Wednesday 8 October 2014

Over the summer Presentation|COP3

Today we had to present the research we did for the dissertation over the summer within a 5 minute time slot. I've thought a lot about my topic during past few months but decided to talk mostly about the ideas for the Practical Element, as it seemed to be easier to explain (also the idea for the actual academic essay is still floating in my head, supported by few pages of notes and couple of the books already read).

At the beginning I was thinking about creating a short 2D animation, stylized and in a way similiar to the Trichrome Blue Lois van Baarle shared on Deviantart few years ago, but moved away from this idea due to the multiple factors. First of all, my dissertation moved from the interest in just social networks and how websites like Facebook, impact our lives and the way we communicate with each other (you can be miles away from your family and friends) to the more specific interest in just online games and why they are so addictive. Second reason for changing my Practical Element is due to the availability of specific programs and resources. To make a short animation I will probably have to visit college quite often, as the AfterEffects on my computer doesn't work great (render time is beyond ridiculous), not to mention any film editing softwares. Since I'm 6 months pregnant I have to remember that there might be days were won't be able leave home. Therefore, I have decided to change my Practical Element to more concept art orientated, as it can be done from home (where I can take breaks more often and work whenever I want). I will still try to test out Photoshop CC in college (I'm stuck on PSCS5 since it works great for me) and maybe record the process of drawing, which then can be shared via YouTube (in a form of timelapse).

Back to the actual presentation - I've talked about the character concepts I did over the summer. While creating a completly new and unique alien race I also had a great opportunity to test the work flow and new painting methods. From the beginning, I knew that the race I'm trying to portrait so not technologicaly advanced and mostly tribal influenced - think undeveloped African tribes. Started with simple, quick thumbnails to explore certain look, followed by deeper exploration of different head gears and hair cuts, with a range of full body figures as the last step. As mentioned in my presentation, I stepped out from my comfort zone and used a different approach to painting. Instead of spending extra hour or two on drawing a good, solid lineart, I've painted directly on the sketch. This way I was able to cut the painting time down to 6-8hours and concentrate more on the forms than clean lines. Moreover, this approach to concept art is typical for the MMO games (e.g. World of Warcraft).

Since I've established a certain work flow and technique, in the next couple of days I'm going to work on the plan for Practical Element. As I want to imitate a certain style of drawing I'll also research more deeply into the MMO games. For the start, I'm going to write a list of classes and races that should be included in the multiplayer game and then work on few different once using the process I've tested on my alien race. I'll also try to approach different online communities and ask for the feedback.

Friday 3 October 2014

Initial Notes|COP3

Below are initial notes I made after the first lecture by Richard Miles.
I tried to ask myself few different questions regarding topic as well as think about the Practical Element.