Well......

I know I'm not going to sleep tonight! Oh silent hill, you do know how to please the audience!

Level Design

         Level Design is where the development of a game physically begins. It takes a lot of thought and process to be able to create a successful level and environment. You have to be aware of the space and general interactivity. As well as the importance of playability and the way the player navigates through the level. Level design combines the use of visual and geometric abilities all designed to construct the architecture of the level. It requires more than just an artistic way of thinking, it demands a structural and precise insight to the mechanical expectations of architecture. This is because level design is an expensive use of time, as if things don’t work or look right then the level, and therefore the game will look bad, and this will be shown in the sales of the games. Gamers want to play something believable, not something that is falling apart at the seems.

         Another important aspect of level design is the purpose of what is going to be placed in the level and why you are having it in the level, you need to consider what the purpose of the object is and how it will help you to get your end result. Deciding the location and environment will help you back up your general theme for a game. For example, in horror games such as silent hill, don’t you always see hospitals and abandoned theme parks? Why? Because they are creepy! So if you’re creating a horror game, you aren’t going to have the environment in a sunny field full of rainbows and unicorns. No. you will conform to stereotypical places ideal for your theme.

        So, with that in mind, the level must be constructed around the general story of the game. You must realise, before creating a level, what the environment and place has to do with the story and why the character(s) are there? This will help you decide assets and how the level is constructed.

      The layout is another important aspect of level design. You don’t want the player to have a headache because the level is designed like a maze (Unless your making a maze, then it should be maze-like) forcing them to give up because they’ve “Gone past this same tree several times now”. These are important things that you must keep in mind if you want to create a successful level.

      Another important stage with creating a level is what are the objectives and obstacles? As these will help to forward the plot and storyline. If these are missed out then the game will not have a meaning. You need to give a typical character arc to the character by setting tasks and having problems, like with any film or game. Your protagonist has some sort of problem to overcome which in the end makes them or the world better. (This cannot be typical of ALL game and films, just the majority) You must also create main focal points in your level. This will help draw gamers in the world, giving them something to concentrate on. Focal points must be visually pleasing and could often be the sign of where the player needs to go or the importance of that area.

    In conclusion, all these things are relatively important to the full aspect of a game. Poor level design will result in a overall poor outcome, as level design is classed as the “interface” (how the person reacts with the operating system) and will be an important and constant feature of the game.

Film

    Today’s lecture really made me miss my old film studies lessons. Watching “Paris, Texas” refreshed my film knowledge and I felt myself getting really involved with the making of the film. Makes me really miss Wednesday film afternoon’s, I loved watching films I wouldn’t normally choose to watch.

     I find bizarre films very interesting. Like one of my favourite French new wave films “A Bout de Souffle” (Breathless) directed by Jean-Luc Goddard.

                                   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053472/

   I found it really interesting to learn how the French new wave broke the cinematic rules, with regards to things as breaking the 4^th wall and a non-consistent character arc. There was many ways in which this film was interesting, and I enjoyed learning about it. It’s the kind of film you wouldn’t necessarily choose to watch, but once you watched it once, you watch it over and over and over…..

                http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2000/07/06/breathless_review.shtml

     Today just reminded me of the passion I had for films and the effort that goes into making them, I appreciate that feeling very much.

Visual Composition

     Visual composition is an important stage, this is the time for the artist to decide what emotions he or she wishes to provoke in a image. Pictures are used to tell a story and convey an emotional feeling resulting in a response. Just like film makers, it all relies on how you place objects in the scene (mise-en-scene) lighting, angles and much more. This is key to making a piece that the audience can identify with. Humans are emotional creatures, we find emotional stimulation in everyday concepts, there is not a moment that goes by where someone can not feel anything, understanding these feelings will help you gain an understanding of how different aspects of a drawing can make someone feel.

     For example, if I image is created looking up at a person, this means the artist has chosen to show the person from a low-angle creating the feeling that the person is strong and dominating. If the angle was reversed, the person would seem small and inadequate. A wide angle image, would provoke isolation emotions, as the person would seem invaluable being surrounded by the vast abyss. An extreme close up would allow the audience to sympathise with whatever the person was feeling, this shows that the audience is getting into the personality of the person in the drawing.

     Lighting and colours can also provoke different responses. Images with large amounts of red project the feeling of anger and danger as we recognise red from warning signs and the colour of blood. Whereas filling the scene with blue, gives a sad, cold and calming aspect. An object that is lighted by moonlight would give a scary feeling, if you were to replace the moonlight with sunlight, the object would appear much more friendlier.

      If you do not plan out your visual composition your image would be dull and could provoke the wrong emotional response, this is alright if it’s just a singular image, however creating images for a game would require some sort of continuity of emotional response. Even juxtaposed images need to be carefully thought out, as the audience will not want to be confused with what is happening. It needs to be clear.

     As an artist it would be important for you to be able to control and manipulate the feelings of an audience, however you gain this knowledge with trail and error, I useful trick is to detach yourself from your work and look at it like you’ve never seen it before, and then concentrate on how you are responding to it, are you happy? Are you sad? Frightened? If you feel nothing, you haven’t provoked enough response to convey a significant meaning. It would be best to look at other artists work then see how you feel looking at the image, and look at how they have planned the scene and setting.

     In conclusion, visual composition is the stage where you begin to aim your artwork in a general emotional direction, different artistic aspects change the way an image is perceived and this is important for portraying an image correctly and efficiently. 

Concept

Just browsing the web, when i found this really great piece of concept art. Really inspired me to get my draw on, so i thought i'd share. Work was created by a talented artist called Alex Bobylev

Planning and Concepting

     Planning and concepting is an important aspect of creating and finishing a final piece. It helps to develop an idea into something you can work with.

     To be a successful artist you need to first understand how to plan, this goes from planning what techniques to time and to spacing on a page. Everything needs to be efficiently planned otherwise time can be wasted, and time is very important in the gaming industry, as deadlines are a key part to a successful game. Planning is the first stage of developing anything. Even if you do not write anything down, you mentally create a “to-do” list and plan out how to tackle the problem in your mind. Plans will change as you begin working on them as you realise better ways of tackling issues. This is a natural process of planning.

     Planning is incredibly useful when it comes to tackling a brief or problem in a brief, timescales and lists are an efficient way of keeping track of the tasks you have to complete.

     Concepting is where you start putting the plan in motion, you have a general idea of how to conclude a task and you begin by sketching ideas, bouncing back and forth from one idea to the next to get a good section of different images. You find what works with an image and develop it further, sorting out any issues or design flaws or drawing failures. Concepting includes a lot of rough sketches and experimenting with styles and thoughts. Thumbnails are a great and efficient way of portraying a general idea in a small amount of time, these generally accumulate and evolve into a singular idea for a final piece to handle the brief. So from beginning with loads of random inspired thumbnails you can defer a better idea and develop it further.

     Concepting and planning can come in many forms, moodboards, spider diagrams, words, sentences, doodles, diagrams, thumbnails, they are all produced to create quick ideas and begin the means to an end. Before this stage, nothing has really been created or thought about. This is where you can begin the motion to getting a final piece.

     Without proper planning and concepting a project can quickly become mis-directed and lost within the see of imagination and thoughts. It is a lot easier for a human to understand a way of getting to a set goal if the plan is clearly in front of them, it then produces a design that flows well and reaches the end target, which is the main reason for a brief to be set. It is a key part for a gaming organisation to have staff members that are proficient and resourceful when it comes to the planning stage of the development cycle.

    When attacking a brief i will have to keep these two important steps in mind if I want to create a high-quality outcome for the project and the brief.

Year Two

Hello year two. It’s nice to meet you.

  A lot of things have become clear to me in the few months off over the summer. The break allowed me to go back and look through thee first year being critical of the work I have done and how I approached the course. Looking back at the first few pieces of work I produced for both visual design and game production made me feel both proud and embarrassed. I can’t believe I have come this far in the space of a year. Yes, the other participants on the course have done as well. I came straight from college with hardly any artistic knowledge and no 3d knowledge at all. Now, I know how to make my perspective correct, how to check anatomy and different techniques when it comes to drawing. With regards to the 3d work, I could hardly create a box when we first started, and now I’m creating knights and tree houses with textures and normal/specular maps. I’m learning something new each and every day.

   Year two I will concentrate on getting these skills correct and putting them into practise. The first year I was stumbling around, now I feel like I’m at walking pace. This doesn’t mean anything will be easier, definitely not. But at least I know where I went wrong in the first year and how I can improve on that, and that is important. It’s alright to make mistakes as long as you can recognise them and know how to change them or stop them happening again.

    I’m very anxious and incredibly excited about the upcoming work. I expect to develop my knowledge of digital painting and the use of colours to portray emotional concepts and meanings in my work. As well as testing and trying new and exciting methods of drawing and colouring, as well as developing a better understanding of 3ds max. I am here to learn new things and progress through to the next year with an even larger understanding of the artistic world both traditionally and digitally.

    I need to make sure to focus on my time managing skills as well, as this is something I found very difficult to control on the first year. I will need to make sure to give myself proper time limits and recognise when I’m wasting time on something. I also need to increase the speed at which I draw, I shall practise creating thumbnails at variable speeds to improve on this skill. However, I shall not just focus on one area of the course, I shall divide my time up to gain a “jack of all trades” understanding as this is the kind of thing that the industry is looking for. It means I wouldn’t be a specialist in just one thing but have a more rounded understanding. This is useful as technology advances very quickly in industry, so I would need to be able to learn things quickly and if I specialised in something that was replaced, it would mean that I would be replaced as well, with someone who can adapt better.

    In conclusion, looking at my first years work I know that I can do better this year, I have not yet hit my peak. I look forward to the opportunity to learn more. Knowledge is power.