Over Christmas, as we were working on our Christmas projects we were also looking further into our final major project. Now that Lucy and I were certain we were going to work together we'd drafted our proposal.
Our initial idea was to create a concept art book that would show a diverse range of skills and techniques as we designed a selection of characters and environments. At first we wanted to create a setting rather than redesigning a story and we were looking at post apocalyptic settings with large gaps between the 'haves' and 'have nots' However we quickly decided that this would give us more work rather than more freedom to be creative. As projects like this had been attempted before with retellings of a Fairytale we looked into unusual stories but in the end decided that we didn't want to work on a fantasy project.
It was Lucy who suggested Metropolis. After some discussion about our ideas and how they lined up with the themes and subjects that we wanted to portray.
For our return to university in the new year we wrote up a finalized proposal for the project,, outlining what we wanted to achieve and showcase. We also thought of a few stretch goals that we could add to the project if we manage to finish ahead of time.
We will be aiming to make a concept art book redesigning Fritz Lang's metropolis setting and characters, we also wish to showcase our design process, not just the artwork we produce and personally I would like to show elements of the design process such as world building.
If we get time we want to expand into possible 3D or even real world assets, creating whiteboxes, actual benchmark assets or in my own personal case a set of clothing or physical item that can be worn or displayed.
Monday, 18 May 2015
Christmas Project Post Mortem
This years Christmas project was one of a selection. Since we got to chose what we wanted to do I decided to pick something that I'd not done before; I picked the Stylized Shop project which was to design a shop for an MMO style setting with hand painted textures and a stylized look. I haven't done a lot of work in this style before and as I was about to start a concept art focused project with my final major project I wanted to do a project that was more focused on FMP.
For my shop I toyed with the idea of creating a spice merchant or a cafe but in the end decided to create a little apothecary shop. I wanted a shop that even though it has a cute, stylized feel to it seems a little shady. This is the shop you go to to buy the crafting ingredients and poisons for offensive status effect spells and power-ups.
Designing the shop I looked at a lot of sprites from mobile games for their bright colour palettes and their exageration of shapes as well as fantasy role playing games and MMO games. Pintrest board of inspiration and research here.
What stood out to me looking at these was not just the colour palettes but their playful take on scale and form. Once I'd decided on the type of shop I wanted I started designing. At first I looked at a lot of different levels and chunky accessories for the shop, but thinking about the type of setting I wanted to portray I wanted to be more fantastical about scale. In the end I decided to create a shop that would be miniature in scale. I began looking at plants and items that could be there to show the size of the building and settled on a scale that suggests that the house is no bigger than a small doll's house, hidden away in the plants of a field or garden.
I wanted everything to point to the purpose of the shop and the plants and surroundings do just that; the house is set up next to an old forgotten earthenware bottle of poison and the plants around it are in fact it's wares; Ivy, lily of the valley and deadly nightshade berries are all clustered around the entrance and are all poisonous plants.
My favourite part of this project was painting the textures; I haven't had an opportunity to do many textures by hand in my university projects before so this was a great project for trying it out on a larger scale. I found it time consuming however it produced a result that I was really happy about and I found that I had total control over my materials and how I wanted them to look now that I didn't have to rely on photo references to complete the textures.
I had a little trouble importing the project into UDK because I discovered I'd made an error in creating the light maps when I began importing. It meant going back and re-exporting the objects from 3DSmax but I was able to fix the problem easily. Textures and Lighting in the engine were also initially a challenge, simply because I couldn't seem to remove the 'sample' texture overlay for some time in the engine but with a little help from my classmates I was able to fix the problem which was mainly to do with lighting needing to be built and was connected to the previous problem with the light map.
Overall I'm happy with this project. I've produced a piece that matches with the brief in not only creating the shop front but also the environment around it which provides a unique and interesting silhouette that makes the shop instantly recognizable; an important trait for any building in a video game where easy readability is essential for a player to navigate areas effectively and with as little frustration as possible.
If I was to revisit this project, which I probably will in the future, I'd like to extend the parameters of the scene. Either out into the street where there could be different items or stalls and barrows creating a market, or more likely inside, to the actual wares and interior of the shop. I had a few ideas and initial designs for the interior of the shop; I wanted to show the plants and ingredients drying on their racks or being steeped in their boxes between the shelves and inside I could further play with the scale of things, with leaves as big as curtains hanging from the ceiling. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to extend the project to cover the inside during the weeks given for the project and was forced to concentrate on just the exterior of the shop.
In the future I would also like to look at creating a stylized character of the shop keeper to complete the scene.
For my shop I toyed with the idea of creating a spice merchant or a cafe but in the end decided to create a little apothecary shop. I wanted a shop that even though it has a cute, stylized feel to it seems a little shady. This is the shop you go to to buy the crafting ingredients and poisons for offensive status effect spells and power-ups.
Designing the shop I looked at a lot of sprites from mobile games for their bright colour palettes and their exageration of shapes as well as fantasy role playing games and MMO games. Pintrest board of inspiration and research here.
What stood out to me looking at these was not just the colour palettes but their playful take on scale and form. Once I'd decided on the type of shop I wanted I started designing. At first I looked at a lot of different levels and chunky accessories for the shop, but thinking about the type of setting I wanted to portray I wanted to be more fantastical about scale. In the end I decided to create a shop that would be miniature in scale. I began looking at plants and items that could be there to show the size of the building and settled on a scale that suggests that the house is no bigger than a small doll's house, hidden away in the plants of a field or garden.
I wanted everything to point to the purpose of the shop and the plants and surroundings do just that; the house is set up next to an old forgotten earthenware bottle of poison and the plants around it are in fact it's wares; Ivy, lily of the valley and deadly nightshade berries are all clustered around the entrance and are all poisonous plants.
My favourite part of this project was painting the textures; I haven't had an opportunity to do many textures by hand in my university projects before so this was a great project for trying it out on a larger scale. I found it time consuming however it produced a result that I was really happy about and I found that I had total control over my materials and how I wanted them to look now that I didn't have to rely on photo references to complete the textures.
I had a little trouble importing the project into UDK because I discovered I'd made an error in creating the light maps when I began importing. It meant going back and re-exporting the objects from 3DSmax but I was able to fix the problem easily. Textures and Lighting in the engine were also initially a challenge, simply because I couldn't seem to remove the 'sample' texture overlay for some time in the engine but with a little help from my classmates I was able to fix the problem which was mainly to do with lighting needing to be built and was connected to the previous problem with the light map.
Overall I'm happy with this project. I've produced a piece that matches with the brief in not only creating the shop front but also the environment around it which provides a unique and interesting silhouette that makes the shop instantly recognizable; an important trait for any building in a video game where easy readability is essential for a player to navigate areas effectively and with as little frustration as possible.
If I was to revisit this project, which I probably will in the future, I'd like to extend the parameters of the scene. Either out into the street where there could be different items or stalls and barrows creating a market, or more likely inside, to the actual wares and interior of the shop. I had a few ideas and initial designs for the interior of the shop; I wanted to show the plants and ingredients drying on their racks or being steeped in their boxes between the shelves and inside I could further play with the scale of things, with leaves as big as curtains hanging from the ceiling. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to extend the project to cover the inside during the weeks given for the project and was forced to concentrate on just the exterior of the shop.
In the future I would also like to look at creating a stylized character of the shop keeper to complete the scene.
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