Game Ideas

So the concept of the game is coming along quite nicely, ideas are starting to formulate and ideas are becoming more and more concrete.

The idea of a post-apocolyptic world however we as a group decided that we did not want to go with the whole nuclear armageddon plot, instead we wanted something a bit more environmental or natural but on the scale to completely lay waste to the previous world.

So whats the idea???

- Solar flares burn through the atmosphere causing the world to literaly burn to the ground.

- The setting is still going to be a city built upon a city but now we are currently talking about building the city up on a spaghetti type junction on a motorway with the slums being at the bottom and the HQ being the remaining buildings in the middle.

- A few other ideas regarding the characters such as each one having a specialty and the playable character as like the all rounder. A few other twists to the plot however i'm not going to reveal these potential spoilers.

Aside from doing a few sketches, I also went out around Birmingham photographing areas and coming up with a few visual references as well as capturing some great textures.

Using this image and a quick go on photoshop I turned this photo reference into a bit of a concept style picture with a few ideas on colours and the mood of the settings.

 

 

Game Development Meeting

Todays meeting was basically establishing a more solid idea and concept of the game. After talking with the proggramers a few ideas were finalised and the general direction of the project is becoming more clear.

A few things covered today:

- The setting is post-apocolyptic, A singular city run by this corporation.

- The enemies will have different classes, standard soldiers, brutes, mini-bosses etc. These will be a regimented uniformed army type enemy.

- The possibility of enemy dogs.

- The 3 levels will consist of the 3 different sectors of the city.

Level 1 - The prison and the slum sector.
Level 2 - The army barracks and armoury sector.
Level 3 - The HQ sector where you ultimately face the boss.

- The programmers also highlighted that there would be a change in the gameplay. It is now more of a RPG game whereby the character earns XP points and has to upgrade throughout the gameplay. This also means that we can tie the story more into the actual gameplay.

- Our main characters are known only as the Arrivals, there appearances are quite rugged and they have ventured from the wasteland to take down this corporation.

Thinking about these things, we have a more solid basis to come up with concept designs and ideas that will tie in more with the plot of the game.

I also found a very useful link that is quite relevant to this project so have a read and enjoy!

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4960&page=1

A bit of inspiration.

Seeing as the projects of this year require alot of inspiration I read an article that I found very interesting on how some big hollywood movies were inspired. This ranges from paintings to adverts to recruitment information!

http://movies.uk.msn.com/photos/romance-and-comedy/photos.aspx?cp-documentid=154863073&page=1

So have a good read and enjoy!

Digital Animation - Development of Game

For the digital animation module we were faced with the option of delving into the development of a game. This meant collaborating with other animators and of course games programmers. Working as a team we would then spend the rest of the year developing a game with 3 playable levels.

After meeting the games programmers and hearing their pitches on their games we then had to commit to a team if willing to participate. So with the idea being proposed to us from the programmers we then have decided to go away and come up with mood boards, visuals and thumbnail sketches.

Here is the brief outline of the proposed game:

Realistic style, Set in the near future, The main protaganists being part of a secret society/elite squad on a mission to save the world from an evil corporation. Currently it is still being discussed whether it will be 1st person or 3rd person. There are 2 other characters that assist the main character in the gameplay as well as 2 other characters that frequently radio in, the environment is closed contained areas possibly set in a warehouse, there will be 3 classes of enemy; each one harder then the previous with a few variations of each. We are looking at 3 to 4 different weapons, 1 of those being a bazooka. The weaponry should be hi-tech and advanced however not lasers.

These are some of the specifications that the programmers have decided on however the style, looks and feel of the game is completely up to us as the artistic side in the development.

RESEARCH

Here is some of my initial research and ideas:

Thinking about the background story to the game is important in developing a feel for the entire game, it helps us as an audience empathise with the characters and the situation.

- It is in the last quarter of the 21st century approximately 2075 A.D.

- World War 3 resulted in the near annihalation of the entire planet.

- A war profiteer appeared during the final years of World War 3 and uniting the greatest scientific and technological minds in the world, created a new sustainable energy source.

- With the new energy source exclusive to this corporation they were factioned into the government and eventually the world was united into 1 governing body tied directly into this mysterious corporation.

- Technology advanced rapidly due to this new energy source as the world was rebuilt into a new unified and peaceful state. Armies were disbanded as the state unified and a new global police force were instituted who took direct command from government(and the corporation).

- However this corporation is not what it seems as with every other government body, it holds many dark, disturbing secrets.

Some images that I think would suit this world and particularly the industrial area in which the gameplay is set in.







The idea was to base it in a futurist industrial sector of the planet where the gameplay will take place inside the various locations. Although we will not be modelling the exteriors much, I felt as though it was important to consider the environment around the game and these few images portray the image in my head when thinking about the brief.

More ideas coming soon =)

Narrative, Adaptation and Interpretation

This module will focus on looking at the film language in both live action and animated films. This means looking more in-depth into the technical make-up of the film; Things such as understanding the script to the cinematography, mise en scene ending the whole process with the editing phase. This module will help me understand and analyse any film from the planning stages through to the pre-production, production and the final post-production stages.

TASK 1

'- What is the most significant moment that happened in your life? Is there any incident that you remembered most? Or even an object, sound, smell that you will never forget. Is there a moment where it is life changing?

- You would need to write a short paragraph of 200-500 words supplemented with visuals or sound. Which ever is relevant?'

This is my short synopsis:

It was a pale Friday evening, the weather wasn’t particularly inviting but that was alright because we weren’t looking to go outside. The empty classroom studio was vacated at that time of the evening, most the students had gone home or were outside engaged in conversations about the events of the college week, most of it likely to be banter and gossip. My friends were also amongst the groups of friends outside the college but I wasn’t there. The teachers were now in the staff lounges sipping on their coffees discussing upcoming lessons and tutorials. Matt and I sat in what felt like our home for the last three months; the planning had been intense. It had been months of intense research and organizing, either of us having no experience what so ever in animation, we had to rely solely on help from books and the unfathomable knowledge of the internet. We were both eager to see how our final year project had come together. As we sat there we reminisced about the incredible journey we had undertaken to get to where we were. All the months of tests, the revised storyboards and the absurd amount of time spent on building our very first working armature. The pressures of the struggle now stood like the weight of the world on my shoulder and taking a deep breath Matt pressed the play button. The anxiety inside me welled up as a flood of questions overwhelmed my mind, was the lighting going to be dramatic enough? Was the sound going to sync to the animation? Had our months of concentrated planning and research been worth it? I watched as I saw hours turn into seconds, I saw the details turn into months and I saw something that could not logically move become alive and that was when I realised this is what I wanted to do with my life. This was the path of life I wanted to pursue. With this achievement I knew that I wanted to move on to bigger and better things and so I was inspired to become an animator.

Bring on the second year.....

Ok so its been a long while since I've really posted anything at all. Maybe this is due to being in Cornwall where they still use horse messengers to deliver telegrams (yes the phone reception was terrible and the internet, even worse!) But back to normality (whatever that is???).

At the moment there are 3 modules happening at the same time, 1 being the more technical aspects of animation as a medium. This module covers the film aspects such as cinematography, mise en scene, scripts etc etc. The other module being drawing for animation and the last one being the continuation of digital animation. A great start to the digital animation was going to a 2 day authorised adobe course on flash which I also received a certificate. But anyway I will get into more detail with each module later, for now.....

Dark Jedi

A character known only as Dark Jedi, which I have based entirely on my own personality with the influences of my favourite epic ever created.... Star Wars. Just as experimental work I decided to go back to a technique I used in college.






These were all based from pictures of a friend of mine that only very slightly looked like 2pac but using this technique of working over the image I came out with this very conceptual art looking style which I think really works with my own style of drawing.



Quite similar to the style of the game 'Borderlands'

This is how I characterised Dark Jedi from an image of myself....



This is the base image for my characterisation. Using multiple layers and help from the threshold tool I managed to give it the conceptual art style. Now all I had to do was work the image from here.

The first thing I focused on was the eyes of my character. Seeing as my character was Dark Jedi it needed the elements of a Sith so by simply using the Eyedropper tool and an image of Darth Malgus(Star Wars: The Old Republic), I recreated the same look in the same colours but according to my own facial features.






From here I simply worked into the image creating layers upon layers of detail on top.





I'll be posting more work in this style.... =)