Initial Environment Concepts... #10

Environment Thumbnails...

Well, some of these are a touch bigger than thumbnail size, but its the thought that counts. I wasn't as interested about how big the doodles where as opposed to the actual drawings themselves.

Here, I use bleed-proof paper and a mixture of black marker and fine liner...

I was quite surprised when I sat down and started to draw these concepts out on paper. At the time it had been quite a while since I last put pen/pencil to paper - it was a rather bad phase, and it shows in the first image (top-right).

However as I tried to wrack my brains and scribbled away, it all started to come back to me and by the end of the first sheet of paper I was starting to get the hang of drawing again.


There was a slight focus on Temples and Magic... can you tell?

---

Game Props... More Research... #9

Game Props and Assets...

A dive into the topic of Prop and Asset creation threw up some real gold nuggets and some great advice for a budding 3D Artist.

One piece of pure gold that I stumbled upon was the direct link between the Props Concept Art and the Modelling of the Prop. I found a huge amount of advice on forums such as polycount.

But the one single piece of information I came away with was the very important need to have concept art or reference images to work form. It may seem like a totally obvious statement, but seeing a model made from memory vs one constructed from both memory and concept art/reference images is just huge... a bit of a slap in the face.

^ A great example of the vast amount of game props and assets that it takes to fill a game or feature film animation.

^ A GREAT video from Carbine Studio on the topic of Prop and Asset Creation for Games! (Youtube really does have some real golden nuggets hidden amongst all that poor quality trash.) This is a must watch, it really is an inspiring insight into the role of a Prop Artist in the Games Industry... up until the bit near the end which is in the form of a blooper ending. Hearing that last bit could be a bit soul crushing...

---

Mood Boards... Continued... Continued... #8

Again with the Mood Boards...?A little foray into the land of Textures... and by foray I mean a mooch around google images searching for realistic textures that one might find in the likes of the initial Concept Art image provided in the Project Brief.

Realistic Textures...

Hand Painted Textures...

I also decided to explore hand painted textures too. This may or may not be of relevance to the project but it is still a worth while exploration of textures as I do have a slightly more bias interest in the more less real realities.

I like the fact that a lot of games strive for realism and that's great, it works well for the games that do go down that path, but I tend to think that things like 3D Animation shouldn't be about realism, that's what video cameras and live action are for.

I just happen to slightly suck at Digital Painting... which is a bit of a problem and something I really need to (and want to) investigate more. However, this project is more about the 3D Environment Sample rather than Digital Painting... Perhaps in the future when I have more time.

*Sighs*

---

A Touch of Set Dressing Research... #7

Set Dressing... A little peek...

The first youtube video I found that's really interesting is a bit of a behind the scenes look at the Animated Movie 'Planet 51' - If you haven't already seen it, why are you still here? Go watch it! - Its not exactly a focused video on set dressing (unlike the second youtube video) but its a great example (the top-right corner shot) of what Set Dressing does, which is to flesh out an Environment.

Keeping in mind, that although this is a behind the scenes look at an Animated film, its still relevant to an extent in terms of Set Dressing for an Environment Sample.


This second youtube video is a little more along the lines of in-depth Set Dressing. While it might be shown in terms of Autodesk 3ds max, its still very relevant to the topic at hand - as one 3D software package is pretty much the same as the next, but with slight differences. All the actual theory remains virtually the same...

---

Mood Boards... Continued... #6

What!? Again? Ok...

Here are some more mood boards I've put together, this time focusing on a slightly different topic from the last lot of mood boards, which focused primarily on actual mood. As you can see below, I chose to focus on the style more this time round with a slight touch of divergence into Interiors.

As you can probably tell, at this point I'm thinking more 'inside' in terms of modelling a 3D Environment Sample. I sort of like the idea of focusing more on the topic of modelling, and I think by choosing to look at interiors, I'd have a much more varied and rich subject area.

It could be said that rather than Environment modelling its more akin to Set Dressing...

---

Mood boards... #5

Moody Mood boards...
Some initial mood boards to help get a feel for the project and the type of style and art direction that I am aiming  to achieve through the process of this project.

I decided to go with a mixture of dark and light, each image on these mood boards reflects this pretty well in my opinion, while still keeping to the general type of style as the initial concept piece provided in the project brief.

---

Getting Started - Project Mode Engaged! #4

 Starting the Project...
To start with I jotted down the module requirements and project requirements and a little doodle or two to get my brain in gear.

Nothing entirely interesting but its a start...

[ Mind-Map... ]

The module also requires a project pipe line plan as would be the case in an industry environment for any creative project.

[ Rough Pipleline Plan... ]

So I started to jot down a rough plan for the process that would most likely be used during the process through to completion. (Click to enlarge Images). As well as the overall project pipeline rough, I added a smaller pipeline for the actual modelling part as a separate process within the overall project planing.

I also started a mind-map to get ideas flowing...

---