Ryan spotted me in Whitespace and invited me over for an early meeting. I had just settled down on the couches to write out the meeting diary, so without it I stumbled a bit and wasn't as organised. As I went home after last weeks meeting, I haven't got much practical stuff done since. I worked on my blog, more on planning posts and sorting my notes. A lot of theoretical context was figured out too. Since the last presentation, my survey idea has been cut, and now I'm doing three pairs which have certain hierarchies, and this is what I was explaining to Ryan.
Image
These models cover all options for which character leads or is controlled by the player, except for a fourth which is nearly impossible to use. Follower-Follower is the one model that I didn't develop, as if neither character has a drive, how do they get anything done? In this case, they would both have to be following something else, either a third character (making it a trio), or a situation. Ryan thinks multiplayer/party games might fit, as the game itself is the driver. I'm focusing on platform games, and there's always a lead, so this justifies leaving Follower-Follower out. Ryan commented the models almost have a scale of difficulty: Leader-Follower is most common and easiest, Leader-Leader is less so, but Follower-Leader is the rarest and hardest besides Follower-Follower. He said he quite liked the idea of these models that others can use.
In common pairs with pets, the animal tends to be just added on, not fully developed, or passive, like in the Fable games. My Follower-Leader designs the pet to be a fully developed persona, with intelligence and speaking ability. I don't quite consider mine a true pet, as in an animal you keep and look after, but more of a companion you fully interact with like another person. However, my pet is the main drive of the game, and the PC is there to execute that purpose - it's a back to front relationship.
With my Leader-Follower pair, with the female human and Giant, I'm trying to implement the pattern of balancing with opposition: the Giant is made up of rectangular and triangular shapes, while the female human is rectangles and circles. The Giant is large and bulky, but is actually friendly and shy, where the female looks gentle but is really the fighter of the group. Overall, there's a hierarchy expectation switch, especially in gender. With the art style I've started to apply - using thick and thin line art - I've been partially inspired by Japanese art, especially from Okami. The Leader-Leader pair are equal in hierarchy haven't been as developed visually yet, but the aim is to have them linked together with visual hints. The fashion for all the duos will include colour co-ordination, as well as visual interest in patterns and shapes.
I worked on a few things in my sketchbook while at home, such as colour theory, perspective, and anatomy. I looked at different methods for drawing the human body, such as by using building blocks and shapes etc. I liked Solarski's idea of the basic character types leading with different body parts: with the head - thinkers, with the chest - heroes, with the pelvis - lazy, with the knees - cowards. Ryan pointed out it's nice to break these rules, such as the knees also being someone who is shy. We briefly looked at my blog, just to get an evaluation of its quality at a glance. I know I need to go back and analyse certain examples. Ryan said it was nice and neat, very detailed, and that my references lists will come in handy later on. Overall, he has no concerns even though I'm behind.
Action Points
- Finish Leader-Follower pair.
- Start Follower-Leader, then Leader-Leader.
- Start thinking of final images asap.
Meeting times have been changed since pitch week to the standard other lecturers use - once a week for half an hour. I feel this will push me more, but I did like having the bulk of work from two weeks to show as sometimes not much is done in one week. I started off this meeting with a few small questions about referencing, then went on to show my progress. I've decided to keep a separate sketchbook for just anatomy and life drawing practise, of both humans and animals, just to keep in practise as regularly as I can. I began with colour theory, using the wheel to create various complementary and analogous colour sets, as well as descriptors for the meaning of colours. I briefly sketched some basic perspective grids, then went on to shape theory and how it can be applied to characters in different ways. I did a study of the muscles and skeleton structure of the human torso as well as the face, thinking that knowing how the muscles form can help in proper placement and anatomical accuracy. I also briefly tried drawing by building on shapes from the book Ryan lent me, and found it interesting, so I'll go back to it eventually.
I started doing art style tests before the previous meeting, and I've continued doing these based on my research of artist inspiration. Ryan really liked these, and said they were all nice, the line work precise and clean. As I've stated before, I wanted to backtrack on my creature designs, and I've started with the Giant character, going back to my inspiration from deer, bears, trees and leaves. I started with his face, as it's a main focus point, and then worked on the right shape for his body, straightening him out from his slouched position. One thing that was pointed out again was that he wasn't being designed next to his partner, mostly because I just haven't got to her yet, but I need to keep away from developing in isolation.
This duo's role revolves around breaking conventions of archetypes and their expectations: the female leads instead of the male, and she's also smaller and is the fighter of the two - this is usually expected from the bigger, bulkier character. Ryan seemed to like their story, where the Giant is assigned to protect a mother tree seed and take it to another village whose own has been damaged, carrying the seed in his chest - this species grows seeds in their chests and then plant one from each gender to reproduce - and the female is his guard, from a sect of humans who act like liaisons for the Giants. He said it was a nice gender flip, and the Giant was almost like a pregnant man which was endearing and challenges common stereotypes, making the female's fighting more worth while as she's protecting such a big gentle creature. I had a few thoughts about the game concept, and Ryan warned not to get too caught up in it or too mechanical, but it was good I had a proper narrative context. I also picture the art style for this duo with black outlines, bright visuals within a colour scheme, and lightly textured, so it has an almost illustrative feel.
The other duos aren't as developed, but I want to redesign the Pet creature - change her mane and beak to something more like a muzzle, and check her body shape is actually capable of carry a human as I think her neck and head tips her balance too far forward. The Pet species usually has a rider partner, who are used as runners and on urgent missions. These two are thieves who got caught and went rogue, and the story is more like an RPG in that you can choose your morality, and just steal for selfish needs, or do it to better the city etc. They'll have a more realistic style in terms of texture, but their porportions will be a little exagerated.
For the co-op duo, the two species are mostly quite alike but dispute over certain things. The Humanoids are strict, formal, highly civilised, and don't like 'lower' races like the Giants, where the Mini species is much more optimistic and adventurous. The two meet and both have the same goal, so agree to work together, becoming frenemies. The Humanoid is a bit of a rebel and wants to have more fun, and essentially the Mini shows him other ways of thinking. It's an adventure platform game, with a more cartoon-based style with clean shading and shapes.
A major decision I've made since around the presentation is a change from the survey. My eight archetypes were mixed in that they were based on roles and relationships, and I want to concentrate on the roles and hierarchy as relationships can change or be applied to most roles. I've cut these down to three - Leader-Follower, Co-op, and PC-Pet, each with their own genre and art style. I'll develop the concept for each game, and do mock up screenshots along with marketing material. I felt this was better as it used more aspects from my research, and Ryan agreed.
Ryan said I've done great work and I present myself well. He has two issues; first, is to start designing and presenting duos in tandem; and secondly, to start to aim for that finished quality. My work so far has been healthy, and he has no complaints on quality or standar, but just wants to push me that much further. My project is really well directed, and I apparently speak strongly about it. We decided that I should keep the final piece open as it could change, but for now the showcase will feature a book on everything in my process, and posters will consist of development process, final duo designs, then marketing pieces of the game concept. Overall, it's about the process which Ryan has said has become so tight and well developed.
Action Points
- As I'm going home for a week I'll concentrate on theoretical and sketchbook work for now.
- Blog catch up.
- Anatomy sketches.
Today was my second progress presentation, from 3-5pm at the HMC Cinema. There's something about this room that makes me more nervous than any other, I'm sure I could hear my own voice shaking as I talked. There was a lot of development from the last presentation in November, but I felt there wasn't too much extra since the hand ins in January. Still, it's only been four weeks, and I had trouble with my wrist injury the first week or so of the semester, but I have done quite a bit of reading at that time. Anyway, onto the presentation. I should note, I cut down on what I said in each slide before presenting, but this covers the extent I wanted to show.
Slide 1
Hello and welcome to my progress presentation.
Slide 2
To recap my project: My research aim is - "To investigate effective design of duo companion characters in video games, and the relationship of form and function."
As you can see from my action plan, my methodology follows studying case studies and character design theories, and then experimenting with these in practice-based media tests, recording all findings in my blog. The main elements I consider most important for successful duos form my critical framework, which includes the Character Design, Narrative & Character Performance, and Player Interactivity. My portfolio and final piece will be my creative response to my research aim.
Slide 3
In my ongoing media tests I look at theories in practice, such as shape theory, silhouette theory, colour theory and so on. I've based these on existing duos from my case studies, and have formed some of my own conclusions. I believe shape theory loses its impact the more realistic an art style, and is also more effective in creature-based design. Strong alignment to a specific shape can influence the portrayal of personality, as seen in these Ratchet & Clank sketches.
Colour is used in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons to contrast the characters from the environment and each other. I experimented with changing the complementary colours, and also desaturating them for a more natural feel. The last design is my preference in that the designs aren't over saturated like the original, but still have highlights of identifying colour.
In Prince of Persia I looked at how the meaning of colour effects the characters, where Elika's original design featured a lot of red, and the Prince was quite bland besides a splash of blue. This suggested he was the calmer of the two, and she was more active, which didn't fit their personalities and roles. The final designs portray the characters better.
Slide 4
Continuing on shape theory, I then designed my own creature silhouettes based on the circle, square and triangle. This was also the beginning of me turning my pipeline to a more digital process, which will hopefully improve my skills and production rate.
Slide 5
Here I've mapped out the main elements I'll be researching and designing for my final outcome. I'll be examining both human and creature design, creating a world culture through their fashion, and looking at the pairing archetype and hierarchy. I'll explore these relationships through the five species I've created. The duos have been designed based from reoccurring archetypes that are popular in pairs. I will then conduct a survey where an audience will mix and match the individual characters to fit these archetypes, and evaluate how my designs are interpreted.
Slide 6
These fashion sketches are based from the Pictorial Encyclopedia of Historical Costume, where I've covered periods from recognisable ancient antiquity like Egyptian and Roman times, as well as English, French and German styles from the 1100's to the 1800's. This was to evaluate how style was developed according to technology and trends of aesthetic taste, comparing how a style was adapted across continents. I intend to do further research into fantasy fashion before creating my own style.
Slide 7
Through my research I have adopted the idea of balancing originality with familiarity in creature design. As such I've looked to a number of animals to study to take influence from, those which are less commonly seen as with cats and wolves. These are: deer, kangaroos, bears, otters, and exotic birds.
Slide 8
Terryl Whitlatch has been a main inspiration with her process of breaking animals down to their skeletons and muscles before combining them with another animal. Based on her book, I began my own sketches of various animals to practice their anatomy and evaluate their potential for my creature designs.
Slide 9
Here I've looked at animal and creature-based design from various games, looking at how consistency is kept by use of colour schemes, levels of exaggeration in proportions, and recognisable features from the real world.
Slide 10
I've noticed in many cases there are varying levels of keeping true to the animal a character is based on, like how human they act, quadrupeds walking on all fours, or whether clothes are worn. Sometimes it's just one article of clothing, others it's a full set. I need to keep this in mind for my creatures as some forms might be difficult to dress well.
Slide 11
With my research in mind, I started designing my creatures, starting with initial designs and then developing them as silhouettes. The Giant species fits the hulking muscle man archetype, but instead of being a brute they're more friendly and shy, and in touch with nature. They take inspiration from bears and deer.
Slide 12
The Mini species is designed to be rather cute and cuddly, and contrasts the Giant species. They are playful and smart, and like adventuring and making discoveries. They take inspiration from otters and kangaroos.
Slide 13
The Humanoid species is the most intelligent and advanced creature, who are strict and formal with the other species. They are elegant and refined, and have a male dominance in their hierarchy. They are also designed after otters and kangaroos, and are distantly related to the Mini species.
Slide 14
The Pet species is a horse-like creature in that they are mainly used for fast travel, but are smart and speak the common tongue. They are fancy creatures, who like to keep clean and preen constantly. They love beauty and valuable things, and as such love shiny objects like gold and precious gems. Their greed and pride is offensive to the Humanoids, and their similar male hierarchy causes dispute between the species often. They are inspired by exotic birds.
Slide 15
These are the latest final designs for the four creature-based species. While their fashion style still has to be designed, I feel they're not quite refined enough and plan to do sketch developments to fully explore their features and anatomy. When designing the duos, I will adapt colours to complement that pair but stay to relevant hues.
Slide 16
This represents the scale of each creature in relation to each other. I then went on to match up the pairs as planned based on popular duo archetypes. These are, in my own terms: Leader-Follower, Friends, Enemies, Romance, Parent-Child, Sibling, PC-Pet, and Frenemies. While these are the optimal choices, there are other options available that might be picked. The only true wrong answers is when a family type is chosen for the Romance.
Slide 17
As part of further developing my designs, I want to use a more unique art style. I've researched various games to examine what's been done before, and to see how genre has effected each. I want to stay away from over realistic styles, and like the idea of using outlines or more illustrative visuals, as well as lightly exaggerated proportions. I then began studying artists for more concept-based styles.
Slide 18
This artist's use of basic geometric shapes is appealing in its clean cut simplicity and bright colours. I also like the layered effect that is featured.
Slide 19
This style is similar to the previous, but instead of flat shapes a gradient is used to shade objects. Again I like the clarity and definition in shapes.
Slide 20
Another similar style, but more of a blend of those before. The unique aspect here is the use of coloured line to define details, which makes the shapes pop a little bit more.
Slide 21
What I like about this artist's style is the use of geometric shapes to define features, as well as the sketchy, textured illustrative traits.
Slide 22
This style features a more painted appearance, but the use of defined brushes and exaggerated proportions make it more unique.
Slide 23
I love the use of colour this artist uses, as well as the more clean brush strokes and lack of line art in most images.
Slide 24
With my inspirations in mind, I then took an earlier silhouette of a creature to conduct practice tests for the varying art styles I enjoy. They feature the bold shapes, gradient shading, and sketchy lines on the top row, and then the various line art effects below. I still plan to experiment with the painted styles, and will examine the potential of each for my final designs.
Slide 25
To further improve my skills, I'm constantly studying animal and human anatomy. Here I've focused on the skeleton and muscle structure of the body and face. I'll be continuing with a process I've begun here which uses shapes to build upon as you draw.
Slide 26
From here I'll be working on the following besides updating my blog: human and animal anatomy; art and genre style; fashion style, individual character design and personalities.
Slide 26
Thank you for listening. Any questions?
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Feedback
This time round, while the feedback wasn't negative, things needed clarifying and didn't feel quite as enthusiastic as before. I don't think it went as well as previous presentations in terms of understanding what it was I was doing - with my development and as a final piece. My project is focused on the process of character design, so lacks foresight into a nice flashy end piece which is important for the showcase and my portfolio. A digital painting feels a bit standard in terms of this, but I'm not looking at things like modeling, or painting in depth, and that's left me a bit worried as Ryan says to focus on the design aspects.
Lynn started with saying I've been busy, that it's good to see so much analysis consisting of different media and development work. She's a bit confused by my approach: the project is about companion characters but the way I've presented them makes it look as if they were designed independently and then put together. I then replied that I believed I hadn't shown my thinking clearly in that the archetype pairings are based on existing popular reoccurring archetypes, so my creatures have been made to fit them and their relationships. I've always kept in mind when designing one creature what the other of that pair was going to be like as well. In many cases, things like size, age or gender are important, but I've just laid the development work out to show one creature at a time as I thought this would be clearer.
I guess I could explain it by saying the pre-production work was designing the different species as a whole, and now I'm refining them to be characters with individual personalities that belong to a duo, and this is where the designing as a pairing works best. But I do see her point, that I need to start showing this and really concentrating on the duo as a whole. I said the designs are going to be refined and done together from now on, which she was happy with. She said it'll be interesting to see how I'll bring them more together with a kind of world context and accessorising.
Lynn then went on to ask what exactly is the final product. This is a stage that isn't as well thought out however, and different opinions have made me a bit cautious of it. The plan is by April to have finished and polished eight archetype pairings, and conduct a survey to validate my designs based on the theories I've researched. The ten characters will be presented individually, then the audience asked to mix and match, which will hopefully be interpreted to align with how I designed the duos. After this, I'd take the most popular designs and do final digital paintings like marketing pieces, as again, the project is more about the process.
Lynn said it's good I want to take audience's opinion into account, and that this type of research is good for the dissertation, but how will this effect the showcase and my portfolio in showing my employable skills? This is where the flashy art comes in. For a moment she was concerned I was going to do eight final pieces of the duo pairings and the workload involved, but I reaffirmed I was just going to do the most popular, one pair that was successful and validated by the survey. She still didn't seem sure and said to work with Ryan, talk about work load, and make sure my selection allows me to really work in detail to a highly polished standard. She also said to keep in mind what happens after the survey, how I would develop the duos after that, if I could work beyond that well enough. I said I would iterate according to feedback if a pair didn't work well enough, but by then it wouldn't be about the process.
Brian began with saying I have a clear framework, and that it works for me. He asked what it was I wanted from this project. my presentation had a focus on my research into art style, so he asked if I'm trying to create my own generic style, or maybe the ability to respond to different briefs. I replied that much of my research looked at the relationship between game genre and relevant art style, and how I think different archetypes effect the choice I make. He was glad to see how I responded to this research, but would like to see me being a bit bolder in its application, and really push the aesthetics. He said I was a bit cautious, that I maybe I could try different designs to get more variants, and that it would be good for my portfolio to develop different ways of responding. I did think that as this was just a media test, and that because the design wasn't fully developed in terms of fashion and accessories, that the extent of the impact of each art style wasn't too obvious.
Link to Honours Project Presentation 3.
Link to Honours Project Presentation 3 Script.
Action Points
- Refine duo pairs together, not individually. Present as such.
- Begin creating individual and cultural fashion style.
- Redesign/refine survey and final piece ideas.
- Practice human and animal anatomy to polish designs and believability.
