Supervisor Meeting 07

I started this meeting off by informing Ryan my wrist ganglion has been getting worse - it's near doubled in size and is hurting more often. I'm guessing my Doctor would do treatment now given how big it's gotten, but the warning she gave me last time of risk of infection, or the numbing agent having a lasting effect makes me want to wait until after uni in finished. In the off chance I get the surgery option, risks are even higher, and so close to hand-ins I'm not going to chance it.

I asked a few questions about the group seminar we have soon, and checked it's just going to be on the dissertation. I'm not sure how I'll format this, as I don't think I'll have enough substantial data to be printed and read clearly, so I think I'll just take my notes and talk through it. I also inquired about the Masters degree, knowing Ryan has done it himself. I like the idea of continuing uni, and the group work will be a great experience. However, I'm not sure how big teams are, and how much art is going to depend on me. I'm not confident in too many areas so I'm worried I'll let the team down or not contribute enough. Funding is another matter. I know tuition fees are in place at a limit, but given I'd have to take another loan out just for living costs (unless I miraculously find a job), I don't think it's worth it at the moment. I've been in college then uni for six years, straight out of high school, and I'd like to take a short break from it all to be honest. But just hearing about it helped make the decision.

So, the Leader from the Leader-Follower is finished in detail, now including face and head designs. I've also done an experiment with her and the Giant together, evaluating their size ratio and what's best. The Follower-Leader has progressed too: the Leader human is finished too, both in refining the line art and colour, as well as face and head designs. The Pet is loosely designed, again with an experiment on the colour and size ratio for this duo - this is more important here as the male human is going to ride the Pet like a horse, and she needs to be able to carry his weight. I just need to design the saddle, tidy things up, and apply the right art style.

What I want to do besides the final images for posters for the showcase, are character turnarounds. This is a common method used in the industry pipeline, both in 2D and 3D, so it's quite important to include. Usually, there's also experiments with facial expressions, emotions, poses, body language etc, but I'm not sure how much time I'll have to do all this. I asked Ryan how I should go about this in order - if I should concentrate on finishing one duo completely before going to the next, or finish each stage first. I figure I'll finish the Leader-Follower fully first, as they're the most developed, and then catch up with the others.

I've also been working on my dissertation in response to this group seminar coming up. I've expanded the research I collected for the Research Proposal, taking quotes and theories from more authors and sources. I've also been gathering the relevant images I'm going to use to illustrate my points. Crunch time is approaching, so I'll focus on getting the dissertation finished first after feedback from the first draft, as it's easy for me to continue with that rather than switch tasks. I also want to ensure I get it printed early enough. I should note that this is the last Supervisor Meeting, unless organised at a later date.

Action Points

• Finish art style for Follower-Leader.
• Refine Leader-Leader.
• Dissertation Draft 1 to finish.
• Game concepts & stories to finish.
• Blog updates.

Supervisor Meeting 06

It's been a while since I updated a Supervisor Meeting. I fell ill just before the fourth presentation, which I couldn't attend, and I missed two of these sessions, although I informed Ryan and tried to keep things updated. I am behind on a number of things, my head was so stuffy I just couldn't concentrate on anything.

I began the meeting with a few questions. I wondered if I had to redo my ethics form as I no longer have human subjects, and I might have to rejustify why I have no ethical concerns. Ryan said I didn't have to, but I could email them and ask (I did, it's not necessary). I asked if he just wanted the Diary Sheets stapled together to submit, and that's fine. I also enquired about next week being the last meeting, and Ryan said he might do one more before submissions, although emailing is still ok. I confirmed the date for the dissertation first draft (11th April).

For my exposition, I had the idea of having descriptions of the archetypes and how I interpreted that in my designs, like small information posters of my process. I wanted to check the site Ryan recommended for a printed book - Blurb. They looked pretty decent, and I would love to get one done. The small square or A4 sizes look nice, and the prices aren't too cringe worthy. Alongside Moo business cards I intend to get, prices just for printing things can pile up, so it depends. I've been looking at game art books and guides to see how they've done layouts, and especially the backgrounds as I don't want them to be just plain white and boring.

I've worked on the colour palettes for all the species, trying to get the basis of the schemes similar enough to look like they belong to the same world. This isn't too important anymore as each duo has a different species except the humans (one which is defined by their clan, the other the city), where before they were mixed and matched. I'm also figuring out art styles. The Leader-Follower features red line on warm colours, and blue on cool. Ryan says it's harmonious yet still pops. Next I want to work on their shading, mostly aiming for gradient with light texturing. I've finished the female human, but I'm a bit frustrated with the Giant as his line art is more detailed. The human male as been started, and this is the first Ryan has seen of him which he liked. I want to make him a bit more scruffy looking, and his archetype pairing will be in a painted texture style. Ryan said it's great I'm doing the fashion so well, and that they're like proper designs that could actually be made. I figure the three archetypes are suited for different platforms: Leader-Follower is indie in that it's artistic; Leader-Leader is for mobile with it's vector style; and Follower-Leader for AAA with it's more painted style. Ryan says my work has the strongest silhouettes he's seen all year, and that it's awesome to see this becoming a really fleshed out character design process. He can see my abilities have strengthened, and that I talk professionally.

Action Points

• Finish Giant and male human.
• Start Pet and Leader-Leader pair.
• Finalise art styles.
• Finish bios and stories.
• Dissertation

Supervisor Meeting 03

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.

Supervisor Meeting 02

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.

Supervisor Meeting 01

I've taken a bit of a break since the last hand ins two weeks ago, taking time to relax and hopefully not make my wrist worse. I went to the doctors when I was back home for the holidays, and I have what's called a ganglion, which is essentially a build up of liquid in the joint in my left wrist. Thankfully I'm right handed, but I support my sketchbook or tablet with my other hand, and the intensity of work over the past two months has caused it to flare. Unfortunately, my doctor has said that at its size, it isn't worth draining the liquid with a needle as they'll only get a few millilitres from it, and then there's the risk of infection she warned me of. The good thing is that the pain isn't bad, it just causes quite a bit of discomfort in how my wrist is angled and restricts how far it can bend. As such, I'm going to switch back to reading, writing, and researching to get a bit of a break. I mentioned this to Ryan in our meeting today just in case it causes trouble in the future. He reiterated our meeting times are for an hour each fortnight, and I got the Thursday slot at 3pm, and that I should come with the Diary sheets filled out, and what I should be showing and talking about. The group seminar is about the dissertation, not practical work, and to bring whatever form it's in. We'll discuss theories and relevant ideas.

My ethics form got approved, on the condition that Ryan has to agree on the content given to human subjects. I asked about how to convert my blog to a PDF and was recommended a site, blog booker I think it was, but it seems easy to do. I also asked about the best places for business cards, and Moo looks to be the best for quality, even though it's more pricey. I was warned away from Vista Print, and that doing things early is the best way to go. I questioned if I could use the same layout from my Proposal for my dissertation - orange bars and titles - but was told the colours might bee too intense, and it's best to keep things clean and easy to read.

So, I've been working on theoretical stuff lately, reading and noting quotes. I've studied my animal inspirations, as I want to have a balance between originality and familiarity, and certain animals have been overused in design such as cats, wolves and lizards. I've collected visuals on bears, deer, kangaroo, otters, and exotic birds, as well as work from Terryl Whitlatch who has a nice process of breaking animals down to their bones and muscles and then merging them with another. I've also gone over my notes of creature design in entertainment media, in particular how fashion is applied to the range of different forms and sizes. Ryan actually lent me a book called How To Draw Wild Animals In Simple Steps by Jonathan Newey, which builds animals from shapes, and seems a helpful process similar to some Disney concept art I've seen.

A major focus the past week has been researching art styles and genre associations. I looked at games, from unique abstract or artistic pieces like Okami, through blending styles like Borderlands 2, onto realistic visuals like Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. I know I don't want to do heavily realistic styles, and am aiming for something that maybe has nice line art, uses shapes in the design, with lightly exaggerated proportions and texturing, and interesting colour schemes. I want to define my work as concept art, but show that it's applicable to 3D. I started a media test as a response to the games and individual artists I showed, which Ryan liked and said was healthy to explore, and that I had good examples.

I mentioned I was behind on my blog, but that I'm keeping offline notes, and that I noticed gaps - things I've mentioned in my presentations but not made a post about - which I'll go back and fix. I've started thinking on how I should present my portfolio, and hopefully a printed book. Ryan recommended speaking to another student that did this. I also went over my plan for the showcase and how I would lay things out, as well as for the survey, and possibly using individual cards for the characters instead of on a single sheet. Ryan said I've done so much detail done this early, which I hope is a good thing. I showed him a rather messy draft of a learning contract, and said I've started preparing for the next presentation.

Ryan stated I'm really well prepared, and that I talk confidently. He praised me on the level and depth I talk at, which is a little embarrassing as it doesn't really feel like that. I've shown good pieces, and he'd love to see more of that practise and experimentation. He's very happy with my standing on the theoretical side for research and the dissertation, that it ties together as expected and beyond, and he has no concerns. I just need to work on the practical, but still take it easy.

Action Points

• Finish art style media tests.
• Investigate Blurb & Moo for printing.
• Study borrowed book.
• Catch up blog.

Supervisor Meeting & Ethics

The hand in for the Ethics form is tomorrow, so not much work done overall since hand-ins. Going through the examples online I found were quite bad, they were so obvious in their mistakes, and what I really wanted was an example of someone who thought they didn't have any ethical concerns and how they justified not having any, as that is similar to my case.

I printed out my form for Ryan to check in our meeting, and we started by going over it. He said I might want to specify video/computer games in my project title, and that my description could be done in less words and detail. The wording was a little difficult to pinpoint when I was asked about how I could possibly make human subjects stressed. Basically, my questionnaire asks people to pick answers, and they might feel anxiety in doing so, especially in getting the wrong answer. But I intend to state that there is no true wrong answer except when obvious, like where siblings or a parent-child pairing can't be a romance. Then Ryan just checked I had the right boxes ticked, changed the participant number from 10 to 20, and reworded a few terms. He said not to be worried if it comes back, and that usually it only needs slight rewording etc. I would edit the document and print it off for him to sign after the meeting, and then handed it in.

Ethics Form.

Next I showed Ryan my Pre-Production Portfolio and Concept Development Document to update him since the holidays. A main point was a rewording of my critical framework to Character Design, Narrative & Character Performance, and Player Interactivity, and this made my action plan image much neater. We talked about the number of case studies I had, which normally he would recommend I cut down, but they were varied enough that I needed their full coverage for my research. Ryan recommended I look at Papo & Yo for their monster-pet-like archetype, and also showed me a design document for DOTA 2 which was really interesting. It showed the pipeline process for the game and how they created the characters. I'll be sure to look at this in more depth.

We went through all my work and research so far. Ryan says I've made good observations, and liked my silhouette designs. He enjoyed the size scale and pairing pages, as it solidified everything I've been working for. I said I wanted to backtrack on my final designs, iterate them a bit more with sketches or greyscale. He said as an illustration the final image characters were very good and he liked my style, but now I just need to push my anatomy skills and accuracy. We discussed how to further the designs with their clothes, armour and accessories, and how their designs could be different if styled for a different genre. I confirmed the final outcome was definitely not going to be a model, as that isn't important for my project. I had an idea that I could do a mock up of a popular duo in a game screenshot, showing the style in-game, possibly hinting at mechanics. Ryan wasn't too sure about this as he wants me to focus on the characters and process, and suggested getting a printed book. Overall, he said my work was excellent and he was impressed. The way I talk sounds professional, I direct the conversation well, and that I'm making connections most people don't. It was quite a confidence boost and I'm not too worried now about grades.

Research Proposal & Supervisor Assignment

Today was the hand in for the Research Proposal. I finished my final polishing in the early hours of the morning, uploaded it to Blackboard, then went for much needed sleep before I had to make a physical submission by 4pm. Interestingly, what I've learned from this particular written submission is that I need to start making my sentences more compact even as I write them, as by my first finished draft I had 4662 words for a limit of 3000, plus or minus 300 - the final was 3112 without references and titles etc. Before I would have thought actually getting the word count would be hard, but I was wrong. Very wrong. Editing was worse. Trying to combine thoughts and use less words without loosing the impact of what I was saying was difficult at first, but comparing the two editions I can clearly see the final was better in terms of readability and concise quality, so in the end I'm pleased with it, but wish I could instinctively do that in the initial drafts next time.

Link to Research Proposal.

We were also assigned our Project Supervisors earlier this week and I'm with Ryan Locke, which I'm quite pleased with as he seemed to show genuine interest in my topic in my first presentation and talk with him. So, I organised an unofficial meeting with him before the holidays, and we met yesterday for about an hour on the 12th. I wanted to go over my plan of action and what I've done so far.

We started off looking at my Proposal as I wanted another opinion on a little content, as well as section layout and appearance. My research aim had started off as "To investigate the effective use of duo companion characters in games, and to research what effects their design.", but it hasn't changed since the start of the semester, and I felt the wording wasn't quite right or was too general. I described my project the best I could, saying it revolved around form and function, of how I can justify the use of duos to make them successful and fit for their purpose, and how a lack of this breaks the flow and immersion of the game. Ryan agreed with the wording, as design should be the priority, and "use" sounds too mechanical. He suggested it was back to front and should be more along the lines of "... effective design of duo companion characters and their use...". Otherwise, he said the rest looked fine, but to just perhaps introduce the idea of duos rather than general characters in the beginning a little earlier.

I briefly described my strategy - what games I picked for my case studies and why, the design theories and pipelines I've investigated, my practice-based research, how my critical framework is applied to these, and my idea for the mix and match final outcome. He said that it sounded interesting, and asked if the results would feed back into my designs, which they would given the right time frame. I said I wanted time left to do a nice final piece, possibly taking one of the most popular pair sets and modeling them, which I'm unsure about it as I've never modeled a character before, or at least a digital painting as I'm much more confident in it.

I feel the questionnaire concept tests the characters design, but also covers others aspects from my critical framework in theory. Ryan agreed it's all about the design and process, and I shouldn't worry about post-production stages too much. He said modeling is a good skill to show off, and as a learning objective is good in the sense that it's a further process in design from the transition from 2D to 3D, to getting that final pose and in-game look. He recommended ZBrush, as it's quick to build a mesh, and easy to iterate on renders, but 2D is also important. He asked about the importance of gameplay elements as it's a part of my framework, but I replied the project is mostly about design, but the theory of player interactivity is relevant while practical application is out with the scope of the project. For instance, a character's role might be reflected in their design etc.

Overall, Ryan said my research sounds solid, and was impressed with the amount of work I had done and the attention to detail in my planning and investigation, that I was thorough and going in the right direction. He said there's little to worry about, that my Proposal seems tight and it looks good aesthetically. I think this meeting went really well for a first proper talk about my project, and it seems I'm doing something right!

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Feedback Update
We got our grades back on the 6th of January, just as I was rushing about to catch a train, so it was quite a hectic moment when I opened my email. But I got an A! An A. For a written submission. I don't think that's ever happened before, it only went as high as a B17. I'm incredibly pleased with that, disbelieving I may be for a while, and think it's boosted my confidence about this project. As usual, in the Rubric we got feedback from Robin Sloan to go with it, which is as follows:

"The introduction is a good place to lay out some of the research context for the reader by giving examples of notable character duos that proved to be particularly memorable. This wouldn't be an analysis, but would give the reader a sense of what kinds of characters interest you.

The literature review touches on a range of concepts that will eventually form your critical framework. These are all of relevance and will enable you to critique character duos effectively, provided that additional literature is brought in to support some of the less well developed sections. For example, the sections under Player Interactivity draw only from games as examples, but could look to the game design literature (as well as character design for games literature) in order to build a more substantial understanding of the associated theories that relate mechanics to character design. In the dissertation, it would be great to see the review extended to bulk out all of your identified sections. Freeman and Solarski are great sources earlier on, but Ibister, Tillman, and others are also useful, as are the game design theorists Schell, Zimmerman et al.

The overall research proposal is excellent but look to extend the review to include sources in support of all of the identified sections, as this is essential to the framework. Also note that a framework really ought to be in place prior to conducting the case studies, with the case studies more of a means of testing your framework, detecting weaknesses etc. You can then reflect on the framework, make adjustments if needed, and put this into action in your practice based research."

I agree on many points Robin makes. My introduction was still quite a general approach to character design and duos, and an example or two would have been better as it would show, not tell, what I'm talking about. The topics I was discussing later on in the literature review were underdeveloped and did lack evidence to support my points as I had done previously, mostly due to Player Interactivity being less important and not as thoroughly researched, but will seek to improve on for a deeper understanding. Authors like Tillman and Schell are already on my to do list, but I will look up the others. In a sense, my critical framework has been formed before the full case studies, as so far they're more of an overview, and have been developed to its current state because of my findings, so I think it's at a good stage. Overall, the feedback is quite positive with improvements I understand and agree are needed, so I feel quite confident in tackling the dissertation.