Research: Polycount Wiki Articles

I'm currently researching on some articles that can be related working with 3D Art in games for my project.

The Influence of Art Direction: http://www.polycount.com/2010/10/07/the-influence-of-art-direction/

(Some of) the Weapons of Bioshock 2: http://www.polycount.com/2010/05/28/some-of-the-weapons-of-bioshock-2/

The Hows and Whys of Rhoen Theer: http://www.polycount.com/2010/09/28/the-hows-and-whys-of-rhoen-theer/

Comicon Challenge 2010 3D Showcase: http://www.polycount.com/2010/10/20/comicon-challenge-2010-3d-showcase/

What Creates Impact? (CGSociety.com): http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=166&t=928228

More Influences from Next-Gen Games

Halo Series: Master Chief & the Spartan Squads

ODST Squads

UNSC Weapons

Vanquish

Sam Gideon (Main character)

DARPA's ARS Armor

Influences on Next-Gen Games & Movies

Here are some of influences that I've gathered as research from next-gen games and movies for my honours project.

James Cameron's Avatar






Gears of War/Gears of War 2

Refined Research Question

After meeting with Gordon Brown (professional artist in the game industries) to seek advice and ideas to help me choose a suitable area and research/investigation, I then thought about refining my research question along with the project's aim, purpose, and how towards my honours project in semester 2.

Specific Research Question (Refined):

"What types of methods and technologies are available to help artists create unique 3D art for next-gen games?"

Project's Aim:

Design and develop unique characters based on the games story/plot and genre, and then present the final textured models in a showreel.

Purpose:

To learn and practice new ways of modeling and texturing 3D art for next-gen games using existing technologies.

How:

My research for this project will involve investigating and learn about the modeling and texture methods used by professional 3D/Game artists along with covering the main key points on 3D art for games as follows:

• Low/High Poly Modeling
• Polygon shapes
• UV/Normal/Vector Mapping
• Lighting/Shader/Render
• Game Engines
• Posing/Skeleton Tools

For the final piece, I will create a range of 3D art models (e.g. characters, vehicles, props) based on a chosen theme/genre, and then put them together a showreel with turnaround animations on each model (also showing the concept art image for in a presentation layout) using Final Cut with soundtrack so that it would enhance my 3D art portfolio.

Lists of tasks for Honours Project in Semester 1 & 2:

• Research
• Project Proposal
• Concept Development
• Experimented models with different textures
• Final textured models and a showreel

Target Audience (15-40 yrs old, and those who are big fan on next-gen games)

Target Groups (game industries who works on next-gen games)

To Do List for Week 5

This is the list that I will need to work on for this week and next week (also for show and tell on next Monday's Pre-Production module).

1. Create a Story/Plot for game concept.
2. Create some character profiles (for at least 2 characters to begin with).
3. Re-think about specific research question, aim, objectives, project purpose, and also a design brief for the chosen area for honours project.
4. Have a meeting with Gordon Brown (Character Artist) to get tips/advice for project.

More Visual Research (Iron Man & War Machine)

Some more visual research on inspiring characters and visual style used like in Marvel Comic's "Iron Man" (from comics to movies).

War Machine

Iron Man

Pitch Feedback

After presenting my pitch about my plans for my honours project and have gained some feedback along with advice from the tutors, I've decided that I should create a showreel of 3D characters (either 2 or 3) instead of creating a 3D animation (since my honours project will mainly be focused on designing and modeling 3d game characters with UV/Normal map textures towards building a strong 3D Art portfolio). I'll also need to gather more research and references from books/online in order for me to investigate and explore about how shapes/forms can be the benifit towards character design. I'll also need to come up with a chosen brief either on a game made from last year's personal project or think of a new game concept with a plot/story), and I'll then need to start writing up each of the character's profile before I get started on initial sketches in my sketchbook.

Quote References 1

I've looked up on some interesting quotes based on character developments using geometry shapes as references for my research and investigation.

This first quote came from a character artist named "Cory Loftis" who has been interviewed on a blog about how he would go about designing characters, and what goes through his mind from the beginning to the end of his character developments.

Cory's Quote:

"If it's something dangerous, menacing, or evil (for example), are my shapes sharp?"

Another few quotes that I've explored about this subject was mentioned by another character artist "Tom Bancroft" who mentions in his own views about designing characters with different types of shapes in his book "Creating Characters with Personality".

Tom's Quote 1:

"They are the foundation of your design in it's most basic form."

Tom's Quote 2:

"Circles evoke appealing, good characters, and are typically used to connote cute, cuddly, friendly types. Consider Santa Claus, or endearing, fuzzy animals."

Tom's Quote 3:

"Triangles easily lend themselves to more sinister, suspicious types and usually represent the bad guy or villain in character designs. Consider Darth Vader: His whole head is one big, mean triangle!"

I'll continue to research and invesitgate more into this theory on character design using geometry shapes from books to online resources.

Visual Research (Existed Artwork/Sculptures)

Futurism (Paintings & Sculptures)

Henry Moore (Sculptures)