The assignment was to pick an existing game and draw an environment based on it. I chose Bioshock & Journey, because I couldn't make up my mind.
Progress work:
I first started out with thumbnails, just to get the general composition of the illustration. I liked the buried look for my building, so I came up with these three. I liked having the pillars frame the scene. I wasn't sure what kind of pillars, but definitely something Art Deco, for the sake of Bioshock. The idea was that I would have some kind of Art Deco architecture in a Journey like desert environment. I kept a faint backstory idea that the ocean had dried up, and turned into a desert.
I decided that Journey alone wasn't interesting enough, because the main goal of this concept art was that I would eventually make it in 3D. I didn't see enough sculptural detail in Journey for it to give me the opportunity to have a portfolio worthy scene. Journey looks more like a lighting and physics game, than something that showcase high poly modeling.
Once I chose which thumbnail to develop further, I started with a line drawing to begin my blocking.
I felt that the dome was taking up too much of the visual space, so I trimmed it into a cylinder shaped "dome". I also added a tiny "dome" in the background to balance the composition.
I wasn't quite feeling the last drawing, and my teacher suggested to lower the character to make the dome feel BIGGER! I went back to the round dome just because I liked that shape better. Moved the smaller dome closer, and turned the pipes in the last drawing into glass walkways.
Then I started coloring it! I found out that I had some trouble trying to develop a scene completely in black and white. I normally can draw a scene in value with my pencil, or even on Photoshop, but I was in quite an artist rut! The only time things seemed to have been going right was when I just went straight into blocking flat(ish) colors. I added some water to emphasize the dried up ocean idea.
As I entered polishing stages with my illustration, I realized that logically, there would be trees and bushes around the desert stream, but I didn't want to add that kind of visual noise. Journey is completely void of nature and almost empty. So I removed the water, researched more Art Deco styles and architecture, and sweetened up the illustration!
I have been so busy that I haven't had time to make a blog post. I feel guilty about my time right now! But as a personal thing, I really want to reflect on what happened.
I finished my Drawing for Games texture/silhouette assignment. Instead of the render shading that I wanted to do, I ended up just putting flat shades onto my drawings to fill the minimum requirement of the assignment. I spent alot of time on the line drawing by re-drawing & redesigning all of my chosen concepts on paper with pencil, inking them on paper, then fixing up the lineart in photoshop.
I also spent alot of time on my 3D assignment instead of Drawing for Games, because there was a modeling crit due for my still life scene.
The still life project is over now. Overall the project was challenging, frustrating at times, fun, and a work in progress...still. I didn't pass the assignment due to bad tessellation, texturing, and lighting. I modeled just fine, just my end result did not reflect the beauty my high poly models had. I have a lot to go with texturing and high to low poly baking.
I've also come to realize that I tend to start strong in a project, then crash somewhere near the end. I should really be crashing at the beginning, if anywhere. I need to work on my timing and texturing.
Here are some pictures from the still life project "Vanitas":
And the final product:
Project had to be under 7k polygons, a total of 4096 pixels for texture, a skull, a peeled citrus, a vessel, and a cloth with recognizable folds.
I will continue to make my still life look better, but for now we are on to our next project: Realistic Environment. We had to choose an existing game so that we have a definite style we are emulating, so I choose Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Just starting it now, so progress pictures on that some time later. I am also starting concept drawings for my fantastic environment, which will (for now) be based on Bioshock.
I have some older pictures of what happened with my 1st 3D assignment, "Modular Kit Construction" and the "What happened here?" concept art.
For my modular kit, I also need to work on that when I have time (2nd priority to my Still Life, because I actually passed the modular assignment) so that it can eventually become a portfolio piece. My concept art was ok. Not my favorite, but a good first try on doing something was not really a matte painting, but kinda was.
Cruise pool deck, Modular Kit
What happened here?! Location + Disaster =
Abandoned coast of Hawaii, 10 years after a nuclear war.
Hawaii being rediscovered after 100 years.
What have I learned?
Work it harder, make it better, do it faster, makes us
stronger;
more than ever hour after our work is never over.
So alot went on this week, personal and school related.
I am happy to say that my dad is doing well after experiencing some discomfort earlier in the week! I thank God always for watching over my parents. Sadly, my dog passed away recently (marked in my last post), but he will always be with me in my memories. My dad put together a wonderful frame for my words of reflection.
For my Drawing for Games class, I've developed 50 silhouettes! It was a fun process.
And then from 10 of those silhouettes and 5 other sketches, I came up with these!
There will be more of these silly looking characters later!
My modular project came to a completion, and it was alright for a project we were basically given a weekend to do. I learned alot of optimization skills, and experienced many mistakes that will make me more prepared on my next assignment. (Check the grid sizes first, then see if its all to scale with the player!) I will post up pictures once I update it later on this week.
Our next assignment is a 3D Still life, so some small scale details will be the main focus! Whipping the good ol Zbrush program out, and testing my sculpting skills.
