Scultping Practice

I also worked on some sculptures using ZBrush in order to try and improve my scultping skill so that I'm prepared to create the final character designs next year. I have a long way to go but I find using the program highly enjoyable.

This creature was created from a ball of digital 'clay' without any previous designs having been made, so in effect it was made on the spot. There are some problems with the character but I'm just getting used to the tools rather than trying to design a masterpiece just yet!



Media practice

I hope to do alot of character concept art during pre production of the final outcome (which will be 3D sculpture) but as I want to work on my digital painting skills too I have chosen to go this route. Over the weekend I worked on these paintings of friends I worked on from photo references to try and help improve my skills in choosing a colour palette.

some books to get

Planet to Planet

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/planet-to-planet/14916342

Animals real and imagined

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Animals-Real-Imagined-Terryl-Whitlatch/dp/0857681087/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320058888&sr=8-1

LINKS

Adam jensens augmentations analysis

http://beefjack.com/features/human-revolution-vs-human-reality-the-science-of-deus-ex/

Scale model of adam jensens arm

http://www.unfinishedman.com/adam-jensens-cybernetic-arm-scale-model/

Interview with Sebastion Legrain on DX3

http://www.pixologic.com/interview/deusex3/1/

how to draw abs (big picture)

http://i.imgur.com/LjDb4.jpg

My Prezi (week 4 pitch)

http://prezi.com/cflqd9dl-d55/honours-project/

Why the rule of cool is not cool

http://geek-related.com/2009/01/06/why-the-rule-of-cool-is-not-cool/

TV Tropes - Rule of cool

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCool

New aim/objectives

I'v been reshuffling my project and bit and have decided I want to look more at functionality within design. I was thinking along the lines of investigating design that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional/fit for purpose. One subject that I'v seen brought up consistently is about female body armour and how in alot of games it is considered to be unfit for purpose (large chunks of armour missing leaving vital organs unprotected) making it seem less believable. This is however to make the characters more aesthetically pleasing to the target audience. I want to explore this relationship between functionality and purely aesthetic elements of a design. I was thinking that I could make this relate to creatures as I'v wanted to do by looking at the functionality of the form, e.g shoulder muscles for a creature that picks up rocks and throws them at his prey in order to catch them etc.

I'v written down another set of draft aim/objectives:

AIM

To investigate current design methodologies and explore the relationship between form and function in successful character design.

OBJs

1. Review and analyse existing character designs and discuss the methodologies involved in their creation.

2. Explore and discuss the relationship between form and function in the design of characters.

3. Conduct practice based research into the relationship between form and function within character design.

4. Create a range of 3D character models based on the research undertaken and evaluate their success.

Possible part of abstract:

A lot of characters are designed to look good but aren't functional - their design is not fit for their purpose - which can damage the audiences ability to suspend their disbelief. On the other hand, characters who are fully functional and make perfect sense might be lacking in the aesthetic qualities intended to visually appeal to their target audience. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between function and form, and determine by what means a designer can reach a balance between the two and help create a successful character design.

Inspires, Intrigues, Motivates.

What inspires, intrigues and motivates me as a creative?

My inspiration comes from everywhere in life, from the complexicity and serenity of nature to artworks and architecture, books, films, music and games. Other people inspire me, in the way they act, especially the ones who tackle problems head on and with determination.

That also ties in to what motivates me; seeing people who aren't afraid to go for what they want in life makes me feel the same way. The amazing things that people have created inspires and motivates me to try to reach my own full potential.

I'm intrigued by so many things on this world, and off it too: I love reading about science, particulary the deep sea oceans that have barely been touched by human influence, and the vast reaches of space and everything out there that we have yet to discover. I'm also intrigued by the psychology of people and animals. Infact basically everything I don't know about intrigues me!

How do i research and explore ideas?

The main way I like to research ideas is through video and documentarys. I feel that the combination of visual and auditory communication is one of the most effective ways to convey a message. I feel that comics are an excellent way to illustrate a point (not in the sense of marvel etc, but comics on a whole as how they are defined by Scott McCloud in his book, Understanding Comics) as opposed to pages and pages of text. The internet plays a huge part in how I research and explore ideas, as it probably does for most people today. By using the internet almost any form of communication on a certain idea can be accessed, from video, audio, text, visual (pictures) and more. I will often try to use as many of these forms as possible in order to get a wider picture of the idea im exploring on the whole and to keep it fresh and exciting in my mind.

How do I communicate, interpret, define, story and experience ideas?

My preferred method of communicating ideas is through an artistic medium, whether that be sketches, paintings or sculptures. The reason for this is that It's the method of communication I find most enjoyable and appealing. Although it is a subjective way of conveying a message, I like that fact, that people can take away from it whatever they feel it means to them. This method of conveying ideas then seems more like a subtle persuasion and allows the one who is experiencing it to come to their own conclusions. I still feel like I have a lot of work to do in order to be able to make refine this 'subtle persuasion'; the masters of these mediums themselves still purport to have a lot to learn in order to get their messages across as fully as they would like, so that means I'v got a long way to go, but I'm excited about the journey.



Form and function

After receiving feedback from the tutors at my project pitch, I had to go back and do some more research in order to further refine my aim. While I was looking further into character design as a whole I decided that I wanted to focus my attention more on the relationship between form and function.

By form and function I mean what a character is meant to accomplish/do (function), and whether the design of the characters aesthetics (form) meet those requirements. In design, one of the fundamental rules is that form follows function; the aesthetics must fit around the functionality.

In character design, this means making sure that all of the elements that make up the character design make sense to the context of their particular setting. Take the disney animated character Robin Hood for example. All of the characters in Robin Hood are animal characters, with the main character as a fox. In reality, a fox would not be able to accomplish the feats shown in the story, such as drawing a bow up to eye level; it's physically impossible because of the fox's anatomy and bone structure. Additionally, a fox has no opposable thumbs with which to grip a bow and arrow, and standing upright on what is essentially the tip-toes while doing this makes it all the more awkward.

Disneys Chuck Jones had a formula for creating humanlike feet for anthropomorphic animal characters which made the shoes of the character cover the feet and bottom of the leg, turning that entire area into the foot. The rest of the character was designed half way to human proportions, with the shoulder blades moved back and opposable thumbs added. This allowed them to keep the anthropomorphic qualities they wanted by keeping Robin Hood still looking fox like.

This is a classic example of form following function in character design, but it can apply to all types - Robin Hood was designed how he was in order to be able to accomplish all the feats required of him by the story, but form following function within the context of a story is important aswell. Take for example a character who spends alot of time in the artic tundra; the character obviously has to be able to survive in that environment, and so the character should be designed in such a way that reflects this. This could be achieved by making the character wear big warm clothes and furs as opposed to walking around topless, and adding hard callused skin caused by the cold. If they dig alot, then they should have an implement capable of cutting through the hard ice.

These may seem like obvious things but are often overlooked in character design. Dragons with wings not large enough to believably lift them off the ground and spacemen without any type of oxygen source could be some examples, as they don't make sense. There are exceptions however. The 'Rule of Cool' states that "The limit of the willing suspension of disbelief for a given element is directly proportional to the element's awesomeness." Stated another way, all but the most pedantic of viewers will forgive liberties with reality as long as the result is wicked sweet or awesome. This applies to the audience in general; there will naturally be a different threshold for each individual.

For my project I want to look at how the use of functional design helps make believable characters, what methods artists have when designing implausible characters to make them seem more credible, and the balance between functional and aesthetically appealing characters.

Symbolism: Silent Hill

I'v been quite interested in symbolism since I read Scott McCloud's semiotic analysis of comic books in his book 'Understanding Comics'. It really opened my eyes to alot of aspects of art I'd been overlooking, and sparked new interests within me. Since my main area of study is character design, I wanted to find out about the symbolism behind the characters in one of my favorite game series, Silent Hill. This game fits in under the horror genre which is one of my favorites.

I found a website here: http://www.esotericarticles.com, which gave the analysis of these creatures from Silent Hill as they relate to the main characters in the game.

Abstract Daddy is manifested from Angela's experience with her father as she grew up, namely abusive experiences. Thus, it resembles a male figure leaning over a female one on a rectangle that represents a bed. This also represents oppressive masculinity and the manner in which James killed his wife, by smother her while she was on her death bed. Thus, it can be seen as having a double significance by representing James over his wife smothering her to death.

The Bubble Head Nurse embodies a number of James feelings towards the death of his wife. Firstly, they represent his frustrated libido by having the nurses wear particularly short dresses and low necklines. Secondly, they represent his feelings of anger towards the hospital system and its perceived incompetence. As a result of this, the nurse is facing the wrong direction and is also literally a 'bubble head', a term used to describe someone who is whimsical and not particularly smart.

Interestingly, the Creeper is a monster that appears in Silent Hill 1 but looks quite different in that game. Thus, it must be assumed that the Creeper of Silent Hill 2 is manifested from James Sunderland's mind and not the cities. As the Creeper appears when James retrieves flashlight batteries and activates his light, it can be assumed that they represent what is really 'bugging' James being illuminated temporarily. Thus, when James runs away and leaves the room he is actually running from the truth that scares him.

The Flesh Lips is another representation of Mary, this time the frame it floats around in represents a bed. It has a pair of lips at its base that is positioned between its two legs, which is a clear yonic symbolism. The reason the image is so distorted is because James refuses to see the truth clearly.

The lying figure is a primarily feminine form and also the first monster James comes across in Silent Hill. It represents the anguish and suffering of his wife Mary during her final days, as well as his own during the period of the game. It appears to be bound in something resembling a straight jacket, which also serves as a symbol of how James cannot see the truth through his pain.

The Mandarin is a feminine monster with two arms and a mouth-like appendage at the end of the arms, a form of yonic symbolism. This monster also has a masculine counter-part in Silent Hill 3, called the closer. It does not stand above ground for a number of reasons. Firstly, the female body is associated with caves and holes beneath ground. Secondly, anything beneath ground is generally associated with something hidden in the subconscious, thus they represent the suppressed memory of James having murdered Mary.

The Mannequin represents James Sunderland's innate urges towards women and feminine figures. They are attacked by Pyramid Head to remind James of his true, oppressive nature in regards to his wife. Thus, when they are being attacked by Pyramid Head they are actually representing Mary.

Mary is the end boss of Silent Hill 2 as she represents the true issue that James came to Silent Hill to resolve. As a result, she rests on the frame of what would have been her deathbed. It is also of note that she is upside down, which represents the false perception that James’ had of her and her fate. In order to come to a psychological catharsis, James must kill the monstrous version of Mary in order to play out what he actually did.

Pyramid Head is comprised of a number of different images, all of which represent the concept of oppressive masculinity and subsequently James Sunderland’s shadow archetype. The Shadow Archetype is the negative and repressed aspect of every human being, of which James’ shadow archetype is pyramid head. In order to represent James’ shadow, pyramid Head draws on a number of concepts and imagery.
The first concept that the visage of pyramid head draws upon is that of an executioner. Executioners are almost always male and are generally associated with laws designed by males, thus they represent oppressive masculinity. Pyramid Head behaves much like an executioner, serving to punish those around it including James. It also looks like an executioner with its helm much akin to what executioners would wear in the town square. To add further to this, the executioner visage of Pyramid Head represents how James executed his wife.
The second manner in which Pyramid Head represents oppressive masculinity and James’ shadow is by having a range of phallic imagery associated with it. Pyramid Head’s body itself is phallic, with the pyramid area coinciding with the glans of male anatomy. Also, Pyramid Head uses a large sword-like weapon called the 'Great Knife', with swords being a popular phallic symbol. He also wields spears, very clearly phallic weaponry. When James comes closer to integrating his shadow archetype, he begins to wield Pyramid Head’s sword. Those who have experienced oppressive masculinity ancd are vulnerable to it are also vulnerable to this weapon, for instance Eddie’s weakness is Pyramid Head’s blade.
Towards the end of Silent Hill 2 there are two Pyramid Heads. The reason for this is that each one of these represents a different murder. The one that has the rusted sphere in it represents the murder of Mary, subsequently the sphere in it is older. The one that has the red sphere in it represents the murder of Eddie, subsequently the sphere is ‘fresher’.

Source: http://www.esotericarticles.com

Pitch Week Supervision

Today I supervised a group of 1st to 3rd years who were pitching their ideas for their coursework for Computer Art. There were 2 hours to hear pitches from 6 students, 2 from each year, so I set the sessions to a 15 minutes pitch/ 5 minutes feedback. There were a wide variety of ideas going around, some great and others that needed some work. I tried my best to give honest feedback that would be helpful while not overly critical or complimentary but I feel like I could have been a little more constructive with it on the whole. I did stress that it was important to show development throughout the sketchbooks, and have various iterations of an idea rather than just a 'final' drawing, in order that people can follow the thought and development process to see how they ended up where they did.  It was a good experience for me and I hope I made it a good experience for them.

Aim and Objectives

I have decided on a preliminary aim and objectives to present for the week 4 pitch presentations. Although I am still undecided if this is my final aim I hope that the feedback will help me further define it.

Aim

To investigate the design of 3D characters for fantasy setting, and to determine whether and how it might be possible to ground these characters in a believable world.

Objectives

1.0 Review and evaluate the design of a range of existing fantasy characters, and discuss the character design literature.

2.0 Investigate and explain how a contemporary character design works in both fantasy and reality.

3.0 Conduct practice based experiments with a range of character designs, based on the principles discussed in the previous objectives.

4.0 Create a range of characters designed making use of the principles explored.


I feel that the objectives particulary need to be refined and I will continue to work on them before the pitch rolls around.

Amazing young street artist

I saw a video today of an incredibly talented and inspiring young street artist from Myanmar. His skill at such a young age surpasses mine by far although I am twice his age. I hope this boys talent allows him to get off the street and get noticed for it is surely what he deserves with such an amazing ability.

I can only hope to become as skillful as this at my craft!

Scary Characters

I'v been investigating the possibility of doing my honours project on horror characters; they have always been a source of inspiration to me in my own doodles and character designs, and I am a big fan of the horror genre, whether it be games, films, or books. I'v listed below a selection of my favourite horror characters and why I find them interesting.

Leatherface is a manifestation of pure evil; wearing the faces of his victims and wielding a chainsaw as his weapon of choice, the main antagonist of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre struck fear into the hearts of everyone watching him. The film itself was based on a man who dug up corpses and used their skin to make furniture and the like.

For some reason this little girl scares the crap out of me, and apparently a lot of other people too. The use of little girls as an antagonist in the horror genre has been increasing popular since The Ring came out, including across platforms into games as in F.E.A.R.

The demons from Amnesia: The Dark Descent have given me scares galore over the time I'v played the game. Their grotesque appearance, which look like mutilated corpses which have been sewn together, however, isn't what makes them so scary. The makers of the game know that when it comes to scaring people, less is more, and these guys would only be seen in the shadows, or as you turn around and they are right in your face.

Alien, or the Xenomorph, has undoubtedly scared the pants off thousands of people. Alien was designed by  H.R. Giger; it's overtly sexualised design, with its elements of female and male aesthetics, was purposely chosen to freak people out. The maker of the film wanted a monster that looked like it could do you as it tore you apart, and the effect was horrifying.

There are hundreds of monsters which have inspired and intrigued me, and underneath are some more examples.

Personal Statement

Inspirations and Interests

 

I have always had a passion for characters and an eye for detail, and so sculpting characters feels like a natural choice for me. I am inspired by artists of all kinds but especially those who work with digital sculpture and painting, such as Sebastien Legrain of Eidos Montreal, and Ryan Kingslien who co-founded Zbrush creators Pixologic. Their work among many others inspires and drives me to better my own knowledge and skills in the field of digital scultping/3d modelling. Another source of inspiration is the many games and films I have watched that make use of CGI, and wanting to be a part of that motivates my progress in the field.

Career and Creative Aims

I aim to work as a 3d sculpter and character designer in either the games or film industry during my early career, with hopes to one day become a creative director and oversee my own ideas being developed.

Current Skills and Abilities

I currently have knowledge and skills in Photoshop, particularly in digital painting, Maya, which includes knowledge of 3D modelling and animation, and ZBrush, which is another 3D modelling software. At my current level of knowledge I can model a character in Maya, detail it in ZBrush, apply the detail using maps to the character then rig, skin, and animate the character having it ready to import into a game engine such as UDK.

  

Skill Gaps

 

I feel that I could use improvement when creating highly complex and detailed models in ZBrush. This relates to my skill as a sculptor on the whole and so more practice is needed. I also feel that I lack knowledge in the finishing of a piece in terms of painting and rendering a model. My knowledge of theory behind character design could certainly use improvement, as could my knowledge of all artistic principles, however I feel that the journey to improve ones art is never ending. In a good way.

Blogging

Today I attended a special guest lecture featuring the curator of the NEoN digital arts festival (www.northeastofnorth.com) Donna Holford-Lovell. She spoke about her blogging for her fine arts masters degree project, and about her work related blogs for the Neon festival and various other projects she works on.

The way she described blogging made a lot of sense to me and I feel now that I understand the whole concept more thoroughly. Although some of her practices involving her MA blog seemed a tad questionable (but funny none the less!) listening to her talk about and show examples from her blog has inspired me to try to get myself much more involved in my own blog, and to use it more as a digital sketchbook where I can keep track of my thoughts rather than just as a progress report. One of the most useful things I'v found about other peoples blogs is the ability to go all the way to their first post and see their exact thoughts and experiences as the project develops, and I want the same thing for my own blog.

Mythology

Greek mythology fascinated me when I was younger. I had a comic style book that went through most of the stories such as that of Hercules, Theseus and the Minotaur, and the story of Icarus who flew too close to the sun.

The characters in these stories always intrigued me, particulary the monster type characters such as Medusa, Hades and Cerberus, and of course, the mighty minotaur. Perhaps it was the fear of these characters that made them so alluring to me, like a strange sense of morbid curiousity. Characters such as these have always inspired me in my own design of characters and continue to be a source of inspiration for me.

Medusa, the snake headed she demon

Cerberus, Hades 'pet' who helped guard the underworld.

A question of research

Do people respond better to stylized or realistic characters?

How does lighting affect how an audience responds to a character?

Do people feel more immersed by 2D or 3D images?

When it comes to character design, is more detail better or worse?

What makes a character design successful/unsuccessful?

What elements contribute to whether a character design is successful/unsuccessful?

How can a character designer create characters that audiences care about/feel empathy towards?

What makes a character memorable?

These are some of the questions I'd like to have a look in order to help me determine a fuller research question and eventually lead me to a solid aim and objectives. My current thoughts are that investigating character lighting is what I want to look at, but it's early days yet and that may change. These examples illustrate some examples of different character lighting techniques which is something I feel I would enjoy creating for the practical side of my project.