Games Design Masters

I wanted to make another attempt at practicing the workflow I mentioned in one of the previous posts with something more colourful, so I did a study on flowers to try this.  The image I used for study is here:   https://unsplash.com/photos/selective-focus-photography-of-pink-petaled-flower-P86-JPbDnPY I started out with a rough sketch. I then made a cleaner outline. Next I put some flat colour distinguishing each area to make them easier to select for shading. Next I painted with black through to white. Then creating the gradient maps for each section. For final details, I made the background slightly blurred and added noise, I also added more texture to the petals and an orange tint on some areas of the flowers. After a few more final additions I cropped the canvas and below is the finished painting. I definitely think that I handled this workflow better this time and it seems like this will be a good way to improve my process, I was able to achieve vibrant colours which was ...

Today I created two reference boards using reference images I sourced online, this is to prepare to create an illustration of the character Artorias from Dark Souls, I will likely also include his wolf companion Sif. Below are the links used for these references; Knight Artorias | Dark Souls Wiki | Fandom Knight Artorias | Villains Wiki | Fandom ArtStation - Dark souls - Artorias great_grey_wolf_sif_combat_ready.jpg (1920×1080) (fextralife.com) great_grey_wolf_sif_snarl.jpg (1920×1080) (fextralife.com) mammal_gray-wolf_600x300.ashx (600×300) (nwf.org) newFile-2.jpg (1200×898) (independent.co.uk) https://cdn.britannica.com/07/5207-050-5BC9F251/Gray-wolf.jpg After gathering reference and creating reference sheets, I began work on thumbnails for how the illustration could be composed. After thinking of these various composition ideas, when I next work on this I will select from these choices which I like most, and began an initial sketch.

Trying a different workflow When painting the whale previously, I tried a new workflow to be more efficient painting, but the result came out quite washed out. So I referred to artist Marc Brunet's video on this workflow,  💎 NEW COLORING METHOD (how to color your drawings) - YouTube .  I realised my mistake was not using gradient maps so I tried a quick painting of a traffic light to test this workflow again. On reflection, I should have painted something with more colour to see how it would work, but I just went with the first thing I saw around me at the time.  Starting out I created a rough outline, in a full illustration I would do cleaner linework after this but I skipped this stage for this experiment. Next I painted the traffic light in just black and white, as if it was a grayscale picture. I then added the gradient maps for each area. Giving me a quick foundation to build on. I added some more colour and lighting to the lights to make them appear more vibrant. I...

Today I finished up the essay by writing my conclusion and double checking references in the bibliography, ensuring the follow the Harvard referencing system. Below is a screenshot of the bibliography, conclusion and an altered title page and contents page. I will now send over this draft to a lecturer to look over, and then on recieving feedback I will make further alterations.

Today I worked on getting my previously made notes on the contextual sources into my essay, the word limit was like with the literature review 800 words, initially I did overshoot a bit and ended up with around 1300 but I managed to get the word count for this section down to 808 words.  I will include screenshots of the essay and wordcount below. Next Steps Next I will be working on the conclusion, once this is complete I will do a final spell check, go over my referencing and bibliography to make sure it is done correctly, then send off the draft to a lecturer to go over. 

The Bezold Effect I wanted to create some experiments replicating the 'Bezold Effect' I had researched. I started put by creating some clouds, putting them over a black background and a blue background - however because the clouds were slightly transparent I felt that it would be more effective so do a design that had no transparent elements. So I created a pink/purple swirling pattern, then changing the background to black and then white. Both versions definitely appeared quite different after making these changes.  One colour appearing as two For the next experiment I wanted to make one colour appear as two different colours - referring back to the experiment by Josef Albers.  However, I felt my experiment didn't work as well as I had hoped. I wanted the two outer eyes to appear as different colours, I think the colours I used were not as effective, so I may try this composition again with a different set of colours.  Rule of thirds For the next experiment I wanted to p...

  Name   Amy Byrne MA Course  Games Design Date   22/11/2023 Version Number   1.0 Brief Explanation / Outline of Project/what?   I am aiming to explore what methods can be used to create an illustration that engages and interests the viewer. I will do this by experimenting with how colour, lighting, framing and other techniques can all be used to make a piece more engaging. Context / Rationale/why?  I want to work on this as I feel illustration is a powerful tool to give the viewer of a piece a snapshot of the concept/world within, they can be used for games in the concepting stage, for title screens, loading screens and promotional art. I want to understand through experimentation how to make engaging illustrations for these areas of the industry. Key Areas of Research/H...

Contextual Review Notes For the contextual review I have to cite five events, this can include; Digital presentations Events Exhibitions ‘Works of Art’ Performances Environments So I have made notes on the work I have looked at so far, I can refer back to these notes while writing the contextual portion of the essay. Video by Marc Brunet - Colour Schemes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfXgFw-wlV0&t=589s&ab_channel=MarcBrunet Marc Brunet previously worked at Blizzard Entertainment on concept art and 3d art, he creates content on YouTube to give tutorials and guides to various aspects of digital art. In this video Brunet goes over various colour schemes and how they can be used to make a piece more interesting. Beginning with Monochromatic 1:21, remaining within one hue, but altering value and saturation within. He mentions that ideally you want the area the audience should focus on to be a high saturation, as it helps to draw the eye. Put simply, “Contrast is exciting, no cont...

Issues with word count After completing my note taking and reading Framed Ink, I began to write about what I had learnt in reading, but I realised after only writing a part of what I had learnt, my literature portion had reached 1,220 words, the word limit for this section is 800, and I still had to add in a reference to another piece of literature. I needed to thin out the document, but first, I thought it would be best to look at a third source, even if I do not write as much on it, I wanted to gather what I needed so I could properly structure and thin out this section.  The word count for the Literature Review The total word count I thought it would be best to use an online article and make some notes on some more basic fundamentals that can be useful in making an illustration more interesting. It was difficult to find an online article by an artist rather than a company, I wanted an artist's own thoughts then I could better understand who was writing. I found an article titled...

Today I wanted to continue work on my essay, starting off I made some further notes on Framed Ink as I knew there were multiple sections I wanted to go over within the essay. Below are the notes I made while reading.  The book introduces some core things to bare in mind when trying to create narrative art: What are we trying to tell the viewer? What mood do we want the viewer to be in? What function does it serve? How can the viewer be brought there? What in the art is contributing to what we want to tell the viewer? What can we leave out without changing what we are trying to say? Show not tell, try to show the audience the atmosphere using colour, light etc. Atmosphere Expression, energy and mood can be more important than the accuracy of a subject. It can be a better way to give a sense of reality to a piece. Lighting is a useful way to set the scene, it can change the way we perceive what is in front of us, helping to create completely different moods to scenes. Studying realit...

Using what I learnt reading Interaction of Color, I tried out some of the exercises myself. Below are images of the colour combinations I tried out.  In this experiment, the smaller orange squares are the same colour, but due to the colours that surround them and the colours they lie on top of, they appear different. I tried a few different colour combinations myself to replicate this effect, I also tried staying within the same hue and just changing saturation and light. This experiment is about the subtraction of colour, I used two colours with hue near each other on the colour wheel, using a grey background behind one and a dark background of another colour behind the other. When staring in the middle of these it makes the colours look the same or very similar when they are quite different. In this experiment I wanted to see how a pattern could look different if only the background colour was changed. Making one background a dark red, and the other a light yellow, it makes the c...

Following on from creating the introduction yesterday, I began to write about literature sources I have been reading for the essay. Starting this section I wanted to look into colour, and how colour is perceived by people. The book I read was "Interaction of Color Revised and Expanded Edition" by Josef Albers.  I found the book really insightful, it went over lots of interesting experiments on how colours interact with one another in different circumstances. I wrote 545 words in this section, my limit assigned is 800 words for the literature portion so I wanted to make sure to leave space for other sources. I will need to sight at least one online source, a journal and a book - so I still have to look into an online source and a journal.  I may have to come back and thin out the section I have written here on this book if I need more words for other sources. I have included some screenshots here of the work so far. Next Steps Now I have written about my first source, I will n...

After the initial research and prep for the essay, I tried to work on getting everything formatted and creating the introduction.  Formatting is a part of the process that I think is important to make the essay readable and clear, I added a title page for the essay followed by the information for the name of the assignment, the course and my details. Next I added a header once again detailing the module and title of the assignment before going on to add in page numbers at the footer.  Next I created the Content page as well as the Bibliography, as the Bibliography section will need to be in alphabetical order I put any references into a table with no outlines, so it is easy to alphabetise when I need to rather than having to manually order everything. Moving on to the introduction I managed to reach 421 words of the advised 450 word count which I am happy with for now, I did multiple grammar and spell checks to get to the finished introduction. I may come back to tweak it as I...