Games Design Masters

Today I wanted to get a better understanding of what our new module is and the new essay for it, the new module "Research in Context" seems to be focused primarily on networking, and getting information from people within industry.  I started out by making some notes using Notion, this is where I take notes for anything relating to the course and my research. A glance at some of the notes on what I need to do for the essay and the module as a whole. After making notes of the important points to bare in mind through the module and essay, I set out the formatting for my essay; getting the page numbers to begin on the correct page, adding in a header, setting out my titles and adding in images for the cover page and contents. As I want to move into concept art I wanted the cover to be a piece of character concept art that I found interesting, I have not decided on an essay title yet.  Again with the contents page I added in some character concept art, I also set out my titles on

Looking at portfolios Portfolio 1 Artist:  Loiza Chen Position:  Art Lead at Riot Games Link:   https://www.artstation.com/loizachen Accessed on:  27/01/24 I think the work Riot’s artists do is incredible, so getting an insight into some of the concept art behind their characters was really interesting to see. I took a look at the concept art Chen did along with other artists for a cinematic. The Tryndamere concept art was interesting to look at, I have included an image here; Here multiple views of the character are shown, even a crouching pose, which helps to display how this outfit would react to movement. The weapon is shown from multiple angles which again is useful information for a 3D artist to work from. There is also a breakdown of the helmet from various angles. Chen also shows work by TUANZ, another concept artist on this project; These small sketches seem to experiment with hairstyles, face details and masks that this character could wear. The focus here is clearly on explo

Continuing on from the previous post I watched more videos on how to create good concept art, as well as some videos more focused on building a good portfolio. Below once again are the notes I took throughout each video.  Video 3 Title: Sketchbook Tour - The Training Arc Sketchbook Creator: Chroma Moma Link:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzJg_d4dlRo&t=464s Accessed on: 26/01/24 This video goes through a sketchbook the creator Kenn (Chroma Moma) has completed, I think I have watched this video in the past as it helped me understand ways I could sketch out ideas better, but I think it will be useful to look at this again. He is an environment concept artist so I think he will show some of the ways he explores ideas. He begins by explaining his goals with his sketchbook, as well as putting a date he started it - this is something I do with my sketchbooks already, but I think it would be helpful to begin a sketchbook more focused on ways I can improve on my journey with concept art

As I want to look into moving specialism, I thought it would be best to get a better grasp of what I am aiming for, what makes great concept art. So I began to watch some YouTube videos by concept artists giving advice, and I made notes on what I learnt throughout. I have included the notes I have taken on this blog post, I will be watching further videos and looking through portfolios on future blog posts, but these are the notes I have made on what I have learnt so far. Video 1 Title: Become a CONCEPT ARTIST for video games - What to practice? Creator: Trent Kaniuga Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVPwtsQ-RzI&t=2s Accessed on: 23/01/24 The beginning of the video Kaniuga describes the importance of understanding the fundamentals of drawing, this is something I definitely want to practice more, he states that the better the understanding of fundamentals the better I will be able to communicate my ideas. He explains that looking through art books is a great place to see conc

I have included below a screenshot of my new learning agreement. I will be looking into how to make character concept art, and the process of starting a new specialism.

Within this post I have included links to images used as reference for various paintings I have done, while the majority of images I used for inspiration are on Pinterest, anything else I have listed here. I have also included a link to my Pinterest board.  Pinterest Board https://pin.it/ZLtBWagJc Flower Workflow Experiment https://unsplash.com/photos/selective-focus-photography-of-pink-petaled-flower-P86-JPbDnPY Colour Scheme Experiments  Lighted lantern at night photo – Free Shibuya Image on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/landscape-photography-of-river-surrounded-with-pine-trees-MGX8ix37gNQ?utm_source=unsplash&utm_campaign=unsplash-ios&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=view-photo-on-unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/red-and-white-neon-light-signage-uCThyOQt36k?utm_source=unsplash&utm_campaign=unsplash-ios&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=view-photo-on-unsplash https://pin.it/49Tk1KW https://fineartamerica.com/featured/lemons-and-limes-christine-wenderoth

To finalise my concepts I chose the ones I liked most and tried to use a single colour scheme to render each of them. I have included the result below along with a 30 second timelapse. I decided to choose the battle-mage style witch, the rotting witch and the witch with her face covered and a hood. I tried to stick with three hues and explored variations within this, using the hottest of the shades (a pink hue) to draw the viewers eye to different areas. I tried to avoid spending too long on tiny details or making it look ‘perfect’ and focused on conveying the general feel and look of these characters. I am overall pretty happy with how this piece turned out, I used what I learnt about colour theory and utilising specific colour harmonies, I was also able to create vastly different concepts for what a witch could look like.  It was definitely difficult trying to get this done quicker than I normally would spend on a painting, but I think over the course of this module so far I definite

Continuing on with my development of the witch concepts I played around with different ideas I had for their designs. I explain underneath the images below my concepts, and I also have included the time-lapse's of these being made, each being 30 seconds in length. The witch to the left is a pretty conventional witch design, she is close with nature and uses it for her magic, with fox skulls adorning her shoulders and feathers at various points of what she wears. The witch in the centre is quite mysterious, with a veil covering her face and a hood over her head. She holds a spider and a potion of sorts, as her main use of magic is through potions and poisons. The witch to the right relies on use of herbs and plant life, she also carries a grimoire with her. Similarly to the previous, this witch also wears a face covering and something over her head. The witch on the left I wanted it to look as though she was rotting, and the outfit mimics that of a priest, I want some religious impl

I have been having some difficulties painting lately as my mental disorder can at times be quite hard to manage, so through the past week I have not managed to make a lot of progress with my uni work. I tried to create a painting for fun which I will show the process of here, but I am definitely finding it difficult to paint at the moment which is really frustrating. I decided to paint an otter, I love animals so this felt like a good idea to try. I also decided to just spend a short amount of time on it, I think it may have taken about two hours but I don't remember exactly. Below are some screenshots of the process and a 30 second time-lapse. Starting with the outline, I wanted to add some indications of hair, though my colour layer I would show hair more detailed. When working on the colour layer I used a hair brush on the smudge tool to blend the colours together and give the effect of fur. Next I painted a watery background to make it look like the otter is in water. I then ad

When creating ideas for characters, I find it easiest to sketch out all the initial ideas that come to mind, I try not to set myself a genre of things to sketch to avoid limiting myself and focus purely on getting all my thoughts onto a page.  For this I went through a few ideas, as I want to create a series of witches it felt right to sketch a spell scroll and a potion. I played around with some headwear/face idea; a large hat covering the face, a halo made with thorns, a large hood, a mask covering the face, a magical object in place of a head, a hole in the face and something concealing the eyes. I drew a snake, a crow and a death cap mushroom, my thoughts here was to have a witch be designed inspired by creatures or nature, or to have some kind of animal companion.  For the body I drew a torso with a gap in the centre, almost like the witch's body is in parts, floating in place. I also drew two hands overlapping, a lot of the inspiration images I looked at showed multiple arms,