Project 02 - My YouTube 3D Collection

HERE is a link to my personal playlist of videos I've watched to help me learn specific things in Zbrush.
They've been extremely helpful in learning the software. 

Project 02 - My YouTube Games Design Collection

 HERE is a link to my personal playlist of YouTube videos on Game Design. I've been accumulating this list for a couple of years now and it's only the best of the hundreds of Game Design talks (etc...) I've watched.They've been very useful for referencing quotes in my essay on Games Design.

Project 02 - Polypaint 2

Here is an iron version of the polypaint sculpt. Using these images as reference I added an orange tinge to the grey. I also lightened the colors around the ridges to make it look a little worn.

You can see that I've added welding around where the tube connects to the eye socket too.

I think this sculpt looks a little more believable than the other one but it's also less interesting. I think it belongs to a different time.

The aluminum sculpt looks very modern and I like that but maybe it doesn't fit the brief as well.

I think I might work into the iron one some more so make it look more interesting and I'll see where that takes me.

Project 02 - Textures and Topology

Just another quick variation on the idea. I liked the idea of the brain showing through the skull.

I made a skull subtool and a brain subtool in order to mock up the idea.

Looking at the sculpt now though I think it looks too zombie-like. I'm not sure the viewer will be able to relate to the character.

So I think I'll stick with the other version.





I've also been using the various alpha settings to create texture.

The skin now has very feint noise so that it doesn't look so smooth. I have however smoothed the noise inside the mouth and on the ears for example.

I've applied a kind of rocky/ cracking skin texture to the cheek and partially on the ears because I feel like the viewer will be able to relate to how uncomfortable it would be. I've also tried to replicate the folds of the lower eyelid with the rake brush. I used the rake brush more faintly on the lips too to recreate the texture.

The sculpt has 3 levels of subdivision.
I used a mixture of decimation master and Zremesher to create the topology. I drew ZRemesherGuides using what I'd learned through reading and this image as reference.
I also drew ZRemesherGuides along creases.

I still think there are too many polygons on flat, less animated areas so I have that to work on still.
Then again, I do need quite a few polygons if I'm going to have that cracking texture.

I've also applied the same topology techniques to the other subtools in the gargoyle.

Project 02 - Apex 2015

I did no work whatsoever on Sunday because I was watching Super Smash Brothers Melee (SSBM) at Apex 2015 on twitch. Since Ryan and Jake Neal did their lecture I've been able to consider SSBM as a viable source of income.
I was surprised to learn that the winnings for the tournament are considerably smaller than a lot of other competitive games such as Starcraft 2 and DotA 2.
I think most competitive gamers and speedrunners make the majority of their income through twitch streaming rather than tournaments. For a lot of people it's a job on the side too, rather than the main source of income.

Regarding our essay on roles within the industry, I don't think I'll work towards competitive gaming/ speed running as a main goal; rather a secondary hobby/job besides:
Games Designer/ Management?
Game Theorist?
Fine Artist (making interactive works of art)?
Game Journalism?

Project 02 - Indie Dev Meetup

I didn't want to be intrusive and take pictures of everyone but I met up with 20ish indies in Wetherspoons the other day. I found out about the meetup because when applying for the course and researching Marie-Clare I saw that she was part of the Norwich Indie Developers group on Meetup.com. I've been part of the group ever since and this was my first time actually meeting everyone.

Between us there was easily enough people to start an independent game dev team with programmers, 3D and 2D artists, designers, sound guys, marketing etc...

With so little experience relative to everyone there I think it'll be difficult to convince them that I really do know what I'm talking about in regards to design (unless I'm ignorant). I'd like to work back into some of my older games again. I started reworking 'Deep Rising' again yesterday. If I can ever get it to a finished/polished point I'll show it off.
I'll probably release it for free online
or
I'll release a 'demo' version online and a (fairly cheap) payed version on Itch.io.

It was certainly interesting to meet so many indies nevertheless and I'll have some questions lined up for the next meetup.

Project 02 - Life drawing pt2

After visiting the cathedral I made the most of my free student entry to the castle museum as I traversed the displays.

The first piece I found was this wooden dragon model. The information read that this model was used in the medieval times to commemorate the story in which it was slain by St. George. The story is similar to the founding of gargoyles and is from the same period.

These statues were in the fine-art section of the museum. old school statues always look so vacant, like they all have their own things to worry about and I'm watching them without their knowledge. There aren't many statues that I know of that really engage with the viewer/player other than play areas maybe? Do they even count. It feels like a lot of sculptures are 'DON'T TOUCH' with a 3 foot barrier all the way around but maybe I'm being ignorant. I visited the Yorkshire sculpture park a while ago and I do remember a few sculptures which were more like rooms you could walk into and a few you could climb on. I think a sculpture you could hug would be nice. Amongst all the vacant 'leave me alone' sculptures in a museum would be one sculpture  looking kindly towards you with arms wide open called 'hug me'.

Nevertheless I'm off topic now.

After visiting the sculptures I said hi to the stuffed animals in the 'natural history' part of the museum.







Like I said in a previous post, many gargoyles are based off of animals so it was in my best interest to get as much animal research as I could. Using my semi-blind drawing technique I drew a lot of them.

The energy in these drawings is awesome. and they all look very 3 dimensional. The ferocity of the polarbear to my right and the tiger further up really stands out in these drawings. This is quite a contrast to the vacant statues I saw earlier. The statues feel like they have a story behind their expressions where as the animals feel more simplistic in their emotions and this is expressed through a powerful engagement with the viewer/player.

It would be cool if I could combine the raw animal power with the depth of the fine art statues. Maybe that will mean I make a gargoyle from a combination of man and animal or maybe it'll be more abstract than that. I know what I'm aiming for now though with each part; power and depth.

Also, perhaps I can find a way to make semi-blind 3D work...

Project 02 - Life Drawing

I spent the other day traversing town in search of gargoyles and in the cathedral I stumbled across a variety of faces carved into walls.

I love this guys face, which is why I drew it so many times. It definitely has that creepiness so many gargoyles are able to evoke.

I call these kinds of drawings semi-blind drawings because I only look at the page when I'm not moving the pen. Not looking at the page when drawing allows me to express the detail accurately and quickly.

I thought this statue in the cathedral was gorgeous. One of the guides told me that it'd been hidden underground for many years to prevent it from being stolen. It's located right in the middle of the cathedral and the wings are wide open as to function as a board to rest papers on.

This organ gave me it's fair share of pareidolia (things that look like faces). It's definitely worth considering using something less lifelike as my gargoyle.

The way this light shone through the window left this hallway looking so beautiful I just had to take a picture. The coloring reminds me of Timothy J Reynolds low poly 3D illustrations.

Low Poly Timothy J Reynolds 3D illustration

I'd like to play with super low poly models in this project. I've been a fan of Reynolds work for a while so since I can finally make 3D it'd be a shame not to give it a go. I think what's so good about the pieces though is that although the models are low poly, the lighting and everything is modern. It creates a nice juxtaposition between low-poly nostalgia and modern vector illustrations.

Project 02 - Grotesque Gargoyles

I was searching for the difference between gargoyles and grotesques when I happened across the artist 'Liu Xue'. She creates realistic looking sculptures based on anthropomorphism. Like many gargoyles and grotesques, they fit into the uncanny valley which gives them a creepy vibe.

I'd like to experiment with anthropomorphism like this. The animal appendages are all connected in such a way that they'd make sense anatomically. I think this is important if you want to create a creature which feels life-like.





The only difference I can find between gargoyles and grotesques is that gargoyles are made with a spout in mind in order to convey water from a roof. Grotesques however, have no spout.

Project 02 - Initial research

When I read the theme my initial thoughts went to the series of emails between Greg Wohlwend and Asher Vollmer documenting the development of the iOS game 'Threes'. I read through the whole thing over Christmas break and one of the things which stuck out to me was the 'Argoyles' idea; monsters/gargoyles with argyle patterns (which they didn't use in the end).

A mockup of the old art-style in-game.

Reading about their design process was incredibly interesting. The huge number of re-iterations really shows how much work goes into this level of quality. 

If you'd like to read the documentation you can do HERE

Argyle is such an attractive pattern it makes me want to use something similar in my own design.

I was thinking I might juxtapose a cute wooly jumper and hat on the traditional hideous monster/gargoyle or something of the sort.
Can you make gargoyles from fabric or do they have to be stone?
     - Something to research


I've been researching into traditional gargoyles and I found THIS website. Here are a few quotes:

"Gargoyles were placed on the roofs of Egyptian temples where their mouths served as a spout for water."

"...saved his country from a monster by the name of Goji, sometimes called Gargouille. Supposedly the monster was so scary looking that it frightened off evil spirits. This led to some calling the monster a protector and placing similar carved pieces on churches and other important buildings."

"Starting in the 19^th century, gargoyles became more of a decoration than anything else."

"...gargoyles were used on more modern buildings as a form of decoration"

Summary:
Gargoyles have been around for thousands of years and serve as a spout for water. They supposedly look scary because of a monster from an old folk tale and they were made because of their association with protection. Since the 19th century their use has been mostly decorative.

We haven't been given a time period for this project so I feel like I could go old school and create something really scary looking or I could go modern and create something with novelty value. Perhaps I could even look at futurism in which case I should probably look into some of H.R.Giger's stuff.

A lot of monsters are based off of real life animals or combinations of them so I might use that as a starting point. Most gargoyles I've seen seem to be animal-like in some way or another although it would be really cool to experiment with the abstract too.

I also found THIS WEBSITE

The first section about etymology:

The first paragraph says that gargoyles can often be in the form of just faces, which is something I might look into further.

The second paragraph backs up my finding about the animal-like features most gargoyles seem to have. It also talks about how they're "often very imaginative and/or grotesque".

The third paragraph talks about how in recent years, the word 'gargoyle' has changed/widened to include "cartoon characters" and "any ugly or grotesque creature particularly if it lives on buildings or rocks." which might allow me to experiment with cuter, more cartoon-like designs too. Perhaps I could then juxtapose that with something scary and more traditionally gargoyle-like such as this:

http://www.odditycentral.com/tag/creepy