Sketchbook Pages

Due 09/14/2014

Due 09/22/2014

Due 09/29/2014

Due 10/06/2014

Due 10/14/2014

Due 10/20/2014

Due 10/27/2014

Due 11/03/2014

Due 11/10/2014

Due 11/17/2014

Due 11/24/2014

Due 12/08/2014

Due 12/15/2014

Due 12/22/2014

Due 01/12/2015

Weekly Work Logs

Week of 09/08/2014

Week of 09/15/2014

Week of 09/22/2014

Week of 09/29/2014

Week of 10/06/2014

Week of 10/13/2014

Week of 10/20/2014

Week of 10/27/2014

Week of 11/03/2014

Week of 11/10/2014

Week of 11/17/2014

Week of 11/24/2014

Week of 12/02/2014

Week of 12/08/2014

Week of 12/15/2014

Week of 12/22/2014

Week of 01/05/2015

CD Projekt Red Inspiration

Artist Inspiration In The Witcher Games

First image:

This is one of the promotional images for the upcoming release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The ominous and otherworldy smoke and atmosphere of the background sets the tone for the game, and the model of the main character, the Witcher, Geralt, is extremely realistic, stunning, and just so... human, while still having a sense of the fantastical, especially in his blindingly white mane and glowing yellow eyes with snake-shaped pupils.

The Witcher 3 Engine in Action

This is a gameplay trailer, which means the majority of the scenes are actually in game. The fantasy aspect speaks for itself in the magic Geralt uses called Signs and the strange monsters that Geralt fights. The human experience, I think, is shown very briefly in several scenes. The emotions are palpable.

More examples of the world in which Geralt inhabits can be seen in the previous post on this blog.

Character Model Progression of Geralt

The Witcher 1:

The Witcher 2:

The Witcher 3:

As you can see, Geralt has gotten progressively more realistic--and thus, in my opinion, more relatable. His character model has increased in the number of polygons by a significant amount and the textures have possibly increased in resolution by the thousands. Geralt, particularly in the last picture, obviously looks like he has faced some difficult things in his life. His scars, the condition of his swords and armour, his expression, and the wrinkles on his aged face are all things from which, even if one had no idea who Geralt was or what he did, someone would be able to make fairly accurate inferences about him. The games balance reality (the human experience) and fantasy amazingly well.

How Does This Tie in to My Themes, You Ask?

Good question! I really admire the ability of a video game, book, movie, etc. to be in the fantasy genre, yet simultaneously perfectly encompass the human experience. In the Witcher games, the most appealing part of the game is not the magic or the mythological creatures but experiencing the emotions the characters and plot evoke. Despite the fact that Geralt is a Witcher, a mutated human whose sole purpose is to kill monsters, the player can still relate with his innate humanity. That's the kind of game I love the most; ones that both deal with very real problems and emotions but still have a great imagination and creativity in every facet of the game, from the mythical beasts that roam the land to something as simple as the purpose of a Witcher's medallion. Making these games is what I want to do for the rest of my life, especially with such an admirable company as CD Projekt Red. This year, I would like to work on modeling characters that make these games so relatable and popular.

Read more about CD Projekt Red here: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-06-seeing-red-the-story-of-cd-projekt

All credit for images and logos goes to CD Projekt Red.

Themes in Conceptual Film

The themes that most interest me are the human experience and invention and fantasy. First, the human experience theme of art explores the human psyche and the motivation behind human action; it is about looking inward and uncovering the nature of humanity. I am very much a human rights activist, and especially the oppression of peoples because they differ from the social norm is a very important topic to me. I enjoy debating and raising awareness about current news involving human rights, which most recently includes the LGBTQ movement mainly in America and Africa and women’s rights including the threats and harassment faced by several modern feminists, including Anita Sarkeesian who was forced to leave her home after receiving death threats from people angered by her Youtube series in which she points out the sexist characteristics of games. In art, I would like to explore these facets of the human experience and promote a general peace and equality between all of the different identities.

Example of women's rights in art:

Credits:

The campaign was developed at Grabarz & Partner, Germany, by creative directors Ralf Heuel and Dirk Siebenhaar, copywriter Bent Harmann and art director Julia Ebers, with photographer Veronika Faustmann. Found at the following address: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2008/stop-the-oppression-of-women-in-the-islamic-world/

I am also interested in the theme of invention and fantasy; some of my favorite books, movies, and video games share this theme, and I am greatly inspired by the Lord of the Rings and the Witcher series. I really want to be a video game designer once I graduate from whatever institution I choose, and I enjoy the design and imagination of video games with fantastical creatures and worlds, but which also do not seem out of place amongst humans in a sort of fascinating alternate dimension. The Witcher video games based on the book series by Andrzej Sapkowski are my favorite video game series, with The Elder Scrolls being a close second, and the Witcher is a mutated human with magical fighting powers called Signs which he uses while defeating the creatures based on ancient Polish mythology and folk tales which plague or co-inhabit with humans in the fantasy world. I would like my art to invoke the imagination and beauty that I have been inspired by in my favorite works of media and literature.

Examples of the fantastical design of The Witcher 3:

All credits for the previous images go to CD Projekt Red and its affiliates. Visit the official The Witcher 3 website here: http://thewitcher.com/witcher3/

Epic Quest Bios

The bios for my programming assignment video game, Epic Quest.

Male/Female Player: From a small farming village, the player lost his or her mother at a young age and was forced to learn to fight because of the constant dangers of bandits in the area. At the start of the game, the town is having a celebration for the player’s coming of age, when he or she officially becomes an adult. The death of his or her father plunges the player into a dark spiral of death and destruction in the quest to avenge his death.

·      Can use any weapon and have any assortment of stats

·      Health and damage varies

·      The male has brown hair and a green shirt while the female has red hair and a blue shirt

Dad: After the death of his wife, the player’s father had to raise the player on his own. Because of this, he and his child are very close, and his death and plea for the player to “avenge him” sends the player down a dark pit of despair and anger.

·      No health, no stats, no damage

·      Deceased

Bandits: The bandits are disorganized robbers who were a minor nuisance to the player’s village before the nameless villain came along. Now, they are a force to be reckoned with (in large numbers).

·      Easy difficulty

i)     75 health

ii)    Damage from 1-4

·      Hard difficulty

i)     150 health

ii)    Damage from 1-8

Dying Woman: Born and raised in Tierre, the dying woman meets her untimely end presumably at the hands of the nameless villain. She implores the player to go after her killer, but never dies on screen. Maybe she is still alive…? No, she’s dead.

·      No health, no stats, no damage

·      Deceased

Nameless villain: The nameless villain is a sorcerer of great power, and the final encounter with this man is a very difficult battle. In two of the four stages, he stands on an unreachable ledge to launch magic repeatedly at the player, seemingly toying with his prey. He believes himself to be unbeatable.

·      Easy difficulty

i)     400 health

ii)    Damage unknown

·      Hard difficulty

i)     800 health

ii)    Damage unknown

Video Game Sprites (Non)Valedictory Concentration

I planned to create digital 8 (or 16, in my case)-bit sprites to be used in the video game I am coding for my final project in Computer Science class. I knew I would have to use a grid to create pixelized pictures out of individual, color-filled squares.

To do so, I looked up how to create a live-paint group grid in Adobe Illustrator, and used a 16-bit sprite of Link from The Legend of Zelda I found on the website deviantart as reference for the shape and shading of my characters. I must admit, I did not think I would do very well at first, but it is actually surprisingly easy to create these characters simply by using the paint bucket on individual squares in a grid.

Creating the sprites became easy after a few days. I use the other sprites I've already made as a reference for each new sprite, though for some reason it won't allow me to copy a specific section of a grid to place on another grid, and that's really annoying if I make mistakes. I have to erase the whole thing and start again, depending on how big the mistake is. Here are some examples of my sprites:

As you can see, the pixels in the images are obvious. Because of the colors and amount of pixels, these are technically 16-bit sprites. From left to right, these are the main character as a female with a staff, the main character as a male with a sword, a bandit enemy, and a dead character (whose identity I will not reveal!)

The sprites have turned out great. I love them, and they are a perfect fit for my game, though I could do a lot more like making the sprites have a walking animation and actually swinging their melee weapon or firing their ranged weapon, but I don't have enough time as the programming assignment is due very soon. The sprites work perfectly in game apart from some size issues (that are easily fixed, but again I don't have the time), and I have attained the goal I set at the start of this game design project.

In the future, I will know how to make this type of sprite and be able to continue to develop my video game design skills, which I intend to do for a long time to come.

Critique Reflection

For my character animation (see previous post), I received critique from my classmates on the design, technical aspects, and plot. They said the plot was simple and easy to follow with a good inciting incident and climax/resolution. Also, the the modeling of the house, furniture, and character were well done, especially with the time restrictions. Motion was good, and many people liked the first-person view. They liked many of my shots and camera movements which were smooth and followed the Rule of Thirds. However, a few criticized the fact that at one point a closing door went through the camera and that the door handles didn't turn as the main character (camera) opened the door. Next time, I will work on the minor details and focus more on working within time limits.

Character Animation - The Nightmare

My Blender Character Animation

"The Nightmare" -- The Thrilling Tale of a Zombie who Only Wanted a Hug

First, I will describe my thoughts the process of bringing this animation to life.

The modeling of the character was likely the most irksome part; he is low poly and hollow, which is sometimes visible at certain angles. His hair is almost nothing like I imagined, but I couldn't take the time to make it properly and instead just sculpted it out of a large UV Sphere.

Next, learning to rig a mesh was actually quite easy, though it could have been executed better. A full class tutorial would have probably helped us to know exactly what was expected of us while rigging our characters. I was specifically confused on how to make it loop naturally, and I certainly have not perfected this yet.

We simply were not given enough time for the animations themselves if we wanted a finished product that we could be proud of. There are several things that I had to rush and even completely skip over (like the window panes I wanted to add), and I was forced to use other models from sites like Blender Artists when I would have preferred making these props on my own, though I made sure these models were available for non-credited use. Rendering took a very long time as I had a much longer video than some of the other students with a larger file size, so this I did outside of class. Surprisingly, my own laptop at home runs Blender fairly well.

The post-processing for the video was definitely the easiest part. I was able to make most of what I wanted for audio in GarageBand, and I was able to work out any of my issues with relative ease, though the audio/video syncing problem had me momentarily stumped. I chose only beginning credits because that was all that was needed, though I might have added some eerie music at the end had I had end credits.

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Throughout the project, I was able to focus quite well, and though there are often conversations at my tables, they do not distract me from my work. Quite the contrary, when given the option to choose when to talk to my friends or keep silent, I am more productive. There were multiple times that I was frustrated with my work, as it did not always meet expectations.

Finally, I was successful with modeling my character (Neo's) face, but his hair and body suffered. Neo's movements were also a little rushed, but they weren't the central focus of the video. I chose a first person point of view in the storyboard phase. Were I to do this again--which I likely will as I would like to be a video game designer (most likely for an indie developer as I really appreciate being my own boss)--I would like to focus more on quality over deadlines. Thus, I am really looking forward to the independent portfolio class next year.

Really a great project!