Final week: the end is already here

I went to the university this Tuesday; finalised last paperwork and had some quick advice on how to manage word count in my dissertation so I stay below the 9 or 10K word limit mark. Just want to make sure, I will remove the danger of getting penalised in case the word count does matter.
I have also been working on my practical stuff with an odd interruption now and again to sort either the submission materials or things related to exposition. I have also asked a friend of mine to start proof reading some dissertation material which is a great help.

Tomorrow is 12th of May and my first submission is due by 4pm. So far I have been concentrating on getting my practical stuff ready. I was not a 100% sure on what I should concentrate so chose to improve an overall environment art and then just try and implement everything in to a gameplay video created by Adobe After Effects since  most of the lecturers seem to always stress the interactivy part of the art within games.

In my opinion an updated environment art (see image below) looks better now as I have polished the overall look and introduced a lot of details, like texture, various patterns etc (see images below).

Overall look of the game art (above)

Texture application method using Emboss Layer (image above)

A lot of the basic texture came through the use of digital brushes that replicate traditional media look (image above). 

I have used Texture  brush settings to give canvas look (see image  above)and stayed away from applying texture on top of everything mainly because in previous tests it looked quite unnatural and too overpowering. 

To address the composition seen on a screen during gameplay, a variety of different shapes were introduced in the form of trees and bushes (marked in yellow), a rolling forest and foreground edge (marked in red) to give more variety and guidance for the eye. The forest line has also been intersected by a few curvy cloud lines (marked in green).
The onscreen image had also been broken in to four tone bands which balance an overall view (top and bottom): the lightness of the sky is counterbalanced by the dark middle ground at the bottom of the screen and protruding shadowy foreground elements are offset by the very bright clouds at the top of the screen. (see image below)

I have also finished UI design. Not a 100% happy with it but I am really pressed for time and this is the best I can come up with (see image below).

UI in game with inventory window closed (image above)

At the moment still working on the gameplay video, but I am sure it will not be fully completed by Monday 4pm. I chose to concentrate on showing the art rather than animations (e.g. character walking) and gameplay since the whole idea of my project is the about the look of the art and prove that it can work within a game environment. Animations would be a great thing to have but I do not have time to complete it atm.

That brings me to another point- presentation and an exposition next week. I will try to complete and polish the gameplay video for both of them. That means that I will continue doing my practical work after the dissertation hand in is done. I hope having things completed or nearly completed would help with my presentation as well as exhibition as I will be marked for both of them and I would like to get the best mark I can. I would love to have a chance to have an option of doing Masters later on.

Hardly any Dissertation work had been done this week. I managed to get some parts proofread by my friend for whom I am really grateful and I have already fixed grammar and spelling mistakes he has found. I will go back to dissertation after tomorrows hand in and will work on it until Wednesday morning or noon before sending it to be printed and bound.


I have also moved forward with promotional stuff I need to have for exposition. On Wednesday I have ordered 100 mini business cards with a range of different designs taken from my final project piece and a few postcards (see images below). Both of them should arrive by the 16th of May so it gives plenty time before the exhibition.

 I have also bought a printing credit from photobox for a poster size 30"x20". I will order it on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. That should give me enough time to receive it by Thursday morning. I am planning on having a large poster at the top showing off the game environment (have not made up my mind if I will have UI also displayed or not) and then a few A3 posters explaining a little my process and maybe some zoomed in examples to show off my brushwork etc (as the ones seen in this blogpost) At the moment also considering to dedicate one poster for my aim and objectives so people can have a quick look and read what my honours year project is about. It is a bit confusing what space I will have since I will be exhibiting at HMC and there is no detailed info about the wall space allocated when exhibiting there but this is a rough plan I have made (see image below).

And The Conclusion: how do I feel about my honours year project?...
I feel really happy that I have chosen this topic because it is of interest to me as well as I think it is one of the next steps the 2D videogame art is already taking (Braid by Jonathan Blow, Amanita design games and this month’s new release from Ubisoft 'The Child of Light'). I think the art of 2D video games is still evolving and has a long way to go. I feel it is time to try and give more choice and perhaps more quality for the videogame players. With my project I have only scratched the very surface of the topic and there is so much still left to explore. Feeling passionate about it has definitely made me more determined and more stubborn to try and do my very best, but at this moment in time I feel very tired and need to have a little break to rest and to think what I am going to do next. I still love videogames and certainly want to do something meaningful. Around 7 years ago I have made a conscious choice to change my life and pursue my goal of creating art again and I am not done yet. Hell!!! I  have just started and have a long way to go and I know, I will find things to do: I want to continue improving my art, learn a bit of programming  which would hopefully help me to create my own games and I will look for likeminded people to team up and create things; things that matter.

Playing catch up with practical work

This week I have started sorting all the files and folders for my 12th of May submission disk: printing game concept, asset list documents, learning contract etc etc... Just want to make sure that everything is there and I do not forget something important. Also it will make me feel better having things ready rather than worrying that I still need to do ‘all of that stuff’ before the final hand it. I really want to get everything else out of the way as soon as possible and just concentrate on my practical work and then burn everything on to DVD an hour or 2 before the submission and drop it in to a submission box before the deadline.

This Thursday I had 2 meetings with Simone. She has finally finished reading my dissertation draft and gave feedback. I still need to change the layout: move Contextual Review part back in to Methodology section, write a new chapter on Walter Benjamin have a look at 'technological determinism' add more info here and there and  have a look at Richard Eldridge book "An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art", Martin Rieser book " The Mobile Audienc. Media Art and Mobile Technologies" as well as Oliver Gray book ”Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion" which I still did not have time to do it. My first submission in a week’s time so I decided that the dissertation stuff has been taking way too much time now and I'm going to leave it until practical submission is done.  Only then I will fix the document as much as I can for Friday the 16th of May. I will most likely have to go back to practical work again after that as I strongly doubt I can finish the gameplay video. I need to have that video for my exhibition at least. It would be really good to have it ready for the presentation on Monday 20th as well.

I will be meeting Simone this Tuesday to get last paperwork signed and then just concentrate on doing as much artwork and animation as possible. Also, I am hoping to find some time to look in to the promotion stuff like business cards and poster printing. I will give my best shot and hope for the best. That is all I can do.

More dissertation writing!

This Thursday had another meeting with Simone. She gave me feedback on my Literature Review part of the dissertation. One of the main reasons of concern was my English grammar. She said she found it hard to follow my dissertation because I had too many grammar mistakes. :( I was a bit surprised because none of my previous lecturers ever mentioned that my English was in such a terrible state. Anyway, I went back to the Student Services if they could do proof reading and at the moment is not clear if they could help me. I will look if any of my friends can have time to read it through but it is highly unlikely as I would imagine everyone is pretty busy with their university work and even if they are not that many people would fancy reading through 9+ K (82 page) word document. I did a quick research online and people charge about £10 per page or per 1000 words. I cannot pay £100 just for proof reading when I already need to print things for exhibition as well as two copies of dissertation and all of these 3-4 weeks before I will become unemployed.
What I did for the rest of the week was fixed all the mistakes in Literature Review and been re-reading every single sentence at least 4 times and trying to fix those grammar mistakes. Also Simone suggested I change the layout of the dissertation and create a section called Contextual Review. So I have done all that and nearly finished writing the entire document. I was really hoping to be done this evening, but looks like I'll have to do some more stuff tomorrow. Need to finish Conclusion and Abstract  parts as well as check again for any grammar mistakes.


Now the Table of Contents looks like this:

LIST OF TABLES......................................................iv
LIST OF FIGURES....................................................v
INTRODUCTION.....................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW............................................3
Video games and aesthetics........................................3
Art aesthetics relation to videogame visuals................13
CONTEXTUAL REVIEW.......................................17
Composition.............................................................17
Colour.....................................................................26
Brushes and painting techniques................................30
Texture....................................................................34
Handcrafted imperfections........................................36
METHODS..............................................................38
Visual research and critical analysis............................38
Media tests...............................................................40
Critical Framework...................................................45
Case Studies.............................................................47
Braid........................................................................47
Okami......................................................................49
Personal Project.......................................................51
Game design and Pre-production..............................51
Production................................................................55
Critical Framework application.................................58
FINDINGS & EVALUATION................................60
CONCLUSION & FUTURE STUDY.....................62
APPENDICES.........................................................64
Honours Project Supervisor Meeting diary.................65
REFERENCES.........................................................66
FIGURE REFERENCES..........................................71


I really cannot afford any more time on the dissertation. I have already spent an extra week on it, which of course came from my practical work slot. :(  I still have to polish a few bits for the environment art, then do UI, character animations and create a gameplay video in adobe After Effects. I do not know how much I can complete it in 2 weeks time. I really hope I can do it all, but most likely I will end up doing more work after the actual submissions are over and probably my neck and back is going to try and kill me again. It is very unnerving and it certainly was not my plan at all. I was going to concentrate on my practical work, therefore my portfolio during this year; especially during this semester.

On Thursday the 1st of May I will have another meeting with Simone. I hope that the feedback regarding my dissertation is going to be somewhat better however... not expecting much good. I just have to live with what is there and fix things after 12th of May submissions.

Dissertation and some more dissertation

So for the last two weeks I have stopped doing any art and just concentrated on writing my dissertation. It is a very slow going process since English is not my first language so I often spend time looking at thesaurus trying to find that 'right' word that would describe better what I am trying to communicate.
I have changed a few bits in the overall layout of the paper.

I have also created an updated my project plan (Old one can be found in this blog post  here)showing the areas that I am looking at and how it all ties together (see image below).

I have added an area where I do traditional art and game art analysis; looking at Emotionalism aesthetic theory and how it ties together with brushstrokes visible on a canvas and how these marks not only connects the viewer and the artist but at the same time can contribute to the overall composition of the image. For example like guide the viewer’s eye around the canvas (see image below).

Van Gogh, V. 1889. Starry night. [online image]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VanGogh-starry_night_ballance1.jpg [Accessed 19 April 2014]

Also been looking about composition in games and so far Botanicula (2012) seem to be performing best (see image below).

Amanita Design. 2012. Botanicula. Microsoft Windows. Amanita Design & Daedalic Entertainment

A spore is spawned repeatedly on the top left-hand corner and is used to deliver a golden key (seen in the picture) to a spot in front of the characters on the bottom right-hand corner. Also the big brown mushroom on the top left-hand corner seems to 'balance' the characters standing at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. There is also a light coloured white mushroom mirroring the big dark one.

Machinarium (2009) also have some composition elements. It seem to use primarily Golden Cut (see image below).

Amanita Design. 2009. Machinarium. Microsoft Windows. Amanita Design & Daedalic Entertainment

There is a lot action happening around the Golden Cut intersection. For example in this scene the main character Josef is in fiddling with the ventilation system/fan. Also tone wise the dark left-hand side is balanced by the light sky area on the right-hand side. The tower seen in the background is also going straight through the middle of screen.

Another area I am investigating is colour and I think there are some interesting examples how colour can make an asset stand out from the background (see image below).

Number None, Inc. 2009. Braid. Microsoft Windows. Number None, Inc

I think in Braid (2008) World 1, the clouds stand out well from the background because of the complementary colour use: yellow-orange (sky, background) is an opposite of blue-green (the interactable cloud platforms).


My supervisor has also suggested that in my dissertation I should talk about the experience of digital painting and how it is different from traditional painting.
I had also had a look at Walter Benjamin book 'The work of art in the age of its technological reproducibility'* as well as Grahame Sullivan book 'Art Practice As Research'**.
B. Walters although talks about printing of artworks and other ways of their mechanical reproduction do related to the Emotionalism aesthetics theory. G. Sullivan’s book was not as useful as I have thought. I did not have too much time to have a really close look at it so perhaps I have missed something. Sadly time is running out fast and I still have many things left to complete before submissions.
I really want to have my dissertation finished by 24th of April because that day I will be going to a library to get help with formatting, referencing and some other things related to dealing with long documents.


On a side note, this Thursday I have went to the Pixel Pushers exhibition at Hannah Maclure Centre and then attended Ian McQue's Masterclass. It was really interesting and I was hoping to get some insights or something really relevant to my project but I feel it was not worth the time as much as I have hoped. I think Jolomo Awards exhibition at HMC earlier this year was more useful.

* Benjamin, W.2008.The work of art in the age of its technological reproducibility and other writings on media.London: The Belknap Press

** Sullivan, G. 2010. Art practice as research : inquiry in visual arts. 2nd ed. London : SAGE

UIs of point-and-click adventure games

Since I have been working again on game design and game art I came to a point where I feel I have to have another look at some of the UIs of similar games.

I do not tend to play that many point- and-click adventure games these days but the ones I had a chance to look at are: The Whispered World (2009) and Memoria (2012) by Daedalic Entertainment and Botanicula (2012) and Machnarium (2009) by Amanita Design.

I chose these games because they resemble my game idea for honours year project and I have played them previously.


The Whispered World

The mouse cursor in a non-active state looks like in the image above.

The mouse cursor changes to a 'highlight' state (with a small blue light in the centre) when is placed above an interactable item. (see image above)

When clicked the cursor becomes active and opens up a context related menu where a player can select an action he/she wants to perform. (see image above)

An open inventory is made to look like an open bag/sack. It takes large part of the screen and contains all collected items. (see image above) Also, a general menu is hidden on the top right-hand corner. (see image above) 

When a mouse cursor is moved towards the top right-hand corner the hidden menu reveals itself ( the corner peels away). The mouse cursor functions the same way as during game play: when placed above active item highlights the item in blue as well as lights up blue in the centre. (see image above)

Entrances and exits within the game are marked by a red arrow which appears only when placed above an entrance or exit. (see image above)

I did like a lot the look of inventory as well as the general menu being hidden in the corner of the screen. I think it gives an impression of an illustration; however I think the strange shaped mouse cursor feels a bit strange/unusual. Most likely because the convention in games as well as UI's in general seems to use something that reminds an arrow or a pointing finger. I think it's the shape of it that makes it feel strange at first.

Memoria


This is another game released by Daedalic Entertainment. The developers seem to have changed the mouse cursor design for this game: the cursor takes a more traditional look of an arrow and a pointing finger icon that appears next to it when hovered above an interactable item. (see image below)

Inventory is hidden at the bottom of the screen and moving a mouse cursor to the bottom area reveals it (it slides up when opening and slides down when closing). Also game settings and questbook are located inside inventory (bottom right-hand corner). (see image below)

Botanicula

Very simple UI. Direction and some interactable objects being indicated by an arrow as seen in an image above.

The inventory slides down from the top of the screen and contains collectable cards icon as shown in the top left-hand corner of the screen as well as collectable items displayed at the top right-hand corner of the screen.



Machinarium


The game seems to be using the same Inventory principle as Botanicula (slides up and down when mouse pointer is moved to the top edge of the screen).  Standard mouse cursor in a shape of an arrow and a pointing finger icon when above an interactable object.  The collected objects are displayed on the top left-hand corner.

I think using standard arrow and pointing finger icons avoids confusion and looks very familiar to the player. If something else is used then best if design reminds an arrow or is in some sort of triangle shape. At least this is what I have encountered during my general video game play which is not limited by 2D point-and-click games mentioned in this post.


Amanita Design. 2012. Botanicula. Microsoft Windows. Amanita Design & Daedalic Entertainment
Amanita Design. 2009. Machinarium. Microsoft Windows. Amanita Design & Daedalic Entertainment
Daedalic Entertainment. 2013. Memoria. Microsoft Windows. Deep Silver
Daedalic Entertainment. 2009. The Whispered World. Microsoft Windows. Deep Silver

Work for the showreel

During last 2 weeks I was preparing dissertation and building portfolio website for the end of the year show as I will need to have something online for job hunting as well as business cards. It has been ages since I have done any web development so I took an easy option which took about 4 days to develop; including finding my old work and either taking pictures or scanning. Here is the link to my website www.jurgitarainyteart.me . It is not great but it is better then nothing at all and I will improve it as the time goes by and I have some free time.

I have also created a sketch of the first layer of forest for the land game level (see image below)

Environment: forest area sketch

As I have continued working on the Dissertation I was slowly moving along with the art for the showreel. I have more or less completed the whole environment for the land level. I made some minor changes. One of them is the clouds. I've redrawn them with a pencil brush so the clouds have more 'texture' and stand out better from the sky background.

Environment: forest area

New texture for the clouds.

I have also redesigned the game character Lyse. First version only painterly look and the second one added some white patches on its body. Hopefully to remind somewhat of a moon or stars, as it supposed to be living in the sky.

Lyse: version 1

Lyse: version 2

On Monday I will be submitting a video of the environment and a character walking which I still have to finish it off.

Alice videogame art book and game aesthetics

This week I had a chance to borrow some art books from my friend and one of them really stood out. Its 'The Art of Alice: Madness Returns' by R.J. Berg*. It contains artwork created for the American MaGree (game designer) videogame Alice: Madness Returns (EA)** which if based on Lewis Carroll's story.

Some of the concept art pieces from the book are absolutely amazing and very inspiring.

I really liked this image because it seem to have a lot of ‘visual texture to it' a mix of techniques. The grittiness of the rock and the ground is counterbalanced but the smoothness of the blue clouds (less 'texture' and many wavy lines).

This piece is also absolutely amazing. Digital art but look so traditional: very textured and layered and the brushstrokes really visible, and all the nice detail of the plants and trees. It just made me think why game art doesn't look like this!? It's so interesting to look at, and if one can interact with the world that would be absolutely amazing experience. It;' would be like entering another world.

Another picture, similar image to the above one. Really like the tree in the bottom right-hand corner as well as the texture in the clouds (middle left). It looks like a traditional media brushstrokes. They give that tactile feel to the image that I think is missing often in a lot of 2D videogame art.

Really like the tree design and how it's been painted. The texture of the bark and most importantly the leaves. A lot of interest for a viewer’s eye.

This image relates to the underwater scene for my game idea. I'm not too keen on the bed, but I think the shoals of fish and the underwater plants look nice. Also the colour choices and the way the artist created the feeling of space: brighter colours at the back and the hazy outlines of some kind of plants in the distance. I think something similar could work for my project; however the light would be located at the top and I would have to address the issue of the red-orange and yellow light in the water. (Since the water absorbs the reds I would probably have to go violet-green in my colour choices)

Also I have noticed a post on FB from the Child of Light creators and followed their link to the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JieprG-zAx4

It is very inspiring to see videogame like this being developed and published by a big game developing studio. I think we need more people like Patrick Plourde and his team who can make videogames that enrich people. I think the 2D games are starting to reinvent themselves just like painting (e.g. impressionist), photography or movies did. They all at some point stopped trying to represent reality and started exploring other ideas, feelings etc. The history seems to show that when people reach the goal of realistic representation they turn their attention to exploring the medium and creating new things with it or through it. I think it is a natural evolution of creative mediums in general, and because videogames are creative medium, they are undergoing the same process. Patrick Plourde (creative director of Child of Light) in above mentioned video says that the experience they are trying to create is: "Being able to play on a living painting and see the hand of the artist in the game." I think if the gameplay will not be marred by the technical issues (bugs) this game is going to become really popular, because developers seem to be going for the aesthetic game and that should mean a more immersive game. Philosophers like Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Schopenhauer etc.. who have studied an aesthetic experience, have all noticed the fact that a more engaging/simulating piece of art is, perhaps even perceived as being different from the everyday, the more it tends to arrest and maintain spectator's attention, therefore draws the viewer in, makes him/her experience the art more profoundly and immerses him/her in to the experience (Hanfling 1992, p. 120, 126-127, 128, 129). Also having visible creators mark in the art makes it more personal and adds to the aesthetic experience (Emotionalist theory by L.Tolstoy and C.J. Ducasse) (Hanfling 1992 and Cahn and Meskin 2008).

Videogames are similar to books: serve the purpose of removing oneself from reality and exploring other worlds. In addition to that, Jane McGonigal  in her TED talk*** mentions the reasons why this might be happening (for example people get inspired when playing games and positive feedback and feeling of achievement. She calls it an 'epic win' and points out that in real life we do not tend to experience it) and quotes Edvard Castranova (economist):  "We're witnessing what amounts to no less than a mass exodus to virtual worlds and online game environments."
I do not think video games will go way so why not make it the experience not only more pleasant  and enriching since there are so many people playing them and it ultimately got to have an impact on our the culture?

Cahn, S.M. and Meskin,A. eds.2008. Aesthetics: a comprehensive anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Pub
Hanfling, O.1992. Philosophical Aesthetics:  an introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing


* Berg, R.J.2011.The Art of Alice: Madness Returns. Milwaukie:Dark Horse Books
** Spicy Horse. 2011. Alice: Madness Returns. Play Station 3. Electronic Arts.
*** Jane MCGonigal. 2010. Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world. [online video]. Available from: http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world#t-24231 [Accessed  October 13 2013]

Fundamentals

I have bought an 'Art Fundamentals' book by 3dTotal (see image below) back in the end of December 2013 to refresh all the art fundamentals knowledge. Even though I have some other books related to this subject I have bought it because it was created by digital artist. The book contains many digital drawings and I thought it would be interesting to look at art fundamentals through the digital artist’s point of view. Also, all the paintings can serve as a good inspiration source for my projects work.

When I had some time I was doing some exercises in the book. Here are some of the things I have looked at:

Light and shadow

Starting image

Added key shadow

Added key light

Added cast shadow

Added reflecting light

Added key highlight

Added spot highlight

Added rim light

For this light exercise I have used some of my own custom brushes to give a bit of texture to the ball.

My final game idea is to have a low light scene in the forest light by the sunset sky, so obviously getting light and shadow areas right will help improving the overall image. Even though it is a fantasy world some basic things need to work (look realistic) to make since and light and shadow is one of them.

Colour was another area I wanted to refresh, as it will play a major part in my final work. Also mixing colours digitally is not the same as mixing them on canvas. It differs how it’s technically when using brushes, opacity and layer or brush modes but also do to the fact that is mixed on screen and within an environment of particular software (in my case Adobe Photoshop). For example the issue of mixing blue and yellow to create green with does not happen in an expected way when doing it digitally (There is a discussion o this topic in CGSociety forums: http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-427907.html and can see an example of it in video that can be found here:  http://www.digitalartform.com/archives/2005/06/digital_color_m.html ) Also there is an issue about colour mixing in general even in traditional painting. Scott Naismith's YouTube Video where he actually explains the problem with RGB colour wheel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQqxN8LpGzw) (Scott Naismith is a Scottish landscape painter and a part-time art tutor at Reid Kerr College)

Colour wheel used by traditional media artist (mixing paint) Subtractive system.

Colour wheel when working with light (also on screen) Additive system.

Colour wheel

Complementary colours

Colour Hue

9 Value scale in black and white

and the same 9 value scale in colour (see image below)

And here is a CMYK colour wheel that works much better than a RGB

Scott Naismith.[No date].Colour Wheel Plain.[online]. Available from: http://scottnaismith.com/buy-online/product-category/resources/colour-wheel-for-artists/ [Accessed 10 January 2014]

* 3dTotal. 2013. Art Fundamentals: Color, Light, Composition, Anatomy, Perspective and Depth. 3D Total Publishing