Research Proposal submission week

Friday the 13th of December was a Research Proposal document submission deadline.

This week was really stressful as I was still dealing with art aesthetics theories in my head and on paper. Overall I feel confident about some parts of the proposal and some not so much. Literature review part is probably ok as I have read a lot of books related to my topic however, the methodology section is probably on a weaker side. I think, I may have spent a bit too long on the literature review as I had to rethink and restructure quite a bit this part of the document which took longer than expected.  Therefore Methodology part did not get as much attention as I would have hoped for.

I had a lot of quotes that I have gathered from a number of books and just going through them and sorting out what is the most relevant and fits best was a really tedious part. I had moments when I felt a bit like I was drowning in quotes. But I got there in the end.

Also, my project aim has changed very slightly as I have added ' creative expression in' part in it.

So what are the idea, purpose and goal of my Honour year project? In short:

This project will attempt to bridge the gap between 2D game production as well as traditional arts and its practice domains and look at both of these topics through aesthetics theories lens by exploring how traditional art practice and traditional art media coupled with art fundamentals can inform and enhance creative expression in production of more aesthetically pleasing 2D game assets.

An expected outcome of this project is significant knowledge that could be of value to academic researchers and practitioners within fields of 2D video game production as well as artists working within digital media domain.

This project aim is to explore how traditional art practice and traditional art media coupled with art fundamentals can inform and enhance creative expression in production of more aesthetically pleasing 2D game assets.

Project objectives are:

• Examine and analyse traditional art practices such as use of media as well as drawing and painting fundamentals to draw conclusions on identifying aesthetics.

• Conduct iterative practical research by experimenting with implementation of gathered knowledge in to digital media production pipeline and evaluate this process.

•  Produce art assets for a game and discuss final results in relation to the project aim.

In general this research proposal experience was very informative. So much so, that at times I felt my head is about to explode from the amount of information that I was trying to cram in to it. However, the good thing was that, just by putting thoughts on paper seem to help with understanding some of the points in my project and how it all relates together.

Now it is just a long wait until after New Year to see what the result is. But I will not be bored as I have to prepare a Concept Development document as well as Pre-production portfolio for the 13th of January 2014.

So the pressure is not really off since I, just like the most of the students on my course, have not done much of practical work in the last few weeks.

A copy of my Research Proposal document can be found here.

Writing research proposal

During last three weeks I have been focusing on getting my research proposal in shape. It is a very daunting task since I felt I needed to understand my topic better therefore kept and keep reading a bunch of books related to a number of subjects that influences my project . My main problem was, up until a few days ago, the description of my research project in one sentence. Finally, Eureka! I got it now and it is:

'Explore how traditional art practice and traditional art media coupled with art fundamentals can inform and enhance production of more aesthetically pleasing 2D game assets'

I feel a great relieve now that finally I have managed to capture my idea in to words.

I think the parallel I could draw between the process of aim formation is the same of trying to capture a cloud: the project idea was hanging around in a sort of undefined cloud/mist shape until right conditions formed and finally it turned in to rain and I was able to capture it all in a bucket in a form of water. :)

However, by no means the work is over. I still have a good bit to go in addressing art aesthetics and art theories question. It is a really hard topic to get ones head around and I wish I could have avoided  it altogether but because the whole idea of my project is to create something meaningful by being aesthetically pleasing there is no way of getting away from it. I guess, in the long run it will be really beneficial to gain a better understanding in what art is, from a philosophical point of view. In my opinion, it will have a major impact of how and what art I will create in the future.

Crit presentation feedback

Thursday Crit presentation went well. Just a couple of days before it I was worrying that I still do not have an aim or even a vision statement for my project. Luckily my conscious finally managed to make a connection in my head between all those ideas that I have been having last few weeks and I finally have a vision statement/aim: 'explore how traditional art practise can inform and enhance production of 2D game art assets'.

My final project goal stayed more or less the same: create art assets for a single game idea and try to implement them in to a test game or most likely a mock up playable level.

As my practical work I have shown all the images from my previous post. Feed back I have received was exactly as I have expected. I had been advised to tackle background and interactive assets issue: how to try and make it more easy for a player to distinguish which objects are interactive and which ones are not. also look more in to traditional art and see what I can bring it to my digital art project.

My further action points are:

• to continue literature research. At the moment i am looking in to art aesthetics and aesthetic theories.
• reiterate my previous practical attempts: change colour scheme and fix artwork for: Fianna, Dragonfly dash and Noboy games.
• make more practical tests: improve backgrounds, try and reproduce texture that is often seen in oil paintings. (see image below)

Alexander Sigov. [online image]. Available from: http://pinka.pl/pin/148714/Alexander-Sigov#.UukZWfnFJpg [Accessed 2 November  2013]

Also as the time goes by I am starting to realise that I will not have enough time to do any programing on my own if I really wanted to make a playable demo. In my opinion, it would be a much better outcome then having a video or a bunch of still images as a final peace therefore, if I really want the demo to happen I would probably have to get  someone else on board. It is a major step, as some of my previous experience shows, working with others or depending on others for projects is not an easy task. I might have to look at getting programmers or game designers on board.