Inspiration

Traditional Art and Media

Because the aim of this project is to try and reproduce qualities found in traditional art (general aesthetics, media texture/look, composition etc.) it is inspired an influenced by traditional paintings and drawings. Also, because traditional art is considered as having cultural value of meaning, it is in my opinion the most appropriate area to look for inspiration and learn from.

Oil/Acrylic painting

I really like oil paintings by Russian landscape artist Alexander Zavarin. Especially the impressionist alike ones, done using wide and bold brush strokes which ‘suggests’ objects within the painting but does not show any of the detail and that way leaving it to the viewer to figure out  what it actually is. A.Zavarin manages to capture soft light within the scenes but at the same time creates illusion of space where colour either brings objects forward or moves them ‘deeper’ in to the canvas space. Paintings look chaotic yet manage to capture the actual mood of the scene. The artists’ brush strokes are very visible on the canvas and not only contribute towards the paintings mood but also emanates ‘personal touch’ energy from the work. This artist work is relevant to the project by providing not only inspiration for oil/acrylic paint look within digital medium, but also a possible solution to a problem where interactive objects should stand out from a background. Possible use of bold ‘brush’ strokes to only suggest some of the background objects can be the key. Also, keeping things interesting and letting viewers mind interpret some of the things that are happening on canvas can be used to bring more interest towards the game art. This traditional oil painting effect can be seen implemented as a 3D model texture in a ‘Damocles’ trailer for a new Crytec video game called Ryse: Son of Rome ( Trailer available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czXJeJ9I2Us). (can see another post where I mention 'Damocles' trailer here.)

Zavarin, A. [no date]. [online image]. Available from: http://allday2.com/index.php?newsid=470467 [Accessed: 19 December 2013]

Zavarin, A. [no date]. [online image]. Available from: http://artbook.oo.gd/en/alexander-zavarin/ [Accessed: 19 December  2013]

Zavarin, A. [no date]. [online image]. Available from: http://artbook.oo.gd/en/alexander-zavarin/ [Accessed: 19 December  2013]

Watercolour

Z.L.Feng is an international award winning Chinese artist living in U.S.  Many of his watercolour landscape compositions can strike one as being rather dark and fairly minimalist at first however further inspection reveals an array of colours that have been achieved by the watercolour pigments blending together on paper. Intricate and dark tree branches are ‘set on fire’ by a multitude of colour dabs. Balanced compositions achieved by use of light and shadow as well as colours. This artists’ work is great as an inspiration as well as an example of watercolour media look: where every brush stroke leaves a permanent mark on canvas and the actual media has ‘luminosity’ unlike a heavy oil paint on canvas. This type of medium, if implemented successfully, has a possibility to help with keeping backgrounds simple and uncluttered and that way to help emphasize foreground and interactive objects. And just like in oil painting example mentioned above this media look can be used to bring more interest to the game art.

Feng, Z.L. [no date]. [online image]. Image #:1: LImited Edition Giclee Print. Available from: http://zlfeng.com/landscape.html [Accessed 19 December 2013]

You can see one more image of  of his painting in my week 4 blog post.

Collage

Collage is another interesting and widely used traditional art technique and a piece of art done by Nancy Standlee (see image below) is a fine example of this art style. This painting somewhat reminds an impressionist oil paintings with an explosion of bright colours and an array of bits of paper that resemble broad brush strokes on canvas. It is a nice colourful composition that conveys lively mood using ‘bold’ blocks of colour and at the same time have textural interest in each single piece of coloured paper that has been placed on the canvas. This technique can be recreated well in digital media if one wishes and can serve as a general motivation to perhaps be braver while exploring unusual places/arts/ art styles etc. for inspiration.  In a certain way, collage is similar to what Amanita Design has done with their video game Botanicula (2012)* art direction.  more info in my week 3 post.

Standlee, N. [no date]. Feed the Birds. [online image]. Available from: http://nancystandlee.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/rooster-and-bird-torn-paper-collage.html [Accessed 21 December 2013]

Digital Art

One of the most inspirational current ink artists that manage to almost flawlessly merge traditional ink medium with a digital Photoshop painting is Taiwanese artist Jung Shan. Rough paper texture and flowing ink is visible from his scanned/photographed ink paintings that are used as background for his final images. This gives an authentic, ‘personal touch’ to the digital drawing which is created using digital Photoshop brushes. Some of the paintings are made even more interesting by photographing ink painting while it is still damp (see image below). This artist work is a great example of how to blend traditional and digital media. Use of specific digital brushes that imitate traditional media techniques can be a great advantage in trying to recreate traditional media look in Photoshop.

Jung Shan. 2013. Silence power. [online image]. Available from: http://jungshan.deviantart.com/art/Silence-Power-338758654 [Accessed 22 December 2013]

Jung Shan. 2013. Wuxia Magazine cover. [online image]. Available from: http://jungshan.deviantart.com/art/Wuxia-Magazine-cover-441137422 [Accessed 22 December 2013]

Jung Shan. Ink Samurai. [online image]. Available from: http://jungshan.deviantart.com/art/Ink-Samurai-193699240 [Accessed 22 December 2013]

I think this guy is absolutely amazing. Love the way he combines the traditional with the digital. It all looks so light and easy, done with a few brushstrokes. Amazing skills.

Videogames

Some videogame developers already tried to mimic traditional art styles and media within their games.  It is good to see what has already been done and perhaps find out how.

Braid

One of the greatest inspirations to this project has been a video game called Braid (2008)**, created by Jonathan Blow. Braid is one of the important works in the video game industry because this game is a very first well known computer game that has been inspired by and tried to reproduce traditional art style. Game artist David Hellman’s (who is also a comic and graphic novel artist) inspiration has come from traditional art movements such as abstract art, impressionism, and surrealism. 

Can read a bit about the game in my week 3 post. 

Even though all the art assets had been digitally painted, on a closer inspection, while playing the game, one can easily see David Hillmans’ brush strokes throughout the painted backgrounds (see first image below) just like in all impressionist paintings done by famous artists. (see 2 bottom images by Claude Monet)

Monet,C. 1882. Clifftop Walk at Pourville. [online image]. Available from: http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/claude-monet/clifftop-walk-at-pourville [Accessed 23 December 2013]

David Hillman chosen colours to create appropriate moods within the game that support the story and environment. Each of the game Worlds has its own colour palette. For example, within World 1 which is an introduction of the story, warm colours such as greens and yellows dominate the screen, while World 4 is a much more ‘cold’ looking environment with dominant blues and browns. Additionally, some of the elements within the game background where broken apart and implemented in to a particle system to create movement and dreamlike feeling similar to surrealistic paintings.

Also some of the background elements ended resembling watercolour or coloured ink painting on paper. (see image below)

Braid world has been crafted with a vision  as well care towards the actual game player. One of the most inspirational quotes that also strongly relates to the idea and vision of this project is a quote by Braid developer Jonathan Blow has said: “There’s a message in the visuals, and the effort that’s been put into the graphics. It’s a subliminal thing, a message which says that somebody really cared about putting this experience together...it says you’re in good hands” (Dennis, R., 2012) (Can find a link to the article in my week 3 blog post). 

In my opinion, the subliminal things within this videogame are not only previously mentioned images inspired by traditional art movements or visible brush strokes that reminds us of traditional paintings done on canvas (e.g. Zavarin A. or Monet C.) but also some of the remainders of digital paint that can still be visible on some of the asset edges (see image below).

These left over ‘flaws’ or imperfections created by a human hand are picked up by the viewer irrelevant if the art is created on a real or a digital canvas and becomes part of the artwork that contributes to its aesthetics and in this case makes game art more personal.

I think this game is important to my project because it is a great example that traditional art can work in video games. In addition, the creation process through which David Hillman went while designing the art for this game is very informative and contributes a lot of knowledge towards this honours year project. (Can read David Hillman s blog here.)

The Bridge

The Bridge (2013)*** is an only black and white 2D logic based puzzle game that is inspired by Maurits Cornelis Eschers’ (Dutch graphic artist) work; game play and art style (see images below). 

Escher, M.C. 1958. Belvedere. [online image] Available from: http://www.mcescher.com/gallery/lithograph/belvedere/ [Accessed 21 December 2013]

Escher, M.C. 1955. Convex and Concave. [online image] Available from: http://www.mcescher.com/gallery/lithograph/convex-and-concave/ [Accessed 21 December 2013]

This game can be also considered as an important step in game design style because it picked a single artist as an inspiration and successfully created artwork that closely resembles the original. Ty Taylors’ (game designer) and Mario Castanedas’ (artist) goal for games art style was to attempt to replicate black-and-white lithograph style seen in majority of M.C. Eschers’ work. Therefore, even though art for the game has been produced digitally, it does have a traditional lithograph, mezzotint media look (see images below).

The Bridge game level art

Mario Castaneda. 2012. [online image]. Quantum Astrophysicists Guild. Available from: http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/DD-BRIDGE/the-bridge [Accessed 26 December 2013]

In addition, game artwork somewhat reminds of Chinese ink painting (also mentioned in  week 5 blog post) as well as graphite pencil drawing (see images below).

The house

Mario Castaneda. 2012. [online image]. Quantum Astrophysicists Guild. Available from: http://calmdowntom.com/2013/03/the-bridge-review-pc/ [Accessed 26 December 2013]

The tree

Mario Castaneda. 2012. [online image]. Quantum Astrophysicists Guild. Available from: http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/DD-BRIDGE/the-bridge [Accessed 26 December 2013]

This game in my opinion is a great example where traditional art was used as inspiration and then was successfully transferred in to a digital medium.

Botanicula

Botanicula (2012)* by Amanita Design games, stands out with its unique artistic style: very graphic and stylised look. I think this game project shows that inspiration can be found anywhere and merging different things, can result in some unique and fascinating design results (see Standlee, N. Feed the Birds image or even Jung Shan Wuxia Magazine cover image above). 

Amanita design. 2012. [online image]. Amanita Design. Available from: http://games.tiscali.cz/recenze/botanicula-recenze-59212 [Accessed 26 December 2013]

Photography was used not only for preproduction phase as a material for character and environment design, but also as a texture material for both (see images below).

Amanita design. 2012. Botanicula: art book. p. 14. Amanita Design.

Amanita design. 2012. Botanicula: art book. p. 15. Amanita Design.

Game designers sought inspiration from nature. By blending it all together in a really creative way within game environment it resulted in a truly unique art style for a video game. 

Amanita Design. 2012. [online image]. Available from: http://amanita-design.net/games/botanicula.html [Accessed 26 December 2013]

This example relates to honours year project by inspiring one to look ‘outside the box’ rather than drawing inspiration only from existing games/art.

I think it is important to get inspired by many different things because, in my opinion it is the best way to go about it while trying to create something interesting and unique not only from a game artist view but also a game players view. Since traditional art undoubtedly holds a key to aesthetics and 3D art nowadays has taken over in realistic representation, going back to the origins of traditional 2D art seems to make sense while looking for answers of a question ‘what else can be one with this medium?’

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

** Number None, Inc. 2008. Braid. Microsoft Windows. Number None, Inc

*** GameStop Corp. 2012. The Bridge. [online]. Available from: http://www.indiegamechallenge.com/2012-finalists/the-bridge/ [Accessed 27 December 2013]

Dennis, R. 2012. Games take on another dimension. Financial Times.

Photoshop: Digital Brushes

After last weeks Research Proposal document submission I had a couple of days rest and tried to catch up with the rest of 'real life' stuff that had been abandoned for a good few weeks while I was working on my document.

Since majority of the written work is now out of the way I can concentrate on going back to doing some practical work on my project, which has sadly been more or less abandoned since the crit week.

As a first thing on my ‘to do list’ had been creation of some digital brushes that would help me imitate traditional media look. General Photoshop brushes that come with the software are certainly not enough. I have also discovered that some of downloaded brush sets are also not quite what I am looking for. Also, I think learning to create my own brushes would benefit me immensely in the future. From reading some of the digital painting magazines I took from library (series of ‘Digital Art Masters'  and 'Digital Painting Techniques' both by 3DTotal) I have come to realise importance of the digital brushes. Although, brushes will not make one draw/paint better however used cleverly and appropriately can save time and help one with achieving some of desired texture look; what I'm really looking for in this case.

The process started with making some marks on paper using traditional media like: graphite pencil, charcoal pencil, ink as well as acrylic paint, then scanning all of it to digitize it and turning each in to brush/brushes.


Here is my .pdf document showing originals and tests of Photoshop brushes I have managed to produce.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/blyq137wwh5ozub/PhotoshopBrushesSet.pdf

Link to actual brushes can be found at the end of the .pdf document.


I have to say some of the brushes came out to be more successful than others. (E.g. pencil ones and some paint ones as they resemble more the look/texture of the real media.) In general I think knowing how to create digital brushes is a great skill/knowledge for any digital painter as it gives a flexibility and speed  to workflow as well as perhaps a 'personal touch' to final artefact.

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.