2D iterations

Here's some 2D gargoyle iterations I've done at the beginning of the project. The first one is from my sketch book and the others are from Photoshop 

Evaluation Time!

Evaluation For BA 2

Where do I begin? Firstly, I loved this project though at times I got annoyed because I was trying to get use to Zbrush. However, overall I enjoyed the project a lot. I personally think my outcome was well produced, though I wished I done more on the textures. But as I said, my final outcome was good in my opinion and I am quite pleased with it (especially given I haven't used Zbrush before and still quite new to 3D software).
Though at the beginning of this project, as I said before, I was new to Zbrush and I was slightly overwhelmed by it, however I adapted quite quickly to it and it felt more natural to me oppose to doing 2D concept art. I found it easier to get the form out and then add the detail on to the sculpt.

During this project I have came to the realization that 3D is the route I want to take in the games industry (at the beginning I thought I was dead set on doing 2D concept art)

What do I think went well with this project? I think my time management has improved since BA1, as I haven't left everything to last moment, though I still think it could be better. As well as this, I think my sculpts had quite good forms in them.

What did I enjoy? I really enjoyed the fact we got the chance to meet people in the industry, whom gave us guest talks at NUA.

What would I do differently next time? If I was given the chance to, I think I would do more on the textures, like add moss onto the gargoyle. I would also do more on my frost dragon sculpt. I think I would also would of like to at least attempt to do a Steampunk gargoyle in the iteration process, even though I didn't end up following through with that idea.

Contextual Studies - The essay

How does one start as an environment artist? How does the role of 3D environment artist differ from company to company?

This essay will look at the role of an environment artist and how much the role can vary from company to company. It will also look at the arduous task an aspiring environment artist must face to start in the games industry.

What does the role of a 3D environment artist involve, what do they do? As stated on websites Cybergooch (Cybergooch.com, 2015) and Platinum Games(Platinumgames.com, 2015): an environment artist is an artist that specifically works on the environment and assets for which they have to do 3D modelling, texturing,lighting etc. This definition can be further expanded by Philip Simmons (an environment artist) during his interview on EA's website (Ea.com, 2015) . He defines that the role of environment artist is broken down to two roles; World builders and prop artists. The former makes the scenery and all the architecture the gamer interacts with, the latter is making props to be place within the world.

The role can vary depending on what company the artist works for, and it also depends on how big the company is. For example; Stef Bow a junior environment artist from 'Sports Interactive' has a broader role, due to working in a smaller company, as opposed to Chris Green (Green, 2015), whose role as an environment artist from Sony is quite specific, in his case he's an asset artist.

Also, working in companies can affect the way a team works. When working in a smaller company with a smaller team, the atmosphere is more casual. Where as a larger studio's schedule can be very aggressive, putting more pressure on the artist - this can be backed up by John Morris in an email interview (Morris, 2015 Appendix A) during his time at True Games Interactive. Which contrasts to his time at BioWare, an AAA game company; which was 'big, carefully-managed team' (Morris, 2015)

In addition, a company depending on size can give their employee benefits for working for them. For example AAA gaming company such as BioWare, will give more benefits to their employee. As stated on BioWare's careers site:

“We offer our employees great, competitive benefits including dental and medical coverage, annual bonuses, stock options/restricted stock units, three weeks accrued paid vacation, bonus winter holiday vacation time, daily breakfasts, free games, game discounts on all EA games, social activities, discounted gym memberships, and much more!” (BioWare,2015)

However, there are similarities in working in both smaller and bigger companies. As stated by both Stef Bow (Bow, 2015 Appendix B) and John Morris (an environment artist from BioWare), they both have creative freedom to a certain extent, as long as they stick to the brief.

“Generally speaking, Yes, as long as my work is consistent with the overall theme and setting of the project. I can't re-define the setting or genre of an entire project, but that still leaves a lot of room to create interesting spaces” (Morris, 2015)

In addition to this similarity, one major similarity that may affect an environment is the pressure of the deadline as stated by Stef Bow in an email interview (Bow, 2015), the pressure of deadline will of course rise as the quantity of the work that the environment artist is asked to do goes up. However more so for Stef, because she works on a smaller will have to also have to look for bugs in the game. Where as environment artist working for bigger companies such as John Morris and Chris Green wouldn't.

However, none of this will matter if an aspiring environment artist can't make it into the industry. As Scotty Brown (Lead environment artist at BioWare) suggests in his interview for Blender Cookie:

“if you are not learning the pipeline and ramping up on the game engine knowledge” (Brown, 2015)

It is important to have strong game engine knowledge whether as a starting environment artist, or even an artist already within the industry. This can be backed by both Stef Bow and John Morris , as both state within a guest lecture at NUA (Bow, 2015) and email interviews (Appendix A and B), that it is always important to keep up with new tools and techniques, software etc. This can make it hard to start in the industry, as the striving environment artist will always have to keep learning.

Also, two other vital factors that are important to starting out in the industry as an environment artist are a decent professional portfolio and the ability to stand out. The latter is more vital than the former. As Stef Bow proves in her guest lecture (Bow, 2015), that when she went to her job interview for 'Sports Interactive', her portfolio wasn't as good as most of the other applicants. But what made her employers choose her? What made her stand out? She stood out from the rest because she was a former teacher. Her employer wanted her because of this ability to cope with the pressures of the games industry in addition to her determination, more so than the 299 other applicants. This is why it's important to stand out, because it can stand you apart from many more applicants, who maybe more qualified and skilled.

In addition to these, one factor that can make or break a 3D environment artist is connections. This is a factor regardless of the sector you work in the games industry as all guest lecturers indicated, for example Hollie Bennet (Bennet, 2015) and Robin Silcock (Silcock, 2015) suggest that communication is key, as building connections, and knowing someone in the industry can make all the difference between an aspiring environment artist getting the dream job or not. This is backed up by Chris Green's guest lecture (Green, 2015).

To conclude, all of these factors are vital for a new environment artist to remember: To stand out, to connect to those in the industry and have a decent portfolio. In addition to these, that you find a development company that suits to you, as the industry is an arduous one as stated by many professionals. The hours are punishing, even more so near the 'crunch' of a game, this is backed by the Developer Satisfaction Survey 2014 – Summary report (igda international games developers association, 2014). However, once an environment artist enters the evolving and busy industry known as the games industry and finds the company that suits to them, their career will be very prosperous.  

Mugwort The Dragonling Gargoyle is back!

Though I've already posted a finished image of Mugwort, I wanted to re-present the image to make it look neater and professional

Dragons!

I do wish dragons were real, they are such interesting creatures. A dragon is a creature that is typically portrayed with reptile or serpentine features, they feature in many myths in different cultures around the world.
Each of these cultures have effected how the dragon will look, for example: The European dragon (my favorite ones) which comes from folk traditions of Europe. There is also the Chinese dragons from China, with it's Japanese dragon counterpart from Japan from their folk traditions.

(Images from: www.dragon-zoo.com and www.draconika.com)

 One of the famous dragon legends from England is Saint George and the dragon, whom is also the patron saint of England.
 According to legend, a dragon was terrorizing a town, and every day the dragon demanded a sacrifice of a beautiful maiden. All the young maiden of the town were all but sacrificed, apart from the King's daughter. She was to be sacrificed, unless they can find a knight who can slay this terrible creature.
The king said that he'll give his daughter in marriage to the champion who is able to defeat the dragon.

Saint George was determined to slay the dragon, and save the princess once he learnt of this.He traveled to the town where the dragon lived, when he came near to the town, he could see the princess being led by her attendants to the place where she'll die. Saint George spurred his horse and followed. As soon as the terrible dragon saw him, it rushed from it's cave. The dragon was terrifying, its head was immense and with a long tail. Saint George was not deterred, he struck the creature hoping to wound it. Alas, it didn't it's scales were too hard and broke Saint George's sword. Fortunately, he found a enchanted tree that would protect him from the dragon. He regain his strength to attack the creature, this happened once more.  However, the next attempt, he manage to wound the dragon via piercing it under it's wing, where there were no scales to protect it. After this, the dragon fell to Saint George's feet dead.

(Image from: www.draconika.com)

In addition to my other research on dragons, i've also found some of my old books on dragons I had as a child. These books are: Dragonology The Complete Book of Dragons and Working With Dragons A Course In Dragonology. Here are some segments of those books on mood boards. 

Contextual Studies - The abyss aka the internet

After searching the vast abyss known at the internet, I have began to make progress on research for my essay and the essay itself. I found it interesting looking at the game developers' sites careers pages such as Splash Damage and BioWare (my favorite so far is the BioWare's careers page and looking at the perks they give to their employees... Free breakfast!). Also found some really interesting interviews and environment artist portfolios.

(Images from: www.ign.com and www.xboxachievements.com)

Here's the links to some of the websites I have looked at for my essay.
http://www.bioware.com/en/careers/#ea-jobs
http://www.splashdamage.com/node/108
http://www.ea.com/news/breaking-into-the-industry-philip-simmons
http://blog.bioware.com/
http://www.gamecareers.biz/
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/

Contextual Studies - Guest Lecture: Geraldine Cross

Geraldine Cross is a HR consultant, and formerly the HR director for Blitz Games studios. In addition to this she has done some consultancy work for other studios like Ubisoft and Payload Games studios.

She discus a lot regarding marketing in the gaming industry, for instance she states that: 'The market is broader and more diverse, games are far more accessible and there's certainly something for everyone'
It was quite interesting to listen to her lecture, as I wouldn't of thought about the games industry from that angle, so it gave me a new perspective.
She is also working with our course head at NUA Marie-Claire and the Next Gen Skills Academy on a Games Balance Workforce Survey and Report, which she gave us an exciting opportunity to be apart of a focus group for it.

(Images from: ukie.org.uk and www.digitalspy.co.uk)

Contextual Studies - Guest Lecture: Robin Silcock

Robin Silcock is another graduate from NUA, in fact she graduated this summer. She was successful in running and organizing the Norwich Gaming Festival during her third year at NUA. She also participated in the competition Dare To Be Digital in her third year too.

During her talk she also told us about game jams and which ones would be best to participate in: Ludum Dare, Global Game Jam, Brains Eden, Dare To Be Digital, One Game A Month and also Norwich Gaming Festival Jam.

She also gave us some helpful tips on networking (Twitter and LinkedIn), and for us to have our own business cards (which we must design/ personalize, and for us not a template from a website as it looks less professional and less caring of us)

I did enjoy her talk, as it show what is possible for us to do whilst at NUA and what is possible to achieve after graduating

(Image from: midnightlaunchstudios.wordpress.com)

Contextual Studies - Guest Lecture: Chris Green

Chris Green is an asset artist from Sony, he is also a former student/ graduate from NUA.
He has also worked at Guerrilla Games Cambridge, which he worked on Killzone: Mercenary as a 3D environment artist.
He gave us very helpful tips on networking - which is vital to get into the gaming industry. He suggested to us to join forums like Polycount forum (which covers everything to 3D and some 2D art), ConceptArt.org for 2D concept art and also Google hangouts, he also suggested to us to join Linkedin to help get out name out.
I like the level of detail in his work, It has made me start to re-consider going down the 3D environment art route instead of 2D concept art.

Contextual Studies - Connections

This is a general thing i'll have to get use to doing, to get into the gaming industry. However, for BA 2 contextual studies, I have to contact those in the industry. This will help regarding the essay I've  been tasked to write.

I have manage to obtain some emails of some 3D environment artist currently in the Industry, and which I've emailed. 

I am grateful that two have emailed me back. Stef Bow a 3D artist at Sports Interactive, whom also was a guest lecturer at NUA a few weeks ago. Also John Morris whom is a environment artist currently working for BioWare Austin. 

Their responding emails have undoubtedly been extremely helpful to me as they have given me an insight into the gaming industry. These have also helped me tremendously for my essay on roles and practices in the gaming industry. I am ever so grateful for these emails. 

(Image from: matthewdg.wordpress.com)

Contextual Studies - Guest Lecture: Hollie Bennet

Hollie Bennet is a media and community manager for PlayStation UK. It was really clear to how passionate she was about her jobs and about games themselves. She is very charismatic, enthusiastic, approachable and experienced. which is awfully handy for her job role.

She helps to promote games through events (she once suggested bungee jumping for an event), social media and press releases. A part of her job is she speaks to the gaming community via Twitter and YouTube (PlayStation Access, which she is video editor and member of), which she'll respond to comment, as well as blocking horrible and negative comment. As this will affect PlayStation UK's image.

But before she worked at PlayStation UK, she worked at Bandai Namco and Destrutoid. But what's even more impressive than that, is before she enter the gaming industry, she use to be a mid wife.

What I've learned from her that it's very important to manage the community (she used mint in a herb garden as an analogy for this), talk to the community, media is very important and be charismatic.

Overall, I absolutely enjoyed her guest lecture and found it exceptionally fascinating

.


(Image frome: https://twitter.com/hollieb)

Contextual Studies - Guest Lecture: Jake & Ryan Neal

For our next guest lecture, we had Jake and Ryan Neal. QA testers and PR assistants. Also former student/ grauates at Norwich University of The Arts. They have worked on titles like: GTA V, Injustice Gods Among Us and most recently were promoters for the new game Evolve.

From the start of their lecture, it was clear to see they were competitive and loved what they do. They have become well known in the competitive gaming world, from which Team Razer/Ludus Magnus have given them sponsorship to play fighting games competitively.

It was good to see that, what we think we want to do now in the games industry (2D artist, 3D artist, QA testers), isn't necessarily what we want to do in two years time (I've already changed from wanting to be 2D concept artist to 3D environment artist in a few months)

In Jake and Ryan's case, they didn't know they wanted to do QA testing or to be PR assistants until they were given the chance to.
Also, in their talks it was shown that opportunities are very important and when ever they are given, you take them.

(Image from: www.mksecrets.net)

Contextual Studies - Guest Lecture: Stef Bow

Our first guest lecturer for contextual studies is Stef Bow, an junior 3D artist for Sport Interactive (which is run by SEGA), which she works on Football Manager.

I quite enjoyed her lecture, it was fascinating to hear how she was originally was a teacher with a degree in philosophy. However, after not wanting to be a teacher no more, she went on to a MA course in games design to follow her passion, she's also a self taught environment artist.

She was quite determined and motivated to get into the game industry, when she went for the job at Sports Interactive, she beat 299 other applicants to get the job. But what made her stand out to her employers was the fact she use to be a teacher.

The advice she gave us regarding our portfolios is quite valuable: She states that for our portfolio it's important to have quality, not quantity. Also, it's important to keep our portfolios up-to-date and have an online one.

   


(Image from:www.mobygames.com)

Contextual Studies - Change In The Game Plan

After a day trying to find research to back up my essay regarding art therapy and games design... I found nothing.

So now I have change the role I am looking at to environment artist, as it's the role I would love to do before being an art therapist.

(sourced image from: www.dailywaffle.co.uk)

Contextual Studies - The Game Plan

For contextual studies in BA 2, we are tasked to write an essay regarding roles and practices in the gaming industry. We had to look at the possible roles we may go into after graduating/ in the future.

My first thought to do was to do art therapy with games design. As that is what I eventually want to do in about 15 - 20 years time. I thought both would go quite well together and be an interesting topic to talk about in an essay. However, it's proving hard if not impossible to find research to back this up.

(Image sourced from: thediscoveryblog.com)

Turntable of Mugwort The Dragonling Gargoyle

Turntable of my finished gargoyle

Life Drawings - Foreshortening

In one of the life drawing workshops, we looked at foreshortening. This is my attempt at it. It isn't the most easiest thing to do, but with practice I will get better at it.

Life Drawings - Face Studies (hour drawing study)

For this life drawing, I was given a little more time to spend on it. A hour to be exact. We were taught to shade in the areas, rather than do line drawings. This is possible my favorite way and most effective way of drawing now. 

Life Drawings - Face Studies (Three minute studies)

Face studies I've done during life drawing workshop. The model change facial expression, every three minutes for these. 

Life Drawings - Hand studies

Some hand studies I've done during life drawing workshop

Mugwort The Dragonling Gargoyle

Behold! Mugwort the dragonling gargoyle. I envisioned him to be in Victorian London, lurking off a ledge of a church.

 I added the changes that were suggested from group crit, I think they've made Mugwort look far better than before.
I also added a pipe on the the bending section of the tail, so the water can flow through the gargoyle. I put it in subtly, as i don't want people's eyes drawn away from the main part of the gargoyle.

Note: I've not changed the pipe slightly as you couldn't see it before. I've now made it larger, with a different texture. 

Note: I really didn't like the pipe on the tail. So I've now made a hole in the tail, so the water can flow through the gargoyle.

This is the image I imported from the internet into Zbrush for the gargoyle's texture
(This is where I found the texture from: rockmolds.com)

BA 2 Reflective Journal - Week 6

From group crit this week, I was given a positive response to my sculpt. I was also suggested to change some aspect on my sculpt. These suggestions were: make an indent in the base so the water can flow off the base; break the symmetry on the sculpt (move the tail to the side, move the wings slightly, re-position the legs, etc); and finally find a lighter stone texture, as my favorite texture wouldn't work too well for a gargoyle.

I agree with these, and defiantly going to do these changes to my sculpt.

Gargoyle with base

These are my final three ideas for my gargoyle. I added a base to the my sculpt as my gargoyle is going to be placed onto a ledge. Though A looks more like clay rather than stone, it doesn't hide the details on the sculpt. I am contemplating if I should go with A? However, B and C's texture look more gargoyle like. 

A)

B)

C)

Textures! Got to love them textures!

Getting nearer to the final design of my gargoyle, I decided to try out textures via Polypaint with imported textures from the internet. 

I am quite fond of texture c, however I want the texture of my gargoyle to be more stone like, oppose to clay. But I will take it further if I change my mind.

Annoyingly most of these texture (apart from b and c) cover up too much of the detail I put in the sculpt. So I am going to try and find a lighter stone textures. One thing I have notice though is if I want to texture to come out better, i'll have to sub divide it a couple of time more. 

a)

b)

c)

d)

Alphas and wing detail

With this iteration, I try to add a slight Victorian style pattern onto the wings. I don't think it work, as it fights against the detail I put on the gargoyle's head. So I think I am going to leave that style of pattern off the gargoyle and leave it for the base.


With these following iterations, I experimented with alphas to give the gargoyle some textures. I do think they give the gargoyle an effective scale look. One thing I'll also have to do that isn't shown here is I'll have to Zremesh and project all, so my sculpt will have far less polygons, but still have detail but also redo the topology on my sculpt. Think it could be more efficient.