Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2 - More Development

Having a discussion with a few peeps, at this stage they was only a week left inwhich to finish my island, and to be honest I had left myself a very lot of work to be left to do, and the general opinion was that my island was a little too big, especially for the younger audience who would be more liable to get lost / disinterest more quickly due to their attention span been a lot less. So what I decided to do is block off the top of the island and have that as a feature, like you really want to go to the top but you cant which has apeared in many games, such I remember was the Driver Game, where I remember I really wanted to go to the amusement park however it was blocked off so I can kind of have that certain feature, with that I plan on leaving the cable car unanimated, Yes I plan on you been able to go visit the station but thats as far as you can visit, With that however I was planning on having the evil layer at the top, however Im going to move it to the village and the idea is to create a little route of and have it situated there.

Im planning on having it on the same level as the huts and morealsee the same building as in shape of the hut, however I aim on having inferior in size basically demonstating the evil monkeys power on the island. I also want to add a few signs like keep out to give it that little sinister feel towards it, and give the impact of you tresspassing on dangerous property.

Carrying on from my idea for the interior of the layer Im planning on having the main feature is the golden tree which supplies all the monkeys with there natural resources, and have it chained up, I got this idea from the chained oak tree at Alton Towers ehich I visited recently as shown below.



And then from that have a little machine which collects bannans from the tree then maybe having a platform which is animated in where the bannans spin around, and having a few more interiors added such as a lab, giving the indication in which he created the robot, and if time place the robot within the facility protecting the area from intruders.



Fistly I went about the idea of having to create a palm tree, with bannanas, yes I know not a thing exists in real life but I'm not going for realism and thought this would be a good addtion to use on the island, so I had to go about modeling it in Maya, which thankfully there was a very helpful tutorial on maya which I followed easy and these were my creations, during the process I also improved my skills in Maya and learned some new techniwues I have never used before. I then created some simple bannan like shapes and added a very basic texture, and textured in the leafs and stump and this was the final result, Im very happy with it and it looks very cartoon like, which is the aspect which pleased me most, so I then went around sticking it onto unity.



I then went around putting the tree onto unity and looked really colourful and bright co insiding with the younger apeal however one thing I was;nt to keen on was the obvious clash with the other trees what with them been a different tone but you could say that adds to the effect it itself. So basically I just created a little walkway from the other side of the lift and placed the tree there. I then duplicated a hut and upped the scale then placed the tree through the center of the hut as you can see from the above picure. The idea was to have that as the center focus within the interior and have the most other objects around it. Just to add I created a little hole at the center of the roof for the tree to expand out arguably I should of added it a little larger but im happy overall.

Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2 - Island Development

Continuing on with the development of the isalnd I then added onto unity my Maya models, which is when the island really started to take shape.





Firstly I added in the monkey huts, and situated them where I had planned, and from the shots you can see above they look brilliant, especially with the ahdow effect in the water they looked really beautiful, Also to this point I added in the monkey wheels which I had completly forgot about during the construction side of Maya, but yes I'm really pleased with my results, although they do look a little too realsim for what I was aiming for, im still really pleased with the final design and definaltly work really well with the environment its situated around.




Secondly I placed the lift and the animation file into Unity as you can see above, It took a while to get the Lift to be fully animated in Unity but eventually I got it to work and it looks really impressive, it was quite a struggl to get it properly aligned too, This one slight little flaw at this current time in which I would like to correct is that the animation dosent stop at the station for long enought, making it hard to jump onto the lift, however I could use this as an excuse to add a little challenge to the game potentially. I was originally going to find a script which would involve you pressing a button which would operate the lift but I think i prefer this use and add a little challenge making sure you time the jump right. Also the physics are not quiite there on the lift as soon as you land the jump it pushed you off which is something I need to fix but for current time it looks really good and animates well, and im very pleased.



Heres a screenshot of the cable car structure, and the cable which has been added. I really like the cable car system, and interacts really well with the environment and offers some superb views. What I like most about this image is the actuaal surroundings, the island looks beautiful from the top especially looking down over the villiage, escpecially if I could get the cable car system could lead to some beautiful views especially in the game mode.



Heres the my model of the isalnds version of the Christ Redeemer, For this I took my game character of the last model, and made the character into more of a statue like figure and then just imported him onto unity, whhich works really well on the island especially when your in first person mode on the bottom of the island and you can see the staue blessing the island it looks really effectie.Im really happy with this figure and the plan is to include a room inside the structure which will be the interior for the evil monkeys secret hideout.



Heres just another overlook of the island, take note all of these screenshots were taken towards the end of the project, so theres constructures im yet to speak about on the island which came towards a later date so ignore these aspects. From this picture you can definatly see how well the statue at the top definatly stands out and looks he's an important figure on the island which I want the players to be informed about. You can also see how well the cable car system / structue looks and looks even more effective in first person view so im definatly happy with these features. I also added the Cable car station in which im yet to talk about. It looks really good and what I really like is the reflecton in the water it looks suberb indeed, and where its located right next to the lake making in fit in nicely with its surrounding, overal im really pleased with how the island is shaping up and I ve sticken well to the my concept art location wise anyway.

Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2 - Constructing On Maya

Starting of with the construction On the huts, sticking towards something similar within my concept design, apart from getting rid of the part at the bottom of the pole, this is my result to which I am very happy with, I went about this process as mentioned using very basic shapes but I am pleased and believe it will look great when I import them into unity, potentially having the crossover the river would create a great impact as I could then get some great shadow effects with the water, Also they should be easy to texture / UV map and could maybe add a little interior inside at a further date But its staring to look promising. Also these buildings should work well as a crossover and connecting within each other across the island.

When It came to texturing I really struggled as its something I really don't like, And Ideally as mentioned before i wanted to go for cell shading at it would appeal more to my audience. However unfortunately I abandoned that idea. I would have liked to have collected my own textures but with living in the UK It might be hard to find appropriate textures so most I plan on grabbing from the internet and providing links to them. The idea was to find some crazy colourful textures, and try to stay away from the realism effect of the island. Here is the textures I came up with first, there not great but its something I;m not too keen on



Heres the textures I cam up with at first I quite liked it, but having a re thing about it I had to think would this apeal to the younger audience and I thought probably no as the colours are too dark, and don't represent the island well as it should be bright and colourful textures which go well with the island. So after a little more editing I came up with this texture.



Its not brilliant but its certainly a lot more colourful textures and I really like the feel of the roof and belief that will look great upon the environment settings in which my island is located. However they still look to realism for my liking but with struggling for time I decided to keep them and import them onto unity. I do really like it but its not the best results as to the feel of the island i am going for still.

Just a few more screenshots of me modeling some of the constructions on maya,




Here is a screenshot of my design for the cable car support which will be situated upon the hill terrain of the island, basically giving a support for the cable car system. I really like the model, and oce again using simple shapes in the order of simplifing and making the construction of what seems more organic and should like it belongs upon its setting when I add some wood texture, given the impression like the rest of the constructions of the island in which its been build with the natural resources on the island. Obviously the cable line will connect with the support, and change the dirction the line is heading. Im very happy with the modeling procedure for the support.




The lift is something I really strugled with, my original concept was to have a crane like, which would be animated to just pick you up and proceed you onto the cable car station, however I really struggled with both the animating and modeling procedure, I really struggled to animate it especially and make it look slighlt resembling. Ok my island is not based on been realism but I still want it to look good and I just was not happy with the rsults, unfortunatly I forgot to take a screenshot. So I went back to the drawing board, and thought about some over crazy concepts inwhich would transport you to the top of the station. A few ideas I had for example having a barrel run along a track, however I was'nt sure as to how to get it to go back up as it wasnt on the same level obviously. However I thought about this concept, got the idea from The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror at Disney World in Florida as shown below



The idea of this attraction is that your in a kind of lift and you move along the track and when you reach the end you are either launched up or freefall, I thought this would be a great concept as its something completly whacky and would definatly appeal to my island and would be very fun to use, so I went along with the idea and was happy with the results, also animating the model on Maya went much easier than I expected, I had a few problems but nothing to serious, overall I was happy and belive once I have it animated on Unity would be a great asset to the island.



Here is a screenshot of The Cable Car station, This is a little different to my concept art, my original design firstly included a roof, however I scraped this design as I thought it would look much better without and you could see the surroundings from the platform would give it a more interesting and colourful apeal instead of you been stuck inside the interior, just tha more organic and colourful aproach. Also I could'nt get the shape of the tree stumo right so kind of just went for a cylinder apoach, this was mainly due to my lack of maya skills unfortunalty, but still works well upon the environment I hope.



Just all the Maya constructions with their textures on, yes the textures arn't as good as what I had plenned for, but for reasons Ive mentioned before, must are taken of the internet, and most are quite realism as I didnt have time to create cell shaded which I had planned, however Im defianly going to consider this for my final project. I also feel there not as colourful as I would have liked for my target audience, however I tried to add textures such as Cheetah and Zebra skins to the railing to try and pick up the apeal focused on the younger audience.

Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2 - Landscaping The Island

Unfortunatly one mistake I did was I was really getting stuck into maya and forgot to blog about daily updates and stuff so at the time of these screenshots the island is nearing completing, including within models and textures and so on.





Heres a front, Side and top view of my island and If you look back a few blogs it pretty much spot onto my concept art and kept to it perfectly. I found landscaping the island rather easy, thanks to creating image planes of my concept art and using them to help me build the island which led me to create an almost near replica of my concept art which helped brilliantly. Towards this stage I didn't really have any issues. The only notable change on a landscaping point of view if that I included a lake within the island. You cant see it as notable within the screenshots I did but if you turn around the bottom screenshot I provided The lake is shaped like a smile, at first I didn't notice this but someone mentioned it to me, and I considered it a kind of happy mistake. It wasn't something I attended to happen but the results turned out a lot better than I had hoped, as the island kind of looks like a happy face in a way, someone even mentioned it does have a little resemblance to a monkey shaped island. Obviously this is really appropriate as it links in well with the target audience as its designed with a fun and casual approach and this effect adds towards the appeal.

I then carried on with some foliage and with it been A jungle / tropical island I went really mad with the trees. Luckily on unity they had an appropriate tree I could use which was the palm tree, so basically I covered the island within offering a little variation such as size and tone as I didn't want it to be completely the same tree covering the island so I offered a little variety. This looked well especially from the top view and was really starting to take its shape as a Tropical island, I had to delete a few trees especially on the very steep terrain as they was placed basically on top of each other and looked really weird. Apart from that the use of the trees worked really well. I Then went and included a little sand terrain in which to create a little beach around the island, giving the feel of including another fun and colourful texture as a yellow which is a bright colour and also gives more indication of a tropical island. Finally I included The water / ocean around the island, and at this stage I was really impressed with the island so far and was really starting to take shape for the construction side of the project which is the process I'm most worried about due to me bad skills in Maya, but hopefully should'nt be too much of a problem as I have really thought out my designs by the use of simple shapes.

Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2 - Character Storyboard

Heres a quick storyboard for the animation of my game character to be included within the game. Level unfortunately at this point my character is yet to be rigged and animated and will be touch and go as to whether it will be ready to be included within the island but theres the brief storyboard.



Scene 1 - I want the character to be stood there in a kind of intimidating pose, potentially with his hands crossed, and im planning to have him guarding something, potentially all the bananas which have been stole on the island or a button to the machine which will set all the bananas on the island free.

Scene 2 - As you get closer to the character I am planning on having the character raise his arms, as if hes about to shoot towards your direction, Im also thinking about the possibility of having a voice over maybe saying something like, 'I am not afraid to shoot" or something else along those lines.

Scene 3 - I want this to be a pose of him crouching to the floor, building up some momentum to then jump into the air with help from his jet pack i am hoping to include within the character and have it animated within unity.

Scene 4 - Want the character to be then hovering in the air and once again hold out his hands ready to shoot, and maybe adding a little more dialogue further warning you.

Scene 5 - Im wanting the robot adding to the humorous appeal to kind of bang his head on the environment, and from that door on the robot as shown in the image opens and you are shown the banana texture I plan on including within the inside of the robot and maybe having a couple fall out onto the floor depending on how hard the scripting is.

Shot 6 - Returns to his original pose.

Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2 - Sounds

Was now thinking of some concept for some sounds which will feature on the island, obviously starting of with some textures sounds depending on the environment been walked on at the time within my island. Thinking of recording a variety of different wood sounds, with a hight variety of my island been set on wood construction, and deep grass been another texture, which shouldn't be too hard to create sounds by using a variety of different objects within the sound booth.

I was also thinking of some sounds for the cable car and the lift features, which could be a little harder to come up with the appropriate sounds but believe would sound good upon the more natural sounds of the island.

The idea of monkeys roaring in the background is a sound which is high on my to do list as I need to indicate the fact that monkeys are on the island. So what I am hoping for is the random monkey sound appearing within the background every so on which would be a nice effect on the island. Another idea I came up with was with my focus been a kind of silly and humorous approach I thought about the possibility of the monkeys singing some famous songs which the target audience would be familiar with. Which would be a nice effect on the island possibly having a few radios situated within the monkey huts which would play different songs. Which I believe would be a great casual atmospheric effect on the island offering variety and appeal to my target audience. Also I like the idea of a radio announcement been played at different times, potentially coming from the voice of the robot, to provide the users with more background into the story behind the island.

Also thought about having a little theme tune which will play on loop at all time, kind of like a island theme tune. Possibly bringing in a few drums to record a a kind of jungle beat which will sound good on the island adding that effect of a fun casual island.

Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2 -Interactivity

At this stage during coming up with designs for the concept art, I though about possible ways as the user you can interact with certain aspects of the island to add that fun kind of approach to the island, during the designing process we did some tutorials on how to bake animations from maya onto unity which worked well so plan to carry on with a similar format and include some animations within my project.

A few features I was thinking about was with having a cable car which operates from the bottom of the island and travels up the mountain to the top station, The cable car will stop at the station. Im thinking of having a button possible inside the cable car which will let you operate the car and move forward and back, and be possible to stop and admire the beautiful scenery though not sure at this time how to script this, but its a nice concept which Id like to develop further.

I was also thinking about a lift / pulley which will be animated which would take you from floor level to the buildings. Just a simple design such as a platform tied to rope and will pulled you up to your destination. I was thinking of varying it a bit and maybe this animation would carry on a loop, and the idea was having to time the jumps right to land on the platform, possibly adding a little more of a challenge to the island.

Was thinking about the possibility of having some sort of media such as a TV or a radio on the island. Possibly the later i am more in favour with. Which as the user you can turn on . I though about having these situated within some of the huts, and possibly doing something like a news announcement on the island which will also add to the atmosphere and inform the users in a easy and recommended way to the story of the island in case they were a little confused so has more than one meaning to it.

Would also like the possibility of having day and night happen within the island, and it may be too much work but the idea is to have the different things happen within the 2. A few ideas was things such as a monkey curfew maybe where the monkeys only come out at night or have it so the you only meet the boss at night just a few ideas at this stage.

Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2 - Final Concept and Interior Design

Heres just a semi final concept art I did for my design, its focusing on the village area as the other parts of the island i am more alsee certain as to what im acheiving.



Starting off, I decided to use the hexigan / pentagon shaped buildings as firstly they will be easy to construct as they are modelled based upon simple shapes and secondly there easy to link up together drawing reference from bees honeycomb. Im planning on adding cone like shelters again cause there easy to place on yet will look good and belong well upon the environment. Im going to link them up through a footbridge, and maybe include some vines hanging of which will look nice and a few rope wheels hanging off as a kind of acsesory but will also look great upon the settig and reminds me of a kind of monkey asventure playground which works out well. Im planning on having the bride go other a lake aswell which I forgot to include within the concept art and then having them link up with the cable car station.

For the interior design which is going to be the monkey / robots layer im aiming for a kind of mixed environment. Im wanting it to not bee too dark, but obviously it needs to be a little more intimidating than the rest of the island as he is the boss and should strike a little fear. Im wanting a lab area to give the imperssion of which he is sceintist as he did create the robot, and then combining that element with i kind of factory based themed upon where he keeps all the bannans collected, which he uses, and on top of that I want to be a kind of home theme as to where he spends all his time make include a table and a bed, have a few bannas on the dinner plate to demonstrate his authority on the plate, and all the other huts where the monkeys are located have none, creating some impact towards the story on the island which could work well but would the audience notice something like that.

Game Art Design Year 2 - Buildings and Statues

Heres some concept art for some buildings and statues on the island ranging from designs for the monkey huts to the cable car station and so on.




Heres some concept art for the potential statue of monkey statue in which I hope to include. I really like the drawing and looks great upon the background behind it. The only problem I have is modeling it as it will be very tricky and I dont have too much time as theres other componments, some more inportant to create within the island. Ill have a go at modeling or see if I can create a decent simplified version. If not Id like to keep this image, and work into it potentially as a side project maybe.



Heres a couple of designs I did for the christ De Redeemer statue which is located within the top of the mountain. I came up with two designs one of a monkey and one of a robot, Ideally Id like to choose the monkey as a question ive been thinking to myself is how to I demonstrate to the players that this island is inhabitated with monkeys. However like previously mentione with the statue of monkey its modeling the thing and the time restraints included, however I have the robot already modelled to blast onto maya and serves a purposeful meaning towards the island so all is not lost.



Heres some potential concept for the cable car and hut designs. I plan on having the cable car station supported by a fairly big tree route, and get some nice textures on to add to the effect. Im also wanting some kind of interactive lift inwhich will get you from the walkthrough huts upon to the station. I thought of one idea of having the lift inside the tree which is a nice idea but imagine would be a right pain to model and animate, so im edging towards the concept of a kind of rope lift which will draw you up, which I imagine should work nice and offer something unique. Out of the designs the far right is my favorite, but believe i may struggle getting the shape of the tree right so might just apose instead to a well textured pole shape, that still should hopefully look nice, and the thought of keeping the shapes simple so the audience can relate more apllied here.




Heres a few drawings for some concept art for the huts, for these im looking for a simple shape, which I can duplicate and scatter across the center of the island and link them up. Ignoring the bottom section as there to whacky even with my attentions, and sticking to simple shapes, the middle design in the top gets my aproval however im not too sure on the middle bit, cause at this moment in time im not sure as to what that can be used for and what its potentially adding to the environment though I will stick with it for the time been and see if I can find a use for it. Im planning on including some criteria within the design, im thinking along the lines of a table and a rubber wheel for it to sleep on, just an idea at this stage.

Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2 - Concept Art Island

Here is the concept art for my isalnd, I have decided to name Doodle Island, think the name is very apropiate, its a humerous user friendly title and onwe which the younger audience can easily relate too.



With having a litte think, not going into too much detail, I came up firstly with a top view of the shape of the island and where im hoping everything will be located on the island.Firstly as you can tell Im including a rather large mountainrous island towards the back of the island of which you can see on the concept, and having my alternative of the christ de redeemer looking over the island from the top of the hill. Im planning on having the upper cable car station located just beneath the statue with a walkway up to it oferring good views over the island. Im having the monkey villiage located with the flat land of the isalnd at the bottom, what im planning on including here is a few huts with basic interior and the cable car station which you have to ride onto the top, its not the actual layout I shall be using but its just to give an idea of where everything be located. And finally im hopefull of including the statue of monkey on the front shore of the island. Just a brief layout of the layout of the island I plan on concstructing.



Heres the front of the island offering a better idea upon the height of the mountains. As you can see also Im planning on having most the buildings central, and having the surounding areas covered in foliage. Also though about the idea of blocking that section off as dont want the players to end up getting lost in the forest. Also offers a better view of the statue of monkey.





Finally heres a side view of the island offering a different perception, please take note ive decided against including the monkey tree house as im now including that in the stue as dont want to leave myself too much work to do. Im really happy with the concept art especiial the shape of the isalnd is really interesting and belive theres definate potential within this design for a cracking game environment.

Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2 - Texturing And Colour Palletes

Looking towards texturing and colours, firstly the colour withing my island is going to be very bright. the usual colours you expect withing a tropical island, bright greens representing the trees, having been on unity the most suitable tree I could find was the palm tree whcih I plan on spreading arounf the isalnd to give the sense of a jungle where you cant see far across the island therefor you have to travel upon the the buildings up high. Secondly I want the sea surrounding and the potential lake to be a refreshing light blue and im looking at surrounding the edge of the shore with a yellow sand like texture.

Texture wise, well im not sure upon the buildings and items which I will be including within my island, but Im planning on using lots of natural materials such as wood, palm and so on, I need to do some investigating on to the natural resources which can be found on Islands, but im planning on having very bright and reacting well with the environment.

Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2 - Game Research

Thought it was time do some research on some games of a similar feel im aiming towards. The aesthetics of my game. Im going for something crazy and whacky, something as unrealistic and as far away from photo realism as possible. idea a cartoon world. The possibility of cell shading is something that I first thought off, however Ive never done cell shading and my experience within this subject is somewhat lacking, and with my texturing and UV Mapping skills very poor, plus I could imagine it would be very time assuming as at this point even though Ive not drawn concept art I can image what with it been an open world, I plan on doing alot of modelling, and interacting a fair amount, as I dont want the target audience to get bored, as the attention span is much less shorter, so I belive there has to be plenty of stuff to do on the island without them getting bored. In an ideal world I would love to do cell shading and achieve a similar result as to below.



If I could achieve something similar to this effect, it would be both brilliant and visually stunning what with my ideas, and would tick all the boxes required in been suitable for the age catergory im aiming for. Even though I mentioned i want to do cell shading at the crit and so on, Im gonna stay away from it, however I plan for my final major project to include this great aspect as its something I am very eager to learn. My idea now aesthetically is its unsuitably gonna resemble something of a more realistic game which is something im not planning upon, However the idea now is to aim for a little realism but Im going to carry on with some crazy constructions which hopefully dont resemble anything too much of what may apear upon real life. And include some crazy and colourful textures of which apeal to my younger audience. Something else I'd like to mention is that with the best interest of audience its best to keep to simle colours they can relate to such as red, blues and green, and apply them apropiate to the designs so they can relate to them such as danger. I also think it would be best to keep to simple shapes within building the constructions, such as cubes, triangles, circles and so on.

One game I could really draw influence from was Just Cause, OK its completly contrasting from the apeal im aiming for but it does have similarities inwhich I can draw influence from. Plus its also good I believe to vary your research out as you want the same results for each. What really apealed to me is the beautiful landscrapes and terrain which is included with the game, and the many island likes which can be found. Id also like to pick on even though its a crime / violent game unapropiate for the target of my game, it has a kind of sunny cheerful theme which is something I want. The tone of the water is beautifiul and that kind of refreshing apeal, and the grass and trees are really well textured adding to that colourful effect as you can see below.



More within my area two games I drew most influence from was the donkey kong games and ape escape which fell directly into age catergory and the apeal I was aiming towards, heres a couple of screenshots below.





This is the feel Im wanting, a really colourful concept, upon which is very humerous and imature, and complely unreastic. Aesthetically these games are beautiful for there time, and the new donkey kong is a perfect example of the kind of apeal on the latest technology and stands out so well upon the market. I really like the kind of papered texture apeal of Ape Escape and how basic the texturing and environments are but they really stand out well and would be greatly suited for first time gamers, and the trees look really good, this would be a great area to explore down on a further time. Donkey kong I am more familiar with, what I really love especially with the newest games is the creativity of some of the levels and the crazy concept behind the designs which I want to take influence from and combine into mine.

Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2 - Case Study

For my case study looking into the gaming industry, I am going to investigate the effect of Cell Shading within video games, I thought this would be a good area to study and find out some interesting finding on as for my current project I am planning on creating a cell shaded environment for my Game Art brief and would be interesting to find out upon a variety of opinions and theory’s on this interesting topic.

I was first introduced to cell shading in video games whilst playing the game XIII on my original x box a few years ago. The game for those who don’t know is a first person shooter however as a twist follows the lines of a comic / graphic novel book which on first play really appealed to me as an artistic point, graphically it was refreshing to play a game with a little difference as first person shooters had begun to feel a little same, like I was playing the same game over and over again , It also added to the game mentally as I felt as if I was more engrossed in the game as it followed a similar feel aesthetically to the original novels, and the cut scenes contained a similar stricture of a comic / graphic novel book proving a good use of media.

Another example of a cell shaded game is The Simpson Game which I played upon the xbox 360
release and demonstrated the improved quality of cell shaded graphics and felt you was playing upon the cartoon world which is show on the TV series. In a comparison between two Simpson games of different forms of media I agree with the statement ''The Simpsons Road Rage would look better cell shaded,'' Having played both games, Simpson’s Road rage doesn’t feel like the Simpson due to it been rendered in 3D. Sure the characters and environment do resemble that of the cartoon but aesthetically it doesn’t feel like your trapped in the game. I don’t want to see Homer in 3D rendered, as to me he's resembling to something of human qualities and upon close look of the characters they look very off-putting as to what they resemble in the cartoon compared to The Simpson game. I just feel they would have got a much better feel by going for Cell shaded graphics similar to  XIII.

I am not saying as to every game should be cell shaded as that would be a inappropriate source of media to proceed with in some games and Agree with this quote “For a stealth action game like Splinter Cell then realistic graphics is the only way to go,” If a video game is aimed at going for realism such as the Splinter Cell games, then high rendering 3D modelling is the way to go both upon the characters and the environment, as a cell shaded appeal would ruin the atmosphere it is heading for as the splinter cell relies on a kind of serious and anxious feel as you hide away trying not to get caught, and a cell shaded version whilst might be interesting would defiantly ruin the atmosphere. Another example of games that cell shading would be inappropriate on is sports games in general, from the likes of the Fifa franchise and the Formula 1 Video games, where the idea is to resemble real life events, for example this would be the closest any of us will ever get to race around Monte Carlo in a Ferrari of which you would want as much realism to and feel as close to possible like the actual event.

To me a cell shaded game resembles a kind of light heartened humours atmosphere, one of which is similar to a cartoon feel where everything is over reacted to emphasise things such as enlarged eye balls when the character sees something they like or clouds forming when a character is running to over exaggerate the speed. On the other hand there are games with a more serious note of feel been released such as the likes of Crackdown and Borderlines and even the likes of Street fighter.

“Personally I prefer games working with an artistic style that allows the developers to create anything they want without ruining my immersion”
I agree with this statement fully, In today's market it seems to me as if companies are concentrating too much on the realism feel of the games both graphically and how the characters react through the use of Ai, However it seems the target market is there and something that wont change soon. I have lost interest in my Xbox recently, especially with the amount of First person shooters out there and the amount of games that are focusing on the realism aesthetics. It just feels like I am playing the same game over and over again, the games are getting to realism that its lost all its fun factor as I prefer games where your not just limited to Human qualities and what is achievable. I want to be able to fly, throw fire out my hand for example and be entrapped in this crazy world where the developers are not limited as to what they can design and come up with crazy concepts instead of just using human environments. If I am looking for realism I can just look out of my window. The idea of playing games to me is to escape reality where I am not limited and be reminded on some of the negative things happening on in the world such as war for example. As to which I have found myself enjoying the Nintendo WI recently as I admire the aesthetics greatly and the amount of fun involved on games such as Donkey Kong with crazy concept and game levels.

In conclusion relating this to my game art brief I am looking at a environment with a light hearted and humours atmosphere,one which resembles something similar to a cartoon. I am not saying I will defiantly be using Cell Shaded for my project but its one that is vastly appropriate and will suit the target audience well.

Resources : http://www.idevgames.com/forums/thread-5306.html
http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/2414/t96934-would-game-look-better-cel-shaded/
http://arcadeberg.com/causerie/pretty-art/

Game Art Design Year 2 Part 2, - Buildings.

Was just looking around at some jungle huts / cabins on the web. I found some very interesting results which I can take influence from and develop.Also I noticed a lot of my results came from Thailand, so potentially that has led me to do some more research on at a later date, possibly on foliage maybe. For my island theres going to be a few buildings Im hoping to construct. Firstly Ill talk about the buildings Im hoping on constructing in which the resident monkeys of the island will be situated. My initial idea is to have the buildings located at tree level, heres an interesting picture of a similar kind of aesthetic appeal i am hoping for on my game level as shown below.



Really like this image and its a great place to base some of my ideas on. I like the way the hut is kind of hibernated in the trees which is something i am aiming for which my concept as I want the idea of a deep tropical rainforest, similar to the Amazon. I'm not too keen on the idea of square huts though So i am thinking in something more like a Circular round hut. One of the reasons is Im planning on having the cable car station / hut as a square footing and I don't want the island to be to repetitive. Im undecided at this point as to how interactive I want the monkey huts to be. Im thinking maybe just have one where you can enter and look around the interior, but i'm undecided, thats an idea to develop in at a further date. I'm also thinking of connecting the monkey huts through a kind of tree path / bridge but again not such on how much interactivity i am going to include. Im planning on having a few buildings. There all gonna be the same building with maybe a little alterations. as I don't want to leave myself too much to do. Here below is a good image I found which I can base my ideas on for a round hut.



Just an idea of the kind of feel of the idea i am going for with the round hut. Should be easy to construct on Maya and texturing should be straightforward and for the interior, i am planning to have a couple of things to interact with, as to now i am not sure what but a few ideas I though of. Maybe turning on the television for the latest news on the island or even the radio which would properly be a more appropriate and easier option, what with been on a island. I plan on developing these ideas more within my concept art.



As aposed to my idea of having the huts located within three height. within my research I came across this image as shown below of having located within the water and been surrounded by beautiful landscraping around, the image is absolutly beautiful and has really opened up the idea of including water, but more than likely still having the huts at tree height. I think it would also add more apeal to the island, with the idea of including plenty of tropical trees within, I think it would make a nice different to include a lake, of which I could react with to get some lovely reflections of the water. quite like an idea of interacting with the buckets win which they go down and collect the water. I belive the addition of the lake would add so much more apeal to the island, and is a direction im more than likely going to include how im going to use it, im not sure as to this state. On another note I really like the shapes and textures of the buildings, the kind of triangle effect buildings which seems to be very poular and the textures of straw / palm roofs is very popular, and also bright and would greatly apeal to the younger audience.




Thought it would be a great part of research to actually look at a building similar to the kind of feel which im going for which has already been rendered through using maya. The main think I picked upon is that the design of the building is very simple however the right use of the textures really makes it stand out as something very interesting, which is something I should definatly consider, sometimes its more effective to have simple designs but get a beautiful texture which will stand out more compared to the vice versa. Whilst the building is a little to huanoid for me I really like the idea of having overgrown folliage, which is something to take forward and would react well upon the setting and the textures.




Just a few more buildings which grabbed my apeal. Im not sure in my design whether to have a kind of step walkway to reach the first hut, or to just gradually increase the size and have the first hut land level. I do like the idea of having a kind of rope to climb up as it liks withing the criteria of a monkeys behaviour as ther a re good climbers, but could be potentially trick executing when getting into unity but its an idea.

Game Art Design Part 2 - Statues

For my concept art I cameup with the idea of featuring some statues on the island,was playing Little Big Plant and the idea of including famous statues around the world and converting them into monkeys really apeal to me, and believe would apeal to the age catergory,and could potentially be classed as educational, the idea of a monkey statue of libery, whilst technically its alreadt been done sounds really promising to me.




One of my first ideas which came was to have a A statue situated on the kind of port area of the island. Taking huge influence from the statue of liberty, which is an iconic site and worldwide known. My idea was to have a similar replica however I wanted to add a appeal to my younger audience and creating a humourous appeal, so my idea at this moment is to have a statue of monkey holding a banana based on the shre of the island as the first thing u see upon entering the island which would be really humerous and a great way to set the tone for the island, also someone mentioned humming the national anthem in monkey sounds which I thought was a cracking idea to process with.



I was also given advice to look at the remake of the film Planet of the apes which has a scene at the end of which I am unfamiliar with but will probably check it out at sometime, in which features historical statues such as the Abraham stature featured above however with ape / monkey recreations. Unfortunately I couldn't find any images / videos of the statue of liberty in the remake however plan to check this out at further date.




Another idea I came up with during the concept art was as my terrain idea was to have a kind of well landscaped area with a mountainous region. and I just thought about the cristo Redentor in Brazil and using that as an major influence to a unique statue design. Maybe including instead the ruler of the island, probably my robot character to suggest to the audience his importance and the monkeys bow down before him, only issue I have is I dont want him to be treated as a God, I want him to be treated as a enemy of which the monkeys are trying to dethrone. I believe this could work really well. Maybe even potentiall include a cable car which animates and goes up the hill to which the robot is located in secret possibly even under the statue maybe. iI really do like this idea and would be easy as to model, what with my robot character already been modelled.




Just thanking about some statues, I though about the iconic statues which surround Easter Island. I though this would be a great part to do some research on as their located on island in the pacific, which is kind of the similar location i am aiming for with my island and the potential idea of including monkey head statues on the shore similar to that of easter island would be a great idea but have them more apealing to the younger audience, maybe each one pulling a different expression. I really like the idea but with me been useless at modeling faces, could be too time consuming for one element but its a good idea to mention.





Heres just a few monkey statues I found which really appealed to me and which I believe I can draw reference from, maybe have them dotted around the island, maybe even have to collect some across the island hidden in secret locations, similar to variety of games, or your even rewarded one for saving the island. Just a few dsigns to gain influence from.