Storyline Ideas

Heres a breif stroyline I came up for my environment, I plan on developing the story into more detail potentially as I progress with the project, but for the time been it gives me influence in where to develop things from now such as concept art and such.

Influences To Take

Just wanted to do a quick blog on a few things. Firstly Im not recreating New York or replicating and Buildings, landscape or features. Im just taking huge influence from this location, as it ticks all the aesthetic values im hading towards within my project. I shall be designing all the buildings myself, Of cause they may represent certain features but the idea is to be a city designed by imagining.

Heres a quick reminder of certain things Ive gained influence by and wanting to take into the designing / concept art side of the story.

1. How compact the city is, very narrow streets with tall buildings.
2. The Water which surrounds the city, could be used to great effect with the bridge.
3. The Backstreets have that dark kind of uneasy atmosphere which Im wanting to recreate.

Films and Games Based In New York

Thought it would be interesting to look at a few trailors and In Gameplay footage of some movies and video Games based in New York, just gain some influence of possible directions inwhich to develop the environment, gain more influence about buildings, landmarks and the surrounding area.

First of I Looked at a list of games which have been located / Influenced by the surroundings of New York and The list is huge so there's plenty of references inwhich to gain influence from. From the list I remember playing Max Payne in particular and remember the dark atmosphere especially in some scenes which came within the game, unfortunatly I couldnt find the scene with the Baby Crying inwhich it feels like your walking through darkness as that would have been a great to analyise. However looking at the trailor below you can tell the dark atmosphere, for example within the trailor its all based towards night and set in the back alleys and subways of new york, And the buildings have windows smashed and cardboard against them, something to look into when it comes to texturing the buildings. I aslo really like the cutscrenes used as it tells the story similar to a comic book / graphic novel which is an element Id like to develop. Finally a comment I really like the stroyline involved within this game. The idea of a dark storyline involving crime which is something im looking towards.



On a similar genre, heres True Blood Streets Of New York which is in a similar vein to Max Pain, that kind of crime / violence aspect. However what I noticed within True Crime is the amount of textures and buildings which duplicate themself, and to think that this game would have been devloped in acsess of around 200 people, it just gives a sense of the timescale involved inwhich to develop an a big scale environment, and I have to think about what can be achieved within a certain period. I also noticed the amount of graphiti featured which is something I could look into, as vector graphitti could be a nice feature inwhich to include.




On the other scale heres a few movies which Ive watched previously that have been set in UK, I thought this was a useful watch to gain a better understanding of certain aspects such as the fasion, culture and interests of the city and its locals. Also some famous aspects which is familiar with New York such as the Yellow Taxi Cars and the business of the city.

Vector Art

Heres A few very interesting examples of vector art I found on the internet. A perfect example of the kind of style Im heading for within my project. What I really find effective and what with designing buildings / skyline the way in which they have used a silhouette for the building type however have done the windows / detail in while which is really effective, but most importantly you can still easily tell that there buildings. I also want to comment on the top right picture below. In which previously I mentioned the idea of having the environment located nearby to a water / lake. I really like the way inwhich theyve shown the water as white and the reflection as black. I think this is a fantastic idea, and one Im definatly doing to take influence from into and experiment with. So I think at this point my game environment potentially shall contain a bridge which I can develop a story into

Location

I had a few ideas for my location, Firstly I didnt want to just go and recreate a City, that was not in my attentions. I had thought about the idea of using Leeds as a huge influence as theres some very interesting buildings such as the broadcasting Tower and The big building near the train station, which other some great architecture, aswell as it would be very easy to draw influence from. For those who are not sure what im on about heres the examples of the buildings below.




I Thought that both of these models would look really great modeled and textured in the vector style im heading down, However I Thought that I'd rather not model or take influence from anything located nearby as I wanted to expand my horizons and not rely on local things,as by doing that I had a fear of just dublicating Leeds itself, as I'm afraid I might get too laid back further on down the line, hence I want to explore myself more and gain knowledge of other cities and locations.

After talking about the architecture aspect of my level I thought what better than to have a look at buildings In Dubai, home of some of the best architecture and structures which can be found around. Heres a few examples of images from dubai.




Heres a few beautiful images of the skyline in Dubai and the surrounding buildings. As you can see the the buildings are beautifully architectured and well designes and situated in beautiful and give that sense of organic buildings. However to me it just dosent represent the feel of murder, violence and guns. It all just feels to perfect. Im looking for that sense of uglyness and everything very compact which I think would suit the storyline im aiming towards. As much as I like the buildings it just dosent tick my boxes.

Struggling to find a city to gain influence by. I decided to head back to sqare one. Firstly I thought where are most Comic / Graphic Novels based on. Most resemble that of America, or something similar mainly to most been produced from over there. I think I was watching Spiderman which in itself is a comic novel which is located in New York. First thing I noticed is the massive scale of the place, I want you in my environment to be plunged into what seems like this massive environment and a place where everything is drawn to a massive scale giving you the feeling of no power and been intimidated. And judging by this image below you can see the shere scale.



Not just the sheer scale of the location which deeply impressed me, everything is so close together giving you no place to breathe linking to the atmoshepe previously mentioned im heading towards. Also judging by some of the backstreets of new york it has the sense of ugliness im aiming towards, there also feels like that aspect of danger added into crate a unique atmosphere.




Heres A Few more images of Some of the buildings which are located within New York as shown below, You can easily tell compared to the Dubai there based on a less organic feel and more compact together and as mentioned before offering that sense of a compact feel. Also something I'd like to add, theres that feel of alot of buildings having a similar structure and have to think about time constrains and if Im aiming for this big project, some of these buildings could be modeled using simple shapes such as cubes, with effective textures included, and can then be duplicated further. Also it fits in with a similar style as to Saul Bass, that feeling of everything is simple but very effective which could work well with using simple shapes.




Just want to comment on the picture below, which really striked me and thought about possible ideas inwhich to devlop further. I thought about the ideas of been situated on an Island, the idea I really like is the way I could potentially use reflections In a Kind of syloette feel, This is an idea I want to look more into.

Saul Bass Influence

For my Project I have been looking at alot of Saul Bass work as its a very similar aproach Im looking for within my project as,Alot of his work includes the use of silhouette which I'm thinking of including in my project as I believe is very apropiate hence alot silhouette graphic images included in the novel And i really like the way inwhich he sticks to bold striking colours and rarely goes over 3 colour tones included within the same image which is something Ive been looking at keeping the sequence to a maximum of 3/4 colours inwhich Black and white would me most apropiate for the silhouette feel and red would look great for the feel of blood inwhich red blood splashes on a black and white image would creat a great effect, as with 100 bullets been a crime / action based novel you dont want to include bright colours although that would make an interesting contrast but the 3 colours previously mentioned id a great way into starting my development process.

What I also like about his work is that its not perfect and alot of lines are not straight or off, however this increases the quality and effect of his work as it provides it with a more kind of hand written feel, which would again fit in perfect to the direction of my project. I also really like the experimentation he has done with card and plan to experiement with similar techniques, however I dont want to rip into his work too much and give it more a feel of it been my work, however it will be hugely influenced by Saul Bass.

Heres a poster, which on immediate look was somthing I really loved, and could easily link with this kind of style into my game environment even though its a poster I can draw huge influence from it as a graphical aproach as its a similar direction im heading towards, and is the exact feel im looking for, I really love the way the silhouette is broken up to give that feel of it been shot and a few splatters to create the feel of blood flowing which I thought about in my level maybe photographing somone on the floor then going around him in photoshop / illustator to create similar effect or blood splatter marks on the celing.


Heres A poster In which I really like as it gives me an idea of potential fonts which could be apropiate inwhich to experemint with in my film title sequence, and I like how everything is compact yet easy to read and I like the grapahical aproach and the way the words are layed out, and the way that each word has its own personality, for example the word "big" has been enlarged and the word "red" has been given a more striking bold red and so on, so its something to consider with my typeface abd experiment with further.





Heres a poster to one of Saul bass exhibitions, another image that on first look grabbed my attention. I just really like the idea in which its not perfect and the use of 3 colours, which is really effective.

Below, Ive also been looking into the idea of including cutscenes within my game environment, and where better that to look than Saul Bass, his style of cutscrenes I believe would look great within my environment and in the hope of building the story up and creating that atmosphere im hoping for.

Research Graphical Side

In my mind I had an idea on the graphical aproach I wanted to head within my project, The idea of of going for that graphic novel aproach. As if 100 Bullets was transferred into a video game. In fact as typing this I was told there was a Video game already created, So I thought it would be a great idea to check out the graphical aproach of the game.




After checking out the game, theres a few screenshots above and its not the style I am heading for at all, Im wanting to stay completly away from the more realism graphics, similar to tha above.

I then started looking into vector / syloette styles of city skylines of which I found plenty of amazing examples of which is mor to the style im moving towards, here a few examples of work which impressed me most indeed.




Heres a example of a better knowledge as to the style of graphics I am aiming towards, theres are sylines of New York and London, And I especially like the London example and the colours, The idea of Black And White grealy apeals to me with emelents of color, At this moment I really like the use of tones in The London, the orange looks really effective and creates an effect of a happy summer / sunrise tone. However im aiming for a more sinister aproach, The ise of red works well cause its a striking colour against black and white and symbols that of blood and danger which could work well within my environment. As majority og graphic Novels are based upon violence, weapons and sex which is exactly What I want my environment to be about, and theese use of colours demonstrate that perfectly.