First year summary

Don’t have much bad to say about the course ive enjoyed all the aspects and thought its run very well and is hard but you can really see results throughout the class from start to end

My progress : I think my 3d skill has improved loads but I think it’s a lot easier to judge from knowing nothing to what I know now but the first couple 3d projects could literally do in half an hour now not to bragg as most people in the class I think would agree but they were very hard at the time  but I hope keep improving at the same rate.  I think my critical studies writing skills have improved , still trying to find my style of writing but I hope that will develop because I haven’t realy done much of this style of writing let alone what im interested in . I think watching the critical studies lectures had broadened my design skills because after doing my research throughout the first year I know what style of game art I want to go for rather then just bog standard realistic plain characters  I do still really like realistic games but stylised game have intrigued me a lot this year.

I personally find critical studies hard because of dyslexia I find the huge amount of links hard to take in and then rember and write about them  but I think the lectures are layed out very well quite simple we now what we’ve got to do and just get on with it I really enjoyed watching the films every week and looking at them for there artist values and direction styles and characters not just to watch a good film an assessing them in blogs I thing this helped me understand more  how development of stories work and how there shown across through media etc. films and games and I find them a lot easier to write about then some of the other tasks also what I think would be good is more game reviews maybe if we all had to write about the same game or a demo that you could have a quick go on in the labs or an internet game to see everyone’s opions not just to play on games instead of working .

I think the game production lectures are hard to follow and a lot of people feel the same but that’s what blackboards tutorials for I think maybe could be eased into 3d abit better but I think what progress everybody is how hard it is how fast it goes also the way the labs are set up is very helpful and if ever your realy stuck there’s lots of people who can help second years thirds years which for me is one of the best things about the course that if anyone gets overwhelmed or stuck all you need to do is just ask someone . I have really liked learning about 3d and has open a lot more doors and option to my original art skills and huge amount of places that I can improve on

I really enjoyed vd this year I think it’s good that were doing something different every week so cant really get bored and I thing the short week by projects are good espialy for building speed in drawings work and getting ideas down fast  which I think will help later being used to short snappy deadlines and moving very fast. The only think bad I could say about vd is not enough life models!! but I think it has improved my skills in anatomy drawings just hard to draw the same person and keep the attention span going

I think its very important to keep all the aspects of the course the desing drawings and 3d work and crit but I think the projects could integrate better and run along with each other better like when we go out to draw vehicles for example would of gone well with building them in 3d at the same time.

But overall I have enjoyed the course and am very glad I chose this course very clear to me it was the right choice  

enviroment

Environment

my concept art piece, environment design I’m starting by building mood board from great concept artist already out primarily for games i have some initial ideas of what i want to design so from the mood boards and ideas i have going round my head made a simple spider diagram getting all my ideas written down but also to help narrow down my ideas i had to think which one is least likely other people would thing of and what i know personally and to narrow down do something I know and have primary research i think with my boxing background design a boxing environment for a game would work well I think its important with this type of painting is  to no what style I’m going for and how realistic I want it so I think because it boxing and its  real thing not an abstract concept very realistic as I can get in proportion would work and maybe some stylization in the characters .


After i have the idea i looked into further mood boards primarily about boxing gyms like English gyms and American and rich an poor gyms

Thought ide try figure out the rules an boundaries around environment design and what i can figure out by looking at environment pieces before starting the piece

1)      firstly the environment pieces with characters in you can get a strong feel for what type of game it is adventure game or shooter action all different types of games but as far as i can tell what grounds an image and lets you know what type of game it is the character or characters or just civilians walking around for example or people running round with guns firing

2)      thumnailing is a big design rule for concept art you must make thumbnails instead of diving straight into a design without having any idea how the composition will work or where lights coming from and by doing several thumbnails you’ll have more interesting images to choose from an a better outcome .

3)      having a clear idea in your head and the style your going for like realistic or styilised .

4)      Reference the more reference you gather to build an image the more substance it should have espialy if you’re creating a very realistic image.

5)      knowing the the world making everything fit it together even if its not realistic keeping it real but abstract elements that fit into the surrounding because you believe in the idea of the game for example and apocalypse town with plants everywhere the people would be dirty an carry rucksacks and weapons and be dirty to help them cope with this new world where as wouldn’t make sense if everybody was walking around in tailored suits all polished and clean.

 

6)      leading on from thumbnails composition checking everything is proportions using perspective lines depending on how you’re looking at your image like this image above from a two point perspective view were looking into a scene fading away  and it looks realistic because its in proportion but also they break it up with things extruding in the scene like the trees and the van the characters are standing on .

7)      lighting having a strong lightings source or lack of one in a dark image lighting certain areas realy pull together an image and helps draw the views eyes to the most importants parts of an image.

My final outcome

I think my image came out well the mix between stylised and realistic which what I was after I think it could of done with a lot more detail thought but I was trying to paint it in a blocky way like team fortress concept art edge of simplicity but descriptive witch I think I could of needed more of also I think more lighting would of boosted the image as well I think the characters blend in well and leave a believable image