Initial Character Moodboard

For my character Archetype I decided to go for a living Garden Gnome. The reason I chose something so peculiar is exactly that, because its peculiar. There aren't many games where your running round as a garden gnome. Also, garden gnomes can be a lot of fun when rigged up, there tiny legs will make for some happy gaming.

To start with I did a google search, and found just how loved they really are. A lot of people say they're creepy, but theres a lot of people out there who adore them. I even came across a story about an old lady who had about $800 worth of garden gnomes and other ornaments, stolen from her. She was devastated. 

BAF 2010

This year at Bradford Animation Festival, there was quite a selection of interesting projects ranging from mainstream games, to indie developers. One of my favourite talks was about 'Brink' the new release from Splash Damage.
Splash Damage was founded in 2001, and started out creating mods, non-commercially, for games like Quake III Arena, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Counter-Strike. 'Brink' is set on and around the Ark, which is a floating ecosystem divided into two areas. The main island is populated by the rich citizens, and features futuristic looking buildings. The outskirts of the island are the slums, populated by the poor and needy. After being sick and tired of living amongst the rubbish and scrap, the poor decided to fight for what was equally theres. The game features two factions, the Resistance (the poor), and the Security. The resistance started out peaceful, but due to the conditions they are living in, they turned violent. The Resistance armed and defended themselves, using tools from work, and found objects such as license plates, drills, and scrap metal. The Security perceive the Resistance as terrorists, in there main role to protect the Ark from poverty.
        
The art director wanted to give the characters an exaggerated look, which was realised by elongating the faces and height. originally they intended on having characters of different heights, however due to technical issues, this was unable to happen. Instead they went for three different body types; light, medium, and heavy. The game features several Archetypes, all distinct, exaggerated versions of people on the Ark. This was done to make them iconic and recognisable. A few of these archetypes are listed below;



The Bug - A character for the Security side. With this character the art director wanted to return to the Sci-Fi look. With different coloured masks available to choose from, this is quite an intimidating guy.










The Look - Another security character, featuring full tactical clothes, headgear based on the jumping spider, and is light and athletic.









The Wasted - One of the Resistance characters, representing the absolute
lowest level of poverty










As the character development team consisted of 4 members, they wanted to focus on quality rather than quantity. That being said, they still managed to bring us around 16 very different characters, which can be extensively customised; from body type, facial hair, and face paint, to clothing and tattoos.
The characters sculpted in ZBrush, and Maya, were created with bold forms, emphasis on larger folds; in the clothing, and were low poly to allow for the technical capabilities of the consoles and PC.

Some things I learned from the Splash Damage team, were to start simple and prototype, allowing constraints to be identified, along with close collaboration being essential, to make sure everyones on the same track. The designs also need to reflect the tech limitations of the project.

Another talk I found to be quite interesting, was from 'thechineseroom', which is an independent games studio based around the research and writing of Dan Pinchbeck, experimenting with first-person gaming.

"Story is a system for manipulating peoples behaviour" 

                                                                            Dan Pinchbeck

'thechineseroom' released the critically acclaimed 'Dear Esther', in 2008. Based around the Half Life engine, 'Dear Esther', features a man (the character you play) stranded on a scottish island. Throughout the game snippets of voice messages are exposed to you, in a random order, as you walk around the island. This creates a lot of confusion, as a lot of the voice messages contradict one another. I found this really encouraging, and enlightening, due to the usual nature of First Person games, contrasted with this very eerie Source mod, which contains no action, other than walking and listening. It was created to experiment what makes a game good, the level of fun, or the story? Or can the story alone be 'fun' enough. 

(Image of the highly detailed, remote landscape, 

 of the scottish island, featured in 'Dear Esther')

In 2009, 'thechineseroom' released the cult horror 'Korsakovia', which is also available as a Source mod. This has been described as 'the Silent Hill sequel that never happened. in comparison to 'Dear Esther', the game does feature action, as your main character is followed by enemies made of smoke, similar to The Fog, featured in the hit series Lost. It sounds like quite a frightening, on edge, game.

(Image of the strangeness featured in the source mod 'Korsakovia')

Zen Font

The font I thought would be perfect for this project was found using Identifont.com, which gave me near enough the exact font used on the book cover. The reason for choosing it was because it was a serif font but had very distinct and particular serifs, I was instantly drawn to it. The font is ITC Elan Book. I looked everywhere for a free version or a similar font that was free, but no such luck. In the end i purchased the font from ITC. There was no other option, as i had not found a font like it that would do my project justice.

Zen Mood Board

Due to the nature of the book I chose for this project, I decided to keep my mood board quite simple, I didn't want it to be too wild and cluttered. The chosen images have close ties with the book, because one main aspect was the 17 day motorcycle journey, through all sorts of beautiful scenery. I also added the wood texture because I wanted the opening sequence to be very natural. One thing i definitely wanted to include was the lotus flower from the front cover of the book. 

Zen Test

Due to the fact that my Maya scene is taking approximately 37 hours to complete, here is a video of what it will basically look like when completed.

Few notes about this video:
   - The room is actually just two pictures at the present time, in the final thing there will be camera movement.
   - There will of course be more clouds and more rain, but due to the maya scenes not being fully rendered i saw little point in making it perfect just to have to restart when the rendering is completed.

StoryBoard

Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The book I have chosen for this project is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, written by Robert M. Pirsig. The book is about the author (although he is not named in the book), and his son on a 17-day motorcycle journey from Minnesota to California. Throughout this journey the main character talks about the meaning of 'Quality' through a series of philosophical discussions, referred to as Chautauquas by the author.

"What follows is based on actual occurrences. Although

much has been changed for rhetorical purposes,

it must be regarded in its essence as fact. However,

it should in no way be associated with that

great body of factual information relating to

orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It's not very

factual on motorcycles, either."

                                          (Authors Note)

I found this book on a bookcase at home, and it turns out it was my dads when he was about 17. The title and look of the book intrigued me to read it, which i hastily did, and within no time at all it was over. It seemed to drag me into the story, enveloping my mind with great visuals and thought provoking questions. This is the reason i chose the book for this project, because in a way, (not to sound too cheesy), it holds a special place in my mind. And i advise anyone who has not already done so, to try and find a copy and lose yourself in it.