How has the development of your project been influenced by your research on working practices for your chosen profession?
Throughout the course of this project, my research has helped me make informed decisions about my chosen pathway and specialism. When gathering visual images, I was able to think about where I wanted to take my theme, and the types of assets that I was going to include within this. When studying the theme of ‘cyberpunk’, my initial thought was that this was a more extreme version of science fiction; I found that this actually was defined as a ‘computer dominated society’ which led me to think about creating an environmental piece. I looked up a large range of imagery from holograms, and vehicles such as hover-boards and motorcycles, as these are traditionally seen in futuristic media such as TV and video games.
When conducting research during my report, I realized that the workflows I studied, I applied to my project. These workflows highlighted skills such as photo-bashing, tracing, sketching and block-outs, all which were used during the production of my pieces. Studying this made it easier to break down my process, as I applied this to my own work to find out solutions to problems I wouldn’t normally have, such as rendering out to produce lighting and shadow guides.
Has the development of your project been affected by your research into historical and contemporary influences for your chosen profession?
Looking at the historical influences conducted in my research, I realized that these did not have a large impact in informing the choices and direction I took during the progression of my work. When looking at the connection between the theme, I was heavily inspired by the film ‘Blade Runner’, as there are scenes that are depicted in a futuristic city. Moreover from this, when researching cyberpunk environments, I realized they heavily use this type of genre in Japanese culture, using neon as its primary light source. This led to the production of a city focused around using fluorescent colours. My original concept was stemmed from using a voxel software called ‘Magicavoxel’, which was inspired from an artist that I researched called ‘Meg Wehrlen’. In terms of contemporary influences, I used the stereotypes depicted about teenagers (shown in this environment as its known as a rebellious era), by creating vandalism such as graffiti and litter, as this made this relate more closely to the theme, as well as make my city seem populated.
Reflect on your learning and skills – What you have done and why you have done it?
When beginning my creation, I started using a grid to create building test pieces, which was a nice way to generate ideas for how I wanted to structure these. I took inspiration from my visual images, specifically using the shapes and advanced technological implements that you would see in a sci-fi reality and augmentation. From this, I moved onto using blocking out, which was a workflow that I highlighted in my written report, this meant I took my sketches, and turned them into block-out pieces so I could create a sketch-over and upload this into Unreal Engine, to create lighting and shadows. I realized that using modelling as an aspect of my design process, meant I wouldn’t come across any perspective issues I would have otherwise had.
I experimented using clipping masks and blending options more throughout this project, as I wanted to see what kind of effects I could produce, for both the lighting, colours and textures of my final product. An example of this, was when I was creating holograms, I followed a tutorial that showed me how to use halftone patterns to create the optimized texture that I needed. As well as this, I discovered I was able to use gradients to create glow effects, which if I hadn’t of learnt this valuable skill, I would have used an outer-glow which may have not been as effective. Overall, these skills have been an important part of creating my project, as I was able to experiment with different tools such as blending, masks, and modes such as luminosity, skills that have been necessary in informing my creative decisions made throughout this unit.
Sum up your ongoing evaluations/opinions/reflections that you documented during the project.
When reflecting on the progression of my project, I have learnt and applied a variety of new skills, that has improved the quality of my work. At the beginning of my project, I used a grid in Photoshop so I could avoid skewing the perspective of my buildings; although, this still proved to be an issue for me because my shapes were sometimes complicated to build from scratch. For this reason, I realized I still needed to fix my positioning and angles to avoid inaccuracy. I went back and created a block-out of my building, positioning this in different angles, I stuck with my original concept of the designs and placement, and focused on making this look more realistic. I found that once I completed a sketch-over, and coloured this to the same place, this was much better quality, the line art was much smoother, and this was a much better proportion.
Further to this, I wasn’t sure on how I was going to make my city look as if it was glowing, I was advised by my peers to use the gradient oval tool, and lower the opacity. This technique worked well to create the effects I wanted, so I stuck with this throughout my project when emphasizing the emissions from the neon light. I then moved onto using Unreal Engine, so I could clearly see where the shadows hit my building from the side, which made it easier to recreate this within my artwork. I still struggled with some proportions, such as my hover-boards, and bottles on my ground which I over-sized, as I wasn’t comparing this to the size of the buildings. In the future, I need to compare this more to what this would look like in real life, rather than just looking at what works well within my piece.
What do you feel has worked well and what did not work well? What could you do to improve your work?
When looking at what worked well, I really liked being able to use different software such as Maya and Unreal Engine within my work. Although this was time consuming, it made my city a much better quality when produced using Maya. This technique also fixed some spacing issues that I had, meaning some of the buildings looked as if they were overlapping and too compact. In the future, I may need to work on my skills with rendering, so I can get the best outcome for creating my shadows, my knowledge in Unreal Engine was limited, meaning I wasn’t able to use much of the software with ease, making it hard for me to get the best quality. In the future, if I refine these skills, my rendering would be much better, meaning it would be much easier for me to use this within my concept work.
Additionally to this, I believe I spent too much time working on the production of my city, meaning the quality of my weapons may have fallen, as I didn’t spend nearly as much time on them. In the future, I may need to work on my time-management specifically in my development log, to show i’m giving equal time and effort on each piece of work i’m producing, especially for my final major project.
Reflect on peer and tutor feedback.
Reflecting on my feedback, I can see that some portions of my work are missing during the peer reviews, although I always get my work finished by the deadlines. I may need to consider completing my work a couple of days before, so my review will be more positive, and I will give myself some more time to reflect on what I have done and what still needs to be completed. The main areas I struggled with was my report, and ensuring that my final product was ready to be put into my blog. So these are issues with time-management that I will work on ready for the final major project. In terms of my tutor feedback, I can see I need to keep working at my current standard, and ensure that for my FMP the quality remains the same so I can achieve the grade I want.
What have you learnt during this project?
In summary, I have experimented with different software, such as Unreal Engine, and Autodesk Maya. I have used a range of different tools in Photoshop, such as clipping masks, overlays and different blending options to receive hologram effects, aurora’s for the background designs, and gradient ovals to create glowing lights. Throughout this project, I have moved away from my original concept in using ‘MagicaVoxel’ within my project, as I realized this style was not working with the designs of my buildings. I also wanted this to traditionally be conceptual, which was hard to produce within this style. In conclusion, I am happy with the amount of work I have produced for this unit, as I carefully considered my time-management, and how long it would take to complete my project to a good standard.
Morgan Clark: Games Development L3 Year 2 