Now that I have determined the target audience I am basing my diorama towards, I now have to come up with a variety of ideas on what my diorama is going to be, and the types of assets it can include. These ideas are going to visually represent what i’m going to create for my isometric concept art, obviously ensuring that it matches our theme of Western, as well as meeting the criteria for my target audience of a male, between the ages of 14-24.
Idea 1: Western Farm Diorama
Specialism I plan on using – For this design, my specialism would be 2D concept art, as it can be presented in a 3D perspective using Photoshop, so I can hand-paint how everything is going to look to meet my specified style.
What this diorama will include – Within this diorama, I would want it to meet a classic natural setting, representing the historical accuracy of the buildings seen in Western towns. Within this design, I would include a windmill, that would typically be tailored to the ones seen in real life, using wooden planks for the main structure, 12 sails covered using cloth material for the propellers. In addition to this, I would want to draw a river that would run through the middle of the diorama, closely followed by a Greenland filled with crops. Further to this, this land would have a barn that rather than being typical to the red colour schemes, would fit a more plain wooden outlook to create a subtle sense of realism to the basic colours that would be used for a Western town because of their lack of wealth. For the background, I would create a warm sunset, as this fits with the feel of the farm scene, being as it would be clear due to the lack of pollution, and would give a warm coloured feel and orange glow to the entirety of the diorama.
What is the style of my diorama – This diorama will be stylized with realistic lighting elements seen in the possible lighting schemes, and orange sunsets. Making the design stylized appeal more to a younger audience, although the use of the historical items such as the windmills and barns matching the accuracy of the Western times, is something that would only be recognized and appreciated by an older audience. Which is why my age range is between a teen and young adult. This diorama will appeal more to a male audience, as a higher percentage of males prefer the colours orange and green to woman, which are colours that would be heavily used within my diorama.
Idea 2: Interior of a Western Casino Diorama
Specialism I plan on using – This design will again be created in the form of 2D concept art, as I could gain a wide front view of the inside of the casino.
What this diorama will include – This diorama will heavily focus on the types of furniture that would be seen. Usually this would include simple wooden stools, with red, orange or brown colours for the seat itself. Within casino’s, they typically feature red, yellow and orange schemes, although my diorama would focus towards the browns and oranges, as these colours are more realistic, as well as more appealing to males. Whereas high amounts of reds and yellows would move away from my target audience as a higher percentage of females prefer these colours. In addition to this, I would create realistic lighting for the inside of the casino, to give it a cozy feel, and create the impression of the enclosed space. I could also decide to create a semi-see through ceiling with small amounts of ‘natural light’ seeping through, which is something that is seen in my Western research. The machines itself will be reasonably high-tech, although will still match the with themes of Western, and will mostly feature slot-machines rather than anything else.
What is the style of my diorama – For this diorama, I would again keep it stylized, as it fits with the overall theme I am aiming towards, especially considering casino’s will be filled with an array of colours because of the machines and bold standoff appearance they give. The lighting will also again be realistic, as it needs to illuminate the inside of the structure, representing the electrically sourced panels, or natural mood-lighting caused by the glass panels on the ceiling. This stylized aspect will be represented by the outlines around the environment and assets, which are clearly seen as less-realistic, and will draw more attention to the more subtle objects within the scene.
Final Idea Concept & Proposal: Western Farm Diorama
Outline for Diorama: For my final concept, I have decided to create a farm diorama, as my ideas were more broad for what types of assets and objects to include, as well as feeling more appropriate for the theme. This diorama will feature more natural elements of the Western culture; such as:
- Farm Land and Crops
- Wooden Fences
- Mountain Sides
- Railway – Still being considered
- Windmill
- Flowing River (flowing off the diorama)
- Tattered Barn
- Sunset Sky
- Haystacks/tumbleweeds
How will the design and art style meet my target audience: For my design, the main structure will be based upon the reality of how it would be seen within the wild-west, as well as the real types of materials and colours that you would see in a real life town. These colours will largely include dull browns and simple wooden textures for the barn, rather than bright reds which is more child-like. This is more aimed towards my age range, as this audience although still young, would appreciate the realistic and historical aspects within my diorama. My audience has been ranged from the age of 14 and up, due to my stylisation I am using to exaggerate the structures and give it a less realistic look, this will appeal to the younger members, but ensuring they’re not too young for the material that is being included.
What is my colour scheme: Mentioned previously when discussing my art-style, the colours will be reasonably bland, as during the Western era, it was hard to afford expensive paint and materials. Because of this, my colours will mostly feature browns, white and possibly grey. For the main environment, the sky will be painted to create a warm sunset, meaning a range of orange, yellow and reds will be used for the background of my diorama. Further to this, the mountain sides will again use quite bland colours, mostly lighter and darker tints of brown and grey. The countryside itself will be yellow and brown for the grass, and the water will be quite vibrant with the colours blue, as this is something I want to draw attention to. These colours are appropriate for this gender, as blue is seen as a favourite colour for both males and females. In addition to this, the use of browns, and grey are primarily more appreciated and liked by males, and intense colours, specifically reds, oranges, are statistically liked by teenagers between the ages of 14-17, during the development of their social awareness, the colour green is also heavily liked during this age group, as it gives them a sense of tranquility, which is something I want to present within my diorama.
Layout of the scene: It is important that I have an idea of the presentation of my diorama, and the placement of the assets used within it. Different forms of layouts such as floating islands (usually in square formations), which are separated out from the rest of the background to appear isolated and enclosed. The viewpoint is also important depending on what your featuring; for example: if you’re showing the interior of a room, a front view either angled or straight ahead would be appropriate to showcase the individual assets put into the scene. Whereas if decided to showcase the exterior of an environment of structure, it would need to be drawn from a higher level, so that you could not only get a clear view of the buildings, but also the surrounding level around it. Within my assignment for concept art, I am required to create a full diorama, as well as a separate featured piece with in-depth detail from an asset within this diorama, so its important that I experiment with different angles and perspectives, so I can decide what asset would be best to use, and how it is to be presented as a piece.
Personally, as I am creating a diorama with both buildings and landscape environment, I needed a layout that would allow me to display this entirely. For this reason, I have decided to create a floating diorama with a higher level perspective from a long distance. This island will be surrounded by mountain sides that go across around the back, the barn and windmill will be centered towards the right, and the railway will be centered on the left. The middle of this scene will then focus on the more natural elements such as the river that will flow off the scene, and crops around this to ensure it looks like a farm setting.
Western Windmills for Diorama Mood-board:
As I want to feature a wind-mill as one of the focused structures within my diorama, it was important to gather visual research so that I could see the types of style that would fit with my theme for my diorama. Although I first envisioned a more modernized windmill with 4 propellers, possibly introducing large proportions for the body so that its less current, I realized that during the 1800’s, they were more likely to use windmills with wooden bases, with multiple propellers made out of 12 sails of cloth. This style is much more traditional to Western material, and reaches a more accurate interpretation when creating my art piece windmill within my diorama. I specifically collected images that show this design in different perspectives, as I wanted to ensure that I had a variety of options to use as reference, as well as experimentation as to where I could put them, and the angle that would suit best depending on the others objects and assets within this scene.
Western Farm-land for Diorama Mood-board:
I created a mood-board full of images that portray a country landscape, as I needed ideas on the types of lighting and colours it would have. As shown through these images, most of them are wide-spread to an unknown location, although for my diorama, I would have to clearly represent that this is enclosed, meaning all of the farm area would be closed of using the traditional wooden fencing shown in some of these visual references. The texture of the grass varies, although as i’m basing the structure of the buildings based on their actual interpretations, it would make sense to mix the greens with different shades of brown to create an impression that some of it hasn’t fully grown, or its been dug up. Further to this, although most farm areas show animals such as cows and horses, as our project is purely environment based, I could possibly include assets like haystacks and water trouts, to show that their could potentially be cattle and animals that also inhabit the farm area.
Western Barns for Diorama Mood-board:
Another asset that’s vital to my scene creation is the barn, this is again something my audience will draw attention to, as well as set the western and country theme I am aiming towards. I gathered images that represent barns in different conditions, such as the classical red barn more suited for a non-realistic cartoon style diorama, and more realistic barns that are standard or abandoned. The shapes of these are either flat surface roofing, or pointed roof tops with tiling, and the shape mostly doesn’t change within the older generation barns, whereas the more modern versions have a more complicated structure, and the wood is in perfect or painted conditions. this research is useful within my project, as it not only gives me ideas on the shape of the barn, but also the types of colour and style I can use for the wooden doors, roof tops, and the caved in windows frames.
Western Mountain-sides for Diorama Mood-board:
To surround my diorama, these images show different types of mountains both realistic and non realistic. I haven’t chosen a specific weather to set my diorama in, so its important that I gathered different types that represent both normal mountain and snowy mountains sides. This research was mostly conducted so that I could see what details that is needed such as the chiseling and darker tones within. The images also allow me to generate ideas as to what can be placed within the mountains, such as river reflections or forest trees. The purpose behind this mountain side, as it gives the impression that the diorama is very natural, as well as using it to end the scene, the fact that my mountains are going to be stylized, means I can exaggerate the points, and really add some detail within the colours and shape for my style.
Railway for Diorama Mood-board:
I finally looked at different types of railways, some are broken down, while others simply match the traditional style I was aiming for within my design. Many of these bridges are created above land, which was something I was planning to use within my diorama, although looking at the detail used for the bridges under surface, it may be difficult to stick to a simplistic stylized theme with the amount of detail that would be required. To overcome this issue, I would either have to reduce the amount of wood they use for the structure of the bridge, or create the tracks so that they are level on the ground. Many of the images I have gathered within this research, have been directly facing towards the camera, as this is the angle I was originally going to create within my art concept, connecting to the mountains that I also intend on adding. The majority of these images feature wooden textures, usually left unpainted and typically a brown colour, in addition to this, this also may have lighter brown tones within the wood, where it has be used and the top layer has been worn out by the train.
Morgan Clark: Games Development L3 Year 2 