practical analysis

i have made a collection of sketches i want to develop into the final characters i will use, however i feel like the first ones were the best ones. i almost allways prefer my first drawings and ideas more than ones that get stretched out and experimented on.
there are some that i find have potential but i dont think i have done them enough justice to follow with them.
these will be my final ones i believe

enviroment practice

as well as the character designs, i thought it would be a good idea to create a feekling of the enviroment around the characters. To make suggestions and ideas of how a character would respond given particular situations. so i made some quick sketches of how they would react and be in the enviroment they live in, as well as how they would act in different circumsatances.

I didn't want these to be full illustrations as they are suggestions, more to do with understanding the character and less of the illustration aspect of the idea.

i have found that this is an important feature when coming up with a character. theres no point in creating an in depth character if its unknown how they are as a person. these kinds of sketches allow producers to see how a cgharacter would respond in stressful situations as well as enjoyable situations.
such as the study inti Ellie from the last of us, where the concept artists drew here in dangerous and happy situations.

progress on characters

as i make these characters i become more happy with the designs im making.
- as i draw it has become apparrent that i need to keep my designs somewhat simpler than i opigionally intended, in order to ease myself into digital means. however if i do it well enough i believe they will look alieght in the end.

- i have now got my final pencil designs and im ready to scan them onto photoshop.
- my 7 designs all live within the same world like i intended and they all have groups among themselves to resemble where they come from.
-im not sure how i will tackle colouring them digitally, however there are allways tutorials online and friends that know photoshop better than me if i come accross any significant hurdles
-i have tried to show some form of cultural differences amongst them, whish i feel wven wothout the colour they are noticable, however this may be because i made them

how going to make finals

after finally been able to decide on final theme i think that i am going to make 5-7 characters and create concept boards to propose my idea. as the characters are going to be finalised digitally i thnk that it would be a good idea to mix what i have found from different professionals presentation boards and mix finals and sketches on the boards to show the character in colour and detail, whilst showing differemt aspects of their life through surrounding sketches

first presentation boards on practical work

these boards are a dissapointment. they are minimal and when making them on the mac they seemed much brighter and clearer. however there is visual noise on the pages even though on screen they werent visable. there is not much going on within the boards, as well as the lack of communication each board gives.

small concepts

 my new faveorite way to get ideas down, keep drawing pages of ideas and not think about them too much to the point that i stop to think about the process and the movements of the pencil

more ideas for practical

ihave come up with the conclusion that although im not working from a speific piece or place to make characters from, i will make a vague background of their world myself.
this will allow me to use my imagination of a larger enviroment and come up with more than just characters.
the neviroment will be slightly futiuristic but i have not decided on the details yet.

origionally i didnt think making my own setting would be a good idea, however i think to do the designs that most interest me i will be able to do it best this way.

i will have multiple places the characters will be from within the world i create, this will allow for a culturally diverse mix of characters, as well as a divercity in social status within their own community.
allowing wor a small range of designs

final board layout concerns

as my first set of boards i made for the crit were purely based on sketches i feel like these ones needed to be a massive improvement, especially that my project is based on a proposed video game setting.
to improve:
- the general cleanness and quality of the boards
- how professional they are
- to show my process and timeline of work
-to show key parts of the project
- to reflect what the project astually is
- final images
-to show who the characters are

what not to do again:
- leave them last minuit
- keeping them too simple
-not show exactly what they are meant tio be

relating and synthesis

as i changed the theme of my essay part way through, it has become easier to relate my practical work to the dissertation. as it was initially rather thinly linked to the essay, relating culture and character effects on people creats a much larger potential for synthesis.

as my dissertation is on how connections with character effect cultural influences in the gaming industry.
as with this theme my practical decision to create characters through research into culture and fantasy. along with creation of characters that people can connect with and feel potential empathy and emotional responses to them.

updated proposal

theme: culture and the effects of character on gaming influence

subject: character design

research question: to what extent does peoples connection with fictional characters shape the gaming entertainment industry?

proposed outcomes: series of character designs that are based in a made up game world, looking at different characater shape and cultural differences

media processes: digital means, final media will be photoshop

question: how do people establish attatchment and empathy towards fictional characters?
-relation?
-protection?
through situational events?

question: what about the cultural differences?
-different cultures have different effects and beliefs
-what if a culture would find offence to a form of character?

question: what research will be useful?
-studies?
-case studies?
-self made surveys?
-contacts?

quotes

Reality is broken has been an increasingly interesting read, I tend to have a small attention span when it comes to the written word when it isn't fiction, however this book has been very eye opening to not only the game industry and what good is coming from it, but also how it can be used to improve every day living ad use aspects of gaming in real life. As it was published a few years ago it will be interesting to see where her work has moved to and if any progress has been made with her theories.

As well as the cintents of the book it has also been some heat inspiring to see a lady know so much on the industry I'm interested in, not only is she well informed and researched in her work, but she has made an impact on the game industry and where it can be incorporated into different fields. It's truly fascinating to see this side of games, as not just a way of escape but as a way to make it real in other ways.

'as game journalist rob fahey famousely pronounced in 2008:" its inevitible: soon we all will be gamers'

edward castrronova - look into

'game developers know more than anyone else how to inspire extreme effort and reward hard work'

'games, in the 21st centurary, will be primary platform for enabling the future'

'the goal is the specific outcome that players will work to achieve'

;games make us happy because they are hard work that we choose for ourselves, and it turnes out that almost nothing makes us happier than good, hard work'

this book made be think of how a way of gaming could be made into daily lives. as opposed to waking up knowing that the day is going to be the same as every other day, how about some form of activity that encourages people to want to get out of bed in the morning.
if i can elaborate on this for a practical response that would be great but im not too sure how yet.

presentation board studies

looking at some presentation boards there are allways similar themes throughout them:

-they are spacious and allow the character to breath
-not allways fully finished looking illustrations
-little if any text
- usualy a grey or white background to keep attention on the character

the only real difference between them is the artists signature stlyes, so in this i believe that is i use these catagories for the final character boards i will get a grasp on composition and contents on how to make boards.

gender in games/ sexuality

as a growing part of western culture is acceptance of everyone, i know it sounds silly that thats how it can be described. people have a much larger veriety of identities throughout society. as well as identification, sexuality and culture are becoming more recognised in media and games. therefor i want to make sure i make work that wouldnt be offensive to any groups of people.

looking at this i dont want to oversexualise people unles it suits the character on a personality level, nor do i want to create steriotypes of any sub groups.

organisation and stress levels

my organisation for this module has become a wreck. this post will most likely sound like a diary entry but i feel its partially nessesary to keep myself aware of where i am.
due to some early extemnded practice entry submissions coming up in early december i have fallen behind on cop because i have prioritised the other modules.
as well as those submissions i have work and other situations outside of college that have become draining and has started to impact my studies and motication to create work that i enjoy doing.

really this frame of mind is not acceptable to me because i know that if it isnt fixed, i will end up in a hole that will be difficult to get out of closer to the deadlines.
going to take a step back, look at where i was and where i am now and think how i should move forward because this isnt healthy for anyone to deal with.

tutorial with tutor -

- make/organise an outline for each chapter
-begin to flesh out essay text
-write out introduction as best i can in draft form- because im still struggling with it
-write up surveys and create a form of quantitative data form
finish draft

based on the tutorials im having i know the lack of work i have produced so far. the help i am getting is helpful, however my mind doesnt comprehend written work efficiently

write essay draft by 22 november
can send draft beforehand

tutorial feedback and self reflevction

as at this point i feel increadibly behind. i have a basis to work from and some progress on the essay, however im not confident in my ability to write. factual and informed writing never seems to come out the way i plan it and sounds confusing when i reread what i write. so i have decided that the practical part is more important at this point. as i know that i will develope ideas more through practical i think that i should focus on that for maybe the next week or so and see if it imporoves.

mini plan:
-draw any ideas that come to mind and develope the best of them into characters?
- looks at expression and posture?
- research into character designs and attempt to draw inspiration and see any common reocurring features?

the big change of plan-

I had a huge problem throughout this module and I wasn't getting anywhere so I have decided to change what I was doing, as I changed my question, the practical brief has had to change too.

As my focus is still character design I will carry on making character concepts, however I have a different goal to achieve. 

Aiming for a set of characters that contrast yet work together that would fit in the same world. 

My goal is ultimately to create presentation boards that demonstrate my dissertation as well as the field that I am aiming to go into. 

last of the mini concepts for now

i have been making pages of these for weeks now and i believe that altgough i think they are great, i should either start to develop some more detailed concepts, or enlarge some and work from them.

some of the diss guidence**

looking over the dissertation guidence again i am seeing things i didnt pick up on before. the way its layed out in sections of 3k and 1k words has made understanding the format much more. as writing is the opposite of my strong point, the more i can simplify the essay, the easier my organisation and productivity will be. in theory.

intro:
-outline importance of subject
-where its come from
-who researching
-how researching
-mention topics of key interest

2: theory 3k
-fact and theory on the subject
-where the subject can go
-studies into it
-triangulate?

3: image analysis
-3/4 images
-analyse
- i think analysis in the context of my essay would be better of the reasons and concept of an image than the style and imagery itself so i will look into that
-concept art/boards
-how its done
- relate to 2

4: own illustration
-relate own practice to essay
-synthesis
-image analysis

5: conclusion
-no new info
sum up chapters and how they inform each other

character **

as im constantly scrolling instagram and art sites i feel like i have accumilated a vast amount of people that illustrate or draw character designs and imagery.
looking at some of these i wanted to see what i could take from them all in terms of what processes they use to come up with them.
i have messages a couple of the practitioners and waiting for a response.

the best of the ones i have seen are the ones that have adaptes a tone of voice that suits their characters. however i dont think that i ave made a tone of voice, or style for myself yet but i have got ideas. based on this im going to heavily base my ideas on concepts and ideas more than making my work into a style that i havnt naturally made for myself yet.

as my work with pencil and ink have developed some form of style, if i want to progress into digital, i will have to learn a whole new media to move forward. although i enjoy trying digital media, working with it for too long makes me very agrivated because i dont know what im doing yet. given time i know i will progress as i cant get worse, but i have to be patient with a module that i feel im not very time effciente with yet anyhow.

i really want to make digital work though so im going to keep trying.

fantasy technology

a quick look into the ranges of fantasy techniology that i may use in the designs. i think that the focus of the designs i want to make come mainly from the look of the character themselves, however looking at weapons and fantasy accessories would be an important range of features to look into.

tiny tina-

Tiny Tina is a young girl that has suffered large amounts of psychological trauma with the loss of

her parents as well as the environment she has been subjected to. As this alone will create a

strong emotional response to her she doesnt stop there. Tina is also crazy in the respects of

how she acts and treats people, usually people she doesnt like. She can create technology and

weaponry whilst talking chirpy and singing every so often. However as she isnt a ‘goody goody’


she is seen as interesting and what will she do next.

When it comes down to her design there were many concepts that were suggested to show her

personality as well as her mental age.


As well as the overall design there is also the movements to consider.


Then there are the accidents that happened when creating her. She has a bug in her design where

sometimes when in cut scenes one of her eyes will drift off and look in a different direction. And

as it was look into it was decided that it was a good addition to the character to help her like this.

This is like when people say you fall in love with people’s imperfections. This became a big thing

about her character that it became one of her greatest traits.

sear (his username)

in attempting to make contacts i have branched out to friends of friends that play games more than living day to day life. one of these happens to work with a small game producer in america.
i didnt have many questions to ask yet because i dont have a solid question to work with yet but i asked about the practical means of concept art and i was told that:
- keep it realistic yet origional
- stay away from alien like technology as it isnt a widening market yet
- a lot of work if from luck and asking or talking generally to people
- gave a few american based sites to look at
- digital work is the most looked for media currently

current reflection on whats improved

from the start of the module up til now i believe that i have furthered what i want to do with the project, however i am still a little uncertain on how to approach the written part of it.

opposed to that the practical is starting to pick up. i have created many mini character sketches that i really love making. these allow me to challenge myself very quickly to make a large range of characters and monster designs. although the module hasnt progressed much yet, i believe that i myself in creating this process of making characters, feel like i have already improved my understanding of origional and out of the box thinking with my sketches.

to be able to make so many drawings make me feel like i can develope any of them to be someone exciting and give them personalities.

- i am still to decided where to take these initial sketches in terms of relation to where my essay is going to go, owever in reklation to what i have so far i think its a good start.

tutorial with tutor-

- you have notes but they need to be written up in the essay
-introduction needs to be spelled out because i dont know the direction of the essay yet.
- flesh out the rest of the chapters
- bibliography needs to be attatched
- practical work needs further development
-blogging, make reflective posts and put them up! -dont leave drafts hiding

character design

http://taughtbyapro.com/what-is-character-design/

What is Character Design? Character Design Definition: A Character Designer is an artist that creates new, original characters (sometimes shortened to “OCs”) for a purpose. It can be a character based on a definition from a story or script as would be the process in Feature Films, TV Series, Video Games, Children’s books, Web animation, Comic books, Comic strips, or even Licensing or Toy Design.

Purpose and Style of Character Design

Style comes into play dependent upon which format the character is needed for. The range of character design hierarchy can go from extremely graphic (like “Hello Kitty”) to very photo-realistic (as with CG animated characters like the “Hulk” in the Avengers film series). The basis of creating a character design is still first and foremost dependent on drawing ability. Weather it is with pencil and paper, or drawing digitally on a tablet or Wacom Cintiq (often called “Tradigital” art), computers or programs are not at the heart of this beginning phase of the process. The character designer must have a strong knowledge of all the drawing and design principles to create an appealing character that best fits the needs of the story at hand. Once approved, the concept artwork of the character can then go on to be modeled in the computer to create a 3D version that can then be used in video games or CG animation. In the larger studios, another person, not the character designer, creates the character modeling.

What Does a Character Designer Do?

What does a character designer do? As mentioned in the definition, the character designer is usually the first person on a production (film, video game, TV series, etc.) to begin visualizing the characters from descriptions given to them for a given story.

some artist influences borderlands

Looking at these boards, I am inspire. To make something of the same quality. To me these are very sucesaful as each board holds detail to particular character, and they don't usually only show the final design. They look at key features of the character and how it is a memorable feature. 

These two boards are of great quality, it shows the process and how they arrived at the best result. It has barely any text yet it shows the strengths and how the best features have been brought forward. From sketch to final. 

cinematics of overwatch

As well as character boards and the completed in game designs, oberwatch like few other games create cinema ring that are used to primerily attract people to play the games. 

However these do more than that as a whole, it allows the producers and developers to show who the characters are at heart. What they believe in and how they act. This is a fantastic way of creating a connection between viewer and character as you are seeing the world from their perspective, you get to see their abilities, their dedication and their personality through a short, relatively realistic cinematic animation. 

To have work and designs made into moving and visually inspiring work like this would be an ultimate goal of mine, but to get from where I am now to there I have a lot to do. 

youtube vids with cinematics of league

observation of expression****

looking into how a character causes empathy, im looking at how people communicate and create empathy in real life situations. these are pretty much allways based og facial expressions and been in situations with oyther people.
so in games should be similar i imagine.
causiong spmeone to empathise or relate to a character can be in the detail of the face. as technology has gotten much better than it used to be in say the 90's when i started to play games, one thing i have noticed is the significant quality of character and designs improvement. the detail in faces and body can now look virtually real. even the motion of breathing is commonly put into characters, showing the body and mouth move when inhaling. making them lifelike.

from this i think i should look at expressions and how memorable characters faces are structured?
i dont have much of a starting point yet in terms of practical work but i think this would be an interesting place to begin.

empathy and character are of huge interest to me, so if i can find out how its effective then i may be able to find some inspiring areas to look inti

Over watch

Some character boards and designs from the new game overwatch.

Overwatch is possibly one of the biggest games to come out in 2016, so as an up to date look into what games companies are working with is a pretty interesting subject. As over the years you can really see themes that became prominent wishing games industries, it will be important for me to keep up with how it's formulated and what trends are coming up. 

Looking at the designs, the majority of modern games are working with the theme of post war or technology driven cities. As this is a heavily reoccurring theme I am thinking something along those lines so I can criticise my work in comparison to theirs. 

This will help me see where I am and where I should improve my abilities.

character relation to culture

when looking into character design i now know from the research that it isnt enough to just draw a character on a piece of paper and give it a personality. it needs to be places in a world or culture.

to look at how different cultures act and dress, allows me to broaden not only my ideas but also respect for cultural ideals and how they came to apprecuiate different things. when making characters this will help me get into their minds and see where they come from within a comunity or a culture.

peer review -