Games as art - Project 1 (LEVEL 2 GAMES DESIGN)

Timeline of games art

Pong –Made in 1972 by the company  ‘Atari’. It was a table tennis simulator game. Pong was 2D and had simple graphics as only two white rectangles were used as the players/bats and one white square to represent the ball.

Space Invaders – Made in 1978 by the company ‘Taito Corporation’. The main purpose was to shoot at invaders trying to get to the bottom (Earth). Space invaders were 2D and had simple pixel graphics and had a number of different types of enemy invaders with different shapes. There is a tank that is controlled by the player and there were objects in the way between the player and enemy invaders. There was more graphics involved with more things on the screen.

Pac Man – Made in 1980 by the company ‘Namco’. The purpose was for the player to collect white pellets before the ghost touch the player. Pac Man was 2D and it had a simple pixel graphics for Pac-Man, the ghosts, the pellets and the level design.

Super Mario Bros. – Made in 1985 by the company ‘Nintendo’. The purpose was for Mario to get through each level encountering different enemies, platforms and power-ups; also Bowser as the final boss. The graphics were better than games before with details for Mario, Enemies, Blocks and the backgrounds.

Outrun – Made in 1987 by the company ‘Sega’. The purpose was to drive as fast as possible and get a high score. The graphics were much better than most games before as there were details shown in the people, environment, background and the car.

Mortal Kombat – Made in 1992 by the company ‘Midway games’. The purpose was to fight opponents in a 1 v 1 arena battle. The graphics were similar to the game outrun, with 2D pixelated characters, however, it was not very colourful and had lots of gore like blood and guts.

The legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time – Made in 1998 by the company ‘Nintendo’. The purpose was to go on an adventure and fight monsters. The graphics were much better than games before it as it featured 3D which made games look more detailed and immersive.

Half-Life 2 – Made in 2002 by the company ‘Valve Corporation’. The purpose is to kill enemies and progress through the story. The graphics were incredible as there were much more detail than any other games out then with full 3D modelled guns, characters, buildings, objects, water, etc. There are lots of things on the screen at once because of the advancements of graphics.

Red Dead Redemption - Made in 2010 by the company 'Rockstar'. The purpose was to explore the wild west as a cowboy. The graphics were aiming to look as realistic as possible with characters having more expression than other games characters. 3D models were used for characters, buildings and other things.

The last Of Us - Made in 2013 by the company 'Nuaghty dog'. The purpose was really story driven as you were limited to certain areas per chapter to kill or hide from bandits/monsters. 3D models were used for the whole game, the graphics were really good as the environment used a variety of colours to give out different emotions to the players and the characters face models were good as real actors were used to make the models face look realistic.

Digital brushes art

Explanation - I go into image, adjustment then brightness/contrast to change the contrast and brightness of the image. I then go into image, adjustmemnts and then black & white to change an image's colour to black and white so that i can use it more easily as a brush and change colours if needed to. i experimented with the new brushes that i created. I used some pictures from the internet and some by creating spots so that i can create diffrent kinds of brushes with specific shapes for my work.





 Collaged creature experiment

I downloaded diffrent kinds of organic patterns and placed them into photoshop, i then created a blank new file titled 'creatures from patterns'. I went into the window tab, arrange and then i set it as 'tile all vertically' which split the page with the patterns on and the new empty page. I used the lasso tool to create random shapes in the pattern pictures. i used these new shapes i created to put them together and see what i could create; these were the result of what i put together. i then put them all on one page and numbered them from 1 to 7. Most people voted for number 7 whereas i voted for 4. i chose number 4 as it has the most potential of detail for it as there is a lot to add and design to the shape with its diffrent areas to design whereas 7 would be more simplistic. I also chose number 4 as it has a really intresting shape than the rest of the creatures.

Creatures artist style

Mike Ward

They used a hard brush for the creature for the outline and colours of the creautre as the outline resembles a bunny with big ears but a humanoid body. The main colours used are blue, grey and some red; blue is used for the eyes and centre of the creatures body to show that a blue energy is coming from inside the creature, grey is used to show that the creature is made out of wood, red is used for a fungus growing on the wood part of the creature. It is an unrealistic art style as the creature has a bunny's head and a humanoid body, it also had an open hole in its torso. Arrows are sticking out one of its arm and a lamp is hanging from its ear.

My artist interpretation of Mike Ward's drawing was lost. I did not like it very much as the colours were diffrent from the original and the shape of the rabbits head was diffrent from the original picture; i tried to draw the head of the creature accuratly with similar shapes of the head, eyes, ears and similar colours.

I used the pen tool in photoshop for the first time. With the pen tool, i can create smooth shapes and straight/smooth lines.

Concept artist

Ryan Church was the concept artist of many movies and games. He created concept art for games such as dead space, Lord of the rings: The battle of middle earth ll, etc. The concept shows dark buildings that are on the edge of a cliff with tentacals reaching out from the bottom of the cliff giving the concept an eerie feeling and setting the genre of it as horror; its a  good way to show what the game is like, being dark and scary. Theres a light coming from the left side of the screen which can make the concept seem like theres hope in the dark place. The sky is split between dirty grey clouds and the dark black sky that could be space which would show that the concept is not set on earth, but another planet thats desolated.

Creature drawing

First, I drew my hands to see how well I drew them with my right hand, left hand, chin, etc. Afterwards, I used one of the hands as a template for a creature that I was going to create. I used the fingers mainly to create diffrent creature designs.

From the hand drawing, I created a shape of some kind of creature that was like an elephant and flying with a wing and some hair on its tall head. Once I finished the outline, I started to colour in the creature with grey colours and brown (Grey was used as elephants are grey) and brown used for the hair.

I made it have a bolder grey colour instead of the two different types of greys that I used previously. I made the head/hair thicker and added small details like wing lines and trunk nostril; also the small eyes that make the creature look angry.

I made the head/hair lower and changed the wing to ears and added a pink colour for the inside of the ear (I took some inspiration from Dumbo, since he has big ears). I added some shade behind the ear added a small mouth under the trunk; the trunk was made a little thicker. I changed the eyes to small round eyes with white pupils to add a scared look to the creature with a shadow around the eyes to enhance the look of how scared the creature was (The creature is so scared that it can’t even sleep). I added small legs and feet so that the creature looked more abnormal and more detail.

I added three tails to the creature as well as changed the feet into claws. I toned down the shading so that it’s a lighter black. This is the finished creature design.

My creatures personality is shy. My creature lives in a tropical rainforest so the environment would be hot and moist. My creature would fit into a RPG/fantasy game as one of the enemies. A RPG/fantasy game would affect the lighting style of the creature to be where light is shining from, such as the moon or sun.

Line drawing

I had an object that i had to draw onto paper.

Zombie game explanation  

 The explosions and bullet are outside the layer because I don’t want the player to see them as they are only for being spawned in, not to already be on the level as it would not look right. Only the player, zombies and score text are on the level because they are what I want the player to see straight away

In the events page, I first created an event with the system so that with every tick of the game, the player would always be looking at where the mouse is and set the text “score:” & score which combine the score that the player can see and the score that the game has counted.

Event 2 involves the mouse where every left click would cause a bullet to be spawned from the player on layer 1, but from the gun when including (image point 1) that was set just at the end of the gun.

Event 3 includes the bullet, which has to do with the collision with the zombie. 1 point of health will be subtracted from the zombie’s total (3 health) and spawn an explosion where the bullet collided as well as destroy the bullet.

Event 4 involves the system which does something on the start of the layout (game). All the zombies will have a randomly set degree.

Event 5 will cause a zombie to set their angle towards the player’s position when they get outside the layout (level).

Event 6 will involve the zombie and when its health reaches 0 or below. When a zombie takes enough damage, it will spawn an explosion on layer 1 to show that it has died and be destroyed. 1 point will be added to the score. The event is caused when a zombies health is at 0 or below because if the player gets a better gun that does 2 damage, then the zombies health could go below to -1 and therefore not die.

Event 7 will cause the player to spawn a large explosion to show that they have died and be destroyed when a zombie collides with the player.

Event 8 will cause all zombies on the level to set their angles towards the player’s position when a bullet is created.

I have added more events to the events page to make the game more difficult and interesting.

I have updated the seventh event so that when the zombie does collide to kill the player, a “You died” message will show up with “Press space to restart”.

I have also updated the eighth event so that a new enemy called to “Boss zombie” will set their angle towards the player when a bullet is created.

Event 9 will include the system, where every 0.1 second will set the NPC’s angle towards a zombies X and Y position.

Event 10 will include the NPC. The NPC will have a line of sight to a zombie and when the NPC does this, the zombies will set their angle towards the NPC’s X and Y position.

Event 11 will include the system where at every 2 seconds; the NPC will spawn a bullet on layer 1.

Event 12 will include the zombie. When the zombie collides with an NPC, the NPC will spawn a large explosion on layer 1 to symbolise its death and be destroyed.

Event 13 will include the system where at every 50 seconds; a NPC will spawn on layer 1.

Event 14 will include the keyboard so that when the space button is pressed, the system will restart the layout (Level) and reset the score to 0. 

Event 15 will include the system where when the score reaches 50, the system will create the boss zombie on layer 1.

Event 16 will include the bullet so when it collides with the boss zombie, 1 health will be subtracted from its total health (25) and the bullet will spawn a large explosion and be destroyed.

Event 17 will include the boss zombie. When the boss zombie goes outside the layout, it will set its angle towards the players X and Y angle.

Event 18 will include the boss zombie’s health so that when it reaches 0 or below, the boss zombie will spawn a large explosion and be destroyed.

Event 19 will include the boss zombie so that when it collides with player, the player will spawn a large explosion and destroy the player. The death screen will show up by being set to 100 opacity (from 0 opacity)

Event 20 (Final) will include the system so that every 5 seconds will cause the system to create a zombie on layer 1 so that the level does not run out of zombies to kill.

 Measuring technique drawing

Unfinished drawing using measuring techinques by only using a pencil. Firstly, you close one eye, tilt your head so that its on your shoulder (Does not matter wether its left or right), keep your arm straight out and put your thumb on the pencil to try and find a measurement from an object by using the end of the pencil to mark one end of the measurement and your thumb for the other end of the measurement. You get the measurement from using a part of an object; then that measuremnt is used to add a constant measurement for the lines going through the middle so that the object that you're drawing does not look unbalanced.

 (The image is upside down)

This is my observational drawing. The left hand that was drawn was used with my right hand while i looked at my left hand. The same was done with the right hand, but i used my left hand to draw while looking at my right hand. I had also tried my elbow, chin and knee on another piece of paper (I have no pictures to show). By trying out these diffrent ways of drawing by observing my hand, i could get use to what my hand looks like and have an easier time of drawing my hand with more detail.

Lighting styles and effects

Tim Burton's painting shows the headless horseman on his horse in front of the moon that gives off light which makes the headless horseman and his horse to appear as silhouettes that creates a frightening effect. The light style for the lamp is like Tim Burton's light style as a strong back lighting is used to create an effect mystery as an illusion has been made to make it look like the lamp is actually giving out light. This kind of light style would fit perfectly in horror games as it gives an eerie atmosphere. 

Caravaggio shows the light in the Salome with the Head of John the Baptise painting coming from the top left which shines on the lady holding the platter and two people behind with shadows mostly covering them; the light focuses on everyone's faces to show their sadness and/or disgust. Caravaggio's painting has a hopeless effect to it as its shown that the people are disgusted. The light style is similar to Caravaggio's art style with a strong light coming from the top right, pointing down; this creates a dramatic effect that gives the lamp some kind of importance.This light style would fit into platform or adventure games as the light could signify an items importance that you need to find. 

Light sources 

These are my light source drawings, i had to make the objects have a light source by darkening part of the object to show one side that had no light hitting the object and slowly get lighter as i was shading towards the light source.

Evaluating my project

Describe

My project was about games as art and in it, I had to create experimental creature design that used my own cut out patterns of materials and an actual creature design where I used the paint tool to colour in the creature and use techniques like shading and blending. I was influenced by Mike wards art style and Dumbo’s design, there were no issues with using a similar art style to Mike Ward. I had to research the design of Mike Ward’s drawings, such as the colours, shape, body parts, etc.

The materials that I used was digital painting. A technique that I needed for the materials was changing the materials black & white so that they could easily be used with different colours for drawings.

The software that I used was Photoshop as I could use the paint brush tool, blending, smudge tool, etc. I used the smudge tool to create realistic looking hair on the creature.

Analyse

I try to make my art styles similar to Mike Wards art style. Mike ward and Caravaggio have two completely different art styles as Mike Ward aims for a fantasy style with unrealistic creatures and designs whereas Caravaggio’s art style is realistic with realistic people used. Mike ward influenced me more as his art style was more interesting and fun to use, especially for creature designs. I learned from Mike Ward that small details were important as they can give an idea as to what is going on in a painting, but I also learned from Caravaggio that shadows are important as they can set the mood in a painting that creates a sense of fear or hopelessness.

Materials I used were brick walls and tree tops to get a different design pattern. The software that I used was Photoshop. Only a couple of the materials were effective as they had the best patterns out of all of them. The tools and techniques were appropriate since they were used for drawing designs. There were no problems at all so no solution was needed. The only choice I had for drawing was black & white, colours, contrast and lighting.

I needed to research artist and their work to understand their art styles and use the same art style that I liked to draw my creature so that I could understand how my creature was going to be designed. I experimented with different designs by using different materials for my drawings. They were not very useful as it made my drawings look too out of place.

Evolve

What I don’t like about my work is that its 2D. The 2D makes the creature look unrealistic which is unlike Mike Wards creatures were they are made to look 3D; I was aiming to make it look 3D but I struggled to do that. I could develop the overall design of the creature to make it look more alien or out of this world, I could create more shadows to make the creature look 3D.

What I like about my work is the eyes and ears as I think they are the parts that stand out on the creature. I could add a third eye that would make that area on the creature stand out more.

What I could do to make the whole creative process easier is to stick to one main colour and use darker shades of that colour to make shadows on the creature and lighter shades for where the light source is coming from. Next time, I will spend more time on making the creature have a 3D effect so that it can look more realistic and not just a drawing. I could develop the creature to have one more main colour so that it could have stripes or spots, I can do this by just adding a colour that fits well with the colour I already used for my creature. I did research enough as there is evidence on my blog. I did not manage my time good enough as I still had some work to finish on the deadline day. I experimented enough as there is evidence on my blog.