Character and Environment Design 2015/16

Character and Environment Design 2015/16 

Learning Outcomes as set out in the ICA 

1. Demonstrate a comprehensive and critical understanding of the issues relevant to character design in various contexts.

The image I have chosen that I feel demonstrates a level of critical understanding is in response the Captain Planet brief. The brief looked at taking a pre-existing IP and redeveloping it for a new audience. For me the character was something I felt almost repulsion too, the idea that a load of young kids from around the world would come together to fight the forces of evil, from a pseudo hippy saving the environment background didn’t work then and almost certainly wouldn’t work now. So I decided to push Captain Planet to a more contemporary setting.

I have been fascinated by Drag Queens since an early age, and felt that by taking Captain Planet and turning him into Captain Planetta could work really well. The work for Tom of Finland was a massive influence, and really did feed into the main pose for the character. The whole idea behind the story was that Planetta and his five ring bearers , were all living together in an apartment and would basically try to put the world to rights by not even leaving the building, this would probably have made a really interesting sit com , much like Frasier, or the Young ones. I feel I managed to keep to a comic book style whilst giving Planetta his own look, I would have liked to push the costumes further, looking more at the work of Jean Paul Gautier and Vivienne Westwood, this would probably be an area I would look to develop in the future.

2. Demonstrate a comprehensive and critical understanding of techniques and methods appropriate to the chosen area of design.

I have chosen the Environment designs produced for the Scourge brief as an example of my process. It was massively important for me when designing the environment that it didn’t look like anything else, and the idea of using old school pen and ink, with a dip pen was just a test to see if I could come up with a something different and a new look for my game. 

I also carried out a comprehensive photo-shoot of buildings on the quayside in Newcastle to make sure my environment was grounded in reality. All of the time I was looking for modularity and the possibility of creating large numbers of assets that had variation but also visual interest in the world, I set out to find beauty in the misery of the environment and feel I have managed to scrape the top of this. Further development would allow me to start building the world, but then use the hand drawn textures to bring the environments to life. One of the most important things in games is a believable world that is unique, and I feel the work I managed to create is like nothing I have seen in a previous game.

3. Act autonomously in the research and synthesis of visual materials to support and inform the creation of original concepts.

The moodboard created to indicate the styling decisions for Captain Planetta I feel was my way of showing how I had selected key images, and how they had gone on to influence the creation of the artwork. Visually it was important to pick not only particular assets, but more specifically look at textures and surfaces when it came to creating Planetta, there was a lot of latex and see through plastics that would all work together to create the outfit, so I was thinking not only of the actual Concept artwork, but also how the moodboard could be used to inform shader set up in a game engine.

 

4. Critically evaluate and defend your own work in the context of contemporary practice.

When creating the artwork for the Scourge brief, one of the most important decisions was the look and feel of the final game. We were given artists that were from a very particular time in history, so for me using their artwork helped to really focus on the look of the work. From an artistic point of view, I struggle with the look and feel of digital artwork, it does feel very controlled and the use of photographs in a lot of concept artwork really takes away the focus and skill of the artist. For me looking at the work of Hieronymus Bosch,

which massively influenced my bird headed infantrymen, was a massive learning opportunity. Initially I set out to mimic the bird world and selected a number of real birds to graft onto the characters, but looking at Bosch it helped me realise these birds were bird like but weren’t actual species, quite often he would mix a number of birds to create the chosen character. This technique helped to create the infantryman, who is a mix of Kookaburra, Gannet and a Crow. Individually this didn’t work, but using this mix and match technique it really helped to come up with a creative response to the brief.

I also struggled with the proportions of the characters and the size of the heads; initially I wanted to have a cartoonier Manga style look to the characters, with big heads and enlarged eyes. However this seemed to go against what I was trying to achieve. I used the work of the Chapman brothers to inspire the city; I wanted it to feel like one of their dioramas and have that hostility come across in the envrioenmtn. By looking also at Frank cho this helped when I was designing Planettas side kick, again this idea is firmly grounded in manage and anime and has been pivotal in the creation of the character.

 

5. Explore, critically evaluate and implement the appropriate skills relevant to the creation of character design.

For me one area that I feel works well is the quick pen and ink drawings that I use at the start of the project , this is my way of getting the roughest of designs out of my head and on to paper. The drawings seem to flow really well and have an elegant beauty and a quality of line that feels spontaneous and alive. 

 Quite often I see people developing paintings that get more static and over painted as they go through production. For me this kills the artwork, the scourge character is very borderline in this aspect, there are sections of the painting that feel fresh and alive, however it is starting to get that starchy feel to it. This biggest shock for me has been the use of the ink scraper pen, it gives beautiful line and has a quality that you just dont get in the digital realm, and again this doesn’t seem to work in the scans that have been made of the drawings.

For me the quality of traditional media is becoming more important and I feel I am on the verge of shunning computer based art work for a more traditional based approach. By actually sculpting my own characters with clay I believe I will get better 3d form and have a better understanding of weight and fluidity when it comes to character design.

6. Operate ethically demonstrating critical understanding of the issues governing good practice. 

Plagiarism is an area that ethically causes a lot of issues when it comes to concept art practice. For me I try to research the subject without looking at particular artists and their approach to certain projects. However there is a difference between blatant copying and producing artwork that has similar qualities when it comes to finish, subject matter and technique. I would say I am massively influenced by the work of Frank Cho and Jamie Hewlett, yet my work isn’t riddled with their content. This does seem to be a big issue with a number of students though and it is relatively easy to see the link between their own work and other work that exists .Nothing is totally original and you will always find someone who has created your idea/ character, but the reason we do it is to bring a little bit of ourselves to the table and try to create believable characters to fit into our environments.

7. Demonstrate an independent and reflective approach to personal and professional development.

For me I am always happy with the work for about ten minutes, then all the mistakes and issues float to the top and make me want to start the work again. Have I learnt anything completing this module, yes I have it has been a massive learning curve creating artwork that fits particular style and genre. So the planetta brief really helped me to think about comic book creation and the beauty of hand drawn inked artwork and the pseudo photo slap brushes used by a number of contemporary artists.

What would do differently? More variations on Planetta, oil paint the environments for the scourge on a massive scale, experiment more with hand painted textures on 3d models, I feel I am just scraping the surface of where I can take the Scourge, and will be looking to really push this experimentation through the next module. I feel, like my drawn artwork and quality of line is getting better, but need to forget about Photoshop as a means of production, as David Hockney says it’s boring and to be honest doesn’t feel like a proper painting package. I am much more interested in mixing paint on a platte and applying it to a surface, and looking at the actual mark making instead of this pseudo gloss you get with digital media.