Weekly summary

This week we first had a Games industry talk with "Steven Huckle" The talk was about the art side of the games industry which was really good to hear as previous talks we have been too have been about other areas in the industry. He spoke about his jobs roles and what he had worked on in the past and showing us some examples of what he had done in the industry. He also spoke about other game roles within the industry such as coder, audio, lead artists just to name a few. After the talk we were then given our next briefing for our next project which is our specialism. (Concept Art). For my specialism I have been given a development project to do with two choices that we can base them off, these are:

1. Product design - Vehicle,weapon etc...
2. Applied anatomy - Human bodies etc...

I chose the applied anatomy because if I was to work in the games industry I would like to be a character designer so I thought this would be the best option for me, it would be great to become better at this as I feel I need a lot of improvement. I have 3 weeks to produce more than two final pieces of work, the character or characters that I design needs to be in a scene of some sorts, this could be a character fighting in a battle or a character walking through a woodlands there is loads of possibly. I decided to go with a sci fi themed, I will aim to produce at least three final painting of three different characters and If I can I will try and do a Z brush sculpt of a human face with muscles showing like a ecorche piece. I am not confidence with poses so this should be interesting to see how I get on. The three characters that I will draw were first going to be a solider, a fighter pilot and a nurse which were going to be very sci fi like for example like the game "Destiny". I have now changed my mind I will still be creating three characters but all the characters will be warriors but with a sci fi theme and a cultural style, such as:

1. Tribal African woman
2. Samurai man
3. Eskimo man

In Z brush this week we were given a task, the task involves to create a creature in the next coming weeks to completion this will need to be textured/coloured creature. The theme of the creature is based from a swamp location, the aim is to design a swamp creature that is able to have a rider to sit atop of it and ride it through a swamp. There are lots of possibility's for this project. For most of the session I did some research on what animals live in the swamp lands. I have decided to go with a crocodile like creature which will have some likeness of a alligator snapping turtle. I was thinking of having a creature that has more likeness to a crocodile but with a turtle like shell and is designed for both water and land movement. In the session I did attempt to use the Z sphere to put down a rough shape for my creature but for some reason I had trouble with the mirror tool and it caused my model to become unequal and it made it difficult to work with, so by the end of the session I decided I would start again in my next Z brush session.

jorge cervera hauser, (2013), jorge cervera hauser- Croc [ONLINE]. Available at: http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/u/ss/fQYSUbVfts-T7pS2VP2wnKyN8wxywmXtY0-Fwsgxpi6uzxLEby-n2lMQMrcyOHkXthr9ToaReeVmArKRc3-R/ [Accessed 10 December 2016].

www.pinterest.com, (2014), kaprosuchus saharicus [ONLINE]. Available at: http://s53.photobucket.com/user/TigerQuoll/media/dinosaur/article-1229250-074774C1000005DC-94.jpg.html [Accessed 10 December 2016].

Tony Mackrill, (2014), man eating nile crocodile [ONLINE]. Available at: http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/u/ss/fQYSUbVfts-T7pS2VP2wnKyN8wxywmXtY0-FwsgxpiZv_E9ZfPsNV5B0ER8-bOdruvNfMD5EbP4SznWz4PYn/ [Accessed 10 December 2016].

Complex01, WikimediaCommons, (2015), giant alligator snapping turtle [ONLINE]. Available at: http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/alligator_snapping_turtle.jpg [Accessed 10 December 2016].

Above are some images of examples of what I am aiming for and of a crocodile and alligator snapping turtle.

Contextual studies this week I could not attend as I had a doctors appointment, but I believe the lecture was about narrative in video games. I will look into this lecture on the VLE.

In anatomy this week we looked at the shoulder in more detail and how it connects to the body. Also we looked at the upper body such as the rib cage and shoulder movements.

Later in the week I had a tutorial with my contextual studies tutor, we spoke about a few different topics one being the essay, he gave me some ideas and useful sources I could use to help me as I am still feeling a little lost on what my main subject will be on. We also spoke about my development project and my ideas for this task, it was good to get a tutors option on my development project. In my Friday session I continued to do research on character design for my chosen theme. And some ecorche studies.

This week we were also given a task to find a 5 artist's portfolios that we like and to analysis them on our likes and dislikes, as well as looking into different job roles within the games industry that I would be interested in.  

Job roles


1. Character artist - To be a character artist you will need to have knowledge of anatomy and architecture. Be able to draw from life, be able to work from a style guide, have good communication skills and be imaginative and creative just to name a few.

2. QA tester - To be a QA tester you will need to have good communication skills, to have a good knowledge of game titles on the market, paying close attention to detail and not only know how to identify and record a problem (Bug) but also be able to work out what is causing the problem. I know that QA testing is a different route to the creative side of the games industry but I have heard that it can be a good way of getting onto the industry and to make connections.

3. User interface (UI) Artist - To be a UI artist in the game industry you will need to have strong 2D sketching skills, have strong communication skills and to work well in a team, have current knowledge of game engines such as UE4, Unity, Cry engine, and to have a keen eye for composition and usability.

5 artist portfolios


1. Sergi Brosa- (https://www.artstation.com/artist/sergibrosa)  is one of my favourite artist in the last few years, seeing his work in a art magazine I was a fan instantly of his work, I really like the style of his work with it's cartoon like appearance, I find that some of my piece of work that I have done have some similar characteristics because of using line work within our art.

As you can see in the images of Sergi Brosa work, you can see the very cartoonist style, and the line work, even though I do find his line work isn't as solid as mine it still reminds me of some of my own work style. I like how he shades the characters and assets in his work, it is of a cell shaded finish. His character designs are very strong and well detailed. I attain the feeling that he does not place many of his characters in environment pieces, it would be nice to see more of this.

2. Cedric Peyravernay- ( https://www.artstation.com/artist/cedricpeyravernay) Has worked on the video game title 'Dishonor'. The reason I love his work is because it is very traditional and that he uses very textured brush stokes that give his paintings life.

I chose these two paintings of his because it show differences between both of them. The first painting shows neat brush strokes with less texture within the painting, this painting also shows good light source, it also shows here that his art style can be changed slightly and done with confidence. In the second painting of the woman you can see the textured brush strokes very clearly here, I like how he has merged the background to her skin giving it the illusion that she has a piece of clothing on.

3. Edouard Caplain - (https://www.artstation.com/artist/edouardcaplain) Edouard Caplain has worked as an artist for the game ' Life is Strange' This is a reason I chose him as one of my chosen artist, because I really enjoy the game and it's expressive art style.

The two paintings above are very different in style but the reason I chose this two paintings of his is because I think they show how the artist can mold his style to the theme of the video game. The first image is from Life is strange with very bold brush strokes and colours giving this piece a moody demeanour. Where in this second piece from the game 'Alien Isolation' the mannerism is very distant because of how he has used the line work, it is in a cell shaded approach.

4. Stephen Bliss - ( http://www.stephenbliss.com/) The first time I noticed his work was when I was younger and played the video game 'Grand theft auto 3'. I remember seeing the game case and liking the style, but when 'Grand theft auto Vice City' was released and with a added poster inside the game case was when I really appreciated the style of art work. The cell shading of the promo art is really effective with the theme of the setting of GTA Vice City, and I believe without using this style of promo art the game wouldn't be as recognisable as it is today, he really set the scene with his art.

In these two paintings both are differ in technique, the first as a more realistic painting and the second with cartoon like traits. Rock star have released more games since GTA Vice City but as the player you do notice the similarly in each piece of promo art from the old to new titles. I personally prefer the cartoon like pieces more than the realistic pieces, because it is a style I prefer.

5. Emrah Elmasli - (http://emrahelmasli.tumblr.com/) Has worked on videos games such as ' Fable 3' Fable is one of my favorite art styles in a video games especially it's character designs.

The first two painting you see are classic Fable style pieces, but the last is a very changed take from the fable games. I like this painting, but if I was to see this without knowing the artist I wouldn't of guessed it was Emrah work. The character design painting is one of my favourite pieces. I have in the past given it ago on my own take of Emrah Elmasli style.

Development work

This was a moodboard that I did before I changed my idea.

Here are some thumbnails just to give me more of an idea of where I was going to go with the character pose or action in a scene.

This are some quick designs for one of my sci fi characters. I no longer worked with these designs as I did change my idea to a cultural themed warrior instead.

The drawings above are some encroe studies that I wanted to do, I did them to get a better understanding of where the muscles would be placed. I really did enjoy doing these and I do feel like I have gain some knowledge of muscle placement, I will remember this for my future anatomy drawings.