I had two main goals when approaching the creation of my major project. The first was to test my artistic ability and see if I could convey a story through an environment scene. The second was to prove that I had the skills necessary to create a game-ready environment and assets that were fit for purpose within Unreal Engine. Both of these goals required their own set of criteria that has informed my creative decision making throughout the duration of this project.
To evaluate whether the visual design of my game environment successfully communicated what I wanted to say to my audience, I developed a set of criteria based on a methodology for analysing mise-en-scene within films. Film, much like video games, employ a visual language to convey emotion, themes and story to players and audiences. I felt that it was important to understand how filmmakers and set designs approach mise-en-scene and apply a similar level of analysis to my own work.
I paid consideration to the space, light, colour, differences of exterior and interior design, and set decoration to create a thematically appropriate environment that would tell its own story without the use of any dialogue. I feel this approach has helped me to critically and objectively evaluate the successes and shortcomings of my skills as an environment artist. By organising my environment into these categories I have been able to tackle each element of my design individually and evaluate them on their own merits. For example I experimented with lighting in a separate scene first so that I wouldn’t be tempted to leave the scene with one setup if it was starting to look good. I wanted to experiment with different lighting scenarios and give myself an unbiased perspective without interference from the other elements at play.
In addition to my evaluative criteria, I was influenced by a variety of sources from the forefront of the industry. I would study the work of other artists and try to evaluate what I felt made their work in particular at the forefront. Often times these examples would inspire my own creative process and I would attempt to emulate them within my own environment. Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) for example features an environment that has run rampant with overgrowth and it was this that prompted me to greatly increase the level of foliage and vegetation within my scene. I was able to justify this as a story element because it indicates to the player how much time has passed since anyone has dwelt in the mansion.
Alongside my criteria and artistic influences, I was also mindful of the technical limitations of Unreal Engine. I had to ensure that my scene would run at a solid sixty frames per second for optimal visual performance. I took particular care in making all of my assets fit-for-purpose within the engine, being aware of the polygon count of each asset. As my target audience are gaming studios and other environment artists, it was important for me to prove that I was adhering to the industry standard on both an artistic and technical level.
During the development of the environment I have received critique and feedback by posting my work on forums such as Polycount. This has helped me to not view my work in total isolation and align my expectations with reality. It would have been easy for me to create something that I thought was visually appealing and be done with it, but I have had to take on board feedback, apply evaluative criteria and build the environment to meet the technical specification of the game engine. When taken together, these factors have been responsible for the final results I have achieved during Semester C.
No comments:
Post a Comment