Major Project: Pre-Production 2

Changing Concept

I have decided to stop working on my recreation of the Brighton Pavilion and go in a new direction for my major project. I am still eager to create a large scale environment, however I would like to add more of my own creative flair to the project. I began to feel that by recreating the Brighton Pavilion I was locking my ideas down to an existing structure and location, which was making it difficult for me to get engaged creatively with the project. In essence I no longer want to merely replicate an existing place but instead create a project that is entirely unique and shows off my creative ability to the fullest. I believe by making this change I will be much more mentally stimulated as I create the environment, removing the limitations I was feeling when creating the Brighton Pavilion.

Abandoned Mansions

As I stated in my previous post, I am really excited by the concept of the game environment telling a story. When deciding what environment I could create that would best encapsulate this idea, my mind was drawn to abandoned structures. Abandoned buildings immediately start generating all sorts of interesting ideas. Why is this building abandoned? What happened to the people who lived there, and what were the events that led up to this? 

I have the idea of creating a large(ish) mansion that a player can then explore and piece together what happened just by studying the environment. I think this idea gives me a lot of room to get creative with environment assets and props.

I want to break down the environment into several distinct areas and would like to create the following as part of my major project:

• A large exterior environment.
• Several small interior environments.
• Unique assets that will populate the level.

The large exterior environment will serve as a "front cover" of sorts for the level. It will be the first thing the player sees away in the distance and entice their curiosity to enter and then explore the mansion. Each room of the mansion will tell a piece of the story. Simple elements like placement of objects and the dilapidation of the building can be used by the player to work out the events that led up to the mansion becoming abandoned.

The Theme

I have started looking at old mansions but the style and location of the building isn't determined yet. I would like to get this locked down soon, as this will inform the basis for the buildings design and story of the environment.

Major Project: Pre-production 1

Research - Telling a story through the exploration of an environment. 

I consider the ability to evoke atmosphere, emotion and story through the simple act of a player exploring a game level, to be the ultimate achievement of any environment artist. Video games are truly unique in that a player has complete freedom to explore a game world at their leisure, discovering secrets the designers have intricately hidden throughout the environment. The way in which these secrets are discovered, can ultimately shape how the story is experienced by the player. You can convey a particular theme and illicit emotion through the way you make the person playing the game explore the environment. It's this aspect of video games that I really want to build on throughout the development of my major project.

The fact that video games are inherently non-linear, presents me as an environment artist, with a lot of opportunities to exploit this interesting facet of the medium. Essentially what I am interested in creating is a large environment filled with visual information that the player can choose to access at any point and in any order. By exploring the environment in this non-linear fashion the player will discover new areas of the level that provide visual clues as to what the story of the game may be. My intention is that the game environment will tell its own story, no text or voice overs to fill in what may have happened. Through this method of play, the person exploring the environment will use what they have discovered and the way in which they came across the information to tell the story.

P.T. (Silent Hills Playable Teaser) 2014

This is a short psychological horror video game developed by Kojima Productions and released in 2014. The game served as a playable teaser for the unfortunately cancelled "Silent Hills" being directed by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro, hence the name "P.T."

The player takes control of an unknown protagonist who awakens in a seemingly haunted suburban home. Throughout the game the player explores a continually looping corridor. Every time the player opens the door at the end of the corridor, they will find themselves back where they started. This is a perfect example of what I mentioned earlier, in that the way the player explores and experiences certain events throughout the game, they can form a narrative without actually being told directly.

The fact that the main character is stuck in a never ending corridor suggests they are experiencing some kind of purgatory and can never leave. As you continue to walk down this repetitive corridor you get a horrible feeling of claustrophobia, and I think this is a fantastic example of how games can be used to convey emotion and story through exploration of environments.

When taken on its own, the level is essentially a simple room to traverse with a single entry point and exit. However it’s how the designers have been able to make such a simple level feel genuinely terrifying through the way in which the player explores the environment, that makes this game so interesting to me.

GameZone (2014) Silent Hills P.T. Complete Walkthrough with Ending [Online Video] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6NCC-nnvMU&t=226s [Accessed: 25th February 2018]

Rewind Brief: Update 3

Scaling the Environment

Because the scene will be fully explorable in VR, I need to make sure I build everything to the correct scale. I created a new level within Unreal Engine and placed my blockout model inside.

My environment blockout in the Unreal Engine level editor.

Using the first person blueprint view as a reference, I created a 200 x 100 cm cube to represent human dimensions. When compared to the first person view mode this seems about the right height to scale objects against.

A 200 x 100 cm cube to aproximate human dimensions.

In order to make sure the scale of my 3DS max scene corresponds to that of the game engine, I have set the units scale setup to the metric system and enabled centimeters:

Setting up the correct measurements for the 3DS Max scene.

With the unit scale set to the metric system I will be able to create another 200 x 100cm cube in 3DS Max and have it match the scale of the one I created in Unreal Engine.

The scale of the 3DS Max Cube matches Unreal Engine perfectly.

With this size check complete, I can be certain that anything I create in 3DS max will be to the correct scale and proportions within Unreal Engine 4.

Rewind Brief: Update 2

I have begun making a modular asset that will be repeated throughout the environment. See below the creation of the first modular asset, a steel girder:

I have created a blockout for the environment and placed the girder inside it:

So far I feel the environment is just a little too similiar to the environment work of Ben Procter. For the remainder of this month I will be creating detailed assets to populate the environment and add some originality to the scene.

Rewind Brief: Update 1

Time to showcase my progress on the environment so far! I have started by creating some control tower models for the environment. This feature will act as the focal point for the whole level so I want it to get it to look just right. Below you can see some preliminary designs I modelled in 3DS Max as well as some reference images for the tower itself:

Some references for the control tower design are below. I really love the angular design of these towers. I am aiming to create an industrial, hard edge looking hangar bay, so I feel these are a good example of the look I am going for:

Aliens (1986)

Halo 4 Concept Art (2011)
Bouvier, N. (2011). Halo 4 - Space Station Entrance. [Online Image] Available at: https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/000/355/855/large/sparth-nicolas-bouvier-space-station-hangar-fs.jpg?1443926434 [21/02/2018].

An airport control tower.

Star Citizen concept art.
Ferrand, N. Star Citizen - Asteroid Hangar. [Online Image] Available at: https://78.media.tumblr.com/35cc5c1304125db4d9c08c75850e1b33/tumblr_n7bjt8UAm91qmzsn0o3_1280.jpg [21/02/2018].

Major Project - Ideation

Over the past two weeks I have been modelling the Brighton Pavillion as part of my early development for my major project assignment.

Initially I was interested to see if I could create an architectural rendering in Unreal Engine 4. However I'm starting to loose interest in just recreating an existing building. I have decided to shelve this project temporarily and focus on the rewind brief for now.

Here is what I have created in 3DS max so far:

The model in Unreal Engine:

Rewind Visit - Live Brief

The live brief assignment has been set by the Virtual Reality studio Rewind based in St. Albans. I will be creating an environment that will house the mech in the reference image below. I have not been given any reference for the hangar environment that I will be creating, so I have started by finding reference that I think matches the artstyle of the reference below:

(Rewind: Mech Concept)

Below is a selection of artwork from different artists that I will be using as reference. I chose these in particular because I felt they have a somewhat realistic feeling, as well as architectural features that I would like to replicate in my design.

BOUDEWIJN, V. (2015). Mech Bay. [Online Image] Available at: http://vincentboudewijn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Spidermechbay_wide_v11.jpg [21/02/2018].

I really like the feeling of the environment in this image. You get a strong sense of the cold with all the snow and the light fog. It even has a mech similiar to the one in the brief! Despite the robot, the environment has a very realistic feeling due to the industrial girders. I will be aiming to replicate this level of gritty realism in my environment.

BOUVIER, N. (2011). Halo 4 - Space Station Entrance. [Online Image] Available at: https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/000/355/855/large/sparth-nicolas-bouvier-space-station-hangar-fs.jpg?1443926434 [21/02/2018].

I chose this image from Halo 4's art director Nicolas (Sparth) Bouvier. I really like the central control tower acting as the focal point of this image. This is an architectural feature that I want to to include in my own environment as I feel it will be a good starting point to start building the hangar around.

LIM, K. (2017). Front Mission: A Moment Alone. [Online Image] Available at: https://pre00.deviantart.net/acd4/th/pre/f/2010/327/5/5/555a1cac6d7ed5b2d208a6ec52890428-d33fy8k.jpg [21/02/2018].

PROCTOR, B. (2012). Prometheus > Garage / Landing Feet. [Online Image] Available at: http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/p/728404/14717919/1337573920933/magellan_ext_airlock_101108_newdownspots_radiusedsquare.jpg?token=mxbycGVNm7OjUx%2Fgiq4dUkErdoA%3D
 [21/02/2018].

This is a development image from the film Prometheus (2012) created by artist Ben Proctor. He has worked on big budget films Avatar (2009) and Tron: Legacy (2010). His work is extremely helpful as reference because he included his iterative processes, making it easy to understand how he has developed his environments.