Ive been a bit busy to post on here recently. Have been filling my 3rd sketchbook with the final concepts so thats going quite well. Worried some of my designs for my characters for the character editor might look a bit kinky, but its difficult to link the character editor into the game by letting the character be experimented on without chains etc. I really have nice designs for steampunk wings etc too so I don't really want the character lying down or you cant see them. So for the moment I've got a kneeling stance which allows the player to have a full 360 degree veiw while building their character.
Anyway Santa gave me a scanner for Xmas so ill add some images of my sketches up here shortly that I've been working on.
Definatly looking forward to building these characters and editors, feels so different than everything else. The programmer is doing a good job so far and I might have some of that stuff to put up here soon aswell. Time for some photoshop painting...
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Monday, 30 November 2009
Just a Note...
http://gamersinreallife.wordpress.com/2009/09/18/character-creation/
A good article I want to keep note of for my research, good quick read.
A good article I want to keep note of for my research, good quick read.
Steampunk
Stumbled across this steampunk style on the BBC news website. It could be quite relevant to my character design so I thought I'd make a post just to keep track. I admit it is very bioshock-ish but it would lead into a character editor extremely well.
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
End Credits
Hmm I watched the film gamer last night and in my twisted mind managed to relate it to my project. The film itself is as bad as you'd expect but the idea behind it is genius. It is set in the future with the public playing two games called Slayer and Society. Slayer is basically a FPS but instead of playing virtual characters you are controlling real people, ex cons on death row. I guess you couldn't get a game much more realistic than that. The society game was really cool, just like the Sims but again controlling real people that you wish to look like. These real people worked for the society game but were basically classed as prostitutes to the outside world. Anyway found this interesting.
Mistake in the trailer for the film, they say "the players are real people" whereas they clearly meant to say the characters or avatars are real people because obviously the players would be real people. I guess it depends on your take of the word "player"...
Also managed to pick up a good magazine about character design, the name escapes me for the moment but no doubt I'll reference it on here some point soon.
Mistake in the trailer for the film, they say "the players are real people" whereas they clearly meant to say the characters or avatars are real people because obviously the players would be real people. I guess it depends on your take of the word "player"...
Also managed to pick up a good magazine about character design, the name escapes me for the moment but no doubt I'll reference it on here some point soon.
Thursday, 19 November 2009
An Interesting Article...
I was just reading an article and even though it is based on the game Spore, it sums up my project quite strongly. Just making sure I make a note of it on here for future reference.
Screenshot from my copy of spore (character is one of the presets) to show interface not on a youtube video.
Also tryed to recreate myself in the Sims 3. Hmmm maybe I failed as an artist here...
Other design work...
Have been asked to make a poster for a Band Night, and thought I'd post it up it because I like the colour scheme I used and the simplicity of it all. Also had to quickly model a character for it which was good fun not having touched Maya in to long, been a bit busy with exciting research...
As far as my anatomy work goes, I've been working on the hands at the moment... my weak point, but I'm getting the hang of it. Wish I had a scanner so I could post some of my sketches up... never mind lets see what Santa brings this Christmas.
I have been reading through a journal which talks about the concept of embodiment, basically what stance the player takes in relation to a character while playing the game. It's been hard trying to describe this to people so I'm lucky I came across those words because it makes life a lot easier.
Realised I wrote my proposal slightly wrong which is a bit worrying, needed a much larger bibliography, which I have but I got confused at what you actually need to put in it. Ah well we will see what feedback I get next week.
Have been doing a lot of research on dark and grungy basements, and also on a mutated angel type theme... hmm I'd be able to describe that a lot better in images than in writing.
Small note that I noticed while looking closely is I used two different styles of red by mistake, my bad, maybe no one will notice.
As far as my anatomy work goes, I've been working on the hands at the moment... my weak point, but I'm getting the hang of it. Wish I had a scanner so I could post some of my sketches up... never mind lets see what Santa brings this Christmas.
I have been reading through a journal which talks about the concept of embodiment, basically what stance the player takes in relation to a character while playing the game. It's been hard trying to describe this to people so I'm lucky I came across those words because it makes life a lot easier.
Realised I wrote my proposal slightly wrong which is a bit worrying, needed a much larger bibliography, which I have but I got confused at what you actually need to put in it. Ah well we will see what feedback I get next week.
Have been doing a lot of research on dark and grungy basements, and also on a mutated angel type theme... hmm I'd be able to describe that a lot better in images than in writing.
Monday, 16 November 2009
After Crit Week
So my presentation went really well and I have handed in my initial project proposal, which is hopefully of a good standard. Had a good diccusion with other people in my group about my ideas which was helpful. I still really like the idea of making a similar character female and male. The idea of customising items came up also, but I don't want to go into to much detail.
Finished playing Call Of Duty which has some great characters in as always. The story line was slightly confusing and maybe a bit movie like but it was an incredible game. I especially like the character called Ghost, probably just from a visual point of veiw. He has a really cool mask which I will take some inspiration from. its about time I start filling my sketchbook with drawings for my main player character now too, I don't have a scanner though so I'm not sure if I will get chance to put anything up here.
Still a bit stuck on my enviroment ideas, can't get past operating theatre. hmm...
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Gender
I was reading about how gender effects game play and found this really interesting. This is where a character editor comes in extremely useful to make sure both sex's are happy. For example a lot of games are very orientated at male audiences, having sexy female Non-player characters for the players to 'fall for' such as in halo but nowadays the games industry is getting a far larged audience. I would like to incorporate the ability to choose a sex of character into my editor and I've got a few designs floating around in my head how I can go about doing this. Changing the sex of a character could have a large ripple effect on the rest of the game play though, maybe having to change story and love interests.
At the moment I've been working on my initial project proposal and should get most of it finished today. Will try and put up a list of tasks tomorrow just to give myself an online version to keep track of.
Anyway going to add another photo up here, I want to start showing should characters with a strong story behind them (lots of these in scrapbook but again just for an online reference):
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
A long weekend
So it's been a few days since I posted here, had a few more thoughts about my project since though. I was sat in class today and thought more about how the character editor could relate to gameplay aswell as story. I was thinking that the editor could be based on some kind of labratory with the player experimenting on their character which leads into the story, I thought this could have a bit of shock value. So alongside this idea I thought the edits you make to your character could change the gameplay slightly, for example difficulty, you could leave your character un-editted and in good condition, but if he doesn't have any protection then the game will be almost impossible, then again if you cut parts off and stuck robot parts and genetically modified arms to your character then the game would be a lot easier, except the character would be unhappy and harder to control or please. I do like this extra level of effect instead of just having an 'avatar'.
I think I might hop into Zbrush shortly and do some mock-ups for my presentation next week. Real shame COD4:MW2 has to come out the same week as the presentations...
Had to put up pictures of stalkers (the game...) here too, very cool outfit designs.
I think I might hop into Zbrush shortly and do some mock-ups for my presentation next week. Real shame COD4:MW2 has to come out the same week as the presentations...
Had to put up pictures of stalkers (the game...) here too, very cool outfit designs.
Also I have been having some internal debate about using the words "avatar" which from what I've read means a self representation or an alter ego but I think if your not giving unlimited control to the user then it's not really an avatar, as even the slightly common trait in a character editor creates character. And what if I'm not wanting to create a character to represent myself, but a character to adhere to the story best, I wouldn't class that as an avatar.
Finally got a hold of a book I've been trying to get from the library for a month called "Better Game Characters by Design". Will be extremely helpful reading this.
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Call of Duty 4: MW2 Pushing the Limits
Ok maybe this is going slightly off topic from my honour project but Infinity Ward are definatly pushing the limits of character and user relationships. They have just revealed that in their new game in a part which would usually just be a cinematic they make the player control a terrorist around an airport and they have to shoot un-armed civilians. Now even though everyone has seen many movies and game cinematics with violence, here IW are making the players carry through this scene and feel really emotionally connected with it. There has been a lot of debate online where this is right or wrong but I think it does bring the player into the game more if they want that. IW have been forced to make it so users can skip this level if they choose though but in my opinion it adds another level to game play. Very interesting...
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Whats the next step?
Added some more images to my sketchbook last night. Got a hold of the fashion magazine Dazed and Confused and took some good inspiration from this. This was mainly just inspiration for my actual character designs but I should really start looking at some character editors. I've had trouble finding some pictures of character editors as of yet so I'm just going to have to take the few games I have with them in and take screenshots, won't have that many though. Still have to work out how far I can actually take the making of a character editor because I don't want to plan a fully made one if I know I can only make something very basic, anyway I want most of the emphasis to be on the character and the subtle changes, not the actually interface of the editor. Came across and article talking about spore and its character editing process so will have to write something about that up here when I get chance.
Managed to find a youtube video of the fallout character editor, might be better posting videos up here rather than trying to find seperate images:
Spore has a very unlimited customisation process, but it is link in extremely well to the game. But in my own opinion it would be better that the creature evolved not how you choose it to, but depending on your actions during its life. This again would put the character artist in the driving seat and let people play a game instead of a simulator:
APB is the most recent character editor and one I should probably refer to a lot, it is very powerful and gives the users endless control over their characters, at the moment I don't want to give my users endless control, I just want to give them control over my final ideas which I feel fits into the gameplay. A video worth watching on it:
This video of Skate shows a bit from the character editor, a lot of sports games tend to have them I guess intending the users to create themselves, does anyone want to be themselves to an exact match though?
Yesterday I was talking to the Pre-Production tutor Mark and he made an interesting point about how game developers today allow players to customize their characters to generate income, buying things like armors and hats etc for real money. What are these people who spend their hard earned money getting in trade for it? Does it really add that much to the gameplay? Or just make them a bit more original than the people who don't spend their money.
From the post Craig made before I'll add the image here, it makes a good point about how all the suits of armor are basically the same but allows the player to make subtle differences to stand out.
Managed to find a youtube video of the fallout character editor, might be better posting videos up here rather than trying to find seperate images:
Spore has a very unlimited customisation process, but it is link in extremely well to the game. But in my own opinion it would be better that the creature evolved not how you choose it to, but depending on your actions during its life. This again would put the character artist in the driving seat and let people play a game instead of a simulator:
APB is the most recent character editor and one I should probably refer to a lot, it is very powerful and gives the users endless control over their characters, at the moment I don't want to give my users endless control, I just want to give them control over my final ideas which I feel fits into the gameplay. A video worth watching on it:
This video of Skate shows a bit from the character editor, a lot of sports games tend to have them I guess intending the users to create themselves, does anyone want to be themselves to an exact match though?
Yesterday I was talking to the Pre-Production tutor Mark and he made an interesting point about how game developers today allow players to customize their characters to generate income, buying things like armors and hats etc for real money. What are these people who spend their hard earned money getting in trade for it? Does it really add that much to the gameplay? Or just make them a bit more original than the people who don't spend their money.
From the post Craig made before I'll add the image here, it makes a good point about how all the suits of armor are basically the same but allows the player to make subtle differences to stand out.
Started a discussion on http://www.polycount.com/ to see if I could get some comments from some professional artists, didn't get a massive discussion but got some good input. Here's the link anyway just to check it out: http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=67003
Not sure if I quoted this before, but I came accross this again and beleive it sums up one arguement of my project very well:
"the more input a player has, the less character there is for them to beleive in".
Monday, 26 October 2009
Monday (original title day)
So over the weekend I've been doing some research on the connection between character and user. I think this is important to look at to see if the user requires a character editor to help make or break this connection. I was reading about an interesting game (the name of it escapes me for the moment) where the user controls a character and makes decisions for good or bad, but the more negative decisions the user makes the more rebelious the character becomes and harder to control they are. I thought this was really interesting as it adds another dimension to gameplay.
These "masked" chararacters really appeal to me now. There has been a few small appearences of them more recentely with next-gen games. I wish I could find somewhere where I could veiw the discussion the developers had when deciding not to have a full character, but a suit which the users can place themselves in. I beleive a suit can have a story attatched to it aswell, so its like a bridge between users and storyline which feels like a win win to me.
The crysis suit here shows very modern character design strongly relating to anatomy. Even though the colours of the character point to him being quite dark and evil the stance is a very positive very human stance. I guess because it's a war game its veiwing war as dark and evil whichever side your on. Maybe all you'd want to edit on this character if your playing him is the sex?
GTA was another interesting game to look into, it's one of those games most people would expect to have a character editing screen at the start but doesn't. I read about this slightly but still need more evidence to back this up, but part of the reason they don't have a character editing screen and why the main character doesn't have a great connection with the users is because of the violence in the game. If you had an emotional connection with the main character then you'd have an emotional reaction to the over-the-top violence in the game which can't be to good effect. Machine gunning down police officers as a russian mob member is a bit different than doing it as yourself I'd say. But a lot of that is based on opinion so should research that some more. The only GTA games I've played are the brilliant first ones, with the pixel characters and the storyline which noones bothers to follow. In the new GTA though they have a much stronger storyline so character development for this must have been a very detailed process.
I feel like crit week is catching up on me a bit and even though I feel like I have a question, I need to go about writing it down in an easily understandable manor. Want to get my scrapbook done and dusted aswell so I can begin on the fun part... concept art.
These "masked" chararacters really appeal to me now. There has been a few small appearences of them more recentely with next-gen games. I wish I could find somewhere where I could veiw the discussion the developers had when deciding not to have a full character, but a suit which the users can place themselves in. I beleive a suit can have a story attatched to it aswell, so its like a bridge between users and storyline which feels like a win win to me.
My final product is shaping up in my head as a character editing screen (as far as I am able to take that anyway) which a character I've designed (probably masked as my research is taking me) which gives the user limited options to make the character their own, but without any effect of the visuals which would effect story. Sounds confusing but for example, if the story relates to the main character being in a fire as a child which led to this gameplay then the character will have to have some burn marks on him/her whether the user likes it or not. One thing I am hoping to do is make a character the same, but one female version and one male version as I feel this would be a fun experiment to do. Usually aswell even the characters hidden by a suit you can tell from their appearence if they're female or male aswell.
The crysis suit here shows very modern character design strongly relating to anatomy. Even though the colours of the character point to him being quite dark and evil the stance is a very positive very human stance. I guess because it's a war game its veiwing war as dark and evil whichever side your on. Maybe all you'd want to edit on this character if your playing him is the sex?
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Early Morning Post
Just came in for a lecture this morning, so not to much to say so far on my project. Last night I did some more anatomy studies, feel like I'm really coming along strongly with these and learning tones from doing them. Wish I could redo my Life Drawing classes because I have a much stronger appreciation for them now. I am doing lots of life drawing from photos... but it's not really the same. Added some more 2D characters to my scrapbook last night, mario is a really interesting one because his design was based around large limitations which created the character in itself.
I also have been playing around a bit with fallout 3, maybe they were thinking along the same lines I am (though I should broaden my thought process)? So far my own opinion doing research is that characters need a strong history before even designing them, and this is hard to show when creating your own character (unless you create yourself but then maybe you don't belong)but Fallout 3 starts off with you being born, and you build up your own history which still might not fit perfectly into your appearence but you get the general idea.
On another note I've been reading the new Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy book and I completely forgot to mention the strength of characters in books and how they let the users know everything about the character but still make up their own image based on this in their heads. Maybe a lot to learn here? Or maybe I'm gonig off on a tangent because I'm not use to 9am starts.
I also have been playing around a bit with fallout 3, maybe they were thinking along the same lines I am (though I should broaden my thought process)? So far my own opinion doing research is that characters need a strong history before even designing them, and this is hard to show when creating your own character (unless you create yourself but then maybe you don't belong)but Fallout 3 starts off with you being born, and you build up your own history which still might not fit perfectly into your appearence but you get the general idea.
On another note I've been reading the new Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy book and I completely forgot to mention the strength of characters in books and how they let the users know everything about the character but still make up their own image based on this in their heads. Maybe a lot to learn here? Or maybe I'm gonig off on a tangent because I'm not use to 9am starts.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
The following day...
Last night I took a step back and decided to start looking at a few different games again, will start making a list on here just to keep myself on track. Also had a talk with Inga about my project idea and it went well. Brought up the idea of actually creating a character editor for people to use, the idea sounds perfect but I'm not to sure how far I'd be able to take it. Would be far better than just having three characters on turntables. Will have a talk with some programmers (my brothers...) and see what they can suggest seen as my programming knowledge is zero. Also going to print off some 2D characters for my scrapbook, definitely an area worth looking at.
Game List: (character editors)
Spore
Fallout 3 (character editor is very smoothly introduced)
APB
World of Warcraft (basically most MMORPG)
Skate (same comment as fallout 3)
Sims
Wii (avatar systems, similar with xbox)
Lots of sports games...
(strong story games)
Gears of War
Halo
Call of Duty 4
Final Fantasy
Dead Space (faceless character like master cheif, will look more into him)
Bioshock
GTA
That wiill do for now..
I forgot about Half life... how could I forget about Half Life? Sorry Gordon Freeman
Game List: (character editors)
Spore
Fallout 3 (character editor is very smoothly introduced)
APB
World of Warcraft (basically most MMORPG)
Skate (same comment as fallout 3)
Sims
Wii (avatar systems, similar with xbox)
Lots of sports games...
(strong story games)
Gears of War
Halo
Call of Duty 4
Final Fantasy
Dead Space (faceless character like master cheif, will look more into him)
Bioshock
GTA
That wiill do for now..
I forgot about Half life... how could I forget about Half Life? Sorry Gordon Freeman
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
The Beginning... 4 weeks in...
Ok so about time I started a project diary for my honours project, guess I just wanted to get things clear in my head, but that may never happen. That sounded depressing but it was ment to be jokey....
Basically when I finish uni I want to go into the inudstry working on characters, preferably modeling them so the best way to go about this is to do my project on character creating (for games).
It is common knowledge that a character is a very important aspect for a game and during my research through lots of jounrals and books I noticed almost a catch 22 situation with designing for games. Basically, if I can explain this right, my idea for research is that users want to control the game, eg control how their character looks to get them more immersed in the game, but artists say the way a character looks depends on the history of the character which affects the story of the game and effecting the story of the game negatively effects the immersive expereince. That might of made no sense what-so-ever, I don't even want to read back over that, but hopefully you get the general idea of where I'm heading.
To quote a book called 'The Art of Game Characters' "A player will be more engaged by your imagination than by their own".
So whos right? Should we A) Ignore the users and create a character based on background and story.
B) Let the users create and character they want even if its homer simpson in a Call Of Duty game?
C) Create a character that doesn't tell you much, and let the user just use their imagination to creating a character in their heads or to place themselves in the characters body? (To make sense of this just think of Masks)
Ok so theres my focal point.
As far as Modules go - Done lots for concept development, been basically destroying my large collection of magazines for a scrapbook and printing out images for inspiration (mainly the amazing models on Dominance War and the great guys at Polycount). I also took a trip to London last week and went to the V+A to take photos of sculptures, these artist project character into their creations superbly so I got lots of ideas there. Also on a seperate note I went to fashion exibitions (yes that sounds odd, but my girlfriend is a fashion designer so it wasn't my idea to go) and had a good insight into how they project character through clothes, so photos of clothes will be going into my scrapbook soon enough. Some of these clothes gave me wonderful ideas for crazy characters too (some fashion designers minds are in such an insance place) so thats something im going to look into more. Alongside the scrapbook im working on a book of anatomy, something I wished I had worked on years ago because it is so vital to character creation, so that will be another hand in I guess if it contributes to my final output. As for the concept sketchbook... still havent started this yet, but I guess it comes in an order of scrapbook to sketchbook, but I have had a few moment of madness with good ideas so Ill sketch some things out tonight.
For the dissertation modules I've just basically been reading lots of books and journals and making notes on the idea I described before, not much I can say on that for the moment.
With the Pre-production module I'm having a hard time seperating it from concept development in my mind, specially because my final output is going to be along the lines of three different character models in realtime (not sure animated slightly or not) and I know the pre-production for character creation is mainly concept development...
I need to get a bit of a move on with Professional Practice, mainly just need to start filling in all the helpful sheets we got for this one, would clarify my thoughts more.
Anyway I've typed enough for the moment and I'm hungry.
Basically when I finish uni I want to go into the inudstry working on characters, preferably modeling them so the best way to go about this is to do my project on character creating (for games).
It is common knowledge that a character is a very important aspect for a game and during my research through lots of jounrals and books I noticed almost a catch 22 situation with designing for games. Basically, if I can explain this right, my idea for research is that users want to control the game, eg control how their character looks to get them more immersed in the game, but artists say the way a character looks depends on the history of the character which affects the story of the game and effecting the story of the game negatively effects the immersive expereince. That might of made no sense what-so-ever, I don't even want to read back over that, but hopefully you get the general idea of where I'm heading.
To quote a book called 'The Art of Game Characters' "A player will be more engaged by your imagination than by their own".
So whos right? Should we A) Ignore the users and create a character based on background and story.
B) Let the users create and character they want even if its homer simpson in a Call Of Duty game?
C) Create a character that doesn't tell you much, and let the user just use their imagination to creating a character in their heads or to place themselves in the characters body? (To make sense of this just think of Masks)
Ok so theres my focal point.
As far as Modules go - Done lots for concept development, been basically destroying my large collection of magazines for a scrapbook and printing out images for inspiration (mainly the amazing models on Dominance War and the great guys at Polycount). I also took a trip to London last week and went to the V+A to take photos of sculptures, these artist project character into their creations superbly so I got lots of ideas there. Also on a seperate note I went to fashion exibitions (yes that sounds odd, but my girlfriend is a fashion designer so it wasn't my idea to go) and had a good insight into how they project character through clothes, so photos of clothes will be going into my scrapbook soon enough. Some of these clothes gave me wonderful ideas for crazy characters too (some fashion designers minds are in such an insance place) so thats something im going to look into more. Alongside the scrapbook im working on a book of anatomy, something I wished I had worked on years ago because it is so vital to character creation, so that will be another hand in I guess if it contributes to my final output. As for the concept sketchbook... still havent started this yet, but I guess it comes in an order of scrapbook to sketchbook, but I have had a few moment of madness with good ideas so Ill sketch some things out tonight.
For the dissertation modules I've just basically been reading lots of books and journals and making notes on the idea I described before, not much I can say on that for the moment.
With the Pre-production module I'm having a hard time seperating it from concept development in my mind, specially because my final output is going to be along the lines of three different character models in realtime (not sure animated slightly or not) and I know the pre-production for character creation is mainly concept development...
I need to get a bit of a move on with Professional Practice, mainly just need to start filling in all the helpful sheets we got for this one, would clarify my thoughts more.
Anyway I've typed enough for the moment and I'm hungry.
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