Sunday, April 19, 2020

Digital Reflection 28 - Improving the Style Guide and Mini Project using feedback

I read my feedback from the powerpoint thouroughly, and made not of everything I needed to do. The first thing I did was flesh out my VFX according to the feedback. I looked at some more inspiration from games that use imagery when highlighting characters, such as Assassins Creed. I then considered the images I could use on my own survival mode VFX. I used Apep to symbolise an enemy, as he is the the Ancient Egyptian god of evil and invasion. For the ally symbol, I used Osiris' Crook and Flail, as he is the god of eternal life and resurrection, and he is worshipped by the pharaoh. This would be something the messenger finds familiar and comforting. 



I then played around with surrounding images, that would make the coloured highlight around the enemy or ally more visually interesting. I chose to use hieroglyphs relating to osiris for the ally, as this would fit in well with existing image of the crook and flail.

I created a photoshop brush and experimented with opacity and position jitter.



I experimented with different imagery for the enemy also, and settled on an icon for a serpent eye. As the serpent is the symbol of apep, this was ideal and added a strong impression of hostility towards the player.



I did also try out the classic symbol for Apep, but decided against this as it was less striking and the too messy.


Following my feedback, I continued to improve my existing work. I created icons to use instead of lines and stars when highlighting my coice of iteration.

I went back into the early iteration stage and filled in gaps that I had missed, like the rough detail blockout between the silhouette and detail stage. This helped me to better establish how I developed from one to the other.

I also added in a callout for the head of the pharaoh's cane, and placed it into my colour variation image, final paintover image and the material and detail image.

Colour variation image



I refined my work by adding bevelled edges and sharper highlights to the crook and flail, to make it clear to a 3D modeller that these are bevelled edges.



For the mechanic, I played around with another type of arrangement. This time instead of using a brick wall, which blocked out the view of the interesting statue and mechanic, I used a fallen wall dressing to block the path of the light, forcing the player to reroute the beam. I also implemented the mirrors into the architechture, such as within the face of a painted figure on the wall and at the base of another wall dressing.


For all of my rooms, I did a final paint over which combined all elements of my development. I was told in the feedback that I should integrate the damage exploration and all of my other exploration into the final sketch to get a look at how it all works together. I also added in callouts to make materials, details and designs clear to a 3D modeller.


I paid more attention to pages that needed it, such as my door and window trim page. I applied more details to even the simplest iterations to make them more visually appealing, and photobashed more to save time and be more efficcient. I also went back and did this to the trees for the hero asset.



For my previous project, I went back to improve elements of this also. I started by rearranging my moodboards and scarrping the images that served no purpose. I also re-labelled and spaced out my images a lot better. I used iconography for neater selection of iteration.

spacing out my moodboard pics


In my feedback for the mini project character, I was told that her nose shape needed to be clearer for a 3D artist. I decided that I should iterate on nose shapes and side profiles, and then add a final side profile into the final concept page. This made the design a lot clearer, and showed that she had a a straight and stylised nose rather than being left ambiguous.

Side Profile iteration 


I focussed a lot on presentation and neatening up my sketches and silhouettes. I also thought a lot about presentation, using the powerpoint by our tutors to inspire me and using my feedback to help me layout my work better.



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