Yr 2 FMP - Depth

The brief - Summary

The theme is depth. This is the project where I am in charge and have to plan out what I am doing instead of the lecture. The development and progression require of this project is pretty much the same as my year 1 final major project, but the criteria for each section is more complex than before. The general flow of the project that I have identified is:

• Ideas - Brief, theme, mindmap, choice, specialism, pitch (Pecha Kucha),

• Pre-production - Research (project inspiration, techniques and skills, comparative games/films/books etc...,), planning (time, hardware/software, objectives, deadlines, scrum meetings) & prototypes,

• Development - (differs depending on what specialty you are doing.) For concept art this is silhouettes, sketches, final sketch, final product. I also need to keep a production journal,

• Final product - Finished main outcome & an evaluative, reflective conclusion.

I need to make sure that I can somehow emulate scientific theories, politics, philosophy, written/spoken language, different cultures, belief systems and an ethical consideration, in my project, whether this is in my product(s) or inspirations.

I should be spending all of my college time and at least 10 hours of free-time on this project.The project will take up the remainder of the college year. This project will allow me to improve & expand my own collection of skills. My project should include asset creation, narrative, game mechanics, character design and world building. I must blog everything about this project, from problems, mistakes, progression, changes and continuously reflect on these things.

I will be assigned a lecturer, who's own skill set matches my own and my project. I will need to attend weekly SCRUM meetings with them to show my progress. They will also ask me questions about my project, and give me advice on what I need to change, focus on, improve or include. I will also be given a number of specific art & coding workshops, by my lecturers, that will introduce me to new techniques that I can apply to my own project, which I can use to fix any problems I might encounter. Self learning is a must.

I must achieve a distinction on all criteria in order to get the grade overall.

Project deadline is 24/05/24.

The brief - Response

The theme of depth is something I am struggling to come up with ideas for as the word depth is a very literal word, it means that something is 3 dimensional, with a height, length and width/depth. The most obvious course would be to make a 3D asset, but another option could be an underwater or underground themed asset, when speaking about going below ground level you would measure how far down you are by the depth. I am definitely going to be making character, prop and environment concept art for any idea that I end up choosing, as this is the area of game design that I specialize in, but for an extension task I might try and model a few of the smaller parts of my project (I won't have enough time to create all the concept art for my ideas and model them all, the process is to long). I will also need to world-build and create a narrative behind that idea of my project. I hope to achieve a distinction on this project.

The process of the project itself is quite easy to understand, as it is pretty much the same as m year 1 final major project, expect I have to consider more parts and create work to a higher standard, so I'll be fine with this part. I am going to use this project to better my digital drawing skills, especially when texturing, shading, highlighting and perfecting my composition. I think this project is going to be fun. One thing I am going to do (that I learned when doing my first FMP) is to change focus for a short time, when I get bored of doing something in particular, otherwise I just won't want to complete it. One thing that I have noticed works really well is when I am getting bored or frustrated with a project is to go on my switch for 30 minutes then go back to what I am doing, as it allows me to think ahead, gives me a break and resets my patience levels so that I can go back to working.

The brief - Initial ideas mindmap

The brief - Pecha Kucha presentation

This is my Pecha Kucha presentation about the theme of depth and its possible different interpretations. It includes the themes of: Underwater, Underground, 3 Dimensional space/objects, Intense/extreme, psychological depth, philosophical depth, embodied themes, the depths of space and the Mines of Moria. I will probably end up combining a quite a few of my ideas together in one overarching main idea. I'd say that possible main ideas on this slide would be: underwater, underground, embodied themes, space and the Mines of Moria, while 3D, intense/extreme, psychological and philosophical are ideas that I can combine with one main theme.

The brief - Pecha Kucha presentation: Slide notes/Recording script

1. Page 1 - Underwater:
   Underwater relates to the theme of depth because, when people measure how far underwater, they are, they measure it in depth (1.),
   The theme of underwater is relevant to me because I/we live in a seaside county, Cornwall, we a surrounded by the sea. It heavily impacts people's lives (flooding, weather) and livelihoods (tourists, fishing economy),
   Concept art, sculpting, texturing, modelling, diorama(?), GDD,
   Concept art is my specialty so will be doing this no matter which theme I pick, why would I pick a discipline that isn’t the one that I am best at, I’m trying to show off my specialist skills, sculpting fits the organic shapes better than modelling,
   My intention would be to create a mini underwater world, centered around some kind of oceanic hub that would allow creatures to interact that would never normally be near each other. This project would allow me to showcase environmental problems such as sea pollution and climate change. I would make a range of environments, characters, props, world building and part of the narrative. This would give me the ability to change the type of outcome I want to make at any point or allow me to make a piece in every one of the possible outcomes specified,
   Adobe suites, procreate, mental canvas, 3Ds MAX, Blender, Zbrush, Nomad sculpt, Substance painter, Unreal engine 5, etc…,
   Silhouettes, Sketches, sculpting, retro topology, 2D modelling profiles,
   Aquaman movies, pirates of the Caribbean, Sponge Bob, Abzu, Silt, Dredge, watercolour paints, Barbara Hepworth,
   Small ocean creatures, Underwater locations (Atlantis, shipwrecks, Bermuda triangle), different cultures from small creature native regions.

2. Page 2 - Underground:
   I chose the theme of underground for the same reason as underwater because your location underground is measured by depth (1.),
   I thought that I should be thinking about underground in more way than just mines some other examples I thought of could be animal burrows, or the underground pirate tunnels around that were used to smuggle goods into Cornwall. Some of the tunnels come up in local bars around Market Jew Street, but they have been sealed off since the tunnels are deemed to unsafe to venture into now,
   This theme is relevant to me because Cornwall is not only a seaside community, that pirate and traders were known to frequent, but is a mining community as well, although it has severely died back in the last few decade, but they are trying to bring the trade back here, since lithium (used in car batteries was discovered, as covered by BBC news (2.)),
   If I chose to do this as my project, the outcomes would most likely be some kind of environmental and prop concept art with a 3D modeled diorama, sculpting would really be needed for the mining or pirate tunnels idea because they are quite industrial in their appearance, but if I was to do some kind of animal burrow sculpting would be the better option,
   The relevance to my vocational would be that it would give me a chance to focus on environmental concept art and modelling rather than character concept art which I do all the time and don’t spend as much on environments,
   If I was to do this project I would focus on the pirate tunnels, as the pirate tunnels is more of a fun idea, than mines and doing animal burrows would probably end up looking kind of like peter rabbit or the film epic, it is a unique thought, but the options of outcomes are limited. I probably produce some kind of exploratory adventure than focusing on pirates them selves as that has already been done. My best idea would be that you play as a bartender, somehow discovers a pirate tunnel exit in the basement of the pub, which they then enter, maybe a pirate ghost appears, scares them and they fall in the hole, they get out but keep going back as they want to discover more about the pirates and find the treasure. This project would teach people about the history of Cornwall and highlight its economic decline as different job, like mining have died off and we now focus on tourism, it is become impossible to live here with few employment possibilities and low wages,
   I will need the adobe suite, procreate, 3Ds Max, blender, google, google sites, Microsoft office,
   I’d probably use pirate of the Caribbean and captain Finnegrin, crew and walking crab boat from the dragon prince as inspiration
   First, I would need to look a map of the pirate tunnels, where the cove entrances are and where they come up around Penzance. I also need to look at if were any famous pirates or pirate ships that came to Cornwall during that time, what was smuggled in, what is rumored to be down there and I also need to research abstract art,
   Some useful research resource would be the internet, books, people (I could ask people in the shops where the tunnels are known to come up if they know anything), YouTube, etc...

3. Page 3 -  3 Dimensional:
   Depth can also refer to 3 dimensional, so anything with a height, length and width/depth. Quite a simple interpretation,
   3D is relevant to me because I like modelling, texturing and from what I’ve tried of sculpting, I quite enjoy it, I would like to keep refining these skills, I usually focus on concept art so this would be a welcomed changed,
   I probably would create some concept art to go with the model as I will need to design and make a modelling profile for whatever I want to make.
   3D as a definition of depth is something that is too bland on its own, I would probably end up having to combine it with one of my other ideas, so that I can fill out the concept s little more, I can combine this with most of my other ideas and I was already intending to create some kind of 3D outcome for my project anyway,
   I would need the adobe suite, 3Ds Max and blender to make a 3D asset. Processes would possibly include modelling, unwrapping/pelts, texturing and stickers, etc…,
   3Ds Max is required for modelling, while blender is required for sculpting. Pelts is an easy way to unwrap organic shapes and stickers are an easy way to add illustrations to textured objects, rather than drawing directly onto the model with a texture,
   Comparative artists for 3D models would allow me to pick pretty much every game with 3D models in existence,
   I don’t really need any contextual research for 3D modelling, but I could do with looking at different modelling and texturing techniques, that would allow me to better my outcome, I would also need to looks at the art style I want to make my models in the style of, obviously this would change depending on what I decide to make,
   Research resources would include YouTube, google, Lecturers, help forum’s, etc…

4. Page 4 - Intense/Extreme:
   Depth can also mean extreme or intense (3.). I interpreted this as appearance, because although it can be applied to other subject it is mostly a scholarly use for intense research which would really apply to making the outcome of a project,
   This is relevant to me because the current trend for our lifestyles has been minimalism, but we are slowly starting to head back towards a more minimalist approach, I find it interesting that people are constantly changing their lifestyles to fit these trends when they could be just somewhere in the middle, and not have to keep changing themselves,
   My intention for this project would be to showcase the difference between minimalism and minimalism and why we feel the need to have so many things or so few,
   For this project I would focus on making concept art of characters, props, and environments, possible a diorama,
   I would need 3D modelling software, the adobe suite and procreate for this, as well as Microsoft 365 and google sites for documentation and supporting evidence,
   I could use the Victorians for inspiration as they loved the idea of minimalist design and modern decor trends to inform my design.
   I would need to research the history of minimalism and minimalism, when it started, aesthetic trends of minimalism and minimalists, when it was popularized, current trends, why we like them, what impact does this have on society and the environments as minimalism is all about more is more, so consumerism, what happens to all of it when we run out of room and how do they produce all these items so quickly,
   The internet, books, YouTube and decor/fashion magazines would be a good source for my research.

5. Page 5 - Psychological:
   Psychology refers to the mental and emotional state of a person. Psychological depth can mean a few things one is that you can deeply understand your own emotions as well as those of others, or it could mean that someone has a complex psychological mindset, such as they have an intense personality, it could also mean that someone has received psychological damage that they need to be treated for (4. & 5.), but there is also a literal meaning called depth psychology. Depth psychology covers the unconscious, such as dreams or repressed memories and how this effects people in the real world,
   Psychological depth is closely linked to mental health, its effects on people, the brain and treatment for it, everyone on the planet has mental health, but in some people, cases are much more severe, and they can develop mental health problems in response to trauma or genetic traits,
   For this project I would probably try to create some kind of game concept using a GDD, modelling, concept art and narrative to make so assets for a game that would allow people to experience the effect of mental health problem that other people can suffer with,
   To try an incorporate this theme into just concept art would be quite hard as the whole thing with mental health is that it consists of disabilities you can’t see, so I wouldn’t be able to show this through a character's design, only their responses to other environments, characters and props within the game,
   I think the art style of abstract expression mixed with traditional art would be the best comparison for this game as abstract expression is all about emotion and so is psychology, while traditional art is well liked because it is the most like reality. Bakugou (from My Hero Academia) is a good example of someone with intense emotion and psychological depth,
   I would need to research the science behind psychology, mental health problems, what can cause this, how our genetics impact how likely we are to develop mental health problems and are ability to deal with its triggers,
   I could use YouTube, scientific journals, the internet and books, to inform my research.

6. Page 6 - Philosophical:
   Philosophical depth means for us to explore the fundamental and core beliefs that make us up as a person, this is often impacted by our genetics (genetics impact our personality and are responses to things, so everything we absorb from the outside world is filtered through it), experiences and exposure. It often overlaps with the psychological depth of a person (6.),
   Philosophical depth is something close to me as it is the reason that I am different compared to everyone else in the world and why everyone else in the world is unique to me. It is basically a way for me to understand how my own life has shaped me, how it has impacted my own mental health, and this project will allow me to create awareness for that,
   For this project I would want to create 3 characters who are philosophically deep, each would represent one of the 3 different things that can impact our own philosophy, I would likely create concept art for this, possibly and model or a sculpt, maybe an animated story board of some of the events in their lives that has contributed to their philosophy,
   I would need digital drawing and modelling software to do this, a texturing software, Microsoft 365 and google sites to record my documentation.
   I would mainly focus on concept art because sculpting/modelling a character can take anywhere up to around 120 hours and sculpting 3 of them would take to much time,
   Some character that are philosophically deep include, Uncle Iroh (Avatar the Last Airbender), the Decepticon cause (Transformers), Geralt of Rivia (the Witcher), etc…,
   To research philosophical depth, I would first need to look at the neurological science that investigates how our genetics, experiences and what we have be exposed to shape our belief systems, then some extreme cases of how this can negatively and positively affect people, how you can be taught philosophical depth, what makes us class someone as philosophically deep, etc…,
   Some examples of where I could find this information is religion, the nature vs nurture argument, self-help books, political movements, scientific journals/magazines, TV, YouTube and the internet.

7. Page 7 - Embodied themes:
   I’ve noticed that people are struggling to understand this idea so I’ll try to make it as clear as I can. Themes add depth to literature and art, by categorizing the subject and making the object, as a cohesive whole,
   This is relevant to me because I am quite an artistic person so before I can create any work I need to decide on the theme, so it is a very important part of all the creative things that I do each day,
   My idea would be to take popular themes, such as love, war, good vs evil, family, justice, etc… (7.) Into literal interpretations as characters with a physical form. Themes are often popular because they relate to real world event, as a result I can use this project to showcase different cultures and current issues within politics, environmental and ethical issue, etc…,
   The images you can see on this slide are by an artist called Toby Allen (8.), not a particularly well known one, but the subject of these works of art are very similar to what I am trying to do, except they are physical representations of metal health problems, not themes. Another example of this idea being used is in most mythologies and religion in the literal embodiment of death, such as the grim reaper or Thanatos, we have always felt the need to assign concept that we didn’t understand or couldn’t control to things like deities and spirits. Ancient Greece is a great example of this as there a gods assigned to their roles, but they are known for purely embodying that role, both the good and the bad regardless of the consequences or anything else it could affect. Aphrodite for example convinces Helen of Troy to leave her husband and go off with Paris, starting the Trojan war,
   If I chose to do this project, I would be making character concept art or some sort of primordial spirit like creatures, possible a sculpt of one of my concepts, possible model some of the props, maybe a 2D animation?,
   Concept art is my specialty, I enjoy modelling and want to become better at it and I’ve always wanted to use sculpting and 2D animation in a project.
   To do this project I would need the adobe suite, procreate, 3Ds MAX, Blender, PC hardware, an apple device, google, google sites, Microsoft 365, etc…
   I would need the adobe suite to create textures, concept art and a 2D animation, procreate for animation and concept art, 3Ds MAX and Blender for 3D modelling, blender for sculpting and a PC to do all these things and google,
   Heavily research pre-production requires, this would need to include popular themes, where they were popularized, how they currently relate to what is going on in the real world, the history of the theme, the cultures of the places the themes originated, major authors/artists, when they first came about,
   I could you multiple search engines, YouTube, books, art websites, museums to find this information.

8. Page 8 - The Depths of Space:
   There are so many ways in which you can apply depth to space, such as the depth of the universe as it is always expanding and whether we are alone in it or not, just the pure number of media, conspiracy theories and scientific research behind its existence, etc… but I am mainly focusing on optical illusion of space, this being that we know space is 3 dimensional and huge, but when looking up from the surface of our planet it is 2D and small,
   The reason I chose to look at this is because I can incorporate all the other elements of the meaning of the word depth in the context of space. The reason we can’t see the depth of space without help from technology is because the planets are so far away that we can’t decern their depth, as the image is projected on the back of our eyes, and we just can’t register the distance. This is ironic as the planet are so far away, they look like a flat object, but they are flat because there is such a vast distance between them that our brains can’t register the depth,
   This relates to me because astrology, the idea of aliens and the theme of a futuristic world where we travel the universe is something that has always appealed to me, as there is still so much, we don’t know it makes it seem like everything you can possibly imagine exist out there somewhere.
   I would probably produce and infinite canvas as an outcome for this piece of work as it would be a great way of combining the idea that space is so vast, we can’t even comprehend it, as all the assets within it would be 2D but within a 3D space. I could also produce a model or sculpt of some of the prop, character and environments I produce for my concept art,
   To create this, I would need 3D modelling software, the adobe suite, procreate, mental canvas, Microsoft 365 and google sites. Comparatives I could use for inspiration include, Voltron legendary defender, Transformers, Wally, space conspiracy theories, scientific research and theories, Alien, Warhammer 40K, Star wars, etc… but there are sop many more,
   For this project I would need to heavily research my comparative inspirations, as well as the science behind space and how the public feel about our missions into space, as at the end of the day if the public decided we should stop funding space exploration, companies ran by the government aren’t going to be able to afford to go,
   I can use the internet, scientific journals/magazines, YouTube and books as sources for my research.

9. Page 9 - The Mines of Moria:
   The mines of Moria relate to depth because they are deep underground,
   In Tolkien’s world the world (or middle Earth is flat), above it is the sky and below is the void, but in-between the void and middle earth there is a cavern system (in the north under Ultomno and Angband), that he created when he was defeated the Balrog fled, in the lord of the rings Gandalf mentions that the dwarves tunneled to deep and awakened the balrog, so it stands to reason that this balrog fled through the cavern system and somehow manage to get under Moria and the dwarves ended up digging down into it, this would explain why the balrog and Gandalf fall through the earth but somehow land on a tower that has been built, when the only person who has ever been in the void is Morgoth,
   This project appeals to me, because I love lord of the rings and because the descriptions of creatures in the books are open to interpretation, everyone has a different perception of what they look like. Honestly, I probably won’t end up doing this project as it is not an original idea and I would be able to showcase some of my own world building skills, but it would still be a cool thing to do,
   If I decided to do this project, I would create concept art and produce my own interpretation of how the mines look, essentially a fan art project. I may end up making some kind of 3D diorama of the environment and a sculpt of some of the characters I create, or possible redesign some of the game covers for the three ps2 games that were released and the shadow of Mordor game,
   This would be useful to me because even though we are on a games course a lot of the skills I have in modelling and concept art are transferable to other industries, so this project would allow me to hone those skills, so I am not stuck just looking for jobs in the games industry in future,
   I could use the original sketches in the books of Tolkien as reference as well as the concept art by Howe and Alan Lee for the Peter Jackson movies,
   Research for this project would mainly consist of me looking through all of Tolkien’s work on middle Earth for anything to do with the Mines or Moria, the creatures that the fellowship encounter down there and the dawarves that used to live there,
   Resources I could use for research include the internet, YouTube, the Books, the Peter Jackson movies, the Rings of Power and the games.

The brief - Pecha Kucha presentation: Short conclusion on Pecha Kucha

Overall I'm happy with how my presentation came out, I had a few small technical issue but nothing that ruined the presentation and everything else came out pretty much perfect. The images I chose were useful visual aids that got the idea I was trying to covey across, I was even able to use some images as example of comparative artists and characters, as I wasn't able to say everything I wanted to for each slide this was a way that I could include everything I wanted to even if I couldn't say it. For each idea I had a comprehensive set of detailed notes with everything I might want to say in them, this doubled up as my research, although I wasn't using them as a script more of a prompt. I was warned against using a script because it would be more of a hindrance then an asset. I also provided a short analysis of ideas that I really liked or that I could have issues with the project, my best example of this would be my short analysis of the idea of making a 3D assets, as the idea on it's own doesn't have enough pre-production behind it to make it a viable option for the project, I would need to combine it with another so that I would have a theme of what to make instead of a bunch of random stuff. This meant that by the end of the presentation I would have a better idea of what I wanted to do and what ideas I could combine with another to add more meaning to the overall idea I choose.

The biggest issues I had with my project were from the PowerPoint recording software, it is nice that it is built in and you don't have to keep importing sound files but it has two main issues, one is that there is a short lag at the start of the recording that kept cutting off the first word that I would say. This isn't a huge issues as what i said still made scene but I had to go back and keep recording the same thing because it was not something I wanted there, I was able to correct most of them but, there were one or two slides that were just a nightmare and after like 10 rerecord I just had enough and left them. The other technical issue I had was the timescale for recording 30 seconds of audio and a 30 second slide duration seem to be measured on different timescales as I set both for 30 seconds but the slides to longer than my 30 second audio recording to change to the next leaving an awkward pause at the end, I didn't know how to fix this so it is still there. I did have one other issue with the time limit for each slide being 30 seconds. 30 seconds is around 60 words and I worked out that there were about 9 points I needed to say for each point, this just isn't possible, as a result I wasn't able to say everything I wanted to say. The audio comes across as very rushed, I had to really rattle through what I was saying to get the most important points across and I couldn't do anything to fix it.

In conclusion, I am happy with my Pecha Kucha presentation, although I had technical issues, I think it came out alright for a first try. My positive do outweigh my negatives by a long shot, so I can't be upset about it. I think if I was to do this part of the project again I would record through a different software and import the files in as the lag is incredibly annoying. I can see myself adopting this format into my normal presentations future as I quite like the picture based format, although I think having a sentence or two of text on it would have been useful for context, like who the people are on the slide, since I wasn't able to mention who all of them were, having a sentence for context would mean that my audience could go and look up the character themselves. I would also expand the time-limit for each slide, 30 seconds just isn't long enough, to include everything you need to. The other thing I would do would be to personally present this, although I hate public speaking, I think I would find a few minutes on non rushed speaking then dealing with the technical issues I had with PowerPoint again.

The brief - Pecha Kucha presentation: Final decision

Pre-production - part 1: Gannt chart

I decided to create a Gannt chart before doing my proposal form, because if find this the best way for me to plan out my time line for completing tasks. I found writing the timeline straight onto my proposal form quite hard as it is a weekly plan and I didn't know what I needed to do and when, by creating a daily plan that was visual I could visualize how long I had to spend on each tasks and what would be the best order to complete them in, I can then just look at my Gannt chart, see what activities I was doing that week and write it in my proposal form, making it a lot less daunting and giving me a place to start. I decided to measure this in days instead of hours, as most of my tasks are going to take a day to do or like in production, run on for days. I included key deadline dates and started from when I will start working on my pre-production and pitch, as there is no point in me making time slots for things I have already done. A bonus of using a Gannt chart means that I can also plan in overtime if I need to spend extra time on any part of my project. I ended up picking blue and orange because the are two colour that make each other stand out and have connotations to my theme of underwater.

If I have some spare time and all of the pre-production documents I need I will probably start production earlier than on the plan,as this will give me the best possible chance at completing what I want to. This does not mean that I won't complete the rest my pre-production work. If I do end up making any changes to this plan, I will create a second version at the end of this project detailing showing how it changed and a paragraph for why I changed my plan.

Pre-production - part 1: Project audience research (Goggle survey)

CHECK IT OUT! Google form link (<--- Click here) - Responses are appreciated! (Email not collected)

I wanted to use this google form to help to specify my target audience, within targeted group instead of just age ratings, as this means I will be able to gear my game idea toward that will most likely buy it more effectively. The questions I use to research this were:

1. How old are you?

2. What do you Identify as? (Answer options - Male, Female, Prefer not to say, Other),

3. What age rating of game do you usually play? (Answer options - 3+, 7+, 12+, 16+ or 18+),

4. Would you rather play a long or short game?

5. What genre of game do you prefer?

I also wanted to find out what is most important to people within a game, so that I can focus on the most popular point within my game idea, allowing me to expand my audience. Once, I had found out what is the most important thing to people within games, I started to match this to the themes of my own game and to find out if they had ever played a game in the same setting as my own (accessibility and commonality of underwater games).

6. When playing a game what is the most important thing to you?

7. Have you ever played a game set underwater? If yes, what is your favourite/what did you play?

8. What would you like to see in an underwater game?

I only included 8 of the most important data questions that i needed answering, the questions I have chosen relate to my main problem with my game idea and also doubles up as target audience research for my logo design (I kept my survey down to 8 questions as if I had anymore people would just get board and not bother filling it out). Originally, I was only able to send this to my class mates, but I was able to expand the variety of my responses by sending the link to it to some large discord groups that I am a part of.

Pre-production - part 1: Project audience research (Goggle survey) - Responses from my class

Pre-production - part 1: Project audience research (Goggle survey) - Responses from my class: My evaluation

Part 2 of pre-production consists of the pre-production research I need to inform my pitch.

Pre-production - Part 2: World-building

This game is set in a world where there is a kingdom of small aquatic animals have become sentient and live within an underwater hub on the sea bed, that allows different species from around the world to live together, that wouldn't normally be able to due to the different factors needed for them to survive. The creatures living within this hub are lead by the acting queen, who is infuriated with humans due to sea pollution, over fishing and the cruelty that they have inflicted on the inhabitants of the ocean. Tension is brewing between the ocean and humans. It wouldn't surprise anyone if war breaks out.

The kingdom is multicultural, there is little conflict, or strife. The people believe that the core values of their society is self-expression, compassion and a cross-culture society. When different species moved over to this kingdom they brought their cultures with them, which they enjoy portraying through their appearance, beliefs, homes, public events etc... Within this world people can be whatever they want and do whatever they want. There is no discrimination between cultures, they are accepting and embracing. Multi-culture is just part of the vibe there. Sadly, public health is beginning to diminishing due to the arrogance and selfishness of humanity, pollutants have enter and contaminated the oceans, resulting in mass sickness and death. In response there is are tidings of a possible war between humans and the seas, political and social issues are beginning to appear, a civil war is brewing in protest. The civilization is split between anti-war and pro-war sentiments. Everyone can agree that action is needed as words have not worked, but the civil conflict arose because many of the population believe that a full scale war is not the answer as hundreds of thousands to millions of innocents could die on either side, due to the actions and beliefs of those in power.

Much of the city is made up of crashed planes, boats and even some shipwrecked pirate ships from the distant past can be found here. The kingdom is sat right in the center of the Bermuda triangle. Despite being located in the center of the Bermuda triangle, it is still relatively calm being on the sea bed, as they say the eye of the storm is the safest place to be. Meanwhile the surface of the water and the sky surrounding it, is tremulous and destructive. Constant storms, world-pools, hurricanes, strong winds and seas so rough that it is impossible to traverse, means they live in the perfect defensive position. Nothing from the surface gets in or out. It is impossible to navigate, anything made to traverse the skies or seas can't get close and obviously anything build to traverse land is barely worth talking about, because it can't even go in the water. Despite the locations perfect defense against incoming attack it doesn't work so well against pollutants, as the environment pulls anything and everything into it, so contaminants, like sewage spills or oil spills gets dragged straight down to the ocean floor. Eventually the tremulous weather will spit these contaminates back up to the surface, but for the short time these pollutants were down there, they have still caused irreparable damage.

Pre-production - Part 2: Important points in game story/plot

• This story starts off with a cut scene of the players character summarizing there overall aim, with them looking at a family picture made out of sea glass that was given to them by their mother just as their egg was washed into the sea, with the mother narrating over the top that they will see them again when their body is ready to survive the difficulties of the surface. This cut-scene then cuts out and the player gets a small tutorial of how they can move the character around as the leave their house. This will appear as a main task in their objectives list straight away but you won't be able to just leave as things will get in your way, so it is a task that will be updated throughout the game.

• Once the player leaves their house their aim is to meet up with one of their siblings at this sort of underwater bar (not alcohol, something better... milkshakes!), on the way there the player is introduced to a range of other mechanic within the game (the rest of the tutorial), including fighting mechanics, climbing, jumping, item pickups (in the form of a side quest, or the player will be taught later when then need to pick something up), the stamina and health bars & smell sense (I may add in a few more mechanics later, but I think that is enough for them to remember for the tutorial). During their walk to the "bar" there will be some giant mild propaganda sign to try and subconsciously convince the citizens to think that they should be pro-war, but there will also be numerous posters that they encounter that will clearly be anti-war.

• On their walk to the bar the tutorial will begin where the player is introduced to their characters main mechanics, including movement, attach, interaction, jumping, climbing and their use of the senses (think of the Witcher 3 wild hunt). Movement will be introduced via screen prompt as they walk down the street, attach will be introduced to the character by making the character need to break through something (not sure what yet), to continue on their journey to go to the bar, jumping and climbing will be introduced via the terrain the player will encounter on their way to the bar, finally, scenes will be introduced by getting the player to find food using them, this will also introduce them to the mechanic of the health bar and replenishing it. Along the way to this bar, general mechanics will also be produced including the map, objectives list, stamina bar, inventory, etc…

• When the player finally reaches the bar they will meet up with their brother and a cut scene will play that results in a verbal disagreement between the siblings. Then be given their first true objective (to prepare for leaving the world), which will officially start the game.

• ETC...........................

Pre-production - Part 2: Character animal body bases

Pre-production - Part 2: Character animal body bases - Playable character & rival (brother) (9.-16.)

Pre-production - Part 2: Character bios - Playable character

Name:
???

Character description:
Kind, family, introverted, driven, peaceful, small (in regards to their own species), helpful, young, colourful, cautious, round, adaptive, loyal, caring.

Character role:

The playable character has the role of portraying the anti-war side of my games political message, it shows how war effects those who have no immediate involvement (civilians), and gets the player to emotionally understand and invest into this perspective. One of the most popular genres of games is action, it a way for people to physically release their frustrations, without hurting others, but in someway this breeds aggression, I mean have you ever seen an 11 year old play Fortnite, although my game includes action it is not the main focus, I’m hoping that by making player play as the person who would be on the receiving end of that anger, they will grow an understanding of how there own actions effect others.

Key story point summaries:

Pre-production - Part 2: Character props - The playable character

In all honest I don't see this character needing a weapon type prop as they aren't a soldier like their brother, they are just a civilian with their own goals. They are unintentionally dragged into the main political plot of the story, due to their desire to convince their brother to come with them and not get killed in a war and try to get the government to fix their issues with the human race with action but non-violent. This character is meant to represent the anti-war political view within this society, it wouldn't make sense for this character to have a weapon when they are against violent action, it would completely undermine their character and be hypocritical of their own views.

Considering that this character main goal within the game is to get to the surface and reunite with their family, I think a family photo would be best as their main prop as it would remind the player of their overall goal in the game, keeping them focused as this is a story based game not open world even though their are a few small side-quests within the environmental levels. A family photo including their brother would also add an extra layer of depth to the fact that the playable character and their brother have opposing views that are dividing them apart and that although this story will have a happy ending it is almost tragically happy as their brother won't be joining them with the rest of their family, showing that no matter what you do no circumstance is perfect, but you should try to make the best of it while you can otherwise you will never be happy. This promotes some of the main themes of my story being family and grief, everybody is grieving the loss of someone, how they chose to view and act due the circumstance causing their grief is what has caused the possibility of civil war. Everybody is angry, but the divide comes from the half wanting revenge, while the other half want justice and highly preventative action to stop the amount of death and therefore grief from effecting more undeserving people.

Pre-production - Part 2: Character bios - The rival (brother)

Name:
???

Personality:
Introverted, strong, willful, confident, quite, opinionated, stubborn, loyal, militarian, large (within their own species), uniform, family, organized/structured, guarded, fearful, a protector.

Character role:
This characters role is to represent the political opposite of their little brother (the playable character), but with enough similarities to them that one they actually seem biologically related, it humanizes them, so they are not a one dimension advisory and that it shows that at the start they were all one people, that they all have something in common, family and grief. Everyone wants to protect their family from the people that caused the water contamination and subsequent death. The grief of the populations loss is something they all share, but is driving them all apart as people deal with it in their own ways, driving them to either the anti-war or pro-war political sides. This character is pro-war and although they are not their to make you sympathies with them about wanting to start wars, their role is to make you understand and sympathies with the reasoning behind why they want revenge, even though war is never right because it often goes to far in its extremes for one side to outdo the other, even though it is sometimes necessary to cause change (like the French revolution), obviously within reason, war should not impact civilian, it should only effect the people directly responsible for the problem not those who have the unfortunate position of falling under their jurisdiction.

Key story point summaries:

Pre-production - Part 2: Character props - The rival (brother)

I'm not really sure how i could give this character the traditional set of weapons like swords, spears bow and arrow, etc... as it wouldn't really work in regards them to holding it with their claws they would just cut straight through them considering the strength of a coconut crabs claws, so I think the best course of action would be to enhance the power of their already powerful claws. I might make it so that the serrated teeth from the inside of the claws have been replaced with a metal version therefore strengthening the power of the claw. I will also give this character a family photo (not the same one as the playable characters) to emphasize the similarities and the contrasts between the playable character and this one. Other than this I can't think of any other props I can give this character as medals wouldn't make sense as they became a soldier to avenge those who have fallen and haven't yet seen battle, so they don't have any medals to show for it yet.

Pre-production - Part 2: Character animal body bases - Ruler (17. - 21.)

Pre-production - Part 2: Character bios - The lobster queen

Name:
???

Description:
Confident, extroverted, strong, willful, grieving, large (compared to the species), complete control, controlling, powerful, frightening, cutthroat, uniform, unique, bitter, depressed and sad.

Character role:
This character is here to depict what can happen when someone in power gets dangerous ideas and decides to act on them. War is often glorified when it is really just a tragedy because no matter what someone always has to die for the cause. They are the embodiment of foreshadowing what people corrupted by grief and revenge will become, if they don't learn to overcome it.

Key story point summaries:

Pre-production - Part 2: Character props - The lobster queen

I'm not sure what props I want to give this character as of yet other than jewelry and their claws more then compensate for weapons, I will have to see what their finished design looks like as see how that influences me. I would say their crown, but that more of a part of their character design than anything else. The crown is a very important part of this characters design as it is a modified replica of the palace, so that it looks like a crown. it represents their power as it mimics the design of the most important building in the area, the center of this world that it is built around, and that society and politics is built around them.

Name:
???

Personality:
Mindful, flamboyant/fashionable, hourglass (not literally, but I want them to be considered quite beautiful, to represent the fact that even though people can be beautiful, we shouldn't objectify them because the are still people, such as her being a social engineering tactical genius) tactical, extroverted, confident, rich/aristocrat, blue, decisive, opinionated, active (within society and the political scene), secretive, works from the shadows, strong, the pen is mightier than the sword.

Character role:
This character is a secondary character who doesn't appear in the first part of the main plot, but becomes one of the players main conversable characters in the second half of the game. The theme of my game does partially show all of high society on being pro-war as they follow the queens directives, in hopes of increasing their own power, money and influence, with no care if war break out as they have the means to protect themselves, while the middle and working class don't and they, just don't care what happens to them. This character is their to show that not all people within high society are pro-war, but that even though they aren't openly anti-war they are one of the main supporters of the movement and one of the most useful connection, they can influence peoples views and spy on the plans of high society to keep the working and middle classes informed on decisions that will impact them, to protect them incase war breaks out. They can't be as public about their view as the working or middle class, as the punishment for them will be more sever than most as the ruling class can make an example out of them as they are well known and the general population will take more notice than if it was just some random person off the street. 

Key story point summaries:

Why did I stop doing character design

Originally I was going to do character concept art, but pretty soon after I started production I realized that I wanted to still do concept art but not character, as I had already done this for my first year FMP and I fancied a change of pace, plus if I want to be a concept artist I won’t only be designing characters, but props and environments as well. The other issue I have is that if I do character concept art I will probably run out of time before I can make any 3D models as it is definitely the most lengthy of the processes. When I went to Falmouth university open day they made sure that I understood that I would have to generalize in game art and work on concept art, 3D models and texturing, only doing concept art for this project wouldn’t let me showcase that I can actually do all of these thing or give me a feel for what the industry and university could be like. I have plenty of character concept art to show off my skill in that field but no where near as much portfolio work in the other fields that I like, by changing the focus of my project, I can show the university that I can do all of these things. I ended up deciding on doing a logo (as the processes are similar) and the concept art for my environmental props, as it will take less time, still allow me to showcase my skills and let me do something different for a change. My objectives list now looks more like this:

Main objectives:

1. Make a logo,

2. Create a series of environmental props,

3. Unwrap said props.

Extension objectives:

1. Texture models

2. Expand on the story.

Pre-production - Part 2: Environmental setting (25. - 34.)

I have decided to base my environment on the Bermuda triangle because it is a scientific anomaly. The reason I have chosen to uses the sea bed under the Bermuda Triangle as my games setting is because the are so many conflicting scientific explanations and fantasy novels about the area that, there is still superstition around the area today, so the idea that there is a world of sentient sea creatures living down there seems more believable. At the end of the day my world is going to be fictional (the real world is boring and depressing so who would want to make a game about that), but that doesn't mean I can't use some of these scientific theories and novels around the idea to inspire my environmental design. The Bermuda Triangle is famous for having planes and ships go down, never being recovered or abandoned for no reason. I want my environmental structures to be made up of up-cycled plane and ship parts, but I would like to include ships from outside of our modern era such as a pirate ship. I specifically want to use a pirate ship because pirates were outcasts and my playable character (one of the robber crabs), is a bit of an outsider because they want to go to the surface, so it makes scene for the main place that they meet up to be a pirate ship.

No one can agree on the exact dimensions and position of the Bermuda Triangle (also known as the 'Devil's Triangle'), but all agree that it is located in the Atlantic ocean, off of the North American shore in Miami Florida, the other two points of the triangle are located in Bermuda (U.K.) and the San Juan coast in Puerto Rico. The area is known to cover around 500,000 square miles and contain the deepest part of the Atlantic ocean, within the Puerto Rico Trench the Milwaukee Depth, reaches 8,380 meters in depth. Although the area is not recognized by most authorities in the area. The location was dubbed 'Bermuda Triangle', by Vincent Gaddis, in 1964, after he wrote a new article about the area. Despite the areas notorious location is still a popular shipping lane, for both planes and cargo ships. The area is occasionally the host of the agonic line (an area where true north and magnetic north align).

Pre-production - Part 2: Games ratings & content warnings (35. - 37.)

Pre-production - Part 2: Comparative games

Pre-production - Part 2: Comparative games - Abzu (38. & 39.)

The game Abzu focuses on graphic quality, and running smooth. It is set underwater and removes all survival based mechanics, such as an oxygen meter, so you can full explore and appreciate the world without having to keep going back to the surface. Game-play is a little bare, with no direction, over simplified puzzles and under-utilizing mechanics. One other issue the games story is a little two abstract for a player to understand the narrative the creators are trying to portray, but this is also an advantage as it allows the player to fill in the gaps with their own theories and thoughts. The game is around 3 hours long so it is not a chore to replay it to try and find more hits about the worldbuilding of the world. It is a game that focuses heavily on discovery and adventure.

Abzu’s similarity to my own game comes down to the focus in on the genres of exploration and adventure, plus the lack of the time limit survival mechanic, as the character you role play as is a sea creature they have gills so they don’t need to come to the surface for air. Abzus' art style seems to be quite strongly inspired by cubism as the are is quite simple in nature and the art of the game is minimal and squared.

Pre-production - Part 2: Comparative games - Silt (40. & 41.)

Silt, is a game set underwater, you play as a scuba-diver, with its gothic, 2D aesthetic (reminiscent of Hollow Knights, but more complex), it gives the game a very horror movie sort of feel. It does relate to my game in the fact that they are both set underwater, but other that that there aren't to many similarities. Although in this game you have to fight a number of underwater enemies based off of real life creatures, so I guess its gameplay can relate to the narrative of my game as the underwater world goes to war with the humans above.

Pre-production - Part 2: Comparative games - Subnautica (42.)

Subnautica is an underwater, survival, action, exploitative based game where you were on a spaceship that jettisoned you before it crashed, you land on an alien world, that is covered in water, you must venture underwater to uncover the hidden plot behind the game and find the resources you need to survive. This game relates to my own with the fact that it is also an underwater based game, but it also relates in its setting being an alien underwater world, because although my game is set on Earth, which gives it a degree of familiarity to the player, it in an area of the ocean that no human can reach due to the dangers of the environment, so I can design the environment in a way that it has no resemblance to our own world, so it will look alien to us.

Pre-production - Part 2: Comparative games - Animal Crossing New Horizons (43.)

Animal crossing relates to my own game due to its target audience. Animal crossing is for 3+, but it is a hugely popular game that people of all age groups play, so although the age rating is for 3+ it is more popular with children age 12 to 16. My games age rating is 12+ currently (although it might change depending on how graphic I decide to make the story), this is due to the the slightly graphic nature of the story and the themes of death that it strongly suggests, but I want to create a game that everyone (over the age rating) will enjoy playing, just like animal crossing. After all game developers make games for gamers and therefore creating the largest audience for my games audience is the best option for the game and from a marketing standpoint.

Pre-production - Part 2: Comparative games - Stray (44.)

Stray isn’t comparable to my own game in the traditional sense of genre or style, but it is in its gameplay this being that in this game you play as a cat, which offered a unique and refreshing gameplay style. This game was not the first to use an animal as the playable character but it is definitely the first game to do this that became a headline title. Most of the people who played this game loved this new and innovative gameplay perspective and out of the numerous review I have watched about this game as well as my own experience playing it, myself and others want to see more of it, as it is much more refreshing than the common gameplay style we have within headline games at the moment being open world, adventure-action, RPG, AAA games. In my game you play as a crab and due to anatomical differences it would also follow this unique gameplay trend. My gameplay also matches up with stray in another way with the style of the level design being environmental and that you need to have completed specific tasks to enter new areas.

There are usually more things that you would include in a game pitch, like mechanics and physics, but I intend to specialize on the game art side of game development, so they don't require enough attention that I need to include them in the pitch. I will have to consider them later though, because I need to keep an eye on the development of my character, because this could effect how different things react to it, for instance if the poly count is to high the hypothetical frame rate would be to low, or is the model is very complicated a game engine may struggle to calculate the box collider.

Pitch presentation - Notes

1. Page 1 - Game idea summary
   My idea is to make an underwater themed game that is centred around you who plays as a robber crab. There are signs of war starting between humans and underwater life, as pollution has cause many of the oceans residents to become fatally sick, despite multiple attempts for both sides to come to an impasse, pollution is still happening You must reach the surface before the war breaks out. I decided on doing an underwater project as there is very little about the aesthetic that I have experienced before, this will allow me to further develop my current skill and technique set as well as learn some new ones. I believe that I am the right person to make this project because the theme of underwater personally relates to me as Cornwall is a seaside county, that I live in, plus I quite like the sea and I used to go to Weymouth every weekend, so I is quite a fun little project for me to do. I think my project idea is ambitious because I intend to make at least one outcome for every sector of game art I possibly can, such as one character sculpt, one small environmental diorama and concept art for character, the environment and props.
   High concept – 3D, exploratory, adventure, story based, underwater, single player, multiplayer mini game, anti-war, environmental awareness
   Unique selling points – offers single player and multiplayer options, with a rich story and ethical dilemmas that apply to issues in the world today
   The reason I have added an image of Godzilla is because the war between humans and the ocean is starting due to the Bermuda triangles residents' outrage against ocean pollution and what is doing to its inhabitant, so it is quite like Godzilla in the fact that nature has had a metaphorical response and created something to rival us and get us to stop damaging the planet.

2. Page 2 - General game idea bits
   My game idea could be compared to Abzu in the fact that you don’t have the typical survival mechanics of underwater game such as oxygen levels, so you can truly appreciate the environment.
   It could also be related to Subnatica with the fact that you land on an alien ocean planet, with unknown environments and creature, my game is a more familiar to us that Subnatica is, due to the fact that it is set on our planet with familiar creatures, but the environment I intend to create within the Bermuda triangle is something that I want to look completely different from anything we have that exists today, so in that way it is an alien, underwater world.
   My game idea could also be compared to animal crossing new horizons in the fact that although it is geared toward a younger audience, it is still enjoyable for older age groups, this is what I would like to achieve, albeit through a much more story driven and thought evoking narrative.
   My target audience is currently 12+ as I think that the nature of the violence and ethical issues raised throughout the story are going to be to graphic and complex for someone below this age group to understand, although depending on how the plot of my game expands as I continue working on it this age rating might rise a level or fall by one, it depends on how in-depth I intend to take this game narrative wise. I hope to attract a variety of age groups to my game by making game play similar to currently popular games and familiar to player, but with enough difference that it still fells like something new. 

3. Page 3 - Characters
   So far, I have 4 characters main character within the game, these are the playable character (in the form of a young robber crab), who wants to avoid the war and reunite with the rest of their family on land, but every time they try to leave something gets in the way. I chose a robber crab because hatching in the sea and eventually moving onto land is a part of their own natural life cycle, so they seemed like the perfect fit, plus crabs are some of my favourite animals so I always wanted to include a crab somewhere in the game.
   The acting queen is a lobster that is starting to try and gain support for a war against humans, due to the harm they have inflicted on her people and own family due to pollution. I chose a lobster because they are some of the most expensive sea food you can buy, and money is often associated with power, plus I wanted a symbol of status that was recognized around the world, and you can pretty much find different types of lobster throughout the world, and they always retain their value no matter which part of the world you sell them in.
   The aristocrat contact is someone who has contact will the ruling class, but they are also known for being very intense and extreme in their appearance and personality, this way they can draw attention to themselves and use that to spread the message of anti-war. They are known for not acting within their station, for example going out and partying with the citizens of the crustacean empire, when what they don’t know is that she is holding secret meetings there with anti-war protester, to try and devise a way of fixing the issue between humans and ocean life without resulting to war.
   Due to the playable character having a direct relative in this story in the form of a brother, they are going to have to be the same species. I wanted this character to help immerse the player into the game by invoking intense conflict emotions and beliefs between the playable character and their brother, by making the playable character anti-war and the brother pro-war, even making them a soldier in training both sides views around conflict and how grief can affect people in different ways. The choice of a robber crab also works well with this character as they are the largest land fairing crab and have one of the strongest pincer forces at 3300 newtons of force, soldiers are often depicted as being strong so this fits well here. 

4. Page 4 - Environment & worldbuilding
   The environment is set right in the center of the Bermuda triangle, with a city sprawling out from a center castle, much like the Normandy fort spready around the UK. The buildings are made up a variety of shipwreck from different points in time and plane that have crashed. I like the idea of a pirate ship being the main meet up location in the game. The surface of the water consists of rough seas, hurricanes, dark and storms, but below the surface on the sea-bed is the complete opposite with it being calm, bright and shiny. The society is multicultural with creature from around the world finding their way there to live in harmony and without want, in the hub. This world is lead by the acting lobster queen, she wants to irradiate humanity due to the pollution and harm they have done to her city and her people. All the cities' inhabitants agree that physical action needs to be taken as verbal has not worked, but they are divided as to how how, the queen and her follower what to start a war, but the other half of society only wants to act against those in power who aren’t doing their job in responsibly disposing of pollutants.

5. Page 5 - Project main aims & extension tasks
   Concept art is my specialty so it is obvious that I would do it for my FMP, as I want to improve and practice my specialty. I am going to complete between 3 – 5-character sheets and 1 environmental sheet, plus some props for either the characters or environment, this will allow me to practice all areas of concept art, as I more of a concept art generalist rather than focusing on one area. I also enjoy making 3D assets and texturing, so I also intend to make one textured 3D asset, as I want to practice and improve my 3D modelling skills and try making something from sculpting.
   I’m hoping that by combining the theme of underwater and game art, I can experiment with textures I’ve never experienced before, I can also expand on my concept art, models and textures for, as I’ve only ever made things that I am familiar with like buildings and humanoid characters, this time I will be working with different shapes and much more complex body types. This will develop my game art by improving my overall skills as a whole and also allow me to accumulating new ones. I want to use this project to improve the upon the skills and techniques I already know and to teach myself so new ones. I want to get a distinction on this project.

6. Page 6 - Hardware & software
   The hardware and software I am using for this project are pretty much the same ones that we use at college except Nomad sculpt (a sculpting application, that can be export and imported to and from blender) and Procreate (a working portable drawing software), these two useful applications need an apple device to run on so I can use my iPad for that.
   I am going to uses my Huion sketch pad to help me with digital drawing when using a PC and sculpting, as sculpting with a mouse is horrible.

7. Page 7 & 8 - Project timeline: Parts 1 & 2
   N/A

8. Page 9 - Game objectives & Level design
   The short-term objective of this game are all about the player getting a hand of the starting mechanics, movement and getting to know the world the game is set in and what is going on in it now.
   The halfway point of the story is when the action mechanics and ethics of the game become a much larger and integral part of the story, you will also meet your most useful in the game as they are an aristocrat who has ties in parliament but is on the side of the anti-war protester and trying to protect the public. They will be able to help stay under the radar so that you can escape, in the meantime you can help them to prevent a war or at least severally diminish the fall out on the public.
   Long term goals are the main aims to complete the game and a final major battle between you and your brother as you try to convince them to come with you and leave the war.
   Level design is environmental you must have complete specific tasks, meet certain NPC’s or received/find specific items to allow you into certain areas once an area is open you can always return to it. The story of the game is linear, but you can find a few small side quest within certain areas that give you a range of rewards, including hidden short stories, unique dialog, expand the main quest, items, clothing and they will be more likely to help you in future if you ever need help with other tasks. The game plot does have a main story and I wouldn’t class it as open world, but you can sort of go off and do your own thing for a little while, before having to move on with the story, plus I haven’t written all the key plots in the games story yet, so it is quite hard to plan out the structure. I have been able to plan out the tutorial. I would like a way for this game to have a multiplayer mode as well which is set in an alternate timeline at the end of the game, where the war broke out and you weren’t able to escape so you and other player are fighting in a multiplayer fighting game, where you can unlock secret story bonus, that elude to what happened and how you ended up fighting in the war. 

9. Page 10 - Aesthetics
   I want to use a combination of the art styles, abstract expression, line art and surrealism. I really want to get the effect of water colour in my concept art and textures.
   I want to combine simplistically shaped with high quality stylized textures, although my characters will be made of a combination of simplistic shapes, I want them to be as smooth as possible as this will create a cohesive flow across the whole model much like how the water flows and smooths rough edges (like with pebbles).
   I can’t have realistic textures on a stylized outcome as it will not fit together properly, but I want stylized texture that are very high quality with lots of components and detail, that will make full use of the style I am choosing.
   I want everything within this project to have curved edges and very few straight lines as curve mimic the shape of waves, plus curved shapes and lines are used for organic things in shape theory and will follow the gestalts theory of similarity by shape.
   My colour palette is mainly going to consist of blues and coral colours as these are the colours we most associate with the ocean.
   I am probably going to use a gradient colour on the line art within my pieces so that I can fade it into the texture.
   I am going to use orange as a way of illuminating important objects and things within the environment that I want the player to take notice of or interact with. 

10. Page 11 - Inspiration
    The aesthetic that I am going for this game is a combination of Aquaman, Abzu and Barbara Hepworth. Aquaman is one of the biggest underwater themed movies ever made, personally I’m don’t really like the film, but the environment CGI is beautiful, everything is curved and bio-luminescent, two things I want to carry over to my own project, it is also quite strongly art nouveau influenced, an art style I like, but isn’t going to be a key part of my main aesthetic although I may include it in a few areas.
    Abzu is low poly, abstract and uses a lot of pastel colours, I’m not going to make low poly assets to the same poly limit as Abzu, I’m going to try and keep my poly count as low as possible but retain the detail. I’m going to use abstract expression instead of abstract as I relates better to the project theme, of expressing beliefs.
    I’m going to try and seamlessly combine the aesthetics of Aquaman and Abzu.
    I have chosen Barbara Hepworth as my third main inspiration, as they are a famous Cornish sculpture whose word revolves around Cornish coastal shapes and the sea, I like the simplicity yet effectiveness of her work. It reminds me of when pebble are smoothed by the tides, so I think it would be a cool little nod to it if my creatures and environments mirror this. This inspiration will come more into play in my project when I am creating concept art, models and sculpts as this will create a connection between something the player will have interacted with in the really world and create a subconscious scene of familiarity with the world of the game, it also creates a visual conception throughout the projects development process using gestalts theory of familiarity through similarity.

11. Page 12 - Pre-production further research
    I don't really need any note to prompt my speech for this slide as I only need to say what on the screen and that I have planned out the specific parts I need to research in my Gannt chart. I just pretty much got to say what is on the screen.

Pitch presentation - My response to presentation

My presentation of my PowerPoint went well, my tutors seemed to like it, I was mostly happy with my delivery and I didn't miss out any key points I needed for the slides within my pitch. I would say that my only problem was that I had trouble reading and remembering my notes, so I missed out a bit of the information in my notes above. This is mainly due to the fact that I don't like public speaking and get flustered, due to social anxiety, I've also had a case of flu the last few day so it is hard to concetrate on things. My biggest issue was that I wrote this PowerPoint on the Friday and presented it the following Wednesday, so I couldn't remember all of the points I wanted to speak about, I did read through my notes a few times before presenting but it didn't help all that much, but it didn't impact my presentation to much so I'm not all that bothered by this, it just means I will have more feedback that it will be easy for me to answer as I've already do it. 

Pitch presentation - TurnItIn report

Pitch presentation - Lecturer feedback

WWW:

1. Water – Does link to the group project work that you have done..

2. Underwater world…

3. Good ethical consideration, survival of the fittest.

4. Good theme consideration, well done

5. Excellent target audience consideration.. Does this make it educational. Excellent context for the game.

6. Good mechanical consideration.

7. Good choice of aims..

8. This will work well for your skills development and portfolio.

9. Well done for doing a flow chart, this makes it really clear.

10. Excellent art style considerations including the Cornish artist of Barbara Hepworth.

EBI:

1. Lobster queen, Moana??

2. Is there a reason why you are making crustacean characters.. Army?

3. Joe's suggestion - Crab wars as a names maybe?

Pitch presentation - Lecturer feedback: My response

Project idea - SWOT analysis: Strengths

• A relatively unexplored setting within games,

• Modelling,

• Artist skill and technique (digital & traditional),

• Procreate,

• Adobe Fresco,

• 3Ds Max,

• Substance Painter,

• research (knowledge of animals, geology and cultures),

• Interchangeable options for final outcomes.

Project idea - SWOT analysis: Weaknesses

• Keeping to my timeline plan,

Project idea - SWOT analysis: Oppurtunities

• Portfolio,

• Refinement of modelling and drawing skills,

• Narrative,

• Improvement and new skills/techniques,

• Possibility for future game development and publication.

Project idea - SWOT analysis: Threats

• Ambitious number of outcomes to produce,

• Time,

• Easter holiday,

• Procrastination,

• Sickness.

Project idea - SWOT analysis: Action plan

Pre-production - Part 3: Environment inspiration mood-boards (45. - 49.)

Pre-production - Part 3: Environment layout (50.)

The layout of my environment has been heavily influenced by medieval historical architecture in Normandy fort design. This is because they were considered so of the most impenetrable forts of their times due to the fact that they were design in such a way that the settlements inhabitants always had the advantage. Normandy forts where the most important building sits in the middle of the area on the highest point of the center hill, so that it is easy to defend, other less important buildings then surround it in circles until you reach the bottom, a large wall surrounds the settlement with a mote running around the outside of that. The hill in the center made sure that they were always on higher ground than their attackers, a tactical advantage, the motes were difficult to cross and would slow down attacker so that archers could pick them off, if attackers made it past the mote they still had to get over the wall. Essentially their tactic was a battle of attrition and never letting their enemies have the tactical advantage, the forts defenses would slow them down so much, they could be easily picked off and that by the time they were within it their would be so few attacker left that they wouldn't be a threat. I want to replicate this layout in my underwater environment, but add technological advancement and environmental factors that would make it an impossible location to attack even with the modern warfare technology we have today. 

All though I want to make the layout of my whole game environment to resemble that of a Normandy fort, I can’t exactly replicate it, as water motes and walls will not work underwater, because motes and wall would become irrelevant as you can swim over the top, so I’ve decided to use the natural environment surrounding the area to create a creative alternative. In my design the motes are made of lava, so not only does it ward off creature travelling on the sea bed as they won’t be able to cross it, intruders can’t get to close otherwise the heat of the lavas temperature will begin to effect them and cause heat exaustion. This idea is inspired by the fact that the island of Bermuda formed due to the irruption of an underwater volcano which it no sits atop of, this volcano has been inactive for sometime now, but the lava within it had to go somewhere so in my mind it makes scene that the lava breaks through the sea bed, creating a series of lava streams. This type of mote will not stop intruder who enter the cities perimeter from a higher point though, so I need to find a way to create wall that would reach the surface of the water, without stopping boats from -assign over the top. On the sea bed of the Bermuda Triangle there are methane hydrates, that explode to such a severity that they can knock down boats on the surface, these hydrates are contained by ice, so if I place fields of these around the city the heat of the lava would be constantly and quickly be melting them creating massive gas wall reaching the surface, then the low temperature and pressure caused by the surrounding water, would refreeze the gas, making a constant cycle of refreezing the gas and quickly melting it. A series of constantly exploding walls, the perfect defense.

In the center of the world is the palace, it is so tall that rays of sunlight can be see and felt at the peak of it, the city can be seen surrounding the palace center tower, many of the residents houses float circling the tower, much like a merry-go-round, the closer a house is to the tower the higher its importance. On the bridges connect the sections of the city on the ground, as not all of the citizens can swim and the bridges allow the to access the different sections of the city. there are a few building on the outskirt of the protective lava motes, but these are mainly command and guard posts for those keeping watch over the boarders of the city. There is one peculiar building on the outskirts of the city this being the wreckage of an old pirate ship that sank ages ago. This is a place where the outcasts meet up, and it will act as the hub within my game where the playable character will go to receive and update certain tasks and can seek refuge from pro-war militarian activists, who want to quash any hope of a somewhat peaceful resolution to the problems between the land and sea.

Pre-production - Part 3: Project colour palette (51.)

The colour palettes that I chose include lots of browns and green, greys and blues. This is because the browns are needed for all of the wooden textures I will need to use for my environmental props, so it was an essential colour, plus when wood is wet it becomes darker, so brown was a nessacary colour. I obviously needed blue considering my world is underwater, plus quite a few of my props are made from ice and sea glass which is a light blue colour. Blue also depicts sadness considering the themes of war and grief blue is a fitting colour. I need green as it also has a strong subconscious connection to the sea due to colour of seaweed and algae, plus green is often the colour for representing sickness considering the themes and story of the game being that the pollution is causing people to get sick and die this colour can visually represent that. The grey is needed for all of the metal texture, but is also important to the environmental props that I am making, as grey is a neutral, balancing colour, considering the diorama I am making is a place for the anti-war protestor to meet in safety, the grey represents the neutrality of the space.

Pre-production - Part 3: Textures - mood-boards (52. - 56.)

Pre-production - Part 3: Environment visual summary

My underwater world is set in the center of the Bermuda Triangle and is going to be laid out like a medieval Normandy fort but modified for underwater use. Normandy forts traditionally use walls and motes, I am going to change the design so that they would work within the setting of the game, walls and motes would not work underwater, you could just swim over them. The motes around the city are made up of lava streams on the sea floor, surrounding the city, this is due to the fact that nearby is the island of Bermuda that was formed on-top of an inactive volcano, the lava can no longer escape there so it forms cracks in the sea floor. This type of mote is useless against enemies that don't travel by walking on the sea floor, but when combines with the methane hydrates ice crystals the temperature is continuously eroding away at the encasing ice crystals, so that there are continuously exploding towers of methane gases reaching up to the surface, strong enough to down even the largest boats, creating an impenetrable wall from the sea bed to the surface. Ironically you are safer outside the wall than inside it on the surface as the hurricanes and tornadoes on the surface of the sea will drag anything within the exploding gas wall down into it, you can not escape it once you have started to be dragged in. Despite the horrific weather conditions on the surface, underneath it is relatively call, as the eye of the storm is calm, although the currents do move in a swirling method it is more like a merry-go-round. The lava motes surround the city in a circular shape, this mote then moves into the city creating extra walls and motes with in it to improve the cities defense, encase the outside ring of the city is taken the population can move further inwards.

The buildings within the city are made up of a variety of materials produced by the ocean and recycled/up-cycled materials from sunken planes and ship-wrecks. The buildings in the outer rings of the city are mainly made up of downed man-made aircraft and ships, there appearance has not changed much since they crashed other than decay, as the creatures of this world have changed the insides to living quarters but don't care about how the outside looks. The further you move into the center of the city, the more variety of materials are used in the construction of architecture, such as sea glass, coral, a variety of expensive metals, etc... although the span of the ground the city covers is on par with some of our largest cities, the inhabitants are a lot smaller than human so the population is much denser than ours, plus due to the lava and exploding methane hydrates this world has learned to build upwards, so not only does the city sprawl for miles, it sprawl upwards so far that light can be seen from the some of the highest points, in the city. The city is multicultural, with creatures from around the world come together and bringing their own cultures with them, the underwater world itself have its own unique culture, which the often combine with cultures from the surface, this results in a very uniquely design environment where there are so many different types of art, architectures, beliefs, values, styles, trends, etc... 

Pre-production - Part 3: Environment visual summary - Environmental worldbuilding slim-down to just my environmental props

As you can see in the map of my environment above there is a pirate ship wreck marked within a cluster of methane hydrate crystals, this is the part of my environment that I am going to be making a diorama of. This part of the environment is a key part to the plot and game play of my game, as this is one of the most important place within my game, as this is where the player receives almost all of the updates to their main task, so it made scenes that I should model one of the most important place within this game for my FMP. I want the diorama to retain both the aesthetics of the pirate ship and the aesthetic of the ship, so I am using pirates of the Cartagena as the main inspiration for the design of my ship, plus maybe the model of the famous pirate Blackbeards ship as he was known to frequent the lands surrounding the Bermuda Triangle. I am going to use the famous ice hotel as my main inspiration for the element brought in from the city.

Pre-production - Part 3: Diorama - Size requirements

The largest of pirate ships were up to 200ft long (or 60.96m) and could house up to 124 cannons, but the average length of a pirate ship was about 80ft (23.384m) long, with around 10 canons. These ships needed to be able to transport a large crew and a number of canons, but still have enough room to carry all of the pirates stole treasure.

So far I can think of a few generic props I can include in the diorama, I will probably think about so more unique props I can add to the scene once I come to designing it, but for now, I can think of a few things I can include. I’m going to include a series of wooden barrels and chests as my saloon/bar is set within the ship wreck of a pirate ship, which would have been carrying pillaged resource in barrels and boxes, so they were an obvious choice. Tables and chairs are also required considering the nature of the setting, I will also need to create a range of different shaped bottles, glasses and cups, maybe some drink toppings dispensers? Possible a compass, pewter tankers, the wheel of the ship, an anchor, the sail cloths and maybe a pirate skeleton or two, a rusted pistol or cutlass, maybe a skull and cross bones, as décor for the interior?

Pre-production - Part 3: Environment stylized inspiration - Pirate of the Caribbean (66. - 71.)

Pre-production - Part 3: Environment stylized inspiration - Ice Hotel (72. - 77.)

The reason I have chosen the ice hotel as one of my dioramas main inspiration is because the ship is surrounded by methane hydrates, it would make sense that the ships décor would be made with some of the ice, as they would be recycling the natural materials that surround the area, this is a hidden prompt to the fact that one of the ethical considerations of my game is climate change and to help combat this we recycle. The ice hotel actually does this to as all of the ice is taken from the local river when it freeze and is then carved, when the temperature reheats the whole hotel melts and returns to the river, essentially it is sustainable, biodegradable resource. The fact that ice is an abundant resource in the setting of my game would obviously mean that it is often used as it is readily available and doesn’t require further refinement to use, plus it is free, and anyone can use it. It is the logical choice for one of the main materials within the setting of my game.

Pre-production - Part 3: My overall aesthetic

My overall aesthetic combines art nouveau and abstract expression, these art styles are pretty much the complete opposites with one being very controlled and organic much like stained glass window, while abstract expression doesn't have a specific style, as it is completely up to how the artist feels and what they want to do, as a result this type of work often ends up as mixed media pieces, although on of the most common types of abstract expression, I often see is artists using brushes or palette knives to create 3D paintings. Did you know that some scientists analyzed an abstract expression painting and realized that due to the complexity of the brush strokes of the painting there was no way that the painting could ever be truly replicated, by either people or Ai robot. I want to use the control of art nouveau to show off the militarian like mindset of those who are pro-war and the strict structure of the military, navy and air force. On the other hand I can use abstract expression to show the emotions and feelings of those who are anti-war, as well as the emotional motivations of those who are pro-war.

Pre-production - Part 3: My overall aesthetic - Abstract expression (78. -82.)

Pre-production - Part 3: Stylized inspiration

Pre-production - Part 3: Stylized inspiration - Aquaman movies (88. - 90.)

The minute i decided to do an underwater themed game I knew that I needed to look at the Aquaman movies as they are some of the best visual and biggest budget movies ever made set underwater, personally I don’t like the story or characters in the movies themselves but I can’t deny that they are visually beautiful. The parts that I especially about the aesthetics of the movie is the bio-luminescence, colour palette and the use of a combination of the art style art nouveau and art deco, these art styles are rather different in regards to their use of shapes as art nouveau is very organic in its shape, while art deco is more industrial looking with straight lines and cleverly and precisely thought geometric patterns and shapes. Although they work well together because they both focus heavily on their use of line work, so they work very well together even though they they are quite different, by combining the two they have maximized their use of shapes as they can use squares, circles and triangles due to the style combination. I intend to bring art nouveau over to my own project as it fits well with the overall curved and organic aesthetic I am going for, plus the style works well with abstract expression and watercolor, the other two styles I intend to incorporate with each other.

Pre-production - Part 3: Stylized inspiration - Barbara Hepworth (96. - 100.)

Raster drawing is probably the more well known type of digital drawing formats because almost everything we interact with on technology is visually made up of pixels, such as photos. Pixel are tiny square blocks of colour, when combined they can be used to create an image the more pixels there are the higher the resolution and the better the quality of the image, but this does have its down sides. Pixel images are hard to change the scale of or edit due to the risks of pixelisation and the amount of time the take to load and send as the files are so large. On the other hand you can get better quality texture and effects with raster than you can with vector. This type of drawing is more commonly used for digital art as use can include more detail in the design.

Vector drawing is made using a series of geometry and lines, which is recorded as coordinates, as a result you can create very precise drawings. Due to the nature of how the data of the image is recorded, you can easily change the scale of the image without any loss of resolution or quality. These file are quick to load, open and move around. They are most commonly used in logo designs as they are often imported onto different thing that need it at different scales, which vector drawing is perfect for. Although this drawing form isn’t great for textures or very detailed drawings as the resolution isn’t as high.

I am going to use a combination of the two for my final character and environmental concept art sheets, as it will allow me to easily edit my line work using vector for block colours and line work, I will then use raster for textures and effects as I can make them more complex. I will use solely vector for my sketches though, as I will need to edit their scale, rotation and location, when it comes to making the sheets for my miniature game art book, otherwise I could loose detail to pixelisation, using vector removes this risk. The best application for this is adobe fresco as it has both a vector brush and a pixel one.

Pre-production - Part 3: Logo design

Pre-production - Part 3: Logo design - Basic theory (102. - 105.)

I've never done any type of logo design before, so before making mine I need to look at the theory behind the practice so that I can come up with the best design possible. I'm using a You Tuber called Satori Graphics as my main guide as out of every different logo designer You Tuber I found his tutorials were the easiest to understand and the most in-depth, other channels seem to miss out some of the important information he doesn't like the theory behind the design process.

Logo design needs to tell the audience what the brand does only convey the feeling and vibe that the brand/product wants the target audience to feel. Logo design is not the brand design, but a smaller part that makes up the design of the brand. Before making anything you need to know who your target audience is, as they are the people you are making the logo for not the client. It is common practice to produce a similar logo to your clients competitor. You need to identify your clients costumers:

1.  Personalities,

2. Values (e.g. environmentally friendly, vegan, vegetarian, LGBT+, etc...),

3. Interests,

4. Hobbies,

5. Lifestyle,

6. Attitude.

As well as the more generic things that comes with target audience, such as identifying your age group & gender, etc...
You then identify how the product/brand you are designing a logo for is compelling to this group, you should then be able to identify the parts of your clients brand/product that the target audience wants to see most and use your logo design to highlight the key messages/emotions you want the costumer to see and feel. A logo design should be timeless so that it doesn't age as trends change, even though the logo may be redesigned in future the core aspects of your design should be carried through every redesign. Once, I have gathered all of my target audience information I need to create a minimum of 3 keyword pairs (in this stage sometimes less is more), 1 pair should be dedicated to the target audience, another to the motto and the 3rd to the brand/products industry. After this initial research phase I can start to come up with some starting concepts for my design.

1. Logo design should be iconic, simple and memorable.
   Simplicity - A logo should be simple, if it is overly complex the viewer won't be able to remember what it is. If a design becomes to complex it is no longer classed as a logo, it is then classed as a digital illustration. Think about some of the most well known brands we have today, such the apple logo it is the simple shape of an apple with one colour,

2. Iconic - The logo design needs to be iconic, so that it fits within the industry of its brand, but different enough that it can be easily recognized compared to other company logos within its industry and outside of it, otherwise the viewer could confuses your brand with another,

3. Memorable - A design need to be memorable. The viewer needs to be able to absorb the logos design within a few milliseconds so that they can recall the brand whenever they see it or specifically go looking for your clients brand/product. Think of the logo guessing game on mobile devices where you get part of a logo or only the picture logo and try to remember the name of the brand.

These three key points of logo design often overlap, as a simple logo, has to be iconic enough that it doesn't look like another companies logo or the viewer will get the two confused and a simple design is easier to remember than a complex illustration. An iconic logo has to be simple so that they can identify it easily and it must be memorable so that the audience can remember that this logo represents your clients brand/product. So far I have identified two techniques that could be used to test your logo concept, one is that you should show your logo concept to someone you know for a few seconds then ask the to see if they can draw out your logo design from memory around 30 minuets later, the second test you could do is show your logo to another person, for a few seconds, then come back to them a little while later and show them a part of the logo, and see if the can identify if it is your logo or not, if it is iconic and simple they should be able to identify it. Once you have got near to the end of your design process it is a good idea to show your design to someone else, as you are unlikely to be able to find critiques in your own design, showing someone else provides and fresh pair of eyes and a new perspective.

There are five types of logo design, these are:

1. (Text logo) Lettermark - Only consist of the initials of the brand and only include text. Often used when the name of the brand is to long to make any logo design out of. These logos are rather difficult to make as making a couple of letters iconic is difficult,

2. (Text logo) Wordmark (Monogram logo) - One of the better logo types for start up businesses, as it comes across as very confident and as it is such a literal interpretation it gets the name of the company out there. It is easy for the target audience to interpenetrate due to its literal nature. The conveyed message and tone is very important to portray through the typography,

3. (Pictorial logo) Brandmark - Often comes as a combination logo with one of the text based logo types, although they are also used individually, due to the fact that they are easy to recognize and unlike a text based logo they don't need to be translated to be used internationally. Few brands use this type of logo on its own or use this type primarily, they are becoming less and less common in the modern decade, sadly 😢, 

4. (Pictorial & Text logo) Combination logos - Uses either one of the text based logo types and a brandmark. They are the most common type of logo and ones of the easiest to make. They offer flexibility on what logo type the brand wants to use on what. The style of the typography and the style of the brandmark have to match or people will struggle to identify one with your brand,

5. (Pictorial & Text logo) Emblem - These are some of the most complex logo designs you will come across (sometimes looking a little dated). Often used for more formal industry type companies such as government agencies, as they represent authority, authenticity & respect. The roundness of the design also suggests togetherness, so they also work well for team organisation logos as well,

6. (Pictorial logo) Mascot logos - They are the face of the brand, as the a memorable and appeal to the audiences scene of fun and want for entertainment. This is a hard type of logo to use, as they struggle to stand the test of time.

The things you want to do when designing a logo are:

1. The logotype needs to visually communicate the emotion/vibe of the brand to the target audience,

2. The logo should appeal to the want and feelings of the target audience,

3. Any logo must be made in vector graphics. Logos need to be able to be readable at any size, to test yours print it out at different scales. Logo designer often produce two logos that are the same except one has the letters tightly packed together for larger scale uses and another with the letters having larger gaps between them so that if you scale the design down the letters don't touch making it easier to read. This technique is called kerning.

4. Don't use auto-kern. It's BAD. Turn your logo upside down to do this so you don't try to cater to the shape of the letters instead of the kerning,

5. If you are using two different fonts within a logo design they have to work well together. The Name/Main logotype is the most important bit so it needs to be larger than the strap line/tagline. A good way to do this is to try and make the strap-line font appear as a simpler version of the main logotype, as it creates a connection between the two while keeping the hierarchy structure of the text. Don't use very complicated typography as you will find it harder to match the fonts. Serif for the main logotype portray its importance in the hierarchy structure, while using sans serif for the tagline will automatically make the font appear more simple that the main logotype. Bold and thin is also a good way of portray the importance of the two words. Essentially opposites attract,

6. Text logos and Pictorial logos need to match their feelings and vibes,

7. Colour choices need to work together, be well research and considered,

8. Make sure to consider how your design could incorporate an animation, as so many companies are trying to do with their own now days to make them more appealing and memorable to the customer/consumer.

The things you don't want to do when designing a logo are:

1. AVOID TRENDS. Trends are things that burst in popularity for a short time before dying into obscurity, logos are supposed to be timeless, this goes completely against that rule,

2. Don't replace a letter in the logo with an associated image as although most people will get it there will be that one person who doesn't and it cause confusion over the brand name,

3. Simple designs are better. A logo is not an illustration,

4. Inappropriate logo designs ARE NOT OK,

5. Avoid literal logo designs,

6. Avoid cliches,

7. Basic letter overlays,

8. Avoid reflections (dated),

9. Avoid gradients (dated).

The presentation of your design is just as important as the design itself. You should always start be reminding people that logo design is there to create a memorable, simplistic and iconic design that convey the emotions and vibes tied to the brand/product, not what they business actually does. Remember you are designing the logo for the costumers/target audience of the brand/product not the actual client. Make sure to remind the client of their problems and how the goals of this project intend to fix their problem. It is a good idea to do a colour split screen with what ever logo you end up designing. Take the brands main associated colour and make half of the slide that colour with the logo on top in white, then have the other half white and place the logo over the top of that in the brands associated colour, this screen is a good introduction to mock-ups of the logo on the product of the brand, this allows the client to see possible way they could demonstrate their branding to costumers, as well as create a connection between you and them, as up and till this point you have made sure that they know that this logo design is for the target audience of the business and not for them. Clients like to see how their logo will interact with their customers.

Pre-production - Part 3: Logo design - Inspiration (106. - 110.)

This is my mid-point assessment sheet and as the name suggests this is done during the middle of production for my FMP. It tell you the grade I am currently working at, some feedback (What went well & Even better if) and my response to the feedback.

This is the first step to creating concept art, silhouettes. Using a website called Webchemy.org, I am making the silhouettes for the lobster queen, this is the best place for me to experiment with widely varying designs and drastic changes in concepts, before I move onto sketches, where the development between the last and current sketches has to be easily recognizable. This step is probably one of my favourite processes, as it doesn't take all that long, it is fun to just mess around with the character idea and working with tone and no colour, means that your silhouette has to have very interesting and well planed out shape and layout.

As previously said in my pre-production work, I am creating a diorama of a pirate ship wreck which has been turned into the saloon/bar type place. The reason I chose to model this over everything else is because it is one of the most important locations in my game, as this is the main place where the main task of the game gets updated. To start making this thing, I need to start by making some silhouettes, so that I can get the composition that I want for my ship, then begin to refine it using sketches and start designing the interior of it. Next, I will need to start experimenting with colours and textures, and draw my final design from a few different angles to show all of its possible view points. I will then need to draw the final sketch which will be the finished environmental sheet, coloured, textured, shaded, highlighted and rendered.

Diorama production/development process - Concept art: Silhouettes

Silhouette 6 is my favourite silhouette, so I am mainly going to be working with its design. I need to sketch this layout out in it current perspective until I get to a refined sketch that I like and then move onto drawing the ship from different angles so I can show want the exterior of the hub looks like all the way around. So far I am using the vector brush in adobe Fresco (except the silhouette, this is in raster because it was made on a website called Webchemy (www.webchemy.org, seriously try it out, it is so fun), which only works in raster, as long as I don't make the images to big or small it shouldn't pixelate) to draw out my sketches, as I will need to move these sketches around and organize them within my (miniature) art book, for my game idea.

Diorama production/development process - Concept art: Sketches -Colour palettes

Diorama production/development process - Concept art: Sketches - Sheet 1

I am using the tapered brush as size 15.0 to get the smooth changes in the size of the brush stroke. The reason I chose this brush is because it reminds me of abstract expression, as the thickness of the line is dependent on what the artist wants and feels, as the more pressure they apply to the screen and the more stationary they are the thicker the line becomes and vice versa, you can see where I hesitate, as the line becomes more of a blob, and where I am confident as the line is a thin, but a consistent size. I have also used these lines to illustrate perspective, with the lines becoming thinner the further they move backwards and away from the focal point. I have also used two different shades of brown for the lines set further back inside the boat, and a lighter brown for the outside, as this is a rudimentary way for me to shade my drawings without having to colour every sketch I do in. The shape of this boat is rather complicated, so I ended up drawing the basic shape of the boat on a separate layer to that of the masts and captains quarters on the rear of the boat, then merged the layers together, I also did the same for all of the wooden plan lines, holes in the boat and the port holes, so I had more control over the lines, I could also erase parts of them without damaging the finished outline of my boat.

Diorama production/development process - Concept art: Sketches - Sheet 2

This sketch sheet is to refine how the smaller features of the ship will look and to perfect the flow of the environmental prop placement and the environment surrounding the shipwreck. Due to the nature of the shipwreck, it didn’t take long to find out what rotation and setting I wanted my main environmental prop to sit (the broken boat), so I needed to figure out what features I wanted to include in the design of the ship. Some of the feature that I had to add to the ship so that it actually looked like a ship, is the steps up to the second level and to the lower levels as well as the door to the lower level. I also decided to add some holes into the boat itself, as the damage can be used to tell the story of how the boat sank, in this case canon fire, hence all the holes in the ship. I also wanted to experiment with the parts of the terrain surrounding the ship as it wouldn’t make sense that a boat should sink with no rocks, sand banks or debris around the ship. The ship also requires windows, so I decided to go with the traditional route of a port hole. I also wanted to do something different with the mast on the back of the ship, as the rule of three has already been applied with the three masts on the front of the ship, it would look rather odd to have one singular lone mask on the back. By the second sketch on this sheet, I ended up rearranging the positioning of the rocks so that they form more of a triangular shape that will guide the viewers eyes to the bar contained within the ship. The original placement of the rocks was to scatter and wasn’t a tight-enough collection of rocks to guide the viewers eyes into a specific area. I did end up deciding to make the most far back mast fall so that it hangs over the bar along with the bar, as I thought that this resembled a tiki bar, a symbol of the happy summer island holidays, with coconut drinks with umbrellas.

Diorama production/development process - Concept art: Sketches - Sheet 3

By this point I had pretty much decided on the look of my ship, the only thing I needed to decide on was the shape of the windows for the captains cabin, as the captain often gets first pick of the loot and gets the best stuff as a result the captains quarters are often the most luxurious and decorated part of the ship. I had already decided on two of the different window options, being the port hole and a big ornamental church window shape, I just wasn’t sure what order, sequence or scale I wanted them to be. I started with a two portholes on either side of an ornamental window, I didn’t like how this looked, since it looked like a terrified, shocked face. The second revision of the windows had two ornamental window that were the same scale, without the break in the hull it would have looked good, but with it the face issue comes back, but this one reminds me of a joyously screaming child’s face (the large windows/eye make it seem innocent and young). To remedy the face problem I realized that I was going to have to use three windows that were the same shape otherwise I am always going to be able to identify a face, as a result of this I ended up following the group of 3 rule (for some reason in design 3’s are always pleasing to the eye).

Diorama production/development process - Concept art: Props - Sheet 4

This environmental prop sheet features all of my cup, glasses, bottles and barrels. My cups and bottles are a mixture of props from our world that went down with the ship and props from my underwater world. I went for the more traditional pirate props from our world this being a pewter tanker, looted barrels of rum and bottles of wine. These are pretty standard props, as we know what they look like in our world there isn’t really anyway to make their silhouette more interesting, other than give them some interesting textures. I did end up deciding to make my pewter tanker a little more interesting by giving it a seaweed feature handle, I don’t really have any idea how I want to make this yet but it is definitely something I’m going to do. I decided to make the larger props from the world I am creating out of ice and the smaller props out of sea glass, I chose ice for the larger props because it seemed to hard to acquire enough sea glass to make a full sized bar and since ice is such an abundant resource as previously mentioned it is a widely available resource so it makes scenes to use it. I tried to make the bottles and glasses from this underwater world sea themed, with them being a very heavy reference to shells, the pointed shell is meant to look like a hermit crab shell, a close relative to the robber crab. The engraving on the bar is meant to represent the harsh environment on the surface of the sea above and the triangle is a reference to the location being in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. I wanted a running theme of blue and smooth textures for the props from this world as it shows that they belong to it, while the props from our world don’t match to show that they shouldn’t be here almost like they are invading (hint, hint theme of war, the invasion of deadly chemicals). I ended up combining the materials from both worlds to create the tables as the world I am creating likes to recycle the debris that is pulled in from the surface to create new useful items, so I used some of the wood from the boat from the to create the legs, promoting the ethical motivation to recycle. I like all of the prop art I made on this page, and I intend to make all of them. The one prop on this page I don’t like is the first table that is made out of lava rock, I think my issue here is that I don’t like the concept art for it more than the idea behind it. I don’t like the shape of the rock it doesn’t flow well with the smoothness of the table and I don’t think the rock should go through the table top, I think the table top should just rest on the top. I don’t think I’ll make it for this project but I might come back to it later and try and do something with it. I wanted roughly the same amount of complex and simple shaped props as to much of either would either make the scene to busy and not let the viewers eye rest anywhere and they would take to long to make, but if all of the props were to simple it wouldn’t show off any of my new and improved modelling skills and techniques and the scene would be boring with no focal feature to draw your eye.

Diorama production/development process - Concept art: Props - Sheet 4

All of these props are very standard as they are part of the ship or things that we come into contact with every now and again in every day life so there isn’t really a way to make them more existing, plus why would I want to spend all my time trying to make everyday objects from our world more interesting, when I could make the objects from the world I am creating the focal props in my scene, as they are something the player will have never seen before and never will in-person, so they will naturally be more interested in those objects. I really wanted to experiment with the textures on these objects because they are definitely the most complex, not only do you have rotting wood and rust, but you also have sea grass/moss and barnacles. The textures on these props are much more interesting than the actual props. The chest is probably the most interesting prop on this page as it will allow me to combine my specialism of concept art and my love of modelling (originally I would have done the engraving through the process as sculpting but no hardware I have access to seems to be capable of running it, so I will add it as a texture, sticker instead). A treasure chest is a thing of mystery and legend, so I wanted to make it look more grandiose than the other props on this page, hence the gold caps, curvature and engraving of a mythical sea creature, the Kraken. The three sketches of a saloon door was my attempt at trying to figure out the shape of the saloon doors that I wanted, first I tried out the traditional simple square shape, but I thought this was boring and didn’t fit the shape of the door, so then I curved it which I liked, but thought that it could be better, so I drew my third sketch. The third set of saloon door is my favourite because the shape matches that of the door and fits in with the rest of the boat, I did experiment with putting an octopus engraving across this door but I don’t really like it so I’m just going to avoid that bit when I make the door. The octopus just looks to clumsy being stretched over them. The shape of the doors look like a rogue sea wave arching up, I think that is why I like them so much.

Diorama production/development process - Modelling

Now that I have finished exploring the design of my boat, I now have to actually make it into a model, I don't need to draw modelling profiles for this because, it doesn't need to be an exact match, plus its kind of hard to do this for an environment like this as not all of the angles and shapes translate well to a 2D representation, for environments its is better to uses a collection for sketches that 360o surround the scene and use them as a plan/reference.

Diorama production/development process - Modelling: Part 1

I decided to use a box as the base object for my boat because even though the shape of the boat will have a pointed end and the bottom of it comes to a point, the majority of the boat is actually squared so a box is the better fit (blue annotation). I used Google to find out the average length and width of a pirate ship, which I then used for the object properties, I had to do the height of the boat by eye as I couldn’t find a scorer to take reference from (red annotation). I usually try to add in the base geometry of the object I want to make from the start, but I decided not to with this one as I wasn’t sure how many I would need and didn’t want to litter the object with unnecessary geometry, it would be easier to add it in, using the connect tool later, as I can be more precise with the geometry that I will need.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 2

After converting the object to an editable poly, using the modifier list (white), I first used the connect tool X1 combined with edge selection to double the geometry in the 1st net pattern I have drawn in green. I then added a piece of geometry around the width of the shape using the connect tool X1 plus edge selection and the 2nd net pattern (green again). The connect tool would not wrap properly around the object so I ended up having to cut the extra edge on the bottom of the object (yellow).  I then used the edge selection tool combined with the move tool (w) to pull the edge of the 1st net pattern out to create the bow of the ship out of the object, I also did the same on the back bottom edge of the shape but pulled the edge downwards creating the pointed bottom of the ship and pulled the back of the ship outwards as I did the front, but not to the same extreme (blue, purple, red).

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 3

Next, I wanted to section the boat into it’s three parts, this being the stern, containing the captains' quarters, the middle of the boat, containing the deck and masts, and finally the bow of the ship. To section the boat, I used the edge selection tool, combined with the connect tool X1 and selected the horizontal edges around the shape (yellow).

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 4

Next I deleted the top half of the front half of the boat using poly selection (red), I then used the bridge tool combined with edge selection to fill the gaps back in from where the delete polys were. Then I used poly selection and the extrude tool to lower the deck slightly (yellow) and give it and border from the deck, I repeated the same process on the section of the ship that sits above the captains' quarters. Finally, I used edge selection and connect tool (blue) to double the geometry for the stern of the ship. These changes allowed me to create the very basic shape of my ship, although it is very abstract at the moment, I can already see the outline of the boat taking shape.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 5

Now I need to add in the geometry that will allow me to add the curvature to my boat that will actually make it look like a boat, so I started by selection all of the horizontal lines on the length of the boat and using the connect tool X6 (yellow). I then lowered the height of the back part of the ship, as I thought that the height of the roof of the captains quarters looked to high compared to the rest of the ship, I did this by selecting the face on the top of the captains quarters and used the move tool (w) to push it down towards the boat (red). Now that I am starting to do some more complex actions to model the boat I need to use the symmetry tool, as I won’t be able to replicate it exactly on both sides, so I deleted one side of the boat, using poly selection (blue) and applied the symmetry modifier.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 6

Next, I am going to shape the bottom of the boat using the geometry that I added. I did this by using vertex selection and the move tool (w) (red) to curve the bottom of the boat to create a more cylindrical shape to the bottom of it. Then I used edge selection and selected the horizontal lines on the bow of the ship and used the connect tool X5, I then selected these lines individually and moved them inwards to the center of the boat to create a curved-up point at the bow of the ship (yellow). I don’t think I need to add anymore geometry to the front of the ship, as it is an obtuse curve, so it doesn’t need loads of geometry to make it look smooth as the geometry is so far apart. 

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 7

Next, I used edge selection and the move tool (w) to curved the back of the boat, this curve is much more acute than the front of the boat as it is flatter, because it is flatter it causes the geometry to be closer together, as a result I don’t need to add more geometry to make it appear smooth. I did end up using the connect tool X2 around the stern of the boat and curving it in slightly so that the flat sides of the boat didn’t look so disjointed compared to the sudden curve at the back. It creates a connection between the side and back of the boat. 

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 8

Now I am going to create the railing surrounding the deck of my ship, I started by using poly selection and extrude to select the border of my lowered deck and pulled it up (red). My plan is to use inset on the on the separate polys, and delete the inset polys, then extrude the top facing polys to create the banister.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 9

I found this part of the railing quite hard to engineer, because no matter what I did to the railings the plan behind it always failed to make the legs of the railings, they just would not sit right, so I ended up deleting (red) the polys between the banister and the boat and creating the railing separately so that I could join it up later. I then used edge selection and the move tool (yellow) to select two parallel sides of the banister, separately, to widen the size of the banister, as it should be wider than the railings. Finally, I bridged the gap in the deck border that I had created by extruding it, then deleting the polys, as it will be easier to do it now and edit the polys than add them in later and deal with the ball ache of bridging difficult geometry back in.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 10

Next I used poly selection, inset (blue) and the extrude tool to extrude (red) the bridged in polys that I added back in earlier in part 9, I then used the inset tool to create the gaps between the railings (yellow).

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 11

I then deleted the gaps between the railings using poly selection. I had to use vertex selection and the move tool (w) to level the bottom of the banister railings with the deck border and the top of the railings so that they lined up with the bottom of the banister. Next, I used edge selection to select all of the horizontal lines on the boat and banister and used the connect tools to add two warps around edges in between (red), I’ll use the vertexes at the top of this to attach my railings to. Originally, I was just going to lower the vertexes on the railings so that they lined up with the boarder of the deck, i couldn’t bridge the gap between the two inset sides of the railings, so I ended up having to change my original plans, so that I could actually get it to work, this took my a few tries to figure it out, by the end it really did start to frustrate me.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 12

I then used vertex selection and tangent weld to fuse the edges that made up the curve of the banister to the top of the railings (blue). I used poly selection to delete all of the faces on the underside of the banister (blue) as they would just get in the way when I need to tangent weld the vertices, I added in using the connect tool in part 11.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 13

I had to use edge selection and the move tool to align the connected edges that I added in part 11, to align with the top section and bottom sections of the railings (blue). I then used vertex selection and tangent weld, to fuse the top and bottom of the railings to the boat and banister (black). When I used the connect tool it didn’t wrap all around the boat in some areas, so I had to use the cut tool, to finish wrapping it around the boat (red). I then used edge selection and the bridge tool, to fuse the bottom of the banister back together. Making these railing has been a right ball-ache, and I am so glad that I’m done with them now.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 14

I need to section the boat equally so that the canon doors are the same size, so I used the edge selection tool to select all of the horizontal lines and the connect tool to section the middle section of the boat (red). I then selected some of the polys on the bottom half of the boat that isn’t curved, and used the inset tool, to section it (black).

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 15

By this point in making my model I had to change the colour of my boat object as the original colour was starting to strain my eyes. I ended up having to cut in another canon door opening as I forgot to select one of the polys (yellow). Next, I used poly selection and the extrude tool to pull the polys that surround the canon doors out of the body of the boat (red). I deleted the faces inset into the canon door openings and then used edge selection and the move tool (w) to pull the inner square collection of edges into the boat.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 16

Now that the most difficult part of the boat is complete and I want to work on the center wooden bar of the boat, I need to be able to work on both sides of the boat at the same time, otherwise I will be working on the very edge of the deleted half of the boat and that makes it quite difficult to arrange things in a way that when I apply symmetry that it connects together properly. So I then right clicked on the symmetry modifier and selected collapse to (yellow). I then had to use vertex selection and the tangent weld tool to fuse the two halves of the boat together (red).

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 17

To create the center piece of wood for the boat, I used edge selection and extrude to pull the center edges out of the boat, creating a triangular pitched shape which I could then edit (blue). I then used the cut tool to cut each side of the triangular point I had just added (grey), I then used vertex selection and the move tool (w) to make a sort of upside-down house shape out of the bottom of the boat (black). When editing my boat, it is quite common for me to accidentally, select other polys, edges and vertex’s that I don’t need and delete or change them in some way, so I often have to use the bridge tool to fix the issue that it caused (red). I ended up using poly selection and the extrude tool to make the large center piece of wood on the front of the ship in the gap I left between the two pieces of railings (blue). Next, I used the cut tool to cut a new section into the center beam so that I could get the right scaled poly to use the inset tool (yellow) on two parallel polys on each side of the center beam and delete to create a way for me to attach the railings to the center beam, with out altering the scale, using tangent weld (teal).

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 18

Now I need to extrude the center beam on the stern of the boat. First I deleted the polys at the very back of the boat as I needed to make the correct shape of poly for the beam, I used vertex selection and the move tool (red) to change the shape of the polys I need to edit, and I used tangent weld (red) to create the pointed inward facing part of the beam, I then used edge selection and the bridge tool to fix the gaps I made by deleting the polys (blue). Finally, I used vertex selection and the break tool to separate the polys at the back of the boat (grey), this allowed me to square the beam at the back of the boat boat. The accumulation of all of these processes allowed me to make the shape of this beam to look like an emerald from the Zelda series.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 19

I used poly selection and the extrude tool to pull the beam out of the deck of the boat. I then used vertex selection and the cut tool (red), to create a small thin section in the beam, at the same height as the railings and then used the move tool (black) to level out the cut as it was rather jagged and by leveling it out it will make the smoothing groups better, I used poly selection to select the parallel polys on the center beam, used the inset tool and then deleted the inset poly (blue) as a way of me being able to attach the railings to the center beam. Finally, I used vertex selection and the tangent weld tool (lime) to fuse the railings to the center beam.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 20

As I’ve created the main parts of the boat, I wanted to take a break from it and work on something else as I get bored from working on the same thing for long amounts of time (as I learned from my first year FMP), so I thought I would take a productive break and work on something else for a little while and then come back to it. I am going to create a port hole, an essential part to the design of the ship so I am still being productive as a result. I started by creating a cylinder (red), naming it port hole and to get the scale right I used the move (w) and rotate tool (e) to line it up with the boat and then used the scale tool (r) to scale it to the size of the boat, you can see the object properties I went with in the photo above (yellow), I don’t see the need of mentioning the exact parameters, as the scale compared to the boat is what matters not the exact properties.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 21

I created the rim of the port hole by first converting it to an editable poly, by right clicking on the object, convert to: and selecting the editable poly modifier (blue). I then used the connect tool and selected all of the vertical edges on the sides of the cylinders to create 3 sections on for the sides of the cylinder, then I used poly selection and the extrude tool to create a ridge between the center section and the outside ones, and then used the move tool (w) to center it (red), as the extrude tool extrudes in the direction you pull it because I have selected all the way around a shape it ends up making the extruded section pop out of one side of the shape instead of equally around the whole shape. Finally, I used the scale tool to expand the center section, in a way that it is equal on all sides (yellow).

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 22

Next, I wanted to create the glass part of the port hole, so first I started by using poly selection with the inset tool (yellow) and used the extrude tool to push the glass poly back into the shape (red), I repeated this process on the other side of the object as well. I then used the inset tool around the outer rim of the port hole, I then used the inset tool on every other poly around the outer rim of the shape and used the extrude tool to pull the inset faces out of the rim, these tiny extruded faces will represent the bolts that attach the port hole to the ship (yellow & red), I then repeated this process on the backside of the object. On one of the extruded polys, I didn’t used the inset tool, as this cube shaped extruded geometry will be used to create the lock for the port hole. To create the lock, I inset on the two parallel polys of the lock facing outwards, I then deleted (blue) the inset faces and used edge selection to bridge the gap between the two deleted insets, to create a square shaped tunnel through the geometry (green). I then selected the face next to the lock on the outer wall of the inner rim, I then added an inset (yellow) and then used the extrude tool (red) to pull the new rectangular shaped geometry through the lock tunnel, much like a common draw bolt lock.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 23

I ended up not liking the insets I used for the bolts that attached the port hole to the ship, so I used tangent weld to get rid of them, then used vertex selection and the cut tool (green) to cut in better scaled insets so that they were all roughly the same size, I then used the extrude tool (red) on them again to pull them out of the outer rim. Next, I used poly selection to select the inner most circular face and used the inset tool (blue) and the extrude tool to push it ever so slightly into the shape again (blue), creating the rim that holds the glass in place. Finally, repeated the process on the inner rim and the same on the other side of the object (slide 2). I then started to create the hinge for the port hole to open, as I already have a lock, it would look off if there was no hinge to open it. I used poly selection on the poly parallel to the poly with the lock on it, and used the inset tool and the extrude tool (blue) to pull the geometry out of the shape again, next I used the inset tool on the top and two side polys on the extruded block then deleted the inset faces and surrounding faces that were attached to the top poly, I then used the bridge tool, this ended up creating a U shaped piece of geometry. Then I used the extrude tool on the rim of the door section and selected the outwards side facing poly and extruded that to, so that it aligned with the top of the U-shaped part of the hinge. Finally, I used the inset tool on the outer faces and inner faces on the u-shaped part of the hinge and the inset tool again on the outer faces of the hinge that aligned with the U-shaped part of the hinge. Next, I used vertex selection and the move tool (w) to shrink the size of the insets on the hinge, I then deleted the inner 4 inset faces and used edge selection and the bridge tool the gaps and create a connecting piece of geometry between these two pieces of geometry. I then used the extrude tool on the outer most 2 inset faces to pull a square piece of geometry out of the shape. This created a pin sort of shape that presented the illusion of it going through the two parts of the hinge and the bar the the door part of the hinge would rotate on.

Production/Development process - Modelling (Unwrapping): Part 24

Now that the model of the port hole is complete, I need to unwrap it before I clone it, or I will have to unwrap the same multiple times, so I need to unwrap this first before cloning it. To start with I selected the whole shape and pressed F2 so that I could make sure that I had selected the whole shape, I then went to the modifier list (blue) and selected Unwrap UVW and opened the UV Editor (green), which displayed the preset unwrap of the object, that the computer tries to do itself, every time it is awful and you have to redo the whole thing yourself.

Production/Development process - Modelling (Unwrapping): Part 25

My personal process to unwrapping is to separate all of the different parts of the unwrap into their respective parts and then separate them according to how much I have left to do on the specific section (red). Next, I selected the whole shape and selected the checkered pattern (blue), which covers the object in a checker pattern (hence the name), the general rule is that the squarer the squares are the better the textures will look when applied. To separate the pieces of the unwrap I had to use the break tool, flatten by polygon angle tool and straighten selection. The break tool allows me to separate pieces of the objects unwraps, flatten by polygon angle which flattens out object no matter what axis they are on and straighten selection will straighten the edges of the geometry, which inter perfects the checker pattern on the unwrap. I also used the move (w), rotation (e) and scale (r) tools to move the geometry around the the pc couldn’t figure out for itself when I used the preset tools in the UV editor.

Production/Development process - Modelling (Unwrapping): Part 26

Now that all of the object has been unwrapped, I need to arrange the parts within the checkered pattern square in the UV Editor, there is several buttons that do this, pack normalise is the best for this as it arranges the parts of the unwrap within the checkered square to scale, but it doesn’t always pack the parts of the unwrap within the square in the best possible way, so to maximise the use of the space, I often use poly selection, the Move (w) and scale tools (r) (yellow) to better the packed layout of the geometry. Finally, I used collapse to as this saves the unwrap to the object.

Production/Development process - Modelling (Cloning x2): Part 27

Now that the port hole has been finished and unwrapped, I can copy clone (yellow) it by right clicking on the object and selecting copy clone, because any of the other clone options such as instant or reference clone, copy what ever is done to the original object including movement, since I need to move the clones into place, I don’t want all of the others moving as with it. I had to use the move (w) and rotate (e) tool to get the cloned port holes to sit flush with the boat object (yellow).

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 28

As of this point in time there is no access to the lower decks of the ship so I need to create a stairwell, so I started by cutting a square into the center of the ship, that sat flush with the wall that lead to the second level of the ship, then I used poly selection and the extrude tool to pull the border around the rectangular that I had created up and out of the deck, to create a broader around the stairwell opening. I made it so that the broader around the stairwell was the same height as the broader around the deck. Next, I cut 5 sections into the rectangular cut out, using the cut tool and vertex selection. Then I used poly selection and extrude to lower the 5 sections, into the ship, this allowed me to create the steps down, I lowered the section all at once, but deselected one of the sections every few centimeters to create the stairs.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 29

Now that I have built the stairwell down to the lower deck, I need to make a door way so that the crew could have actually accessed it, so I started by using poly selection and the inset tool (pink), to create a poly that I could edit the shape of without effecting the smoothing groups of the geometry around it and eventually delete it to create a doorway. When I used extrude and inset to create the stairwell and base shape for my doorway the polys vertexes detached from those level with the height of the deck, so I had to use vertex selection and tangent weld to fuse them back together (purple). Used the inset tool to on the center of the edge of the top deck, so that I could create a stand for the ships wheel to sit on, I then used extrude to pull this up and out of the deck (light blue), I then used scale (r) and move (w) to make the stand a more reasonable size and to move it as close to the edge of the top deck as I could (red). Next, I used vertex selection and the cut tool (green) to shape the top of the doorway, I added 3 vertices on each side of the doorway and I also added a cut that would allow me to join the ship steering wheel stand up with the door, so that once I am finished with this part of the ship the stand will overhang the doorway slightly. The cut didn’t take to well on the two polys between the ship wheel stand and the doorway so I ended up having to delete the polys (dark blue), I then used edge selection and bridge (yellow) to create the sections that I wanted to with the cut tool.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 30

When I first lowered the stairwell and stairs the polys that connected the stairs to the deck weren’t connected to each other, so I had to use edge selection on the vertical edges of the polys lower than the deck height, that has  the doorway on and used the connect tool X4 (yellow), as this is the same amount of steps there are so I can use the new unattached vertexes on the outer edges of the poly to attach the sides of the stairwell to it. I then used poly selection and delete to get rid of the sides of the stairwell, then used edge selection to select the edges of the stairs and the edges of the polys with the door frame on it and used the bridge tool to seal the gaps (blue). Due to the polys having five vertices, so I used vertex selection and the cut tool (red), to first cut an edge into the sides of the stairwell that lined up with the thin poly at the back of the lower deck and the corresponding polys at the bottom of the stairwell, I then used the tangent weld tool (pink) along with vertex selection to fuse them together. Next, I used the cut tool to cut the side polys of the stairwell into triangles as otherwise I will be left with ngon’s which make the textures applied look horrible, while triangles are not ideal, they help the smoothing group flow properly, while ngon’s ruin them. Finally, I created the inner edge of the doorway using the inset tool (green) and poly selection to select all of the polys inside the outline of the door.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 31

To make the doorway to the lower deck of the ship, I started by using poly selection and extrude to select the polys that make up the doorway shape and pulled out of the body of the boat (green), I then used poly selection and delete to delete the polys blocking the doorway (dark blue),  since I am breaking the ship in half and shelling it there is there is no need for me to leave the polys there, I might as well knock it through. Next, I then cut the small poly at the back of the bottom of the stairwell and cut the stairs into 4 sections, I then tangent weld the bottom vertices of the door to the floor of the stairwell otherwise the polys will overlap, and I will end up with unnecessary polys (pink). I then used edge selection to move the inner most edge of the doorway back into the shape (red). Next, I moved onto the ship wheels stand, I started by using tangent weld on the two bottom vertices of the stand and and fusing them to the front facing edge of the top edge (pink). I then used the cut tool (teal), to make sure that the thin edge on the front of the top deck continued over the wheel stand. I cut the center stand into 4 sections and used poly selection and the extrude tool (green) to select the front of the stand, to create a more interesting stand silhouette for the stand (as a simple block is kind of boring). I had to use inset (white) on the two center polys on the top of the stand, when I then used extrude on (green), thinking about it know I could have just used poly selection and extrude, but didn’t think of it at the time. I then used  edge selection tool and the connect tool (yellow) to give me some new vertex point that would allow me to fix my geometry, I used poly selection to delete some of the inset geometry on the top of the stand, I then used vertex selection and tangent weld (pink) to fix any breaks in the geometry and get rid of some unwanted edges and then finally, I used edge selection and the bridge tool to add the missing geometry back in. It is important for me on this ship to try and put as many beam type shapes extrudes on my boat as possible, since it is made out of wood, everything that goes through the ship like doorways and everything that needs a frame like windows, needs to have an extruded shape around it to mimic the wooden frame that makes up the base of the ship.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 32

At this point I realised that I had forgotten the small wooden beam that I wanted between the canon doors and the windows, since I forgot to add the geometry I need to in beforehand, I had to use edge selection and the chamfer tool (red), I selected all of the vertical edges around the whole boat, excluding the center beam at the front and back and I used the move tool (w) to make the polys that the canon doors and port holes are roughly the same scale (dark blue). I used poly selection and the extrude tool (light blue) to pull the the geometry out of the boat and create the small dividing beam effect that I want. Due to the fact the fact that I am using extrude pretty much around the whole shape, extrude pull all of the geometry out but only in one direction, so I used it to provide me with the extra geometry, I then used move (w) to center all of the geometry again, back to its original position and used scale (r) to properly extrude the geometry on all sides equally.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 33

Next, I am making another opening to the lower deck, this is because the doorway I made leads directly to where the captains quarters would be, while this hole on the deck will give access to the canon deck and living quarters, so I started by using poly selection and inset (light blue) on a collection of 4 by 4 polys in the center of the ships lower part deck. I used extrude (green) to pull my selected inset polys up and out of the deck, I tried to make it so that the height of the deck matches the height of the boarder around the outside of the deck, there isn’t really a reason to this other than I think it looks nicer that way. I ended up thinking that the original size of the inset was to wide as it took up so much of the deck that it would be difficult for people to get past so I used edge selection on all of the long ways edges of the inset and using the scale (r) and move tool (w) (orange) to push them closer together to make a thinner inset.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 34

Now that I have the raised surface to create the boarder of my opening to the lower decks, I need to actually make it so that the player could pass through the ship. I started by using poly selection and the inset tool (green) to create a section for the boarder of the doorway, next, I used the extrude tool (yellow) to push the inset into the boat at around the same height of the deck, I then used delete to create the opening (red).

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 35

My boat is pretty much complete by now (other than the obvious of breaking it in half and shelling it), the only thing I have left to do is add the railings for the steps up to the second level and over to the ship wheel stand, so I don’t have to start from scratch to create these railings, I am copy cloning the ship (red) and deleting (orange) the rest of it apart from the sections of the railings that I need. This should save me a lot more time than me making them again from scratch, since making the original set was confusing and irritating enough, in all honesty there were so many step involved in making them that there is no way I could remember how to make them from scratch again.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 36

Now that I have the sections of the railings I need, I need to create a gap in the geometry on the boat, so that i can attach it. I started by using poly selection and the inset tool (red) on the section around the stair well on the boats main body, were the railings will need to attach (the hole through the boats in the snip), then I used edge selection and the move tool (w) (orange), to stretch out the shortest two parallel edges on each inset so that the poly between the inset and the edge around it barely existed. I then used delete to create the openings I need to attach the railings (light blue). I’m not doing this on the other side of the ship, I am going to delete half of it when I’Ve completed this side and use the symmetry tool, so I don’t have to repeat the same process on the other side, considering how difficult the original railings were to create I have a feeling these ones are going to be hell on earth to make to, so I would rather only have to make them once and let the software do the other half for me.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 37

Continuing from the previous step, I turned the banister layer back on, and used poly selection plus the move tool to align it with the holes I made in the boat to attach it to, then i used the attach tool to join the layers together (pink) and used vertex selection plus tangent weld (orange) to fuse it to the main body of the boat. I had already made the steps previously, by creating a box and giving it two leg and then cloning it x 3 (green) and using the attach tool and tangent weld to fuse them together, so now I need to attach the steps to the banister and the boat, this was pretty much the same process as attaching the banister but I had to cut (yellow) a new section in each leg of the banister to attach the stairs to it using tangent weld. I then used the extrude tool on the bottom of every step to create legs at that would connect to the boarders of the deck, I did this by using poly selection and the extrude tool (blue), plus delete on the bottom faces of the leg, the cut tool (yellow to create a section for the bottom of the legs to attach to and then used tangent weld to fuse them to the boat (orange). I had to use the cut tool on the side of the boat after this to cut it into triangular shaped polygons as, I would have had an ngon otherwise (yellow) (as seen on slide 2). I then used poly selection on the top section of the banister and the extrude tool (blue) to pull it out toward the stand for the wheel of the ship. I then used the inset tool on the side of the steering wheel stand and deleted the inset poly, this would allow me to join the banister up with the stand, I used vertex selection and tangent weld to fuse them together (slide 3). Finally, I used edge selection and the connect tool x 2 to create some more geometry in the straight section of the banister that joins up with the stand, It looked horrible being perfectly straight, so I used the move tool and the new rings of edges I had created to curve this part of the banister, that mimic the curve of the banister on the stern of the ship. Symmetry is pleasing to the eye as according to Gestalts theory. Creating the 90 degree turn of this banister was probably one of the most frustrating parts of this project for me as no matter how I altered the banister I couldn't get this one corner to sit properly, in the end I had to delete a lot of geometry, bridge the gaps, cut the vertices back in using the cut tool and then use tangent weld to fuse it all back together. Trying to figure this part out took me around 2 hours, it was the bane of my existence at the time and I am still not happy with it, but I'll have to move on with the project, at least it is on the bottom side of the banister where no one will see it unless they are really looking (slide 4).

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 38

Making the window was quite a similar process to the door, so I started by using poly selection, to select the 3 groups of 4 polys each and using the inset tool, I created the basic inset shape for the window panes, two of the windows needed smaller insets that the center one, as that is the focal point window I wanted to make that one bigger than the rest. I used vertex selection and the cut tool to cut and extra two vertex’s on each side of the smaller windows and 3 vertices on each side of the larger window, as only using two vertices on each side makes the window frame to angular when it is surprised to be smooth, on the smaller windows it is harder to notice (as seen in the concept art I borrowed from my sketches sheet above to try and illustrate what I am talking about).

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 39

Now that I have completed one side of the boat, I am using poly, selection and delete (red) to delete half of the boat. I the applied the symmetry modifier, right clicked on the modifier and pressed collapse to to apply it. I ended up having to undo this as it made the center beam of my boat thinner than it should be, it ended up looking horrible and there was no way to correct it, so I ended up having to undo the applied symmetry. To create a gap between the mirrored side and the side that I made I used object selection and moved my half ever so slightly off of the center of the scene, this will create a gap between the mirrored side and the original, which I can use tangent weld to fuse it back together while leaving my center beam the right scale.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 40

Next, I put my plan into action i right clicked on the symmetry modifier, right clicked on it and selected collapse to apply it. I then used object selection and moved the mirrored side over to the original half, I then used vertex selection and tangent weld (red) to fuse the two halves together. Finally, I used object selection and the move tool (w) (red) again to center the whole object on the x axis to 0.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 41

Now that my ships body is complete it is missing one very important detail the masts, I had already pre-made the broken mast, but not the rest. I made the broken mast by creating a cylinder , I didn’t really care about the preciseness of the size of the mast only its scale compared to that of the rest of the boat, and the it had two cap segments, then I converted it to an editable poly and deleted the cap segments on the bottom the the cylinder, and used vertex selection to make the top of the mast into a point, next I copy cloned it as this is the smaller pair of masts and I want them to be the same size (red). One will go at the front and the other at the back, but the back one is the one that is broken, so I put the one for the front aside and turned the visibility off. Next, I used edge selection and broke the cylinder into two sections and used the vertex selection tool and the move tool (w) on the Z axis, to make the break of the mast much more jagged. Then I used the break tool, to separate the two pieces, then I used edge selection and the bridge tool to complete the shapes. Once, I had created my initial masts I copy cloned the unbroken small mast and used the scale tool (r) to make the one of the larger two center masts out of it, then I copy cloned that, so the two larger masts were the same size. I then used the move tool to move all of the respective masts into place. Now I need to attach the masts to the ship, normally I wouldn’t because it would be easier to texture, but since I need to rotate the ship, it will be easier to align them by attaching them. After switching back to the boat layer, I used the vertex selection tool to cut around the bottoms of all the masts (dark blue), so I can attach them together when I attach the objects together. I then deleted the cut-out circle shapes (yellow). I then attached the masts to the boat objects (green) and used vertex selection plus tangent welds to fuse the masts to the boats deck (teal). I used vertex selection on the front mast to tilt the mast so that it protrudes out of the front of the ship.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 44

Next, I started cutting all the way around the middle section of the boat, just behind the 3rd mast. I used the vertex selection tool and the cut tool (green) to cut around the ship, as jaggedly as possible. I used my concept art as reference for the shape of the break, as it took me quite a bit of time to prefect how I wanted the break to look in my concept art so there was no way I was just going to ignore it. The 3 slides show the cut around the ship from all angles.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 45

I then used vertex selection and the break tool (green) to separate the two halves and used the object selection tool and the move tool (blue) to move the back half of the ship further away from the from, as I need to be able to access the insides of both ships as I will definitely have to refine the shelling, as the shape is so complex I can already foresee problems with it.

Production/Development process - Modelling: Part 46