2D Class Week 15 Bringing It All Together Illustration 2 Continued

My final illustration for 2D class this semester. This is the city of Rata Sum from Guild Wars 2.

The screen shot I used as reference. 

Mailing a Letter Assignment

Jump Assignment

2D Class Week 14 Bringing It All Together Illustration 2

This is the city of Rata Sum from Guild Wars 2. It's one of my favorite places in the game to hang out and do crafting and use the trading post. I took a screen shot of it and I'm in the process of recreating it in a painterly style.

2D Class Week 13 Lighting 2

Hurray lighting assignment #2! I'm sad I never really use my steam controller... The design still needs some iteration.

Original image.

Jump Scare WIP

2D Class Week 12 Perspective 2

2nd pass perspective assignment.

2D Class Week 11 Composition Part 02

This is the second go at composition. I wanted to do something simple this time using the rule of 3rds. Since we're eventually going to watch the Secret of Nimh, and that movie reminds me of the Redwall series, I decided to paint my impression of the abby seen from Mossflower woods.

2D Class Week 10 Value Part 02

This week we revisit the value shading assignment. This time we got to pick out any linework we wanted. I found this cool sketch of Cluny the Scourge from the Redwall books I once read as a kid. He looks a lot like characters from the Secret of Nimh which I also love.

2D Class Week 09 Silhouettes Part 2

This week we revisit the silhouette assignment. This time I went for a more natural solid material for the weapons so I chose raw mithril as a fantasy metal.

https://bryancolvinfiea.blogspot.com/2017/09/2d-class-week-02-silhouettes.html

Art Style Guide - Ratchet & Clank Breakdown

Our team chose Ratchet & Clank from a pool of games to break down its art style and analyze each component. 

Inspiration

Ted Price (president and CEO of Insomniac Games) once said, "Brian Hastings, our chief creative officer, suggested we make a game about a spacefaring alien who has an outlandish arsenal of gadgets and weapons. He cited Marvin the Martian as inspiration."

"We drew from all sorts of sources. Cartoons, sci-fi movies, popular culture... There were certainly some direct playful references to other properties in both the initial concepts and in subsequent games. Captain Qwark was partially inspire by the Tick. Metropolis with its flying cars and city canyons is reminiscent of The Fifth Element. Courtney Gears from Up Your Arsenal was a riff on Britney Spears who was popular at the time. But these are exceptions rather than the rule. Most of what you see in the games is a direct result of our team just having fun in a universe with very few constraints.”

Environment

The environment of Ratchet & Clank is very rich and vibrant. Everything feels alive with color and animation. There are often flying vehicles in the background or rotating machinery, and of course animated plants. The environments are designed to feel much bigger than they really are by using atmospheric effects to create a sense of space, and by using animated background elements to create a sense that there is a lot more going on beyond the range of the player.

Shape Language

Shape language refers to the most basic shapes used in the design of characters in order to express their general personality traits. Ratchet is a headstrong go-getter type of character. As the main character he has a lot of softer rounded shapes, such as his oval shaped head. Ovals are the type of shapes we see in infants, and so we think of something friendly and innocent when we see ovals in characters. However Ratchet also has very large triangular ears. Angled shapes are used to convey a dynamic personality. They may suggest extroversion, mischief, or danger. When you mix an element like this in with the oval shapes, you get a character who seems friendly, outgoing, energetic, and either a troublemaker, or simple someone who finds trouble.

Clank's design is a direct contrast to Ratchet. His head and eyes are round, and his body is a rounded square. His features emanate that child-like sense using the oval shapes. His eyes are very large compared to the rest of his body which is a way of conveying infant-like trustworthiness to the audience. This works with his character as his is more level-headed and wise than Ratchet, often warning him against danger and offering advice.

The villains of the series follow the same principals. Captain Qwark is a narcissistic, arrogant character who is often shown to be foolish and cowardly despite his blustering and strength. His chest is one big triangle, but he has many soft rounded features to hint at his foolish side.

Dr. Nefarious is the perfect example of a supervillain. He has skinny arms and legs with lots of sharp angled pieces in his design. Spikes and angles convey danger and aggression, and his eyes are very small compared to the rest of his body. Small eyes convey the opposite of Clank's large infant-like eyes, and it lets us know that this character probably isn't trustworthy.

Lighting and Atmosphere

In most cases the environments are brightly lit with warm lights and a fair amount of fill or bounced light. The style is mostly realistic but with emphasis on warmth especially in the foreground to really pop things out.

They use volumetric lighting to create light shafts and to desaturate the background which creates a sense of great distance and open space. The desaturation and atmospheric fog also help to bring the foreground elements out.

Animation Style

The animation style is very cartoony with exaggerated character motions. The way each character moves is indicative of their personality. They relied heavily on blocky prototyping and strong shape design to make each character distinct in motion. Ratchet & Clank is well known for its very expressive facial animations. Characters use a lot of squash and stretch in their body and face to match the cartoony style.

Notice the differences between Ratchet and Clank in the way they move. When Clank gets up his body is more clunky and robotic. He stops to look back and forth with a very constrained hinge-like movement, although his hands still flop around. Ratchet moves differently. He sways and stumbles in a much more smooth organic way. His tail and ears have a lot of overlapping action which makes him feel more like an organic creature compared to Clank. 

Iconography

The logo design compliments the theme of the game in its design. It uses copper and steel materials with brushed metal texture. The font is blocky and metallic. The dash on the A in Ratchet extends to meet the C forming a spanner. The ampersand in the name is embossed in a gear, which is connected with the gear-shaped C in Clank. Altogether, a strong sense of mechanical and sci-fi is evoked just from the logo and the name. 

The UI icons are all enclosed in a holographic hexagonal background. The hexagon is reminiscent of a screw or bolt. The icons are all stylized, simple, and use shades of blue and white similar to blueprints. 

The holographic hexagons are repeated throughout the UI in all the menus which creates a unifying theme. The menus all have clean, semitransparent lines designed to look like a futuristic computer screen.  

The trophies in the game are depicted with a gear border, and a silhouette drawn on a glowing background. Furthermore, they usually all have tongue-in-cheek names. For instance, the above trophy is called Going Commando, and is given to the player if they use only the wrench to kill ten elite enemies. 

Technical Considerations

Insomniac pushed for a CGI-like level of visual quality in their later games. This was only possible to pull off in-game at 30 frames per second. The visual quality improved and the stability of the game was enhanced, however controller responsiveness was reduced.

They updated their rendering technology to use PBR (physically based rendering). Matching the in-game low-polygon models to the film's high-polygon models was a huge concern. Captain Qwark in-game had a polygon budget of around 20,000 polygons, while his film model had nearly 50,000.

Anti-aliasing was used to smooth over organic shapes, however straight lines and sub-pixel detail do not fair well. This can lead to pixel popping and shimmering. 

Special Design Considerations

As a platformer/shooter, art style considerations for Ratchet & Clank needed to wrestle with the dual task of ensuring the enemies and environment were visually distinct while also ensuring the environment was easy to navigate. 

Both Ratchet and the enemies throughout the game have colors that contrast the environment so that they pop out. Both contain yellow and orange traits which cause them to jump out against the green and gray backdrops.

 

The environment is lush and contrast the main character’s colors so he never gets lost on screen. The walls of buildings are a distinct shade, with a greenish hue that blends them into the ground colors while still keeping them distinct, likewise their cartoonish design allows them to pop out. Moreover, these design choices also keep everything from clashing with the little bit of UI on screen. 

Even when the environment is not lush and green, it never clashes with Ratchet’s design. Notice here how his costume is changed and designed in such a way that it doesn’t blend into the red/yellow lava or industrial machines. The blue glow on his equipment and back allow the player to never lose track of him in the chaos of the game play. 

2D Class Week 08 Basic Shapes and Shape Language Part 2

This week we are starting the 2D assignments over in order to improve on them. Based on feedback I softened the shadow and brought out the highlights to improve the lighting.

Here's the original.

3D Class Week 08 Working in a Game Engine With Final Prop

Here's my gatling gun finally pushed into UE4.

 

FIEA Reel 01

A quick reel of some stuff I animated during FIEA.

2D Class Week 07 Bringing It All Together Illustration 1

Our last 2D assignment before we start the cycle over was an illustration using all the stuff we learned so far, and based on an artist that has been covered at some point. I went with my favorite, H. R. Giger, since one of the movies we will watch in this class is Alien (in my humble opinion one of the greatest movies ever made in either scifi or horror).

Here's some cool reference images.

Art Style Guide - Hidden Jaguar

We were tasked with creating a story based on Mayan culture that will eventually be part of an art style guide for capstone. Our world is one where the Mayan gods have protected the people for centuries, stopping other invaders from the south and from Europe. As a result of this divine blessing, the Mayan people have experienced prosperous millennia of peace, but have had very little growth technologically, after all why build what the gods do for you? The people have found themselves stratified, with opulent cities and run down shanties coexisting. Many have forgotten the meaning behind their ancient rituals, though the priests continue to carry them on and curry favor with the gods. In doing so, they have been elevated to some of the highest positions of power. Our story begins with twins living in rags.

The hero for our story is based on one of the Mayan Hero Twins, Hunahpu. While the Mayan Hero Twins are male, for our story, Hunahpu is female. Hunahpu is a young outcast in this world, living in one of the poor shanty towns that’s far from the highly religious and wealthy capital. Hunahpu is more self-centered and cares more about immediate circumstances and people more than strangers and society at large. She is well-known for her expert marksmanship and hunting skills. However, while clever, she is also impulsive. 

The Herald that pushes the hero to adventure is the disappearance of Hunahpu’s father. The hero cares greatly for her father, so his disappearance becomes motivation to go to the capital and discover more about the society she lives in. Her twin brother, Xblanque, starts as an ally and serves as a foil to Hunahpu during their journey. One of his identifying characteristics is his special impenetrable armor with a jaguar motif. Like Hunahpu, Xblanque is clever and inquisitive, but he is also more empathetic of others and wants to help as many people as he can. He believes in the needs of the many before the needs of the individual. This belief contrasts with Hunahpu's and serves as the main conflict after learning the mechanisms of their society. This makes Xblanque both the shapeshifter and the shadow. 

Accompanying the twins on their journey is Vucub Caquix, a heretic priest. He serves as both the mentor and trickster roles. He is thought of as crazy because he knows the truths of the society and the religion that the layperson is not supposed to know. 

Vucub Caquix points them to the capital to find their father and shares his knowledge about their society along the way. However, Vucub Caquix also has his own personal motivation for helping the twins; he wishes to dismantle the current religion that he feels is wrong and establish his own religious authority. 

The twins encounter temple high priests who fulfill the role of threshold guardians for our story. The priests are people with significant power and knowledge in this society and the people behind the disappearance of the twins’ father. They present themselves with great opulence, but are not loud-mouthed and brash. Rather they are aloof and secretive, hiding the harsh truth of gods and demons from society.

After a series of challenges, the twins outsmart the priests and gain access to the inner temple closer to where their father is being held. They find an ancient book called the Popol Vuh and learn the truth about the religion. The god’s demand sacrifice to keep demon’s at bay. The sacrifices must occur at a specific time every year, and that time is close. Their father will be sacrificed to the underworld of Xibalba very soon.

This is the moment of crisis. Hunahpu loves her father and doesn't care about appeasing the underworld gods. She wants to rescue him despite the consequences. However, Xbalanque believes in the needs of the many. He wants to proceed with the sacrifice in order to protect the people from the demons that would be unleashed. The twins fight, but despite Hunahpu's hunting skills, she is unable to beat Xbalanque because of his powerful jaguar armor. Xbalanque defeats her and she is forced to flee. 

Hunahpu learns, with the help of Vucub Caquix, that there is a divine spear somewhere in the temple that is said to be able to pierce anything. She goes back into the temple and finds the spear and gains a blessing from the sun god. 

Hunahpu confronts her brother in the moments just before he is about to sacrifice their father to Xibalba. Xbalanque forces her to make a choice. She can't save them both, and she is forced to attack her brother in order to save their father. Her spear pierces the armor and sends Xbalanque falling into the watery portal to the underworld. Xbalanque's death satisfies the underworld gods and keeps the demons from being unleashed for the time being. 

With Hunahpu's father saved and the sacrificial pact upheld, they return home. However, this journey has profoundly changed Hunahpu. After dealing with her brother and learning the truth of the religion, she becomes determined to help others and reform the religion so that people no longer need to be sacrificed.

With the old priesthood outsmarted and overthrown during the trials, and with the truth of the religion made public, Vucub Caquix takes over and begins to establish a new religion with himself as the leader. It is unclear if this is truly a good thing and there may be consequences in the future, but that is a tale for another time. For now, the status quo is restored with a new religion replacing the old, and the social divisions between the rich and the poor begin to crumble.