Jobs!?

Ideally when I get out of university, I want to do conceptual art, more specifically, character art. While it'd be close to impossible to get such a specialized job so soon, I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of requirements large companies were asking for and how I could respond at this early stage in my development as a games artist.
I found an application as a Senior concept Artist at the prestigious Riot Games, lets take a look:

As Senior Concept Artist, you’ll be embedded with the champion design team from concept to execution, working with as little as a napkin sketch and as much as a full blown narrative concept to develop memorable and compelling champions.  You’ll generate, sketch and iterate the visual ideas, insights and eye candy that take even the smallest kernel of a concept into full-fleshed champions that live, breathe and bring something completely new to the Fields of Justice.

So as a summary, I must be able to adapt to different requests and be able to both follow very strict instructions on design, but also be able to design something from very little.

YOU ARE:

• Artistic and prolific: your keen eye for lighting, color, form and composition inform your work from ideation to creation; you’re a master of the rapid sketch, quickly generating ideas knowing that sometimes it takes a hundred good ones to get to the great one
• An experienced collaborator: your artistic hand reflects years of experience refining your craft, but you’re also a natural and avid collaborator; you coat-check your ego, but are eminently capable of articulating and defending your next great idea
• Multi-dimensional: you’re as experienced and knowledgeable with pad and pencil as you are with Photoshop and similar 2D software; you’re also comfortable trekking beyond Flatland to experiment with Zbrush and other 3D programs
• Genre-bending: you have cat-like reflexes for chasing a great yarn, whether in contemporary comics or ancient mythology; you’ve built a Noah’s Ark of archetypes, ready at a moment’s notice to set sail into brainstormy waters
• Anatomically correct: you have advanced understanding of human and animal anatomy, but aren’t afraid to stretch the limits; exaggerated, stylized proportions feel perfectly balanced in your hands, and superheroes line up outside your studio hoping to be drawn in one of your staggeringly dynamic poses
• A player-focused gamer: as an avid League of Legends player yourself, gaming is as much a part of your artistic palette your trusty pen and sketchpad; though your art's awesomeness commands attention, you'd never let it upstage the holistic player experience
• Being artistic is a requirement. I think we all saw that coming- aside from that its important to note that they want someone who won't get too attached to a certain design and be willing to do it again and again and again until one strikes a chord. We also need to be able to do this quickly, it emphasizes the importance of some of our lessons on silhouetting which is a good way too generate lots of different ideas quickly. 
• Being able to work well in a team is a skill I feel I have, or at least have great potential for, like the description says is a mix of collaboration and also knowing when to hold your ground on certain aspects to get a idea across without being walked over or dismissed.
• I know that 2D goes hand in hand with 3D, that's what makes this course so alluring since its often a requirement to be able to use 3D software, even in this very specialized position. 
• Having a strong visual library and being able to draw inspiration and references form things we've seen in the past- be it movies, comics or games. 
• At the moment, I may not be as strong at life drawing and anatomy as I need to be, but I'm leaps and bounds ahead of what I was last year, and I'll be stronger next year as well. Correct proportions are the backbone for all character art even if you are distorting them to some degree. 
• Be a League player? Check. Got that one covered. 
• YOU WILL:

• Sketch, ideate and iterate new champion concepts in collaboration with fellow concept artists
• Collaborate closely with writers, animators, game engineers and splash artists to define champions that are both narrative and visually cohesive
• Develop detailed concept art and orthographs for 3D designers and animators to implement into working models
• Be an avid researcher and collector of story tropes, archetypes and narrative devices of all kind
• Challenge video game conventions and explore new territory for the League of Legends IP

Basically putting who you are in the above section into context! 

Art Direction

ArenaNet makes beautiful games, and I admire them greatly, so when we were asked to do a presentation on art direction- I knew exactly who to go too. In their game Guild Wars 2, they adopted a striking painterly style, but it goes beyond the visuals, the paintings are very atmospheric and give glances into the quality of the game.

 This is a character paining for the leader of the 'Norn' race and what I think it is important to note is the small details that go along way in creating an immersive sub culture which ArenaNet is trying to do. it gives off tribal vibes with the fur and leather while leaving areas showing the tattoos which is presumably an important part of Norn culture hence why it has been left showing. The expression and stance indicate a strong character and the angle the angle the viewer is shown is beneath the character, looking up. This subtlety dictates power and control making this character fearsome and dominant, not to mention she stands out from the slightly washed out background. All these things add to how we perceive the race in game, just from composition and little visuals details that make it feel authentic.

The colour really stands out here, it gives the impression of warmth and life with the yellow which is made to feel especially cosy against the cold blues and whites in the background. It almost resembles a beacon and refuge point in a desolate environment. The shape is also really dynamic and interesting for a fantasy universe and the sense of height and precariousness adds an element of intrigue to the city.

 I mentioned before that ArenaNet was revered for it's ink style and this is what I mean, I love the way it looks like a mixed media piece and has lots of energy. Its feels much less static that traditional character concept art and really feels as though the designs are coming to life and standing out. It also feels like it gives the paintings an inherent sense of movement and flair.






The  sense of scale here is key, the angle makes the  structure feel even more colossal than if we were looking at it straight on. I always get the impression that you are and onlooker in the painting starting up in awe of the wicked prowess and power the ships have and being able to witness them is a profound honor. The 'light of dawn' feel also adds to this as the yellows and oranges add to the regal heroic presence. Also if you look closely on the detail for the building allot of it isn't actually structure, it just paint texture and colour to give the impression of busyness without detracting from the focal point of the image that over-detailing can do.

Overall I think the Guild Wars 2 Team has a roster of immensely good artists who know and understand the importance of composition and the delicate use of painterly texture and inky styles. I feel is stands as a lesson to all of us that a pining doesn't have to be hyper detailed to have a strong impact, but colour and texture can be used to create movement and flair.

Personal Enquiry- MMORPGS

I love MMORPG's. I always have and I'm always aware of the MMO market, what's coming out, what's hyped, what bombed and what's worked- here's the thing, I've that the MMORPG community are always a far more critical community that most other gaming fan-bases. It must have something to do with the fact that in general, you only play one MMORPG at once because of the subscription based model that most companies endorse, so when we 'choose' a game, we expect to stay with that game for a long time. Seriously, more than any other type of game MMORPG's like World Of Warcraft can't be completed like a typical game, there is no end and in game everyone's values are different. I love it. Other games are fun, don't get me wrong, I'm not in an exclusive relationship with Word Of Warcraft but it always seems to have me coming back. I've noticed that I tend to not commit to games that don't have a competitive edge, when I play a game it's to beat somebody or win, if I can't lose on a personal level then I tend to lose interest overall. So having a consistent world with a huge  consistent player base to team up with or fight against? That's awesome. 

Comparatively, no other genre of game has the feeling of character progression like MMORPG's do, because you can spend years with one character upgrading gear and perfecting skills, there's a social hierarchy within server communities and you have the top guild or top pvp'er that you can be in total awe of. It's inspiring and really feels like a journey. I mean, I've been playing the same character since 2010, needless to say I'm attached (I've also painted her a fair few times- see right.) But hey! It's OK to feel inspired and WoW really gives you that epic feeling and I'm a true culprit of armor hoarding because things looks awesome. Perhaps not graphically, but design wise Blizzard keeps dropping these gorgeous bombs of aesthetic goodies.
Now you might say, 'but other games have cool armor too' but the beauty of MMORPG's is- as shallow as it sounds- in a world filled with players, you get to show it off. Its prestigious and that's a really great feeling. 

Here's another- guilds. Guilds are a staple in MMORPG's and for good reason. Teamwork, friends and fun. Nothing in my experience game wise has come close to the experience of downing a boss you've spent weeks working on with the same 9 other people on vent, and hearing those celebratory cheers of a job well done, it's empowering. 

So after my previous blog posts, I've been savoring this, because a history of MMORPGs warrants a post of its own.  MMORPGs really started in 1997 with Ultima Online. It was new and fresh and had the staple of mmo games- a consistent world with guilds, interaction and economy. The MMORPG genre began to grow but it wasn't until Everquest in 1999 that the genre got any real attention. A noticeable development change is it went from a top down strategy view, to a third person perspective that became the norm all for any proceeding mmorpg. Everquest biggest influence on current day mmo's was the multi user dungeon system which was first experimented with in the 70s and 80s. In the meantime another MMO called Asherons's Call was making major progress in creating an open world that is pivotal to the huge feel that the world needs to create. They managed to achieve 500dq. Miles without a loading screen. Too put that in perspective:

(2010) World of Warcraft -- 80mi2

Asheron's Call --500mi2

Guild Wars:Nightfall -- 15,000mi2

The Lord of the Rings online -- 30,000mi2

So yeah, for it's time, that was pretty huge. Both games had what was considered a ridiculously large amount of subscribes with EverQuest capping at 225,000. Another titan in MMORPG history is Dark Age of Camelot (2001) that placed it's stake in having huge scale pvp wars and a global economy. People often call MMO's grindy, and to be fair that's true, even with these very early mmo's. However the well respected Asherons Call 2 shot itself in the foot with it's overall grind oriented game-play and the release of EverQuest 2 and WoW, it couldn't compete and was the first MMORPG to shut down it servers in 2005. 

These days, whenever you get a new MMO announced, you'll get a band of people every-time claiming 'this game will kill Wow!' Seriously. Every time. Well that's not a new thing because when WoW was announced in 2004, people were greatly anticipating a new game, though in this time no-one had been able to de-throne Everquest so people were somewhat cynical that WoW could. 

It did- 3 weeks after EverQuest 2's launch Blizzards' World Of Warcraft hit the market, and it exploded.  Shortly after release at the end of 2004, it had sold over a million copies, which is over double the number of top MMORPGs of it's time. It only got stronger from there, peaking at 12 million subscribers in 2011.  

Now comes the obvious question 10 years later- why hasn't anything enraptured the mmorpg player base yet? We've had our contenders; Guild Wars 2, Starwars the Old republic, and recently Wildstar and Elder scrolls online. Most fall under the stigma of 'WoW-clones' or 'reskins', and while I feel partially that it's true the problem is also with us as a fandom. WoW took years to grow into what it is and had that change because the market at the time was somewhat stagnant, yet we download a new mmo hang around for a few weeks or a month then declare the project a failure and go back to what we know on love. We have such high expectations of what we expect from an MMORPG and for the most part, all we have to compare it with is WoW which has literally had 10 years to become what it is. We're comfortable in WoW, we know what to do, where to be and how Blizzard works; so if there was going to be a big change in MMORPG hierarchy- what would it take? 

The MMORPG player-base is hungry for new releases, partially because of how long it takes to develop a game of this nature but regardless I will be eagerly anticipating the next turning point in mmorpg history.  Heck- maybe I'll be part of it ;) Till next time guys~

http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/read/16920
http://www.tesof.com/topic-mmorpg-history

History of Video Games Part 3 2000's

So like all video gaming decades, the 2000's has it's power houses too, the market was prominently dominated by Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft and while company rivalry was just as volatile as in the past, I want to take this time to appreciate how far the games themselves have come. Over this little journey we've seen companies rise and fall, but you have to step back and appreciate the contrast between then and now. Games have never stopped evolving, graphically or contextually, we've gone from basic arcade Pac-Man and Pong to a place where gaming is intellectually and emotionally stimulating as a form of entertainment and story telling. In the 2000s we see the last of low resolution games and make astonishing progress in graphical characters and environments with physics systems and AI improvements.

The PS2 has a very special place in my heart, I remember it clearly to this day- playing games like Metal Gear Solid 2 (Which is wholly responsible for my unblinking adoration for the universally despised character Raiden, just because he's the Metal Gear protagonist I was first introduced to, and yes, I almost exploded with excitement when he got his own Metal Gear Rising game.) and Devil May Cry on the sofa with my cousin, who would bring his PlayStation 2 around for my brother and I. In our eyes, he had pretty much achieved God-status. Anyway, the PlayStation 2 struck allot of chords with many others because it became the best selling video game console of all time with a very devout following. Though the Xbox also made an impact when it launched with the Halo franchise which became a big part of its identity and still is, but it couldn't quite reach the fame the PlayStation2 had until the seventh generation of consoles kicked off in 2005 and the Xbox grabbed the spot of first among the new consoles, with PlayStation and Wii launching t heir response in 2006.

What made the seventh generation stand out is the developments in HD graphics, media centers and I feel most importantly full online compatibility. It was something that PC's always seemed to loom over consoles was how easy it was to play with friends without being in the same room, and the consoles were finally adapting this in things like the Xbox Live system which gloated major success. Consoles were basically becoming multimedia devices with the exception of the Wii that remained exclusively as a gaming console.

Overall though everything was going somewhat smoothly for consoles, and it was the PC for the first time that was loosing its popularity over to consoles because of the standardization, and lack of advanced and expensive hardware requirements that a PC had. Regardless the PC still remained the the go to choice for RTS and MMORPGs which were developed almost exclusively for PCs, so the PC still had a very strong stake in the gaming industry. Over the 2000's from a community perspective, it became allot less about console wars (while they were certainly still there) and more about the PC vs the Consoles, not so much from a financial standpoint, but as a point of pride between gamer's who vouched for the superiority of their platform.

I think its clear what side of the fence I stand on.

History of Video Games - Part 2

History of Video Games - Part 2

1980s - 1990s

In the early 1980's the Atari 2600 was a must have, it was leagues ahead of its rivals and a staple for home gaming. It made over 2 billion business in the United States alone, but in all its glory, the culmination of its popularity lead to the great video gaming crash of 1983. Also know as the 'Atari Shock' this brought a massive recession of the video game industry and a swift and conclusive end to the second generation of console gaming.

Now- the crash wasn't just a bout 'bad games', there's was a huge bloat of different video game consoles over saturating the market (Atari, ColecoVision, Magnavx Odyssey, Bally  Astrocase and more) with no real game of value to compensate, it was just carbon copy consoles made up my hastily thrown together start up company trying to place their stake in the game industry.

To make things worse- home computers like the Commodore where just starting to gather their stride and they began to look like the shiny new toy that was becoming the new 'must have'. But why?Well home computers were for more than entertainment and offered a more multifunctional use like word processing and home accounting that left the console slightly debunked. It certainly didn't help when the price of consoled hovered it around $350 and the price of a Commodore VIC-20 had been reduced to $199. Home Computers also had access to more memory and a higher sound and graphic capability than the console and the use of a 'writable storage medium' meant player could now save their game. Now can you imagine what the games industry would look like today if we'd never discovered the capability to save our game? Saving our games means we can have much larger and complex games and the computer was the first to grab that all powerful component. Who wouldn't switch over to a home computer? Too rub salt in the wound, Commodore didn't stop there and actually launched specific advertisements offering trade in's and flexing their 'educational' uses to charm parents and students alike.
The Home-computer was also a victim of the crash though, of course not to the extent of consoles, but it certainly felt the blow. Gaming was suddenly regarded as passe. A fad. A phase. Gone, over and finished.

Atari wasn't only guilty of bad games though, it also struggled with its programmers, who weren't given due credit for their work and were't allowed to sign their names and Atari -like a jealous and possessive partner- was scared they'd be stolen away by rival companies. To be fair though, the Atari employees were so underpaid it was a very real possibility that programmers were looking to spend their talent else where, even if Atari was the colossal juggernaut of the very early 1980s. In was in fact the shoddy treatment of workers that lead to the formation Activision.

Before Activision all games were first party, so Atari made Atari exclusive games and reaped in the profit from selling the games not consoles. But what happened when Activision made a game for the Atari console? Atari wound't see much profit at all, since all they then got was the value of the cheaply priced console. Anyone  could make a game for the Atari, it was game breaking. The industry was still on its first legs and didn't know what to expect or how to handle it, so like any company forced into a corner would do- it sued. In 1892 they lost, when the US judicial system confirmed Acitvisions right to third part development. Naturally this meant every second rate games company out there dropped what they were doing and hopped on the band wagon.

So now we have consoles and games everywhere. Bad games. Hastily thrown together shoddy games. All Atari really had to do was rise above it and continue to make superior games, and establish their brand over the industry- after all they already have a dedicated fan base! But uh oh, all of Atari's best programmers have already left for Activision, fed up of the poor pay and conditions which left Atari in an ugly rut. It didn't go well from there.

Atari wanted to remake the 1981 Pac-Man success on the Atari 2600, but here's the thing- they gave the developers literally no time to make the game because they wanted it out by Christmas, to boot, Atari assumed that Pac-Man would be such a large success they predicted the game would sell 12 million copies. That's more copies than there were consoles currently sold. They were counting on the fact that not only will every single Atari console owner would but the game, but also that other console gamer's would by the Atari console just to play the game! Wow. Yeah.


They certainly didn't sell 12 million copies. It sold 7 Million, and it was not what people expected. Riding of the success of their last Pac-Man game this new release was such a disappointment that their consumers just- lost faith. So when Atari announced an ET game, people were cyncial and cautious. Atari in all their good judgement paid $25 Million for the rights and expected to sell at least 5 million copies. Once again, they gave developers a pitifully small amount of time to produce the game too boot with a pathetic 6 weeks. It was a disaster. Atari fell from its throne in a spectacular fashion and with it people thought gaming was over.
Analysts predicted audiences had moved on and the home console was buried. The PC's continued to rise in popularity and Arcades were still around too...

It wasn't until Nintendo in 1985, a crazy, ambitious and reckless project that brought home-consoles back into the race after being dormant for nearly 2 years and spawned some of the titles dearest to our hearts today like Super Mario Bros. and The legend of Zelda.




http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/2011/02/24/all-your-history-the-video-game-crash-of-1983-continue/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983
http://content.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,2029221,00.html
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2011/09/21/ten-facts-about-the-great-video-game-crash-of-83

Under the Sea

The Reef Character Project was pretty awesome and I took away some pretty useful lessons about referencing designs to preexisting creatures or places. For this character I used these sea dwellers to make mood-board.

I'll point out the jellyfish tentacle hair with the luminous effect and the little light bulbs on the end that are popular for fish swimming in deep, deep, dark waters. I also liked the whole concept of this creature being a torch in darkness, since it was definitely designed with the warrior feel in mind, far from a stealthy or roguish feel and it felt appropriate that they stood out.
It also borrows from the spiked horns on the back of a seahorse just to make it that bit more intimidating, but beyond that the rocky texture that has grown on top of the shiny, smooth skin gives in contrast and a form of natural armor. Speaking of natural armor,  before I redesigned the weapon as a seashell pole-arm it was a aqua themed sword. Frankly though, after some thought, while I liked the idea, it felt jarring for a nude sea creature to wield a sword, even if it was shell themed. I wanted it to look more primal and the shell pole-arm fits that role much better, while looking more threatening.

Back to the mood board though because at some point I feel I crossed a line, where in earlier stages it started to look just like a mash up of cool fish looking things that wasn't really working. See originally I'd used a shark tail, because sharks are awesome and I wanted that ferocity in my character, thing was the shark tail looked heavy on my character, like it would be far more appropriate on something that swam continuously instead of living primarily on the sea ground, it looked awkward and I decided it would be more fitting to have something light that my character could control and use while walking or standing naturally. It also looked much better because of the semi-transparent textures already in place with the hair and ears and made everything more complete. :)

Bonus sculpey model!  It had a weapon but I broke it. oops. 

I also bought way too much tissue paper. I don't know what I expected.  

Helmets really are cool though.

 So I was painting my beautiful bike over Easter (which on a side note I feel came out pretty good) but what I really got hooked on was the helmet-also how much I wish I actually had a blackout visor, but the low visibility at night is such a turn off, ah the sacrifices made for safety! Anyway, the whole helmet thing haunted me for a while so I hazardously threw out some helmet designs and before I knew it was painting a cyborg of some description. I wanted it to be smooth, which is saying something because allot of my work tends to be far more spontaneous and rough, with clear painterly marks. Unfortunately I wasn't quite able to escape that style entirely, but it's probably the best attempt at it in a while, especially on the legs! 

So feeling pretty hyped about the design I went to my Skype friends for some critiquing; immediately they all attacked the left breast. I took another look, but couldn't for the life of me see the 'obvious' misshapen boob that they could, despite their best efforts to describe the defect. After a short while someone decided to just show me visually and sent be back this image: 

(Note the above is after I fixed it) Now it was clear, but it made me realize how important it was for other people to see your work, since when you've been looking at the same painting for so long you can often become disillusioned and others can see far better what you can't. 

Gif is from Durarara, studio Brain Base