Final Evaluation

Final Evaluation Unit 12

Written Report – Concept Art

At the beginning of this unit at the end of the first year our assignment was to produce a written report studying the nature of your specialism so that we can showcase our understanding of the sector and how it has been influence overtime since the industry first began whilst understanding some of the consequences that come from working within the industry such as social issues. In my written report I have started off by conducting research that has focused on the fundamentals of drawing and have gathered multiple video sources from YouTube that present these essential attributes for being a concept artist, alongside this I also researched the necessities for utilising references when you are designing characters or environments, both these videos are informative and provide you with solid advice on how to begin practicing in the specialism of concept art as well as presenting you with the workflows of an artist.

After gathering this research I have then performed an extensive study into the historical influences for concept art overtime, this section started with me looking at the sketches that were produced for one of the most iconic games of all time, Space Invaders. Although I have annotated the research as best I can the research gathered from space invaders was not too numerous due to how dated and simple the title is and so I have only been able to find a small number of drawings that were produced though despite this it does still serve to show where concept art began in the games industry.

Following on from Space Invaders I have looked into numerous other titles that each show advancements in the production of concept art such as call of duty 2 and halo CE. In this area I have spoken about how it is necessary to invoke the atmosphere of the theme into the art work so that it can be accurately portrayed whilst also explaining how the art work has advanced further on from Space Invaders as in this section of my written report a vast amount of the drawings I have gathered have been produced digitally and so this shows that I have understood the development of chosen specialism and how it is still evolving.

 

After gathering this necessary research I have showcased the current technology being used to produce concept art, this has been done so that I can have a full understanding of the current state of the industry and know what type of technology I will have access to, the research includes devices such as wacom tablets which I already have good knowledge of whilst I have also included the applications such as Photoshop. This section of my written report shows that I understand the current modern technology that is in use within the industry and how it can further evolve down the line. Although I have already gathered the most prominent app and device used in industry I could still have broadened my research further by mentioning other applications for producing art work such as Krita, medibang and many others that are available as free download applications whilst for tablets a mention of other variants such as those with screens could have widened my research to a more valuable extent though despite this I have still maintained good quality research and shown my understanding the most prominent tools in industry for concept artists.

 

To finish off the written report for Unit 12 I have researched the social issues of my chosen specialism as well as gathering art work produced by a contemporary influence of mine whose work has caught my attention. For my contemporary influence I have gathered a number of art pieces produced by Robert Chew who is the artist who I have chosen to include in this report and is one who I have researched the way they produce their art work and how they always have a narrative focused around the individual pieces that he has worked on whilst keeping them highly detailed up to industry standards. I have conducted this research because it helps me understand how artists motivate themselves to keep producing a series of art pieces all focused around a theme as instead of just producing them all individually they are most of the time all tied together in a thought up universe which allows all work produced to be relevant to one another. Although I am happy with the artist that I have chosen for this section of my written report I could still have it improved if I were to include a secondary artist who has produced art work more aligned to my personal interests as it would have given more to talk about as well as a chance to compare two industry professionals and talk about the differences that exist between individual concept artists and although this could have been a worth while inclusion into my written report the work I have already shows my understanding in a clear and simple fashion and implementing further sources may only work to over complicate things on this project.

In the final section of my written report I have spoken about the social issues that come with working as a concept artist within the industry and this was a section that I particularly struggled with as for social issues I found difficulty in finding examples in a visual form for artwork and although it may sound a simple task due to the vast amount of degradation in various forms of artwork I have had to narrow my research down to the influence that it has in the games industry and so after spending some time I have been able to locate 2 examples that I have since provided annotations too that argue over how controversial the art pieces are and what impact they have on the artist that has designed them. This research has been done as I need to understand some of the negativities that can come with being a concept artist as some of the art work you are required to produce may invoke an unpleasant response from the audience that you are aiming your product towards and so it is important to be able to effectively understand the problems that certain art pieces can cause towards your development process. Overall this section of the written report was at first a struggle but after narrowing it down I have been able to successfully gather the information I need and understand it effectively.

With my written report brought to a consistent finish I have since produced a bibliography that includes all of the links to the images and videos that I have used to assist me in this section of the project for unit 12.

 

Cyberpunk Research

After the conclusion of the written report we have since been assigned our final project prior to the FMP and the focus for this assignment has been to produce a series of art pieces focusing on the theme cyberpunk. Due to the theme being cyberpunk I was at first confused and near to over complicating things due to my lack of understanding of the genre as at this point I knew what cyberpunk was but struggled immensely with being able to explain exactly what it is and although it is a genre that am interested in especially with the upcoming game Cyberpunk 2077 being the one that I am most anticipating this year I began this project by conducting general research that delved into discovering what Cyberpunk really is and what one can convey from it.

For my general research my first task was to produce a mindmap that branched off of the project theme Cyberpunk and in this screenshot we can see that I have successfully managed to make an extensive mindmap that has a wide array of  branches that each include relevant conjunctions to the centered theme. To assist myself in the production of this mindmap I viewed multiple articles that contained information about the theme and gave me inspiration as to what I could include whilst I have also used online image sharing websites such as Pinterest where I searched up Cyberpunk on its own and was able to view a large amount of images that had all been produced for the theme. Alongside this I have also included multiple existing productions on this mindmap to show the popularity of the theme as well as to indicate what I aim to use to gain inspiration from for the development of my final product. Overall I did at first struggle with producing this mindmap but after remaining focused and using the sources I have at hand I have been able to produce informative research that shows my understanding of what can be included within the theme. What I could have done to improve this mindmap is to find more examples of  existing games in industry that are focused around the cyberpunk theme though despite this the list I have procured is extensive enough to allow to continue on with my research.

 

 

After producing this mindmap I have then moved on to working on a series of moodboards of which for this project I have successfully created 5 of which all include various features that can all be linked to the overarching cyberpunk theme. For each of these moodboards I utilised the website pinterest and gathered the images that mostly appealed to me as to what I believe fits best into the theme. The moodboards I have created include images of people, cyborgs, cyberpunk weapons, dystopian environments, and cybernetics. The reason why I have chosen to conduct my research in the form of creating moodboards is because these give me visual references which I can return later and use them to assist in the development of my final product whilst viewing these images also makes it easier for me to speak about what they are and how they can fit into the cyberpunk theme. In all I have produced 5 moodboards that are each extensively annotated with a large gallery of images that show my understanding and existing knowledge of the theme though I could have expanded this further if I were to work on additional moodboards and possibly implement further branches on my mindmap though despite this I already have enough moodboards that allow me to continue on with my general research.

 

After producing these moodboards my next phase in conducting research focusing on theme moved into being contextual where I have studied a web page of which cyberpunk is the sole topic it is focused on with the majority of its posts focusing around the latest developments on cyberpunk products as well as showcasing art pieces produced by fans of the genre. This site was very useful to me in completing this project as it gave me a more detailed understanding of the genre whilst giving me insight into what is currently going through development. This was also useful to me as from what I learned on this site I can use to influence the development of my final product as before conducting this research I have rarely involved myself with the cyberpunk genre and so locating this site and including it within my general research has broadened my knowledge of the genre to a wide extent and has allowed me to progress deeper into the theme and generate the ideas that are most appealing to me for final development.

 

The final phase of gathering general research around the cyberpunk theme involved me viewing multiple art pieces produced by professionals whilst also looking at existing games centered around the theme that already exist within the industry and the reason why I began this section by viewing art pieces is so that I can see how multiple artists have interpreted the genre and implemented their twists and spins to it whilst keeping it relevant to cyberpunk, I have also done it to once again to provide myself with detailed references that focus on more than just characters as the environment is an important factor within concept art. The games I have included are popular titles within the genre and each title presents the theme in a different fashion with various vibrancy’s gritty tones of colour and texturing. Both areas of research are extremely helpful to me as it provides me with more context as to what can be made from cyberpunk as well as how it can be interpreted as dark, vibrant and dystopian. Overall this research will have great influence towards my final product though if I could expand on this area more I would gather more existing games within the genre although the reason I haven’t done this is due to the fact that I struggled with finding popular titles that I could take interest in.

Task 3 – Research

After conducting my general research surrounding the theme Cyberpunk I have now moved onto generating my initial ideas for what I will be developing as the final project for unit 12. To start this off this next section of the project I have produced 3 initial ideas that I could use to develop a final product, I came up with the 3 ideas for the upcoming development by reflecting on the research that I have done on the theme and for each idea I have created a list of attributes that I will need to implement onto the project such as a colour scheme, designs, and assets. Alongside this I have also produced an outline for each project which states what my idea is and what it will include. The reason why I have produced these 3 ideas is because before I immediately jump into developing a final idea it would help me more to draft up multiple project ideas and then select the one I like the best and develop it further, doing this also allows me to receive feedback from peers and tutors on the 3 ideas and so it works out better than jumping straight into the final product. For my 3 ideas I have made sure that each one is vastly different to the other whilst still firmly remaining within the cyberpunk genre and after drafting and reviewing all 3 of my initial ideas I made the decision to go with the first idea that I have drafted up and titled underworld. This idea is the one that I felt the most comfortable pursuing as it is my most expanded upon outline and is the one that I have the most confidence in developing.

 

 

Following the selection of my initial idea I then proceeded to create my proposal which presents my final idea in a more a structured and informative manner as I taken what I have outlined and spoken about it in detail, I have given a paragraph to each section stating what I am aiming to complete as well as what I will be drawing out inspiration from. As well speaking about what I aim to be creating for this project I have also spoken about the workflow I am going to use so that the viewer knows what to expect from me and how I am going to use the resources that I have gathered to influence the development of the idea detailed in my project outline. I have also informed the viewer of how I wish to present my work detailing the way in which I am going to make it appear professionally and make it suitable for being uploaded to my online portfolio. The main reason as to why I have created this proposal is so that my audience are given a clear understanding of what is I am planning to create as well as what they can look forward to expecting on my coming development blog for my final designs. Creating this portfolio has also been beneficial to me as I have given myself an extensive run down in detail of what I am aiming to create and so this proposal is a piece that I can use for reflection when I am set to working on my final product.

 

 

After successfully completing my proposal I then began moving onto my specific ideas research where I focused my information and reference gathering on what I will be including within my project such as moodboards of drones and hoverboards as these are 2 designs that I have produced for my final product.  To start off my research I have collected 2 youtube videos presenting tutorials that focus on certain details of which I have included within my research due to my interest in at the time potentially using them on my final products, alongside these 2 tutorials I have also gathered other media sources in video format with one focusing on presenting the viewer a cyberpunk environment from one of the games I have previously researched which has helped me to understand what colours and art style I need to use if I am going to attempt to recreate the atmosphere seen in the game whilst the other presents a trailer for a much anticipated upcoming title that I am essentially basing my projects texturing style off of due to my interest in the title. This part of my research was performed that I could see how cyberpunk can be presented in different atmospheres and behaviours as there are many different ways in which a cyberpunk project can be produced and overall this research will help me to use the vibrant and exciting texture style of cyberpunk 2077 towards my final product. After viewing the videos and media sources that I have previously gathered I then moved on to once again creating mood boards though this time I have produced 4 as I will be creating 4 concepts for my project and each moodboard is focused around the individual assets that I will be producing. Working in this way will ensure that I have a variety of detailed references available for each concept I will be working on so that I have all the assistance I need to be able to produce and present an audience appealing final product. All of the research conducted in this section of the project was focused entirely around my chosen idea that I have spoken about in my portfolio and from what I have learnt during this phase of the project I can apply all of this inspiration towards drafting up rough ideas for my ideas generation and then moving on to my final project.

 

Visual Ideas & Tests

 

 

The next phase of my project after finalising the conduction of my research involved me having to work on my ideas generation where I produced multiple rough designs of my project ideas using a variety of art styles, textures and perspectives and to start it off I spent the first few sessions producing multiple concepts of my cyberpunk drone design. It was during this phase of the project where I struggled the most as throughout the rough sketching I was going through I hit a few roadblocks where my work stumbled and I found difficulty in getting suitable designs, because of this I ended up spending more time on producing my drone concepts than necessary as I began over complicating the project and almost lost confidence in my abilities, though despite this I was able to refocus myself and after spending a session experimenting with tracing over 3D blockouts I reverted back to procuring simple sketches of designs I had in mind and came out with results that I was very pleased with and following this I went through my ideas generation with a more confident mind set and was able to complete the task for designing my drone concepts.

 

 

Following this and using what I learned from my temporary breakdown I maintained my style on producing simple sketches and then texturing them which is what I have done for my hoverboards of which after producing multiple concepts I then annotated and explained which ones I believe fit in best with my project and consulted with a number of my peers as to which designs they liked the best. Using these methods allowed me to receive feedback as well as leading to me finishing my concepts within a more reasonable time frame as I was no longer spending multiple sessions on one rough design.

 

Throughout this task I have also produced the rough drafts of my character designs which I have managed to produce 4 of and each one shows a different style of designing the character with different aesthetics and techniques in texturing, of these 4 designs the best ones I have done were completed in photoshop and where I have shown how I have developed my skills with the application to produce an eye catching art piece. These sketches were all included to show how I aim to develop my characters for when I move on to producing my final product and were the most enjoyable part of the ideas generation for myself due to being more experienced in drawing characters than assets.

 

Final Product Development Log

 

The next part of this project was now the final phase which focused on the development and presentation of my final product and was the area where I found a number of difficulties that nearly hindered my submission time for the deadline, the most prominent of these was the issue with my character designing tasks as in my 2nd design I ran into conflicting thoughts on its design after I had completed and so I decided to produce an additional character design to go alongside it and although I did not outline this in my proposal I made the decision to instead include 3 character designs and although all of these got done on time I could have solved the issue much easier if I were to have just worked on improving my second design rather than start another from scratch and produce more work than necessary for this unit, though despite this it is a challenge that I can learn and prevent from happening in the future by paying more attention to the details in certain areas of my character design.  During the first week of the final product development log I was able to work efficiently and produce 2 character outlines for both my cyborg and outlaw whilst making use of the references that I have spoken about previously in this evaluation which greatly influenced the outcome of my sketches.

 

Whilst producing my character designs there were a number of errors I ran into on my cyberpunk outlaw which involved the feet and hands which are two bodily features that I have always struggled with designing and so after spending some time reflecting and continue work on other designs I did eventually return to this character during the final week and made the final necessary changes that needed implementing and came out with a hand and feet design that I was overall pleased with despite it lacking some detail. In my annotation for this design I have spoken about what features I like the best and given descriptions on the detail that has been featured on the design and overall I still feel happy with the outcome and see this product as my favourite from the character designs that I have produced.

Whilst developing the outcome of my second character design which was my cyborg I struggled with thinking of a colour scheme for this design despite being aware of what I intended for my final outcome to look like and so to develop a colour scheme I looked closely at my reference and used colours that were relatively similar to implement a texture onto my design. And despite my appeal to the texture that I applied to the cyborg I held some conflicting feelings as to whether I should attempt another design to solve some of the issues I encountered Overall the second character design that I produced has since been extensively annotated in my development and is one that I am still unsure of though as of now it has already been completed and cannot be undone.

 

• How has the development of your project been influenced by your research on working practices for your chosen profession?

As seen in my written report I have looked at the current devices currently being used in industry by professionals such as wacom tablets whilst also including the applications that are also being utilised with Photoshop being the most prominent, this research influenced the development of my final product as it caused me to greatly utilise these industry features such as all my character and asset designs being produced through the use of a wacom tablet that I have drawn them and the application Photoshop which I have used to be able to create these designs and be able to present them professionally.

Within my written report I also researched artist workflows which also had great influence for the way in which I worked on my final designs as at the start of each product I followed the workflows present in the videos I have gathered and produced a simple outline that served to allow me to get the correct proportions and posture for my character before I start building it up and implementing the detail to form a fully fledged design. Within the workflow it also spoke of going through multiple rough designs produced with a concept in mind and with the help of a reference, I have followed through with this by performing a number of sessions focusing on ideas generation which is where I have looked at the references I gathered during my Cyberpunk research and produced a vast amount of sketches and colour ideas that each present what I am aiming to enhance and develop in more detail for my final product.

Has the development of your project been affected by your research into historical and contemporary influences for your chosen profession?

The research that I have conducted regarding the historical and contemporary influences for my chosen profession influenced my project by informing me of how a setting within a certain genre should be portrayed such if the game is based within a brutal time period then the art work produced for it should be relative dark and portray to the viewer the violence of the era and as for my project this research allowed me to see deeper into the professional art pieces that I have viewed so that I can accurately portray the genre we have been assigned to produce this project around.  As I have spoken about portraying genres in my written report I have done my best to present Cyberpunk in a vibrant and gritty style due to how many other artists have performed their interpretations as this is the most common way of presenting this genre. Some of the art pieces that I viewed during my written report that I gathered for my contemporary influences use the theme and present it in a way that draws out sympathy from the viewer and whilst I have not tried to draw out sympathy I have still used what I have taken from this contemporary influence to create a series of products that are well suited for the theme and can convey a suitable reaction from my audience.

 

• Reflect on your learning and skills – What you have done and why you have done it?

 

For my final product I have specialised in 2D concept art and have produced 5 art pieces all centered around the project theme Cyberpunk, my designs consist of 3 characters and 2 asset designs all of which have been created through the use of a graphics tablet and the software application photoshop. The reason why I have gone with 2D for this project is due to it being my specialism as this is the area I have the most confidence and experience in due to the amount of time I have spent practicing it outside of college hours, my most prominent art pieces from this project are my character designs and this is because designing characters is an area of 2D art that I am confident in as most of my time I spend practicing is focused around designing different characters and so this project gave me a chance to use what I have learnt over the past year and apply it to a graded unit where I can work to present it in a professional manner.

 

 

Starting off with my character designs I gathered references for each one and used them to help me in structuring the outline of my characters as well as getting the height, posture and proportions correct. Following on from this with the help of the references I gathered I began implementing detail using line art which I intended to keep on my final designs as it helps portray them in an appropriate style. I used this approach in creating my characters as rather than immediately start by drawing detail I first needed to decide the posture and height of the character and so the outline gave me a sketch that I could then lower the opacity of and sketch over it to implement the detail and create a successful character which I could then move on to applying a texture. Originally I had only planned on 2 character designs but due to an urge to experiment with a new feature I had been practicing with as well as conflicting thoughts with my second character design I decided to work on an additional one where I have implemented a skull mask which was a feature that I was eager to use due to my recent practice sessions at home designing skulls on paper. This was a feature that I believe would fit well onto a character design as for cyberpunk you can include almost anything into the theme as long as it kept in a sci fi aesthetic and dosent look out of place within the genre.

 

As well as producing 3 character designs I have also worked on 2 assets with one being a drone and the other a hoverboard both of which I have sketched out and applied texture to using photoshop. The reason why I chose these 2 designs is because I wanted to try and create something original rather than just focus on weapons which have been overdone and are what I believe to generic of an idea to focus on for this project and so these are the 2 assets that I made the decision to produce on my development log. For both designs I wanted to have a vibrant and fashionable texture and so after successfully producing the outlines which I have done through simply viewing a reference and using the inspiration to create a rough image I then worked on applying the final details and texturing. For my drone I wanted to give it a metallic texture and so after applying the base texture I used the dodge tool to then light up certain areas that have since given it the appearance that I was after whilst for the hoverboard I have made use of the same tool to light up certain areas closer to the screen whilst used a variety of brushes to add in shading to areas on the top and bottom that give it a more realistic presentation.

 

• Sum up your ongoing evaluations/opinions/reflections that you documented during the project.

 

Throughout the course of this project I have consistently annotated and explained the choices and decisions I have been making throughout the development whilst taking note of the mistakes and difficulties I made and encountered down the path whilst explaining how I have resolved this issues also including what outcome they led to and what I can take from the experience. The research that I gathered for this project is extensive and was done to lengthen and solidify my understanding of the genre as in the beginning I was not absolutely sure as to how cyberpunk is defined and found difficulty in thinking of topics off of the top of my head and so with this research done it led to greatly influence my final product and helped me make the creative decisions that helped me work to the best of my abilities. The ideas generation that I performed helped me to create a variety of experiments focusing around what I outlined within my proposal and despite some setbacks with my drone concepts I have still managed to successfully move on from this section whilst producing extensive and informative annotations that describe the development process I have gone through and how I have managed my work load. In the final product I have taken note of the decisions that I have made and how they have impacted the outcome that my work has resulted in, I also have annotated the final screenshots of these products and spoken about how I have presented them and what I learnt during the development process of these art pieces.

 

• What do you feel has worked well and what did not work well? What could you do to improve your work? 

Throughout the development of my unit 12 there are many areas that all worked well in different ways to one another regardless of the overall outcome of my final product such as the research that I conducted around the theme which shows that I have understood the context of the project and have expanded upon the theme so that I have another information gathered to be able to develop a series of ideas that I can then use to expand upon and solidify so that I can develop a final product. One way in which I can improve this research that I have conducted is if I were to include more videos and primary sources so that I could expand my knowledge beyond just 2 industry titles and gather a more original idea that I could use to influence the development of my final idea. Overall my research has worked well and served the purpose it was meant to without much difficulty or misunderstanding.

 

Besides my research another area of my project that went efficiently well was the design of all my final products with mainly the 2 assets being the ones that I completed within a suitable time frame and without any over complications which led to these 2 both being my favourite designs bearing an eye catching texture and a suitable amount of detail that places them firmly within the theme of the project.  As for my character designs, despite being content with the outcome for 2 of these concepts there is 1 that I believe has come out far better than the rest which is the outlaw who I have designed and is the one that I applied the most detail too with a successful texture that draws out the detail in the design whilst not going over the top in vibrancy with a suitable level of gritty and bright colours used within the scheme that I have used to create the outcome. With the other 2 designs I feel that the way in which I worked was not efficient enough and this is what led to me increasing the amount of cyborg designs to 2 as for my first design I was not too comfortable with using it as a stand alone product and so worked on a second concept which although is not as detailed as my previous due to time constraints still acts as  an alternate concept and fits within the theme of the project. Overall the way I structured the dev log and narrowed down the tasks for each led to me being able to cope with the work load I have had assigned to myself and allowed me to complete all of my designs to presentation standards before hitting the final deadline for unit 12.

Since completing my final products all art pieces have been laid out and appropriately presented and uploaded to my personal portfolio on art station where I will be recieving feedback on my art work from artists and peers who follow me which I will be able to use towards the upcoming FMP that will ensure I get the best outcome possible.

 

• Reflect on peer and tutor feedback

 

Whilst working on all interims of this project I have consistently received feedback from my peers and tutors who have provided me with advice which has led to me changing ways in which I have worked and implementing improvements onto my final product.

Some of the feedback I received advised me to produce 3D blockouts of my cyberpunk drone concepts as ideas generation so that I can sketch over them and build up the design on photoshop using the tools that are available to me.

Whilst working on my final product I also received input as to how I should texture my drone such how I should add in the shading using the dodge tool and what areas of the design would look best with some lighting being implemented.

With the feedback I received I was able to work consistently and use a variety of techniques and experiments to achieve an interesting and eye catching final product that I believe my audience will be able to enjoy viewing get themselves interested in the Cyberpunk theme of the project.

 

What have you learnt during this project?

A lesson that I have learnt from working on this product is how to consistently evaluate my development as it is progressing so that I can avoid over complicating certain areas that could lead to me spending large amounts of time that is unnecessary such as where I have produced 3 character concepts instead of the 2 I previously outlined. Alongside learning how to better manage my on the field evaluation skills I have also learned a variety of new texturing methods such as making use of the dodge tool which I have used extensively in this project to add lighting to certain areas that I thought would be appropriate whilst I have also made use of the default brush and opacity settings to efficiently shadow areas of a design that I want to obscure from the viewer. As for my presentation skills I have learnt how to utilise the layer features to add in a glow around a text layer as well as particles that can bring atmosphere to a background and make the final product look more lively.

Overall despite my initial concerns for this project I am confident with the lessons I have learnt and I am happy with the outcome of my final product and despite doing more work on my characters than initially expected it does show that I have evolved my design and shown that it was subject to change throughout development. With the theme of this project being Cyberpunk I found a lot more to enjoy in it and this led to me maintaining my interest in the genre and successfully working through all of the tasks and getting an outcome that I can present and receive feedback on that will lead to even more improvements for the FMP.