October 07 2011 - Refining Aims and Objectives

Week 3.After discussing my ideas with both Collin Cartwright and Brian Robinson I have a much clearer idea what I want to do. Rather than just looking at examples of games and films it has been pointed out to also look at different subjects such as animation and theater to help aid me in my research. In a nut shell, I want to create a small level that includes both an outdoor environment that also has a Cathedral (in the style of Gothic Architecture) and a simple interior that I can then experiment with different light setups.

Gothic architecture can be perceived as holy, a place of peace in contrast it too can be regarded as a place of evil; or place you wouldn't like to be; essentially this architecture will act as a 3d blank canvas from which lighting will be applied to carry out various experiments dealing with player perception.

The reason for doing this is to see how people perceive the same environment and how this can affect behavior and send messages to the player. The main focus will be on light as this an area I'm not too familiar with and is absolutely essential in the field of building 3d environments for games.

Aims and Objectives

1.a 'Investigate practical colour theory within an environmental setting using traditional art based techniques and determine whether these can be used to amplify certain aspects of a 3d environment.'

1.b 'Investigate practical colour theory within an environmental setting using traditional art based techniques and determine how these can be used to enhance a 3d environment.'

-Much simpler and more to the point Objective.

2. 'Investigate traditional art practices in theory of colour and lighting using traditional art based techniques and determine whether or not these can be used to guide a player in a 3d environment.'

- Not sure if looking into both colour and lighting is going to be too much even though they both link to one another. Guiding a player also suggest's conducting experiments with a group of people which can take a lot of time up.

3. 'Investigate practical colour and lighting in a range of mediums and determine whether or not these can be applied to enhance the aesthetic quality of a 3d environment.'

-By doing the objective this way it means I can look into colour and light in practical ways in different situations which, I believe, will make for a much more interesting investigation.

4. 'Investigate how traditional practical colour and lighting techniques can be used to enhance the aesthetic quality of a 3d environment.'

1.0 Review and critically evaluate examples of traditional colour and light philosophies and techniques from across human history.

2.0 Review and critically evaluate examples of environments for films, games and comics.

3.0 Conduct practice-based research into practical colour techniques and compositional lighting incorporating influences from the review.

4.0 Create colour/light guides based on theories explored in research and produce a small 3d environment that reflects these findings.   

What do I want from the project?

• Create an engaging 3d environment fit to be played in a FPS which will have a building as a focus point (cathedral/gothic style) as well as terrain that will have foliage such as trees, rocks and grass.

• Using a Maya to Zbrush workflow, for building texturing and possibly rendering. Alternatively bring all meshes and textures into UDK and setup various setups there.

• If I decide to work purely in maya I would construct the environment based on guidelines to create an environment fit for (building to scale) the UDK engine.

• Create my initial concept pieces on paper and then bring them into photoshop and explore different colour/light systems.

• I want to have enough knowledge to be able to review and critically evaluate films and games  and related media.

• Using Traditional colour/lighting techniques from paintings to enhance the quality of the given environment.