Specialism
Throughout level 2 I spent far too much time focusing on my 2D work and thought that 3D modelling was too stressful and confusing to me, however toward the end of the year I managed to become extremely interested in the design process and outcome of my work. I then developed these skills further during the first year of level 3 which has greatly improved the quality of my work, therefor influencing my Specialism for this project and year overall.
Idea #1 – final idea
My first idea is to produce a Western style mineshaft which I could potentially use the assets listed below to make the scene appeal to my target audience. I will also be using Unreal Engine 4 to light my scene using various colours which appeal to my target audience such as the following:
- Blue (Slightly tinted lighting)
- Green (Possibly for Moss)
- Red (Blood)
Another idea is that I could potentially use these colours listed above for various types of gems within the cave which I personally think will stand out and catch the viewers eye.
Assets
Due to my theme being based around a western mineshaft, the assets I will be creating are going to be relatively old and rusty. These could include:
- Pickaxe
- Mine Cart
- Skulls
- Helmets
- Lanterns
- Rocks/Boulders
- Gems (Within walls)
- Rails
- Support beams
- Environmental Sculpting (UE4)
Style
The style I’m going to attempt to produce is high quality realism as I’m fairly confident that I can create relatively realistic textures and high poly assets. This is also the best style for my scene as I am aiming to produce a horror style scene and will make the scene look far better in my opinion.
Audience
My diorama idea accurately suits my target audience because whilst researching I found various data displaying statistics based around ages and which particular genre of games they play. For example, my target audiences age is 15-25 and for the particular genre I’ve chosen, the percentage of people at the ages 18-29 that play horror games is around 68% which is quite a high percentage. I have also spoken to various people of different ages that fit within this age group and many of them really enjoy playing horror games and watching horror movies.
Idea #2
My second idea is to produce a scene based around an abandoned railway track (bridge) over some kind of lake in a forest type of area. I like this idea as I can experiment with various modeling styles such as creating splintering for the broken track using booleans and more. I could potentially include a slightly blue lighting effect in Unreal Engine using various post processing effects and more which as explained in my other idea, suits the target audience.
Assets
My idea allows me to keep my diorama fairly simplistic using a fairly minimalistic amount of assets, these could include:
- Rail tracks
- Wooden support beams
- Environmental sculpting in Unreal
- Foliage
- Boulders
- Trees
Style
As my favourite texturing style is realism, I would continue to develop further on my skills producing this in the same style as I personally think this stands out far more than Stylized. Realism also means that I can model far higher quality assets as stated before, allowing me more freedom to make my scene stand out even further.
Audience
This diorama doesn’t necessarily fit my target audience in terms of genre however I think I would be able to add certain variations of colour to the scene which appeal to their age range such as:
- Blues
- Greens
- Browns
Proposal
.
Mineshaft – Western
My diorama is going to be a mine-shaft set in West Middleton, Indiana which has been abandoned by Prospectors due to an explosion causing the mine to close up. As the genre of my diorama is horror, I will be adding fairly gory aspects such as skulls and blood which should hopefully add a creepy feel to the diorama. I will also be lighting the scene in a very dim way to add more tension for the viewer and possibly some lights/lanterns which can either flash or randomly lose their flame at certain points to add even more tension as most people tend to be scared of sudden darkness.
The design/art style of my Diorama will greatly suit the target audience due to many of the reasons stated above and in my audience research data. Some of these include colour research such as the most favoured colours for my target audiences age are shades of blues, greens and some purples. This can be achieved by adding various types of gems inside the mine and adding an emissive map to draw attention to these details. The target audience chosen also suits my genre chosen as their ages show a high popularity within the horror style of games/movies. Due to the majority of people in the age group chosen preferring the realistic style of games, I have decided to produce a reasonably high poly scene with the best quality textures that I can manage to achieve.
Some of the assets and mechanics I plan to include are:
- Pickaxe
- Mine Cart
- Skulls
- Helmets with Lights
- Rocks/Boulders
- Gems/Gold (Within walls)
- Rails
- Support beams
- Environmental Sculpting (UE4)
Mine Shaft Moodboards
Mine Carts
Due to my scene being set in an abandoned mine shaft, the images of the mine carts below are extremely relevant to my diorama as they have a very old/rusty style to them. The images can be useful as they can influence the modelling style of this particular asset.
Pickaxe
I was unable to find old style pickaxes however the images below display various styles of pickaxes available, I can use these to merge ideas together and alter them to produce a rusty, broken style to give the effect that they have been left in the cave for a long time.
Skulls
I’m planning to experiment with zBrush this year to develop further on my modelling skill set, this is something that could potentially be quite a challenge for me however if I decide to not use this, the scene will still look relatively appealing without this asset. I do however think that this would make an incredible aspect of my scene and give the viewer more of a fear factor.
helmets/lights
This asset in particular is quite possibly the most essential part to my scene as this is going to be the main lighting of my diorama. I plan to use the helmet light to add an even creepier feel to the area, I can do this by adding flashing which can scare the viewer due to sudden darkness being quite scary and can raise your heartbeat causing fear. I could also add another element so that the helmet light turns off after a certain amount of time and then the camera will adapt to the scene very slightly so that the assets are still visible.
Gems/gold
Due to my target audiences favoured colours mainly being blue and green, I decided to add some colour to my scene by including gems within the walls which will shine when hit by the lighting from the helmet which could potentially draw the users attention to these finer details. I’ve also included gold here as the main reason prospectors would go mining is to find this particular mineral.
Rocks/Boulders
Due to my mine shaft being collapsed, it’s essential to have damaged rocks/boulders placed around my diorama. This will make the cave look far more realistic than if the area was empty with just the other assets explained above.
Mining Rails
This moodboard displays various styles of rails within a mine shaft, I’m not entirely sure whether I will actually be including a rail system and a cart however it can still be useful if I do manage to be productive with my time as I can detail my scene far more and give a more realistic feel to the environment.
Mine shaft/Support Beams
Almost every mine shaft has support beams to stop the ceiling of the shaft collapsing on the miners, however some during the era i’m setting this in, they didn’t. This allows me to decide whether or not I want to actually include this detail in my scene however if I do, I’ll most likely create damaged supports to indicate the collapse of the shaft which will add more of a clearer story for the viewer.
Texture ideas
Below is a moodboard displaying a large variety of possible textures for the assets within my diorama, These include the following:
The wooden textures will be used for my support beams, I will use these as reference to produce my own materials to a realistic style however I’m still undecided as whether or not I’ll use planks or just logs to hold up the shaft ceiling.
There are also some fairly basic plain metal materials which can be used for the helmets material, I will use them to produce my own material testing various colour ideas and make further decisions as I progress.
The rusted metal materials are obviously mainly going to be used as reference while producing my material for the mine cart and possibly the rails, however as stated above, I’m still not sure whether I will be able to do this within the time frame given.
In the moodboard you can see some rough stone materials which will be used for the ground, walls and ceiling of my mine shaft as well as the rocks and boulders I will produce. They will be extremely useful for when I begin the production of my textures as they are the exact type of material I will be aiming to replicate.
James' 2nd Year - Level 3 