There have been so many upsets and niggles with this project I hardly know where to start. Issues out of my control have meant that the project has dragged on for a very long time, with sporadic bursts of work when I have been fit and able. Illness, lack of sleep, stress, money issues, major family issues and to top it all off a mugging that left me mentally, emotionally and physically drained of all energy. That being said, it is finally finished.
To begin, I had to re learn a lot of the fundamentals of Maya. Such as the icons and terminology, basically everything down to the interface had to be re-learned or attempted for me to be reminded how to do it. Once again proving that little and often is far healthier than switching off from something for any extended period of time. Really starting to see the mind as a muscle. If not exercised frequently, it wastes away. New information appear to replace the old if it is not revisited on a regular basis.
I decided to research games that I had enjoyed in the past to get a feel for the sort of character I wanted to create. These included Abes Odyssey, lemmings, Crash Bandicoot, Ray man, Croc. My decision was already predetermined in as much that I knew my Maya skills were lacking, so creating anything with any detail or with ‘human like’ qualities was unrealistic.
I persevered with a couple of designs that I managed to salvage from pathetic doodles and ended up with an alien like creature. Develop it, made turn-arounds and concept art, attempted to model it in maya and it was instantly apparent that this would be unachievable. The second re-design was much more simplistic in its form. It was supposed to be a number one (1) with a split at the bottom to act as the legs. This I took to the same level, beginning modeling, but then felt I had to stop due to the fact that I didn’t think it fitted the brief accurately enough to gain the marks needed. This is where this idea stopped. This was a shame as I liked the ideas simplicity, making use of simple geometry and suggesting archetypal human traits and characteristics, without being to obvious.
This was when illness and family issues really took a grip. Over the Christmas break and three weeks into the easter term. This meant an extension on the deadline as next to no work was completed.
Returning to the modeling process, I settled on a robot design. Simple geometry, all extruded from 4 planes, enough human features to fulfill the brief and easier to model in the animation software. This still took mammoth amounts of time that I hadn’t accounted for in my time management table. In future projects I will be making an allowance for much more time to be taken at this stage of the process. Beginning with image planes, a slow and methodical approach meant I was actually able to create a character that I was relatively happy with. It exceeded the expectations of my ability in maya and gave me the boost I needed to see the animation through.
Once the model was complete, it was time make the rig, comprised of skeleton (joint chains) and controls.
For this I followed the tutorial videos Mat made available on Moodle. Without these tutorials I would have been lost. Every book on maya techniques has a different way of tackling the same issues which made it very time consuming and confusing. I was mixing the process explained in one book with another and it never quite turned out right.
An amalgamation of IK and FK kinematics and parented joint chains were required. Most of the joints only needed a ‘rotate’ control, however the hips_dislocate needed a ‘twist,’ movement and rotate to allow for more detailed animation. The part that caused me the most grief was definitely the reverse foot set up. After hours of attempting this set up and moving joints microscopic amounts, it clicked and everything came together. I am so pleased that I managed to overcome this problem, again giving me the confidence and motivation to finish the project.
Attaching the controls was relatively simple, but again very time consuming.
All in all a painfully methodical process, but exponentially rewarding upon completion as there is a model that operates and moves according to the set up and controls added.
Painting the weights that movement would effect meant that the character further looked and acted in a human-like fashion. Flooding areas that didn’t need to react to movement and delicately painting in the bits that did. It was really a case of logically going through and thinking about how parts of my own body reacted to different movement. I should have taken more time over this but due to time restraints, I had to get on to animating, otherwise I would have fallen even further behind.
The jump I found to be the easiest of the 3 animations. Almost uniform animation of both foot controls. Altering the rotation of the feet to look more akin to a human jump.
The rotate on the hips dislocate I added for further dynamic. Think it really helped with the smoothness of the jump and lessened the rigidity of the character. The same process with the arms. I physically did the jump a few times myself and paid attention to how my arms moved. A static jump like this, my arms stayed loose by my side, raising a bit on the descent. These features were exaggerated and heightened for effect on the robot.
The final tweaks came by using the graph editor to manipulate the tangents. Mainly breaking the tangents to affect the flow of the animation.
Doing it again I would have a much longer time slider, allowing for more frames and a much more flowing animation.
The idol animation consists of a foot tap, side to side weight shift and a lean forwards.
Being a robot it took a while to decide on what to do with the character in terms of animation.
In thinking about the 2nd part of the brief, i wanted an idol animation that would work as an interactive animation. So this is the animation for when another character comes close and interacts with the robot.
Foot tap to initialise the interaction, then a weight shift and then a look down and up over the 3rd party character.
A similar process to before but more features on the robot needed animating. More rotates. More logic and consideration of the process is required before beginning to set keys.
This animation took 4 restarts before it looked anything like a smooth idol pose. I would have liked to think about another idol pose for moving into Unity, as im not sure if the gestures animated are exaggerated enough.
This was by far the hardest of the 3 animations. Requiring precision adjustments over 24 frames to create a (nearly) seamless loop. I watched numerous tutorials on walk cycles, and like with most outcomes in creative software, there are hundreds of different ways to go about it.
I decided to use this image as the base for my cycle. Ignoring the represented frames, and just using the static positions of the avatar.
The loop is by no means seamless as it should be. The right leg causing me so many issues. Every time I tried to remedy it, I made it worse.
Upon reflection, I feel this was due to the technique I used. 25 frames down to a 24f loop. I understood the logic of this technique, but could not see clearly enough how to apply this in Maya and went ahead with it anyway. A big mistake. Making a seamless loop is an art unto itself and requires patience and practice. Luxuries that were not available to be due to time restraints.
The last thing that is fundamental to any process in Maya is remembering to name everything. This caught me out numerous times in the early stages of modeling and from now on, I will be trying to ensure I attempt no shortcuts or dodges as it just wastes time.
Therefore, apart from the obvious difficulties and barriers I had to overcome, I am relatively pleased with how it’s turned out. Nothing like originally planned but then everything I try to make ends up like that so I don’t view it as a negative thing. This has been by far the most difficult and time consuming project of the course so far and I thought at one stage it had completely turnd me away from Maya. However perseverance wins out again as finishing the project has reinvigorated my enthusiasm for Maya work, but also animation in general.
Showing posts with label level 5 - Game art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label level 5 - Game art. Show all posts
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Touching up the scene - Hypershade, lamberts and blinns / Render settings
In designing the environment/backdrop for my maya render, i wanted to experiment and make use of different settings within the hyper-shade menu. ie Different blinns, lamberts, textures.... Playing with attributes such as Ray-tracing, incandescence, reflectivity, refraction translucence.... But most importantly, different lighting and camera positions.
This was the most fun part of the animation. I think this is the most akin to music software such as ableton of Logic that maya gets. Really feels like your modulating a signal, or playing with effects. Basically experimentation with settings is the only way to go about it. Direct results, checking the render view, both in maya software mode and ray-trace mode, to make sure everything was in order.
To begin with, the reflectivity and the incandescence of the turquoise walls was far to high. In the render window it completely blew everything out to a white glow. This was also due to the Directional lighting being too bright. To solve this, i decided to go with an ambient light from the top left of the screen, at about 0.5 brightness, so there was just enough light to allow for shadows and clear reflectivity. For this i used a lambert with high reflectivity.
I really like the texture on the floor and the reflection that is kicked off it. This was hard to get looking right. I wasn't planning on it looking how it does now. Keeping continuity within concept meant that originally i was going for greys and metallic colours. But when these were applied, the animations looked dull and lifeless. The experimentation with colour then commenced. There is no reason for any of the background of floor looking the way it does. Just trial and error till i found something that i liked, then tweaked for effect.
Rendering out meant going into a bit more detail. Detail that i had forgotten from last year but is imperative for the animations to be right, especially in taking them into after effects.
The animations were rendered as lossless JPGs, with the file output being set to; name.number.extension...
Care taken over setting the right frame padding - whatever the last frame is at (eg 150f) that would need a frame padding of 3. or for 25f it would need a frame padding of 2 and so on)
Lastly it required a batch render of images and then importing int after effects for composing and rendering into a quicktime movie format.
Animating
Jump
The jump i found to be the easiest of the 3 animations... Almost uniform animation of both foot controls. Altering the rotation of the feet to look more akin to a human jump.
The rotate on the hips dislocate i added for further dynamic. Think it really helped with the smoothness of the jump and lessened the rigidity of the character.
The same with the arms... I did the jump a few times myself and payed attention to how my arms moved. A static jump like this, my arms stayed loose by my side. Raising a bit on the descent. these features were exaggerated and heightened for effect on the robot.
The final tweaks came by using the graph editor to manipulate the tangents. Mainly breaking the tangents to affect the flow of the animation.
Idol
The idol animation consists of a foot tap, side to side weight shift and a lean forwards.
Being a robot it took a while to decide on what to do with the character in terms of animation.
In thinking about the 2nd part of the brief, i wanted an idol animation that would work as an interactive animation. So this is the animation for when another character comes close and interacts with the robot.
Foot tap to initialise the interaction, then a weight shift and then a look down and up over the 3rd party character.
A similar process to before but more features on the robot needed animating. More rotates..... more logic and consideration of process before beginning setting keys.
This animatio took 4 restarts before it looked anything like ready.
Walk
This was by far the hardest of the 3 animations. Requiring precision over 24 frames to create a (nearly) seamless loop. I watched numerous tutorials on walk cycles, and like with most outcomes in creative software, there are hundreds of different ways to go about it.
I decided to use this image as the base for my cycle. Ignoring the represented frames, and just using the static positions of the avatar.
This process required so many starts and restarts. Getting the positions right, moving the hips up and down as well as remembering to alter the foot controls and rotates. The bend and action of the legs required specific detail. Keying the frames in was ok but a lot of easing in and out with the keyframes made for a lengthy ordeal. (mainly the integers, the frames that Maya fills in for you between the keyed frames - these all needed adjusting and re adjusting multiple times.
The seamless loop was the most difficult challenge of them all and still is not quite right.
The tutorial suggested doing it over 25 frames, but finish on the 24th to allow for the correct positioning and 're-entry' to the initial frame position at frame 1. This method appeared logically valid, however it was still a frustratingly hard method of achieving the desired result.
The right leg really held me up. For some reason, i still cant figure it out, it skips and he has a bend at the knee towards frame 23 thats not supposed to be there. I tried and tried to iron this out, but whatever i did (adding more frames, setting more or fewer keys, graph editing) it just got worse and worse so i left it in its most basic state.
The jump i found to be the easiest of the 3 animations... Almost uniform animation of both foot controls. Altering the rotation of the feet to look more akin to a human jump.
The rotate on the hips dislocate i added for further dynamic. Think it really helped with the smoothness of the jump and lessened the rigidity of the character.
The same with the arms... I did the jump a few times myself and payed attention to how my arms moved. A static jump like this, my arms stayed loose by my side. Raising a bit on the descent. these features were exaggerated and heightened for effect on the robot.
The final tweaks came by using the graph editor to manipulate the tangents. Mainly breaking the tangents to affect the flow of the animation.
Idol
The idol animation consists of a foot tap, side to side weight shift and a lean forwards.
Being a robot it took a while to decide on what to do with the character in terms of animation.
In thinking about the 2nd part of the brief, i wanted an idol animation that would work as an interactive animation. So this is the animation for when another character comes close and interacts with the robot.
Foot tap to initialise the interaction, then a weight shift and then a look down and up over the 3rd party character.
A similar process to before but more features on the robot needed animating. More rotates..... more logic and consideration of process before beginning setting keys.
This animatio took 4 restarts before it looked anything like ready.
Walk
This was by far the hardest of the 3 animations. Requiring precision over 24 frames to create a (nearly) seamless loop. I watched numerous tutorials on walk cycles, and like with most outcomes in creative software, there are hundreds of different ways to go about it.
I decided to use this image as the base for my cycle. Ignoring the represented frames, and just using the static positions of the avatar.
This process required so many starts and restarts. Getting the positions right, moving the hips up and down as well as remembering to alter the foot controls and rotates. The bend and action of the legs required specific detail. Keying the frames in was ok but a lot of easing in and out with the keyframes made for a lengthy ordeal. (mainly the integers, the frames that Maya fills in for you between the keyed frames - these all needed adjusting and re adjusting multiple times.
The seamless loop was the most difficult challenge of them all and still is not quite right.
The tutorial suggested doing it over 25 frames, but finish on the 24th to allow for the correct positioning and 're-entry' to the initial frame position at frame 1. This method appeared logically valid, however it was still a frustratingly hard method of achieving the desired result.
The right leg really held me up. For some reason, i still cant figure it out, it skips and he has a bend at the knee towards frame 23 thats not supposed to be there. I tried and tried to iron this out, but whatever i did (adding more frames, setting more or fewer keys, graph editing) it just got worse and worse so i left it in its most basic state.
Monday, 7 February 2011
Thursday, 3 February 2011
Reverse Foot set up - palaver!
This is the method that worked for this model!
1) SETUP
Create Joints and Label: Hip / Knee / Ankle / Ball / Toe
Create Reverse Foot: HeelCntrl / ToeCntrl / BallCntrl / AnkleCntrl
Create Curve Box: Create Poloygon Cube > EP Curve Tool > Resize and name this controller
2) SETUP IK's
Create an IK set (select ikRPsolver) hip > ankle / ankle > ball / ball > toe
Set center pivot main foot control to be around HeelCntrl
3) FREEZE TRANSFORMATIONS
Modify > Freeze Transformations
4) PARENT IK'S TO REVERSE FOOT
In Outliner (shift +) to see children > select ik's in outliner and middle mouse drag to corrensponding foot control found on reverse foot.
5) PARENT HEEL CONTROL on REV. Foot to FOOT CNTRL
6) ADD ATTRIBUTES to Main Foot CNTRL
Modify > Add Attribute "Heel_Spin, Heel_Roll, Toe_Roll, Toe_Spin, Ball_spin". Z=roll, y=spin
7) SET ATTRIBUTES
Window > General Editors > Connection Editor
Select Main Foot Cntrl > Load Left > and scroll down to the bottom > select attribute
Select Joint > Load Right > Under Rotate the corresponding Y or Z
Close
8) EDIT ATTRIBUTES
Select Ball Roll / Select Toe Roll
Select Minimum
9) SET POLE VECTOR
Select Box
Shift select IK (Ankle)
Constrain > Pole Vector
Select main foot control, select the attribute, middle mouse drag on the screen to test.
1) SETUP
Create Joints and Label: Hip / Knee / Ankle / Ball / Toe
Create Reverse Foot: HeelCntrl / ToeCntrl / BallCntrl / AnkleCntrl
Create Curve Box: Create Poloygon Cube > EP Curve Tool > Resize and name this controller
2) SETUP IK's
Create an IK set (select ikRPsolver) hip > ankle / ankle > ball / ball > toe
Set center pivot main foot control to be around HeelCntrl
3) FREEZE TRANSFORMATIONS
Modify > Freeze Transformations
4) PARENT IK'S TO REVERSE FOOT
In Outliner (shift +) to see children > select ik's in outliner and middle mouse drag to corrensponding foot control found on reverse foot.
5) PARENT HEEL CONTROL on REV. Foot to FOOT CNTRL
6) ADD ATTRIBUTES to Main Foot CNTRL
Modify > Add Attribute "Heel_Spin, Heel_Roll, Toe_Roll, Toe_Spin, Ball_spin". Z=roll, y=spin
7) SET ATTRIBUTES
Window > General Editors > Connection Editor
Select Main Foot Cntrl > Load Left > and scroll down to the bottom > select attribute
Select Joint > Load Right > Under Rotate the corresponding Y or Z
Close
8) EDIT ATTRIBUTES
Select Ball Roll / Select Toe Roll
Select Minimum
9) SET POLE VECTOR
Select Box
Shift select IK (Ankle)
Constrain > Pole Vector
Select main foot control, select the attribute, middle mouse drag on the screen to test.
Making the model - Notes/transcript/process
Skinning was done using photoshop. The grill of the old radio was taken from google images. Went for the oily grey, almost matt finish. Kept simple as to not waste time and fits the theme and background of the character.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Modelling
Due to illness, my work on maya has been sporadic at best. For the modelling process i looked at all the tutorial videos on moodle. These were very useful. I also hit the library and got 2 books (Mastering Maya, Eric Keller) (The art of Maya, Alias/wavefront) and purchased another (Official learning Autodesk Maya). So between the different sources of information, and doing tens of tutorials, i have managed to model and rig my character. Im not sure of the process really and i have fumbled through trying the best i can with it. Hopefully the character has ended up somewhere there abouts. I have had to do numerous re designs, realizing early on that an ambitious character would have caused more problems than it solved. So the character that i made in Maya has little correlation to the thought processes involved in the planning as i had to just dive straight into maya to realize these pitfalls. But its getting there. I will be re doing my character sheet to fall inline with the character. I have context for it in my head but needs putting down onto paper.
Character in Maya environment
This is my character. All the controls are just abut finished. Has taken a few more weeks than expected.
Just a few more bits and pieces to do before animating.
New New Re design - New Deadline due to Illness - 11th Feb
Finally a character that works.. Same Character sheet applies to this model...
Had real difficulties with maya, but finally have this character made up, and set up, handles and all.
Still no Uv Mapping or texturing, but i feel too much time has been wasted already so im going to start on with the animation and hopefully throw some texture and skin on late next week as i finish the Maya Part of the module off.
Next post will be screen grabs of Model in Maya environment.
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Time Management
Briefing Date
2nd November
Research into characters and game archetypes.
Moodboards
Draw some characters and begin forming ideas
Select colour for character
Do a character sheet (back story, meaning) giving the archetype context.
Concept art
Intrim Crit(s)
23rd November
Decide on character and back story.
Finalise concept
Create orthographics and import into maya
Begin Modelling, - 3 days
Uv Mapping - 7days
Rigging - 3 days
Rigging 2, - 3 days
Rigging 3 - 3 days
Prototype
Final Crit
14th December
Binding skin / cleaning up
Animating jump walk and idol cycles
Deadline
Friday 14th JANUARY 9-9.30AM.
This has not been kept to.
Due to exterior issues and unforeseen circumstances i have had to take time out and this has set me back.
I am only just beginning modelling and started on my maya work.
This has been a disaster for both confidence in my ability and workloads.
Either way a character will be made, and made t the best of my ability.
2nd November
Research into characters and game archetypes.
Moodboards
Draw some characters and begin forming ideas
Select colour for character
Do a character sheet (back story, meaning) giving the archetype context.
Concept art
Intrim Crit(s)
23rd November
Decide on character and back story.
Finalise concept
Create orthographics and import into maya
Begin Modelling, - 3 days
Uv Mapping - 7days
Rigging - 3 days
Rigging 2, - 3 days
Rigging 3 - 3 days
Prototype
Final Crit
14th December
Binding skin / cleaning up
Animating jump walk and idol cycles
Deadline
Friday 14th JANUARY 9-9.30AM.
This has not been kept to.
Due to exterior issues and unforeseen circumstances i have had to take time out and this has set me back.
I am only just beginning modelling and started on my maya work.
This has been a disaster for both confidence in my ability and workloads.
Either way a character will be made, and made t the best of my ability.
Monday, 10 January 2011
.....
There's a conflict between interactivity and storytelling: Most people imagine there's a spectrum between conventional written stories on one side and total interactivity on the other. But I believe that what you really have are two safe havens separated by a pit of hell that can absorb endless amounts of time, skill, and resources. -Walter Freitag, game designer. (Platt 1995)
More Interesting Game concepts...http://underthemask.wikidot.com/crawfordandgosling
Introduction
This paper offers a consideration of the location of gaming within patterns of everyday life. Building upon earlier work (such as Crawford 2006, and Crawford and Rutter 2007) we continue the argument for considering gamers as a media ‘audience’, as this allows useful parallels to be drawn with literatures on (other) media audiences. Specifically here, this paper argues that the concept of ‘scene’, borrowed most notably from music fan studies, provides a useful mechanism for understanding digital gaming culture. In particular, we suggest that the concept of scene is useful as this highlights how ‘elective belongings’ are located within our identities and ordinary lives, but can take on extraordinary meaning in certain (physical) spaces.
Though this paper is largely theoretical in its arguments, and endeavors to provide a basis for further and more detailed empirical work, the paper does draw on some illustrative examples in the last section to support our arguments. This data is gathered from ongoing ethnographic research into the everyday lives of digital gamers. To date, this research includes interviews with 82 gamers (66 male, 16 female) in the UK, media use diaries, and observations of gamers at play in their own homes, at several LAN events and in games arcades.
Audiences and Narratology
Crawford and Rutter (2007) argue that rather than being understood as an ‘audience’ much of the literature on gaming continues to situate gamers as individual players.
In particular, the case has often been made that gamers are simply not an ‘audience’. Eskelinen and Tronstad (2003) suggest that like many other games, such as soccer, having an audience present is not a requirement of play. However, Eskelinen and Tronstad present a very limited understanding of what an audience is; assuming that any one individual cannot occupy the positions of participant and audience at the same time, and what they do not recognize, is that through their gaming performances, gamers create spectacles, to which they are also a viewer of, and audience to (Rehak 2003).
Gamers can also be understood as an audience in a much more traditional sense. As Newman (2004: 95) writes: ‘it is essential to note that videogame experiences are frequently shared by groups, perhaps crowded around a television set in a domestic setting, or as Saxe (1994) has observed, around coin-op machines in arcades’. And recent research is increasingly highlighting the limitations of a focus merely on the individual gamer and game (Crawford and Rutter 2007).
However, there continues to be a reluctance by many (though notably not all) writers on games studies to align discussions of digital gamers with those of other media users. The basis of this rejection of the idea of gamers as a media audience needs to be understood as a wider rejection of the idea that games and gamers can be understood using theoretical and methodological tools borrowed from literary and/or film studies, such as narrative analysis.
In particular, in recent years there has been mounting and enthusiastic (and not wholly unconvincing) argument against the use of literary and film theory, and in particular narrative, in understanding digital games. For instance, several authors point out that not all games tell stories, and even those that do, tend to have very limited narratives or do this in different ways to other media forms (for instance, see Juul 2001).
This leads onto a further key criticism of a narratological approach; that unlike traditional narrative-based media forms (such as literature, television or cinema), which are ‘representational’, digital gamer are ‘interactive’ and ‘simulation’ based.
There is little doubt that the activity of playing a digital game is quantifiably different to watching a film or reading a book, and that it is an oversimplification of media forms to suggest that these can be studied in the same ways. However, while we do not wish to advocate the wholesale application of ‘second-hand’ theories borrowed from other disciplines, we would similarly warn against, not adopting (and if necessary adapting) still applicable ideas and tools and also making connections with other disciplines and areas of study.
This paper offers a consideration of the location of gaming within patterns of everyday life. Building upon earlier work (such as Crawford 2006, and Crawford and Rutter 2007) we continue the argument for considering gamers as a media ‘audience’, as this allows useful parallels to be drawn with literatures on (other) media audiences. Specifically here, this paper argues that the concept of ‘scene’, borrowed most notably from music fan studies, provides a useful mechanism for understanding digital gaming culture. In particular, we suggest that the concept of scene is useful as this highlights how ‘elective belongings’ are located within our identities and ordinary lives, but can take on extraordinary meaning in certain (physical) spaces.
Though this paper is largely theoretical in its arguments, and endeavors to provide a basis for further and more detailed empirical work, the paper does draw on some illustrative examples in the last section to support our arguments. This data is gathered from ongoing ethnographic research into the everyday lives of digital gamers. To date, this research includes interviews with 82 gamers (66 male, 16 female) in the UK, media use diaries, and observations of gamers at play in their own homes, at several LAN events and in games arcades.
Audiences and Narratology
Crawford and Rutter (2007) argue that rather than being understood as an ‘audience’ much of the literature on gaming continues to situate gamers as individual players.
In particular, the case has often been made that gamers are simply not an ‘audience’. Eskelinen and Tronstad (2003) suggest that like many other games, such as soccer, having an audience present is not a requirement of play. However, Eskelinen and Tronstad present a very limited understanding of what an audience is; assuming that any one individual cannot occupy the positions of participant and audience at the same time, and what they do not recognize, is that through their gaming performances, gamers create spectacles, to which they are also a viewer of, and audience to (Rehak 2003).
Gamers can also be understood as an audience in a much more traditional sense. As Newman (2004: 95) writes: ‘it is essential to note that videogame experiences are frequently shared by groups, perhaps crowded around a television set in a domestic setting, or as Saxe (1994) has observed, around coin-op machines in arcades’. And recent research is increasingly highlighting the limitations of a focus merely on the individual gamer and game (Crawford and Rutter 2007).
However, there continues to be a reluctance by many (though notably not all) writers on games studies to align discussions of digital gamers with those of other media users. The basis of this rejection of the idea of gamers as a media audience needs to be understood as a wider rejection of the idea that games and gamers can be understood using theoretical and methodological tools borrowed from literary and/or film studies, such as narrative analysis.
In particular, in recent years there has been mounting and enthusiastic (and not wholly unconvincing) argument against the use of literary and film theory, and in particular narrative, in understanding digital games. For instance, several authors point out that not all games tell stories, and even those that do, tend to have very limited narratives or do this in different ways to other media forms (for instance, see Juul 2001).
This leads onto a further key criticism of a narratological approach; that unlike traditional narrative-based media forms (such as literature, television or cinema), which are ‘representational’, digital gamer are ‘interactive’ and ‘simulation’ based.
There is little doubt that the activity of playing a digital game is quantifiably different to watching a film or reading a book, and that it is an oversimplification of media forms to suggest that these can be studied in the same ways. However, while we do not wish to advocate the wholesale application of ‘second-hand’ theories borrowed from other disciplines, we would similarly warn against, not adopting (and if necessary adapting) still applicable ideas and tools and also making connections with other disciplines and areas of study.
pleh.....
Maya has already been causing me issues due to my lack of creative ambition to create a game character. In being particularly bad at drawing and then having no interest in games development my motivation is thin. However i am trying to perceiver with it as i know the skills learned as a byproduct of this project wil be incredibly useful in the future.
I have managed to get hold of a copy of a maya guide so i have been working through a few tutorials on that and experimenting. Bt over christmas i found myself unable to really get into my work properly.
I have really struggled to see how i am not wasting my time doing things as a means to an end.
Hopefully things will pull together in the end. Just need to pass this module. ]
Already had a number of redesigns of my character due to my lack of understanding of maya that has been pointed out on numerous occasions.
But i feel the one i have managed to settle on is as refined as i feel i need to take it. It ad hears to the brief and full fills my conceptual desires more fully so thats the design that will stay. It also enables me to simplify the techniques needed for maya.
In Beginning modelling it has taken hours to re learn what we were taught last year. And the logic sometimes defeats my brain. My first 24 hours modelling has all been wasted time. Blind leading Blind.
Now having that book hopefully practice and time will enable something good to come out of my attempts at this module.
I have managed to get hold of a copy of a maya guide so i have been working through a few tutorials on that and experimenting. Bt over christmas i found myself unable to really get into my work properly.
I have really struggled to see how i am not wasting my time doing things as a means to an end.
Hopefully things will pull together in the end. Just need to pass this module. ]
Already had a number of redesigns of my character due to my lack of understanding of maya that has been pointed out on numerous occasions.
But i feel the one i have managed to settle on is as refined as i feel i need to take it. It ad hears to the brief and full fills my conceptual desires more fully so thats the design that will stay. It also enables me to simplify the techniques needed for maya.
In Beginning modelling it has taken hours to re learn what we were taught last year. And the logic sometimes defeats my brain. My first 24 hours modelling has all been wasted time. Blind leading Blind.
Now having that book hopefully practice and time will enable something good to come out of my attempts at this module.
How do we understand the importance of narrative within games: Interesting Article
How do we understand the importance of narrative within games.
Let's begin by exploring what I mean when I refer to “narrative within video games” by looking at the
“Dictionary.com” definition of 'narrative';
nar·ra·tive [nar-uh-tiv]
–noun
1. a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious.
2. a book, literary work, etc., containing such a story.
3. the art, technique, or process of narrating: Somerset Maugham was a master of narrative.
It is with the second definition that I refer to here. “a book, literary work, etc., containing such a story” if this is the case then video games can be referred to as narrative. Simple, right? Wrong! Although this basic conclusion can be used to state that games are narratives it doesn't go anyway to to demonstrate the importance of such a theory within video games.
Games academics is still a very much infantile area of study so lets refer back to the silver screen,
cinema. Craig Lindley surmises in his paper that
“. . the central notion of narrative in modern commercial cinema is that of a form having a beginning (the first act), in which a conflict is established, followed by the playing out of the implications of the conflict (the second act), and completed by the resolution of the conflict (the third act).” (Lindley, C. 2002).
I will suggest that this is a handy way of dealing with narrative form within video games. We already
know that many video games tell a story, in fact I will suggest that most gamers buy a video game based on its narrative story content and not necessarily the genre or gameplay dynamic, such as; if it's an FPS or a strategy game. The results show that games tend to be bought based on the story it tells.
By understanding the above quote we can apply the idea of linear narrative to interactivity. For examplelets look at the movie Avatar (20th Century Fox, 2009). Avatar shares many similarities to modern video games, the aesthetics and the production for example, in that large portions of the movie are computer generated much like a video game. But, the movie Avatar isn't interactive. If you leave the movie half way through the story still progresses regardless of if you're there to see it or not. A video game is different, the player has to be involved in the progression of the narrative in order to get to the proverbial 'third act' and complete the game and therefore the story. Let's consider that games don't
simply contain narrative but are actually constructed as narrative, would it be correct to assume that a game such as Tetris (Alexey, P. 1984) was created as a story, I would suggest not. Espen Aarseth states in his book “Cybertext. .”;
"To claim that there is no difference between games and narrative is to ignore essential qualities of both categories.
And yet, as this study tries to show, the difference is not clear-cut, and there is significant overlap between the two."
(Arseth, E. 1997)
With that in mind lets consider another game, Space Invaders (Midway 1978). Although Space Invaders
isn't a 'next gen' title in which you have the ability to deliver a media rich narrative experience the fundamental plot is there. Juul in his paper “The Clash Between Game and Narrative” (Juul, J 1998) points out that;
“The concept of the invasion presupposes a time before the invasion, and from the 1950's science fiction it draws upon, we just know that these aliens are evil and should be disposed off ” (Juul, J 1998)
Many gamers these days probably wouldn't agree that Space Invaders tells the great story of a war
being fought against a fierce alien race looking to enslave humankind. In actual fact this is exactly what it does. I would suggest that because modern games are so technologically advanced that plot devices and core narrative, have been swept up amidst massive explosions and flying bullets. For example, from
an interview with John Carmack from ID software 1998;
ID head John Carmack says of the upcoming Quake III that it will have "The best graphics, the best
networking, the best gameplay - but no plot." (Juul, J 1998)
So is narrative really that important after all? I think that we need consider the question differently, we need to concern ourselves simply with “how do we understand narrative”. So I have done just that. I asked the public to explain narrative in the 1988 movie Beetlejuice. I gave no more explanation to question than that. First I needed to see if people actually understood the question. I was looking for technical
answers, but the vast majority simply went onto explain the plot and some humorous pieces from the
movie. The very form within Beetlejuice is incredibly important. Alison McMahan explains in her book
“The films of Tim Burton: animating live action in contemporary Hollywood” (McMahan, A 2005)
“After Hollywood hammering me with the concept of story structure. . . the script for Beetlejuice was completely anti all that: it had no real story, it didn't make any sense, it was more like a stream of consciousness. .” (McMahan,A 2005)
Beetlejuice was based on an idea and a series of characters, the plot and story were then created around them, as opposed to creating a story and populating it with characters. If you refer back to my opening definition of 'Narrative' you will see that the point above is concerned with definition three. “. . the art, technique, or process of narrating: Somerset Maugham was a master of narrative.” We as academics in the study of video games need to consider and understand narrative as a whole, not just referring to a story.
With that mindset we can understand and analyse narrative in games by appreciating gameplay and
storytelling. By looking at the 'art, technique and process. .' behind the interactivity we can see how narrative is important in games. Using the term “Narrative” to encompass story and gameplay we can
see that the two go hand in hand and need to be treated equally to achieve a rich interactive experience.
References:
Aarseth, Espen (1997). Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, John Hopkins University Press.. 216.
Juul, J. (1998). A Clash between Game and Narrative. Available:
http://www.jesperjuul.net/text/clash_between_game_and_narrative.html. Last accessed 26 April
2010
Lindley, C. (2002). The Gameplay Gestalt, Narrative, and Interactive Storytelling. Available:
http://www.tii.se/zerogame/pdfs/CGDClindley.pdf. Last accessed 22 April 201
McMahan, A (2005). The films of Tim Burton: animating live action in contemporary Hollywood. London:
Continuum. 262
Pazhitnov, A. (1989). Tetris wikipedia entry. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris. Last
accessed 24 April 2010
Shaw, P. (2010). Contextual Studies Survey. Available:
http://phillshaw.questionform.com/public/Contextual_Studies. Last accessed 26 April 2010
20th Cenury Fox. (2009). Official Avatar Website. Available: http://www.avatarmovie.com/. Last
accessed 25 April 2010
Game Development processes
Game developers may produce the game design document in the pre-production stage of game development—prior to or after a pitch. Before a pitch, the document may be conceptual and incomplete. Once the project has been approved, the document is expanded to a level where it can successfully guide the development team.
Because of the dynamic environment of game development, the document is often changed, revised and expanded as development progresses and changes in scope and direction are explored. As such, a game design document is often referred to as a living document, that is, a piece of work which is continuously improved upon throughout the implementation of the project, sometimes as often as daily.A document may start of with only the basic concept outlines and become a complete, detailed list of every game aspect by the end of the project.
A game design document may be made of text, images, diagrams, concept art, or any applicable media to better illustrate design decisions. Some design documents may include functional prototypes or a chosen game engine for some sections of the game.
Although, considered a requirement by many companies, a GDD has no set industry standard form. For example, developers may choose to keep the document as a word processed document, or as an on-line collaboration tool.
The purpose of a game design document is to unambiguously describe the game's selling points, target audience, gameplay, art, level design, story, characters, UI, assets, etc. In short, every game part requiring development should be included in detail enough for the respective developers to implement the said part. The document is purposely sectioned and divided in a way that game developers can refer to and maintain the relevant parts.
The majority of video games should require an inclusion or variation of the following sections:
Story
Characters
Level/environment design
Gameplay
Art
Sound and Music
User Interface, Game Controls
This list is by no means exhaustive or applicable to every game.
Because of the dynamic environment of game development, the document is often changed, revised and expanded as development progresses and changes in scope and direction are explored. As such, a game design document is often referred to as a living document, that is, a piece of work which is continuously improved upon throughout the implementation of the project, sometimes as often as daily.A document may start of with only the basic concept outlines and become a complete, detailed list of every game aspect by the end of the project.
A game design document may be made of text, images, diagrams, concept art, or any applicable media to better illustrate design decisions. Some design documents may include functional prototypes or a chosen game engine for some sections of the game.
Although, considered a requirement by many companies, a GDD has no set industry standard form. For example, developers may choose to keep the document as a word processed document, or as an on-line collaboration tool.
The purpose of a game design document is to unambiguously describe the game's selling points, target audience, gameplay, art, level design, story, characters, UI, assets, etc. In short, every game part requiring development should be included in detail enough for the respective developers to implement the said part. The document is purposely sectioned and divided in a way that game developers can refer to and maintain the relevant parts.
The majority of video games should require an inclusion or variation of the following sections:
Story
Characters
Level/environment design
Gameplay
Art
Sound and Music
User Interface, Game Controls
This list is by no means exhaustive or applicable to every game.
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
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