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Re looking at what i need to re-cover and improve and having a list set fora more detailed layout and process.

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Reworking and improving my work

As agreed with lecturers they decided I can do a rework of my project due to my health issues.

Reviewing and look at previous works feedback :

The artefact shows some potential, but it ultimately falls short in delivering a cohesive and complete look of the universe of “Matsuyama: Curse of The Mirror”. The document feels very rushed, and it’s quite a short concept artbook for a final major project at MA level. The pages do show some care in the general branding, but it doesn’t have a cover and the level of polishing of the artwork varies quite a lot from picture to picture. There are some strong elements in both the document design and the work showcased in it, I like how each page seems to have a different branding based on the “universe” the assets are from, but only the branches and the waves of the page design are fully polished, and the page branding of the universe of fire and pg 4 do not seem to be cohesive with the rest of the document design. Most of the assets presented in the document are severely under-developed: pages 2 and 4 feel both very rushed and all the assets in these pages are not polished enough to be considered ready for publication, especially when assets like the “Fire Priest” and the “Fire Temple” Environment are developed to a much higher standard.

Well done in the details of the “Fire Priest” ribcage being almost a furnace of light, it adds such a strong level of contrast and storytelling to the characters. This is the level of polishing the other environment and characters should be at.

The dragon Ghost feels too rushed. The illustration feels very flat, Aya is very hard to spot in the composition, and while the design of the dragon shows a strong silhouette and pose, it needs more work to be developed fully, both as a character concept art and as an environment work. Those sketches in the bottom right corner do not add much to the page.

The main Character Aya does show some promising design choices. It would have been great to see another drawing or two about how she uses the weapons she finds and other variations on her appearance.

The Samurai Soul has an interesting concept, and you describe quite a lot of cool game mechanics, but where are the visual elements of these mechanics? While the design is developed to some extent, this character needs more work to give a proper idea of how big, strong, and powerful they can be. The final character artwork feels too rushed but does show an interesting silhouette that works well with the general concept. Consider developing other drawings and quick sketches alongside your main illustrations, this will give you chances of developing characters move-sets or alternative poses.

The environment of the Ghost City feels too rushed. While the mood is well suggested, this piece of environment art needs much more work to be able to suggest what textures, materials, assets and elements this universe is made of. In your blog you showcased some 3D models for this city, it could have helped taking a few elements from that render and add them to the houses walls.

The “Mother Spirit” monster form is very strong: the silhouette with these branches being part of the hair really creates a monstrous visage worth any Japanese Horror movies, well done. It also works well with the illustration of Aya being dragged into the mirror, with a few elements clearly “mirroring” the design of the monster. The human form is polished, but very generic and doesn’t seem to tell us much about the mother in his life. She looks too much like Aya (also sharing a similar colour scheme and clothing!) and this can be confusing for storytelling purposes, and, most importantly, it doesn’t create a brand new character to learn about. The mother would need a complete different set of clothing (maybe a more regal and “high-class”?), different silhouette, style and face to achieve that.

In conclusion, the artefact itself only has a few character design elements that feel completely finished and polished, being the fire spirit, the fire temple environment, and the monster form of the Mother. A few elements of the main character Aya are also coming through, but only marginally. The rest of the work is unfortunately not polished enough and feels incomplete in some parts. Those early black and white sketches are not worth showing at this stage (you showed these at your pre-production stage), you could have instead show more variations for the main character and a few experimental sketches you did of the creatures you developed. You clearly showed some strong improvement in your work and techniques, but you need to work on your time management and make sure to be able to deliver the same level of polish and finishing on all the art assets to the same level.

Promo Video

The promo video is more of a slideshow of your images than a promotional video of the project and, most importantly, of you as an artist. There are no links to your socials and, while it gives some idea of what the project is, it ultimately does not help the audience in getting to see the artist and the work you have put behind this. Most of the elements requested by the brief for your promotional video are not being met here. Some images are presented with some strong backgrounds, and this makes the video interesting to some extent, but it needs to be developed further to promote you and your project much more in depth.

Blog

Blog shows some insightful analysis of your process and you are clearly looking into topics that are relevant to the forefront of your field. The forefront posts are rather short though, and while they give some insight into the current state of the industry, it would have been nice to see more connection to how these could have influenced your own practice. The brief asks to research ‘why the people, ideas and artefacts you have identified are at the forefront or cutting edge and how the work you are doing relates to them”: this last part need a bit more of care, and it would have been a great addition to some of your forefront posts. Please also label your “Forefront” posts clearly in the future so that they are easier to identify from the more direct research posts done for your artefact.

Presentation

The presentation was a deep dive into your own artefact, which should have been only a part of the whole process, and you went a bit too much into the details of the project. The brief required you to also deliver an academic evaluation of your artefact and discussion about how your project would have been disseminated to reach your target audience. It would have been better to create a separate set of slides to discuss these elements instead of using the actual artefact. When prompted at the end you gave some strong insight about the skills you developed and how the project helped you in reaching those goals; these answers should have had some dedicated slides to support your major study project.

General

Some of the ideas behind the characters of “Matsuyama: Curse of The Mirror” are extremely original and proposing some impressive examples of character design, but only a few of the elements are properly polished to a level which can be considered fully finished. The majority of the art assets (characters, props and environment) ultimately feel rushed or incomplete and this unfortunately impacted the quality of your submission. The blog and the presentation felt rushed in a similar way, and it feel like your time management skills were tested in different ways throughout the final semester, and this clearly had an impact on the quality of your finished artwork. The finished artworks (especially your characters) show a different and stronger artist from the one that started back in September 2022, but you need to work on your consistency: you have developed a strong methodology of blocking out a 3D model, enhance it with photo-bashing and use a variety of paint-over techniques. Keep that up! If you try and use this method on all your artworks and give yourself proper deadline to complete each of the phases by (for example, half a day of sketching, 1 day for blocking out 3D models, 1 day for photobashing, etc..), you will be able to plan accordingly and deliver all of your work to the same level of your “Fire Priest”, which is by far the most impressive artwork of your submission.

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Evaluation

When designing this concept art I started with a plan in mind and liked to keep within the time constraints but where my health has declined this year and personal issues outside of my control it has been a toll on me to keep on the deadlines I set as below. I think I was two weeks out on the initial plans this has led me to changing designs to different ways to keep within my perimeters. As a whole I loved the design work for this concept and did achieve the list I set out to do but with some works not being fully finished. As a learning curve this has been a good experience as its helped me decide what is within my constraints and what's not in them and adapting them as follows. I would of liked to show off more of the attack based work after completing the initial designs. Having to also deal with juggling work and working part time while having chronic fatigue and brain fog has led me to art block a lot during the duration of the semester. How I coped to get past this was also a learning curve since even if I just jotted down the design I would like to do roughly would inspire me to continue more and elaborate. I'm proud of my work in the end even with the restraints caused in my personal life and it has taught me a lot about management. My social media was not as outputted as much as I hoped but I did post avidly on Instagram as much a I could and wish to continue to post out to art station and forum post in the future. I will be continuing in the future to develop these works more.

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Finished Project - Matsuyama curse of the mirror.

My artifact is presented in a concept art book form so I could evaluate and continue my practices in character design. For me this is showing a snippet of what I could achieve while designing an initial idea of a game concept to a company as a presentation or to the public as a concept book. This would either be backed by working in the gaming industry or getting support from the public to fund the idea.

As this was an ambitious project, I set out to include:

3 landscapes, 5-character designs and 4 prop designs as the standard layout to keep to.

I researched and blogged what I would like my game to be designed like while using historical context associated with the Edo period in Japan. I also researched artists I admired and would look at and be influenced by their styles while pursuing this project.

I choose to look at legends in Japan and came across the Matsuyama mirror. A traditional Japanese story associated with mirrors. This legend is a coming-of-age story which features a young woman who copes with the loss of her mother by finding comfort looking into her mother’s mirror. I used this story and adapted this with the Japanese belief that souls could be trapped in mirrors.

I set out to use a horror game concept with a linear game style much like BioShock infinite. I named this game concept Matsyama: The curse of the mirror.

Synopsis:

Aya our main protagonist has just lost her mother, as tries to cope with the loss of her mother, she’s haunted by a voice. One day the mirror gifted to her breaks, and she finds herself being dragged into the mirror world. The voice now her only source of navigation turns out to be her mother trapped soul. She sets her on a journey to find the missing weapons needed to escape this world and release herself and her mother’s spirit but is all what it seems? As you set out on this journey, she slowly finds that its not her mother but a yokai that has processed her mother’s spirit and been trapping souls in this world. Aya being a descendant of spirit users was a perfect candidate to unlock the prison world of the haunted Yokai but all it needed was a spirit user to unlock it by defeating certain spirits which the yokai could only control but not defeat.

Aya design: 16 year old girl, Edo period traditional kimono / tattered kimono / Japanese /long dark hair matching the mother design

Three weapons - dragon water ghost, fan knifes.

Cursed mirror guiding the way to the cracked parts of each dimension.

As you journey through this world you find yourself against many ghost spirits which have been possessed by the yokai. They were spirits collected around the world due to how much the mirror has travelled in the past. Here are a few examples which are associated with the weapons that you need to collect in the game which the yokai leads the protagonist to.

Sea ghost

Research Japanese monsters for inspiration -

The mizuchi – dragon associated to water. / the umibozu – sea giants that destroyed ships and sailors

Crystal water dragon that uses other spirits to gain more spirit power hence why it attacks boats full of trapped spirits (men who drowned at sea)

Spirit blast / mass waves

Diving movements

Crystal heart that can break to be defeated. / crystal Sakura where the Yokai is influencing it

More drawings showing how it can change forms to be used by the protag

2.Fire priest

This ghost was originally a priest in the temple as this soul has been trapped for so long it has now been corrupted by the villain in the story. Aya goes against to enemy to collect the fire fans. This monster can throw firebombs and do spin-fire attacks. It also can-do incantations which will make the fan gloworange and release an attack. The surrounding area is constantly on fire and this is a eternal flame that continuesto glow.

3.Samurai ghost

This samurai ghost has four weapons it can use interchangeably its slow-moving to grab them up again. They can release soul energy and create a blast wave in their attack. As they are situated in a ghost town the more souls it consumes the bigger it gets and create stronger attacks. It stalks the streets waiting for its victims. The ghost town is full of souls lost to war as this town was destroyed while in amidst a war. The buildings are charred and broken but still have residents.  originally i wanted a child to a company this design as my original concept. This village  can change colour depending on when the ghost appears.

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Elden ring

reflecting on what in the current market elden ring and its polished game with no dlc or pay to win has been a triumphed in the industry. it doesn't offer any more new content and is a complete finished game and doesnt have to drip feed any more new content to keep players playing. Its build it identity from its precedecesters of the bloodborne franchise which is not a inclusive franchise due to the difficulty of the games in the past. The game always ensures there's enough thing to experience that it doesn't get boring the more it ages unlike the online battle pass based games which fizzle out with the less interest. Due to its multiple plays you could do might be different due to the class and build of the character you make custom. Much like the older games like fable, and even new games like baulders gate which again is more customable. is this something to reflect on when deciding to design newer games.

https://gamerant.com/elden-ring-first-anniversary-fromsoftware-game-design-open-world-genre-dlc/

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-secret-to-elden-rings-open-world-success-is-uncopyable/

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God of war

God of war was one of the most anticipated games of the year and had a incredible depth and love to its story. The director even acknowledges that story-based worlds are mostly film influences from such scenes from Indiana jones and others. The rise of this story telling has still been just as impactful as when the last of us came out. This has in turn actually influenced the cinematic industry just as a vice versa and becomes much more mainstream because of the in depth story’s the gaming industry creates. Gamers really want to feel depth when it come to investing their time as much as programme that that has a gripping story. As much as god of war has been a long influenced game this took it to a new level by being the biggest launch in the franchises history. Which in turn can influence the return of remakes and remasters since theres been more in depth continuation of a single character.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/god-of-war-unexpected-influence-indiana-jones/

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/god-of-war-ragnarok-is-already-the-biggest-launch-in-the-franchises-history-uk-time-tunnel

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Reboots

Reboots in industry are they plus or benefit?

They help new fans find old games which reinvent the whole franchise to continue plots and gain even more a fan base. They however might also be counter productive as they are essentially rehashing old gaming formats which might of died already in the industry and effectively going back to more nostalgic ways and making the industry lazier. The opinion of this is double sided as the percentage rate of the flow of games continuing has risen so gaining a profit. An example of this is final fantasy remasters and dark souls. Does this make the gaming industry less inventive though due to relying on old techniques and not thinking out the box. They generally are a safe bet and you know will make a profit this in turn could help inspire new creators you can see examples of that with developers already in the past creating new franchises by being inspired by nostalgic games such as Mario and Zelda. This in turn could even help train a generation in the gaming industry to create the next big thing.

https://n4g.com/articles/remakes-are-good-for-the-gaming-industry/

https://magicmedia.studio/news_insights/remasters-remakes-reboots/

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The male gaze and its effect on female character design

Videogames design has always had issues when it came down to the variation to male to female ratio in the workplace. Due to the fact that the videogame industry is a male-dominated space and has been for many years. In the last couple of years, they have been trying to level out this due to an increase in issues of discrimination based on gender. A term that has been increasingly used is the male gaze originally theorized by Laura Mulvey. When you investigate the analytics of how female representation has been objectified and it comes down to female characters. What is the male gaze? The male gaze is a derivative of the way men objectify women. Masculine vision in this sense could be characterized as patriarchal, ideological fetishism. It's the issue of female spectatorship and seeing them as an object rather than a person. In this, I will be looking into how this could have affected the way female characters may have been designed. And how they've made sure this is not an issue in future design concepts in most recent games. (1)

Issue of sexism is not new female professionals in male dominated industry like the film industry has also been mirrored in the gaming industry it is linked that less female input on female characters can create a negative portrayal of them. when thinking of female character designs what are the most iconic ones you can identify. one I could name to be the most iconic female protagonist of its era is Laura croft. the 1996 character has been an on-going joke about her ample bust for years. Encouraged like a office joke and remained to be one of her most recognisable aspects until the remake was encouraged to focus on her story due to sexualisation of this character. In most recent years they have tried to use female characters as a main protagonist showing positive aspects of the gender, they may also have what is to be perceived to have male characteristics which could be argued is now in this centuries both genders aspects. Using a mutually moral thing in this case. However, they might have betrayed women as needing to be saved or being objectified.

Ece Canlı, Nicoletta Mandolini. (2022) Aesthetics in Distress: Gender-Based Violence and Visual Culture. Introductory Note. Vista:10, pages 2

www.proquest.com. (n.d.). Female video game characters and the male gaze - ProQuest. Available at: https://www.proquest.com/openview/535ae54f162387d6fa144115d27df884/1/index

Lynch, T., Tompkins, J.E., van Driel, I.I. and Fritz, N. (2016). Sexy, Strong, and Secondary: A Content Analysis of Female Characters in Video Games across 31 Years. Journal of Communication, 66(4), pp.564–584. doi:10.1111/jcom.12237.

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Ai art and how this will affect the industry and my profession.

Ai has been a hot topic of discussion in the concept artist industry as of late. People believe that Ai is effectively taking jobs away from real people and copyrights have been put into question. The generators in cases have been using already made work to create new pieces and a lot of industry creatives have been on the lookout to see if their work has been plagiarised by the ai generated machine.  Art station boycotted the ai with a stand against no to ai generated images on the platform. As someone who is looking to go into this profession it has worried me immensely. The fact that they can be generated so quickly compared to someone who spends 5-8 hours on one piece is somewhat terrifying. However, in this project I look to see what the ai generator can help with rather than take away. A lot of artists now have been using it as a source of initial inspiration and then adding personal spins to a design it initially designed and making it into something new with elements of the base.

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Mirror

Using a Png for a base of the mirror I adapted it to a circle and painted over the top using a textured pattern and continuing a paint over to complete the rest I then had a look at traditional ribbons got a png and also painted over the top and transformed it so it was thinner.

katana

Katana 3d model base and with a paint over the top putting a new inlay at the hilt of the sword by drawing over the blade.

Fan

Used a fan base but painted over darked to a browner colour faked drew some Japanese letters that glowed orange I also laid out blades but did a paint over all over to make it black and did orange overlay of designs to match the writing.

https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-print-models/art/sculptures/katana-01

https://pngtree.com/freepng/hand-mirror_1027859.html

https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/gold-folding-fan-with-japanese-calligraphy-celebrating-new-year-text-translation-happy-new-year_43008748.htm#query=fan&position=29&from_view=search&track=sph

https://pngtree.com/freepng/cartoon-japanese-knot-illustration_4692194.html?share=3

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Used 3d base model to make sure the positioning was correct for the piece I then looked ar kimono references to gage how to lay the fabrics on the shoulders mostly. Using some png for the fabric fall I then painted over and created my own patterns on the kimonos. I png face features and painted over again while adding painted features for the hair and hair clips etc. the messy look for the hair was painted in too with shade. I added cherry blossom elements to the monster side with a png reference to start changed the tone and colour to darker red tones and a darker look and then painted over and used ghost lighting in the back ground. This was one of the first  pieces I finished which showed the theme for the whole concept book.

https://pngtree.com/freepng/the-illustrations-of-japanese-cherry-blossoms_3710010.html

https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/character/anatomy/realistic-white-male-and-female-low-poly

https://www.freepik.com/premium-photo/geisha-front-red-background_40256552.htm#page=2&query=kimono&position=24&from_view=search&track=sph

https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/asian-woman-wearing-japanese-traditional-kimono-autumn-park-kyoto-japan_10695562.htm#page=2&query=kimono&position=14&from_view=search&track=sph

https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/gold-folding-fan-with-japanese-calligraphy-celebrating-new-year-text-translation-happy-new-year_43008748.htm#query=fan&position=29&from_view=search&track=sph

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I came back to the water painting and used elements from the first painting I scraped this included the waves but I took the bodies out and recoloured the ocean and did many paint overs. I used a png at the back and painted over the whole thing as I hated the clouds and the sky was not dark enough I darkened the whole thing to fit the background element and used a blur too. I used a snake 3d format for the initial base as I loved the scales which I used to texture the top half too and then painted over with a light blue. Initially I was going to do a textured rubble like dragon that came from the sea and had clams and inlayed in the skin but I wanted to stick with the ghost theme and put some more glowing elements such as crystal shapes and used the villain vines of the Sakura as crystal blue versions. I wanted a damaged boats and the protagonist getting away so used the 3d boat as a initial base and used photo bashing again for the debris with paint overs to adapt them darkened all the pictures too and used wooden texture on some of the paint overs.

Took my paint over from the original dragon drawing and adapted using more paint over with textures experimenting how the soul of the dragon can transform and move about while the protag uses it.

https://www.cleanpng.com/png-sea-download-google-images-computer-file-sea-159975/

https://www.cleanpng.com/png-blue-sky-and-white-clouds-2947/

https://pngtree.com/freepng/the-illustrations-of-japanese-cherry-blossoms_3710010.html

https://www.vecteezy.com/photo/24069515-stormy-ocean-waves-a-painting-of-dramatic-waves-in-a-storm-ai-generated

https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/vehicle/other/l-9ed222d2-f97f-4445-9a54-ac441756db1e

https://www.freepik.com/premium-vector/blue-waves-collection_980858.htm#query=ocean%20wave&position=10&from_view=search&track=ais

https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/character/anatomy/realistic-white-male-and-female-low-poly

https://www.cleanpng.com/png-ice-png-image-13210/

https://www.cleanpng.com/png-wood-flooring-varnish-wooden-floor-border-texture-154927/

https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/animals/reptile/snake--8

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Started off with a white circle which I colour dodged on a blacked background and spread out like a portal coming from the wall use a png of a broken mirror which I blurred and put the opacity down for put the contrast up and painted over the top. I grabbed the paint over from the mother spirit piece and adapted the lines to come out of the mirror shards. Using a woman screaming base I adapted a Japanese girl face with paint overs and drew out where the legs and arms would be using references off of thriller movies where the main person was getting dragged off like the hedge scene in harry potter with Cedric and the vines. The other was paranormal activity. I would of liked more time to adapt everything more details with a full room of furnish but because of time constraints this was not possible.

https://pngtree.com/freepng/the-illustrations-of-japanese-cherry-blossoms_3710010.html

https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/black-background-with-shattered-glass-texture_17838799.htm#query=broken%20mirror&position=2&from_view=search&track=ais

screaming face -https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/portrait-young-woman-with-shocked-facial-expression_8923922.htm#page=2&query=screming%20face&position=7&from_view=search&track=ais

https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/young-family-spending-time-with-their-toddler_22377831.htm#query=japanese%20kid&position=12&from_view=search&track=ais

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I started with 3d base models outstretched them all took off some window parts just to have the base and road lit up so there was light coming off them in blender and laid them out like a street scene. I then went over to photoshop and laid them out with a path in between I wanted to create a more ghost town look with overgrown paths etc I did some paint over for the roof etc but unfortunately due to time constraints couldn’t complete the full photo. I tried to create this smoky and light scene in essence, but I would have liked to complete this piece more.

https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/exterior/historic-exterior/buddhist-shrine-japanese-build-house

https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/asian-woman-wearing-japanese-traditional-kimono-autumn-park-kyoto-japan_10695562.htm#page=2&query=kimono&position=14&from_view=search&track=sph