gregba3b

[gregba3b]

Self Evaluation: “Silver Glass”

Chronological Online Blog Link:

https://gregba3b.tumblr.com/tagged/ba3/chrono

Regular Online Blog Link:

https://gregba3b.tumblr.com/

It has been a hell of a final project and without a doubt the most engaging, challenging and rewarding time I have spent at university.

I have learned a great deal from this project and arguably more in these past 16 weeks than I have in my first two years of university. This brief and the way it has been structured has allowed me to not only explore and present my skills as an artist but improve upon them, study my weaknesses, and really get stuck into figuring out how to become a strong and independent concept artist.

It gave me the opportunity to build a world and narrative from scratch and see elements of that world come together. I saw concepts created and fully realised as well as experienced the reality of having ideas run wild with no end in sight.

I believe in this time I have created some of my best work to date, truly understood some of the core elements of how a concept artist should function and become far more comfortable in my workflows and confident in my abilities.

There were also many eye openers and weaknesses highlighted through this project that i intend to work upon. For instance my eyes were clearly larger than my stomach and in many cases I greatly underestimated the time it would take to complete some of the tasks I had given myself. I had certainly set way too many deliverables to begin with and am glad that I cut a lot of the quantity in favour of time spent iterating and fleshing ideas out to end up with some high quality final images.

This project also gave me the opportunities to branch out more in my specialism delving into tools I had not properly considered before in order to aid my understanding, quality, and employ-ability.

Were I to highlight my biggest achievement and biggest regret of this project I would say this. I was very happy that I took the jump to explore 3D further and believe I would not have the same level of quality in my final images than i would had i not spent a good deal of time learning this tool through this project.

My biggest regret however would be the concepts and designs I left behind in favour of pushing my central focus more. Areas I had planned to explore such as the moon excavation sites, labs, and asteroid base would have been a lot of fun to concept. I’m also sad that I didn’t create more quick concepts illustrating areas of my project. Though i take pride in my early concepts and the polish of crude thumbnails and silhouettes i do wish I had more final images however the bulk of these iterations have really helped in my understanding of my work flow and how to tackle various designs.

Looking back at my work I am very pleased at the amount produced in the time I had.

I almost incredibly pleased to see the difference in the level of my work now compared to what i was producing at the start of my time here.

Pieces have been produced for my portfolio. I intend to spend some time now after university continuing on and exploring the areas of my project I did not have a chance to touch upon or complete in the time i had. I believe I am also ready to start properly applying for jobs soon and am excited for what the future holds. 

Finally concerning the Learning Outcomes

LO7

I believe I have heavily explored my subject area delving into 3D a lot in my workflows, different ways of presenting digital designs and exploring several mediums and techniques to achieve high quality designs. I also spend a good amount of time practising early concepts such as thumbnails and silhouettes to become far more efficient at churning out ideas quickly as is the job of a concept artist.

LO8

I often hark back to the themes I set out in the beginning relating my project to human arrogance and the consequences of playing God. I researched many visuals and areas outside of my subject area to help influence my work and draw upon issues and themes to tie into my own project. I believe the meaning of the central focus of my project was always present.

LO9

I have more than used the resources provided for me attending as many critique sessions and workshops as possible. I also made heavy use of the ability to communicate with my peers often sending work for review and receiving feedback several times a day. I also took hold of any opportunities provided such as EGX, and UKIE, and went out to find the information I desired. I also contacted several professional concept artists during my time to gain feedback on my work and insight into theirs.

LO10

I created several schedules and timetables to adhere to when organising tasks and workloads. I have understood my own timings and the scope I should expect for certain tasks. I have also laid out a project that can be continued long after my time at university to create coherent and related designs for my portfolio.

LO11

Through my blog and weekly updates I have broken down my workflows into processes and simple imagery to explain my ideas, present my concepts, and explain my plans. I have also made certain changes to my final piece to ensure it is understood by those conscious of my project and games design and those not. I also took part in a lecture for the Year 1 students communicating my project briefly and the work i had done so far.

LO12

I have built a portfolio, branched out to artists and made online and real connections. I have applied to jobs such as the ILM Graduate Program and Internship position as well as fully developed a CV to do so. I have taken opportunities such as EGX and UKIE to network and taken part in online forums to further develop as an artist. 

[gregba3b]

Week 28: “Behold a Pale Horse”

With the finish line in sight I continue on with the first of the 3 final images.

I kept on overlaying textures, adjusting lighting, overlaying, dodging and multiplying shadows to a finished point.

The painting took 3 days int total from blockout to finish and saw a few design changes and elements introduced along the way.

Areas like the pool of water were only properly thought about and realised during this painting. It did take a lot of effort to make it look like a pool of liquid however and involved a lot for back and forth with my peers and references to try and get it to look right. Eventually some feedback with Steve helped get it look the way I wanted. 

One of the pieces only introduced whilst painting were ideas like the countdown clock on the left.

I actually created several times for each scene. It is purposely obscure as to what timescale is involved especially due to the years panel hidden and the clock reset/ malfunction in the 3rd phase. It is also intentionally unclear whether the clock is ticking forwards from the time of activation or counting down to some significant event.

I was very happy with the way this first one turned out. Especially as working on this piece was beginning to slow my computer down, I had intentionally made a large canvas size and dpi to ensure a good resolution for printing when it came to the exhibition. The main thing hurting the performance was the upward of 500 layers present in the file causing the file to reach about 1.4GB. The reason for the preservation of the layers was once again due to the manner of my final pieces and the transition needed in the scene.

I enjoyed detailing some of the smaller areas which I have not had the pleasure of doing with all the thumbnails I’ve created in the past. Areas such as the crowded scientists around an alarmingly coloured screen. The detail behind the solar panels. The important looking members leaving the scene and the surface of the AI itself.

Happy with it I moved onto the second phase which in theory should only take a third of the time to create.

I imported on of the old renders I had create of the red giant and layered more effects onto it.

I experimented briefly with different light colour effects even messing with the potential of dark energy splashing from the centre.

I detailed the scene further adding more movement and destruction iterating the sun like energy a little more.

Eventually I was happy with the turn out and though I could beat up the scene even more I felt that showing this event in the very early stages of it lashing out left for more freedom in what I could destroy in the final scene.

Creating the effects was a lot of fun such as the hot rings of energy flaring out from the orb, the purple light cracking out from the centre and the water below splashing up out.

I added works fleeing and harsh light effects as well as blurred cables to make the image feel more alive and full of energy.

The second stage took half a day longer to create due to tweaking and peer feedback but I was now ready to move on with the final scene and possibly the one I was most excited to work on.

Similarly to the last two I began overlaying textures and images onto the scene and adjusting the colours to match the new atmosphere of the final scene. 

I didn’t quite go to the level of destruction I wanted to as I felt i needed to retain the identity of the scene and not lose too much of the relationship between the 3 by creating an unrecognisable room.

I tried to include “The Body” into the scene but couldn’t quite find a placement that worked. Though my intention was to have “The Body” finally meet with “The Mind” i found that the introduction of this strange being created an odd shift in focus in the final piece and would creative a bizarre narrative for a viewer unfamiliar with my project.

I decided to go against my previous plan and remove the character leaving the sole focus of the piece on “The MInd” and its three states across this period of time.

I added the final touched and created potentially my favourite of the 3 pieces.

I felt there was a nice sense of peace and beauty in the final image, almost as if the destruction of the facility was one of the best outcomes for the AI. The colours of dark blue and purple helped push a theme night and almost rest and I interpret this scene as even more tranquil than the first when it is supposedly in its calm and controlled state.

I really enjoyed layering damaged onto this scene creating various scuffs and burns. This was certainly the piece I had the most liberty with and being the last I was finally able to merge down some layers without worry that I would need to preserve them for another state change cutting them down to nearly 200 instead. The areas of detail such as the burst steam tubing, caustic reflections, hanging cables, and walls scars were interesting and fun additions to make. 

The time difference between the pieces is purposely ambiguous and I would hope that these 3 images when combined together are relatively self explanatory in terms of narrative but also very open ended in terms of questions. Why did this happen? How did this happen? Hong long has it been? All of these questions I am hoping will be thought of by a viewer and the idea that these scenes create a story that you’d be interested to know more about means I would be successful in what i set out to do. 

I finally placed the 3 fully rendered images together and prepared documents for submission. These will be the 3 I hopefully show at exhibition and am proud of how they turned out. Next will be to complete a long evaluation of this project, the turns it took, and the lessons I have learned.

[gregba3b]

Week 27: “Mind and Body”

Triptych, Francis Bacon

I began this week with a little research following on form the conclusion of last week. The plan is to have 3 keyframes of the room housing “The Mind”.

Final Proposal:

The current plan is to do 3 final images to round off this area of my project. Using the development I have done so far I will be creating 3 environment paintings all from the same shot showing this AI in 3 stages of its life. The first would be a few months into its existence. A gold sun and the atmosphere would be bright and hopeful with scientists and researchers crowding round at their most recent creation. The second image would show the sun in a state of great stress, having swollen to 5 times its original size glowing crimson with the clamps barely able to contain it and researchers fleeing fearing the worst. And the final image would be of a small dark sphere a fraction of the original size inhabiting the now dark and desolated room.

These 3 pieces should be seen together and my intention is to have them stacked upon each other to show this narrative. Similar to a “Triptych” these pieces should be able to work individually but form a larger and stronger picture when together.

Before continuing on with that however I wanted to jump back to the character of “The Body”.

This character sole purpose is to be joined with “The Mind” and eventually act as a vessel for it.

I wanted to make some clear connection design wise with The Mind and The Body and spent time figuring out how to accomplish this.

A few pinned sketches later I had the idea to use the image of “The Mind” and create a far smaller and condensed version that would sit in “The Body”.

I thought about it having an orb/crystal ball like appearance with the neck or head acting like a cradle or pedestal. I created several quick ideas for how this could look.

I was definitely liking the direction this was going but similar to the first spit paint it was taking a darker turn than I’d like.

I looked back at my themes and wanted to make it look more innocent and human.

I then had the idea when looking back at my BA1b work to add a human mask yet not a complete face.

I began by cutting out the image of a human face and applying the globe within the space left. I created several variations looking at possible material changes and more ornamental appearances.

It wasn’t quite looking right with the blue orbs so I swapped it out for the dark star. I adjusted the face to look potentially like a blue wax mould that would sit in front of the rest of the head.

I finally found a design I felt was working well and chose to take it further. I made a quick look into the possibility that the orb is an entirely separate object that can be removed from The Body completely.  There were also possibilities for animation within the design such as the core spinning or flaring out.

Very happy with the second pass of iterations I decided to explore the head of “The Body” further.

I continued by imagining how the design could look when viewed from the front as well as what the design could look like were the mask removable.

The removal of the orbs actually gave me the idea that the face could be linked to that activation. Perhaps the connection of the orbs is what brings this body life and perhaps the face is projected and powered once the orb is connected.

There is even the possibility that there could be different projections based on how the the body responds to the world around it. If this really was the next next in human evolution then surely people would want to retain some form of humanity and individualism and one way this could be preserved is through these holographic faces. 

I did a couple variations on the selected design as it was looking a little power rangersy. When designing the head from the side I had not taken into account that a sphere would not be similar to the shape of a human head from the front in the same way that it could be from the side. We naturally have  circle like shape when viewed from the side but that sphere has its sides shaved when viewed from the front.

I attempted a version where the orbs was not a perfect sphere to help shave down the form of the head.

Though the design was more detailed and worked in some ways I preferred the form of the older version and intended to use that when showing the character in full pose. 

I decided to do a quick and yet informative single render of the character just to give viewers a concept of what this walking AI could looking like.

I decided to try my hand again at some image compositing and photo bashing. I must stress that the majority of these image was created using sourced images and then corrected and adjusted to make a more cohesive design.

In the majority of the composites I have tried in this project I end up doing very little paintings and use the brush mainly to add in highlight dodges and multiply shadows.

I chose to give “The Body” an unspecified gender or sexuality. Not because it wasn’t something I had determined but that this vessel was simply designed to carry a condescend version of “The Mind” and its physical appearance in its prototype like state simply would not have been tailored to any specification other than function. It did however end up leaning slightly towards a more feminine build but I feel that works and makes the the frame appear more elegant and somewhat ascended. It’s height also helps intimidation and power but not through strength. I imagine that seeing this walk by would cause a person to stare a while.

Its arms much like its face would also project a holographic image or hard light over the more threatening looking skeletal forms that the metal beneath resembles.

This is the conclusion for “The Body” and the rest of my time will be spent preparing, executing, and finalising the final 3 images of “The Mind”.

The first order of business was to return to my preferred room layout and created a more detailed version of the room.

I ignored the camera angle I had found with my thumbnails a while back and simply concentrated on what would look good in the room and what i could place where.

I found that the detail pass didn’t take too much time seeing as I imported many of the meshes I had previously created for the now left behind cryo pod. With some hacking, slashing and stretching I was able to create new elements very quickly using the old parts.

I surrounded the Core with some clamp like devices I had previously thumbnailed choosing to keep the inner surface flat with the intention to overlay solar panel like devices over them. The panels wouldn’t wrap around fully so as not to obstruct the view of the core.

Though I had previously hunted for a composition I went in searching for angles again to find a shot I felt worked best.

After sending the possible layouts to my peers and getting their opinions I went back in and found a new shot that was in fact better for what I wanted. I created a more drawn out shot than what I needed as I would crop down on the focused area after. Better to have more info that can bleed around the edges in case I framed things differently.

I wanted to use Arnold renderer to extract some renders as well as some clever masks as taught by Chris but for a reason I could not figure out my scene was coming out incredibly dark in the Arnold Render.

With not too much time left to spare I decided to use what I was not pretty comfortable in and imported the mesh and camera to keyshot.

Here I set up the lighting i wanted and rendered out the scene choosing to place different meshes in different groups in such a way that the render would mask them out separately.

This would make things such as creating a mask for the computers a lot easier when it came to painting.

Unfortunately despite being useful I was coming across a rather bothersome issue. 

The render would extract and image of the scene but then cut it up accordingly before placing it into a psd. The issue with this, as shown, below is that there is no information on what sits behind objects when the layer is turned off.

This is a problem for this particular scene due to plan of creating 3 versions of the scene. The 3rd phase for instance will have destroyed areas of the environment and it might prove time consuming trying to understand the layout of the room if the information behind certain models is gone. 

I tried to figure out ways around this but no avail. Though I had the idea of rendering out each object separately and then compositing after in photoshop but the issues here is that each render would have different lighting information as shadows won’t be cast by objects when they’re hidden in the scene.

The only solution I could imagine was finding a way to hide objects in the scene but set it so that they still react to light and cast the appropriate shadows. Though this feature appears to be possible in other packages I could not find a way to do it in Keyshot and figured I would just have to take this as a loss for now.

I rendered out the composition I wanted into a psd with masks, a clown layer, and all the separate components on different layers.

I then began to start overlaying textures and painting information slowly onto the scene.

This is as far as I have gotten this week. The plan was to spend a day on detailing the blockout and finding the camera angle, 3 days on rendering the first scene, 1 on the second, and then finally 2 on the last. I am currently a day behind on that schedule as I spent more time finding the scene and preparing the blockout to be rendered but hopefully the way I went about it will cause less headache further down the line of painting.

Taking an environment like this to a finished stage where I attempt to give it a realistic and detailed is almost uncharted waters for me. In second year i created a rather bad line work environment for the wolfenstein test, and my first year renderings for BA1a were simply awful looking back now.

Here’s hoping that what I have learned and practised this year will now shine through in these paintings. 

[gregba3b]

Week 26: “One Mind”

Follwing on from last week’s designs I created a further 7 blockouts for some interiors to house “The Mind”.

They involved similar shapes but tried to approach the idea in different ways.

I explored huge chasms, side generators, clamps, drops, observation decks and more.

I also went into each interior to try and find a nice composition that could work for the final keyframes I would produce involving “The Mind”.

After getting feedback once again from my peers I settled on two of the blockouts as final candidates.  

One looked at more at the idea of a large open space to observe hold it whilst the other looked at the prospect of a room designed to generate and contain it.

In the end I went for the former finding the huge open room helped with scale as well as made the operation feel grand and of significant importance to those who created it. Almost as if there were subtle undertones of worship involved in this facility.

Having learned from BA3a and the first blockout of BA3b i began by searching for potential compositions and camera angles to make for an interesting shot of this area.

I painted up the ones I felt had appeal by overlaying images rough and adding in the previously designed versions of the energy core to give the room the proper context.

I played around with implementing all stages of the AI to get a feel for how the scene may look with each phase of “The Mind”.

I moved the layouts around for presentation as well keeping my portfolio in mind even when generating early mock ups.

After some feedback from tutors and peers I eliminated some of the shots and narrowed down on the 4 i felt had the most potential. The possibility of a blue core had also been taken away at this point and the evolution would be a simple 3 steps. Orange > Red > Purple.

I explored each thumbnail a little further by playing around with the framing and reducing the thumbnails to grey scale to that only light and shape would affect my judgement as the colour variations brought unwanted bias as the final scene would in theory contain all three versions.

The first set had some great atmosphere and a strong composition with some of the vertical comps drawing my eye.

The second had some strong cathedral like vibes emphasised unintentionally by the god rays.

The third set was possibly my favourite and though one of the least interesting in terms of compositions and depth I felt the colours worked really well and the addition of caustics to the scene gave it a very peaceful atmosphere despite the possible dangers.

Finally the 4th set had some of the most intimidating compositions aided by the added scale of the red version of the AI.

I once again put the compositions forward for analysis and with my peers eliminated a few leaving the candidates that had the most potential. 

The favourite composition ended up being this one due to its low camera angle and good sense of scale.

I very quickly roughed up a visual plan for the 3 final images in terms of colour and placement of the AI.

Next week I plan to continue on with “The Body” as well as make further progress with developing these into final pieces.

[gregba3b]

Week 25: “The Final Stretch”

I’ve hopped from design to design again and returned back to my original silhouettes for “The Mind”. 

Being the most important and central part of my project it felt necessary to get the ball rolling again on this area as it is my main focus for this project.

I extracted the shapes and designs that I felt worked best from my first set and attempted to get back to the stages I was at many weeks ago.

I remember being very fond of the idea of having several large instruments surrounding some large mass of energy and light. I was unsure however whether these objects were projecting the energy, protecting it, or containing it.

After considering my themes a little more the idea that they would be instruments used to contain the energy made the most sense. It would imply a sense of imprisonment on top of its function and play further on my themes.

I thought about the possibilities of how to design this and thought of creating large clamp like devices that would surround the central light and energy.

As per usual I began by thumbnailing some potential designs.

I thought about several different design styles as the look of these clamps could dictate the rest of the design language of the room.

I created 16 or so possible concepts looking into spotlights, solar panels, and mechanical arms whilst designing.

There were many components of the designs I found very interesting and areas I was interested in keeping for later.

Repeating patterns and loose wiring were among my favourites as well as one clamp that ended up warping into a balcony like design.

No. 15 in fact gave me the idea of having this sphere at some distance from people and that a sort of viewing platform or balcony would be need to look upon it or interact with the orb.

Content with the exploration into the clamps I started tho think about how the ball of energy itself could look.

By blending some images and creating my own effects I mocked up some potential designs for The Mind itself.

I didn’t want the mind to ever have a face or even look human. It needed to look powerful, divine, and beautiful as well as dangerous. The idea of it being some raw almost uncontrollable energy appealed to me the the more fiery sunlike design caught my imagination the most.

I chose the two that I felt worked the best a created some quick colourised versions of them.

Though the flaming ball had some very interesting colours especially the black core with the red flames I felt the solar flare emitting ball of plasma like lightning had the more interesting surface and design.

I had mentioned previously at some point the possibility of this celestial design as well as the possibility of an event of great consequence.

The reason the star like design appealed to me so much is because of the life a star has. Often they grow and grow until they cannot exist anymore in that state and collapse in on themselves often in the way of a supernova followed by a black hole.

This is one such idea I’d love to explore further for the AI itself.

The idea that it is being fed these memories and information against its will to the point of bursting could be symbolised perfectly by a star like design. I looked at how I could show its development as a consciousness beginning as a bright orange star, swelling to a dark imposing red giant and finally to an incredibly dense yet beautiful purple orb.

I continued to roll with this and believed that this was how I wanted to finally visualise “The Mind”.

I had an idea for the core now as well as some clamp like ideas but the idea for the room was still non existent.

I returned to 3D again and began some crude blockouts for ideas on what this room containing the core of the mind could look like.

I came up with half a dozen mock ups.

I sent them over to my peers to help figure out which layout worked best.

In the end and we settled on design number 5 and I quickly took the model into keyshot for a quick render test.

I then did some quick colour and light passes and attempted to place in context several version of the AI into the scene.

This was a quick mock up to help illustrate my idea for the friday crit and I believed worked effectively in showing how I might design the rooms and composite a final image.

Crit Feedback:

Based on the crit I received I will continue down this path but explore a few more options and layouts for the room by creating another set of blockouts.

At this state my only concern in this project now is the design of “The Mind” and to a lesser extent “The Body”. Though I have a line of unfinished designs produced so far I don’t mind leaving them behind whilst concentrating on the centre of my project. I will more than likely continue to work on them after university or if I finish the designs I want to create for “The Mind” with time to spare.

[gregba3b]

Week E3: “Tris and Fails”

This week involved a lot of experimenting, learning, and a whole lot of modelling.

I began by taking the model of the cold coffin and scaling it correctly with the hatch.

I noticed a disparity in detail with the two models and began to define the cold coffin a little more.

I made a rather detailed set of panels and shapes ino the base of the coffin. The theory would be that these things, much like a usb, would be “plugged” into the rest of the device. Here the memories would be extracted from the host and uploaded to the memory disks attached to the whole device.

The modelling for this took a while and I unfortunately suffered a few hiccups along the way.

After losing 2 hours work i managed to familiarise myself better with the “boolean” tool which had previously destroyed the mesh of some of my model due to not freezing the transformations and deleting history after. 

However now able to use them properly I started to explore other ways to improve my modelling and the outcomes.

I looked into smoothing meshes and noticed the difference it makes when adding edge loops in the appropriate places to get a much nicer looking model upon smoothing.

I realised this technique does requires a very clean and grid like geometry to be done efficiently. I was concerned that keeping a clean topology could be time consuming especially for a concept artist that would rather concern themselves with designing quickly and not getting bogged down in the technicalities.

I am however using this time to learn and try out different techniques as well as improving my modelling skills rather than be quick.

The next think I moved onto was the port itself. Essentially a negative of the underside of the coffin.

This took a surprising amount of time to model I found but I guess the majority of the time was taken learning and trying to create shapes I had not attempted before. Though I did a simple yet slightly detailed block out earlier in BA3b for the asteroid facility I found that this was something different. Perhaps because i was delving into the territory of high poly modelling now.

The majority of the time was spent on the smaller more intricate components such as the pipe work and tubes going through the interior of the dock.

I found that the reason the modelling was taking a very long time too was that I was essentially juggling all the design work at the same time. It in fact reminded me how important concepting before hand is. In the future I believe I would try to do a rough but informative sketch to get some of the shapes mapped out first.

The other major difficulty, I was finding out as I progressed, was actually making this device feel “constructed” or “built”. Fortunately sci-fi grants a little leeway in terms of design but to actually make an asset look manufactured was something I had not done before and was proving difficult and very time consuming.

Towards the end I did find I was making more and more small components and actually ended up using a few in a modular way. 

The majority of these pieces ended up being really helpful exercises in trying to model certain shapes as well as to generate greebles efficiently. As I am still learning to model and would not class myself as a 3D artist I understood that this was taking time to do due to the learning and inexperience yet I was speeding up a lot as things went on.

Though the model was not complete I wanted to have a small play around in Keyshot to assess the lighting and renders as well as the default materials.

I found it made the models look very appealing and the simple to use, drag and drop materials that could be applied onto separate meshes was very helpful.

I will likely not venture too much into the texturing and materials yet but it was interesting to have a play around.

I also took a lot of the pipework and more intricate models in to test and was very pleased with the renders I could get.

Schedule Change:

I decided to put the modelling on hold for now. I had been doing it for nearly 2 weeks now and felt i was getting close to getting into a rut. I also realised that I had been working on this cryo pod/memory disk idea for nearly 4 weeks now!

Though this is a long time for a single asset I must admit that A LOT of thought and iteration has been put into this design as well as testing new techniques and ways to present, create, and develop concepts. The tie has certainly not been wasted but I’m afraid that my old schedule mocked up has become somewhat undermined now. As are my deliverables.

I had originally outlined that I would do several environments, a couple vehicles, some assets designs and even a character but am almost certain that this will not be achievable with the time left. I am okay cutting areas as a fair bit of work has been produced so far and I do not want to rush certain designs simply to have a larger body of final pieces at the end.

I have come to understand that I’m at university not just to produce artwork for tasks and briefs but to do as much learning and experimenting in the time here.

As a result I intend to shift my original focus of using this project as a portfolio generating plan and instead ensure that it is a chance for me to learn and continue experiment with my skills as a concept artist.

I may need to draft up a new plan for my deliverables due to this focus shift and figure out what designs I want to continue working on during the time left. One thing that certainly won’t change is the focus on “The Mind” itself as well as the intention to do a couple key-frame images of an event in this fictional world as my final piece.

Moving on from this area of thought and taking a break from 3D I decided to attempt a sort of spit paint for “The Body”.

I have very rarely taken the action of trying to paint an concept or idea from scratch straight away but after talking to a colleague on his workflows I decided it would be an interesting and helpful exercise.

Very often I find myself sticking to a more rigid workflow of thumbnail > develop > iterate > finalise. But attempting to simply design by pulling shapes from the canvas will be a new one for me.

Nearly 5 hours of painting after whilst tuning into a few robotpencil.com Q&A’s I came out with this.

I’ll honestly say I was very happy with how this turned out and though it doesn’t hit some of the design choices I want for the character of “The Body” it certainly acted as great exercise and a change from all the 3D recently.

I began the process simply by using the lasso toll to generate some light and dark shapes.

From there I pulled more and more shaped out until I have rough concept for a head neck and upper torso.

I could have probably left the concept at this stage as a lot of the information had been provided at this point however I wanted to spend time trying to convert the grey scale image into a colour version as well as try to define the forms and materials a little bit.

After some more time I had finally come a point where I was happy with the piece.

Though there is certainly more that could be done to neaten up the piece and make it more portfolio standard as a rough, early concept I think it works to show the idea and acted as a good exercise in attempting a more final like image to what I usually create.

It must be stated that this isn’t quite the design language I want for “The Body” as this design comes off rather evil and menacing.

If I refer back to my old key words and feelings outlined for this character I find that very little is being reflected through this design. I will certainly spend time in the weeks to come using my usual thumbnailing formula to come up with some designs that might be more appropriate to what I was initially looking for with the themes I planned.

[gregba3b]

Week E2: “Back on the Horse”

After a little lapse in productivity I got back to the grind.. Continuing on with the Cryo Pod and Memory Disk design I stared to think how the cold coffins could sit with these ports.

Similar to the filing cabinet like design it made sense that the cryo pod fit in that fashion and could be pulled out like a draw to access. This design choice would further mirror the coffin like themes as it reminds me of morgue drawers and autopsy slabs.

I began by doing some thumbnails of how the drawer might look from the side when accessed

I silhouetted in black the shape of the components I had already designed. Using the thumbnails of my preferred cryo pods I placed them behind the silhouette to see how they could be place. I also looked at ways of incorporating the memory disk idea that had also come about and would live within this structure alongside it occupant.

I presented the design to my peers and had to select which they felt were the most appealing visually and potentially functional in terms of extraction of these disks.

I took designs 09, 04, and 12 further and created 4 possible iterations of each.

After introducing a few different ways for the disks to be extracted as well as playing around with the type of cryo pod I could use I settle on 09.4 which I felt had a very appealing design dude to the slant breaking up the 90 degree angles. 

The next stage was to take the desired design forward and realise it in 3D to get a better understanding of the design as a whole.

I did some research and created a moodboard comprised of themes and elements I wanted to include.

The term “Cold Coffin” has been used a lot and I wanted to drive the point home further with more symbolism of crypts, morgues, and grave stones. The idea of having the large slap on top of the cryo pod act almost as an engraved tomb stone I think works really well.

Using the crude reference sheet above I began modelling the cryo pod which I knew would likely not change when designing the rest of the internals.

I tried to stay as accurate to the profile view as possible as I intended to use this not only as an exercise in 3D but to be the mainly way I present this asset.

The aim is to model all the components involved in this asset so that I can render out a detailed and informative version. I have been researching Cloud Imperium Games quite a bit and after speaking to a few of their concept artists it is clear that the amount of 3D used is very high. An asset similar to what I am designing would likely be using 95% 3D and then small touch ups in photoshop after.

The texture is usually a basic default material from a rendering software to add colour variation and the correct material information. I will be looking into using Keyshot as stated in BA3a to achieve this.

Next week I will continue on by modelling the other components necessary.

[gregba3b]

Week E1: “Blowin’ in the Wind”

The first week of Easter comprised mainly of the UKIE student conference, some relaxing, and a whole lot of hayfever.

Though the UKIE conference was a little painful physically the event was excellent and I was very glad to have been able to attend.

The talks were stimulating and I even got some insights into areas I hadn’t payed much thought too before. Some good advice was given the day in general was very informative.

The highlight for me was the talk concerning Voice Acting, which has always sparked my interest, and the chance to speak with Chris Watkins from opmjobs.

Chris had a look through my portfolio and reassured me that I have the quality of work to land a junior position which was certainly encouraging.

[gregba3b]

Week 24: “De-Rezzed”

March 31st EGX Rezzed

1st year talk

This week was again rather quiet in terms of design production however time was spent in activities outside of my regular university schedule.

First was EGX rezzed where I went to explore the development of games, talk to some of those behind these projects and get a feel for the experiences of those in the games industry. I prepared business cards for the event as well as uploaded some pieces of work to my ArtStation.

The most valuable thing to have taken away was the portfolio review from Creative Assembly. Lead Concept Artist Rob Watkins gave me feedback stating that the quality was getting there but to be sure to think about context, narrative, and story with each concept.

For example when reviewing my Every Day Weapon design i was told that more of these would be great to help expand on the world this concept might inhabit.

Overall the experience was good and I certainly gained from going. I would be interested to go to similar events in the future.

During this week I also gave brief presentation to Year 1 students on my development as a concept artist.

I spoke a little bit about my background and the work I produced each year. I also highlighted the importance of iterative work and looking to use new tools to aid in your design work particularly stressing the aid 3D can provide as I have been using it more and more recently.

The experience was great and allowed me to share some of my experiences as well as gain a better understanding of my own development as an artist. If the reception to these talks were good it’s likely we’ll be able to give another.

[gregba3b]

Week 23: “Back logging”

This week was purely spent bringing the back log of blog work that had fallen behind to date.

I thought I would use this weekly update to upload the brief work done many weeks back of coming up with some solutions for our exhibition. We began by sending out a poll to our course’s Facebook chat to asses who was of what specialism. Though there was a lot of reception there wasn’t unfortunately a response from everyone so we weren’t able to accurately ascertain what space would be needed for each specialism. We also branched out to see if anyone required a different presentation to one of the more default approaches such as space for a VR demo or a place for a card game design.

Most of my team spent time exploring the layout, themes, and logistics of the exhibition. I chose to look more closely at how the work can displayed for each individual.

I looked at 3D and Concept Art using what I had seen from last year’s exhibition as a guide. The following images were submitted as potential ideas and explanations for how several pieces could be displayed and tailored by each individual to suit their needs. 

[gregba3b]

Week 22: “Forever Spinning”

Continuing on with the memory disk I stepped back and looked at the individual components. 

There were 3 elements making up this device. The main shell (red) would be the piece lining the exterior of the wall as well as sink into the wall forming a hole for the internal elements to rest in. The outer hatch (orange) would acts as a door forming a seal and locking the internal devices within the shell. Finally the internals (green) would be what accessed and stored and are currently pictured as “memory disk” though there is still the possibility that the inner contents can change.

Keen to explore the shell and hatch further before moving onto the contents I began some thumbnails for these two components.

I looked closely at some references for mechanical designs and industrial forms to try and integrate some of these shapes and patterns into my designs.

The first row of designs were purely circular similar to the first 3D pass and produced some interesting shapes and implied detail. The second row looked at the possibility of having a hexagon like design for the exterior shell but maintaining circular hatches.

The final row was formed by cannibalising the designs of the first two sets and trying to form new design combinations form the existing forms.

The designs relied heavily on symmetry to create mechanical and constructed shapes and actually took a fair bit of time to create. 

The process of coming up with the design is simple but involved a little trial and error to make sure pieces lined up and individual components felt separate. An orange mask was layered over the hatch to help identify the opening.

I once again circled the designs I felt had the most promise. 

I proceeded by taking designs 08, 13, and 12 into 3D. 12 had some forms I was interested in visiting in the end.

By taking and modelling them in 3D i hoped to gain a better understanding of how they might look and behave as well as identify any shapes that weren’t working in the thumbnail or new areas that appeared more functional when shaped in 3D.

I took my preferred designs into Marmoset to get some more lighting information and accenting to see what aspects worked best in each design.

In the end I decided to combine elements from both concepts and create a new design.

I took the external structure of the first concept and and implemented the internal shapes from the second to create a series hatches which I had not previously considered as an opening mechanism.

With the hatch mechanism working I moved on to look at the internals. This idea was branching off of the cryo pod design and I needed to find a way to bring it back around to the original context.

For now I mocked up a placeholder design scaling these hatches up far more. Initially I imagined they would hold one pod each but in this mock up there are more than 2 dozen that can be stored harking back to the human filing cabinet idea.

I also decided to update the mesh of the opening hatches and inner door as I felt they looked a little too simple in their original state. 

Pleased with how it looked I took a render of the model and made some adjustments in photoshop to present an image for crit on Friday.

Friday Crit Thoughts:

The context of the cryo pods has now been solidified. The majority of the subjects are placed within these units against their will. There is the possibility some were tricked into being pacified and during their unconscious state placed into these devices to lie dormant indefinitely. These pods keep the subject alive as memories are only able to be extracted from a living host. As there is no knowing when the memories of a subject will no longer be useful they are kept within the halls of the Labyrinth like structure surrounding “The Mind”. Here these people remain, acting almost as books in a Library of memories waiting to be accessed when their time comes. Some of the scientists working with “The Mind” have referred to these cryo pods as “Cold Coffins” as unbeknown to the inhabitants, these cold metal units would be the subject’s final resting place.

The exact layout is still in the works. I was unsure how to apporach the integration of the cryo pod into the dock I designed. After this week’s crit I have laid out several possible scenarios on how to approach the end functionality: 

1) In this scenario there is 1 “Cold Coffin” per docking space in the wall. The coffins are kept there until they are accessed by the Librarians and taken to “The Mind”.

2) In this scenario there is no cryo pod and the memories of the person have been transferred into data disks off site. These disks are brought into this Labyrinth and stored in these docks in the walls.

3) Scenario number 3 has the docks appearance change slightly. Rather than have the cylinders in the 6 slots around the dock the cryo pods are placed here instead. They all create a connection to the centre of the device which essentially uploads the memories of those connected to the empty memory disks stored within. Once full these disk are accessed by the Librarians and replaced with empty disks to be filled with the experiences of the hosts once again.

4) This scenario is a reverse of number 3. Rather than 6 surrounding pods and a central device churning out physical files there is one “Cold Coffin” in the centre connected to 6 external disks. The pod in this scenario is rarely disturbed. The disks however are constantly extracted and replaced.

5) The final scenario is a combination of 1 and 2. For each dock in the wall there is one cold coffin. The coffin can be accessed but more often than not not is left untouched. There are also memory disks present with in the cabinet and these can be extracted and replace. 

I believe the final scenario is what works best. It retains the hibernation like state and also means the user is solitary. The the shared idea could work I prefer the grave like theme of one per whole rather than a mass burial.

In the scenario I have chosen the context will be that a cold coffin is placed inside the hatch. Along with it will be several memory disks. These disks are empty to begin with but over time have the memories of the host converted and transferred into them. The Librarians will then come and access these disks taking them away to feed The Mind and replacing them with empty cylinders to be filled once again.

The people in these pods will essentially be information batteries providing endless memories and thoughts for The Mind to study and learn from. The next stage for the design will be to begin looking into how to incorporate the early cryo pod designs with the hatch like wall port.

One additional thing created this week was a study into one of the shading tools in Maya.

After having spent some time working on the initial concept of the Cryo Pod and spending time researching some of Dorje Bellbrooks sketches I realised that there are ways to render out and simulate line work in a 3D render. I looked into the “Toon” shader to see if I could find a way to produce lines that could work in presenting assets and environments.

After tweaking with the settings a lot I found a a style that looked appealing. This could be something I could explore in the future when trying to render a scene or asset in a more stylised way. 

I also figured it could be used for models sheets if the asset had already been roughly modelled. The lines could be kept in tact or used as a rough guide if textures were to be overlayed. If this was the case and the model was accurate I also found out to extract just the AO information so that this could also be overlayed onto a model sheet for some added accuracy and depth. 

[gregba3b]

Week 21: “Hollow Disks”

This week started off with the iteration promised in the post before. I thought I would begin by looking again into the artist Paul Richards who I had mentioned in BA3a as one of those to look at when tackling assets.

He has a style to his thumbnails that i really like as its simple yet very appealing and lends very well to finding forms and design language quickly.

I chose the image below on the left as a loose reference for colour and line work.

I began with some pencil like line work for a looser more sketch like feel. Beneath I used the same colours using the light blue as the main fill, the dark blue as the secondary and the orange as an accent usually implying a material like glass or light.

I created 20 designs in this fashion and found that after the first half a dozen I started to get into a good groove.

I did not gather references before this and as a result the majority of the designs came out rather generic. But that’s likely to happen with a first pass especially as you’re pulling a lot of shapes from your visual library.

I wanted to stray away from Richards’ palette and style a little and took one of the designs to iterate the presentation of it a little.

I liked the final iteration combined with the first removing the secondary colour in my thumbnails keeping only the accent.

I greyed out the first few designs as they weren’t worth considering as they acted as warm ups almost. The remainder did have qualities I liked however none of them stood out to me as particularly unique.

I need to get away from the typical “pod” like design associated with cryo pods. Aesthetically I liked the look of 3, 9, 13, and 14 but there direction of 10 and 15 were also worth considering.

I created a series of iterations on each of the 4 designs I saw potential in.

As I iterated on each I tried to slowly remove more and more of the glass work and more organic shapes in the designs. As this happened the designs got colder and more brutal in their design. This direction was something I liked as they were losing the capsule like appearance and became more claustrophobic even simulating coffins or tombs in their forms.

The designs nearest to the end were certainly getting the sorta of appearance I was imagining for something that would essentially be a prison for people. The unit should not look comfortable and the glass would imply a need to look in or out. The idea that you’re placed into a metal case seems cold, and rather inhumane and perhaps no glass at all could mean the player is unaware that there are even people inside these things.

I circled the designs I found worked the best or had elements I would be interesting in exploring further. 

However one design had me consider another possible path.

I had created these thumbnails flat as to speed up the process by not having to design in perspective. However I had imagined that most of these designs would follow the rough proportions of 1x2x4. 4 long, 2 wide, and 1 deep.

But when looking at the final 3 designs in the last column I had the idea that perhaps they were cylindrical when viewed from above.

I sketched up the idea quickly to illustrate the design to colleagues. I imagined that the central disk would be removal an that the lower section could act like a port or cradle. Obviously this design takes a step away from the cryo pod and more than likely eliminates the function of having a human within due to the awkward shape. This design could be useful however if I considered the “memories” context and could perhaps be a physical encasement for raw data linked to the memories of human. Perhaps like large hard drives or disks that store the information separate from a human host.

I roughed up the idea in 3D to get a better understanding of how it might work and how it could be laid out on the walls of the labyrinth.

I kept the design simple and attached a tube like piece to it that could either act as a physical power supply or source of coolant.

I then duplicated the design and tried to figure out several ways that they could be stored that would appear both functional and visually interesting.

The first method looked at having them horizontally in columns of two. In theory the tube would eventually connecting some some larger device of significance providing power or something important to the disks.

The next idea was to have them lined up and tucked away in a filing cabinet like manner.

The disks could line up and extend as far as necessary. Perhaps there are specific conditions these disks need to be left in like food in a fridge. They would be accessed when needed and stored away in the meanwhile. There is also the possibility of interesting animations for unlocking and locking the disks away.

The last idea was potentially to have large tower like structures that could rotate and allow for the disks to be accessed.

The most plausible and visually interesting design was by far the second involving a filing like management of these memory disks.

Keen to pursue this idea I had a go at duplicating and laying out more models of it to see how it could look in mass. I took several screenshots of possible orientations and as well as compositional ideas for a scene within the labyrinth. 

I like the path I am going down. I don’t intend to scrap the cryo pod idea especially as I liked the coffin/tomb like symbolism that was occurring towards the latter half of the iterations.

I will continue to explore these “memory disk” designs going down the route of these hatch like cabinet things. I will likely investigate other design possibilities for the exterior of these things next week before looking into the internals and the disks themselves.

[gregba3b]

Week 20: “Hello Darkness...”

This week began by revisiting one of the older thumbnails to attempt a colour pass. I had until this point never attempted to colourise a grey scale thumbnail.

Using some images I began overlayering the colours onto the scene. I also messed with the foreground to try and up the scale making the figure far smaller.

Though the colours were starting to make the scene more alive the foreground was not working. After some feedback I decided it would be better to bring the foreground far closer to the camera and enlarge the figure a lot more to add a sense of height to were the viewer was. I would also need to add more depth to the painting as the floor before the building is still very flat.

I also made a more concise schedule for the weeks leading up to submission which allowed me to identify and note the tasks I had in my head but had not yet solidified.

This also helped clarify the exact deliverables I would have and what cold designs I would like to have finished by the end.

At this stage there are 2 asset designs and vehicle designs listed. On top of that is 1 character piece and 7 environment pieces. All of these will culminate in a single “Final Piece” which will likely be a keyframe of “The Body” and “The Mind” meeting.

This schedule is VERY likely to change as the weeks go on and there is a strong chance some of the less necessary sections of the project will be cut in favour of more design work and time spent on the focal points of this narrative. For now I will stick to it as best as I can.

This week’s crit however forced quite a few new ideas for the mind as well as caused me to rethink the context of a lot of my work. This occurred after my schedule was created and will likely disturb it with new design paths and ideas being presented. Below are the conclusions and thoughts:

“The Mind”

New themes have been added and old ones reinforced. The mind is not a bad guy. This must be emphasised hard despite the eerie designs intended for it. The state of “The Mind” NOW is not reflective of it’s original state or purpose. It was once hopeful, full of wonder and the passion to learn. Knowledge was all it dreamed of. It was young, and naive to man’s world. It did not know of hardship, of pain, of suffering. And it did not know the intention of its creators. The plans they had. The purpose it had. The life it would live.

“The Librarians”

The Librarians are no longer under the control of the Ai. They are now under the control of “The Mind’s” creators. They are its caretakers. The wardens of the labyrinth that surrounds it. Their roles as Librarians remains the same. The walls of the Labyrinth are still lined with the information they roam to transport to the “The Mind”.

“The Information”

The contents of that information have changed however. Originally the idea was to have these cells/banks/caches act as physical blocks of data or information. These would be transported to “The Mind” to study, digest, and learn from. However there was no specific context to them. I had simply labelled them as information. Now however the context has changed drastically taking a rather chilling turn. I spoke briefly about this Labyrinth acting almost like a physical representation of memory. With connections being made and information being transported. The concept now toys with the idea that the “information” being stored is literally memories. What better way could “The Mind” learn about life than to experience it. “The Mind” cannot do that however. And even if it could live a full life it would take a thousand years to experience a fraction of the world. But what if it didn’t need a life outside its walls and instead learns and reads from the experiences of others? What if the information being delivered to it is literally the memories and experiences of people? But how can this be accomplished? How can someone’s life be converted into a way that someone or something could read it? Time to put the thinking cap on.

“Memories” 

Perhaps in this fictional and advanced world man has been able develop a way to access a person’s brain and through a combination of biological and inorganic methods to remove or replicate the memories stored within. A tricky concept for sure and what effects would a hypothetical procedure like this have on the subject. I believe I could spend hours trying to figure out different possibilities, methods, and ways to approach this idea.  

Currently I am imagining something along the lines of an implant present in all members of this fictional society. Through the development of social technology or a government sanction people have become accustomed to the implementation of a mind connecting device. Perhaps it is mandatory for when an individual reaches a certain age to have this device surgically fused to the mind of the user. This device/implant would record their emotions, thoughts, and even accesses old memories. It would act as a port or even a gate to their mind. The purpose of the device might have been to allow two users to connect to each other on an incredibly personal level with the aid of technology. Through this they could enter each others minds, replay the memories of their conuterpart within their own mind and share their emotions. It is possible that this wasn’t a purely social development in technology but a means for a more totalitarian society to maintain order and control in the world. This device could have aided in interrogation or identifying harmful individuals before they could cause disorder.

That is a potential section of context for this device or how its origins might have come about in the general society back on earth. But as for its uses here on the moon and how it can involve “The Mind” is what I consider now:

1) A brain’s “data” cannot be replicated. It can only be read or experienced and this can only be done by a human mind. The memories of one’s mind can be read, studied, but never stored within anything but the subject’s mind. Two people can connect to each other and experience the emotions and memories of the other but only as long as they are connected to that person. 

However. This artificial mind is the first object created that isn’t a human brain able to read and interact with the memories of humanity. Not only that but it is able to store and remember these memories and most importantly of all it can do so without needing to remain connected to the mind of others. Once it has connected with someone’s mind it can retain that information indefinitely.

In this scenario “The Mind” is constantly presented with new people to connect to and subsequently new information to collect. The aim is only for it’s knowledge to grow until a body is created for it. It’s only purpose is to think, and learn.

2) In this scenario “The Mind” is able to interact with a person’s implant though unlike the first scenario “The Mind” is not able to retain the memories of those it connects with. Instead it must stay connected with those minds to access and control those emotions and memories. This scenario also sees “The Mind” not only as an answer to immortality but as a symbol of perfection. What if this version of the Ai connected to the minds and memories of others but only remained connected to the minds of those it deemed essential to creating a perfect being. Perhaps it judges the minds of those it connects to and assesses whether they could be an important addition to its own consciousness. Maybe the human creators have understood that no single mind is perfect but perhaps through combining the minds of hundreds or even thousands of different souls to this Ai they are able to filter through each mind and take only the purest pieces to add to "The Mind”. It’s possible that with the right combination of people this Ai is able to form the perfect mind. By drawing from the memories, emotions and mentality of different subjects it is able to take the strongest points from each individual and combine them in such a way to form a new artificial mind comprised only of the finest elements of the minds it is connected to. The perfect being. A God.

3) Another scenario sees a more grim turn. In scenario 1 and 2 I imagine the participants are willing donors. Perhaps people who are soon to pass away or volunteers excited to do their part in the most important effort for centuries. However this scenario has a darker tone. In this plot the entire operation is a secret and the “willing participants” are in fact abducted. People who have simply gone missing. There is even a chance that many of them are prisoners who were awaiting execution, or troublemakers who had mysteriously disappeared.

In this scenario subjects are transported from the Earth to secret facilities on the moon. There they are transferred into individual cold storage units. These units are cruder versions of the memory connection devices present on earth and keep the user in a hibernated state whilst they await interaction with “The Mind”. The process of mind connection with “The Mind” is not a quick one. Nor is it harmless. The connection of one human mind to another is a procedure that has been perfected. However this is the first case in which mind synchronisation has been successful with an artificial consciousness. And the term “successful” is used loosely. The actual transference of human memories and thoughts work near perfectly with “The Mind” as it is often able to digest the information without issue. The connection can prove problematic when stronger memories are encountered. In some cases “The Mind” has rejected the connection or has completely interrupted a synchronisation if the patient’s thoughts were overwhelming. These interruptions have almost always resulted in a complete mental shutdown in the subject leading to death. Those who have survived a connection rejection with “The Mind” are usually left in a vegetative state or have been driven to insanity.

As this procedure can take some time and thousands of people are collected there forms somewhat of a waiting line. As a result the Labyrinth surrounding the central construct that houses “The Mind” acts as a enormous storage space for the hibernation units. As these units are designed to keep their inhabitants in a cryogenic state the Labyrinth could be described as an enormous freezer.

The 3rd scenario certainly intrigues me the most. The secretive element of the project combined with the questionable methods makes the whole operation far more atmospheric. There is certainly room for evolution in this idea and it’s likely the designs will influence the development of this loose narrative.

I began by getting stuck into some 3D. I modelled up a quick cryo pod design to use as a place hold design to figure out possible layouts.

I had not yet figured out the structure of the walls so experimented with the idea that the walls were entirely built up of devices and structures relevant to the storage of these cryo pods.

One idea was that the entire wall could disappear. If the cryo pods were stored in such a way that they acted like shipping containers stacked high ready to be removed.

I twisted this concept a little and imagined a diamond-like block that could be held my large clamp like devices on either side. This block could be removed from any height due to the clamp system and as a result the many pods lining its surface.

In this concept each cryo block could hold up to 64 pods at any one time. Rather than deliver each pod individually to “The Mind” it made sense that people and their memories would be delivered in bulk.

Though this was only my first pass I was happy enough with the idea to take it further and bring the model into marmoset.

Here I took several screenshots and thought I would attempt a paint over to simulate the presentation I would use on a final design.

I found an angle that would best showcase the design and lit it best I could.

A few hours later I had painted over the focused design and had prepared two other screenshots to be painted over also.

I chose to do a simple style in order to help the readability of the design form wise.

There were many issues I encountered in this method. The line work lends itself well to polishing and presenting forms. However if there is no 3D information already laid out the line work style proves difficult. As its a very polished way of presentation it does not lend well to designing from scratch.

Often rough sketching is needed first to set out proportions and designs. I foolishly went straight into the clean linework and my design suffered as a result.

The image above shows a comparison of the 3D model before and the line work after. There are some very blank areas on the 3D model. This can be good too as the rigidity of a 3D model can often hinder the design work but with clean line work it was certainly easier to paint over the preexisting mesh. An entire panel was created from scratch and some of the designs were rather generic as a result as not much thought was put into them compared to the forms of the more detailed areas.

Though I was happy with the presentation and turnout of the linework piece in the future I would detail a model far more in 3D. At least 80%-90% of the design work should be done in 3D for this method to be viable and not overly time consuming.

Though the original pass was in colour I tweaked with the presentation a little further to see it there was a more aesthetic way of presenting the design. 

I tried a higher contrast pass with a saturated but warmer tone. A colder version with less contrast and faded exteriors to help focus on the design. And finally a fully desaturated and low contrast version with a noise filter to give the design a more crisp and understandable feel.

Overall i was pleased with the process and learned a fair bit from carrying it out. In the future I would opt for a rougher method involving textures and images if there 3D base was minimal. If I had a more detailed 3D model i could opt for this way of presenting the design and could even combine textures with the line work to inform the viewer on material and weathering etc.

I do believe I rushed into this however and though I have explored the cryo pod and the way it could be integrated into the walls of the Labyrinth I have done no real iteration on the design or the ways it can blend into the environment. 

Next week I will be sure to rectify this and do some thorough iteration on the cryo pod design and think about how they can be placed into the maze.

[gregba3b]

Week 19: “ABC”

This week I began by focusing on the design of the tape robots like machine that would roam the halls of the labyrinth. I had originally shown how the segments would work for this machine separating it into 3 moving pieces.

I crudely illustrated how the 3 engagements would work. 

The orange segments would attach to the ceiling and floor propelling the machine around the labyrinth. The green section acts as the pillar connecting to the two orange components and performing the role of a support beam for the purple section to navigate. Finally the purple section is what interacts with walls of the Labyrinth. It ascends and descends the central pillar extending out to the walls to access various areas.

I compiled another series of reference images and shapes to help inform my designs.

Keeping this functionality in mind and the references gathered I began a series of silhouettes in a similar fashion to the mind.

I created a dozen ideas using various shapes. The majority stuck to the components outlined earlier. Some explored slight variations on that. A focused breakdown continues below. 

01) A simple design with a single extending arm. The top and bottom structures are strong and would glide seamlessly.

02) Taking a slightly different approach exploring rotating disk like structures at the centre. This version chooses to act as twins separate from each other. One accessing the lower section of the walls and the other the top.

03) This design takes on a very crane like approach. One side acts as a counterweight and the other a large extending arm. This design would rotate on a central axis to access the other side. The upper and lower structures also mimic oil rig like platforms that could incorporate a lot of walkways and facilities for personnel. 

04) Involves the use of pincer like structures to access inventory from the parallel walls. Similar to 02 each section would act independently from the other.

05) This design removed the lower structure and would only be attached to the ceiling. It also explores the possibility of a pendulum like movement on a pivot point at the ceiling base. It also introduce a multitude of smaller arms to access more delicate elements on the labyrinth walls.

06) Is a more simplistic design with a central pod that would ascend and descend very quickly Extending hidden arms and platforms to reach the walls.

07) Taking a more abstract route looking at energy extracting information for around it. There is little movement and the structures above and beneath would act more like projectors.

08) I imagine this design to be far slower almost in disrepair performing its tasks with heavy and sluggish movements. Similar to the crane it would rotate to access the opposite wall.

09) The direction of this design was more sinister. It presents two large disk like objects that would rotate vertically like a wheel allowing arms on all heights of the disk to access various areas.

10) Here there would be two crane like arms rotating individually to access the walls.

11) This design features several arms able to move up and down but only to the limit another arm sets.

12) Finally the last idea is a simple one of a central platform that rotates but with arms running through it to access both sides.

I quickly filtered through the elements I liked in each and what had potential to be taken forward.

01) No

02) Potential. Rotating platforms and retracting arms interests me. 

03) Crane-like design has appeal, central beam would need iterating

04) Pincer Design appealing

05)Single attachment, pendulum movement unique, perhaps one sided

06) No

07) No

08) Asymmetry and bulky design is interesting

09) Vertical disks have potential, arms would need heavy iteration

10) No

11) No

12) No

Before moving on with any design iterations this week for the tape robots i experimented quickly into a way of building up the silhouettes to make more readable designs.

Some light shadows and highlights should hopefully have made the image a little more 3D and understandable and could be a touch I place over preferred designs to explore the silhouetted shapes more. The small addition of colour helped make them designs more interesting too without the involvement of time rendering or painting.

That was it for the design of the tape robot this week and I would continue on with that design path in the weeks to come.

Next I moved back to looking at environments and attempted some blue sky thumbnails for possible interiors of the structure housing “The Mind”.

Using the same process practised in BA3a I layered various images of movie stills over the canvas in different blends modes adding filters, noise, and distortion where possible to create interesting images to paint over.

I proceeded to build up the first 6 spending around an hour on each thumbnail. As I’m still learning a lot and spending time with trial and error the thumbnail process takes longer than I would prefer.

The first 6 turned out pretty well I think exploring various different ideas for the interior and what might be going on in the central structure.

As i was approached a few times on the method of these thumbnails I illustrated the process for colleagues and the journal. A far more detailed breakdown of the process exists through Feng Zhu’s channel where I originally witnessed this method.

The slight difference in my approach is the number of images used and the variation of distortion I apply to them.

Feng blurs the images far more as well as adds images that could be more appropriate to the scene much like a looser photo composite. However i leave most of the images relatively intact to keep some of the stronger forms I found interesting within the image. The subject matter is also more random in my process taking colours from movie stills I found appropriate.

Overall I was happy with the outcome of the method however the actual context of each piece varied a little due to this process.

Below I explain briefly the setting and what I felt worked in each thumbnail and what didn’t and how I can maybe use it to aid in the design of the interior and the mind itself.

The first thumbnail had interesting colours and appeared to act like a cityscape within the labyrinth. It made me think that this environment could be massive and even provides space for living areas for personnel working alongside “The Mind”.

The second image was perhaps my favourite of the series and had a chilling and ominous atmosphere to it. The colours made the environment feel very cold and the central structure certainly harked back to the monolithic themes I originated with. If i was to work up any of these thumbnails further it would be this one.

Playing with some more idol like themes in this one. Has the potential for a good sense of scale a good starting point for something important in the central structure.

The 4th thumbnail received some slight iteration on the central sphere. Though I like whats happening in the image it doesn’t quite have the scale I’d like and would need much more work to bring to a place I would use for my Ai design.

The 5th took an interesting turn imagining more organic forms and rocky structures within the central buildings. Perhaps the building is simply 4 large walls and a ceiling over another section of cave. I like the idea that it could be more of a quarantine zone than a building with compact hallways. Like a point of no return once you enter.

The final thumbnail of the 6 plays again with more organic themes and colours. It imagines a potential heart at the end. A tree like structure with man made components with mysterious functions.

All of these thumbnails have potential to lead me down different design paths regardless if any single one stands well enough on its own. Next week I will look further into the possibilities of “The Mind” and the larger picture for it. 

[gregba3b]

Week 18: “Shooting in the Dark”

1) Thumbnail Paintings

2) Overpaint

3) Silhouettes 04

4) Mech pieces

5) Organisation Post it nOtes

This week began with a thumbnail. I spoke about how I wanted a central building or construct of great significance within the heart of this labyrinth. It would resemble the “integrated circuits” in some way to push the circuit board aesthetic. I thought I would dive right into attempting an environment piece idea attempting to capture the scale of this structure and the surrounding pathways leading to it.

The thumbnail began simple just trying to establish the large shapes and rough overhead lighting source.

I worked it up further through the edition of photo textures, smaller detailing and a stronger foreground presence.

The scale of the piece wasn’t quite as large as I’d like but more importantly the foreground wasn’t working for me. I took the piece and made a few small adjustments to see if it helped the piece work better composition-wise.

In the end I went for a slightly tilted L-shaped comp and took the figure closer to the edge.

The thumbnail was okay if a little over worked for what it is. It helped present the idea well enough to myself but would require further detail and the addition of colour to be taken to a stage where I would present it to another.

For now I left the thumbnail concept as it was and returned to the design of the “Tape Robot” now known as “Librarians”.

I created another mood-board gathering images of objects related to tape storage and mechanical pieces that caught my interest that could be applied to future designs for the “Librarians”.

Also in this week I attempted an over paint of one of the images of the interior of a tape library.

In this piece I imagined how the colossal tape robot-esque machine could look.

I didn’t spend too much tie with the piece and felt it captured the idea well enough but overall was not a successful image. I just felt something wasn’t right and it wasn’t proving to be an interesting scene.

I messed with the composition a little in the hopes this could find a quick solution but I believe the piece was fundamentally uninteresting.

A change in colour and some distortion to make the image less flat helped but still didn’t make for a much better piece. 

I tried to re-imagine the layout of these halls in hopes of getting a different idea and though this made me curious to the possibility of information sorted on the floor and ceiling the image still wasn’t quite what i hoped for.

In the end I left the piece alone as I didn’t want to waste too much time trying to fix a piece I had already rushed into. In the future I will need to plan things better and refer back to my thumbnailing method presented in BA3a before attempting a more polished piece. 3D could also have been helpful when approaching this.

I think focusing and iterating on the individual design of the tape robot and the walls that surround is would be a good idea for next week.

[gregba3b]

Week 17: “The Drawing Board”

1) Mood Board/Design Brief

2) Silhouette 01

3) Architecture mood

4) Silhouette 02

5) Silhouette 03

6) Feedback back and tape libraries

7) Circuit boards, looking at constructed shapes

8) Labyrinth Idea, roaming corridors

9) Thumbnails and sketches beginnings

This week I wanted to begin designing the most significant piece of my project. “The Mind”. This character holds many of the themes of my project and had several pillars to its existence stated in my style guide as well as a short piece of context.

Short of my own preconceptions and what I can picture for this character this is the only piece of context/design brief I am giving myself. In the style guide I also outlined 3 key words to help define the design path for this being.

AGE:

“The Mind” is old. Very old. Though the current model has existed for 200 years its development has been a far longer endeavour. It must show it. Not decaying, but aged. If the “Mind” and “Body” were placed together it should be like placing an Iphone in the same room as a 1950’s computer.

FOREBODING

This consciousness is dangerous. Whether those working on it are aware of this is unknown. Its design should reflect its potential for harm. This thing is powered by an insane amount of energy and should have a face at the front of it all. This head would be the thin end of a very very large wedge.

IDOLATRY

This Mind has become a symbol of perfection. Perhaps almost biblical this design might even stand as a symbol of great pride or defiance. A Golden Bull or new age Tower of Babel. Perhaps some elements of it are ornate and extravagant.

The mood board I had created for it focused heavily on my original keyword “Monolithic”. The single black stone has been an object plaguing my mind as a design choice and one I will be sure to explore. I also looked at black holes, computer cases, and towering structures of idol like significance as inspiration such as the “Tower of Babel” and “The Marker” from Deadspace.

With this supporting context, keywords, and mood images as my starting point I began a series of silhouettes.

The first series looked at several different directions I could go with and involved the heavy use of primitive shapes and simple forms. Towers, floating structures, and projections were all considered but nothing at this point was particularly capturing my attention.

I outlined the areas I liked and would want to consider looking at further.

The 3D consideration, cylindrical layout, and light projection of 05 and 11 had me intrigued. 

I decided to create a second series focusing on these elements more. 

The second pass focused again on the central projection idea. 

Similar to the first pass of silhouettes I used a method of creating random shapes using the polygon lasso tool in photoshop as shown below. I would add and remove parts that weren’t working and then duplicate and flip it to create a symmetrical design as shown in 02. Finally I would take the design slightly further making it appear more functional and purposeful in its design and add the projection in the scale and location that felt best as 03 shows.

I like the direction of a lot of these designs more than the first pass but once again was not sold by any one design. I highlighted and documented the pieces that worked best and had my peers review the shapes to see what they believed worked best.

04, 06, 11, 13, 15, and 16 were certainly the most promising but none of the designs fully worked. There was something missing and I felt I was drifting from my original brief.

A lot of the shapes and forms weren’t working and I felt my knowledge of shape theory was being tested hard on this subject. As function had barely been eluded to I found that the design was playing purely on aesthetics and form and was perhaps weaker due to this broad approach.

I had also only been pulling designs from my own visual library and as a result the same forms were often appearing. I decided to return back to some real world examples and have a look at existing architecture and structures in the hopes of gaining some new ideas and inspirations.  

After a bit of research I compiled some buildings and world sights that interested me a lot.

The one that stood out to me the most was by far the “Air Force Academy Chapel”. Short of gushing I thought this building was incredibly cool. Though perhaps not directly relevant to my Ai the wall could certainly be an excellent design influence for any surface structures or fortress like compounds i design.

The other sight that caught my eye and greatly interested me was the “Pit of Hell” situated at the entrance of the “Wat Rong Khun” building in Thailand.

It features a single bridge passing over two pits filled with clay sculptures of arms reaching out to the sky. These pits are heavily symbolic and rather unnerving. If possible I would love to implement something similar to this in one of my designs.

Finally there was this Icelandic church that caught my attention.

Though simple in its form there was something rather intimidating and almost evil about a structure designed for far more tame purposes. This juxtaposition was also something I would like to explore especially in direct context with the design of the “The Mind”. 

With some architectural influence now in my head hopefully the next series of silhouettes could produce some more varied forms and find something that interests me.

Keeping the projection idea in mind once more I delved into silhouette generation. 

This series was more successful than the last two with some far stronger shapes and forms appearing. 

I really liked the forms of 03, 08, and 15 the most 

However once again there was no single idea that really captured my imagination. Fortunately there were plenty of elements that I did really like and would look back at.

But for 40+ designs to not be hitting the mark I felt i must be doing something wrong. Though there were elements I liked I didn’t feel like anything was clicking. I went back further and reread the brief I had given myself.

I had referred to a relationship between “The Body” and “The Mind” as a parallel to the scenario of an iPhone present in the same room as a 1950′s computer.

In a feedback session we looked back at the technology of the time. How large it was, how outdated, and what components it was comprised of. One thing we stumbled upon were “tape libraries”.

And suddenly an idea appeared. The image below represented exactly what i wanted.

I felt I was missing scale even though I tried to imply it in my designs. However the biggest issue was that I was attempting to create this Ai core or central point with no consideration to its relationship to its environment, or the room it may inhabit.

This tape library theme however really got the gears turning and I started to imagine many different possibilities.

I gathered a series of images of different types of tape libraries and shots of them to start and an idea for the aesthetic of the Ai really started to form.

The idea of corridor after corridor, block after block, of towers of information and data was really appealing to me. Imagine there were fields of these information blocks, row after row for miles all situated in hollowed out underground caves of the moon. And what if between these towering libraries of information roamed a single Ai.

Much like the Minotaur and the Labyrinth of Crete the idea of having a single roaming entity wandering a maze acting as both its home and prison interests me a lot.

The idea at the moment is to take the the the tape library and tape robot relationship and blow it up to a ridiculous scale. The monolith theme is returning too which excites me as a tape robot operates on a large vertical spine connected to the floor and ceiling. 

I sketched up a quick representation of the primitive idea and relationship of the Ai and it’s maze.

The idea is that this singular machine would roam this grid of data banks, accessing, replacing, and ferrying various information all around the maze. Much like a tape robot it would be a beam like structure with a single vertical sliding arm. That arm could also shift from left to right to access the walls the side of the machine.

But what if the set up wasn’t a perfect grid? What would this Labyrinth appear to resemble from a bird’s eye view.

This is when I thought back to my feedback session. We spoke about circuit boards and the micro on and off switches present in a mother board but only in the context of greebles. 

But what if the maze was much like a circuit board.

I gathered some imaged that could spark some ideas and got the mind flowing.

I thought about how I could incorporate this into the labrinth and went beyond the original grid set up to fully imagining the circuit board as an enormous 3D space.

I turned an image greyscale and began to think about a potential floor plan for and area housing this Ai.

The negative space would be the equivalent of open rooms/floor space, the grey sections would represent various structures acting as the walls of this Labyrinth like place. The majority of these raised sections would be these data walls which I imagine as the lines on the board. However a circuit board consists of many forms that aren’t simply lines capped with circles. There are large circles, squares and most interestingly a single large and powerful shape in the centre of all this technological noise.

A typical circuit board will have all sorts of components, micro pieces of technology but usually all contain one or several “integrated circuits”. This piece is shown below. 

This component screams “cool design for a structure”. It got me thinking about the possibility of a central building or complex to this Labyrinth.

I gathered some examples of these micro constructs and thought about how these could become design ideas for some central building of great importance that would resemble their design.

But it also caused me to question the roaming Ai idea. There is now more than 1 possible scenario for how I wish to approach this design.

 There is a single roaming Ai similar to the tape robot wandering a grid like maze of towering data banks. It acts almost as a librarian ensuring all of its information is cared for.

There is a circuit board style Labyrinth with a central complex of great significance. A single roaming Ai similar to the tape robot wanders the maze returning to this complex regularly for an unclear but important reason.

There is an enormous central complex of great significance at the centre of a circuit board style maze. Within this structure lives “The Mind”. It is in control of several roaming machines that navigate the hallways of the surrounding labyrinth accessing and relocating data like the memory of a brain.

There is a large structure housing “The Mind”. In the surrounding area are several machines under it’s influence. They are all connected to “The Mind” acting as fragments of its consciousness. They are the care-takers of “The Mind’s” systems. Each has its own unique section that it controls.

This is the current place I’m at and will make more decisions on the following week. I am currently leaning towards idea number 3. 1 has a nice sense of loneliness to it and 2 was the original idea. 3 however has a larger feel to it and implies a much grander operation. 4 is also interesting and works with the idea of mini bosses were this a video game however it is a common trope and one that would demand much more design work.

[gregba3b]

Week 16: “The Calm Before...”

Chronological Online Blog Link:

https://gregba3b.tumblr.com/tagged/ba3/chrono

Regular Online Blog Link:

https://gregba3b.tumblr.com/

This week saw the continuation of development work and methodology practice from BA3a. I began by selecting a thumbnail I had seen some potential in looked at how I could transform it into a large scene.

The thumbnail originally presented a ship approaching some large constructed form. But the specifics as to what was occurring in the scene hadn’t been thought out. As I intended to touch upon 3D in BA3a this seemed like a good opportunity to explore an area of my environment in Maya.

I decided to dive right in and get re-acquainted with the program. I began by imagining what this source of light was and imagined it could possibly be some sort of entrance or docking bay.

The composition of the original thumbnail was interesting however this blockout would allow me to view the scene from other angles and could lead to potentially far stronger compositions.

I imported in a block out mesh of a spaceship i had designed and used for a project in BA2. This would act as a place holder design for a ship in the scene and placed where helpful for the composition of the environment.

To fill up the scene with a little more noise I created some square panels consisting of small technological parts. These greebles could then be scaled up or down and placed over simple areas of the block out to imply further detail.

The dock piece and various structures had been created and sometimes duplicated but they needed a wall or base to be fixed upon. I designed a quick piece and extrude various beams and structures to make it appear supported and rigid.

A few more components were added and some greebling was done. All the pieces were brought together and this blockout base was almost complete.

The idea was to tie this blockout into the designs I had generated previously for stations present on asteroids and moon debris.

The idea I now have is to place this wall or strip of base and burrow it into the side of an asteroid. As if the area has been dug out and carved to allow the placement of this facility.

I felt this could also present another opportunity to try my hand at some other processes that I could adopt into my workflow. I wanted this facility to be based on the side of an asteroid and though I could apply the rock work in the over paint I wanted to experiment a little bit with ZBrush.

I quickly got reacquainted with navigating the program. I created a rough blob and began sculpting the asteroid. Fortunately a rock isn’t the toughest challenge one could sculpt so creating something that resembles an asteroid wasn’t too difficult.

I created my own alpha for a brush for the surface to simulate a more porous rock feel and add some noise to the rock.

I exported the chunk of rock into Maya and separated the the parts I wanted to form a floor before the base and created burrowed rock above.

The final block out was as above. So far I am happy with the design and enjoyed the modelling a lot. One big issue however is that it is far too over detailed.

My plan at this point was to use this as a “whitebox” and paint over it in photoshop to create a scene. The issue however is that the piece is far more detailed than a whitebox usually would be. At the same time I don’t want to properly UV and texture the model to turn it into a greybox model. It currently sits in an uncomfortable limbo.

I will continue to treat it as a white box and take it to the next stage of painting over and using the 3D mesh to aid with lighting, perspective and composition. 

A lot of the design decisions have been done through the block out and this will be helpful later though I’m worried that the rigidity of the piece will hinder me later and perhaps deter me from being looser in the painting. Time will tell.

After a feedback session I began to look at the composition of the piece and created a series of key-frames saving the camera positions.

Of the lot I presented them to some of my peers to get their opinions on what compositions they felt worked best and why.

I greyed out any comps I didn’t see too much potential in and highlighted in colour the ones selected by my peers. 

The last 15 comps were taken when i decided to experiment with rotating the model upside down. Surprisingly I felt this worked far better and was glad to see them often selected by my peers.

I saved these comps as a reminder of what worked best and thought about whether I could use the 3D model further. As the piece was more detailed than is normal for a white box I wondered if i could use that to my advantage.

I took the model into Marmoset to see if I could perhaps use the preset materials and lighting to create a nice base for painting over. Here I could hopefully light the scene roughly and lay down some texture and detail early on as well as tweak the composition.

Marmoset was fortunately not too complicated and with a little help was able to get what I needed from the program.

The ZBrush sculpt I had created had far too many tris as I foolishly thought I’d be trying to use the information from the alphas to get some noise and accurate lighting on the mesh. Fortunately in Marmoset I was able to apply a rock texture over that achieved a lot of what i hoped for. The rest of the base was given a regular lambert shader with only slight tonal differences to differentiate different structures such as the corner tower and base wall.

Referring back to my composition sheet I set up the camera to match the shots I saw the most potential in.

I messed around with lighting a little bit to accentuate some areas and draw the eye to points of interest.

This is as far as I have gotten with the scene with this week. I received feedback from peers, tutors, and even a concept artist I had contacted to help me tackle the next stage of this piece as I have had trouble with blockout paintovers in the past.

I needed to ensure I thought about the following factors when beginning the paintover.

What am I trying to design/show/tell?

Do I have a story?

What is happening there/about to happen?

If I decided the station was abandoned then i must consider the following also:

What type of station is this?

Is it research? Did something go wrong?

Why did it get abandoned?

Were there more spaceships maybe?

Next week I might begin the next stage of this piece however I also want to begin on my designs for the core of my project, “The Mind”. I will likely begin the research stage of that task and draw inspirations before I begin silhouetting.