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A Game for Creator

Does anyone still remember Little Big Planet, that game where you can create levels and mini-games and share with the rest of the world? I love that game. So you might have also heard about the new game created by their studio Media Molecule, called Dream. I wondered if people have forgotten about it, it has been a while since it was announced. Recently they showed off the game capability with the newest streamed twitch video demonstrating my favorite genre a Dark Souls styles gothic medieval dark fantasy level creation. This video really showed how far the game has gone, it’s literally a game where you can create your own game! It has really gotten me excited are you excited for this game too?

Check out their Livestream video here.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/289478196

And here’s their article on it.

https://www.mediamolecule.com/blog/article/gothic_novel_game_jam_stream

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Storytelling and Atmosphere in 3D

In my last semester of classes, I created two Low poly 3D models projects. As a fan many fantasy things related I decided to create a Witch Lab. I thought of Dragon Dogma and Berserk while making this. I wanted to convey a lived in feels by having objects scattered around, making things look a little messy and disorganized. Trying to make it feel like someone was conducting an experimental spell ritual but just got off and left.

Here’s an image and check out the 3D view as well!

In the second project, I considered making another fantasy setting but decided against it. I wanted to really make something that really contained an atmosphere. Couldn’t think of anything I went and took a walk outside at night and got the idea. I was reminded of a certain game called Fatal Frame II aka Project Zero that I played a while back and the whole atmosphere made me felt like I really didn’t want to be there. So I thought it would be an interesting and great challenge to try and create a horror atmosphere, the kind that conveys fear just being there. Inspired by the game I created a Japanese Doll Room because I find Dolls to be scary.

Here’s a bit of process.

Does it make you feel anything? Let me your thoughts!

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A Studio Anywhere

For anyone who wonders what tablet I use.

The first time I’ve discovered digital art was in my freshman year of high school, back when I began to start taking art seriously. I bought a simple drawing tablet from an unknown brand I found for cheap online. I liked taking my tools with me so that I could draw anywhere but lugging around a giant laptop and a tablet isn’t always convenient to use, there are too many wires, and it takes up so much space! I upgraded to a drawing tablet with a screen monitor and that has its own set of problems being too large and of low quality. The hassle was too great to ignore. As a digital artist, I’ve found it difficult to commute anywhere with such heavy baggage.

Here’s me working on my old giant laptop and drawing tablet during a 24-hour comic challenge. What a burden it was to carry around from home to school.

I realized that I needed to invest in quality. It was only recently when both my laptop and tablet began to fail that I made the decision. I chose the #1 leading brand used by the professional in the industry, 

I bought one of their latest product known as the MobileStudio Pro 13 HD at the price of around $1,999. I was not disappointed. It’s everything it needed to be for me, a perfectly portable size product that’s both a computer and a drawing tablet in one. Now I can take it with me anywhere on the go. I can work on my drawing, sketching, painting, 3D modeling, video editing, and I could even play games on it anywhere without the hassle of portation.

Great for minimalist whose prefers less. I would recommend it to anyone with the budget, it has definitely helped me a lot in my digital art endeavor to work anywhere outside of home. As the name would suggest it’s a whole studio you can take anywhere.

If interested you can shop for the MobileStudio at:

https://www.wacom.com/en/products/pen-computers/wacom-mobilestudio-pro

Or take a look at their other products:

https://www.wacom.com/en-us

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Make Small Captions that Inspire an Images

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A Look at my Character Concepts

Here are some Character concept designs from my Dark Fantasy webcomic project. Each of these characters plays a major role in the development of the story.

I wanted each individual to have their own characteristic and personality making them easily recognizable. More to come...

You can also follow me on these site for more update.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patvit.art/

DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/patvit

Website: https://patvit.com/

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Hidetaka Miyazaki Interview on Sekiro: Shadow Die Twice.

As a Soulsborne series fan, I am interested in the upcoming new FROM SOFTWARE title, Sekiro: Shadow Die Twice. So I found this recent interview I wanted to share. Interviewing Hidetaka Miyazaki, the director of Dark Souls series and Bloodborne now president of FROM SOFTWARE, Inc.

He talks and answered some questions about the upcoming new IP title. The most notable topic was about the theme of death seen in most FROM SOFTWARE’s games and the mechanic that plays a role in the overall game design. If you’ve ever played any of the SoulsBorne series you’ll be familiar with the challenging yet rewarding gameplay the series offer and the checkpoint and respawn mechanic for each time you die. Unlike those games, however, Sekiro will be completely different, with the new integration of the Resurrection mechanic which allow the player to get back up from the spot that they died. But don’t think that this will make the game easier. Miyazaki stated, 

“Just because you have this resurrection mechanic, it doesn’t mean the player won’t be afraid of death.” - Miyazaki

He made it clear that the purpose of adding this mechanic was to push the edge of risky combat in the game. Unlike the Knight who has a shield in Souls series, you play as a Ninja in Seikiro, and a ninja can not take a lot of hits. So there’ll be a lot of movement and trick involved making the game feel much faster. Miyazaki mentioned that there’ll be more verticality in the stage, which is a major difference from the previous title.

“There were two things we really liked about using a ninja, in terms of game design. We’ve always designed stages with verticality in mind, we consider it one of our strengths. What really appealed to us was being able to explore that dynamically — not relying on ladders and other ways to move around these stages, but being able to just boom, I’m there.” - Miyazaki

Another topic that was mentioned was a different way that the story will be told. In the previous games, the player becomes a no-name protagonist whose involvement in the world is insignificant. In Sekiro, however, the main protagonist will play an important role in the story. Similarly to previous games, you can still learn about the lore through exploring places and items description, as explained by Hidetaka.

“In Sekiro, the story is actually centered around the main character. He’s a character in the story, who exists in this world. Previously we had nameless characters who weren’t as involved. Thanks to making the main character part of the story, the beginning of the game is probably easier to understand than our previous games.” - Miyazaki

Although because of this new path they’re taking I have to wonder whether if they’ll still allow you to create your own character in the game, it’s one aspect I love about FROM SOFTWARE’s game and if it was missing that would disappoint me. It has already been stated that this won’t be an Action-RPG game but rather an Action-Adventure game.

Are you excited for this game a much as I am?

To read the full interview and gain some more insight check it out on PlayStation's Blog:

https://blog.us.playstation.com/2018/07/13/interview-miyazaki-on-the-limbs-and-lore-of-sekiro-shadows-die-twice/

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Azazel Speed Painting Process

It took forever but I’ve finally learned how to create and upload my first ever Speed Painting video! Enjoy!

This is one of the original characters that I’ve designed in the past back during Inktober of last year. I named him Azazel The Devil Mercenary. Here’s the Concept Art piece of him.

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Story before Design

Have you ever played one of those game where every character look like a supermodel with no flaws at all? They’re so beautiful yet so bland and lacking in any characteristic that would make them stand out, making them easily forgettable. Why is that? What are they missing? I had discussions with my instructor at my University, their reply was that before you start designing, you need to have a story. It makes sense; when writing a fictional story you need to make a character reference sheet, the better you understand about a character the more natural and easy it is to write about them. I noticed that it’s the same thing with designing characters, creatures, and even worlds. The more you know what it is you’re trying to design the more storytelling element you can add, making them stand out and unique. Using the same rule of show don’t tell in a narrative; show the viewer who they are by their fashion sense, show their life event through the damage and scars they sustained; are they missing limbs which were replaced by a mechanical arm or is it a demonic arm? These two tells a completely different story. By having a story set up you avoid the trap of cliche and default looks that many artists fall into.

For an example of a good visual cue, let's take a look at Ellie from the upcoming highly anticipated title “The Last of Us Part II” by Naughty Dog. This cinematic game is heavily reliant on the story. Although this game has a realistic visual aesthetic you can notice in the design what kind of character she has become. Ellie’s the little girl from the first game is now grown up; she’s not a typical girl but now looking more tomboyish based on her rough clothes; a scar on her eyebrow and a tattoo on her arm make you wonder what it means.

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Taking this mindset into consideration for my own Concept Art I tried to consider what element to features to include in my own design.

For my protagonist Grey, I tried to think up of a tragic character whose life had been made up of misfortune in a Dark Fantasy setting. He was burned alive and scared as a child due to a group of Bandit that pillaged his village. Afterward, with the newfound power that he received from his savior/mentor, he was recruited into a group of assassins for the Kingdom and deceived into becoming a tool to for an unjust war.

To hide his scar I thought about having him wear a mask but in the end, it just didn’t work out, so I just left him with a cloth wrapped around his whole body and face, leaving only one eye open.

I tried to keep the helmet simple and Iconic. The helmet was designed to have only one eye hole because his other eye is gone. A slash mark to tell a story of the battle he has fought.

His armor is focused on functionality and maneuvering, also having darker value because he’s both a Dark Knight and an assassin in the story.

His Great Longsword is named Vanus which mean Hollow, it’s a reflection of what he has become as a person.

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If you would like to follow me and see more of my other work you could check out my Instagram page as well at https://www.instagram.com/patvit.art/

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My List of Anticipated Single-Player Games from E3 2018

Back in 2016, I went to the GDC (Game Developer Convention) in San Francisco as a student with my group of friend. In the event, there was a booth set up for a portfolio review by a member from Riots Game. So I received some advice and suggestion from him. Wanting to become a video game concept artist he gave me an advice saying what most industries are looking for are a design that could fit in with the current trending games. It’ll show that you have the ability to design something that could work in a pre-existing game. So what kind of games are trending lately? What sub-genre? Here are some of my own personal list of single-player based games I’m looking forward to and thought to be worth checking out. These are some recently announced games at the E3 Press-conference back in June 2018.

CyberPunk:

The genre of cyberpunk is gaining recognition due to the huge anticipation of Cyberpunk 2077 being developed by CD Projekt Red. It’s a unique subgenre with tons of possibility for creative design to take place.

(Photo Credit: CD Projekt Red’s Cyber Punk 2077)

Post Apocalyptic:

The Post-apocalyptic genre has been one of the most popular genres seen in a lot of game. Mostly zombie survival games. In term of the design of some games, it’s a great field for a mix of old world or everyday tech with futuristic gears.

: Fallout Series, Rage 2, The Last of Us Part 2, and Metro Exodus

(Photo Credit: Avalanche Studios and id Software’s Rage 2)

Traditional Japanese:

I’ve noticed there seem to be a rise in Games taking places in traditional Japanese era. The Japanese cultures are rich in their traditional art and myths making it a large resource for a designer to be creative.

: SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE, Ghost of Tsushima, and Nioh 2

(Photo Credit: Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima)

Unusual Sci-Fi World:

I say unusual because these games are unlike any sci-fi game I’ve ever seen, it shows a unique take on the sci-fi genre. It’s worth looking into, in the future we may not know what’s possible, and that’s why the sci-fi genre should be one of the most limitless designing fields.

: Death Stranding, and Beyond Good and Evil 2

(Photo Credit: Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding)

All of these games are worth studying about, their concept design tells a unique story, and has functionality like in reality. It shows what the AAA game industry-leading developer is thinking. To be a successful artist in the gaming industry staying up to date on some recent popular games could help to inspire you to come up with new ideas you may not have thought of. But still, remember to do what you like most. 

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The Power of Composition in Visual Storytelling

Most often then not, you will hear many professional artists in the industry highlighting the importance of the fundamental. Things like style will develop on their own as you progress as an Artist. So in this post, I will be highlighting one of those fundamental, compositions.

A composition is one of the deepest fundamental knowledge in Art to study. It’s something you’ll constantly be studying throughout your career if you aim to be a successful artist. In definition, Composition is an arrangement of Visual Element in a piece of Art. It’s one of the most studied concepts, that can be explained by science.

I don’t claim to be an expert as I’m still a still a student who’s still studying in this field. In my study, I have discovered the understanding and usage of a composition to be a strong tool in evoking a sense of emotion in the viewer and that makes it a great narrative device.

You might have heard of the Golden Ratio and the Rule of Third often being associated with making a successful composition. But Here are some of the others essential element that makes up a composition.

1. Lines

2. Balance

3. Values/Light

4. Shapes

5. Colors

6. Atmospheric Perspective

Each of these has an element that affects our psyche when we see it visually. Psychology plays a big impact, the things we see and associate with our surrounding evoke a certain emotion in us. For examples, when we see a sharp pointy shape we associate it with evil and danger, like something that could stab us. In contrast, a circle is often depicted with friendliness and happiness because the shapes is less threatening with an absolute curve. However, under a different context, something like a circle can be used to signify as something all mighty and omnipotent if you know how to use it, maybe imagine a giant humongous red eyeball staring down at you. That would feel quite uncomfortable.

A good way to test out the composition is to create thumbnails sketches, it’s meant to be a problem-solving solution, not something beautiful. With the thumbnails, you can experiment roughly using little effort to sketch it out before deciding on a good composition and creating a final piece. There’ll be some failure and some success but that’s the whole point of experimenting.

Below are some few examples of my own practices:

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Concept and Development. What make a good Visual Storytelling?

Welcome to my first actual blog where I’ll be focusing on the topic of visual storytelling in my own process and development. A story can be told in more ways than just through writing. There’re some people who hate reading but enjoy watching, which makes visual media a more preferred entertainment platform. Visual Storytelling is a narrative conveyed through the primary use of Visual Media. I’m a student majoring in Game Development focusing on Concept Art; throughout my education, I learned that there’re many fundamental and creative thinking involves in order to create a successful and impactful design. Art really isn’t easy to master since there’s numerous knowledge to gain, it’s really a lifetime endeavor. I feel that an artwork that can tell a story really standout from the rest, due to it having some meaning. Ever heard of the term “A picture is worth a thousand words?” Sometimes words are just not enough to describe something. And sometimes a story can even change a person’s life. It’s really a necessary skill to have in the Art and Entertainment Industry nowadays.

So in this blog, I will explore the topic of strong Visual Storytelling and apply it to my own work. Here I will be posting some of my own personal work, concept design, and oh... I’m also working on creating my own webcomic too! I will use this exploration to develop and progress my own project. It’s gonna be a Dark Fantasy tale, quite an ambitious one too, look forward to it!

The project still doesn’t have a name but early story outline and concept has been made.