3D Week 1 – A Great Start

Greetings!

Now at the end of the week I’ll go through what I, together with others, did on the last two 3D lessons.

I’ll try to keep it short and consolidate all the notes I took. But we’ll see how that goes!

Lesson #1

In this lesson we were given four images, either screenshots of promotional images of games, and the task to analyze them using the elements of art.

#1 The Evil Within

A game I’ve not seen or heard anything about. Which is good, as I feel that I can be more objective when looking at the image.

Your eye is instantly drawn towards the bodies hanging in the trees. They contrast really well being flat and dark against the very high key background.

The play on cold vs. dark is also very clear in this image. The man standing by some torches and holding one himself are very warm in colour compared to the rest of the image that shows a colder world. That also goes for the shapes. The lower part of the picture being more organic with round and smooth shapes, and the upper part with jagged and chaotic forms You can immediately point out the good guy and his struggle in a horrible world.

It is also interesting how the bodies are sort of mystified in a way, being very flat and still recognizable as humans you start to wonder what happened there. Everything other than the bodies are very detailed and textured.

Also when it comes to composition it is very easy for the eye to travel around in a pleasant pattern. The whole image is almost set up as a triangle with the bodies in the center. Your eyes traveling from the bodies and bright sky to the warmer human and the clear destruction.

It has a clear calmness over it, but at the same time something is off. there are many places for monsters and such to hide, so the whole image is like the calm before the storm in a way.

#2 Far Cry 3

Having played this game I knew exactly how it plays and the general feel of the game. And all that is portrayed in this screenshot.

The camera is very high up, towering over everything else, making you the master that’s in control. The very world is your playground.

One thing to note is that there are many diagonals in this image really enhancing the movement and action. And that goes for the image in itself and in terms of gameplay, much is pointing towards your point of interests. The diagonals makes it very pleasant for the eye to dance around and see everything important.

You can also clearly see who’s the bad guy in this scenario, what don’t belong. The world is very organic and bright with very saturated colours and much blue and green. While the house, car, and your glider are all very geometric, desaturated, and mostly filled with red.

#3 Middle Earth – Shadows of Mordor

A game I’m looking forward to, but have not read that much about. But I know the general gameplay of the game.

A screenshot with some action, tilted to create this action and some sort of movement.

It’s a pretty straight forward image when you first look at it. The “human” is very blue and cool, with very organic shapes, fur, cloth, and smooth leather. Compared to the orc who is very red and has more edges and sharp geometric shapes, metal, rugged leather and cloth, very filthy. But if you take a closer look at the human you can see some metal along with some sharp edges there as well, he is also being the dominant one of the two in the scene. It gives him a sort of bad ass appearance, and has you think that maybe he isn’t all that good but has his own demons.

Also worth mentioning is even more how the human is intruding, the negative space is filled with geometric shapes and much red and is associated  with the orc. It basically shows the strength of the dominant one.

#4 Watchdogs

This is a game I know about and have my opinions about, but I feel the image in itself sets a clear mood.

There’s much action going on in this one. Diagonals coming from the perspective and fire and rain creating chaos in the negative space.

The positive space, that being the main character is going against the standard and is moving towards the left. You could say it shows he is fighting against the system in a way. He is also more noticeable because of having the car he’s sitting on being red which makes him pop out more from the very desaturated background.

What is also interesting is seeing the only horizontal line being his arm and gun. It shows that he knows what he is doing and displays some sort of calm in the very chaotic image.

Lesson #2

So, during this lesson we were given the task to create a temp level. That being a very very rough draft on a level in a game.

We had four games to choose for the theme of the level, and then we had to pick a keyword from a list that we were going to use in the creation of the temp level. I chose the game Journey and the keyword fear.

Here’s my short description of the obstacle(or level):

A broken bridge that used to be leading over a steep incline. There are still pieces of the bridge suspended in air, by magic, that you have to jump across to get to the other side. Be careful so you don’t fall down!

So basically a very simple design made to be playing with people’s fear of heights.

I went with a bridge because it being horizontal I though it would nicely represent the calm that belongs to the aesthetic of Journey. And the choice to have fear of heights as the fear of my choice is just because I feel like that is a widely known fear.

How did others receive it you ask? Well, let me tell you!

Of course, seeing as everyone had the same four games to choose from, and all of them being very different from each other, everyone knew from the start that it was Journey. That part was pretty clear. They guessing the keyword tough, that did not strike clear.

The first guess I heard a lot was magic. And rightfully so, as I most definitely have pieces of the bridge suspended in the air by the very use of magic.

The second guess that was also big one, was danger. And yet again, of course it is dangerous with a broken bridge and a jumping puzzle!

By the third guess people usually got it.

I seem to have been a bit too focused on the fear of heights in this temp level than the actual “going-ons” that are there, such as the danger and magic of it all. Something to think about in the future. Also the game Journey, being so high key and calm as it is might not be the best candidate for the keyword fear.

All in all both lessons were very enjoyable and I think I learned a lot in a such a short time. I now know more clearly what I need to think about when creating my own pieces of art, so time to practice on that.

Hope you’ve had a nice weekend and good bye!

–I love lamp