3D Computer Graphics I: Week 2

This week we worked with different visual styles and tried to make our own props while following one of these styles. I have chosen to look at the Cartoon, Sci-Fi and Post-Apocalyptic styles.

Cartoon

Cartoon style games are mainly focusing on portraying a simplified caricatured version of reality. The visual style of cartoony games is dominated by basic, slightly irregular shapes and vibrant colors. These games are also for the most part high key which feels natural due to all the colors. Many games that follow this style have very simple textures with little detail. Examples of cartoon style games are The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Psychonauts.

Both these games have highly stylized graphics of this theme. One can see the basic but yet irregular shapes in everything like furnishing, tools and foliage. They represent reality as simplistically as possible and add tweaks to give it personality, much like cartoon drawings.

This crate is meant to fit into a game with cartoon style graphics. Since caricature is key in the cartoon style, I made the proportions of the crate a bit more extreme than of a crate in real life. It’s a very simple model, but I think it captures the style correctly.

Sci-Fi

The style of Sci-Fi games is defined by geometric and streamlined constructions with an absence of organic elements such as plants. Everything is made out of hard and smooth materials, mostly metal. In comparison to the cartoon style, sci-fi usually stays true to realism as much as it can in proportions, shapes and render.  A lot of sci-fi is low key and contains a lot of grey tone props to let lighting set the mood. Examples of games that follow this style is Blade Runner and Halo.

Now, Blade Runner is a bit special since it takes place in a city with old buildings much true to reality, with added elements of sci-fi on top. This creates a believable version of what the future could be like and makes the sci-fi objects pop out exceptionally well due to the contrast. Halo is not meant to take place in the real world the same way so it’s full blown sci-fi on both environment and objects. There are smooth, geometric shapes everywhere made out of neutral colors. The sterile, machine made environment makes way to let important elements such as enemies pop out with a splash of color.

This is my take of a sci-fi container. It has a lot of repeated straight lines and angles to make it feel produced by a machine. The horizontal lines make it feel strong and sturdy. It also has an extra part on the top for a panel of buttons and a display screen.

Post-Apocalypse 

The post-apocalyptic style has become popular during the recent years both in the movie- and game industries. These take place in the ordinary world which has seen trauma of some sort and developed into a wasteland environment. Visually, this style consists of highly irregular and organic shapes as if the objects have been stitched together by hand out of old scrap parts. Lines break off and go into different directions constantly and there are a lot of diagonal lines. But what defines this style the most is texture. Rust, stains and dirt cover everything to get a grimy, worn down look. Many objects can look fully realistic and normal in shape, but get their post-apocalyptic personality through texture.  Two good examples of this style is the Fallout series and Enslaved.

These two games are all about irregularly shaped objects that have been reconstructed from old scrap parts. The models have very detailed textures to indicate what the parts could have been in the past as well as covered them with appropriate aging and destruction such as rust, scrap marks and dirt.

What I did here was to make a toy box from reality and then make it look broken for a Post-Apocalyptic setting. The broken lines quickly tell the viewer that something is wrong. It has a simple, non-intricate design with rounded feet and without a latch for the toy box look. I believe that the twisted hinges are the key component of this model for the viewer to understand that the box has been damaged. The next step would be to give it dirty, worn down textures.

Summary

This has been a quite long exercise for me in comparison to most of the class, since I struggled a lot in the beginning. My inexperience with 3D-modeling took my attention away from the creative process, but as I continued learning different tools to use I could focus more on the elements of art. Thanks to paying attention to the elements of art and different visual styles, I realize how much theory and conscious planning there is behind a games graphics. A game with a good visual style has all its components follow the elements of art in the same way in order to create a believable and beautiful world.