Module 1 (Semester B) – Page 4

February 10, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Workshop 4 – Playing with Grids

During the workshop this week there was the optional task of experimenting with grids and becoming more familiar with Indesign.
Even though most of the skills I know already it was still nice to experiment and try new things.

I feel as though trying experimental layout design and becoming familiar with grids is a great skill to learn regardless of the assignment task. It allows for more informed design choices and can generally compliment whatever work you’re doing. An example is if strong illustration’s are placed poorly within a final document it can just have an overall impact on how good the illustrations look.

A link to the Pdf file is below:

grid layout

February 6, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Character Research – What makes a protagonist?

An import element in my game will be the protagonist, players of the game will have to feel some kind of emotion towards the protagonist, whether it’s positive or negative. A game with a blank protagonist tends to be less immersive, and users take less away from an experience like this, the aim of my game is a narrative driven adventure with free roam and open world possibilities, I feel as though defining a protagonist is an important part in shaping my vision for the game.

Two different approaches to protagonists are The Last of Us as opposed to Skyrim. One experience wants you to feel invested in a character and their own story, where-as the other wants you to craft your own story. Understanding this difference is vital in crafting an engaging believable narrative. Whilst it’s important to note that a believable protagonist is the drive for many narrative games, it’s worth mentioning that games which allow the user to shape their own experience are extremely popular also, some users prefer the open world and free reign over the character and what they choose to do. where-as other players prefer linear narratives.

Joel – The Last of Us

The last of us is highly regarding as one of the best narrative driven games of all times, selling over 3.4 million copies in a little over 3 weeks. The Last of Us is highly regarded for a few reasons, on the PS3 it pushed the boundaries that were possible for both a technological standpoint and a feat of storytelling unlike any other video game prior. The last of us makes use of motion capture technology to create the character models and most elements of the game. Before the game reaches this stage of development though conceptual art for the characters and setting is required. The directors Neil Druckmann and Bruce Strayley knew from the start how they wanted their protagonist to look, but like most aspects regarding design everything has more than 1 iteration, more so for characters and the development of a theme.

The character here had numerous changes before the directors settled on a final look for him, and even the finalised look for Joel is slightly different from his in game appearance, the only thing which stayed relatively true throughout was a consistent colour palette and similar facial features.
Breaking down elements used for character creation in industry is a great way for me to learn and adapt my own skills towards creating a character for my own game, so I feel as though this research is beneficial.

Unnamed Protagonist – Skyrim

In Skyrim the protagonist to the story is nameless and can vary with any given race or gender, and whilst the game is narrative heavy if you choose to follow the story, the aim of the game is freedom. Player choice is centric in free roam games which don’t direct you down any linear pathway and so the developers allow you to craft your own characters to make your experience immersive and how you want it. The difference between The Last of Us and Skyrim is significant, one game wants to tell you a story, where-as the other wants you to craft your own story and memories, defining the genre is a vital part in game creation, understanding what you want users to experience and feel is an important aspect to consider.

Skyrim is set in the fantasy world of Nirn, Skyrim itself takes place in a large continent knows as Tamriel. The setting for Skyrim is fantasy heavy, with a lot of nature: moutains, rivers, etc. The art direction for the game focused heavily on this and so it was used as the basis for character design.

Understanding the theme’s that the game is exploring allows artists to work with an idea as opposed to a blank canvas. Narrowing down the specific genre is important to allow informed decisions which can evolve into final artwork, as opposed to constant iteration which have no belonging within the game world being created. Before starting any character art and development I feel as though further developing my ideas on landscapes and the overall aesthetics of the game and genre will make character development easier and more informed for my game.

Bibliography –

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_Us#Sales

February 3, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Workshop 3 – Further Logo Development

During my third workshop I decided to further explore logo variations, I tried to apply previous versions to some documentations and the shape and size of the logo wasn’t compatible with some of the output formats.

The element I decided to keep from my first logo was the typography, I felt as though this captured the feeling of the company I was going for, it felt rough and cartoony, similar to the proposed IP I would be creating. The new element to this logo was a vector created of a fire, I took inspiration from a camp-fire safety website, the symbol looked fun and something I could use an iteration of in my own work. After playing around with it though it felt too out of place and I personally didn’t like it.

I decided rather than keeping the features of the flame I would try removing them and play with the idea of typography around it. The new logo is a potential design out of more that I’ll make which I feel could be used or at least altered to be a final logo for my company. The next step I’ll take with my logo will be taking features from my first logo and trying to integrate them further with my new logo.

The inspiration for my fire sprite came from the website:

Fire

February 3, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Typography for Entropia

Creating the initial brand and name for my company I took it upon myself to research typography and the importance of said type, this was vital in being able to create a concise brand with high attention to detail by seeing how it’s done in industry. The same thing applies to creating a game and any other medium which requires Type to convey a message, which is why I’m further researching typography which can be applicable to Entropia my proposed IP for Campfire Studios.

I decided to look at free fonts relating to the theme’s my game will deal with. Entropia as mentioned before will be focused around a sole survivor of an unspecified pandemic whereby the world is in a post-apocalyptic state, the games theme’s will highlight the beauty of nature reclaiming what was once dominated by people along with various other elements. The focus however will mainly be nature reclaiming the world, using this knowledge I decided to look for natural/nature fonts.

I used the website http://www.fontspace.com and just searched the key term, Nature Fonts. I found 4 good examples which all have strengths of their own, I aim to evaluate them and decide on at least 2 to try and apply them to work on my game poster.

The 4 fonts I picked all have different qualities to them which I like, the first font Instinto is very reminiscent to me of the font used in the game The Last of Us. It’s clear, concise and bold, it feels like a stamp marking the authority of the game without the need to look fancy or try too hard, it’s also easily legible on any background which is a huge benefit without the need to take too much extra consideration on the overall look of the poster.

The 2nd font in the list is Ashes-Ashes, it has a rough look to it which is somewhat burnt out, it could be thematically appropriate for the game and some of the themes within it which is why I chose it. The negatives to a font like this are that it’d have to fit with the poster of the game, the visual themes within the poster will have to reflect why I chose this font meaning extra consideration will have to be given towards my concept art and sketches for the game.

The 3rd font is called Rustic, overall I prefer the look and feel of this font to the others. The font is made to look similar to foliage and flowers but it’s still concise and gets the message across. The font will also look good with the idea I had for the poster where a person is emerging from a crumbling city where plants and tress are growing in the city. This font is the most likely contender to be used as my final choice, but without a comparison I’m still undecided.

The final font is called Logs, it uses a similar theme to Rustic however it looks far too cartoony and out of place for its application, I chose it at first for some variation in typography, but in comparison to the others it looks the most out of place.

The next step to take with the typography is to apply it to some concept art and see whether it flows as an overall piece or whether it looks jarring. If any of the fonts works then I wont have the need to do further research, however if not I’ll look at further examples which may be more applicable.

Bibliography:-

http://www.fontspace.com/lj-design-studios/instinto

http://www.fontspace.com/icedragon/ashes-ashes

http://www.fontspace.com/intellecta-design/rustic

http://www.fontspace.com/character/sketch-logs

February 1, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Importance of Typography in branding

The most noticeable feature of these logos is that neither heavily rely on the imagery rather they put focus on the typographic design itself. This is possibly due to the fact that lesser know indie companies need to make their name known hence the image isn’t centralised as much as the actual typography used to represent the brand. Another important aspect to acknowledge is the usage of basic block colours and why this is an essential part in company branding. The general idea behind keeping a logo simplistic has a multitude of reasons, these tend to be: Clarity of message, Applicability across different forms of media, Expense and how Explicable it is. Understanding these key components allows for a brand to be created and represented in a quick, memorable manner.

Taking this research into account I will make further amendments to my logo’s and experiment with different ideas focusing around typography and how centric it is as a part of indie branding.