I hope to use this technique extensively in my designs to obtain believable, sinister designs for my characters in the game. I personally find this a highly enjoyable part of the process and it is all beneficial to my fin outcomes in FMPA2.
Video – Concept Silhouettes
As I mentioned in a previous post, silhouettes are highly used when concepting a character design. It is common to produce an array of silhouettes until you find one that suits the mood and style of your character. They don’t require a lot of work either which is a great advantage, since here is no fine detail. As the next few videos display the use of this technique, sometimes you can simply ‘blob’ down colour in a basic shape, or weld geometric shapes together like that in Team Fortress.
I hope to use this technique extensively in my designs to obtain believable, sinister designs for my characters in the game. I personally find this a highly enjoyable part of the process and it is all beneficial to my fin outcomes in FMPA2.
I hope to use this technique extensively in my designs to obtain believable, sinister designs for my characters in the game. I personally find this a highly enjoyable part of the process and it is all beneficial to my fin outcomes in FMPA2.
Video - Team fortress lines
After doing a little searching i managed to find a video of some game play as an example of my previous post.
This first video shows what the game looks like in normal colour.
This second video shows game play using only outlines, you can see how the designs are still recognisable easily without the need for colour and texture colour (apart from red and blue teams).
This first video shows what the game looks like in normal colour.
This second video shows game play using only outlines, you can see how the designs are still recognisable easily without the need for colour and texture colour (apart from red and blue teams).
The importance of silhouette
Recently I read up on some interesting points with regard to character design that I feel can link in with this project. The main focus of the area is the importance of Silhouettes in character development. One of the games that I play in my spare time is a first person shooting game called Team Fortress 2, created by Valve software. Renowned for its unique are style and character, I stumbled across some of the developers comments on the creation of characters in this game.
You may find the full original text here
“Stylization with a Purpose: The Illustrative World of Team Fortress 2.”
http://www.primotechnology.com/2008/02/25/gdc-08-the-illustrative-world-of-team-fortress-2/
Although it was a long talk, my area of focus was drawn to the section on Silhouettes. The team worked on this a lot within their game as a distinguishing feature between different classes and characters. They found that after colour, how can a player quickly analyse another and see what they are class they are playing as.
“On the most basic level, the artists design silhouettes that are easily recognizable. Mitchell showed only the black outlined forms of all nine characters and everyone in the room could easily determine who was who based solely on that.”
When we look at an image on the most basic level, excluding all colour and texture what we are left with is and outline of shape or combined shapes. The shape is the backbone to any character design and during the creating stages you will find that most artists indeed start by working out a suitable silhouette.
Here is a lists of processes that there team followed to create each character
If a character is recognisable by its silhouette it has a huge advantage, at long distance where detail isn’t always clear the character is still readable and this was an important part of Team Fortress’s play style. A good example is a quote I found on a second text.
Team Fortress 2 - Visual Design, Comic Game Action, with a purpose.
http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4338&page=1
“We found that silhouette and animation were better long-range identification characteristics than texture detail or colour.”
How this relates to my work is that identification of enemies within a limited lighting environment like the bunker, sometimes all you will have are silhouettes in the distance or shadows on the wall. This is a very important factor in the style I want to have in the game, so working on silhouettes is one of my highest priorities. Although some might consider the character design in Team Fortress cartoonish, the same principles apply and here is no reason why I can do the same with more realistic, less exaggerated designs.
You may find the full original text here
“Stylization with a Purpose: The Illustrative World of Team Fortress 2.”
http://www.primotechnology.com/2008/02/25/gdc-08-the-illustrative-world-of-team-fortress-2/
Although it was a long talk, my area of focus was drawn to the section on Silhouettes. The team worked on this a lot within their game as a distinguishing feature between different classes and characters. They found that after colour, how can a player quickly analyse another and see what they are class they are playing as.
“On the most basic level, the artists design silhouettes that are easily recognizable. Mitchell showed only the black outlined forms of all nine characters and everyone in the room could easily determine who was who based solely on that.”
When we look at an image on the most basic level, excluding all colour and texture what we are left with is and outline of shape or combined shapes. The shape is the backbone to any character design and during the creating stages you will find that most artists indeed start by working out a suitable silhouette.
Here is a lists of processes that there team followed to create each character
If a character is recognisable by its silhouette it has a huge advantage, at long distance where detail isn’t always clear the character is still readable and this was an important part of Team Fortress’s play style. A good example is a quote I found on a second text.
Team Fortress 2 - Visual Design, Comic Game Action, with a purpose.
http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4338&page=1
“We found that silhouette and animation were better long-range identification characteristics than texture detail or colour.”
How this relates to my work is that identification of enemies within a limited lighting environment like the bunker, sometimes all you will have are silhouettes in the distance or shadows on the wall. This is a very important factor in the style I want to have in the game, so working on silhouettes is one of my highest priorities. Although some might consider the character design in Team Fortress cartoonish, the same principles apply and here is no reason why I can do the same with more realistic, less exaggerated designs.
Video - Waffen-SS
Furthering my study of the Waffen-SS Regiment.
Some chilling material, but it is necessary for me to understand what I am doing with my work. When working with sensitive topics I believe it should still necessary to preach respect to the underlying issue. And also to help develop the characters I need to understand how they would have functioned if for instance it where real, to make it believable. From this I can now learn that at the very end of the war in Germany, the pocket of resistance mainly consisted of SS troops, the personal guard. Therefore meaning there would be a higher chance that they will be most numerous within my game, or at least certainly a character you won’t be far from.
Some chilling material, but it is necessary for me to understand what I am doing with my work. When working with sensitive topics I believe it should still necessary to preach respect to the underlying issue. And also to help develop the characters I need to understand how they would have functioned if for instance it where real, to make it believable. From this I can now learn that at the very end of the war in Germany, the pocket of resistance mainly consisted of SS troops, the personal guard. Therefore meaning there would be a higher chance that they will be most numerous within my game, or at least certainly a character you won’t be far from.
Video – German Military Uniforms 1935 to 1945
This video I found to be quite interesting because it gives a good close up look at representation of colour and texture of the various materials. The gentleman’s face I found somewhat disturbing after a while but other than that a very good video.
Book - Waffen SS-Soldier
This week I picked up a copy of Waffen SS-Soldier by Bruce Quarrie, covering this unit between 1940 – 45. Initially I just grabbed he book because of its aesthetical benefits but on taking a read I discovered that it is actually very informative.
The book goes in to relatively fine detail about the uniforms that these soldiers would have war, ranging through the ranks within the unit. Opening with a section of appearance it is goes even down the point of telling me what materials some of the clothing would have been composed of and how it would have reacted to certain conditions. For instance, trousers being made from a wool and rayon mixture result in an extremely hard wearing material, and that the standard edition German helmet was known as the M35. Information that sometimes wouldn’t be necessary but is defiantly handy to know when doing research.
Learning that Smartness took as much of a priority as practicality, you can tell that (most) of these men were proud to wear there well maintained uniforms. Individual tailoring on some of the higher ranked men wouldn’t be uncommon, specific cutting of the material and other individual markings. This is something I find highlight interesting and will be taken into consideration when moving to FMPA2, this could possibly add uniqueness to my game. Since it’s not going to be an all out gun blazing play style the player would indeed get the chance to observe uniform, and possibly use it too. So little details like this would be something an agent might consider when attempting and infiltration.
The next beneficial in the book was the illustrated drawings of field tools, things hat the soldiers would be carrying around. Again this sort of information can all be taken into consideration when developing my characters in FMPA2, creating believable unique designs.
I experienced one of my turning points when looking at this book, the character you get from the photography is marvellous. So many ideas spring to mind with regard to dress, posture and character. It’s strange because I somewhat feel bad for saying it but there is an element of style in this dress code, defiantly continuity and something unique.
I wish to further my research into photography from now on into this, along with illustration. I like the idea of capturing mood and emotion within an image. In essence I want to contain this inside my final work in FMPA2 work.
The book goes in to relatively fine detail about the uniforms that these soldiers would have war, ranging through the ranks within the unit. Opening with a section of appearance it is goes even down the point of telling me what materials some of the clothing would have been composed of and how it would have reacted to certain conditions. For instance, trousers being made from a wool and rayon mixture result in an extremely hard wearing material, and that the standard edition German helmet was known as the M35. Information that sometimes wouldn’t be necessary but is defiantly handy to know when doing research.
Learning that Smartness took as much of a priority as practicality, you can tell that (most) of these men were proud to wear there well maintained uniforms. Individual tailoring on some of the higher ranked men wouldn’t be uncommon, specific cutting of the material and other individual markings. This is something I find highlight interesting and will be taken into consideration when moving to FMPA2, this could possibly add uniqueness to my game. Since it’s not going to be an all out gun blazing play style the player would indeed get the chance to observe uniform, and possibly use it too. So little details like this would be something an agent might consider when attempting and infiltration.
The next beneficial in the book was the illustrated drawings of field tools, things hat the soldiers would be carrying around. Again this sort of information can all be taken into consideration when developing my characters in FMPA2, creating believable unique designs.
I experienced one of my turning points when looking at this book, the character you get from the photography is marvellous. So many ideas spring to mind with regard to dress, posture and character. It’s strange because I somewhat feel bad for saying it but there is an element of style in this dress code, defiantly continuity and something unique.
I wish to further my research into photography from now on into this, along with illustration. I like the idea of capturing mood and emotion within an image. In essence I want to contain this inside my final work in FMPA2 work.
The Muckleburgh Collection
The UK’s largest privately owned military collection.
Initially I planned to visit this museum to contribute to my primary research core. Seeing equipment and uniforms first hand I believed would prove to be invaluable to my studies. I have visited the museum in the past, previous to taking on this task in FMPA1, and know how much I could attain from a trip. Being situated so closely in northern Norfolk it would seem silly not to snap up this opportunity. Unfortunately I have discovered the museum itself is closed off for the autumn and the winter months of the year, the time I will actually producing my FMPA1 section of the course.
The museum itself opens up again on the 13th of February (annoyingly the half term after I finish FMPA1) but this I hope will still be useful to me. I intent to still visit and then add the research in my FMPA2 section of the course since it will be so early in this section of the Year.
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