[Project 2] Showreel

I decided to make the showreel in Adobe After Effects as I believe it gives the most professional feel from all programs available. Because of my work on BA5, I was also familiar with the interface. The file is too large to upload to blogger, but I took a screenshot while I was in the process of completing the showreel just to show the involvement in After Effects:

  

One new technique I learned from making the Showreel was how to alter time in After Effects. I used this to speed up gameplay from the demo to add the dynamic fading of the reel and so that the viewer doesn't get bored watching 10 seconds of footage.

[Project 1] WIP Progress of Concept Artwork

I saved several of my work-in-progress artwork concepts so that I could display my itterative process on the blog:

[Project 1] Sprite Sheet

All of the sprites in the Demo and Game Design Document were all original concepts made by me in Photoshop. Because of the lack of space in the GDD and the relative low resolution of the demo, I decided to put the compiled full resolution sprite sheet on the blog.

(Click the image for full resolution preview)

To make the weapon sprites, I resized my concept art to the smallest possible size that it wouldn't distort, followed by creating a new edge with the pencil and eyedropper tool. The monster and turret sprites were all done from scratch on a 25x25 pixel document with the pencil tool.

[Project 3] Social Realism Research

Because of my lack of knowledge about social realism, I decided to do some thorough research into its origin and exact definition. Here are extracts from what I found to be most relevant for my essay:

"Social Realism became an important art movement during the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s. As an American artistic movement it is closely related to American scene painting and to Regionalism. Social Realism developed as a reaction against idealism and the exaggerated ego encouraged by Romanticism. Consequences of the Industrial Revolution became apparent; urban centers grew, slums proliferated on a new scale contrasting with the display of wealth of the upper classes. With a new sense of social consciousness, the Social Realists pledged to “fight the beautiful art”, any style which appealed to the eye or emotions. They focused on the ugly realities of contemporary life and sympathized with working-class people, particularly the poor. They recorded what they saw (“as it existed”) in a dispassionate manner. The public was outraged by Social Realism, in part, because they didn't know how to look at it or what to do with it (George Shi, University of Fine Arts, Valencia)"

"Better than any other genre, social realism has shown us to ourselves, pushing the boundaries in the effort to put the experiences of real Britons on the screen, and shaping our ideas of what British cinema can be. While our cinema has experienced all the fluctuations in fortune of Hollywood's first export territory, realism has been Britain's richest gift to world"

"Social realism has played an important role in both British cinema and TV. The British documentary movement which developed under the leadership of John Grierson  was enormously influential in stimulating what became a strand of fiction film described as social realism.

Humphrey Jennings who started out with this movement brought a sense of the surreality of popular culture in everyday life to his work. His wartime docu-dramas and documentary work are exemplary pieces of art working across genres to produce some of the best work ever made by a British director.

Jennings was an inspiration to Lindsay Anderson and those who gathered around him in the British 'Free Cinema'. Technical discoveries by cameraman Walter Lassally were to influence the work of the French New Wave Filmmakers and cinematographers. "


http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1037898/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_realism
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/british_cinema_social/

Artist Research: Garry Cotton

Garry Cotton is a little known British artist who specialises in 2D Concept Art and Environmental Design. The element that really struck me about his work was his amazing environments that are reminiscent of early adventure game concept work such as 'Beneath a Steel Sky' by Revolution Software. Because of the link to old sprited games, I felt that the artist linked in very well to my Project 1, and gave me thought on how I could improve my own environmental drawings to better compliment the sprite orientated style.

[Project 1] Making of Neon Cola Poster

At the start of the creation of my game, I was thinking of having some form of reactive advertising implemented and wanted to create placeholders for potential posters on the game menus. I later turned away from this idea, but it gave me invaluable experience with a workflow between 3D and 2D that I don't normally explore.

I began by modelling a can based on a template in 3DS Max, followed by importing it into Photoshop using the new 3D tools implemented in CS5. I then defined the area for the label to be wrapped around and edited the lighting to give the can almost a plastic type feel.

I then made a backdrop for the can in photoshop, along with a fake brand name and advertising that I felt would fit in with my game world. I then created a label in 2D using photoshop to be wrapped around the can, followed by using Photoshop's 3D tools to make sure the label was seamless on the edge of the can.