Met up with Ryan today and had a chat about work. To be honest I hadn't managed to make much progress since last week due to laptop problems but hopefully that's been resolved now. I had managed to watch Requiem for A Dream but I hadn't made many notes on it's relevance to the project as I got too into it, so another watch may be needed!
Looked at the colour scripts from UP intro to see how effective the use of colour was in terms of conveying mood and atmosphere in a snapshot moment.
I told Ryan that I'd decided to keep Heavy Rain as one of my case studies because despite it being more of an interactive cinematic experience based on choice and consequence than a game which uses environmental narrative as effectively as Portal or Bioshock, I still felt it made good use of colour and contrained some of the influencing factors identified in my critical framework criteria. This is particularly true in relation to the comparison between Ethan's house in the beginning of the game and the one he inhabits throughout the rest of the story. The lizard trial room also reflects his current state of mind, so would be useful to examine with the framework in mind. I just have to make sure that I'm analysing it in terms of what I'm actually looking for in my project, and make sure it has the correct aspects.
The main action points for this week are;
Make sure I'm considering symbolism and deeper implicated emotions rather than looking at things at face value i.e Red indicates danger etc.
Ryan suggested I watch a film called What Dreams May Come which involves a heaven made out of paint, which sounds cool so I'll need to see if I can get hold of that, in addition to the other movies I've not managed to get hold of yet.
Ryan said he wants to see a practical response to all the research I've been doing, which is fair enough because I've kinda been neglecting the practical side in favour of reading more about the psychology behind the theories so I'll need to try and actually put those techniques and theories into practice and write about them.
Also need to have a bit more of a go at my dissertation because right now I'm looking at it in fear and only doing very very bitesize chunks as it's been overwhealming me. I think I'll start by bulking out my case studies in relation to my new critical framework and see where that gets me.
Monday, 25 February 2013
Thursday, 21 February 2013
Colour Psychology
To tie in with the "states of mind" project idea I posted about previously, I've been looking into certain aspects of psychology in relation to light, colour and surroundings and trying to identify the key areas to research into in order to better understand the relationship between the environment and how it can affect and reflect a person's mental state. I have found a couple of useful journals but most of the ones which sound like they would really help me, do not have Abertay on the list of recognised Institutions with access to the journals. So I've got in touch with a friend of mine who is studying Psychology in Glasgow and have asked her to recommend some journal sites or books I can skim through to get a quick overview and a deeper understanding of what I'm hoping to implement and achieve.
Tuesday, 19 February 2013
Supervisor Meeting 18.02.13
Met with Ryan yesterday to chat about how the presentation went and address any issues I had.
First off I need to produce a bunch of ideas/doodles/sketches to convey ideas for the 4 rooms project - how they can tell a story or incorporate themes, in terms of the story of a relationship idea it would be love/hate etc.
I'm also going to be looking into the psychological effects of light and colour, which is something i've always been interested in, and watching a few films that use colour to reinforce the central themes and ideas of the movies. Looking at colour scripts would also be a good idea.
An idea that we stumbled across that I'd really like to explore is the idea of "states of mind". The idea behind this is that each room would be a representation of a different psychological state - depression, joy, anti-stress etc. I actually really like this idea but one of the things I need to watch out for is that I don't just end up creating a "box room" and throwing a lot of props inside it to illustrate the themes. I know that the caves from Dear Esther would be a great example to look into in terms of abstract representation of a declining state of mind, but I'm not sure yet just how literal or abstract I want the "rooms" to be, or even if they can be all structured rooms or feature cave-like structures too. So that's something I need to think about, research and explore.
I've mainly been focusing on studying other games for case studies in relation to my framework, but Ryan suggested I also look into films which make good use of light/colour as being an older, more traditional medium, the core theories will have been established in them, and then adapted over to games (which is a point I have examined briefly in a previous post in relation to how narrative technique for films does not translate over to games very well as they involve spatial exploration and choice, rather than being explicitly shown something important like in films.) He suggested I look at Apocalypse Now and Requiem for a Dream for some good examples of a film which uses lighting to effectively convey it's central themes.
In terms of colour, some films I can look at are the Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which Ryan said has a painterly quality in his scenes so I'm intrigued to have a watch of that, if I can find it.
Finally, I'm also going to try and get my hands on Susperia from director Dario Argento, who uses colour to illustrate delusion and paranoia, so that fits right in to the "states of mind" idea.
Finally, I'm also going to try working with Vray, which I've never used before but is a powerful rendering tool, especially for photo-realistic lighting setups. Depending on how literal or abstract I want these rooms to be, it'll be worth looking into either way.
First off I need to produce a bunch of ideas/doodles/sketches to convey ideas for the 4 rooms project - how they can tell a story or incorporate themes, in terms of the story of a relationship idea it would be love/hate etc.
I'm also going to be looking into the psychological effects of light and colour, which is something i've always been interested in, and watching a few films that use colour to reinforce the central themes and ideas of the movies. Looking at colour scripts would also be a good idea.
An idea that we stumbled across that I'd really like to explore is the idea of "states of mind". The idea behind this is that each room would be a representation of a different psychological state - depression, joy, anti-stress etc. I actually really like this idea but one of the things I need to watch out for is that I don't just end up creating a "box room" and throwing a lot of props inside it to illustrate the themes. I know that the caves from Dear Esther would be a great example to look into in terms of abstract representation of a declining state of mind, but I'm not sure yet just how literal or abstract I want the "rooms" to be, or even if they can be all structured rooms or feature cave-like structures too. So that's something I need to think about, research and explore.
I've mainly been focusing on studying other games for case studies in relation to my framework, but Ryan suggested I also look into films which make good use of light/colour as being an older, more traditional medium, the core theories will have been established in them, and then adapted over to games (which is a point I have examined briefly in a previous post in relation to how narrative technique for films does not translate over to games very well as they involve spatial exploration and choice, rather than being explicitly shown something important like in films.) He suggested I look at Apocalypse Now and Requiem for a Dream for some good examples of a film which uses lighting to effectively convey it's central themes.
Finally, I'm also going to try and get my hands on Susperia from director Dario Argento, who uses colour to illustrate delusion and paranoia, so that fits right in to the "states of mind" idea.
Finally, I'm also going to try working with Vray, which I've never used before but is a powerful rendering tool, especially for photo-realistic lighting setups. Depending on how literal or abstract I want these rooms to be, it'll be worth looking into either way.
Semester 2 Pitch Week
So I just had my semester 2 pitch presentation session and despite a few nervous blunders loosing my place in my notes due to the darkness of the HMC cinema... I think it went pretty well!
Notes to go along with slides available from: https://www.box.com/s/w8ezkmzw9llln0amc1q9
On to feedback, my notes are a little erratic here and I think thats due to the after effect of nerves and it being too dark to see what I was writing (I should have put the lights back on...)
The staff seemed pretty pleased with the progress I'd made in terms of developing the project idea, and in my attempts to improve my technical skills themselves. One thing they picked up on was that they suggested I continue was looking back at previous works and comparing them to the recent media tests I'm doing now, and critiquing them both in terms of progression and development.
The only criticisms were that I needed to soften the edges of the lighting/shadows (which is an issue I picked up on in my previous blog post Lighting Tutorials.) And that I needed to think about the reflectivity and colour bounce of the lights on the shiny wooden floor of the first scene (with the lounge chair and circular window) So I'll be again looking into fixing these issues in my next tests.
I've also to look into how lighting is connected to mood and story, and clarify how that's going to come across in my design, so a study of lighting in narrative games might be a good idea. Robin (I think) also suggested I look into spatial design and how form/space and architectural theory. It was suggested that I watch Stephen King's "The Stand" to see how film sequences display this.
Brian suggested that I choose a story/novel and design an environment around an iconic event that takes place within it.
When I spoke of my idea to design 3 or 4 rooms which each conveyed a different mood/atmosphere, Robin suggested that instead of them being disconnected rooms showcasing moods, that they be connected and tell a progressive story, such as the story of a relationship - where the first room would feature a table and chairs and symbolise a first date, then it would progress on to the boudoir bedroom and could end in a marital suite or a scene of the aftermath of a fight or breakup. I quite liked this idea.
All in all, I was pretty happy with the feedback and suggestions I got. I think it came across in the presentation that I'm more sure in what I'm doing now, and I'm not floundering nearly as much as I was last semester.
Notes to go along with slides available from: https://www.box.com/s/w8ezkmzw9llln0amc1q9
On to feedback, my notes are a little erratic here and I think thats due to the after effect of nerves and it being too dark to see what I was writing (I should have put the lights back on...)
The staff seemed pretty pleased with the progress I'd made in terms of developing the project idea, and in my attempts to improve my technical skills themselves. One thing they picked up on was that they suggested I continue was looking back at previous works and comparing them to the recent media tests I'm doing now, and critiquing them both in terms of progression and development.
The only criticisms were that I needed to soften the edges of the lighting/shadows (which is an issue I picked up on in my previous blog post Lighting Tutorials.) And that I needed to think about the reflectivity and colour bounce of the lights on the shiny wooden floor of the first scene (with the lounge chair and circular window) So I'll be again looking into fixing these issues in my next tests.
I've also to look into how lighting is connected to mood and story, and clarify how that's going to come across in my design, so a study of lighting in narrative games might be a good idea. Robin (I think) also suggested I look into spatial design and how form/space and architectural theory. It was suggested that I watch Stephen King's "The Stand" to see how film sequences display this.
Brian suggested that I choose a story/novel and design an environment around an iconic event that takes place within it.
When I spoke of my idea to design 3 or 4 rooms which each conveyed a different mood/atmosphere, Robin suggested that instead of them being disconnected rooms showcasing moods, that they be connected and tell a progressive story, such as the story of a relationship - where the first room would feature a table and chairs and symbolise a first date, then it would progress on to the boudoir bedroom and could end in a marital suite or a scene of the aftermath of a fight or breakup. I quite liked this idea.
All in all, I was pretty happy with the feedback and suggestions I got. I think it came across in the presentation that I'm more sure in what I'm doing now, and I'm not floundering nearly as much as I was last semester.
Wednesday, 13 February 2013
Lighting Tutorials
In the lead up to the 3rd progress presentation, I've been doing a few lighting tutorials to improve my skills in that respect, since one of the things the lecturers picked up on in my last presentation was that I needed to spend more time developing my technical skills and bringing my lighting and texturing skills up to scratch.
Ryan lent me the Advanced Maya Lighting and Texturing book by Lee Lanier so I tried a tutorial he suggested from that to see how it went.
These are some screencaps from the finished scene. I followed the tutorial step by step but the LightFog attribute didn't work when I rendered it, as there is supposed to be a stream of light flowing in from the window, casting a shadow of the shape of the window on the floor. I am unsure if this is because I rendered in mentalray when the tutorial instructed to render in MayaSoftware. I had to render with mentalray because my laptop displayed error messages when attempting to render with maya software and wouldn't complete the render. I tried to see if this was related to an unloaded plug-in but has no success. I will attempt to fix this using the uni computers and then re-install maya on my laptop as it is pretty buggy and tends to crash a lot more than is normal.
The shadows in this scene are also quite crisp and clean cut when they should be a lot softer due to the candlelight lanterns used as light sources. Again, I followed the settings step by step and rendered in mental ray as opposed to MayaSoftware and as this is the only difference I can think of, I'll try tweaking the settings and rendering on one of the uni computers.
In addition to this tutorial I also created a small dining room scene. I used similar settings as I did in the first tutorial from the book Ryan lent me, and tried to get more comfortable with texturing with bump and normal maps to enhance the look of the dining room table, floor and walls etc. I also made a glass shader which looked great when viewed from some angles but from others it made the inside of the glasses appear black.
The LightFog effect again didn't work, and instead created a grainy effect outside the window that looked like a blizzard. The light emmited from the sportlight shining through the window in an attempt to simulate moonlight is too harsh and has clearly defined edges. Similarly the shadows again need to be softer as they have hard edges despite the soft light being emitted from the candles and ceiling lights.
As stated previously, I will attempt to render these scenes out again in MayaSoftware in uni, other than that I'll try and tweak some settings to see if it makes a difference in mentalray. I can't spend too much time on it though as I want to get started on some more media tests involving a short series of vignettes, which will recycle the same assets with small additions and tweaks to create new stories in the same scenes.
Ryan lent me the Advanced Maya Lighting and Texturing book by Lee Lanier so I tried a tutorial he suggested from that to see how it went.
The shadows in this scene are also quite crisp and clean cut when they should be a lot softer due to the candlelight lanterns used as light sources. Again, I followed the settings step by step and rendered in mental ray as opposed to MayaSoftware and as this is the only difference I can think of, I'll try tweaking the settings and rendering on one of the uni computers.
In addition to this tutorial I also created a small dining room scene. I used similar settings as I did in the first tutorial from the book Ryan lent me, and tried to get more comfortable with texturing with bump and normal maps to enhance the look of the dining room table, floor and walls etc. I also made a glass shader which looked great when viewed from some angles but from others it made the inside of the glasses appear black.
The LightFog effect again didn't work, and instead created a grainy effect outside the window that looked like a blizzard. The light emmited from the sportlight shining through the window in an attempt to simulate moonlight is too harsh and has clearly defined edges. Similarly the shadows again need to be softer as they have hard edges despite the soft light being emitted from the candles and ceiling lights.
As stated previously, I will attempt to render these scenes out again in MayaSoftware in uni, other than that I'll try and tweak some settings to see if it makes a difference in mentalray. I can't spend too much time on it though as I want to get started on some more media tests involving a short series of vignettes, which will recycle the same assets with small additions and tweaks to create new stories in the same scenes.
Friday, 8 February 2013
Critical Framework
After speaking to Ryan last week I went off and read a few project dissertations and proposals on similar research projects to help identify my critical framework criteria. I also took notes from various GDC conference presentations that I'd looked at, and drew up a list of what I thought were influencing factors in environmental narrative.
Ambient:
Colour
Lighting/Shadows
Materials/Textures
Space
*Sounds. (No sound will be used in final environment.)
Framing
Geography (Vistas)
Architecture
Narrative;
Player Created Space
Scenes, Events and Vignettes
Props;
Artefacts
Decals
Effects
Posters and Graffiti
Navigational;
Beacon
Signpost
Trail
I'll be using this framework criteria to analyse scenes in games to see how effectively they can be used in conveying narrative.
Compiled the info into a mind map to make it a bit clearer:
Ambient:
Colour
Lighting/Shadows
Materials/Textures
Space
*Sounds. (No sound will be used in final environment.)
Framing
Geography (Vistas)
Architecture
Narrative;
Player Created Space
Scenes, Events and Vignettes
Props;
Artefacts
Decals
Effects
Posters and Graffiti
Navigational;
Beacon
Signpost
Trail
I'll be using this framework criteria to analyse scenes in games to see how effectively they can be used in conveying narrative.
Compiled the info into a mind map to make it a bit clearer:
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
Supervisor Meeting
So I met up with Ryan on Friday and spoke about some of the issues I was having with my project, one of the main ones being that I wasn't actually sure where I was heading with the final piece of my project.
After a good discussion Ryan helped me narrow down what I could do with my final piece and I'm feeling much calmer about it all. We agreed on a few action points that I would complete as milestones before this Friday 8th Feb.
1) Work through a tutorial in the Advanced Texture and Lighting book Ryan lent me, and try out 3-4 different lighting setups and comment on what the lighting says in terms of the narrative effect.
2) Refine the Project Aim and decide whether or not to keep the characterisation element within the environment (as I had previously focused on showing character through the environment, but Ryan suggested that this was more to do with personification rather than environmental narrative.)
3) Have a go at further defining the Critical Framework by identifying the criteria for analysis in Environmental Narrative
We also had a discussion about what my final project piece could be and I'm currently playing with the idea of designing 4 different rooms, each intent on conveying a different mood/atmosphere, utilizing the techniques of narrative storytelling. This could involve experimenting with animated lighting, so I'm going to be looking for tutorials on that in the book and online.
After a good discussion Ryan helped me narrow down what I could do with my final piece and I'm feeling much calmer about it all. We agreed on a few action points that I would complete as milestones before this Friday 8th Feb.
1) Work through a tutorial in the Advanced Texture and Lighting book Ryan lent me, and try out 3-4 different lighting setups and comment on what the lighting says in terms of the narrative effect.
2) Refine the Project Aim and decide whether or not to keep the characterisation element within the environment (as I had previously focused on showing character through the environment, but Ryan suggested that this was more to do with personification rather than environmental narrative.)
3) Have a go at further defining the Critical Framework by identifying the criteria for analysis in Environmental Narrative
We also had a discussion about what my final project piece could be and I'm currently playing with the idea of designing 4 different rooms, each intent on conveying a different mood/atmosphere, utilizing the techniques of narrative storytelling. This could involve experimenting with animated lighting, so I'm going to be looking for tutorials on that in the book and online.
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