Observational Drawing

Above is an observational drawing I made of an image of a spaceship, and the source image I used with which to draw it. Spaceships are relevant to my final piece, so this is why I chose this to draw.
There weren't any real complications, and drawing it was relatively simple, although the proportions were difficult to stick to accurately.
I tried to adhere to the Rule of Thirds in this image. I feel I could have done so better, as due to a mistake with proportions, the drawing ended up looking closer to the centre than I'd liked. I will try to avoid this next time.
Since I plan to use a design for a spaceship as my final piece, I will continue to draw different designs of ship throughout the project to attempt to develop my drawing skills in this field.

Initial Sketches

These are some initial sketches I've made of items I could potentially use in my final piece, and fit the overall theme of my project. In this image there is an asteroid (The jagged, dotted drawing), a planet (Shaded and cratered), a satellite and a distant star. These are all rather generic, common objects in space, and thus could all prove rather useful in the making of my final piece.

Rule of Thirds

This demonstrates how artists I've used for research throughout the project, such as Ralph McQuarrie, have used the Rule of Thirds to aid with composition of their work. The Rule of Thirds refers to a guideline rather than a rule, that states that an image should ideally be divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines, and two similar vertical lines. Key features of the image should then be placed upon the points at which these lines intersect. It can also be used to give a general feel for proportions for things like land and sea/sky (Two parts land to one part sea/sky), or warm colours to cold colours, but its most common application is for positioning key components of the image. This is better for drawing focus and creates more of an interest than simply placing things at the centre of the image.

Colour Palettes

Below are some colour palettes sampled from the images I used for my artist research, as well as the images themselves.

Above is a colour palette sampled from one of the images I used for my artist research, as well as the image itself. I observed that things such as much of the background and the ships are often made to look rather drab, almost monochromatic, with subtle touches of colouring in order to indicate who they fight for. The way they avoid the ships from being dull and failing to grab attention is by making them darker and bolder, and presenting them in the foreground to make sure they stand out and get noticed straight away. Thrusters will use colours associated with fire or energy, in this instance blue. Lasers and such consist of several harmonious colours, such as red, orange and yellow, with yellow being the concentrated, centre of the beam, and orange and red making the mass of it. They are usually brighter towards the centre.

Consistent with the previous image, this picture uses a dull, greyish colour scheme for the majority of the background, albeit this time with a more blueish tinge. The ship is also placed in the foreground and darkened so as to make it stand out. The explosion in the pillar at the centre of the image uses harmonious colours, similar to the lasers in the first image; yellow at the centre where it's most intense, then orange and red at the edges of the plume. The thrusters in this image are, once again, blue. The pillar is cast in shadow to make it look darker than the rest of the scenery, and is once again placed into the foreground to make sure it's seen as important.

Very different to the previous two images, this image uses a much darker, blueish tone for the background. Rather than using shadow to highlight key aspects of the image, this picture instead opts to cast the general image in shadow, giving it a much more cold and lifeless, static feel, then chooses to cast light on the parts of the image he wants to be seen. In this image, the ship in the background is illuminated. Adding to the barren and lifeless feeling of the image, nothing appears to be happening in it; whereas in the previous two images there was clearly a lot of action taking place, the first featuring a laser battle and the latter having a large and prominent explosion, as well as what appears to be one spaceship chasing another, the ship is inactive and docked in this picture. Nothing visible is moving, or even alive, giving more of an alien, unsettling feel.

Artist Research

Ralph McQuarrie

 Some of Ralph McQuarrie's notable works as a concept artist consist of the first three instalments (IV, V and VI) of the Star Wars movies, Battlestar Galactica, Cocoon and Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Paint was his primary resource for concept art. Colour, light and line are extremely important elements to his pieces. He uses light to draw attention to the action in specific parts of the piece, as well as giving an indication of speed in many instances. For use of colour, he typically picks rather dimmed, monochromatic colours, then deviates from this colour scheme with one or two (If two, usually complimentary) brighter colours (Such as the red and orange used for the lasers in the middle right image) to catch the eye and make the image more exciting. As for line, he seems to favour a two point perspective.

 All of these pieces of art depict some sort of spaceship, which is the primary focus of my project (Both as enemies and the protagonist). They all draw attention to the ship in each respective image. A variety of different methods are used to achieve this, such as the rule of thirds, contrast and colour. I like the use of lighting in these pieces as a means of demonstrating speed in each image whilst still highlighting key portions of each piece.

Hans Palm

 This is a picture of the "Pioneer" ship from the game "Fractured Space", a cooperative, tactical shooter set in deep space. The ship itself was designed, modelled and textured by Hans Palm. His work consists of many different designs for spaceships and guns. He has twelve years of experience working with 3ds Max and Photoshop, the programs he used to make this specific piece.

 Colour seems to be the primary focus of his piece. Blue is used to give more of a cold, energetic sort of feel to parts of the ship that wouldn't be populated (Such as the thrusters), whereas the more hospitable areas of the ship (Such as the deck, visible at the top) are more of a warm, inviting yellow.

 I like the patchy, rough feel of the ships, as well as the use of colours to give clear visual indicators of different types of areas on the ship without needing an inside view.

James Clyne

 This is a piece of concept art, depicting the Narada from Star Trek: Into Darkness. It was designed by James Clyne, who started their career in the games industry, working for companies such as Sega and Activision before moving on to pursue further development with entertainment design. Some of his other works as a concept artist include Transformers, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and X-Men 3. He seems to have used PhotoShop for this piece. He seems to favour dimmed, greyscale colours and a more distant, dim lighting, giving a sort of threatening demeanour to the ship.
 James seems to be trying to draw attention towards the front of the ship, as this is the only part of the ship with any sort of illumination. The ship itself has an extremely rough, jagged feel to it, with many parts being serrated, almost appearing teethed. This gives it more of a dark, intimidating feel, indicating it's an antagonist's ship, rather than a protagonist's.
 I like the way the piece isolates the ship, and uses the Enterprise, the protagonist's ship in Star Trek, to give a feeling of just how big the Narada is. It gives the ship an intimidating, unsettling air to it.

Photoshop Experiment - Cont.

Above is my attempt to make use of the previous technique "Blocking in", as seen before with the elephant, in a practical setting that's more related to my project. One of the ships previously shown on my updated moodboard was used as a template. As per the rules previously mentioned, I prevented myself from viewing the ship as a ship, instead choosing to see it as a mass of colours to be filled in over time. Whilst the spectrum used for this ship varied greatly, and it was very difficult to include many of the finer details, I feel satisfied with this as an experiment.

Photoshop Experiment

This is an experiment with a technique called "Blocking in", a kind of observational drawing that involves visualising objects as shapes rather than entities, and gradually filling out blobs of flat colour via the outline of the shape. Comparing the image you've drawn with the one you're attempting to replicate isn't allowed, and neither is viewing the image you're trying to replicate as anything but a mass of shapes. For example, the image you can see wasn't an elephant, it was just a "Mass of grey", and I had to attempt to recreate this.
Whilst straightforward, I found this exercise rather challenging; I find drawing without being allowed to look extremely challenging, and almost as much a test of mental resilience as it is drawing capability. Nonetheless, I believe I did acceptably well.

Further Inspiration

Two other sources of inspiration for me have been Red Dwarf (Above) and Futurama, specifically the fan-made 3D render (Below). One way in which these two have helped me as my design has progressed is they've shown me the importance of using bright, often primary colours, such as red or green, to help a ship stand out and be easy to notice against the dark background of space. Ships such as Starbug from Red Dwarf or the Planet Express from Futurama are immediately visible due to their extremely bright colours making them stick out against the dark, lifeless background.

Altered Concept

I have decided to change my idea from a focus on mimicking the bullet hell genre to more of a general spacial theme, with a bullet hell stylisation as more of an afterthought than the primary focus of the project. There are two primary reasons for this, the first of which is time. I feel a bullet hell game may take up too much of my time and focus to be completed to an adequate and respectable standard, as I may be unable to complete all of my ambitions within the allowed fourteen weeks.
The second reason is a lack of experience with programs such as Construct. I would need to learn quite a bit, as not only do I have little experience with the program, but even less so with the genre itself being recreated in Construct, and I am not confident in my ability to program a game with this software, particularly with a deadline of just over three months to adhere to.
Space as a whole, however, grants much more leverage and manoeuvrability with which to shape my project as I progress. I am leaning towards a heavy focus on space transport, specifically spaceships. Below is a related moodboard.

Moodboard

This is a series of images taken from a wide variety of bullet hell games. These demonstrate some basic attack patterns for the typical enemy in a game of this genre, as well as art styles, HUD elements and general tone of each game. They're all typically from a top-down perspective, and typically resemble a more retro, arcade-style game. Once again, these were the earlier stages of development, and this moodboard seems rather out of place if compared to some of my later work. However, a second moodboard has been made later which is much more relevant to my developed work, and traces of bullet hell games may be visible in some of my later pieces, even if the concept was for the most part discarded.

Project Proposal

PROJECT PROPOSAL Student Negotiated Final Major Project

UAL Level 3 Diploma in Art & Design

THIS SECTION TO BE COMPLETED BY THE STUDENT

Student Name

Student Number

Centre Name

Centre Number

Birmingham Metropolitan College

20313

Subject Specialism

Working Title or Theme of FMP

Number of words

Personal Tutor                                                   Course Leader

Shiam Wilcox

Signature

Date

Guidance

For your Project Proposal you must provide an outline brief of your Final Major Project. This brief will normally be of your own choosing. Where the brief is set by your tutor, or where you are working on a group brief (with other students) please make sure that you cover how you will respond individually to the brief and/or your individual responsibilities/contribution to the work of the group.

You should give careful consideration to producing a focussed outline brief:

Section One: What is the title of your Project? What will you work towards producing and what is your proposed end point? Explain how this relates to your work and ideas and how it extends your knowledge, understanding and creative ability.

Section Two: What are the influences, starting points and contextual references and why are they relevant to your ideas? Indicate the subject areas you intend to research and the likely sources of information including any museums, specific locations, performances, etc you plan to visit. However you should not make extensive lists in this section. Instead you should compile an accurate bibliography correctly acknowledging all references including texts, periodicals, websites and video/DVD’s etc. Enter your bibliography in the APPENDIX.

Section Three: Refer to any techniques and processes you intend to use. Describe the range of media and materials relevant to your project and how you may use them to explore and develop your ideas. Include aspects of studio practice, workshop procedures or the use of particular equipment and software etc. Provide an indicative timescale for your project and indicate the manner in which you intend to divide your time in order to investigate, develop, produce and evaluate your project appropriately. This should be a meaningful plan to you and should be personalised to your project. You may wish to write your plan as a daily or weekly schedule in which case enter your timescale in the APPENDIX.

Section Four: How will you critically review and analyse your work and determine if it is successful? How will you identify directions for ongoing development? Do you have a method to record the critical response to your ideas? How do you propose to assess the success of your Final Major Project and what will be your methods of evaluation? Unit 6 requires you to produce a supporting statement at the end of your project for your exhibition. This section can inform your analysis.

You are advised that the bibliography and time scale may be attached to the Project as an appendix.

Your Project Proposal must be no less than 300 words and no more than 500 words.

SECTION ONE – The Final Major Project (guide 100 words)

My final major project is going to be a Japanese-styled bullet hell game, set in an asteroid belt. I have yet to decide a title for this game. The premise of the game is that a war between two races in the a nearby galaxy has resulted in the protagonist’s ship being stranded in an asteroid belt, and they need to both escape attacking enemies and evade obstacles as they traverse the hostile and punishing environment trying to minimise damage to the ship they need to use to escape. It will use an arcade-style point system to determine score, and a life system, as being hit by a bullet will result in instantly being killed and respawning (With a short grace period in which the player is invulnerable). My end goal is to have a detailed final paint for a scene within a bullet hell game.

SECTION TWO – Influences, Research, Sources and Ideas (guide 100 words)

I have been influenced by a wide variety of bullet hell games such as UNDERTALE, a fairly recent indie game sensation that took the internet by storm with its attention to detail, heartwarming and masterfully crafted story and powerful message, providing a compelling story and drawing more emotion from the average audience member with pixel art than most larger budget triple A titles can with millions. The Touhou Project is another series of games I’ll be paying special attention to. A popular, arcade-style series of bullet hell games with an almost cult-like backing online, these games have an art style that’s pleasant, yet allows players to focus on avoiding the chaotic and extremely difficult patterns of bullets as they appear. As a fan (Albeit casual) of the series, in the upcoming weeks I plan to use the Touhou games as ongoing inspiration for many different things, such as mechanics, bullet patterns, art style and so on.

SECTION THREE – Techniques, Processes and Timetables (guide 150 words)

I’ll be sure to make use of staple techniques, such as shading and sketching. Photoshop will of course be useful for making sprites, as well as being what I plan to use to create my final piece, as it allows for more of a professional feel to work, being so malleable and easy to use, but flexible. Processes will of course involve researching different kinds of ships to be used as enemies or bosses in the game. I will make a timetable detailing how I plan to use my time throughout the project, from first week to last. This should help me with time management, as well as allowing me to tell easier whenever I’m behind schedule, or have free time with which to spend refining details on a certain point of the piece.

SECTION FOUR – Method of Evaluation (guide 150 words)

I will upload my work to my blog and try to find peers willing to review my work at certain intervals to let me know how I am progressing. Finding unbiased opinions may be challenging, and the bullet hell genre can often be unforgiving to those that don’t play frequently, so it may be difficult to get suitable feedback. However, for art style and general progression and feel of the game it should suffice. I will also do frequent self-critiques, as I consider myself a fan of the genre, and thus should know what needs to be added and what doesn’t fit. For my Final Major Project, I will use my feedback sheet to double check I’ve done everything appropriately.

APPENDIX – Use this appendix for your bibliography and/or action plan for your Final Major Project

Project Plan

Option 2: Concept art a guide for study and planning.

Research / Planning / Proposal  Generation of initial ideas. Get proposal written and approved. I will begin research into the topic of space and sci-fi, as well as finishing up my project proposal and plan. I will also draft up some initial sketches.

Gathering Reference Researching form, colour, composition, perspectives, textures. Photographs, Observational drawings, Art styles, themes and information research. I will do some observational drawing of space-themed objects and research colour, composition and perspective.

Researching theme/subject Contextual research. Art style, theme and information research. Looking into the work of concept artists for popular TV shows, films, etc. in the sci-fi genre

Experimentation Observational drawings, texture experiments, colour experiments, style experiments. Experiments with colour, such as colour palettes, should be useful, since my ideal ship is meant to stick out and look rather out of place.

Developed drawings and visual proposal sketches Finalization of development, beginning of practical element of project. I’ll be sure to look at some other models for spaceships to try and get a feel of an appropriate shape and size for the protagonist’s ship.

Begin final concept piece

Continuation of practical element. Ongoing research logged e.g new tools/brushes/ software experiments/ problems documented on blog

Continuation of practical element. Ongoing research logged e.g new tools/brushes/ software experiments/ problems documented on blog

Continuation of practical element. Ongoing research logged e.g new tools/brushes/ software experiments/ problems documented on blog

Continuation of practical element. Ongoing research logged e.g new tools/brushes/ software experiments/ problems documented on blog

Continuation of practical element. Ongoing research logged e.g new tools/brushes/ software experiments/ problems documented on blog

Continuation of practical element. Ongoing research logged e.g new tools/brushes/ software experiments/ problems documented on blog

Finalization of project. By this stage, I will hopefully have already finished the project, or at worst be extremely close. I will proof-read and check over my work to make sure I haven’t missed or forgotten to upload anything.

Summative Assessment/Deadline. Hand in everything created throughout the project.

Mindmap

A brief summary of my thought process for the basic template and style of the game. These are earlier stages of development, so I'm selecting a theme, and potentially a couple of prominent features. I selected the space theme, which eventually became more of a focus than the bullet hell aspect of the project.