Unit 78:
Digital Graphics for Computer Games
P2: Be able to Generate Concept Art Ideas for Computer Game Graphics
P2: Be able to Generate Concept Art Ideas for Computer Game Graphics
Stimulus
What is a brief? -
The basic guidelines for the game that you are creating, such as genre,
artistic style etc.
Client Brief – Where
the client lays out the basis of what they want
Own Brief – Either
when you’re working on your own and give yourself your own set of rules for the
game, or when you take a client’s brief and get creative within the guidelines that
they have given you, going into more detail etc.
Market research – Looking
at different variations of media in order to get ideas for the game. For
example, if you are creating a game around Zombies, you’d probably watch The Walking
Dead, or play a game including zombies such as Left 4 Dead to inspire you.
Other forms of media can include movies, books, comics etc.
Ideas Generation
Brainstorming – Brainstorming
is where you put all of your ideas down into one place, usually with different
areas and sections so you can split up the ideas to make it easier to read. It
allows you to see all the ideas you have in one place, and then pick through
them in order to find the best ones to use.
Mood Boards – Used
to create a mood for your game. For example, Dark Souls has a gothic style and
mood, so the mood board would include things such as pictures of dark castles,
gargoyles and general things of a gothic style.
Thumbnail Sketching
- Thumbnail sketching is creating small frames for particular things. They are
also considered to be small, quick shorthand notes for artists and planning
tools. They potentially develop into concept art.
Concept Drawings - Concept art is a way of displaying visual
ideas for games, films, animation, comic books etc. Concept art can include
ideas for characters, weapons, backgrounds, vehicles and much more. The concept
art in which is created for a project is used as a guideline for the entire
projects itself, it gives the look and feel to the project. Others consider
concept art as visual development for concept design. Usually, when it comes to
designs of characters and weapons, they show different designs for the same
character/weapon. For the characters, the concept art would contain different
styles of clothes the character might be able to change into in the game, the
specific stances it will do and the different facial expressions.
Legal and Ethical Considerations
Copyright - Copyright is
a legal right created by the law of a country that grants
the creator of an original work exclusive rights to its use and distribution,
usually for a limited time, with the intention of enabling the creator to
receive compensation for their intellectual effort. Copyright law originated in
the United Kingdom from a concept of common law; the Statute of Anne 1709. It
became statutory with the passing of the Copyright Act 1911. The current act is
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The law gives the creators of
literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works, sound recordings, broadcasts,
films and typographical arrangement of published editions, rights to control
the ways in which their material may be used. The rights cover; broadcast and
public performance, copying, adapting, issuing, renting and lending copies to
the public. In many cases, the creator will also have the right to be
identified as the author and to object to distortions of his work. International
conventions give protection in most countries, subject to national laws.
Libel - Libel is
a method of defamation expressed by print, writing, pictures, signs, effigies,
or any communication embodied in physical form that is injurious to a person's
reputation, exposes a person to public hatred, contempt or ridicule, or injures
a person in his/her business or profession. Libel and slander are types of
defamatory statements. Libel is a written defamatory statement, and slander is
a spoken or oral defamatory statement.
Female representation in Games
The portrayal of women in video games has been the subject
of academic study and controversy since the early 1980s. Recurring themes in
articles and discussions on the topic include the sexual objectification and sexualisation of
characters as well as the degree to which female characters are independent
from their male counterparts within the same game. Exposure to sexualized media
representations of women in television and magazines was alleged to reduce male
compassion toward women and reduce females' perceptions of their desire and
suitability for various vocations.
Many recent games have increased the sexualized portrayal of
women so as to appeal to a male audience. In 2012, for instance, Dead or Alive director Yohei Shimbori
admitted the developers received complaints from fans who had played the Dead or Alive
5 demo packaged with Ninja Gaiden
3. According to Shimbori, "We actually got a lot of feedback
from people who were playing it, saying, 'We want bigger breasts. Make the
characters more like that.' That was kind of surprising.
Female video game characters have been criticized as having
a tendency to be subjects of the "male gaze". A
print ad for the fighting game Soulcalibur V
received some controversy for simply being a close up of a female character's breasts
with a tagline. In two sequels of fighting games Soulcalibur and
Tekken that
take place several years after the original issue, recurring male characters
were all aged but all female characters were kept the same age or were replaced
by their daughters.
Since her introduction in 1996, the character of Lara Croft from
the Tomb Raider series
in particular has been criticized for her "unrealistic" breast size;
Lara was claimed to personify "an ongoing culture clash over gender,
sexuality, empowerment, and objectification." However, the game's creators
maintain that she was not designed with marketing in mind, and have claimed to
be rather surprised at her pinup-style adoration.
In Tomb Raider: Legend, Lara underwent a radical
redesign, ostensibly to make her less sexualized.
In their 2005 study, Dill and Thill distinguish three major
stereotypical depictions of women in gaming: (1) sexualized, (2) scantily clad,
and (3) a vision of beauty. The study revealed that over 80% of women in video
games represented one of these depictions. More than one quarter of female
characters embodied all of the three stereotypical categories at once. Dill and
Thill also note that another prevalent theme with which women were depicted was
a combination of aggression and sex, referred to as "eroticized
aggression". According to sociology professor and researcher Tracy
Dietz, women are often depicted in stereotypical roles that typically pertain to
sexuality in which the woman focuses upon beauty/physical attractiveness.
A recurrent representation of women in fantasy settings, originating in
the 1960s, is the woman warrior dressed
in scanty armour.
They feature armour designs which have been described by such terms as
"chainmail bikinis"(bikini armour),
largely consisting of small decorative plaques that reveal large portions of
the body to the weather and that expose vital organs, thus being noneffective
as protection. The prevalence of this portrayal is presented as an
instance of the common sexualisation of women in the geek culture including
video games, comic and movies. In reaction to this, the art blog
"Women Fighters in Reasonable Armour" compiles depictions of women
fighters wearing "realistic" armour.
In Bioware's Dragon Age franchise,
while the optional female character dresses as the player wills, many female
warrior/assassin class characters, such as Isabela, were remade in later instalments
to wear less clothing. In the case of Isabela, she appeared in Dragon Age: Origins in full armour but
appeared in Dragon Age II wearing thigh high boots and
a short, slitted dress. After Dragon Age II IGN went from not
mentioning her at all to describing her as "everyone's favourite busty
rogue".
According to Anita
Sarkeesian, many early female video game characters (such as Ms. Pac-Man)
are identical to an existing male character, except for a visual marker of
their femininity, such as pink bows, lipstick and long eyelashes.
In a study done in Southwestern Oklahoma State
University comparing the appearances of male and female characters on
video game covers, a few things were discovered. On covers, male characters
were five times more likely to be represented as the main character in the
game, and women were merely portrayed as sidekicks or accessories. Both male
and female character's physiques were over-exaggerated on video game covers,
but females were more "physically altered" (especially in the bust)
than their male counterparts, and even more so if the female was the main
character of the game.
Intellectual property
- refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic
works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.
