Week 20 - The end of Character and the beginning of OTM

christopheranka
Feb 18, 2016
4 min read

Well that’s it after 5 weeks character has ended are we are now to a start on the off the map project which I'm admittedly having mixed feelings about as I feel that character project gave me so much to grow as a game artist and a person as now I have a personal goal to peruse the possibility of becoming a character artist. (That is when I can finally master retopology and it can become an enjoyable process, or at least as easy as unwrapping).

Anyway character project gave me so much and pushed me so much that to go back to standard asset modelling feels like such a step from such a short yet intensive project. That said this week personally I have been finding myself needing more time to really recover after the final week of the character project which was insanely intensive. I had to learn retopoing as well as refreshing my mind on baking processes as well as textures.

Somehow I did it. Well I had to take a lot of short cuts such as removing certain aspects of my characters clothing due to time constraints and tri limits as there was no way I could get the whole of my high poly down to 15000 tris at most this was attainable with 17000 with the time I was given. I'm sure if another week was available to me perhaps achieving decent topology, featuring all aspects of my model as well as getting a better result with my textures defiantly would have been attainable. Alas these are the cards I have been given and I had to deal with them. I do plan in the future to refine this character although I'm leaning towards starting a new character part of the same in game universe.

My top idea is a luchadore wrestler who combines high flying wrestling styles with spices.

Very quick thumbnail

Anyway off the map. Yes It’s not really a project that I am all too excited for and I think my work output this week reflects it since I've mainly been producing environmental thumbnails with an initial idea as to what I would like to personally reflect in the off the map project on orders by the group for a presentation.

Right now I feel either burnt out or just not really into this project as compared to the other and I am slightly worried as I fear that I may let my team down.

For the project itself my team and I are deciding to explore Shakespeare’s the tempest which from having a quick read of it this week offers us a playground to work with in terms of the island Shakespeare illustrates for those who have seen the play. What intrigues me most about the tempest is the idea that before the protagonist makes contact with the island that is central to the play there are those who inhabited it before. Particularly that of another sorcerer called Sycorax.

Sycorax

According to the script said character used to be the former default ruler of the island which the play takes place on and I believe the character is dead by the time the play starts, with Prospero one of the protagonists taking over.

For off the map I would like this small detail however to be the central aspect of the project exploring this sort of lost civilisation feel with areas of the island which used to be Sycrox's domain and contrasting it with areas like Prosperos part of the island which I would like to represent sort of a world made by someone trying their best to recreate civilisation with the best that they have around them. Finally there will be of course the shipwreck itself as a section we could focus our efforts towards. Interestingly enough the play mentions how the characters on the ship are returning from a wedding in North Africa so perhaps playing around with cultural styles could be interesting as well.

Practically however I doubt we would have enough time to cover so many aspects in great detail so if my own personal idea for off the map were to be used in anyway it would definitely have to be a condensed version of it.

Two main sources of inspiration I have been drawing ideas from are the trailers of 70's Wizard of Oz adaptation Zardoz.

As well as the trailer to the Holy Mountain

What I quite like about these two sources is how surreal and somewhat playful there sets and enviroments are and I think by handling such a play with a supernatural character and setting it would be not only fitting for such a project. Essentially I would very much like our project to be able to work thematically well with a song such as this

Moreover due to the very environmental art nature of this project its forced me to go out of my comfort zone and start to produce a range of interior sketches for intial ideas.

Although I am happy that I am given the opportunity to learn new techniques as well as brush up on some new stuff such as environmental thumbnails I have to be honest with myself this project sadly just isn’t sparking my interest. I feel like I am going back to 10 weeks of laboriously modelling assets and quite frankly this bothers me as I need to be enthused about this project to make sure I do not let my team down but as of now I just can't think or produce anything I am really excited about. Hopefully things will change but with such an environmental focused brief just like the film room brief it seems I have two options which would be to try and push for some sort of character element within the project or to manage studying character related topics on top of this project. However the later my come at a cost with my team and I cannot afford to let them down as for some of them this may be there project which they see as their own magnum opus.