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An Intergrated approach to time based problem solving in art and design 

Unit 7 Time based Time-Leap 

Concept Ideas

Snowy mountain 

Ancient Egypt 

This is my second idea of ancient Egypt, my influences for this idea being from movies such as ‘The Mummy’ (1999) and ‘Indiana Jones’ (1981). A good reason to have ancient Egypt as a setting is because of the intricate architecture of the building they had would look aesthetically pleasing. Also because a lot of the landmarks and part of the assets are recognisable because things like pyramids are well known to Egypt and you could also choose from having a scene as a fully built city and make it look like how it was at the time of the pharaohs.

 

I could create ruins and old Egypt like they are now, for that dramatic deserted look. This idea had the same problem that it may be too big make and to make it look believable and immersive, in the time frame given. 

 


This is my chosen concept for my time leap level.  It will be in the setting of a Japanese Buddhist temple in the time period of medieval Japan which I have chosen  because of the unique and recognisable style of the building that was in the style of traditional Japanese architecture. This style of building have a sense of peacefulness and admiration, due the fact that the style of the buildings were Buddhist influenced which was introduced by Chinese missionaries via the silk road (485 CE).

 

The temple has similarities to Shinto style shrines due the fact that many of the temples were once shrines for safekeeping precious possessions.

 

This means that many of the temples in the time period were old and have aged before it was even used as a temple. The oldest temple known as  Horyuji which is also the oldest recoded wooden building in the world (600AD) according to Micheal Turtle (timetravleturtle.com) this gives evidence to how old these building are and gives an better idea,  weather we should create a olden weathered look or a new clean look 

 

 

 

Japanese temple

This is the concept art for my Japanese temple environment; I have used the medium of water colours to capture the lucid peacefulness look that is associated with Buddhism influenced temples.  

 

Differences between my art and the reference images are the architecture of the building, the layout and some of the assets I have in the art. Similarities are colour scheme of the building and the surroundings. 

 

I could have improved my concept art by trying to capture the intricate details on the building such as the roof details. I could have made it more convincing by having things like the cemetery and the bell tower which is usually seen in Japanese temples. With the colour I tried to make it accurate, an example being the buildings having a wooden colour texture, this is influenced by traditional Japanese architecture as they mostly used wooden materials for the temples. I also tried to give them a red hint as many Japanese shrines are coloured red for religious reasons, making it more convincing. 

 

Reference list

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My first initial idea wasn’t so much a set period or place in history but more of a setting. My ideas was to be set in the snowy mountains where there may have aspects of a log cabin on top of the giant snowy mountains. My influences were from "The Wall" from the TV series ‘Game of Thrones. 

 

In the second season of the HBO TV series (2012) these were shot in Iceland, with a mixture of post CGI in order to create some of the landscapes. I could use this to research features of Iceland such as how there isn't many hours of daylight and incorporate that idea as a dynamic changing daylight feature to add effect into my Unity scene. I could also research how the CG artist went about creating the landscapes for the show and how they used different techniques to  make it look realistic.

 


In Maya I started off by creating assets of the building and objects which will make up my scene. I did this by using simple box modelling technique to create the asset, UV mapping/texturing with a bump map created in Photoshop. 

 

I used the research I did on what would be in a typical Japanese Buddhist temple to decide on what to create such as the main hall, Shinto shrine and commentaries. The assets I have created have differed from my original concept. What has changed is that my asset is in a winter themed setting instead.

 

I have incorporated another idea I had of a snowy mountain with my medieval Japan scene; I thought that the winter aspect would add a peaceful soothing effect to my season, enhancing it. 

 

  

 

 

The snowy mountain concept was inspired by the ‘Game of Thrones’ setting 'Frost Fangs' which was set and shot in Iceland. Instead of looking for reference images of Iceland, I looked at the 'Nanzan - ji temple' in the winter season, which is a much closer reference for my new idea.  I used images of the setting to see how the snow fell and was placed on the objects and how it changed the overall look of the temple.  

Game Level Development 

During the winter season in Japan, cold air comes from Siberia, these winds collides with mountains on the coasts of japans resulting in heavy snowfall.

I have decided to add my scene in a winter season setting. The snow in the winter gives the setting of the Japanese temple a more peaceful feeling; it also adds extra detail to the objects and gives a weathered look to it.

 

I have found images of the 'Nanzan - ji temple in the winter seasin to use as reference to create my assets such as building and statues 

 

I think this will bring an interesting aspect to my scene, with the cold weather theme it adds the feeling of tranquillity to my Buddhist temple.

 

I could use real life images of temples in the winter in order to replicate how the snow has fallen on the objects helping me add realism to my scene.

 

Reference images 

I technique I have used to capture a greater sense of detail, particularly for the rock assets, are normal maps. Like bump maps that use coordinates to use light as an illusion to create the sense of detail.

The difference is that normal maps use RGB colours instead of grayscale; it can translate it to the different colours as XYZ coordinates capturing the detail more accurately.   

The way I achieved this was by creating a base model in Maya, exporting it into Unity, sculpt the detail, and paint the asset in Mudbox. Then create a normal map and export back into Maya where I add it to a low polly base model. 

According to Yanni Hajioannou (gamedevelopment.com. Jan 2013), one of the most valuable maps for a 3D artist is the normal map. 

 

This is because 3D artists, especially game artists, can capture that high poly detail and add onto a low poly object. What this does is save the amount of polygons needed and amount of memory usage it uses. With normal maps I am able to capture details like creases and bumps but normal maps cannot change the shape of a mesh, meaning it loses some of the detail from the high poly sculpt. I can address this problem by using a displacement map. 

Extra detail 

In Unity I started off by creating a new project with some of the packages that come with Unity. Properly setting up a project folder is crucial in order to have minimal problems when exporting assets and texture.

In the scene I started creating a terrain, using the sculpting and painting tools in Unity, I looked at some references for the mountain area in order to see how mountains form and actually look at how it was placed on a terrain.

 

I think I could have improved the way I formed the mountain, I could have created more rounded and intersecting mountains which would have been closer to the reference used.

 

Also I think I could have used techniques such as normal map in order to add more detail on the mountain, even though ultimately they would be seen far away, adding more detail would improve the realism. 

 

What I did next was export all assets and maps from Maya into Unity, I researched on youtuber 'jaba jaks' winter road speed level design video (Dec 22, 2014) and how he went about creating the scene. What I took from it is how he did not create a scene using different programmes or add extra details in Unity, but how he brought in individual scenes and created the scene with those assets into Unity. This gives a lot more freedom when changing how the assets are placed in the scene. Also he didn’t use the terrain scene and how he focused and detailed one area and used assets to cover up the open spaces. I also used a shader and tree models bought from the asset store to enhance the look of the scene.    

After placing all assets to finish up my scene I added a directional light with a blueish hue to help give a cool temperature effect which complements the snow.  

 

After I add particle systems, I added the effect of star flakes and flower petals,

I did research on youtuber 'speed tutor' falling leaves tutorial (Feb 2, 2014) to learn how to add my falling petals. Not only did I learn how to add the image of petals on the particle, I have also learnt how to change the variable of how the leaves fall to give it a little twist or changing the speed rate of random movement adding this dynamic realism effect with the particle system. One thing that was a problem was that the actual petals themselves were a little dark  

 

 

Evaluation 

 

This is the walk through of my Unity game level, it is an explorable level based in mediaeval Japan. 

 

Inspiration

My inspirations for this level were from different aspects such as the fantasy setting of ' The wall' in the ‘Game of Thrones’ series (2012). I found it interesting how they mix real life with a fantasy concept and realistically blending them together, using a real life setting such as their footage in Iceland and then using VFX to add the unrealistic parts which make up the scene such as the giant icewall or the snowy mountain landscape. Another inspiration of mine is from images of Japanese temples. The feeling and atmosphere of peace and simplicity associate with these temples is what I wanted to capture in my level. This atmosphere could be because of the intricate look of traditional Japanese architecture which is heavily influenced by religions Buddhism and Shintoism, which both are associated with peacefulness, simplicity and tranquillity. 

 

Using both of these influences, I wanted to create a scene with a style close to realism but had aspects of fantasy which, at the same time, had captured the feeling of peace.

 

Research

In terms of research reference and my concept, I researched on what different building and aspect make up a Japanese temple. The images also gave me reference on how it looks and how I should model it. Also it gave me a reference for the colour scheme I used. When I decided to incorporate my concept of a snowy setting, I looked for images of Japanese temples in the winter season and this gave me reference on how to texture the snow, how it fell and settled on to objects and buildings.

 

In terms on researching for techniques, I searched for things such as normal mapping, which helped me add extra detail with a low Poly count in my scene. Also I researched for techniques for manipulating particle systems which helped me gain a dynamic and realistic aspect to the scene and helped the feeling of peace.

 

Production

I started off with modelling the buildings in Maya, I used a simple 'box Modelling technique' to keep my poly low and easy to texture. I then started UV mapping and texturing in Photoshop. I used a convincing colour scheme and manipulated real life textures to increase the realism. For extra detail I used a technique called bump and normal mapping, this gave extra detail by using the way lighting reflect on the model while still keeping low polly's.

 

I then exported these building and objects into Unity3D, this is where I assembled all the assets I made and created a scene with them. What I did is create a terrain and sculpted a mountain area, placed the assets, added lighting and adding particle system of falling snow and petals for that peaceful effect 

 

What went well?

I think that most of the texturing and the technique of using normal maps to add detail went well because the colour scheme was convincing and realistic and the snow aspect added the effect of peacefulness and created this dreamlike fantasy look into my scene. The normal map gave me more freedom by allowing me to add detail while still having low poly model making the game look visually pleasing while still playable. 

 

What could I improve?

I think I could have improved creating a variety of different objects and buildings, this is because I had to duplicate the same object multiple times in order to feel the scene and it started to look repetitive. Also some of the textures were low resolution making them distorted.                           

However, this could be also because of bad quality of UV set. This made the level less believable and decreased the immersivness and atmosphere that I intended for the level.  

 

External Feedback

I got some external criticism from classmates to see what they liked and what I could of improved. 

The comments i got back were: 

 

"It looked like a Mongolian temple in the snow"

With this feedback I think I could have improved distinguishing the setting more by adding more resembling object to indicate my level being set in Japan, such as a flag.

 

"The colour scheme is very true, I like it and how the snow texture looks on the objects and how you got falling snowdrops, it makes it look believable"

This shows that the colour scheme and texturing generally worked to add that aspect of realism and how the bump map helped add that detail to make it look believable. 

 

"It looks really nice, the fallen snow and petals and the music, really give it that soothing feeling"

This shows that the concept of a snowy setting helped add that feeling of peacefulness that I wanted and how the finer details added in Unity contributed to that. 

 

 

 

I have researched how some techniques that the level designers for ‘Left 4 Dead’ (L4D) have used to develop their own game level. In ‘Left 4 Dead 2’ (2009), a technique that was used to develop the player was 'overlapping environment'. This is when you see part of the environment that you'll eventually be in; an example of this is on the level ‘Parish’ which is in the first chapter of the game.

 

During the ‘Parish’ level, the game gives the player a glimpse of the park coming up in the next chapter. The reason this is done is to excite the player by giving them a sneak peak of what is coming and also to increase the immersion by adding a sense of depth to the level and making them wanting to keep playing to find out what is going to happen.  

 

Another technique they use to develop the level is the use of lights. In the first game ‘L4D’ because the level was in a dark swampy scene during the night, they used lights as a way to guide the player around the level. The contrast the light brings to the surroundings of the level draws the player toward it, immersing them. They also use silhouettes as a way to create this sense of distance and to grab the attention of player by creating a strong focal point.

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