Door progress

Here is my progress on my door in Maya. I struggled quite a bit with this project, but after some help I managed to get a good start in modeling it, and it has progressed slowly but well.

After some attempts at creating my door, I found out I was going at it the wrong way completely. I then started again, creating each piece individually rather than creating a block and bringing faces out of it like I was doing. This is my first progress screenshot, I was creating one whole side of the door first so I can duplicate it for the other side.

This is the door after I duplicated one side and flipped it. I also added a crease in the middle of the door, which I later took out as it was too wide to be realistic. I needed a lot of guidance with the arch, but I got there eventually, creating a cylinder and splitting the faces and deleting them. I then had to extrude out underneath the arch to complete the shape.

This is when I started to add the small details on my door such as the handle, as also looking at creating the overhang over the door.

The overhang wasn't too hard to create but took some time to get looking right.I created a cylindrical shape to fit the gap above the door, and from that cut the face to create a slit. This slit I then extruded outwards, and then played around with the size and shape. The part pointing down was also made by creating another face and extruding downwards. I then edited the shape and how it was positioned.  

I am now finishing off the model with the small details, and I will also add some rough parts to the door to make it look old. I also added a wall and street to texture, to complete the look of the door completely.

Initial Research

In contextual studies in BA3, we are to create a group presentation on games. I am in a group with Jess Smith, Stacey Bone and Olive Viles, whose blogs can be found below.

http://jessgamergirl.blogspot.co.uk/
http://nerdasaurus-rex.blogspot.co.uk/
http://olivegamesartanddesign.blogspot.co.uk/

We were told it has to relate to showing a link between western and eastern games. After some deliberation in our group we decided on this title:"An Exploration into the Horror & Terror genres in Eastern & Western Culture/Media".After we decided on the title we split up to do research. I am researching into horror games created in the West, and how they have either gained some influence from eastern games, or even complete influence from the East.

The first thing I looked at was defining the Horror and Terror genres. The Horror genre is defined as "fiction that inspires or deals with fear, through the use of the supernatural—or at least the superhuman". The Terror genre is defined as "fiction that inspires or deals with fear, through the use of humans and their endeavours". (http://writeanything.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/defining-the-genre-horrorterror/)

After this I began looking at one of my favourite games, Alan Wake. (http://www.alanwake.com/) 


Synopsis: "Part action game, part psychological thriller, Alan Wake® is a pulse-pounding thrill ride. When the wife of the best-selling writer Alan Wake disappears on their vacation, his search turns up pages from a thriller he doesn't even remember writing. A dark presence stalks the small town of Bright Falls, pushing Wake to the brink of sanity in his fight to unravel the mystery and save his love."

I knew this would be a good place to begin looking for influences, as a lot can be seen in the game. The first obvious influence is Stephen King. The story of how what Alan is writing comes to life is a theme that Stephen has been exploring in some of his novels. Alan also directly quotes Stephen King on a couple of occasions, such as the games opening line, which was taken from a Stephen King essay. There is also clear influence in the story to 'The Shining', such as the picture below, as well as the hedge maze later in the game. Stephen King was asked permission to be quoted, and Remedy also gave him copies of the game as a thank you. 


"The setup of the game _ a best-selling but troubled writer whose dark work of fiction starts to come true, blurring the line of nightmares and reality _ is a very Stephen King type of a starting point for a story, so King's works were definitely a source of inspiration for us."

The TV show 'Twin Peaks' is also said to be an influence, as the town in which the game is set, Bright Falls, drew inspiration from the town in the show. Remedy also admitted to drawing influence for the character Cynthia Weaver from Twin Peaks Margaret Lanterman, as seen below.

There is also an influence from Alfred Hitchcock's horror film 'The Birds', as Alan is occasionally attacked by a flock of crows.

Alfred Hitchcocks The Birds

In the game there is also a TV show which the player can watch on television sets around town. This short program called 'Night Springs' is directly influenced by 'The Twilight Zone', a series created by Rod Serling in the 1950s.

Progress and Finished piece

Here is the initial drawing I had to work with in colour.

I then worked on the background to create shadows.

After creating tone and completing the shading, I then looked at ways I could make it unique.

I had the idea of keeping the colour red in the picture, as my hair is what makes me unique, and is a defining piece of who I am.

After this I decided to see what background I should have, if any at all, to complete the drawing.

This is the final piece, with only a slight shadow, as to not draw attention away from the main drawing.

Close up of the top half

Horses are my favourite animal, and a big part of my life. This is why I have included them on my armor.

These are the bracelets I wear everyday, and I included them as they also define my character and look.

Overall I am really happy with how this turns out, and I feel it really reflects my character and personality. This is how I would like to be if I could. I decided to keep the rough lines in, as I feel it gives a rough look to the piece, and this also shows my style of drawing.

More progress

This is the almost finished piece for the self portrait study. I am really happy with how this has turned out. Below is the colour study, roughly done to get the colours correct. I prefer the image in black and white, but I may play around with this, maybe keeping the red the only colour in the image.

Portrait Project

I decided to model my character on both unusual clothes and also include on my character clothes that I own to make it more personal to me. Here is my progress so far, with bits needed to be added in and edited, but I am happy with how it looks so far.

I will also extend the size of the picture to include the lower legs and feet to complete the image. My influence for this outfit came from a mixture of Mass Effect, Assassins Creed, Resident evil, and also my own wardrobe.

Google sketch up

This is the progress of creating a 3d version of my door in Google sketch up. Considering this is my first time using this software, I am happy with how it is progressing so far.

Door Design coloured

Here is the first coloured version of my door. I am happy with how this looks, however I will experiment with different colours and also different textures, for the bricks etc. I will also design different posters and choose the best ones to be put on the door.

Full colour study 

Close up of the posters on the right of the door

Close up of the posters on the left of the door

Door concept

This is a mixture of the two door concepts I completed earlier, from Fable and Bioshock Infinite (As seen below)

This is an almost final design, with a few tweaks to be made. This is how I would like my door to look, with an old Fable feel to it, as if in a marketplace. I also wanted to have torn posters on the door, which maybe patriarchal and colourful, trying to get the population to submit.
I will now put this sketch into Photoshop and complete a colour study, and from there I can decide which parts to tweak.

Here are also a couple of orthographic sketches to help me construct my large orthographic drawing.

Self portrait project

Here is some research I conducted for the Self portrait assignment set by Helen McCarthy. This is the project outline:

"To create a character, based on yourself. The character can explore aspects of yourself that you would like to
have or be, or perhaps exaggerate things about you or even fantasy elements.
If you want to base the character on someone else, make sure you know them well, and can ask
them if they're happy about it.

Produce a series of drawings/ sketches/a back story/ fully rendered images of the character.
You can also work in 3D - either digitally or model-making. Remember, Helen also suggested you could cos-play your character!"

My first thoughts took me back to some drawings I recently completed of my in game characters on Skyrim and Mass Effect.

These are literally just fan images of my in game characters , but after reading this brief I realised that this is the kind of look I want to go for in my character. I then looked at game art for characters and found these reference images. These ideas will form the basis of how I want my character to look.

Assassins Creed Brotherhood multiplayer characters

Mass Effect Fem shep

The Hunger Games, Katniss

Alice, Resident Evil

These are all strong female archetypes, and this is how I want my character to be perceived.