Poster Concepts

We had decided that for the game, we wanted the environment to have a certain sense of realism about it. One of the best ways to do this was to concept and create posters that would feature around the environment. These posters could homage famous films from the 80's that have inspired us for the game, whether it be the colours or the idea of the film. I took on the role of the poster artist, as we didn't have a concept artist among us.

"80's Synth Wave"

I first start by looking at different posters that were inspired by the 80's. This films include Drive, which uses the 80's synth wave style that we were looking for, Guardians of the Galaxy and Kung Fury. The bright purple, pinks and blues is something that  At first I had the idea of creating posters from imagination, one such I called "Rage Man".

"Rage Man"

This was the first time that I had Photoshop other than texturing for a while. I started this poster with the idea that these poster would reflect the 80's Miami style. I started off by gathering an image of an angry man off of the internet. The next step was for me to alter the face in such a way in which the original could not be seen. This include deleting certain features within the face. Going back to the Synth Wave style and what features in our game, I used a gradient of a dark purple to a deep blue. Then by adding a the stroke tool to the body, I managed to receive a decent result. This was also repeated with the background, and where the title sits. To add extra detail to poster and give it that Miami feel, I added a skyline and palm trees to the piece. However as I was working my way through this piece I started to feel that it may be too bright, with the colour slightly overused and over the top, leading me to abandon the piece halfway. I then made the decision to create posters which would be a mock of actual posters in the 80's, to help ensure the player feels like they are in that time period.

Inspirational Poster.

"The Moderator"

In this poster I have mimicked "The Terminator" a famous film from 1984. When it comes to the 1980's my mind straight away takes me to the terminator films. My twist on the original film is called "The Moderator" in which an internet moderator is the main theme on the front of the poster, rather than that of a killing machine. I managed to merge two images that I had found, one being the head, the other  the body,  to create this character. I put a different tag line to the original, to help sell this as a film, such as instead of "In the year of darkness, 2029" I changed it to "In the year of confusion, 2017"

I want people to recognise the original and slightly and associate the game with the same time period.

This really did feel like a movie poster, with the addition of the age rating and credits. 

Inspirational Poster.

"Messy Moves"

This a movie which is inspired by the 1987 film "Dirty Dancing" which summed up the music of the time. This poster is very simple, but at the same time, has own unique twist which makes it stand out amongst others. I really liked the use of the purple tones in the original title and desired that the use of it in the rest of picture would give me a rather interesting result. When we tried this in game, we had a problem with the white background. As the posters illuminate, the white made the poster too bright, meaning that the rest of the detail is lost in the process. The solution to this is to either invert the colours on the poster, so that the white is minimal, or to reduce how emmisive the poster is, though, this will look weird amongst the other posters. I have used two tones for the entire piece, with purple standing out. The range of tone which is used means that even though the whole image is one colour, the figures and their detail stand out. I added an easter egg on the poster in the form of our team name which is at the bottom of each of the posters, again giving this sense of realism to the game. 

Inspirational Poster.

"Live Long"

When I was constructing this piece, I was making a mock of the Die Hard poster from 1988, which was an action blockbuster and set the template for many action films to come. The original poster is a very interesting piece, with the only colour being the red on the main title, making it stand out. I gain tried to incorporate this into my piece. Again, I have also added my own subtext to make the film believable. The L.A landscape features in the background, with a jet shooting out of the main skyscraper. I decided that in order to avoid any copyright, I would use a photo that I had for the main shot of the character. I was fortunate enough that my brother is on the acting course and he has had mug shot ready available for me to adjust. The serious face that he gives off makes the character look like an action hero, suiting the role. 

One thing that is apparent in all the posters that I made is the extra detail such as the credits and age rating. I wanted to make sure that if a player were take any time looking at the poster, it would suit the universe that is situated in. These names are credited with roles that movies would have. 

Out of all the pieces that I had made, this was most likely my favourite, not only because it looks the most believable in this world that we are trying to create, but I also really liked the layout of the poster, with the action slowly merging into the characters face.

I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the project. It was a chance for me to explore my more creative side, instead of having to copy real world objects and create them as low poly mesh. It has been a nice break from 3D programs and has really given me the chance to brush up on my 2D skills.

Creating an M16

The next gun that I was tasked with creating was the M16. We all felt that this was an important gun to include, because not only does it feature in many different video games, but also in 80's action films, one of our main influences features many different versions of the gun.

The one that we took main inspiration out of, was that of Scarface. Its quite an iconic gun in the world of cinema, especially famous for the double mag with tape wrapped around it and  grenade launcher along the bottom.

A Render of the high poly

This gun was a bit tougher to tackle, due to the sheer shape and size of the model. A lot of detail had to go into it and by doing that, the poly count of the gun had risen dramatically. At one point, I was over at least 1 million tris, outside of ZBrush, which is not a good thing. This meant that it would be harder when it came to tackling the low poly.

Side on view of the gun.

I was really happy with the end result that I managed to achieve with the high poly model, perhaps one of my most impressive models to date. The next stage, in my opinion, was a lot tougher, having to slowly pick apart the model, bit by bit in order to lower the poly count, but at the same time, not alter the shape of the model too much.

Front of the Gun.

After a long period of creating the low poly assets, I had to map the whole gun. This again, was an extremely strenuous task, as there where so many little parts to the model, having to map each and every single object.

The Gun textured. 

After the mapping was achieved it was then time to move onto the texturing. I was extremely tempted to use substance designer here and try to widen my horizons, however I thought, with it being a project piece, it was most likely the best to stick with what and knew and keep with Quixel,

The Geometry of the Gun.

I was really happy with how the gun managed to turn out, I can see the improvement in my work, which shows a development and understanding of the programs as a whole.

The Gun in the Game.

Deciding on the Game and Creating a Desert Eagle

This year we got given the choice, it being our final year, that we could work as an individual, and produce a lone piece of work, such as a  selection of triple assets, or we could work in a group, similar to what we had been doing in the previous years. It started of to a degree of difficulty. The plan my group had set out to do after summer had fallen apart and we lost key members of the group, downsizing the whole operation. In the end, Me, Ben Matthews and George Burchmore decided that we were going to continue with being a group and try to make something to be proud of.

After much brainstorming, we decided to stick with what George wanted to do, with him being the game designer, we didn't want him to lose interest in the project. We all are big fans of FPS's (First Person Shooters), after what we managed and learnt in the last project (See "Red Hail"), we felt a progression on this would be ideal. The Thematic synopsis of the game that we intend to create is essentially a shooter based in the 80's, as well as being set in Miami. We really were interested in the "Vice" theme. It features in such films as "Drive" and shows like "Miami Vice".

As me and Ben are environment artists and George being the Game Designer, we were servery lacking in a concept artist of any kind. However, a pro to basing our game on a real world setting, we could literally base it on reference that already exists. meaning that me and Ben could get started on the modelling side of things. I was given two guns, which are seen as iconic from that period of time, to model for the game. The guns that I was given were the "Desert Eagle" and the "M16 with Grenade Launcher (Scar face Style)".

I first started with the Desert Eagle. The best way to start the project in my opinion, was to gather many references from all angles, of the gun, meaning that I could get a clear image of what the gun geometry should be like. There were many tough shapes that I had to create for this gun, but believed that this was achievable. We also where looking into a way of modelling called "Sub D modelling". This was using the smooth tool, but at the same time, using "Support edges", which would guide the mesh, meaning that it didn't create an odd shape and at the same time giving a nice finish.

The "Support Edges" in "Sub D" modelling.

The one thing that we needed to be aware of when constructing the gun was that it needed to have a reload animation for when you fire the gun. This now meant that the gun needed ti be cut up into different section in order to replicate this perfectly. I ended up doing a fair amount of research for this and had to watch many videos of people firing real life Desert Eagle Magnums so I didn't miss anything out.

In the end, the pieces that where cut out and separated were the back of the gun, so it could pull back when you fired the gun, the trigger, so you could see your character squeeze every time and the action of actually killing someone and finally the hammer, so it could pull back when the gun fires.

The Gun opens up, for the Reload Animation.

I have a specific way of working a model like this, especially with the amount of detail that this gun has. I start by outlining the model, to get a very basic shape of the gun, then I will start to pick parts of the gun apart, such as the back and model that individually. Once I have created the shape, I will start to add the polys to get a really nice shape. Of course overtime, this would add up to a fairly high number, meaning that I can then work backwards by deleting useless tries. This is great as the performance of the game is a high priority.

Having to Cut Down the Poly Count.

Once I'm left over with the useful verts, I can then start to be extremely picky about it. Getting the gun down to the bare minimum is the target, as it will make the game perform better. I managed to get the poly count down to around the 7000 mark, which, considering the shape, I felt was a decent achievement.

The End Poly Count/Low Poly Model.

Once the Gun had its lowest amount of tris, the next step was to UV the model. I had recently come back to U.V's so was fairly familiar when it came to going through this process. Though it had an awkward shape, I managed to get through this stage with relative ease, moving onto the next task, which was to apply the material to the gun.

Final Render of the Gun.

As we were going for iconic weaponry, we as a group believed that the best course of action would to apply a chrome material. This was interesting as there was a chance that the chrome could have been too much, but after heading into Quixel Suite and displaying it into the 3D viewer, we believe that the right call was made.

The Gun having been Textured.

The Desert Eagle displayed in Marmoset.

I decided that I wanted to see what the gun looked like when it was displayed in Marmoset, The 3D rendering program. This was something that was new to me and involved a bit of experimentation in order to achieve a decent result.

After the gun was textured, it was then given to our game designer, George, who then put the gun in game. He also managed to put an animation on it, which when it fires, the gun cocks back and will stay like that if the player runs out of ammo.

The Desert Eagle in Game.