Dissertation Proposal: First Draft

Proposed Dissertation Title:

Investigating the emotive power of visual cues, and using this knowledge to create a style guide for a game.

  

Brief Outline of work:

For my dissertation I will be investigating the power of visual cues, which will culminate in the production of a style guide for my final artefact. This dissertation will focus on what work goes into deciding what a game looks like: colour, composition, lighting, perspective, etc.

Refer to my blog post for more information on what a style guide contains: http://giselleczajka.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/planning-my-dissertation-what-is-style.html.

I will be making a style guide for a small section of a game, as it would be nigh on impossible for one person to make a style guide for a complete game in one year. I will be picking one scene, or one 15-20 minute section of the game to focus on.

The aim of the dissertation is to be able to produce a style guide that will convey the required aesthetic/mood in detail, so that a game artist would be able to create consistent artwork from the style guide. I will most likely make two smaller style guides, which show a change in aesthetic and mood – so for example a town in prosperity, and then the same town in turmoil later in the game. This will make it easier to show the contrast between different moods and aesthetics.

After delving into this idea further, it became apparent that evoking emotion in a player takes more than just a pretty environment; it also requires well thought-out characters and story. Once I have got the colour, composition, camera angles, etc to a good standard, then I will most likely use the characters in the game to add that extra level of emotion. I think that a style guide can still be good without that extra depth, but I want to include it if I can, to give it that little bit more.

Rationale:

Personal:

I don’t enjoy 3D modelling, and my skills at programming are too basic for me to want to risk basing an entire dissertation around it. I have decided to base my dissertation around art, as I really enjoy drawing, but I still have plenty to learn. My drawing skills have got rusty over the past few years, so the dissertation module is the perfect opportunity to brush up on my art skills, and develop them further.

Refer to my blog post for more detail on my personal reasons for choosing this type of dissertation: http://giselleczajka.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/planning-my-dissertation-deciding-on.html.

Work Related:

I looked into what roles are generally in the games industry. The specific roles that interest me are as follows:

• Art Director // Lead Artist – once I have enough experience, I would like to work up to a lead role in this area.
• Creative Director // Lead Designer – this is again something I would like to consider once I have the required experience.
• Concept Artist
• Designer (Systems Designer, UI Designer, Level Designer)
• Writer

Writer is the least important role to me on this list, so will most likely not be a focus in this dissertation, but is still something I am interested in.

Lead artists need the same skills as roles like concept artists, but also need years of experience, which won’t be feasible for a student trying to get into the games industry. I will aim for the lower roles to start with, with the intention to work my way up the ladder to a lead role later in my career.

Looking at example jobs, the following skills are often required for jobs as concept artists:

• Drawing and painting skills, both in traditional and digital mediums
• Understanding of lighting, colour theory, composition, perspective, anatomy, etc
• Self-motivation

I already have some drawing skills, but the dissertation will improve these further, and also give me skills in digital art, such as the use of Photoshop. The style guide itself won’t technically need drawing skill, but the research I undertake will involve lots of drawing, to test colour theory, composition, etc, as the best way to learn is to try out lots of different ideas. This will then also cover the second bullet point listed above. The ability to be self-motivated will definitely be shown in the dissertation as well, as we are expected to be autonomous learners.

Refer to my blog for more information on roles in the industry, desired skills that a game designer will possess, and examples of jobs in the industry:

• http://giselleczajka.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/planning-my-dissertation-roles-in.html
• http://giselleczajka.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/planning-my-dissertation-skills-needed.html
• http://giselleczajka.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/planning-my-dissertation-what-jobs-are.html

Academic:

Over many years, humans have learnt to express ideas through written word, and to convey emotion through music and art. Awareness of emotions has always played a big part in our survival; fear tells us when we should run, and contentment tells us when we are safe and nourished. Reacting to emotions is vital, and sight plays arguably the biggest role in extracting emotional cues from our environment.

A cross-looking person may inspire feelings of fear or discomfort, while seeing someone that looks happy may evoke feelings of happiness or calm in the onlooker. Cognitive science suggests that visual art can stimulate emotions in the viewer by taking advantage of emotional cues we've learned to interpret over the millennia. A picture of someone with a steely, harsh expression should inspire a sense of fear or unease in the average viewer, whereas a picture of a child might produce happier feelings.

Some studies do support this observation. In a functional MRI study, Kawabata and Zeki (2003) found that beautiful pictures stimulated the regions of the brain that are associated with emotion. In some instances the use of colour and symbolism can also evoke an emotional response. For instance, the colour red is often associated with danger, or anger. In the same way, chaotic lines can make the viewer experience feelings of discomfort and disorder.

These emotion-stimulating visuals; smiling children, angry faces, the colour red, and lines in disarray, are known as cognitive antecedents. Artists can use them to store an emotional state, to be experienced by the viewer later on. The emotions that art can invoke aren't always planned deliberately - they can be different for each individual. For example, in Japan the colour white is associated with death, so may invoke feelings of sadness in a Japanese viewer.

This is something I would really like to investigate further, in relation to video games. It will also help me to develop relevant skills for jobs in the games industry (see the work related section, above).

Annotated Bibliography:

Main research:

The following are directly related to my dissertation.

Books:

Don Seegmiller (2003). Digital Character Design and Painting. USA: Charles River Media.

This book covers how to merge character design and digital painting. While this book covers general drawing techniques, it also covers colour theory, lighting, etc. It talks about creating characters that elicit specific emotions from viewers, which is directly relevant to my dissertation.

Les Pardew (2005). Beginning Illustration and Storyboarding for Games. Boston: Thomson Course Technology.

This book is dedicated to learning how to create storyboards and concept art. Nearly every chapter in this book will be of use.

Phil Metzger (2007). The Art of Perspective. Ohio: North Light Books.

This book is about learning how perspective works, which is exactly what I need for my research, as perspective is one of the important skills that I will need to be proficient in.

Tom Bancroft (2012). Character Mentor. Oxford: Elsevier.

This book shows how to use expressions, poses, and staging to bring a character to life. It also talks about using angle and composition to create character-driven scenes, or story-driven scenes, which relates directly to creating a style guide, as a style guide is all about how the scene has been laid out.

Websites:

Jesse Schell. (2013). Nobody Wants to Read Your Design. Available: http://www.slideshare.net/jesseschell/nobody-wants-to-read-your-design. Last accessed 19th October 2013

This article talks about how artists will want a design document (in my case a style guide, which is an art design document) that is more visual than textual.

Liberated Pixel Cup Styleguide. Available: http://lpc.opengameart.org/static/lpc-style-guide/styleguide.html. Last accessed 14th October 2013.

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Margrave: The Blacksmith’s Daughter Early Storyboard. Available: http://www.bigfishgames.com/blog/margrave-the-blacksmiths-daughter-early-storyboard/. Last accessed 14th October 2013

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Sony. The Look and Feel of Planetside 2. Available: https://www.planetside2.com/player-studio/style-guide. Last accessed 14th October 2013.

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Valve. DOTA 2 Character Art Guide. Available: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterArtGuide.pdf. Last accessed 14th October 2013.

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Valve. DOTA 2 Character Color Texture Guide. Available: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterTextureGuide.pdf. Last accessed 14th October 2013.

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Valve. DOTA 2 Character Shader Masks Guide. Available: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2ShaderMaskGuide.pdf. Last accessed 14th October 2013.

These are examples of style guides. They will be very useful as a reference.

Research related to deciding on the narrative context, location, function(s), etc:

The following will help me give some narrative context to my style guide.

Books:

Andrew Rollings & Ernest Adams (2003). Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design. USA: New Riders Publishing.

This is the book that I used when researching skills that a game designer requires (p18-26). It is a general game design book, but I am particularly interested in Chapter 3: Game Settings and Worlds, Chapter 4: Storytelling and Narrative, and Chapter 6: Creating the User Experience (this chapter talks about the visual element of the user experience).

Flint Dille & John Zuur Platten (2007). The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design. New York: Lone Eagle Publishing Company.

This book will be useful in deciding on the narrative context, location, function(s), etc behind the style guide.

Heather Maxwell Chandler & Rafael Chandler (2011). Fundamentals of Game Development. London: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

This is the book that I used when researching roles in the game industry (Chapter 3). It is a general game design book, but I am particularly interested in Chapter 8: Characters, Setting, and Story.

Lee Sheldon (2004). Character Development and Storytelling for Games. Boston: Thomson Course Technology.

This book will be useful in deciding on the narrative context, location, function(s), etc behind the style guide.

Steve Ince (2006). Writing for Video Games. London: A & C Black Publishers Limited.

This book will be useful in deciding on the narrative context, location, function(s), etc behind the style guide.

Research related to drawing skills:

The following, while not necessarily related directly to my dissertation, are focused on improving my general drawing skills.

Books:

Derek Lea (2009). Creative Photoshop CS4. Oxford: Elsevier.

This book covers how to use Photoshop CS4. Photoshop is one of the well-known pieces of software for creating digital art, so this book will be very useful.

Ettore Maiotti (1993). The Drawing Handbook. Italy: Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri.

This book teaches the principles of pencil drawing.

Haitao Su & Vincent Zhao (2011). Alive Character Design. United Kingdom: Cypi Press.

This book talks about how to draw characters, and bring them to life.

Hazel Harrison (1999). Drawing with Pencils & Pastels. London: Lorenz Books.

This book teaches the principles of pencil drawing, and drawing with pastels.

John Torreano (2007). Drawing by Seeing. London: Lawrence King Publishing.

This book teaches the principles of drawing, with illustrated examples of what techniques improve drawing, such as perceived overlap.

Project Timeline and Milestone Deliverables:

To begin with, I will do as much research as possible on the relevant subjects, through books, articles, etc. This is already in progress now. I will then start defining some goals, and start experimenting with aspects: testing colours, composition, and so on.

WEEK 12 (16^th-20^th Dec): By Christmas I will have decided on the details of the style guide: aesthetic/mood/tone etc, narrative context, location, function(s) of the scene, the players, NPCs. This may change throughout the project, but I will at least have a focus for my starting point, so that I can start on the actual artefact itself.

WEEK 13 (20^th-24^th Jan): By the new year I will have made all the preparations, and be ready to really drill down into the topics. I will have the knowledge to really be able to make informed decisions on aspects of the style guide, from my research and experiments. I will make a first pass on the narrative structure, and collate reference materials for the theme and mood, then I can start really building my style guide.

WEEK 20 (10^th-14^th Mar): By March I will endeavour to have a complete first pass of my style guide, so that I have time to revise and polish it.

Research: Visual Art and Emotion

Over many years, humans have learnt to express ideas through written word, and to convey emotion through music and art. Awareness of emotions has always played a big part in our survival; fear tells us when we should run, and contentment tells us when we are safe and nourished. Reacting to emotions is vital, and sight plays arguably the biggest role in extracting emotional cues from our environment.

A cross-looking person may inspire feelings of fear or discomfort, while seeing someone that looks happy may evoke feelings of happiness or calm in the onlooker. Cognitive science suggests that visual art can stimulate emotions in the viewer by taking advantage of emotional cues we've learned to interpret over the millennia. A picture of someone with a steely, harsh expression should inspire a sense of fear or unease in the average viewer, whereas a picture of a child might produce happier feelings.

Some studies do support this observation. In a functional MRI study, Kawabata and Zeki (2003) found that beautiful pictures stimulated the regions of the brain that are associated with emotion. In some instances the use of colour and symbolism can also evoke an emotional response. For instance, the colour red is often associated with danger, or anger. In the same way, chaotic lines can make the viewer experience feelings of discomfort and disorder.

These emotion-stimulating visuals; smiling children, angry faces, the colour red, and lines in disarray, are known as cognitive antecedents. Artists can use them to store an emotional state, to be experienced by the viewer later on. The emotions that art can invoke aren't always planned deliberately - they can be different for each individual. For example, in Japan the colour white is associated with death, so may invoke feelings of sadness in a Japanese viewer.

Planning my dissertation: Planning the Scope of the Art Style Guide

Some game worlds are so expansive, that making a style guide for the entire game world would take an enormous amount of skill and time. Seeing as a dissertation is a solo project, I almost certainly won't have time to make a style guide for a complete game in just one year. 

My teacher mentioned that on large-scale projects, style guides are sometimes created on a per race, or per city/town/level basis. Making an art style guide for a small section of a game would be far more achievable than trying to complete an entire art style guide.

I will need to create a basic storyline and premise for a game, to give the style guide some context. I will then pick a small section of the storyline, and effectively act as the design lead for that segment. So I might pick a specific location in the game that the main character will visit, or pick a 20 minute section of the game. If the main character encounters a new race there, I may also devote a small section of the style guide to that race as well. My style guide will most likely include storyboards, as this is a good way to emphasise some visual aspects, such as camera angles.

My style guide will lean towards being more visual, rather than including pages and pages of text, because I've been told that artists don't much care for reading! Pictures and diagrams are also far easier to comprehend than a wall of text. (See: Nobody Wants to Read Your Design, by Jesse Schell: http://www.slideshare.net/jesseschell/nobody-wants-to-read-your-design).

Planning my Dissertation: What Jobs are Actually out There?

If my artefact is aimed at helping me get a job, I need to make sure the jobs that it is focusing on actually exist! My artefact will essentially be concept art, so lets first look at what concept artists actually do.

Bon Expose defines concept art as "a form of illustration where the main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood for use in films, video games, animation, or comic books before it is put into the final product."

Before the production of a game commences, companies will often require a large amount of artwork to be created. Concept artists will use sketches and speed paints to provide a broad range of interpretations, to help realise the artistic vision of the game. Concept art has matured along with the games industry, with digital software such as Photoshop being more readily available, enabling more efficient working methods.

Now, what kind of jobs are out there for concept artists?

This is an example of a job advert that I found, for a concept artist:

Concept Artist

Black Rock Studio is currently looking for a Concept Artist to join the team at the Brighton-based studio. The studio, best known for award-winning titles such as the MotoGP series on Xbox 360 and PC and the multi-million selling ATV Offroad Fury 3 & 4, is now developing new-gen original IP racing games and looking for talented and passionate racing game enthusiasts to join the teams on these innovative Xbox 360 & PS3 projects.

The Role:

The Black Rock team are looking for highly motivated, talented and creative individuals with honed fine art skills and the ability to illustrate concepts quickly. As a concept artist you will be part of a vibrant and passionate team creating environments through sketches, storyboards and full colour artwork.

Key Responsibilities:
As part of a wider conceptual art team you will be expected to deliver industry leading look and feel pieces in order to help define and drive forwards the look development and vision for the studios new and exciting IP.

Education / Qualifications:
A Bachelor degree in fine arts, architecture, or film. Various degrees of education and experience will be considered provided the applicant's portfolio demonstrates the following requirements:

A versatile and exceptional 2D portfolio.
Excellent drawing and painting skills in traditional mediums and or digital illustrations.
Exceptional and proven understanding of lighting, colour theory and composition.
Excellent fundamental art skills.
Experience in production creating environment ‘Look and Feel’ concepts.
Demonstration of a concept’s evolution from rough sketches through to final full colour illustrated ‘Look and feel’.
Any experience of working with storyboards would also be a distinct advantage.The ability to convey atmosphere and mood through light and colour.

Key Skills / Experience / Essential Requirements:

Strong desire to work on environmental concepts.
Willing to work closely in a cross discipline collaborative and creative team environment
Creativity, motivation, enthusiasm, flexibility, adaptability.
A firm grasp of colour theory, lighting and composition is a must coupled with a drive and a passion for your art.
A true passion for video games.
Knowledge of multiple art styles and techniques, able to draw inspiration from a wide range of traditional artists. .
Versatility to work everything from environments through to characters, and in any genre / style is an advantage.Up-to-date knowledge of computer illustration software packages, e.g., Photoshop and/or Painter.
Familiarity or experience with 3D programs and 2D vector-based art applications is a plus.
Ability to create a large volume of high quality concept art within short time frames.

The skills highlighted in green are the ones that I feel I already have a good grip on.

The skills highlighted in yellow are the ones that I have some experience in from before university, but skills that my dissertation will help to improve further.

The skills highlighted in orange are the ones that my dissertation will also help with, but are very new to me at present.

Looking through several job adverts, the skills that tended to be requested frequently, were:

- skills in digital media, i.e. photoshop

- understanding of light, colour theory, composition, perspective, anatomy etc.

- self-motivated

These are all things that my dissertation will give me plenty of experience in. 

Planning my Dissertation: What is a Style Guide?

Before planning out a style guide of my own, I need to investigate what actually goes into a style guide, and what purpose it serves.

In his online article, "Video game style guides are extremely useful", David Colson says that he acknowledges three main types of design document:

• the game design document, which outlines the gameplay.
• the technical design document, which outlines technology to be used, game engines, graphics techniques, and so on.
• the art style guide, something that is commonly associated with web design and graphic design.

Colson argues that the art style guide is just as important in video games. When a game is in pre-production, a vast quantity of concept art is usually required. A style guide is a way for concept artists to consolidate their vision of the game in one place, so that other members of the design team know exactly what they are working towards.

A style guide serves as an "art bible" to the game artists, so they know what colours to use, what art style to use, and what overall aesthetic is trying to be achieved. The aim of a style guide is to provide consistency throughout the whole project, which will result in a more attractive game.

Refer to the following for examples of what a style guide may look like:

• Margrave: The Blacksmith’s Daughter Early Storyboard:
  http://www.bigfishgames.com/blog/margrave-the-blacksmiths-daughter-early-storyboard/
• Liberated Pixel Cup Styleguide: http://lpc.opengameart.org/static/lpc-style-guide/styleguide.html 
• DOTA 2 Character Art Guide: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterArtGuide.pdf
• DOTA 2 Character Color Texture Guide: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterTextureGuide.pdf
• The Look and Style of Planetside 2: https://www.planetside2.com/player-studio/style-guide

Planning my dissertation: Deciding on the Focus, and the Final Artefact

After deciding that I wanted to base my dissertation about something artwork-related, I needed to actually hone in on what I wanted to study, and what I wanted to produce as a final artefact.

I have always been fascinated by what I see in life - the world around me is always filled with so many different colours, shapes and sizes. I think that part of this comes from my artistic side, that I inherited from my father, but I also think that part of it comes from my eyesight (or lack of!).

From a young age I've had to rely on glasses to see anything that's more than a few inches past my own nose. To make this easy to visualise, for those of you with better eyesight, this is pretty close to what the world looks like to me, with my natural vision:

obtained from:
http://www.coachrobertsimmons.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/637_blurred_vision.jpg

My eyesight is blurred to the point that I can't tell that objects in front of me even exist - the whole world is just one big blur. So when I do wear my glasses, it makes everything around me look... well... amazing! It's like stepping out of a bubble, into a completely different world. I want to take in everything I see, all the colours, and shapes around me.

Clear Vision by InfuzedMedia, on deviantart.com

Continuing along that trail of thought, I want my dissertation to be about what players SEE in the world around them, and how this can effect how they feel when playing a game. Some sights will affect players in a way that they are aware of (scary monsters and such), but there are many different things that add to the immersion of a game, without the player necessarily being conscious of them (like colour). Many small design considerations all come together to produce the overall feel of the game.

One of my teachers gave me lots of advice over the summer, and gave me lots to think about. One of his suggestions was to create a style guide for a game - I think this would be a great final artefact, and would be one that would also allow me to get my drawing fix. I would have plenty of things to research, and that research would hopefully culminate in a well-thought-out concept document/style guide.

The next step is to get stuck in and do some research! I also need to decide on a clearly defined set of goals, for the teachers to be able to mark my work properly at the end of the year.