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.