Maxwell-ALIVE

Reawakening

2011-12-11T16:23:00.001Z

Once you dive into what is considered the deep end, you discover a hidden abysis of yet greater depth. Unlike the initial leap of faith, however, once engulfed in any measure of water, traversing further downward seems less foreboding. It is the initial transition from air-to-water, from same-to-different, that provides the biggest shock.

It is important to reflect upon the fact that life is not inherently difficult. It is only when you begin to assign values to the particles of your perception that certain constituents stand out as obstacles blocking your path, or assets worthy of utilization. From an existential-nihilistic viewpoint, existence qualifies as meaningless, and as life is not a game with clear-cut objectives, there is no such thing as 'failure' or 'success.' The terms, 'failure' and 'success,' are ultimately labels that stem from our emotional desires.

This is a philosophical viewpoint that I formed a while ago, but yet its truth becomes clearer by the day. My self-assigned mission in life is to experience and to appreciate ― and what better place to do as such than in India!

I feel as if my time has come to undergo a process of reawakening within an intellectual sense. It is time for me to restructure my views and values. I am not the same person that I was a few years back and I must acknowledge this if I ever want to substantiate my life objectives. One very important realisation for me, a few years back, was that I am nothing at all like my parents: I have different values; different passions; a different aptitude. Going to university allowed me to grow into my own person and discover myself. Going to India allowed me to venture beyond the viewable horizon, into the mysterious, limitlessly expansive world beyond; a place where I can grow and develop yet moreso! I feel determined to do something; now I must simply decide what that something will be!

I am so lucky (and not to mention, grateful) to have been given this opportunity — I cannot emphasise that enough! Poverty and pollution aside, I like being in India a lot! It is nice, for once, to be living in a foreign country rather than just 'visiting' it. This is a genuine experience; not a manufactured one such as the tourist packages that have you nestled away within a sectioned-off 'tourist zone.' God forbid the idea of actually encountering a country's inhabitant!

Half a year in this tantalising place will give me time to fully climatise and see beyond the explicit into the more subtle. In my time here, I hope to discover the hidden beauty within the ugly, and the hidden ugly within the beauty.

Sitting in an auto-rickshaw on my way to a big market-street called Laxmi Road, I passed by some roadside vendor stands selling clay/mud ceramics. I have admired such simple yet elegant forms of craftwork through the device of photographs for many years but never before in real-life; I was very touched. In fact, I have felt more emotionally moved in the past two weeks than I thought possible! In a land of such corruption, poverty and pollution, the beauty really stands out. Just as when an artist paints a colour next to its complimentary, the striking contrast between the ugly and the beautiful in India drives them to amplify one another!

There is just simply so much that I could write regarding my experiences in India that I do not know where to begin! I am off to an Islamic wedding in ten minutes time; perhaps I will blog about that afterwards.

Culture Shock

2011-12-09T17:53:00.001Z

I cannot compile into mere words, the complexity of my feelings.

I am so glad to be here but yet so distraught at the same time. Since I have been in India, my perspective has been fluctuating between two modes of operation; one in which I find everything beautiful and amazing, and a second in which I feel like a fish out of water. I would be inclined to believe, however, that my predominant disposition is that of gratitude. I need this experience. It is a package deal that comes with both good and bad components — what is worth bearing in mind is that both of these constituents will ultimately help to build a better me.

Up until now, I have had a romanticist's view of the developing world. I have spent years living in Asia within my mind but only now am I actually living here. Looking at the work of the 19th-century orientalist painters or throwing-open a copy of National Geographic is absolutely incomparable to the real thing. I now realise that whenever I have picked-up a travelogue to read, my mind has created an entirely artificial world. Is it that I am too imaginative or, more likely, is it that 'interpretation of life' to 'written language' to 'interpretation of written language' always leads to distortion?

I have made a similar remark before but I will reiterate for emphasis: I feel that I am calling my own bluff!

I have a tendency to frown-upon people who project themselves as being worldly ignorant. Little did I know until recently that I was, in fact, such a person myself! While still in England, I actually went so far as to assert that I would suffer a subaverage degree of culture shock from coming over to India. Clearly, when put to the test, that proved false!

Being here is sobering, invigorating, numbing, stimulating, and depressing. I cannot say for sure, but I believe it to be guilt mixed with pity that is overwhelming my otherwise jolly façade.

I feel so sick with rage by the reality of how people over here are exploited by the fat-cats of the Western World! Annoyance saturates my being with far greater intensity than ever before whenever I think back to the comments I have heard game producers make in the past regarding outsourcing. Reflective thoughts about quotes from years-upon-years ago are now cascading around my skull cavity in a wild attempt to break-free and avenge the injustices of our economically-unequal world.

I feel guilt mostly for the fact that I am sat here on my big, fat arse doing nothing to help solve these problems. Some people write a blog post or two — or perhaps even a book — and then feel an alleviation of their guilt. Dear reader, please realise that writing this does nothing to satisfy my guilt. I am fully aware of how I am currently doing absolutely nothing for the world. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I am taking without giving.

Games do not help the world. They simply fuel consumerism, which in turn, lines the pockets of the big-boys at the top of the capitalist triangle.

I will end by recommending a magnificent book that I have recently finished reading: Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India. I have read a fair amount of travel literature over the years and this one book in particular deserves ranking right up at the top, parallel to my other favourite, Beijing Coma. What makes Nine Lives such a wonderful book is how it manages to capture modern India in so many different lights, thus offering a broad spectrum of knowledge and empathy to the reader. My most enjoyed story in the book is one of an aging Jain monk who reflects back on her life and tells of the harsh discipline that she and her friend had to willingly endure in pursuing their faith.

Here's a small extract:

"Buddhist ascetics shave their heads; Jains pluck their hair out by the roots. Buddhist monks beg for food; Jains have to have their food given to them without asking. All they can do is to go out on gowkari — the word used to describe the grazing of a cow — and signal their hunger by curving their right arm over their shoulder. If no food comes before the onset of the night, they go to bed hungry."

Photography: The Great Sensory Injustice!

2011-12-05T00:37:00.001Z

I am now, of-course, the oldest that I have ever been. Yet, I have never before felt so damn naïve! I am now learning the difference between the coffee-table traveller and the actual traveller! No quantity of books or photographs could have prepared me for 'the real world.'

From the second I was out of the airplane and my foot bore residence on Indian sole, I felt like I had entered an entirely new world. I felt a mixture of emotions with self-anger and excitement being the domineering two. I now know how little I really know, and that, in itself, is knowledge — or perhaps socratic knowledge.

Outside the airport, a company-hired driver was waiting for me. My first shock came on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway when a passing mini-van (smaller in size than a UK car) revealed a family living inside the back compartment, opening cupboards and tinkering around with utensils in full plain sight!

Another of the initial shocks was the realisation of how non-literal my spoken English is. So many of the word combinations and phrases that seem to make perfect sense in British English are confusing and contradictory in Indian English. Even saying a phrase as simple as 'no thanks' can be confusing to some Indians as 'thanks' implies that the recipient has done or is about to do something qualifying for an expression of gratitude. In fact, thanking an Indian (in Hindi/Marathi/etc) should only be done during moments in which one really does feel very, very grateful — it can be seen as facetious otherwise!

I have seen so much contrast and variety since in India. Never in Britain would one see a lively carnival booming out music less than two meters away from a busy road, where drivers and pedestrians compete for space on which to travel. Even Indian candyfloss is made in a very Indian way, with a naked flame used to caramelise the sugar and bright-pink pigment sprinkled on-top to capture the eye!

Everything is incredibly colourful — even the rubbish bins! Interestingly, Indian use of colour is disciplined very differently to in the West. My knowledge of colour theory (which mostly comes from James Gurney's books and blog), dictates that vibrancy should be constrained and used sparingly, whereas, so far as I can tell, Indian colour theory seems to employ high chroma colours which are constrained by a limited range of hues (typically two or three colour frequencies). Both colour systems are nice in different ways but my God, I cannot speak for how artistically invigorating it is to witness a whole new world of colour. The women here are beautiful! They understand colour so much better than the average non-artistic Westerner; which is evident in how the vibrancy of their colour-themed attire is greatly complemented against the warm darkness of their skin! Indian skin is the perfect canvas onto which so many forms of colour can be applied.

The time here is 06:30 and I am about to start my first day of work in the studio. I have not slept much in the last few days out of jet-lag mixed with partying and apprehension for today — a peculiar combination to say the least! I am not nervous, but nor am I confident.

I have been studying a lot (in the way of reading material) for the specific area of game art to which I will be contributing. I understand the subject area from a naïve-artist perspective but not from a technical-artist perspective. I am trying to absorb as much objective knowledge as I can such that the subjective artist within will not be constrained by limited technical ability. I am going to spend today familiarising myself with the tool-set and planning how I can enhance the existing aesthetics. That is about all I can say without violating my non-disclosure agreement.

I really want to connect with this culture and I really want to connect with this studio.

Over and out.

A New Life: Beauty and Turmoil

2011-11-28T00:21:00.001Z

It has been a fair while now since my last blog post to say the least! I cannot really remark on why it is that I have taken so long to write a new post. I do, however, know what has driven me write one now. I have decided to give my blog a long needed dusting down and end this trend of stagnancy simply because I want to mark a very pivotal point in my life.

I am leaving England to work as an intern game artist for Ubisoft Pune, India. This is quite simply the biggest thing to ever happen to me, and it highlights many important changes in who I am. For one thing, I feel confident and prepared for this experience rather than nervous and irresolute — which is a big shift from the person I used to be. I am being thrown into the deep end of a swimming pool with only a slight knowledge of how to swim but I feel that I am now experienced enough to cope outside of my depth and learn to swim while I am drowning.

There are a multitude of reasons as to why I feel this opportunity is ideal for me. Aside from the fact that I absolutely adore everything about Southern Asia and the Himalayas, is the fact that Ubisoft is one of my favorite game developers! The prospect feels like a dream come true — most likely because it is! My two greatest passions have somehow found a way to merge into one dream package!

I often feel — as an artist — that I haven't experienced enough to be permitted the right to spill my essence upon digital canvas. It seems very uncanny that I ended my last blog post with the following two lines when very soon afterwards this internship opportunity landed itself in my lap:

"An artist is not creating art if none of it comes from the heart. I have an empty heart, and it is crying for me to feed it."

I want to develop into a better artist and now, finally, I am being given the ideal tools with which to work towards such a goal!

It feels as if I have been willing this experience to happen for years. Many people would happily bear testimony to the fact that I have claimed desire to work abroad in Asia for a long time now. Although I am not religious in any sense, it does somewhat feel as if my words are being put to the test. Or to look at it differently, it is almost as if I am calling my own bluff and having to prove to myself that I am not the same disingenuous, insincere prick that I used to be.

Leaving Leicester was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I have never felt at home and happy to such an extent in all my life, and to sacrifice the people and place I have come to love was the price I ultimately had to pay for my career ambitions to bear fruition.

My last full day at university was among the worst days of my life. As the minutes of the day evaporated into the voids of nonexistence, so too did my perceived involvement on the course begin to dissipate. I had finally met people who I could relate to, and admire, but before I had had time to fully appreciate these two facts, I was walking away into a new life.

I am sure that many people observed the weakening of my character in my last few days of living in Leicester. With emotions of such intensity, it would have been near impossible for me to hide how I was feeling. In fact, on the day that I left, my feelings of nostalgia and longing reached a peak at which it felt as if they might explode out of my chest! For the first time in many, many years, I cried that night.

I am glad that my friends got to witness me at my weakest. Emotional bonds are among the greatest treasures in the human experience and it can be thought of as beautiful that one tiny, little location on this giant planet can evoke such strong feelings in me.

I am now through the worst (leaving Leicester) and have only the best (entering India) ahead of me. As I said, I am not nervous about this challenge. I feel confident and ready to adapt as needed to tackle all the obstacles that are thrown my way! I am ready to begin working as a professional and I am ready to experience an amazing new life in India! I have no reservations; I am doing this because it is what my heart desires!

It is time for me to smash my remaining naivety into little, unobstructive shards on which I can easily tred foot in my journey to develop as a professional, responsible, empathetic adult.

I tribute this blog post to all the wonderful, highly talented people of whom I was lucky enough to cross paths with in Leicester. I could not have possibly wished for more compassionate, artistically invigorating and intellectually nourishing friends as those I had in Leicester. Thank you all so much; I would not be the same man that I am today if not for meeting you.

Thank you.

And finally, a relevant quote:

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." — Winston Churchill

Year Two: Examined Through a Retrospective Lens

2011-05-04T15:16:00.001+01:00

This academic year has seen me pushing myself harder than I thought possible, leaving me now with the question, 'was it all worth it?' Regardless of whether or not I pass this year of my degree, I would be inclined to answer, 'yes,' simply because of how much I've learnt in the process. You can't put a price-tag on an experience.

This year, I have put a lot of thought into my future career and what I actually want to do with my life. I am still just as uncertain as when I started the year but I now feel more at ease with this fact, as I have recently gained a deeper understanding of my interests, passions and feelings.

It has taken me a long time to realise this but I know for certain that starting-up an independent game development company with a few friends and/or future colleagues after a while in industry would give me greater satisfaction and fulfilment than anything else I can think of. This thought constitutes a small beam of light at the end of a very long tunnel that I may or may not ever arrive at. Yet, it is enough to keep me marching onwards.

My painting ability and spatial awareness has developed an awful lot this year! The evidence is right there when my work is lined-up in chronological order. That, however, doesn't mean I am at all happy with it by any measure. There are two main things that upset me about my work: firstly, the fact that I seem to take forever to make even the smallest visual decision; and secondly, the fact that I keep on coming up with concepts I hate but then commit to them anyway because of time constraints. None of my peers seem to have these problems, which is what leads me to wonder if there is something fundamentally wrong with me!

As is most likely clear to anyone who reads my blog, my emotions are possibly the biggest barrier standing in the way of my full potential. What can I say? I am emotionally fucked-up; I always have been. But then again, aren't most creative thinkers quite unstable in this sense? Is it not neuroticism and social-irregularity that leads to the capacity for creative thought patterns?

I am looking forward to now finally having the time to pursue personal art projects. Perhaps after a Summer of cycling across Europe with just a sketchbook and camera, I will be able to return next year to a fresh slate with a mind bursting full of ideas. I need to experience real things before I can continue as an artist.

An artist is not creating art if none of it comes from the heart. I have an empty heart, and it is crying for me to feed it.

Creativity Revisited

2011-05-01T17:41:00.003+01:00

This course encourages the constant questioning and reassessing of ourselves, the world around us, and how the two interrelate. I have noticed a handful or so of people within different creative disciplines appear slightly taken aback by the brutal honesty with which I comment on their work. Artistic criticism is a wonderful thing to those who appreciate it but can be very alienating to those who don't.

One of the sacrifices of dwelling deep into the field of art is that of gaining critical eyes with which any prior sense of magic is lost. Art will always have a charm to it, and as no two artists can ever be fully alike, a magic of sorts still does exist, but as my skills develop further, so do my eyes grow yet more-so critically discerning.

Some artists of previous eras have created works qualifying almost to that of Godly status, with many left speechless in trying to explain how such works could have been executed using such limited and unforgiving media (such as egg tempera) — that is one side of the coin. On the other side of the coin, resides the many amateur and professional contemporary artists whose shortcut methods and limited scope of inspirations are evident in their lack of originality and skill. In this way, the computer is as much of a retardant as it is a stimulant to society. There are so many corners that artists can — and do — cut, in creating digital art; paying a quick visit to deviantART's front page is enough to prove this. I may sound elitist but please do not think that I consider myself exempt of be categorised as such.

An Interesting Story,
by Léon Bazile Perrault

To the left is a favourite painting of mine, 'An Interesting Story' by Léon Bazile Perrault, and to the right is a concept painting of a marine from StarCraft II. The period of time separating these two works is roughly that of a century.

Perrault's use of colour demonstrates a disciplined palette with a rich umber brown, emerald green and slightly cool ochre yellow playing as accents to a vibrant vermilion red whose subtle use is very striking in the places that it appears. Care has been taken in where focal points have been positioned such that both girls' faces fall just outside of the rule of thirds. There is a strong sense of form with the painting's positive space characterised by the appearance of a triangular shape against the negative space.

Marine,
StarCraft II

The StarCraft II painting uses a limited palette but doesn't do so with the same level of colour discipline as in Perrault's. The foreground's weedy use of saturation against the background's over-use of saturation creates an overly-intense aesthetic. The vast majority of the painting uses very low values and dark mid-tones which are strongly contrasted by a very bright, high chroma explosion occurring in the upper-right third of the painting. The whole, overall painting is a nightmare of conflicting visual components that fail to harmonise into a balanced aesthetic.

To cut a long story short, my point is that the StarCraft II concept painting isn't all that great in comparison to Perrault's!

However, my intention here isn't to have a stab at contemporary artists, as, contrary to my words, I do appreciate the passion and ability with which some of today's digital artists go about painting what they paint. Rather, the question that these first few paragraphs have been leading up to is this: is an artist who is considered better than another artist more creative and/or naturally talented?

The simplest and perhaps more open-minded answer would be, 'no.' It might be such that the concept of natural talent is entirely false. I believe it far more likely that an individual is born with a certain mental aptitude that is formed from hereditary influence, which is then further shaped and developed by how the individual's neural pathways are thereafter stimulated. That is to say, while some individuals may naturally be geared more-so towards certain cognitive processes than others, it is ultimately within the ability of any individual to tailor their mental faculties towards a particular mode of cognitive function.

I'm sure there are some exceptions to this, however. It would probably be fair to suggest that some individuals, while able to attain a skill or 'talent' to some degree, have an aptitude that is so unsuited for use as such that they simply cannot make the leap between familiarity and proficiency.

'Oh, he's such a gifted boy,' and the supposedly humble retort, 'well, he certainly doesn't get it from me,' form a dialogue that perfectly encapsulates society's attitude towards talent. The act of describing a skill as a 'gift' could in itself actually be degrading to an individual, as the term fails to recognise the dedication and graft with which such a skill has been acquired. I cringe whenever a curious individual innocently asks which side of the family my 'talent' comes from. It's questions like these that bring my mind to imagine the absurd vision of a gene with the word 'art' printed on it floating around in a chromosome pool.

So if we can dismiss the idea of 'natural talent' with at-least some surety, that leaves us to focus on creativity. So, what actually is creativity? It is anything but a simple concept to comprehend. Before it was first suggested to me that my grasp of it might be entirely misconstrued, I thought of it as having the mental ability to fabricate something out of nothing. My understanding of it has seen some adjusting since then, although fundamentally, I still see it in very much the same way.

In its most raw and rigid sense, I'd be inclined to define creativity as the ability to satisfy a particular need through the generation of an appropriate solution. The need could be practically anything, as could be the solution. In this way, creativity can be seen as a form of problem solving, with a creative individual capable of fulfilling a range of needs within the spectrum of their creative focus.

To extend on this more-so, I believe that a large portion of creativity also entails making mistakes that are then tailored for use in satisfying the need. This is seen a lot in art where an artist will correct some of the mistakes they make and keep others. In this way, creatives are essentially experimenters; they experiment with the existing ideas of others; they experiment with the existing ideas of their own; they experiment with with mixing the two together.

I remember hearing a few years ago about two preadolesants who sold a game idea to a big games publisher for a phenomenal amount of money. Annoyingly, after searching high-and-low, I could not find a news article referencing this story, so please excuse the vague details. It may seem strange that two school children could come up with ideas that surpassed the imagination of those hired to do as such, but one must realise that children think differently to adults and therefore can produce ideas that an adult couldn't.

Children are a quintessential example of creativity at its purest. This is due to their uninhibited nature allowing for them to produce work that isn't tied down by cultural boundaries; they are yet for the education system to try and shape them into something that compliantly slides into a groove within our economy.

'The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged' defines creativity as:

the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations.

Children are liberated in the sense of not yet having had these 'traditional ideas, rules, patterns and relationships' hammered into them, and therefore, find it easy to think creatively. We are all born with a free mind, seeing the world through an idealistic lens tuned to intensify beauty and disregard the limitations imposed by both physics and society. Sadly, this is then slowly beaten out of us in the years to come.
Creativity cannot be conventionalised, although, within affluent society that is exactly what is expected of it. It does not stem from a linear mode of thought pattern and therefore cannot thrive in an environment that demands its continuous, unwavering output in a constant, measurable quantity. Sadly, it is those dwelling inside the realms of bureaucracy and administration who make the decisions on how creative individuals should perform within the work-place, and they have no empathy for the needs of a creative.

Please take a look at the following article: Drawing Development in Children It presents a fascinating insight into how a child feels and responds to the visual world throughout preadolescence.

What Betty Edwards labels as the 'crisis period' identifies one of the most pressing issues in art education. The crisis period occurs in the last few years of a child's visual-awareness development and can essentially make-or-break their interest in art. Up until the crisis period, most drawing development is intuitive, but as this period begins, it is up to the individual to consciously decide to further their visual skills.

Drawing is often seen as a mystic power and those who have learnt to see the world well enough to execute realistic drawing techniques are regarded as having this mystic power. The truth is that anyone with at-least one functioning eye can teach themselves to see the world well enough to then execute what they see onto paper. It should be such that during the crisis period, children are enlightened as to why their drawings lack realism and given the tools and encouragement to further develop their visual-awareness skills. This isn't what happened for me, or anyone else who I have discussed this matter with. A big part of the problem is simply that art isn't valued enough within overall society for education establishments to hire the right people for the job, and set-up an appropriately focused syllabus.

Hopefully, one day soon, creativity will be valued enough throughout all sectors of the economy for creative children to have their skills encouraged and nurtured at school, while creative adults have their skills properly accommodated for in the work-place.

Where Am I Headed?

2011-04-15T20:56:00.007+01:00

I'm not altogether sure that I will ever reach a point at which I am fully prepared to face the choices lying ahead of me. I would love for a career constrained by nothing other than the very accommodating bounds of a polymathic lifestyle, just as the Renaissance movement originally encouraged. I don't want to do only a single thing with my life, and I hate how our society's economic mechanism encourages against chasing multiple dreams.

The sentiment that originally led me to follow a higher education in game art was very simple: I like traditional art a lot; I like digital and interactive forms of art a lot; I like games a bit too. The reason I don't hold games in as high a regard as art is because of the consumerist stain that runs deep into their fundamental essence. Although this is also applicable to some art, there is no escaping the fact that games are built from the ground up with the foremost intention being for them to generate as much profit as possible. Just as it is with most things within capatalist society, games are products, and the priorities of a product are absorbed in the making of money.

I sound like a naïve, idealistic twat ― I realise that. I'll try to justify my feelings a little further in the following paragraphs.

It is not the advertisements placed within games that upsets me; it is not the product placement that has game assets branded with various corporate logos that upsets me; it is not even the downloadable content (DLC) that users purchase only to have something already sitting on their game disc magically unlocked that upsets me.

These two games are separated
by 13 years but look
practically the same!

What upsets me about games is simply the fact that artistic freedom is heavily restricted by decisions made by publishers. The profit-monkeys who fund development studios care not for artistic expression; only money. This, and the fact that exploring familiar territory is generally safer, cultivates in publishers funding projects that follow a similar tangent to games that have in the past proven successful. What this then leads to is a game genre remaining stagnant for years upon years while a plethora of near-identical games erupt off store shelves and into the laps of thousands of zombie consumers every Christmas. I am so utterly sick of hearing about FPS's set around the idea of blowing the head off of every German or Middle-Easterner you see. I would love to be part of a game project set in a less acknowledged part of the world (such as Tibet or Burma) where interaction with other humans is far more complex than that of mere violence.

One might argue that what I have said is true of all creative industries but I can prove that incorrect with the music industry used as an example. Sure, within the mainstream music industry there are plenty of big names to which what I have said does apply, but there are also many smaller music groups residing within underground and alternative music culture who constantly redefine musical genres with powerful, refreshing music that prioritises creativity over revenue. A socio-political industrial music group going by the name, Opir, forms a good example of this. The group's very niche music addresses some of their biggest concerns regarding American politics in an incredibly intricate and unique soundscape of harsh beats, electronic melodies and distorted vocal samples.

It could at this point be argued that non-mainstream music groups are comparable to indie game developers, but again, this is incorrect. I have worked for a small games developer before and the firm's desperate yearning to surpass break-even point each month was incredibly apparent. Game studios require a larger initial investment than bands as do they generate more overheads each month thereafter. With all these assets and investments put into their businesses, indie developers end up just as afraid as larger developers to play around with risky projects.

Buddhist monastery, nearby Mount Popa, Burma

Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet

Would beautifal, culturally-rich places like these not make for an interesting game setting?

I would love to be the sort of environmental artist who creates really unique, gripping cityscapes and landscapes that draw inspiration from a wide range of lesser-known cultures and mythologies. Doing something like that would be amazing and it is the spark of hope that such a career option is possible that is keeping me on my feet at the moment.

Creativity is what I live for, and perhaps this is why as an artist I feel so much anguish. Nothing that I have ever produced has made me feel anything close to fulfilled or satisfied; all I can ever think about is how much better I could have done. I do not enjoy being an artist but I simply cannot imagine myself not being one. The idea of not dabbling in the creative fields is far worse than the emotional toll that being an artist has on me. Even when I'm taking a break from work, my displacement activities are almost always in some way or another creative; such as modifying a pair of boots, or taking a day out to do some photography.

What-ever job I end up in, it will most likely entail a fusion of visual creativity, technology and culture — those are my main three interests.

Queens Project Post-Mortem

2011-04-02T17:40:00.013+01:00

I have learnt a lot in the past semester. In particular, I have realised just how much my teamwork skills require further refining. Part of my problem is that I find it difficult to contribute within small areas of a project rather than having full-reign over everything. This ineptitude isn't rooted in a lust for power or anything comparable to that; rather, it is brought about by the simple fact that when I feel passionate about something I want to protect it. This is not a good thing at all and I really need to work on it for future team based endeavours.

This semester has passed-by faster than any semester prior. This, most likely, is due to how hard everyone has been working to juggle this project amongst other course related commitments. It pushed my endurance dial into the red zone but luckily I am now versed enough in dealing with demanding projects to not succumb to severe stress or depression. In fact, if anything, I am now far better at picking-up on the early signs of these feelings and counter-acting them accordingly. For me, meditation and contemplative exercise can be a real godsend at times.

So, on with the story.

A screen-shot of our level

Our group project began with the team trying to devise a name. With the project being orientated around that of the survival horror genre, we wanted a name that accurately reflected our artistic intentions. So there we were, shooting possible names at one anouther: 'Team Decaying Apple?;' no; 'Team Morbid Ant Hill?'; no; 'Team Electrically-Conductive Fermented Soup Bowl?;' hell no!; and then, finally, 'Team Drowning Fish,' to which the general consensus was 'uh, yeah, okay then.'

By the point of 'Team Drowning Fish' finally gaining popular vote, the question of who would lead the team had bounced around the room a fair few times but no conclusion had yet been reached. I couldn't believe my luck when finally a verdict seemed to be drawing closer with everyone seemingly swayed toward the idea of running a democratic group with no elected leader; that was precisely what I had wanted! Team Drowning Fish, the leaderless group — that's who we were!

The project task, in short, was to create a survival horror game level bearing an aesthetic that in some way resembled the Queens Building on campus. The team went about a few walk-abouts in the said building and the high extent of everyone's creative capacity was immediately evident. The sheer quantity of ideas cascading about in our discussions combined with the leaderless dynamic of our team, made it such that most of the first month was spent trying to arrive at a final design concept. Had we no time-limit, the leaderless dynamic would have worked perfectly as it allowed for everyone to feel engaged, but of-course, sadly, idealism is fairly often thwarted by the cold darkness of reality when put to the test.

We remained leaderless throughout the project, but over time, different team members seemed to organically form their own areas of specialism in which they had higher authority. It seemed to work well.

Eventually our idea was cultivated into something that felt interesting and unique to all of us. We decided that creating a level in which the Queens Building is occupied by an evil cult to be an exciting and not overly cliché idea. As a cult could pretty much constitute as anything, this idea gave us a lot of leeway in what territory there was available for us to explore.

The Cult of Cthulhu gave us a lot of inspiration, particularly within the satire department. During a YouTube video in which the cult's 'high priest' explains the benefits of joining them, he decides half-way through that it's a good idea for him to take-off his shirt and start flexing his muscles!

One of the ideas that we all very much liked was that of having a cultist's lair right at the end of the level that would be candle-lit to contrast the other forms of lighting to be shooting about the level.

In fact, contrast became a very important part of our art style. We identified lighting to be one of the most prominent ingredients to the Queens Building aesthetic, and decided early on to create an environment of contrasting lighting types that would effectively lead the player around the level.

Towards the project's midway point, a clear sense of segregation had become evident amongst team-members. It seemed that in crossing the bridge between 'talking about ideas' and 'executing ideas,' a couple of team-members had decided to stay behind. This grew yet more and more apparent in the weeks to come.

A screen-shot of our level

Perhaps, if I were to identify a stage of the project in which I learnt the most, it would be around-about this period.

I certainly could have dealt with the matter of a split team far better. I was working myself incredibly hard and was appalled that such a case was only mutually applicable to a few other team-members. I could have dealt with the situation far better by not letting my emotions affect my decisions and having focused on what would help the team, rather than what would help alleviate my feelings of injustice.

Towards the end of the project, the team became more and yet more aware of the regularity at which the clock was ticking. We decided which areas of the project to prioritise and where it was necessary to make sacrifices. In retrospect, while at the time every small detail that we had to drop felt like a punch in the stomach, the overall level hasn't suffered much at all from this minor lack of polish.

The final product really isn't that bad at all. I had some very talented artists in my team and the best of their work really stands out in the level. I never know how to feel about my work but as the team seemed to like it, I suppose my contributions must have had some worth.

Unfulfillment

2011-03-07T23:04:00.003Z

This blog is a sort of refuge for me. It is a place that helps me clear my thoughts a little. I have been coming to it a lot recently most likely because I have had a lot on my mind.

I am not at all sure about what I want to do with my life. There are plenty of things that I would very much like to do, but the matter of combining them together into a feasable, coherent format constitutes an obstructive wall that I cannot climb.

Seven years ago, I thought I had it all figured out. That was the age when I first started calling myself an artist; I have since retracted that title from myself as I believe it to be something I am yet to earn. If truth be told, I was a right little arrogant fucker during my early-to-mid teens, and it was only when I realised how unknowing and inexperienced I was that things began to change.

I now have an emotional complex surrounding the unfounded surety with which I thought I knew things in the past; I don't want to be arrogant or pretentious, but sometimes I worry that I still am those things. I have learnt that compliments can be a terrible thing. Often, with my artwork, it is those with little art experience who supply the most far-fetched compliments and those whose skills far surpass my own who are the most critical. I realise now, the harm of a hollow compliment.

I sometimes feel like a rotten seed, planted in the most nutrient-rich of soils, and watered constantly, but yet yielding no sign of growth. I am receiving a fantastic art education and am constantly immersed in the midst of incredibly talented people but yet I am just simply not developing my skills as I would like to. I am really angry at myself for this fact.

I wonder, sometimes, if a career in game art is what I really want.

Part of me is pulled towards travel photography and travel painting but I can't see how either of these dreams are possible. I like the idea of being a game artist but I am not an indoors person and the idea of being tethered to a desk is a terrifying prospect. Perhaps one day game art will be more physically involved, once virtual reality has formed an integral role in society.

My other problem is in the fact that it is debatable as to how much art there really is in commercial art. I don't want to paint or 3D model the same, boring, cliché shit day-in-day-out simply because it brings in the big bucks. I want to be an artist, not a prostitute to the visual senses.

It is often said that the 'free' in freelance is an inaccurate description of what the word encompasses but yet, I love the idea of not being tied down to anyone or anything. It would be amazing to travel the world, going from country to country, and capturing beauties unseen to the Western-world; similar to as the orientalists did. I feel that there is so much out there that surpasses the knowledge of my inexperienced mind.

I would be hard-pressed, however, to manage pulling-off such a feat.

I'm thinking of spending this coming Summer in a third world country doing humanitarian work. I'm currently looking into working in an orphanage in India, among other similar opportunities. Doing as such would hopefully lessen my feelings of self-contempt and anger at how little I've contributed to the world. It would also enable me to see a new part of this fascinating planet and experience a new culture, all of which I could capture and further appreciate through sketching, painting and photography. I think that doing this is a must to further my development as an artist and to ease the degree of disgust I feel whenever I see the reflection in my mirror of a middle-class Westerner who has had an easy life but yet done nothing to ease the suffering of others.

The bottom-line is that I don't know what I want anymore. I have fallen into a hole in which I can see nothing. I need to find a way of escape, so as to reclaim a state of clarity within my mind.

I realise how pathetic I sound right now.

Design Considerations of Game Technology Interfaces

2011-02-28T00:25:00.004Z

Most technology is culturally intuitive but not necessarily intrinsically or naturally intuitive. That is to say, developers often focus on designing interfaces that are intuitive to someone already familiar with similar devices, but to anyone with little experience in such realms, breaking into the swing of things can be significantly more difficult. The elderly are a prime example of this, as people from dated generations struggle to find their footing in the modern world's technology-centric mindset. It might be such that in the future, this phenomenon of iterative technological advancement is so rapid and intense that an individual is forced to endlessly endure having to keep-up with the current mode of technology so as to not become alienated from society at large. The regularity of this behavior, however, may lead older generations to stay in contact with technology and mainstream culture for longer, as their days of youth would have carried the same demands for them to constantly learn new interfaces and ways of doing things.

All of these considerations render a specific question in my mind: is technological advancement of this nature actually beneficial to society or is it just an object of consumerism? It would seem that perhaps some areas of this phenomenon are indeed beneficial — such as in medical research where gaming technology is now being used by surgeons — while many other cases are created in the wake of fierce corporate competition, with the aftermath of these battles yielding no advantage to society.

Are things steering us in the direction of Aldous Huxley's envisioning of the future as a dystopian society corrupted by technology as in his social-satirist novel, Brave New World? Who knows?

In a way, it is becoming such that the general consumer market, and industrial markets drive a sort of metabolism with which a new form of evolution is encouraged. Products are constantly reiterating upon themselves with new, improved updates and redevelopments. As soon as a new technology becomes feasible to release onto the market, manufactures race against one another to be the first to integrate it into their products. This, in turn, puts pressure on technology researches to find yet more and more advanced technological solutions with which to aid manufactures in this on-going consumerist race between manufacturing giants.

Above, is an image I've slapped together to demonstrate this concept throughout Apple's iPod lifespan; each model delivers the same fundamental function of playing MP3 audio files but each new iteration delivers an additional purchasing incentive to the consumer. It is not uncommon for any given consumer to purchase the same product several times as new iterations are released.

Gimmicks have always existed amongst the likes of technology-centric consumer goods. They are not always necessarily a bad thing, and often, it is little more than the the fact that they are ahead of their time that renders them as gimmicky in the first place. I believe the Wiimote to be a prime example of this; it is a peripheral that could have marked a significant leap in the intricacy by which gamers can interact with games, but instead, we see ourselves in a world where mindlessly waving plastic dildos around and mimicking silly on-screen gestures is about as far as motion-detection technology currently goes. This is simply because we aren't ready to use such technology properly yet. The Wiimote essentially marks a point in limbo, whereby, technology researchers and manufacturers are producing goods that no one can harness the true potential of yet.

But then again, perhaps the Wiimote is a poor example; perhaps the Wiimote's only fault is that motion-detection software hasn't caught up with its respective hardware yet.

The Virtual Boy was the first of its kind to offer 3D graphics. One would imagine that what it promised would have had gamers forming giant queues outside retailers, fighting one another to be the first to get their hands on a copy on the day of its release, but yet, that wasn't the case. The Virtual Boy was an idea that was ahead of its time. Its 3D graphics were poor and the games it offered were even poorer. The funniest or perhaps more-so, tragic, irony of the Virtual Boy was that it brought the illusion of 3D depth to 2D sprites, a redundant task in itself.

A couple of decades later and we have the Nintendo 3DS. It fundamentally promises the same as the Virtual Boy did, but where the Virtual Boy failed, the 3DS succeeds. There are but two reasons for this: our technology is now ready to realise the concept that the Virtual Boy proposed, and so is our society ready to receive it. Whether or not 3D stereoscopy is indeed a gimmick is still up for debate, however. Many would label it as little more than a marketing ploy that does nothing to heighten a game's intuitiveness or immersiveness.

What is clear from looking at dated technology in retrospect, is that the future of gaming interface peripherals will yield a fair share of gimmicks along with the occasional dollop of useful technology. What it is important to realise, is that the gimmicky technology helps pave the path for useful technology; within capitalist society, the two are inseparable. As we venture closer and yet closer to virtual reality, our journey is sure to bear the inevitable texture of poorly executed ideas and marketing gimmicks. It will be interesting to see which of them will one day cultivate into something more substantial further along the line.

The Curse of the Artist

2011-02-20T23:47:00.004Z

Some see art as a challenge — but is a challenge not meant to possess an explicit, achievable component? With many of life's pursuits, there is some clear goal or waypoint upon which an individual can base their course of travel. What is perhaps both liberating and oppressive for an artist, however, is that this fact does not apply.

Within fine art, there are hundreds upon hundreds of movements, with artists throughout the ages feeling the desire to break away from and/or redefine the prominent movements of their time so as to create even more movements and sub-movements. Within any field of art, whether it be fine art or commercial art, resides the fact that there simply is no explicit goal (other than to make money).

'Les Bas Blancs,' by Gustave Courbet
— is this good art?

'Pietà,' by Michelangelo
— is this good art?

An architect has it in their responsibility to create a structurally secure building that satisfies the requirements of a certain function and delivers a certain aesthetic through its design. An artist's responsibilities, however, are far more vague; a painter has the freedom to paint something vulgar, beautiful, mundane, confusing, misleading, explicit, implicit, emotional, unemotional, imaginative, unimaginative, surreal, abstract, realistic, hyper-realistic, figurative, non-figurative, representational, non-representational, and so on — if I were to carry on here, there would be enough adjectives to fill an A4 page!

'An Interesting Story,'
by Léon Bazille Perrault
— is this good art?

With art being so unconstrained, as mentioned, there lies both a liberating and oppressive element. In one respect, it is fantastic to have so much ground on which to tred, but in another respect, is that fact that with so much territory to explore, an artist is left confused as to where they actually stand. I have no idea how good an artist I am, or, if for that matter, I am indeed an artist at all. I am told many different things by different people about my art. I don't think this diversity in opinion is a matter of some people being more or less honest than others; I think it's simply that art has no intrinsic requirements. That is to say, the only existing requirements are those set by the artist.

'Seascape Study,'
by John Constable
— is this good art?

Perhaps one day, as a commercial artist, I will have someone setting the boundaries; but even within such boundaries how can one possibly know whether or not their art is good? What makes a good painting, a good painting? What makes a shit artist, a shit artist? Being an existentialist, I don't really believe that any art can truly be classed as 'good art' or 'bad art.'

The fact that I have no clear objective, causes my mind a lot of torment. There is only one certainty that I possess over my art: I hate it!

I just simply do not know what to think or how to feel anymore — and that isn't to say that I ever did. Trying to become a better artist is one of the most emotionally tough things I have ever put myself through. As I become better, my perspective shifts such that I feel I am even worse an artist than before, and when I look back on my old artwork, I do not feel a sense of progression, only disgust and self-contempt.

'Leicester Guildhall,' by Me
— is this good art?

I have no idea if in a year's time I will be 'employable' or just another art student of mediocre calibre who no one wants. I do not know whether I should paint and 3D model things that will make me feel fulfilled or things that might get me a job.

I feel that I am spinning around in a fickle vortex, unable to see the world for what it is, and unable to grasp at anything. I feel like a void trapped within a yet larger void whose interactions with others occur through a thick layer of empty space. I feel detached, isolated, deadened, empty. I feel worthless and insignificant.

But all that said, I am far enough away from depression to realise that I don't want to feel this way. I just want to make art and don't understand why things within my mind have to be so unnecessarily complex.

Games and Music

2011-02-08T00:20:00.001Z

Music is one of those things that everyone can relate to. It lives a parallel existence to art in the sense that both strive to transmit an abstraction of an individual's thoughts, feelings, and ideas, through a visual medium in the case of art, and through an auditory medium in the case of music. However, this isn't, of-course, always strictly true; art can draw-in elements of a non-visual persona just as music can draw-in elements of a non-auditory persona. This blur in definition begs the question of whether or not art and music are one and the same — but such a debate is beyond the scope of this post.

Newton split the visible spectrum into
colours based upon the ratios of the
Dorian mode.

An artist arranges and manipulates sequences of frequiencies from the visible spectrum (colour) so as to capture a visual beauty just as a muscian arranges and manipulates sequences of frequencies from molecular vibrations in the air (notes) to capture an audiotry beauty. We name one art and the other music but they are ultimately very similar. Newton even went so far as to create a colour wheel that showed the linear relationship between colour frequencies and notes, as seen to the right.

Regardless of whether or not they do share the same identity, there definitely exists the fact that they form a very elegant marriage when combined together effectively. If we stray temporarily from the plastic arts into the realm of performing arts, one can see how music has accompanied other forms of expressive media for centuries so as to eccentuate, compliment and add to it.

So where would games be without music? This is a question whose answer can be discovered simply by muting one's speaker set-up. In the past when I've had to do this (so as to not annoy others in my immediate environment), what I have thereafter encountered is an incredibly diluted gaming experience.

Music plays a big role in games with game musicians being given the responsibility of enhancing the visual experience presented to a player. In the real-world, people are aware of their own feelings and impressions through the generation of a continuous thought-stream. This is natural and intuitive as it is part of what constitutes being conscious. I like to think of music in films and games as being an audiological abstraction of the human thought-stream; it is what suggests to a player how their character is feeling.

Zelda's Lullaby is more prominent in my mind than any other piece of music from my earlier years on this planet. I mention The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time far too often but I feel that this mention is justified by just how deeply embedded within my memories this sequence of notes really is! It is a song that reminds me of the magic of childhood innocence, of lunchtime breaks spent discussing the vast land of Hyrule with school friends, and of sharing a mutual enthusiasm with my sister; it is a game that, thirteen years later, we still play together from time-to-time.

Zelda's Lullaby is a tender song and is first heard at a tender moment during the game. To me, it is a very beautiful song. Embedded above and to the right, is the song reorachastrated by the Hyrule Symphony.

More recent installations in The Legend of Zelda franchise do not disappoint the standard set by Ocarina of Time. Twilight Princess, for example, has some absolutely fantastic scores.

An infant fulfilling an adult role
— how bizarre!

All of the above songs are very different from one another and have it in their intention to capture a different mood. The last song, for instance, entitled Malo Mart, does a fantastic job of capturing the ironic absurdity with which the player is confronted when they first step into a particular shop in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess; an infant sits behind the shop's counter with a solemn, condescending frown upon its face. The song adds to the situation's irony by reducing the infant's air of dignified professionalism to juvenility with a camp, eccentric melody.

As seems to be the way with everything these days, publishers are quick to squeeze some extra revenue out of a game release by publishing an official soundtrack to accompany it. This is great in a way as it brings more attention to a musician's contributions to a game's development and allows gamers to explore their memories of a game through an auditory experience. When I listen to a game's soundtrack, it triggers a serial recall of my character's actions when last hearing each song, thus creating visual projections to accompany the audiological input; it is a very interesting experience.

8-bit and 16-bit music (known collectively as chiptune) has received a surge in popularity as of recent. After dying-out when the polyphonic MIDI format became available to game music developers, 8-bit and 16-bit music has encountered a revival in certain underground music movements. Musicians in these genres will typically use the chip-set of a dated game system to synthesise the majority of their musical scores. Vocals (either clean or distorted) are often then recorded on top of the song. Sometimes real instrument recordings are integrated into chiptune songs, with the use of distorted guitars being a popular choice. Some sub-genres of rock, metal and industrial also find ways of integrating dated game synthesis techniques — it is needless to say that the games industry affects other industries just as much as other industries affect it!

Embedded above and to the right, is the work of a muscian going under the alias of Dubmood, who is among my favorite chiptune artists. In the past, he has used Amiga, PC, Atari ST and Game Boy chip-sets to create his music.

The Metroid Prime franchise is another series whose soundtracks remain fantastic throughout each installation. Below, are the title screen theme songs for each game in the trilogy. They bear a somewhat cheesy edge but I would like to think that there is a lot more to them than just that.

Being a sci-fi franchise centred around a bounty hunter's attempts to foil the plans of space pirates, the games' soundtracks project an air of technological superiority, featuring a heavy mix of synthesised melodies with the odd sampling of a distorted real instrument thrown in for good measure here and there. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption's title screen music is by far my favorite. The song is less electronic than the others and includes an absolutely amazing integration of opera-esque vocals that really adds to it!

The Metal Gear Solid franchise is a very philosophically deep franchise with a strong moral backbone behind its motive. Its implicit commentary addresses such issues as Friedrich Nietzsche's will-to-power and God is dead, existential nihilism, and politcal issues on the morality of war profiteering. I'd like to think that at-least some of the songs scattered across the franchise's vast depths reflect this.

The Best is Yet to Come is played during Metal Gear Solid's ending credits. It is sung in Irish Gaelic, and features a very beautiful melody with very beautiful lyrics.

So there we have it: a glimpse into games and music. It is a big topic to explore, with this post only managing to examine but a mere atom inside the wondrous, expansive universe of game music.

Gender Equality: A Better Term than Feminism?

2011-01-06T21:04:00.799Z

This is a follow-up to my article, 'Sexy' Women in Games, that discusses how our society's attitude towards women can be detrimental to their well-being. It is a common habit within today's society to discuss the gender inequality problem that affects women but it isn't so often, however, that it is asked if our culture treats men fairly. This post will, therefore, attempt to help fill in the void surrounding this issue and embrace the true spirit of equality.

It is my opinion that gender inequality leans both ways with our culture approaching the two sexes differently depending upon the scenario at hand. I wouldn't for a second suggest that it is wrong to support feminism. It is, after-all, statistical fact that women generally get the short-straw in life and are often paid less than men. It is just that I feel the word 'feminism' defeats its own objective; the term puts too much emphasis on the female gender which ultimately creates an imbalance between the sexes. 'Gender equality' would be a far better term.

Part of the reason for the overlooking of men's rights is due to the domineering stance over women that men have adopted up until very recently. Interestingly, however strange it may sound to say, womb envy may play a role in this. It was believed by psychoanalyst, Karen Horney, that men are conflicted with the anxiety of naturally envying women's capacity for pregnancy, nursing and motherhood, and therefore feel that they must dominate women and strive for a life of achievements in order for their names to live on in the manner that bearing a child would.

Another reason is simply that men are generally perceived as being 'tougher' than women. I believe this perception of men to be nothing more than a stereotype. I may have slightly larger muscles than the majority of women, but my emotions are just as strong and real as a woman's. What I am essentially trying to get across is that emotional complexity remains the same between genders, with men being just as emotionally vulnerable as women. Perhaps it is because of this stereotype of men being 'tougher' that they do indeed appear as such. That is to say, it is quite possible that many men feel the need to conform to this behaviour in order to satisfy these artificial requirements of their gender.

Proof of a man's emotional vulnerability can be seen in their insecurities. All individuals — probably even emotionally-disciplined individuals such as the Dalai Lama — are not without an emotional complex of insecurities and inadequacies. I have plenty myself:

I am terrified by the prospect of becoming bald; I worry that I haven't got what it takes to be an artist; I can't weigh myself on the scales because even a slight increase in weight will greatly upset me; I am deeply disheartened to realise that I'll never be able to explore all the countries and regions that I'd like to; I am scared of committing to a job and/or marital partner; I am scared of my youth escaping me before I've had a chance to fully appreciate it; I hate the sound of my own voice; I worry that people perceive me as being unrealistic and naïve; I worry that people perceive me as being pretentious; I worry that people find my mannerisms annoying; I feel guilty for many of the things that I have done in the past; I feel guilty for many of the things that I didn't appreciate until several years later; I feel guilty for the imbalance between what my dad has done for me and what I have done for him; I am scared of following my passions and desires as they are mostly irrational and change constantly; I worry that I will die an unfulfilled man; I feel like a jigsaw-piece that can't find its place in the puzzle — I could carry on.

The reason that I am disclosing such personal information on such a public mode of forum, I do not know! I suppose it must be rooted in how deeply I want to convey my point that men have feelings too!

Society's definition of what
constitutes a 'real man'

Social interactions can bring us men to feel happiness, sadness or anger, among other emotions: reading a sad story can move us; exchanging angry words with a contemporary can upset us; seeing a beautiful oil painting can bring a tear to our eye. Men are vulnerable and what can be damaging to a woman can be just as damaging to a man. This is why I believe that reform is needed not only in the way our culture receives the female gender, but in the way it receives the male gender also. Let's look at some of the issues facing the male gender.

The main problem is that men are generally defined by society as befitting a very narrow, unaccommodating stereotype, and when they stray outside of this definition, derogatory (and often, emasculating) labels such as "pussy," "fag," and "girl" are used.

Here is how society views men (particularly in the mass-media and entertainment industries):

of a lesser value and more-so expendable than women
bearing of inherently aggressive traits, which make them tough and violent in ways that women are not
tough and strong enough that violence against them is more tolerable that that against women
lacking in the capacity to feel pain or cry and possessing only a limited range of emotions
not in need of close-relationships, tenderness, reassurance, or emotional support

Men who do not conform to these oppressive social expectations are seen as less masculine or perhaps even as feminine, as compared to men in general. This is, of-course, all a load of bollocks — excuse the pun! There is only one requirement in the criteria of being male and that is to have the fundamental anatomical sexual organs of which a male is equipped.

This God of War III poster has done all the work for me! It encapsulates part of my argument perfectly. The poster's depiction of the Greek mythological God, Kratos, contributes to two key components of the detrimental male stereotype; firstly, there is Kratos' blatantly aggressive demeanour, with his expression bearing nothing but contempt and an accumulation of battle-scars littering his overly-macho face, then there is the word sequence, "born," "betrayed," "revenge," "revenge," "revenge," "revenge," "revenge," which demonstrates the character's very limited emotional complexity. Contrary to the publisher's intent, the poster leaves me glad to have never put any of my money into the franchise. It gives me the impression of a crude, diluted gaming experience with very little in the way of interesting, sophisticated characters.

Namco's Soul series is guilty of over-exaggerating the
anatomy of both male and female game characters

Furthering this theme of overly-aggressive male media portrayals, we arrive at the matter of hulk-esque, muscular, meat machines. It is not my opinion that male characters should bear an absolute minimal amount of brawn; I just feel that the extent to which some character designs go with their shameless displays of apparent machoed-up, beef-cake superiority, is quite frankly, ridiculous! Female game characters are often described as possessing disproportionate anatomy in regards to being unrealistically over-equipped in the bust department and unrealistically under-equipped in the waist department. Can this same assertion not be made about men? It is undeniable, after-all, that the extent to which some character designers go with their depiction of muscular proportions is absurd! I know that I pick on the Soul franchise a lot, but just look at the anatomical features of characters such as Siegfried, Mitsurugi, Maxi and Yun-seong, as shown in the right-aligned image!

Shameless male
sex-selling

So why is a little extra muscle such a bad thing? Well, not too dissimilar to the issue with female media portrayal, bombarding men with unrealistic anatomical standards makes them think that such standards are normal, and therefore, something that they must aspire to. However, being unrealistic, these standards are of-course unachievable, and therefore, leave men feeling inept and inadequate when they fail to fulfil them.

It is reported that boys of an age as young as eleven put themselves through dangerous, enduring daily routines such as over-exercise, anabolic steroid and protein-powder consumption, and calorie restriction, in the vain of increasing their muscle size and reducing their body fat levels. It is also reported that over 1 million men in the world suffer from eating-disorders. However, this statistic may be lower than the actual figure, as we will discuss in the next paragraph.

It is nothing but outright ignorance that leads many to believe that anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are non-existent among men. Quite to the contrary, it is very possible that a far larger percentage of men than we realise are conflicted with eating disorders. As touched-upon already, one of the false male stereotype's traits is that of not needing the help of others; especially in regards to emotional support. It may be because of what this stereotype projects that such a large quantity of men suffering from body-image mental illnesses refuse to seek help. I cannot begin to express how damaging people's ignorance of male eating disorders is for those conflicted with such mental illnesses. The bottom line is that men are just as vulnerable as women and it is important that people start to acknowledge this.

It is no surprise that men and women are treated so differently from each another when one considers the matter of gender segregation. The separating of the two genders sadly seems to be deeply embedded in how our culture thinks and functions.

The above image of a public school in the Manhattan district of New York highlights the issue of gender division perfectly. Those who believe gender division to occur only so as to resolve the issue of sexual tension should be reminded that we live in a society of heterosexuals, homosexuals, bisexuals, and celibates, alike. Should an individual who is attracted to both genders be separated from everybody?

How would people react if the doors read what can be seen in the above image instead? Why is one scenario acceptable but the other not?

I remember on one occasion the head-master of my school telling me that my hair was too long for a male and that I would be disciplined if it wasn't cut more regularly. He said this to me as girls strode past, sporting luscious displays of liberated hair that was free to grow at whatever length they chose! How is that really any different from two ethnicities being asked to sit on different parts of a bus?

Thanks for reading.

Please note: I am by no means comparing having a haircut to the horrible ordeals that African American slaves suffered during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

Further reading material on character design:

Game Engines

2010-12-23T00:20:00.915Z

The following post will take a look into some of the significant game engines and middle-ware software development kits that are currently available on the game development market. We will look at both some in-house exclusive and third-party licensed packages.

3DVIA Virtools
Developer: Dassault Systèmes
Supported platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, Wii, Xbox 360

Popular titles using the engine: Lazy Raiders

3DVIA Virtools is one of the few game engines I can say that I've ever had any experience with. That is to say, a game studio that I used to work for used it for most of their developments ― although, I should point out, I didn't personally get to use it any point. It is a pretty low-key engine in comparison to some of the other middle ware packages included in this article but I thought that it was significant enough to mention non-the-less.

The engine's main selling-point is its capacity for facilitating for a speedy game development process. It therefore puts an emphasis on providing a rapid-prototyping and rapid-development solution to small studios. As such, it caters mostly for low-budget developments that are released on the WiiWare and Xbox Live Arcade platforms in addition to the PC and online browser platforms. Interestingly, 3DVIA Virtools is also employed in sectors outside of game development, such as urban planning and pre-visualisation.

Lazy Raiders is the first game to be released on Xbox Live Arcade that uses 3DVIA Virtools. Embedded above, is a short promotional trailer of the game in action.

Anvil
Developer: Ubisoft
Supported platforms: Windows, PS3, Xbox 360

Popular titles using the engine: Assassin's Creed II, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Anvil is an engine developed by Ubisoft for use with two of its most successful franchises, Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia. One of its most innovative features is its use of Autodesk's HumanIK middle-ware package. All the games of the Assassin's Creed franchise require for the playable character's hands and feet to be calculated and positioned in the world such that they convey a convincing animation sequence. With most engines, this would be a really tough challenge as Assassin's Creed games allow for the climbing and mounting of any object that is extruded from the world by more than two-inches. However, because of Anvil's utilisation of Autodesk's HumanIK software solution, it was possible for the Assassin's Creed games to accomplish realistic real-time calculated animation sequences throughout gameplay.

As is evident in the fact that Autodesk's HumanIK was integrated so well, Anvil is highly compatible with other middle-ware packages and features all sorts of plug-in technologies such as the vegetation system used by Far Cry 2.

CryENGINE
Developer: Crytek
Supported platforms: Windows, Xbox 360, PS3

Popular titles using the engine: Crysis 2, Codename Kingdoms, Lichdom, Far Cry, Forged by Chaos, Nexuiz, Cabal 2, Warface

cryEngine was the engine responsible for the birth of the Far Cry franchise. In fact, cryEngine was originally intended as a tech demo for showcasing Nvidia's graphic rendering technologies but upon discovering the engine's potential it was used for creating Far Cry.

A later release of the engine saw the development of Crysis with Crysis 2 currently being created on yet anouther release of the engine.

One of the things that really stood out about Crysis was its graphical capabilities on a computer powerful enough to run it on its highest settings. The game's complexity was such that it consists of a massive 1GB of texture data and utilises 85,000 shaders! It certainly can be said that Crysis is a good demonstration of cryEngine's graphical capacity.

A free-to-use version of the engine is intended to be offered in the future; similar to Unreal Engine's Unreal Development Kit.

The above trailer demonstrates some of the graphical capabilities of cryEngine.

Crystal Tools
Developer: Square Enix
Supported platforms: Windows, Wii, PS3, Xbox 360

Popular titles using the engine: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIV, Final Fantasy Versus XIII

Crystal Tools is licensed as an exclusive in-house engine by Square Enix. It is a fairly new engine, having only been used on three titles (all within the Final Fantasy franchise) so far.

As Final Fantasy games tend to have a strong emphasis on storyline development and cut-scences, it was required for Crystal Tools to reflect this in its technical features. Two of the engine's main selling-points are therefore centred around delivering high-quality real-time rendering to a game and managing to seamlessly integrate real-time cut-scenes into a game's overall flow.

Euphoria
Developer: NaturalMotion
Supported platforms: Windows, PS3, Xbox 360

Popular titles using the engine: Grand Theft Auto IV, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Backbreaker, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3

Euphoria would be better classified as a plug-in middle-ware package than as an engine. This is because it caters for a very specific set of tasks within game development. Similar to Autodesk's HumanIK package, Euphoria's job is to calculate real-time animation sequences for biped rigs. It stands out from most other similar packages in how well it manages to generate fluid, realistic motion. In fact, NaturalMotion classify it as a dynamic motion synthesis package as it does so much more than just provide basic real-time animation calculations.

The above video demonstrates how NaturalMotion delivers a life-like result through use of nervous reaction synthesis.

Gamebryo
Developer: Emergent Game Technologies
Supported platforms: Windows, Wii, PS3, Xbox 360

Popular titles using the engine: Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Epic Mickey

Having been used in around 200 games to date, Gamebryo is a pretty versatile engine and can be used throughout a very broad range of genres. Its flexible nature is shown yet more-so in its plug-in based tool architecture that caters for the integration of many other middle-ware packages . It has been used in a variety of games including both AAA and casual games, as well as in serious games too! It is perhaps best known for its use by Bethesda Softworks in their The Elder Scrolls and Fallout game franchises.

Havok
Developer: Havok
Supported platforms: Unix, Linux, PS3, PS2, PSP, GameCube, Wii, Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox, Windows

Popular titles using the engine: Halo 3, Half-Life 2, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Heavenly Sword, Guitar Hero III, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Saint’s Row, TimeShift, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Second Life

Havoc is more-so a physics engine than a game engine. It is seen in the games industry as a superior choice of physics engine, having been honoured in the 2008 Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards. The engine features all kinds of goodies, putting emphasis on such areas as constraint dynamics, soft and rigid body physics, vehicle dynamics solvers, cloth simulation, collision detection, character controllers, mesh/asset destruction, and so on.

Havok has been used in a multitude of games including, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Halo 3 and Half Life 2, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and even the popular online virtual world, Second Life! In addition to developers incorporating Havoc into their existing pipelines, it isn't too uncommon for a developer to take Havok and implement it directly into their in-house engines. Examples of this can be found in: Valve Corporation's Source engine, which implements a heavily altered version of Havoc; LucasArts Ronin engine, which implements a combination of both Havoc and Euphoria.

Above, can be seen, Havoc's cloth simulation capabilities.

Rockstar Advanced Game Engine
Developer: Rockstar Games
Supported platforms: Windows, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360

Popular titles using the engine: Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis, Grand Theft Auto IV, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne

Rockstar Games' in-house game engine, RAGE, is a further development of Angel Studio's Angel Game Engine. It features all sorts of third-party middle-ware plug-ins for tailoring the engine towards Rockstar Games' specific needs. Among the plug-ins included is, Euphoria, and Bullet physics engine.

RAGE has been used in most — if not all — of Rockstar Games' recent titles. Among those using it, is Grand Theft Auto IV, a game renowned for its realistic physics simulation capabilities.

Source
Developer: Valve Corporation
Supported platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3

Popular titles using the engine: Burnout Paradise, Counter Strike: Source, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Manhunt 2, Blitz: The League

Source is a game engine developed by Valve Corporation, used in many of their in-house releases as well as in third-party developments. It was first used in Counter Strike: Source back in 2004 and has since been used in many other Valve Corporation titles such as the famed Half-Life 2.

A very prominent and unique aspect of the engine's personality is its service for offering frequent engine updates. That is to say, users of Valve Corporation's Steam receive regular updates for their downloaded games every time that Source engine is updated.

Unity
Developer: Unity Technologies
Supported platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, Wii, iPhone/iPad, Xbox 360, Android, PS3

Popular titles using the engine: Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, GooBall, Global Conflicts: Palestine, Off-Road Velociraptor Safari, WolfQuest, Dead Frontier

Unity is another one of those odd-job engines that is used by different developers for different purposes. Like 3DVIA Virtools, it is used outside of game development for tasks such as urban planning, training simulation, medical visualisation, and pre-visualisation. It is an incredibly accommodative engine, offering developers the ability to export content to all the popular modern-day game console platforms in addition to iPhone/iPad platforms, Android platform, online browser platforms, and even Mac widgets! Unity has recently won the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award for 2010.

Many low-budget companies opt for a Unity license because of its low price despite its advanced, competitive features. In fact, the company's attitude reflects this business philosophy even in their slogan, 'The most powerful engine this side of a million dollars!'

Unity is available with two different licenses: one for commercial purposes, and one for non-commercial purposes. The commercial version, Unity Pro, comes with additional features and doesn't display a Unity splash-screen as found in the free, non-commercial version.

Unity's support for the iPhone platform has spawned a very positive response in the mobile game market. The above video shows some of the top iPhone App Store games developed with Unity as well as some PC games too!

Unreal Engine
Developer: Epic Games
Supported platforms: Windows, Linux, iOS, Mac OS X, Dreamcast, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3

Popular titles using the engine: Gears of War, Gears of War 2, Unreal Tournament 3, Army of Two, Turok, BioShock, Mass Effect, Mirror’s Edge

Ah, and of-course, there is Unreal Engine. Just as I started this article with an engine that bears particular significance to my life, so will it end in the same manner; Unreal Engine is an engine that I am about to start using at university — a slightly scary, yet exciting, prospect, I must admit!

Unreal Engine, developed by Epic Games and used both in their own titles as well as in hundreds of third-party titles, is one of those engines that everyone has heard of. Targeted fore-mostly towards first-person-shooter developments, it has been used outside of this field in the creation of stealth, RPG and even MMORPG games!

As with a few of the other engines that I've mentioned, Unreal is available for commercial developments and non-commercial developments depending on the license obtained. Unlike most other engine licenses, however, is the fact that the non-commercial license doesn't necessarily have to be non-commercial. That is to say, the non-commercial version can be licensed for commercial use so long as a certain percentage of a game's profits are payed to Epic Games. This allows for Unreal Engine to be accessible to small, low-budget developers as well as the big-boys!

Above, can be seen, some of Unreal Engine's key selling-points and technical innovations.

Competition: A Character and a Culture

2010-12-19T13:27:00.000Z

The following is a low-poly 3D character competition that will take place over the Christmas break. It should be seen as an opportunity to expand your portfolio and build upon your existing skills. The theme that has been set is intended to encourage competition partakers to explore fresh concepts and avoid resorting to boring clichés.

It is advised that you use Laurens Corijn's real-time viewport shader called Xoliulshader for your real-time renders. The actual shader itself can be found here and a tutorial on how to use it can be found here.

The deadline for this competition is 8th Januray.

Task

You will be required to produce a low-poly, PSP spec 3D character asset, accompanied by a range of concept sketches that demonstrate the development of your ideas. It is advised that you also produce a concept illustration (either traditionally or digitally) of your character design before modelling it — although, this is optional. Your work should reflect the theme described below.

You may create a pedestal or similar decorative asset for enhancing your beauty-shot render.

You should produce and submit:
• Concept sketches that reflect your idea progression
• A concept illustration (optional)
• A fully textured, low-poly character asset
• A pedestal asset for beauty shot renders (optional)
• Real-time and beauty shot renders of your final asset

Theme

The theme is very broad and accommodating. The idea behind it is simply to research into an interesting culture and base your character design around it. Both modern-day and historical cultures are acceptable but Western sub-cultures (such as cybergoths, hippies, etc.) are not. While some artistic license is acceptable, it is important that the final character design strongly reflects your chosen culture.

Try to find a culture that no one else will think of. This is your chance to be very individualistic and venture into unexplored territory!

Specifications

The specifications are loosely centred around PSP asset requirements. They are set quite low so as to compliment the higher-poly portions of your portfolio and demonstrate to employers that you can work at any polycount.

Character:
• 3,500 triangle limit
• 512px x 512px diffuse @ 24-bit OR 32-bit TGA
• 256px x 256px colour specular @ 24-bit TGA

Props:
• 0,500 triangle limit
• 256px x 256px diffuse @ 24-bit OR 32-bit TGA
• 256px x 256px colour specular @ 24-bit TGA

Pedestal:
• 0,500 triangle limit
• 256px x 256px diffuse @ 24-bit TGA
• 256px x 256px colour specular @ 24-bit TGA

Judging

Your work must be submitted to the competition's Facebook page before 8th Januray for it to be considered an entry. Judging will take place for the two days following the submission deadline (9th and 10th January). All competition partakers will be allowed to vote on any submission other than their own. A winner and two runners-up will be derived from this voting process.

The main purpose of this competition is to encourage a friendly degree of competitive spirit between game art students and allow for us all to further develop our artistic and technical skills.

It doesn't matter whether or not you win; what is important is that you produce a good piece of work to add to your portfolio.

'Sexy' Women in Games

2010-12-17T22:20:00.005Z

A friend of mine has recently had her blog attacked by some readers for expressing her beliefs regarding how females are portrayed in games. That is to say, my friend feels that the female archetypes found in many of today's games are offensive and degrading to women. Most bizarrely of all, one of the flamers was not only female, but also a professional games industry employee ― if that doesn't make it clear that there's a problem with the industry, what does?

The purpose of this post is to continue the debate from a fresh angle and in the process, hopefully offer some moral support to my friend. I have already approached this subject previously, but in a far broader sense. That post can be found here: Character Portrayal: the Bond Between Gamer and Game.

As I see it, there are two elements to this debate that both constitute as questions: firstly, is it acceptable for women to be portrayed in such a sexual way; and secondly, are such portrayals actually sexy?

So do I think that there are too many sexy females in games? Interestingly, no. I say this as it depends on how one defines 'sexiness.' I personally believe that there are far too many over-sexed, barbie-dolls with back-breakingly large breasts in games, but I certainly wouldn't classify these specimens as being sexy! Much to the contrary, I find such females to be quite repulsive and I gravely hope that I am not speaking only for myself in saying so.

This is a sexy female according to
Namco Bandai Games

Let's look at Ivy Valentine from the Soul series. She is, perhaps, an over-used example when arguing against how women are represented in games, but that is only because she is such a prime example of blatant sexual advertising!

So is she sexy? Well, this is of-course a matter of opinion and being a subjective matter, there is little point me providing my own opinion. A better asked question would be: what about her is supposed to be sexy? Her morbidly over-sized breasts would be a good place to start. In writing this post, I found it interesting to discover that Namco felt that they had made Ivy's breasts too large even for their standards in some of the promotional material for Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny.

The next most obvious feature that makes her just so damn irresistibly sexy ― can you feel the sarcasm? ― is her costume (or lack thereof). Apparently, grafting a few skin-tight strips of shiny, purple latex onto a woman of an oversexed dominatrix demeanour, equates to pure sex appeal. I wonder what she does to keep warm ― in fact, on second thought, I'd rather not know!

Last-but-not-least, is her sword/whip. It is a penis! Yes, a penis! Some may disagree, but I believe that there are implications in its design that lead the weapon to represent her power over the male gender. The truth, however, is that females like Ivy have no real power, contrary to what many believe when they speak of 'empowered females.' We'll look into this phenomenon a couple of paragraphs on from here.

Above, is an articulatable figurine of the character, Bayonetta, from the game of the same name. Mari Shimazaki exaggerated Bayonetta's leg proportions to up her sexual appeal. If she were a real person, she would be a whopping 2.5 meters tall! I personally like the fundamental concept behind her design but the blatant sex-selling function of her costume ruins it for me.

The cause of the problem that we're trying to address here is relatively simple. The games industry clearly seems to perceive male gamers as possessing a very poor taste in women and being driven fore-mostly by their primal instincts. The industry has concluded that offering big tits correlates with big sales. Whether this is true or not is disputable both ways.

Regardless of whether male gamers really do enjoy these crude sexual displays that are projected on them by female game characters, the fact remains that this is not only offensive and degrading to women, but damaging to them also! What do I mean by that precisely? If it isn't clear already, I am about to enter the realm of body image disorders.

I know a lot about eating disorders. How and why I do isn't important. What is important, however, is who/what is responsible for the recent surge in eating disorders over the past few decades. It would be crude to attempt to point the finger at a single source, but that said, it would be very hard to argue against the suggestion that female media depictions are partly responsible.

An 'empowered woman,' apparently

One look at Katie Price says it all. To me, she seems like a real life version of Ivy Valentine. I have consciously taken it about myself to absorb-in as little information about her as possible, so I can't really provide much in the way of factual information about her. I am, however, aware of the fact that due to the absurd size of her artificial breasts, she requires minor surgical procedures on a frequent basis to maintain them. Surely for most, that would be reason enough for not getting them!

It really is a shame that so many women are now convinced breast enlargement surgery is on the road to looking attractive. While some people find breasts of this artificial calibre attractive, just as many — if not more — don't!

In actuality, these women that flash up on our TVs and game consoles are far from being empowered. Katie Price is a slave to her boobs, and her boobs in turn, are a slave to society. She is not empowered.

Another 'empowered woman'

The size-zero culture and facial plastic-surgery are two things that bother me even more than breast enlargement surgery. I say this simply because I find the former two to be far more damaging. I have known females in the past to plaster their faces with foundation make-up to an extent that makes them look as if they are wearing face-paint! My regular observations of this behaviour lead me to conclude that many women feel that they have to hide behind a wall of make-up to cover up what society deems to be 'flaws' in their face's visual appearance. They essentially treat make-up as a mask with which they can hide from the world.

Not all make-up is necessarily bad

Make-up isn't all-together a bad thing. I'd be a hypocrite to say otherwise as despite being a man, I do tend to wear some from time to time. As with many of life's subtle tendencies, there is a fine line between approaching make-up use with a healthy attitude and an unhealthy attitude. I generally tend to believe that make-up should be used for enhancing one's features rather than hiding or obscuring them. Take eyeliner for example; when used masterfully, the results can be incredibly attractive.

As for the size-zero culture, I am, of-course, referring to the indisputable dark reality that women left, right and centre are throwing up half of what they eat out of pressure to achieve and thereafter maintain the body-weight that they see in magazines. Anorexia and bulimia nervosa both constitute downward spirals of exponential worsening. They are absolutely horrible things to get drawn into; food intake restraint and/or food purging becomes easier and easier to do each time until the point where it actually starts to feel like the right thing to do!

So how does any of this relate to games? Well, as should be blindingly clear to most, these archetypes found amongst cat-walk models and TV celebrities are almost identical to those found in games. It is quite possible that the different media-centric industries of the modern world all encourage one another in a cyclical manner, with games being influenced by film/television/fashion and film/television/fashion being influenced by games.

A reoccurring theme is that 'weapons = power'

So by this point in the post, I would hope most agree that media depictions of women are far from empowering. Now, instead of talking about what isn't sexy, how about we talk about what is?

So, what is sexy? Well, just as with what isn't considered sexy, what is considered sexy is a highly subjective matter. I personally find three things to be very attractive: power, intelligence, and individuality. Sadly, very few game characters possess the latter two, and the former quality is often denoted in a very blunt, unsubtle manner.

Power can be demonstrated in so many ways that it isn't. I generally perceive it as having the courage to be oneself and trust in one's own views. That is to say, power is essentially defined by a person's commitment to what they do and believe in.

True power is the ability for an individual to stand on their own two legs and steer themselves through a difficult situation without requiring the emotional investment of others. Stuff like this is a matter of brains, not brawn. Weapons and muscles are simply an accessory that give power to those who otherwise wouldn't have any.

Boobs + glasses =
instant intelligence

Intelligence is a hard thing to get across in a character design. Slapping glasses and a smart/casual outfit onto a character doesn't constitute intelligence, but yet we tend to see this stereotype an awful lot in games. The true nature of intelligence is far too intricate to be represented in such an unintricate way. Intellectuals are found throughout all walks of life — so why is it that they would all look and dress the same?

Real-life professionals are always
seen to dress like this, apparently

True intelligence can be a very attractive quality. It is most apparent in a person's manner of speech and temperament for tackling challenges; although, that said, there's no definitive way of identifying or classifying it.

Intellectuals are analytical, inquisitive and intuitive; three characteristics that — with enough consideration — a character artist can factor into a character's aesthetics. A person's visual demeanour is largely influenced by the decisions that they make, and therefore, intelligence can be depicted through how these decisions influence their overall appearance.

Individuality is a celebration of one's own unique identity as a human being. This can manifest itself in one's cultural background and ethnicity, one's opinnions and feelings, or one's life choices. It is a matter of one being the person that they want to be, rather than the person that a culture forces upon them. I like people who appreciate the value of this ideology as they tend to be far more interesting to talk to and generally far more accepting of others. I have put up with the oppressive nature of society for long enough to not care about people's superficial judgements of me any-more — apart from at job interviews, of-course! The ways in which I decide to express myself and the decisions that I make are purely my own; they do not result from pretension.

Just as some find large breasts and long, blonde hair to be attractive, I in the same way, find individuality to be incredibly attractive. Yet, to find such a quality present in a game is a challenge and a half since so many character designs in some way or another conform to a strict set of tried-and-true archetypes. The sad truth is that where-ever financial considerations are made, spreadsheets and formulas are never too far away. This is a problem that bothers me deeply; competitive commerce essentially kills morals and creative originality.

Alternative hair colours are the only
constituent of individuality
in games, sadly

For individuality to truly be demonstrated in games, character designs need to start varying in more than just hair colour and ethnicity. Humanity is an incredibly diverse phenomenon and its about time games start reflecting this!

I quite frankly find it disgusting that my friend was attacked for stating her views on what is supposed to be her own, personal blog! Hopefully this post will demonstrate that she is not alone in her views. Plenty of men and women, inside and outside of the media industries feel this way. The problem is that money tends to over-rule morals.

I may in the future, write a post on the misrepresentation of men in the media industries. I consider it to be a problem of equal weighting to that of female media misrepresentation, and as no one else on my course seems to have addressed the issue yet, it certainly is something that I would like to write about. Stay tuned for more!

Further reading material on character design:

The Aesthetics of Unique Video Game Characters

Game Documentation: My Attempt at a Mock-up

2010-12-09T20:23:00.001Z

The following blog post will constitute a mock-up of some of the documentation involved in game design and development. The game used in this post is a fictitious concoction created purely to give substance to the game documentation that I have created. This entire post is just an example of how a game's documentation may or may not be constructed ― stuff like this varies greatly depending upon the project and studio at hand.

Game Concept

Game Title: Incandescent Minds

Target Platform: Sony PlayStation 3 (with use of PlayStation Move)
Target Audience: Male and females, aged between 18 and 30
Target BBFC Rating: 18

Introduction
Incandescent Minds is a science fiction RPG/adventure game set in a post-apocalyptic, futuristic world with art style influences drawn-in from the cyberpunk sub-culture, Lhasan architecture (Potala Palace), Middle Eastern architecture, and medieval Venetian styles. This blend of influences is combined such as to achieve an art style full of both morbid/sinister and eccentric/quirky visual impressions.

The game operates with an innovative camera dynamic that allows for the switching between over-the-shoulder and third person views. The gender inbalance issue is addressed by including gameplay mechanics that appeal to both genders. This is achieved with use of diplomatic and combat based character interaction mechanics, allowing for a player to tackle in-game challenges by employing either negotiative problem solving or tactical problem solving strategies.

Setting
The game is set in the United Arab Emirates around the year, 2400, in an alternate, apocalyptic universe. Most of the gameplay and plot development takes place in and around a fictitious city called the neo-Dubai metropolis.

Story
The story's central focus is that of a classical love story ― but with a futuristic, cyberpunk spin! The story draws influence from the fairytale, the Beauty and the Beast, through its inclusion of a young, naïve yet talented, female protagonist as 'the beauty' and a cynical, worn-and-weathered cyborg as 'the beast.' The story deviates from this archetype slightly in the fact that neither character can truly be classified as beautiful either in terms of personality or visual appearance.

Character Design

Zakiyah
Zakiyah, meaning 'pure' in Arabic, is the lead character of the game. She lives in a small sub-urban prefecture of the neo-Dubai metropolis called ElevenBlock but knows hardly anyone in her immediate neighbourhood. She is highly introverted and secretive, preferring to keep to herself rather than trust in others.

She makes a living by selling neo-Dubain machinery to small, neighbouring cities at a profit. This is a particularly dangerous job as transporting large machinery across desert-land runs the risk of being attacked by armed thieves. She considers herself an engineer and is very proficient at repairing and modifying vehicles in her spare time. She has no friends; only clients.

Kanvas
Kanvas is a non-player-character with potential to feature as the lead character of future spin-off developments. He was a professional cyber-part body modifier until his own machinery fell on him, crushing his torso and forcing him to graft his mangled remains into an assembly of bio/mechanical cyborg parts. He lives in a neighbouring city to Zakiyah and becomes romantically involved with her part way through the game.

Falah9
Falah9 is a non-player-character. Highly misanthropic, paranoid and business orientated, he has no interests outside of profit gain. He assists Zakiyah in acquiring business connections with other characters and constitutes a very important person in the diplomatic gameplay elements of the game. There is irony in the fact that despite his general hatred of people, he has more contacts than anyone else in the game!

Hardware and Software

The following hardware and software lists include all major hardware and software packages to be included in the game development pipeline. It is quite possible that smaller, more miscellaneous hardware units and programs may also be used on the rare occasion.

Hardware List
• MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo
     2.4Ghz processor
     1.07Ghz bus
     4GB DDR3 memory
     NVIDIA GeForce 9400M GPU
     NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT GPU
• Wacom Intuos3
• Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1TB Drive
• Sony PlayStation 3

Software List
• Photoshop CS4
• 3DS Max 2011
• Mudbox 2011
• xNormal 3
• CrazyBump 1
• Unreal Development Kit

Photoshop
Photoshop will be used throughout the development process, firstly at the concepting stage, and then later on, for 3D model paint-overs and texture authoring.

3DS Max
3DS Max will be used for the creation of all game assets. It will be used mostly for its modelling and UV unwrapping tools.

Mudbox
Mudbox will be used for sculpting high resolution details onto game assets, allowing for said details to then be baked into texture maps. The program will also be used from time-to-time in the process of painting directly onto an asset so as to determine where in 3D space certain UV texture coordinates correspond to.

xNormal
xNormal will be used for baking ambient occlusion information into texture maps.

CrazyBump
CrazyBump will be used for converting height map information into normal maps. In addition to this, it will be used for modifying and refining existing normal maps created in Mudbox.

Unreal Development Kit
Unreal Development Kit will be the SDK used, as the game is to use Unreal Engine 3. Unreal Development Kit contains a scene graph that will be used extensively for placing art assets in the engine.

Visual Art

Asset Outline
The following is a list of assets to be developed for the game. As the game is intended for deployment on the Sony PlayStation 3 platform, the asset specification requirements are typical of a current generation game. All assets will be exported from 3DS Max in OBJ format for use in Unreal Engine 3, and textured with bitmaps in 24-bit or 32-bit TGA format.

Environment Specifications
Environments will consist of broken up terrain segments, each covering a square radius of around 1.5km to 4km. These segments will each feature a tileable 4096px x 4096px 24-bit TGA diffuse map with unique visual details blended in ontop with 6 2048px x 2048px 24-bit TGA diffuse maps. Terrain segments will load in and out of the game as the player navigates towards and away from them, as will each of the 6 unique detail 2048px x 2048px diffuse maps.

ElevenBlock Map
Prefecture ElevenBlock of the neo-Dubai metropolis hosts a variety of interesting people, all eccentric in their own way. It is famous for having fetish clubs and a cyber body modification sub-culture. At night, illicit races are held with banned hover vehicle technology on the desert planes surrounding the prefecture.

Asset	Priority	Budget	Dimensions
majorBuildings_group01	1	4,000 tris	1,300m x 1,300m
majorBuildings_group02	1	3,000 tris	0,800m x 0,800m
majorBuildings_group03	1	3,000 tris	0,800m x 0,800m
roads_group01	2	2,000 tris	0,600m x 0,600m
roads_group02	2	2,000 tris	0,600m x 0,600m
roads_group03	2	1,500 tris	0,400m x 0,400m
hoverStrip_group01	2	0,500 tris	0,300m x 0,300m
hoverStrip_group02	2	0,700 tris	0,500m x 0,500m
urbanDetails_group01	3	0,500 tris	0,050m x 0,050m
urbanDetails_group02	3	1,500 tris	0,125m x 0,125m
urbanDetails_group03	3	0,500 tris	0,050m x 0,050m
desertDetails_group01	3	0,900 tris	0,200m x 0,200m
desertDetails_group02	3	0,500 tris	0,150m x 0,150m
minorBuildings_group01	4	1,500 tris	2,500m x 2,500m
minorBuildings_group02	4	1,500 tris	2,000m x 2,000m
minorBuildings_group03	4	1,000 tris	1,500m x 1,500m
minorBuildings_group04	4	2,000 tris	4,000m x 4,000m
minorBuildings_group05	4	1,000 tris	1,000m x 1,000m
minorBuildings_group06	4	1,500 tris	1,500m x 1,500m
urbanTerrain_seg01	5	0,700 tris	2,500m x 2,500m
urbanTerrain_seg02	5	0,700 tris	2,000m x 2,000m
urbanTerrain_seg03	5	1,000 tris	4,000m x 4,000m
urbanTerrain_seg04	5	0,500 tris	1,500m x 1,500m
desertTerrain_seg01	6	1,000 tris	2,000m x 2,000m
desertTerrain_seg02	6	1,250 tris	3,000m x 3,000m

Scenery Model Specifications
The specifications for scenery are quite diverse in the sense that very few scenery assets are alike, and therefore neither should be their requirements. Smaller scenery assets will typically have a polycount from anywhere as low as 200 triangles right up to 3,000 triangles, while larger assets will vary from around 3,000 triangles right up to 8,000 triangles.

Diffuse texture maps will consist mostly of tileable 1024px x 1024px 24-bit TGA bitmaps except for where a different format or size would be better suited.

Dubai Citadel Ruins Asset
The citadel ruins date back to before the neo-Dubai metropolis' destruction and later re-construction. No attempts have been made to repair them. The ruins offer an interesting aesthetic than can be seen from all around the Dubai Desert.

Mesh	Priority	Budget	Dimensions
rubbleDetail_group01	1	1,250 tris	0,025m x 0,100m
rubbleDetail_group02	1	1,000 tris	0,015m x 0,050m
rubbleDetail_group03	1	0,500 tris	0,035m x 0,050m
rubbleDetail_group04	1	0,750 tris	0,035m x 0,080m
rubbleDetail_group05	1	1,000 tris	0,040m x 0,150m
baseWall_seg01	2	0,500 tris	0,005m x 0,100m
baseWall_seg02	2	1,000 tris	0,005m x 0,130m
baseWall_seg03	2	1,000 tris	0,015m x 0,100m
baseWall_seg04	2	0,500 tris	0,005m x 0,050m
baseWall_seg05	2	1,500 tris	0,005m x 0,400m
baseWall_seg06	2	0,500 tris	0,005m x 0,050m
baseWall_seg07	2	0,500 tris	0,005m x 0,050m

Character Model Specifications

Character models are ranked within three tiers of detail based upon importance in the game. The first tier applies only to the lead character and has the highest specifications, the second is for significant non-player-characters, and the third is for insignificant non-player-characters.

First Tier
• Polygon budget:
     14,000 triangle-count
• Texture map specifications:
     3 x (1024px x 1024px diffuse)
     3 x (1024px x 1024px normal)
     3 x (512px x 512px colour specular)

Second Tier
• Polygon budget:
     10,000 triangle-count
• Texture map specifications:
     3 x (1024px x 1024px diffuse)
     3 x (512px x 512px normal)
     3 x (512px x 512px colour specular)

Third Tier
• Polygon budget:
     6,000 triangle-count
• Texture map specifications:
     1 x (1024px x 1024px diffuse)
     1 x (512px x 512px normal)
     1 x (512px x 512px colour specular)

Zakiyah Character Asset
Being the lead character, the Zakiyah asset is of first tier specifications.

Element	Priority	Budget	Dimensions
head	1	3,250 tris	00.17m x 00.22m
hair	2	0,750 tris	00.20m x 00.40m
hand_l	2	0,750 tris	00.10m x 00.20m
hand_r	2	0,750 tris	00.10m x 00.20m
pepperboxPistol	2	1,750 tris	00.05m x 00.10m
hood	3	0,500 tris	00.30m x 00.45m
raincoat	3	2,500 tris	00.80m x 01.50m
shirt	3	0,750 tris	00.50m x 00.20m
shorts	3	0,800 tris	00.50m x 00.80m
leggings_l	4	0,250 tris	00.15m x 00.90m
leggings_r	4	0,250 tris	00.15m x 00.90m
undershirt	4	0,400 tris	00.50m x 00.90m
baseTorso	5	0,300 tris	00.30m x 00.70m
baseArm_l	6	0,175 tris	00.07m x 00.50m
baseArm_r	6	0,175 tris	00.07m x 00.50m
baseLeg_l	6	0,175 tris	00.10m x 00.70m
baseLeg_r	6	0,175 tris	00.10m x 00.70m
boot_l	6	0,150 tris	00.10m x 00.20m
boot_r	6	0,150 tris	00.10m x 00.20m

Kanvas Character Asset
Kanvas is of second tier specifications.

Element	Priority	Budget	Dimensions
head	1	2,500 tris	00.18m x 00.24m
cyberEye	1	0,500 tris	00.04m x 00.04m
hand_l	2	0,500 tris	00.12m x 00.24m
hand_r	2	0,500 tris	00.12m x 00.24m
skullCannon	2	1,200 tris	00.25m x 01.50m
desertCape	3	1,000 tris	00.80m x 01.50m
vest	3	0,600 tris	00.50m x 00.20m
trousers	3	0,600 tris	00.50m x 00.80m
chestPlate	4	0,400 tris	00.30m x 00.45m
baseTorso	5	0,300 tris	00.35m x 00.80m
baseArm_l	6	0,150 tris	00.12m x 00.53m
baseArm_r	6	0,150 tris	00.12m x 00.53m
baseLeg_l	6	0,150 tris	00.13m x 00.75m
baseLeg_r	6	0,150 tris	00.13m x 00.75m
boot_l	6	0,125 tris	00.25m x 00.25m
boot_r	6	0,125 tris	00.25m x 00.25m

Vehicle Model Specifications
Vehicle assets are ranked within two tiers of detail based upon importance in the game. The first tier is for interactive vehicles that will use advanced physics simulation dynamics, whereas the second tier is for non-interactive vehicles that will be animated but not use advanced physics simulation dynamics.

Polygon budgets and texture map specifications for different vehicles will vary based upon the size and complexity of each vehicle design so the following is therefore only a guide. This is especially true for some of the second tier vehicles that are significantly large in comparison to the others.

First Tier
• Polygon budget:
     8,000 - 16,000 triangle-count
• Texture map specifications:
     2 x (2048px x 2048px diffuse)
     2 x (1024px x 1024px normal)
     2 x (1024px x 1024px colour specular)

Second Tier
• Polygon budget:
     4,000 - 22,000 triangle-count
• Texture map specifications:
     2 x (1024px x 1024px diffuse OR 2048px x 2048px diffuse)
     2 x (512px x 512px normal OR 1024px x 1024px normal)
     2 x (512px x 512px colour specular OR 1024px x 1024px colour specular)

Bicycle Asset
This asset constitutes a bicycle equipped with a low-power hover-bike engine. It is highly nimble and sturdy but has a low maximum speed. It is used to speed-up exploration of urban areas but is rendered useless on desert terrain.

Mesh	Priority	Budget	Dimensions
frame	1	2,000 tris	00.07m x 01.80m
wheel_f	1	0,750 tris	00.50m x 00.50m
wheel_r	1	0,750 tris	00.50m x 00.50m
handlebars	2	1,000 tris	00.70m x 00.05m
saddle	2	0,500 tris	00.20m x 00.35m
engine	2	1,500 tris	00.40m x 00.60m
damagedParts	3	0,800 tris	00.05m x 00.25m
pedals	3	0,500 tris	00.20m x 00.20m
neonUnderlight	3	0,500 tris	00.10m x 00.50m
mudguard_f	3	0,250 tris	00.08m x 00.20m
mudguard_r	3	0,250 tris	00.08m x 00.20m
bell	4	0,200 tris	00.04m x 00.04m

And that's it! I hope you've found reading this interesting.

Level Design

2010-11-24T02:14:00.002Z

A game level designer is a very specific type of game designer. It is the level designer who composes a game's constituent gameplay objects into a coherent, digestible world. They are just as much an artist as they are a designer, for it is their creative decisions just so much as it is their technical decisions that lead to an enjoyable level design.

Interestingly, level design has many similarities and common ties with the themes discussed in my last post on composition; just as a painter must consider ways to guide a viewer's eyes through a painting, a level designer must consider ways to guide the player, themselves, through a level. This concept of directing a player through intelligent design considerations is known as 'flow control,' just as in other logic based systems.

The majority of a level designer's job sees them staring at level editing software on their computer or sketching down ideas in their notebook. Just as with most types of design, level design undergoes a rigorous iterative process of testing and refinement. For this reason, most level designers invest a lot of initial time into planning out and structuring their ideas on paper before going anywhere near to a keyboard and mouse.

A level designer's responsibilities are in some ways quite interchangeable with design jobs centred around construction in the real world (like interior design, architecture, landscaping and so on). Where the level designer's job role is distinct from these others, however, is in the fact that their designs fulfill a different purpose. An architect, for example, must consider their design's overall aesthetic appearance, its ability to withstand weathering, how it provides shelter and privacy, whether areas of it need to cater for a specific purpose or function, and so on. Some of these considerations are to enter the game designer's mind but only to a hollow extent. It is the level designer's job fore-mostly to piece together an enjoyable world for the player to experience and these other considerations are made purely to add to that.

Chris Kay, a professional level designer working for Crytek said the following in an interview about his job:

"I often judge a level a long time after playing it. For me a level that can be remembered long after playing it must be good (unless it was painfully frustrating)!"

Game level design — along with game design as a whole — begins at the pre-production stage of the game development cycle with much of the inceptive work receiving little input from the art team. In this manner, a game's early level designs will be created in a specialist level editor featuring basic visual representations of what will later become the art team's work. It isn't until later on when the game has been given the full go-ahead for development that the game artists provide their contributions.

What exactly it is that a level designer pieces together into an immersive, explorable world varies greatly across game genre. A FPS level designer, for instance, will have to carefully consider the placement of weapon pick-up points and scripted AI events so as to find the equilibrium between what would be considered under-challenging and over-challenging. A platformer level designer , however, would invest far more time into forming parts of the world into obstacles that the player must negotiate their way through.

A poorly conceived level design will almost always cause irreparable damage to an otherwise good game. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is an exception to this, as it is seen by many as being a fantastic game with one terrible level: The Water Temple. Thankfully, the frustration caused by The Water Temple's clumsy level orchestration did little to unbalance the momentum of the game's overall design.

What made The Water Temple such a nightmare for so many gamers was its constant requirement for the player to traverse their way through a body of water by continuously equipping and unequipping a pair of iron boots, all the time while varying the water's height with an array of switches; most players found this dynamic to be overly-demanding and frustrating rather than an enjoyable challenge. Eiji Aonuma, the level designer responsible for The Water Temple, recently said the following:

"How many thought the Water Temple was tough? How many thought it was horrible? I have lived with that for the last 10 or so years!"

He promises to greatly improve the level's design in the upcoming Nintendo 3DS port of the game.

Each dot on the map represents a visitable location.

Another of my examples of poor level design is Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. It is an curious case to look at as the latest installment in the franchise is, by contrast, recognised as hosting a selection of great level designs. So what was so bad about this game's level design? Quite simply, it was far too fucking big! In fact, it is quite possibly the biggest game ever made!

At first thought, a large world map may seem like a petty thing to complain about but one must consider that it is often the case with overly-large level designs that quality is over-ruled by quantity. That is to say, far too common it is in such games that there are great big expanses of near-empty land constituting all but a handful of key locations on the map.

Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall does not betray this notoriety of large games with its developer admitting that most of the land was randomly generated. The world is a whopping 62,394 square miles in size (twice that of Britain), featuring over 750,000 non-player characters and 15,000 visitable locations (such as towns, cities and dungeons). In comparison, the game's sequel, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, has a world of 10 square miles in size and hosts around 1000 non-player characters, making it roughly 0.01% the size of Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall.

Eve Online is another game that could be considered to be a far too large in size. For one thing, the level — or meta-level, depending on how you see things — is that of an entire galaxy! The obvious design decision to make when dealing with an entire galaxy would be to simplify things down and while they may very well have done just that to some extent, the fact that you'd need a tally chart and a spare 40 minutes to count all the stars in the map system says it all!

Level design bears a massive importance in games — and this importance can only greaten as games become bigger, more diverse, and the technology for them opens up new design doors. When games transfer across into the realms of virtual reality and bear host to thousands upon thousands of players at any given time, perhaps the job of a level designer will become even more closely related to that of an architect's!

Further reading material on level design:

Creating a Compelling Composition

2010-11-07T17:01:00.001Z

A good composition is pivotal to the sucessful delivery of a visual receipe's ingredients. It is one of those things that can turn a really great idea into a nightmare of garbled visual noise, or a poor idea into something that sells itself a little better. Regardless of whether we are talking about paintings, photographs or even magazine design layouts, a proficient artist or designer always puts a fair amount of time into considering composition.

So what is composition? Why is it so important in art? It is quite simply what makes an artwork intelligible. It is what guides the viewer through an artwork and splits up visual elements so as to make them more visually accessible to interpretation. Just as with a book, if things are structured poorly, the end result will be difficult to understand or appreciate.

I like to think of composition as the driving force that directs a viewer's exploration through an artwork. It doesn't fully control where the viewer looks, or push an impression on them, but rather, it nudges them towards what the artist intends. It is essentially where 'art' and 'design' meet, as both are required in equal measures to arrive at a pleasing result. That is to say, careful thinking has to be put into a composition through use of both established compositional rules and inate artistic judgement.

My personal interpretation of how Michelangelo directs my eyes
through The Creation of Adam

Many of the old masters demonstrate effective use of composition in their paintings. Vermeer, for instance, is commonly regarded as having been fantastic at employing composition in his work. The Music Lesson is a fantastic example of this, as is Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Composition is very much so about breaking a painting up into key areas, referred to normally as focal points. It is common to have a main focal point followed by a few minor ones that help lead the viewer's eyes through the artwork. Throughout the years, artists have put a lot of thought into the ideal proportions at which to place these focal areas in relation to one another.

The rule of thirds is perhaps one of the most common compositional techniques to be used in the contemporary visual arts. The foremost aim of this approach is to deter a composition from hosting the majority of its focus in its centre. This is achieved by dividing the canvas space into nine segments, defined by two horizontal and two vertical lines placed at equal distances apart. The main focal attractions of a painting or photograph can thereafter be placed either along these lines or where they intersect. Often in landscape painting, the horizon is placed such that it rests along the lower horizontal line.

Phryné before the Areopagus by Jean-Léon Gérôme, I found to be a good example of the rule of thirds. I decided to take the painting into Photoshop and reverse engineer its use of the technique. As can be seen in the above image, Gérôme has positioned many of the main elements of the painting such that they occupy either one or two of the nine segments. Furthermore, the three main focal areas reside almost precisely where the horizontal and vertical lines intersect.

Use of natural frames can be a great way of drawing focus to a key area (often a person) in a composition. Natural frames can be found absolutely everywhere! Doors and windows form typical examples of natural frames with many artists choosing to use more inventive frames such as interesting mountain silhouettes and car wing-mirrors. Clever use of a natural frame can give additional visual impact to a painting without stealing focus from the main focal point; rather than forming its own focal point, it simply compliments the existing ones. The Flickr group, Natural Frames, has many great photographic examples of natural frames.

Example of the Fibonacci sequence
and golden ratio as found in nautilus shells

The golden ratio (or divine proportion, as refereed to by some) is in its most fundamental definition, the number 1.6180339887. What is so significant about this number is its intrinsic presence in pretty much everything in this universe. That is to say, it is a number that regularly crops up in all sorts of mathematical and biological systems; from the patterns found in a heart beat and the branching formation of blood vessels right through to the formation of stars and galaxies!

The golden ratio can be grafted into something applicable to composition by employing it in the dimensions of a rectangle, forming the ratio 1:1.618.

A rectangle of such proportions is known as the golden rectangle. By placing a second golden rectangle within the original, and then placing a third one within that, and continuing this process, a golden spiral can be formed. Where the golden spiral appears to end can then be used for assigning a painting its focal points. This process is better explained here.

There are many other geometric shapes that can be constructed with the golden ratio and thereafter applied to a composition. Vermeer was known to employ many of them, as can be seen in the above image. The superimposed golden spiral illustrates how Vermeer went about positioning the girl's hands and the accompanying glass of water such that they became the main focal point of the painting.

The above animation by Cristóbal Vila demonstrates many of the connections between mathematics and visual aesthetics.

I hope this post has been at-least somewhat informative for the reader. I've certainly learnt a lot through writing it!

Further reading material on composition:

Planning Before You Plunge: Rationalising Creativity

2010-10-27T18:08:00.004+01:00

I have just been to an industry talk given by two artists visiting from Blitz Games. The talk was similar to the one I blogged about a year ago, so I won't go into too much detail. The main points raised in the talk felt familiar and perhaps even obvious to me now but a year ago it was all new and, quite frankly, a bit of a shock to the system. It is both scary, and in another way, somewhat reassuring, to think of how little I knew a year ago in contrast to now. In fact, it begs the question: in yet another year's time, will I be looking back and feeling the same way about my current self?

All in all, the talk was quite a morale booster — although, a scary one at that! The speakers made clear of how there are far more applicants than jobs and so to get a job, one has to be more than just a good applicant. If I recall their words correctly (which I don't), one of the speakers said, "you want to have artwork that gets an employer to stop skimming through portfolios when they get to yours and gives them a reason to find out more about you." My respect for him heightened when he mentioned that he never looked at an applicant's CV until after he'd seen their portfolio; their age, background and education are of second importance to him. I also noticed that he used the made-up adjective, 'doubleplusgood,' in a nod towards Newspeak, a fictional language concocted by George Orwell in his phenomenal work of literary genius, Nineteen Eighty-Four. After leaving the seminar theatre, I thought that now would be a good time to blog seeing as the subject of this post is quite relevant to the talk.

So what exactly is this post about anyway? It's going to be all about the planning process of creating art. It's an interesting thing to talk about since artists are often stereotyped as being both very irrational and very disorganised. To give substance to this post, we were pointed in the direction of a useful resource that speaks specifically of how an artist should go about planning and organising their work. This mindset for planning and arranging one's thoughts systematically should begin from the point of idea generation and remain right through to the point of execution and beyond. The resource, although given to us in PDF format, was originally a forum thread that can be found here. Admittedly, I haven't read the entire article yet — although I certainly intend to. It seems like the sort of thing that is best digested in small nibbles rather than one great big bite.

One of the main things that the writer speaks of is the importance of knowing what you're doing before you actually do it. So often it is such that an excited artist will leap into doing a painting without the foggiest clue of how they're going to execute it. The intensity of the moment in which their idea is conceived overrules any desire for them to 'waste time' with planning out the fundamentals. The truth of the matter is that it is by not planning that the artist is effectively wasting time. It should, therefore, always be in the intention of the artist to discipline their enthusiasm into something more rational and productive.

Spontaneity can be a great thing at times. However, it can also be a very damaging thing. It would seem that effective use of creativity is in being able to harness a unique spark of spontaneity within some sort of useful context. The curse of being a creator is in the fact that creativity simply cannot be summoned at will. Rather, it generally seems to be of an explosive nature, often triggered in a moment of fierce inspiration and enthusiasm. Just as with a radioactive substance, creativity is both incredibly useful and incredibly volatile. This means that to effectively be a creative individual, it is a matter of balancing out the spontaneous tendencies of the creative mind with the organised thoughts of a careful planner.

The speakers from Blitz Games gave a good example of this in their talk when they projected up onto their screen, images of a game level throughout various stages of planning and development. They explained to us that their methodology was such that they would model a very simple representation of the level in 3D, render it, use the render as a paint-over in which they would focus on the details and aesthetics, and then, finally, turn their efforts towards the actual, fully polished 3D asset. It was only when they knew that their preparatory work ticked all the required boxes in terms of its fundamental design and fine detailed aesthetics that they would start developing the final thing. In short, if one is to invest a lot of time in something, it should be tested out in smaller, quicker formats first to ensure that a good end result will arise from it all.

I am very guilty of rushing into execution without any forethought, but believe me, that's going to change from now on. I decided for the first time last night, before I began on a speed painting, to spend some time trolling around the web for visual inspiration that I would thereafter compile into a mood board. Now, don't get me wrong: I have used reference before and I am constantly seeking out new sources of inspiration but the revelation in my methodology last night was in the fact that I searched for the visual references before, not during, painting. Essentially, I took the time to understand how the visual elements of my planning would fit together into a coherent, harmonious whole. And the outcome of the painting said a lot to me; the components to which I gave the most forethought turned out better than those that received less.

It can at times be naïve to fall too much in love with an idea. One's first attempt at something is not necessarily going to be their best. It is very easy to get lost in the excitement of an initial idea and dismiss the need for investing any deeper thought into the matter. This is looked at quite a lot in the aforementioned article. The writer advises the use of postage-stamp size sketches to test out a painting's composition. To extend on this a little, one could also use this postage-stamp size format to try out different rendering techniques, different lighting techniques, to ensure a well balanced colour/value scheme, and so on.

The bottom line is that good planning is quintessential to a good result. In any given task, there are countless traps that await an individual's clumsy misjudgement. By surveying what lies ahead and making simple, intellectual provisions, such traps can be avoided, or at-least, lessened in intensity.

That's basically all there is to say on the matter. The logic behind why this process of planning is beneficial couldn't be clearer. The challenge is not in understanding this work philosophy but in effectively applying it to one's workflow. After my painting experience last night, I am keen to keep raising the bar and find new ways to improve my admittedly quite poor process for art creation. Over and out.

Dreams, Pursuits, Errors and a Clash with Reality

2010-10-17T19:17:00.009+01:00

However clumsy a title this post may have, the underlying statement is quite significant. I am an individual of many aspirations. A lot of my life is spent asking myself whether these said aspirations are the product of mere naïvety and will consequently lead to nothing, or whether I can manipulate my life such that they one day bare substance in actuality. I am fully aware of my irrational and unrealistic nature, and find myself at a period in my life where I am having to make provisions to factor out the most irrational and unrealistic of my desires.

Where I Was

I have already reflected on my life a couple of times before in this blog (for example, in If Only Life Had a Restart Button). This time around, my reflection is that of looking both ways down a tunnel and acknowledging both, where I have come from, and where I intend to head.

In a sort of irony, it was my passion for 3D modelling that eventually caused me to end up feeling rather dispassionate about it. Precisely a year ago from now, my enthusiasm for 3D art was dying out and being replaced by a grudge against it. An inferiority complex had just fired up in my mind, as for the first time in my life I was the worst of the worst. My 2D art skills were of unacceptably poor quality and within my mind, began an emotionally intense process of transformation as I tried to learn what I should have already known. In the year between then and now, I have managed to further my 2D art skills by a fair amount (although there is still a lot of room for improvement) but my 3D ability has hardly altered whatsoever. I wrongly attributed my incompetence at 2D art to my love of 3D, which I now can clearly see was a foolish outlook. It wasn't until I started to see how much my peers had improved at 3D modelling that I realised how detrimental my attitude had been.

It was when I began to appreciate the ambiguity of life that I forcibly pulled my legs free from the railway tracks to which they were bound and decided to take on a more multifaceted approach in my work ethic. I remember reading the following passage in the post-cyberpunk novel, The Diamond Age: or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, and agreeing with its philosophy so much that I instantly employed it in my attitude:

"The difference between ignorant and educated people is that the latter know more facts. But that has nothing to do with whether they are stupid or intelligent. The difference between stupid and intelligent people—and this is true whether or not they are well-educated—is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. They are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations—in fact, they expect them and are apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward."

That passage, however obvious its message may appear to some, made me better appreciate the complexity of life. It thereafter became more apparent to me that I cannot go about things in such a boolean manner, essentially considering 'this' or 'that,' but never considering both. Applied to the 2D versus 3D scenario, for example, my new philosophy taught me to give both equal attention.

Despite the mistakes I made, it is indisputable that I gained a lot from the year. I am now less naïve, a little more cultured and have developed a good appreciation for ethical qualities such as valuing knowledge over materialism. University culture combined with the open-minded intellectualism of my university friends provided me with the nurturing environment that my brain has been seeking out for years. Certain personal hardships that the year brought with it taught me to better appreciate what I have and to not derive my emotional state from the comparing of myself to others. I realise now that happiness is an internal affair and as such, should be measured through one's own understanding of what constitutes personal fulfillment. A hidden character has emerged out of my murky depths of being. I have begun to discover my true self and gain a stronger understanding of what matters to me the most.

This year is pivotal in conceiving my own personal artistic style and developing my abilities up to that of a professional in preparation for my final year of study. The first year was my sandbox year. That is to say, it was a year of experimental growth and learning. I've had my year rolling around in a sandbox, cramming together clumps of sand to make flimsy, little sand-castles; now it's time to get really serious and build bigger, better things out of the very same sand.

Where I Want to Be

Part of my struggle in planning out a career is in the fact that there are so many things that I am passionate about. For one thing, I love reading (especially travelogues and political fiction). For me, reading is a portal that allows me to retreat out of the problems of my own life and into the problems of someone else's. The world is such a large, diverse place and I feel that my current grasp of what is out there is incredibly diluted. I want to travel, experiencing new cultures and ways of life; I want to scuttle across the planet like a tortoise, with the entirety of my home tethered to my back.

The Far-East is a region of the world that I am particularly interested in as of the last few years. I would like to think that I would end up working in somewhere like Japan or Singapore, which are both countries that bear substantial lucrative opportunities for those employed in video-games. Living in Japan, for example, would provide me with an interesting cultural surrounding and make it easier for me to visit countries like Thailand and Tibet.

Political photography and travel photography are fields that I once considered factoring into my career but now that dream sits on the back-burner along with the rest. My concept of a fulfilling career is that of diversity. I wish that I somehow could live by Renaissance-man ideals and adopt the work ethic of a polymath, jumping between passions but being exceptionally proficient non-the-less.

So, surely out of this pool of dreams and aspirations comes a clear career choice that I've made, right? Is it fair to presume that I want to be a game artist? Well, my feelings about video-games are mixed. There are less than a handful of games that I truly respect and/or admire while the list of games that I disapprove of would bring down a forest if it were ever to be written. One of my reservations about video-games is in their lack of depth. I am certainly not the first of my contemporaries to complain about the routine displays of overly violent, sexed-up characters and melodramatic, cliché storylines found in most games. Basically, I am bored to death of blowing shit up and getting virtual boobies jiggled around in my face as a reward. I feel a strong desire to contribute to society, and fuelling the consumerist machine with 3D models of generic, super-slim Barbie dolls and tough-guy muscle-men isn't my idea of doing as such.

The Assassin's Creed video-game franchise was a real eye opener for me. It made me realise that there was indeed hope for games, and while, yes, the game is centred around the same old kill-or-be-killed gameplay ordeal, it managed to present some of the most amazing environments I have ever seen in a game. An Assassin's Creed environment is far from the dull, muted world of a Gears of War game. In fact, Assassin's Creed II's depictions of Northern Italy are of such accuracy and aesthetic magnitude that whenever I see a photograph of Venice, Rome, Tuscany or Florence, I recall being there virtually in the game! So why am I trifling on about the Assassin's Creed franchise? Well, I want to make video-games that bear a significance to society and I believe that Assassin's Creed is proof that video-games will one day become more culturally meaningful.

I am of the opinion that good art can have a positive effect on the world. Take, for example, the graffiti art created before the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany, or the very famous Tank Man photograph taken of a peaceful protester during the 1989 Tian'anmen Square demonstration in Beijing, China. I believe that in due time, video-games will have the same power and momentum to change the world. It is essentially for that reason that I continue to pursue an industry that I am often to be very sceptical about. Imagine making a game that helped bring peace to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. As naïve and foolish a suggestion that may sound, I think that it is equally foolish to not acknowledge how powerful art really can be when created by the right people. Please note: I don't really think that a video-game could end the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

From my above rambling, it can just about be gathered that I do have at-least some interest in a game art career. My dilemma is in what capacity I will work with games. The idea of starting up a small studio of my own appeals to me greatly. I would work with someone who would handle the business side of things and employ some programmers, leaving myself and a few others free to concentrate on the art. I have worked for a small games developer in the past and it is from this experience that I know how tough it is for a small studio to survive; each project could be the studio's last. I am unsure as to whether starting up a business would ever be possible (or advisable, for that matter), and if I were to do as such, it wouldn't be for a good while yet. For now, it is perhaps best to concentrate on the stepping stones that will help me arrive at that opportunity.

After digging around in the jobs section of various games developer websites and running a few searches on Gamasutra, I have found that there are a fair amount of job positions available with indie developers in Singapore and many more available within the Tokyo and Kyoto prefectures of Japan. I would like to set my sights on an entry-level role in 3D art with a Japanese indie developer. The question that is plaguing my mind is: am I being realistic?

Multiculturalism and British-Nationalism Collide

2010-10-10T16:02:00.176+01:00

I have been very emotionally-moved this week to see the degree to which people of different faiths and ethnicities have been brought together, ironically, by the hooliganism of a highly ignorant group of racist, British-nationalists. The said group, branding themselves childishly as the English Defence League (or EDL), invaded the very multicultural city of Leicester yesterday, making it a horrible time to be in the city centre.

The EDL claim that they are peaceful demonstrators whose ideology is simply that of protecting Britain from Islamic extremism. To anyone present at their 'peaceful demonstration,' it was very clearly that nothing could be further from the truth; the EDL do, it seems, regard all Muslims to be Islamic extremists and think this ignorant mislabelling justifies the disgusting acts of violence present at all of their rallys. The EDL are the real extremists.

Below, are a few photographs that I took during the EDL's rally and Unite Against Facism's counter-demonstration (click on an image to full-view it):

Police line up to separate the EDL from counter-protestors.

Riot police relocate to a new position.

Police and CCTV operators monitor the EDL rally.

The day before the EDL were set to storm into Leicester, a peace vigil was organised by Hope Not Hate. The vigil projected a strong message for unity among all religions and races, helping to boost morale among the many diverse communities that make up Leicester. An Islamic representative mentioned during his speech at the vigil that he had received a letter from Leicester's Jewish society, stating that "a stone cast on the mosque is a stone cast on the synagogue." Hearing this beautiful statement brought a tear to my eye.

The events of this past week have shown me that, while racism and religious prejudice are still present in the modern-day world, they are now far less prominent among society as a whole. Leicester and its multiculturalist disposition serve as a beacon of hope, providing a glimpse into what could become a future free from racism and ethnic segregation.

To Be a Sculptor of the Digital Age

2010-08-19T16:22:00.008+01:00

St. Peter's Pietà, by Michelangelo.

1498 - 1499.

The modern-day sculptor comes in many varieties. To be crude for the sake of simplicity, these different sculptor archetypes can be broken down into two main categories: there is, of-course, the traditional sculptor who may choose modelling clay, plaster or perhaps marble as their medium; then there is the digital sculptor, an individual whose expressive freedom, I believe, is heavily limited by the restrictions of our current technology.

I first entered the digital sculpting scene roughly six years ago when I first started using 3D modelling programs like Blender, Maya, 3DS Max, and more recently, ZBrush. I was awful back then but didn't realise it because everyone who I showed my work to was in awe of the fact that I could get my head around the process of 3D modelling in the first place. A shudder surges up my spine when I close my eyes and think of the poor quality and taste of my artwork from that time. I'd like to think that I've improved a little bit since then.

I first picked up a block of modelling clay (Super Sculpey, to be specific) about half a year ago. While it is true to say that throughout my compulsory education I had played around with the stuff before, this was my first serious encounter with clay as an artistic medium. I found that despite my lack of experience at traditional sculpting, the process seemed very natural and the outcome gave me more satisfaction than I normally get from my work. My third traditional sculpture — which I must admit, isn't finished yet — shows massive improvement from the first. I still have a long way to go if I want to become a competent sculptor but my point is this:

I have been sculpting using a mouse and tablet for six years;
I have been sculpting using my hands for half a year;
Yet, I am better at the latter.

There is a thought that I often have. It is an eager anticipation more so than anything else. By my logic, there will soon be a new digital medium through which to sculpt. We have those who sculpt in the real world with their hands and those who sculpt in the digital world with computer mice and tablets, right? My vision is a marriage of the two.

Could this be just around the corner?

Imagine the freedom a sculptor would experience in a virtual or augmented reality environment with the convenience and efficiency of a digital sculpting program but with the intuitiveness and gestural freedom of using one's hands. The idea is to sling the mouse and graphics tablet out the window and instead revert back to the two inherit tools with which we were born: our left hand and our right hand.

I want this to happen! I want this to happen soon and I'm sure that many others do too!

Game developers and the alike are going to be very keen on buying into this sort of thing for the gained freedom it will grant their artists. It will make things faster, more accurate, and more expressive. It will provide a solution to the lack of an undo button in traditional sculpting and will tackle the awkwardness of using a tablet. It will allow for the artist to sculpt with impossible precision but without the process feeling cold and mathematical.

We are already halfway there. There is currently a wave of haptic input devices trying to capture the attention of professionals from a variety of industries — the games industry included. I have so far stumbled across two applications of haptic technology that are relevant to this discussion: 3D force-feedback styli, and wired gloves.

With 3D force-feedback styli instruments (such as the PHANTOM Omni Haptic Device), it is possible to manipulate a 3D object as if it were really there. These such devices come equipped with a motorised arm and stylus, and work by generating varying degrees of resistance and vibrations that act against the user's hand motions in a way that suggests the presence of a virtual object. The video embedded below better illustrates this concept:

More akin to the vision of uninterrupted digital sculpting with one's hands is the wired glove. The idea behind the glove is fundamentally the same, with forces and vibrations acting upon each of the user's fingers rather than just upon a motorised stylus-bearing arm. I haven't looked into pricing but I'd imagine that this sort of technology would be very dear on the credit card bill! An example of this, would be CyberGrasp, as seen in the below video:

These solutions come close to ticking all the required boxes but are ultimately far too awkward and impractical to truly liberate the artist. They're fantastic innovative but fall short in the long-term. I yearn for the next turn in the road: the digital sculpting solution that is now so close that I can almost feel it transforming from fantasy into actuality.

Perhaps, in the not too distant future, we can expect that the mathematical components of 3D modelling (such as vertices, NURBS splines and so on) will take a back-seat and be computed under the hood while the artist concentrates on the actual task of sculpting. Soon 3D modellers will be back to interacting with and manipulating their work just as they would have done before the advent of computers.

It's only a matter of time now until us users of the digital age finally abandon the mouse and go back to using our hands without restriction!

Italian Renaissance Drawings in the Flesh

2010-07-26T21:25:00.009+01:00

Me and a friend went to the British Museum yesterday and were blown away by what we saw. I've been very eager to pay a visit to the Italian Renaissance Drawings exhibition ever since I first heard about it.

It surpassed all expectations. It was simply incredible.

Many of the drawings I was already somewhat familiar with but seeing the real things nailed up on a gallery wall for the first time was a powerful experience. Michaelangelo has often been praised for his command of hatching in ink and metalpoint and it was fantastic to finally see some evidence of this.

Witnessing a great work of art in the flesh renders everything but the original defunct. Never again will any print or digital reproduction come close to doing the drawings I saw the justice they deserve.

I now have every intention to order a load of Italian Renaissance drawing books off Amazon (in particular, Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance Drawings and Leonardo's Notebooks) in order to pay my respect through studying and imitating these awe-inspiring milestones in human expression and creativity.

What moved me the most was how such unbelievably well drawn masterpieces were created with tools that would now be considered quite primitive. I hesitate at using the word 'primitive' as it seems slightly flippant and disrespectful so I shall rephrase: if Michaelangelo and Da Vinci can make drawings like these by scraping a feather dipped in ink or metal wire stylus across a piece of paper, what excuse do I have for not improving as an artist? Reflecting on this really puts the ease and convenience of the modern world into perspective.

Art owes a lot to the great minds of the Italian Renaissance and yesterday I saw why.

All Your Privacy are Belong to Us!

2010-04-28T01:28:00.013+01:00

Okay, so I am quite intoxicated at the moment and suffering from the usual sleeping problems. I feel like spilling something out onto paper, virtual paper. What better time to blog than this?

The industrial revolution has been and gone, and since then technology has been evolving pretty damn exponentially! Privacy has become less and less of an actuality and more of an illusion. We now live in an age ruled by those who lure us into digital contracts and copyright wavers.

Facebook is a typical example of this. Ask anyone with any knowledge of the web and they'll tell you of how not too long ago Facebook's policy permitted them to do whatever the hell they wanted with your data. That is to say, Facebook had total reign over any artwork you uploaded to your profile but also your personal information too! Imagine a scenario whereby you write something rather fruity in your profile to entertain your friends; in accordance with Facebook's old policy, they could do whatever they like with that said information, including but certainly not fucking limited to, selling it to the media! Luckily, through the controversy that this policy alteration spawned, Facebook have been forced to revise their ways — but think of what all this says about our society!

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four certainly was an eye opener for many. It is one of my favourite books simply because of how fantastically well Orwell foresaw an inevitability that at the time was unheard of. There is no fighting any of this. Humanity, being as it is, will always be a host to violence; and with violence comes a means of justification for privacy invasion.

So tell me, which is more important: safety or privacy? I'm sure that this question will be a prominent theme of the next few centuries — assuming, of-course, that our species makes it that far.

I've been reading some of Neal Stephenson's work recently. I haven't gotten around to reading the highly acclaimed Snow Crash yet but I have read The Diamond Age. It is a book set in a futuristic post-cyberpunk world centred around a nanotechnology integrated culture and all the privacy infringing implications that are brought about by such a technological phenomenon. One of the character's lines in the book really opened up my mind:

"In an era when everything can be surveiled, all we have left is politeness."

— Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age.

We are all going to have to get used to the idea of every aspect of our existence being noted down in the books. Whether such a matter is ethical or not is an entirely separate matter. The bottom line is that we cannot stop this thing.