Design Document
Introduction/Thesis Statement:
New Galtia will be a large-scale UDK Environment project that I will be working on over the next five months. I have two goals – a personal industry goal, and a project goal, that I will strive to achieve over this period of time.
Firstly, my personal goal is to enter the game industry as an environment artist. I would like to graduate with a portfolio that is completely competent to rival those of established industry artists. I have plenty of hard-surface modeling work in my portfolio, but it’s lacking in actual environments.
That being said, this environment will help me accomplish that by being the keystone piece in my portfolio. This project should demonstrate hard-surface modeling and texturing, modularity and creative problem solving, technical ability to work with shaders and effects, and an eye for design and composition – in that order. I already have a sufficient amount of modeling work that I’m confident in, so this project will fill a gap in texturing and shader-work that needs to be addressed. Thus, my project-goal is to demonstrate an understanding of environment texturing and material work that is needed for this field. The focus will be on Metal, Concrete, Glass, and Water materials. I want to do this in a way that effectively sells the art-deco style I am trying to achieve. Along the way, I also hope to learn some new things about UDK’s material and effects editors.
Target Audience Research:
I am designing this game for 18 – 30 year olds, similar to the target audience for games like Bioshock, but, all target audience considerations are secondary to the expectations of a studio head or art director who may be looking at the portfolio. That is to say, I may think about who would be playing the level for aesthetic concerns, but the main design is focused on “showing off” my capabilities as an artist.
I’ve talked with several environment artists, in person, who have given me various advice on making portfolios, like Josh Noble from Insomniac, a character artist from EA, as well as many, many industry pros through online forums like polycount. Primarily, I should use loads of photoreference, demonstrating technical ability, understanding of color, value, materials, and textures.
“Fresh out of school without any experience, you're very likely going to be asked to take an art test of some sort. Most environment art tests are going to ask you to build a small scene, such as an alleyway, complete with textures, props, lighting, sky-dome, etc. They're going to want to see how you compose a space that's representative but unique, visually appealing, and gameplay friendly. How you utilize props and lighting to flesh it out, and how you technically put those assets together. Be sure to show wireframes, triangle count, your UV maps, your shaders, your texture layers, triangle count, etc. You'll probably want to show the final composed scene in wireframes, textured and unlit, and fully lit renderings
As for your portfolio, can't go wrong with following that kind of formula for a few scenes. Pick some distinct environments, maybe something from the ancient world, something modern, and something sci-fi. Experiment with some radically different styles from hyper-realism to illustrative and painterly. Focus on building complete scenes, even if it's a very small scene with only one viewing angle, but still shows that you can create everything needed, in an efficient manner, and make it all visually cohesive. .”
Wrath
Senior Animator - Cryptic Studios
Working Environment Artist Portfolios:
http://wireframeworlds.com/
http://stefan-morrell.com/
http://www.brameulaers.com/
http://philipk.net/
http://www.tylerwanlass.com/
http://www.polygoo.com/
http://www.torfrick.com/
http://www.helderpinto.com/
Art Style
New Galtia’s Art style will be mainly inspired by the streamlined modernism and Art Deco of the 20’s and early 30’s. Because the environments city will be a kind of fictional representation of a real-life metropolis like Manhattan, I plan on imitating many aspects of the art and technology of the time, from the design of trains, to architectures, to graphic design and advertisement. Most of the assets will be designed with an adherence to these goals.
The benefit of this will not only be a consistent vision for the environment, but using art deco will make the modeling and texturing a lot quicker as a part of workflow, allowing me to focus on quality, and devote more time to work with shaders and effects. It will also allow for increased modularity, as the similarity of Art Deco styles will allow for easy interchange between structural pieces as needed.
Art Reference Links
http://www.decopix.com/
http://artdecoblog.blogspot.com/
http://artdecobuildings.blogspot.com/
http://nyc-architecture.com/STYLES/STY-artdeco.htm
http://decoarchitecture.tumblr.com/
Environment Biography
The city of New Galtia exists in an alternate universe where design and culture pursued an industrial, engineered, Art Deco design. This fictional world probably exists somewhere in the near future, perhaps 2025 or 2030. All progress and business centers around large metropolitan cities, and these cities have grown so much that instead of being built further outwards into suburban areas, they grow upwards, higher and higher into the sky. Buildings reach heights two-three times what they normally would be, stretching through the clouds. Transportation now occurs horizontally and vertically, as new towns and cities are built in midair. You can live a life without ever stepping foot on actual soil, and many do. City populations reach upwards of 100 million, and busy commuters take trains, busses, and rail transports from skyscraper to skyscraper.
The materials of this city are the materials of the 20’s modernist architecture – steel, glass, iron, and concrete. Everything is streamlined, minimalist, or, at least designed to be. New structures – markets, banks, housing, has been constructed around and inside these sky-cities, with varying income levels and cultural habits. Thus, it’s not uncommon to see a Chinese deco-market serving breakfast to morning commuters under the shadow of a towering steel Chrysler building-like monument. Or, a dank, grimy alleyway inbetween two apartment portions of a skyscrapers, with gas generators humming, and flies buzzing around a flickering, blue fluorescent street light.
The progression of the environment will read like this: Starting in a musty, dark, alleyway, about 1024 in width, apartments on either side tower above the deserted streetway. Through the middle of the alley runs a thick grating that reveals hundreds of feet of air below, and then more alleys, streets, and buildings. The alley is filled with Gas Generators, Florescent Building Lights, Elevator-Ladders, Trash Compactors, and other Trash. Oil and Grease sit in puddles and reflect the blue morning light, and Paper Bits float through the air from a breeze rising from below. A Soft Rain sprinkles the pavement, but it’s mostly dirty water dripping from floors up above.
As you move forward and make your way out of the alley through a set of Stairs, you take a right and climb even more stairs to see a walkway stretching forward. On the right, a gap of about 3072 or more exists between the walkway and a wall of skyscrapers. Every so often, Large Steel Rails allow a commuter TramBus to shoot across the divide, carrying passengers to their business on the other side. Looking down the gap, the skyscrapers disappear as they descend through clouds, and fog. The long concrete walkway you’re on continues for about 8192, with alleys, buildings, and inroads on the left, and the chasm on your right seperated from you by an Iron Railing.
As you continue down the walkway, you climb some more stairs to reach a road running perpendicular to you. Lined with mid-sized buildings and skyscrapers, Iron Supports and Steel Grating cling to everything like the scaffolding of a shipyard. The road is collecting Water Puddles; not all fluids are being collected by the Electric Drainage System running through the middle of the street.
You take a right on the road, traveling down for a little bit, until you arrive at somewhat of a town square. In the center is a looming Elevator, traveling as high and as low as is visible.
New Galtia will be a large-scale UDK Environment project that I will be working on over the next five months. I have two goals – a personal industry goal, and a project goal, that I will strive to achieve over this period of time.
Firstly, my personal goal is to enter the game industry as an environment artist. I would like to graduate with a portfolio that is completely competent to rival those of established industry artists. I have plenty of hard-surface modeling work in my portfolio, but it’s lacking in actual environments.
That being said, this environment will help me accomplish that by being the keystone piece in my portfolio. This project should demonstrate hard-surface modeling and texturing, modularity and creative problem solving, technical ability to work with shaders and effects, and an eye for design and composition – in that order. I already have a sufficient amount of modeling work that I’m confident in, so this project will fill a gap in texturing and shader-work that needs to be addressed. Thus, my project-goal is to demonstrate an understanding of environment texturing and material work that is needed for this field. The focus will be on Metal, Concrete, Glass, and Water materials. I want to do this in a way that effectively sells the art-deco style I am trying to achieve. Along the way, I also hope to learn some new things about UDK’s material and effects editors.
Target Audience Research:
I am designing this game for 18 – 30 year olds, similar to the target audience for games like Bioshock, but, all target audience considerations are secondary to the expectations of a studio head or art director who may be looking at the portfolio. That is to say, I may think about who would be playing the level for aesthetic concerns, but the main design is focused on “showing off” my capabilities as an artist.
I’ve talked with several environment artists, in person, who have given me various advice on making portfolios, like Josh Noble from Insomniac, a character artist from EA, as well as many, many industry pros through online forums like polycount. Primarily, I should use loads of photoreference, demonstrating technical ability, understanding of color, value, materials, and textures.
“Fresh out of school without any experience, you're very likely going to be asked to take an art test of some sort. Most environment art tests are going to ask you to build a small scene, such as an alleyway, complete with textures, props, lighting, sky-dome, etc. They're going to want to see how you compose a space that's representative but unique, visually appealing, and gameplay friendly. How you utilize props and lighting to flesh it out, and how you technically put those assets together. Be sure to show wireframes, triangle count, your UV maps, your shaders, your texture layers, triangle count, etc. You'll probably want to show the final composed scene in wireframes, textured and unlit, and fully lit renderings
As for your portfolio, can't go wrong with following that kind of formula for a few scenes. Pick some distinct environments, maybe something from the ancient world, something modern, and something sci-fi. Experiment with some radically different styles from hyper-realism to illustrative and painterly. Focus on building complete scenes, even if it's a very small scene with only one viewing angle, but still shows that you can create everything needed, in an efficient manner, and make it all visually cohesive. .”
Wrath
Senior Animator - Cryptic Studios
Working Environment Artist Portfolios:
http://wireframeworlds.com/
http://stefan-morrell.com/
http://www.brameulaers.com/
http://philipk.net/
http://www.tylerwanlass.com/
http://www.polygoo.com/
http://www.torfrick.com/
http://www.helderpinto.com/
Art Style
New Galtia’s Art style will be mainly inspired by the streamlined modernism and Art Deco of the 20’s and early 30’s. Because the environments city will be a kind of fictional representation of a real-life metropolis like Manhattan, I plan on imitating many aspects of the art and technology of the time, from the design of trains, to architectures, to graphic design and advertisement. Most of the assets will be designed with an adherence to these goals.
The benefit of this will not only be a consistent vision for the environment, but using art deco will make the modeling and texturing a lot quicker as a part of workflow, allowing me to focus on quality, and devote more time to work with shaders and effects. It will also allow for increased modularity, as the similarity of Art Deco styles will allow for easy interchange between structural pieces as needed.
Art Reference Links
http://www.decopix.com/
http://artdecoblog.blogspot.com/
http://artdecobuildings.blogspot.com/
http://nyc-architecture.com/STYLES/STY-artdeco.htm
http://decoarchitecture.tumblr.com/
Environment Biography
The city of New Galtia exists in an alternate universe where design and culture pursued an industrial, engineered, Art Deco design. This fictional world probably exists somewhere in the near future, perhaps 2025 or 2030. All progress and business centers around large metropolitan cities, and these cities have grown so much that instead of being built further outwards into suburban areas, they grow upwards, higher and higher into the sky. Buildings reach heights two-three times what they normally would be, stretching through the clouds. Transportation now occurs horizontally and vertically, as new towns and cities are built in midair. You can live a life without ever stepping foot on actual soil, and many do. City populations reach upwards of 100 million, and busy commuters take trains, busses, and rail transports from skyscraper to skyscraper.
The materials of this city are the materials of the 20’s modernist architecture – steel, glass, iron, and concrete. Everything is streamlined, minimalist, or, at least designed to be. New structures – markets, banks, housing, has been constructed around and inside these sky-cities, with varying income levels and cultural habits. Thus, it’s not uncommon to see a Chinese deco-market serving breakfast to morning commuters under the shadow of a towering steel Chrysler building-like monument. Or, a dank, grimy alleyway inbetween two apartment portions of a skyscrapers, with gas generators humming, and flies buzzing around a flickering, blue fluorescent street light.
The progression of the environment will read like this: Starting in a musty, dark, alleyway, about 1024 in width, apartments on either side tower above the deserted streetway. Through the middle of the alley runs a thick grating that reveals hundreds of feet of air below, and then more alleys, streets, and buildings. The alley is filled with Gas Generators, Florescent Building Lights, Elevator-Ladders, Trash Compactors, and other Trash. Oil and Grease sit in puddles and reflect the blue morning light, and Paper Bits float through the air from a breeze rising from below. A Soft Rain sprinkles the pavement, but it’s mostly dirty water dripping from floors up above.
As you move forward and make your way out of the alley through a set of Stairs, you take a right and climb even more stairs to see a walkway stretching forward. On the right, a gap of about 3072 or more exists between the walkway and a wall of skyscrapers. Every so often, Large Steel Rails allow a commuter TramBus to shoot across the divide, carrying passengers to their business on the other side. Looking down the gap, the skyscrapers disappear as they descend through clouds, and fog. The long concrete walkway you’re on continues for about 8192, with alleys, buildings, and inroads on the left, and the chasm on your right seperated from you by an Iron Railing.
As you continue down the walkway, you climb some more stairs to reach a road running perpendicular to you. Lined with mid-sized buildings and skyscrapers, Iron Supports and Steel Grating cling to everything like the scaffolding of a shipyard. The road is collecting Water Puddles; not all fluids are being collected by the Electric Drainage System running through the middle of the street.
You take a right on the road, traveling down for a little bit, until you arrive at somewhat of a town square. In the center is a looming Elevator, traveling as high and as low as is visible.
Mesh List
Mesh List
Structural Pieces
Stairs
Mid-sized building (2)
Skyscrapers (3)
Metal Grates
Iron Supports
Mega-Elevator
TramBus with Rail
Assets
Gas Generator
Electrical Posts
Electrical Wires
Florescent Lighting (3: Building, Street, Ground)
Elevator-Ladders (With tubes)
Trash Disposal
Iron Railings
Electrical Drainage System
Clock
Railings
Sculptures (3)
Materials/Effects
Water Puddles
Drips/Rain
Flying Paper/Trash
Textures
Cracked Concrete
Smooth Concrete
Stains and Drips (Dirty, Rusty)
Structural Pieces
Stairs
Mid-sized building (2)
Skyscrapers (3)
Metal Grates
Iron Supports
Mega-Elevator
TramBus with Rail
Assets
Gas Generator
Electrical Posts
Electrical Wires
Florescent Lighting (3: Building, Street, Ground)
Elevator-Ladders (With tubes)
Trash Disposal
Iron Railings
Electrical Drainage System
Clock
Railings
Sculptures (3)
Materials/Effects
Water Puddles
Drips/Rain
Flying Paper/Trash
Textures
Cracked Concrete
Smooth Concrete
Stains and Drips (Dirty, Rusty)