Week Two

Cooking With Gas

Week One Reflection

In week one, I had trouble initially deciding how much work I would make physically and how much would be digital. Due to the time constraints, I ended up with the decision of making the majority physically. I tried to keep it simple but using paper to create my works, focusing on cutting them and folding them to create my different ideas. When it came to the digital aspect, I wanted to create pieces that took ideas from the first set of works and expand them in a digital setting. For these processes, I used Photoshop, Maya and Unity. I wanted to work with mediums that I was familiar with as I was aiming to test out various ideas that I could then use in the further weeks and my main project. From here, I plan to start working more digitally in the following weeks with this assignment.

Full Video of Work

There are process videos for most of the work however they take an hour minimum to upload so it will take time to upload all of them so default videos will be in some of their places for now. Sorry about that.

15 Min. Using Maya I trialled making a small house to try and test my modelling skills. I plan on finding ideas on how I could use this in my main project.

30 Min. I wanted to look at what I created in week one and see how I could create them in the digital world. For this trial I recreated two of my spinners. I wanted to do the ones that I believed worked best and would look best digitally. To start I modelled ihe spinners in Maya. Then I animated them so that they would spin (also in Maya).

30 Min. Once I animated both spinners in Maya, I then rendered out the animations so they would look decent quality and put it into photoshop so I could then draw and animate the 2D version of the spinner. I then joined the animations together so that they would transition between the 3D version and the 2D version.

1 Hour. In Design Practice 1 I created a day to night cycle in Unreal Engine. Originally I planned to use Unreal Engine as my game creation software however that was proving difficult as it was unknown to me so I was trying to create and learn as I went. Since I had switched to Unity as my software I wanted to use this time to create the day to night cycle in the space I would be using it in.

1 Hour. Following the same ideas as the spinners, I wanted to take another idea that I created in week one and recreate it digitally. Using Maya I modelled each of the three shadow boxes by layer which can be seen in the work in progress video below.

15 Min. After modelling the shadow boxes I then wanted to use my remaining 15-minute constraints to import them into my game space to see how they could possibly work with the scene as well as making them an interactive object. The video above and the images below shows them in the game space with the player having the ability to walk around them, jump through them and view them from all different perspectives. I would like to see how I could properly incorporate this type of work into my game.

As my first trial was a speed test in modelling a small house I wanted to use the longer tie constraints to put more effort into modelling an object. I still kept it quite basic and only adding limited amounts of detail but I wanted to use this piece as a starting point. I built it using Maya and rendered it out to show the shape and form of the house better. I plan to create a little town in my game that may act as a diorama. I am working on other possible ideas if that is deemed too much for the overall idea.

In week one I played around with the idea of paper cut-outs and pop-ups. I decided to experiment in Unity to see if I could create a similar idea. Using basic white cubes I recreated the shape of a large drawer, paintings, couch and bedside table. I then used black cubes which would act in place of the 2d lines. That way when looking straight on the object would look flat, but from other angles depth could be seen.

One of my last ideas was to create a 2d animation of a scene in my current game. In my game the player has the ability to walk up to a picture frame on the wall, they are then transported to a full-sized 3d version of the 2d image. I wanted to create a mock-up of the opposite version of that. In photoshop I created an animation of the player approaching a painting and then being transported into a full-sized space of the image. I am using this mockup as the base for my final experiment which is creating the 2d version of my street scene in Maya. (the video of the street scene I created in the 2d form in Unity would be below this trial however it still needs to be processed and exported before I can take the time to add it here. It is featured in the full video in the beginning)

Setting the Table

Write a short narrative that frames your practice using the descriptive term/s you have chosen. This narrative should reflect on the processes and methods you have tested, to date and their relationship to your research question.

For this week I chose the words delaminate, layer and subtract. When creating I tend to work in a way that brings pieces together to form something, usually based on a small idea I have had or something I have been inspired by. The works I have created so far have all been based around my idea of combining the 2d and 3d forms in a single space. As this can be done in a multitude of ways, I wanted to start exploring the different views and perspectives that I could then expand on. Using different methods of cutting and combining started to build the idea of strangeness and how different perspectives or forms can be used together. These ideas are all working together towards how I can create my main game project and how I could bring the physical creations and explore them digitally that follow my 2d and 3d ideas.

Context/Distribution

Consider carefully how you want to present your work to the class. How do you want your work to be consumed? Is it an individual or a collective experience?

In week one i focused on creating physical works rather than digital ones, for this week I have made everything digitally. Because of this I will be showing my work in a collective video that will be played on a computer. I find this the best way as it means it can be seen all in one place and fits within the constraint of the space needing to be maximum of an A3 size.

Week 2 Reflection

I found this week significantly easier than last week, and I managed to create all 16 pieces of work. Rather than working down the list of constraints and starting from the shortest time to the longest, I found it best just to create. I had good estimates on how much time certain works would create but for the most part, I just used the time to just see how long it would take me to create a piece of work. If I found certain experiments would fit into the time constraints well then I would continue working under the constraints until all four were done. I think what helped was that I had a much more solid starting point as I wanted to create works from week one digitally and work on certain parts of my project that I have been interested in doing for some time. I think I am at a good point for my project in terms of the various ideas that I can explore that can help me to create my game in the way I am attempting to. I think from here I plan to just continue working ad combining these experiments into a more cohesive and playable game.

Feedback

My feedback from this week:

Week one → Week two. Analogue concepts → Digital } Talk about this in your statement + show side by side images. great projection from week one with clear development of ideas. The 2d world is beginning to take shape in the game world. Good approach to the time constraint by being selective of what you aim to achieve. Really aesthetically interesting visuals from the paper to the digital. I can't wait to see this come together. What contexts are relevant? It would be good to reference this is your 200 word statement (eg. strangeness). how have you considered the a3 size constraint in the digital world? What other constraints can you utilise in the next week of work?
[In regards to the feedback sheet] 1. the body of work produced clearly portrays the experimentation between 2d and 3d. 8. Your work reminds me of optical illusion drawings - I can't remember his name but he's a famous mathematician that draws optical illusions.
I found your method quite engaging. It is really immersive. Moving in the space really gives a better idea on how you are implementing 2d and 3d. Would love to see some colours coming through. the temporal aspects of your work might come to life by doing so. Have you thought of sound? Maybe you could think of having a picture of a real background/landscape and placing your 3d model into it. Challenging new perspectives of space. I can see a new narrative being shaped - have you thought of a story?
I think there is definitely room to bring more of that concept of strangeness. A way to do this would be to marry together 2d and 3d models to confuse the player rather than separating these worlds out which is a rather traditional route. Try looking up the game superliminal it does some really freaky physics based stuff and messes with perspective.
Can 2d and 3d be understood as composition rather than representation of physical space? How to interact and switch between composition in a meaningful way in game design? Is narrative part of the consideration for the need of perspective changing?
Allan Wexler > furniture goes through walls. De Chirico landscapes. Developed surface drawing (18th century technique). Japanese pop up building plans (Andrew Bame). French artist > whose interior is white with black grout. Katy Wallace (NZ designer)

Based on the feedback, I successfully brought my first week's physical iterations to life in a digital way, which I am pleased about as it gives me a further interest in developing these works. Regarding some questions that peers asked, such as what my contexts were and if I will involve narrative, these are all aspects that I am working on but are hard to bring in alongside my work. Previously, I mentioned a few times to different class peers that I have been looking at 2d cafes and the game Antichamber as some of my primary contexts. However, I've been struggling to bring in those contexts without the need to show my inspiration when I showcase each artefact constantly. The narrative has always been a crucial part of my game, specifically interactive narrative. I have been planning to involve more story narrative within my game, but I will add it after the main aspects of my game have been explored as I see story narrative as something to aid in m project rather than being a key factor. I will be trying to take in the feedback to help for what I plan to go with in the future artefact making.