Tag: mini brief: childrens book adptation

Children’s Book Adaptation: Battle Scene

April 28, 2017

The final part of the Wizard of Oz project was to create an animatic showing a battle within the game.

For this, I decided to use my previous concept of the emerald planet and had the fellow group members make small soldiers which I could animate and make look as if they were fighting. I created it in After effects as it easily allowed me to animated the individual components. After moving all the soldiers to the centre of the battlefield I felt like it could use something it to finish it off. I decided to add smoke coming from the centre, as if one of them has let off something magical, and also a bonfire in the background possibly coming from a burning village. These were both done with the particle playground effect.

The purpose of this animatic is to show the separation of good and evil and how they are at war. The would possibly be shown as a cinematic in the game before the player begins fighting amongst the soldiers.

Children’s Book Adaptation: Developed Environments and Game Cover

April 24, 2017

With my initial sketches, I was then able to go into photoshop and add colour to show what the environment is actually like. For example, the drawing of the planets does not show what environment they are filled with, therefore I added the colour, for examples green for the forest planet, so that it was obvious what this planet was.

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It also allowed me to finalise my concepts and refine them so that the outcome was clear and gave a good visual for our game. One of my environment drawings was Emerald planet but this was not clear as it just looked like a modern city with skyscrapers, therefore by adding the emerald colour and the corruption from the witches castle I was able to make this apparent. I wanted the corruption part to look like it was bare land like a volcano, impossible for nature to grow or animals to survive and so I did this by using a dark grey to give the idea that ti is bare rock.

One of the galaxy layouts was perfect for the game logo and I decided that this would be good for a design of the game cover. In photoshop I wanted it to look like the book since our game is based off one, and then the logo would be a textured gold to represent the yellow brick road galaxy. This design is simple yet effect but before setting on this design I also took one of my environments and made that it into the game covers. To improve this further in the future I would like to take the Dorothy character design from my fellow team mates and insert her on the cover, but only slightly visible.

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After all of this, I then decided I wanted to create another environment concept this time focusing more on the witches tower as it would be a key environment in the game as this could possibly be the location of the final boss fight. I wanted to recreate what I did in my previous drawing in which it shows a castle on a mountain, however, i wanted this to be more detailed. I had the idea that this castle used to contain royalty or maybe used to be owned by Oz himself but because of the corruption of the witch it has deteriorated over time and crumbled. I used photoshop so that I could imitate this and make it appear like a dangerous sd environment rather than it just being a sketch. I am glad I decided to create this as it gives me a better visual of how the game would possibly look. It even shows me that the broken bridge in the drawing could be the final cutscene of the game as this is a hard to reach a place that the player has not seen before.

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Children’s Book Adaptation: HUD

April 24, 2017

The inventory system for this game had already been completed as part of a project in creative futures and can be found here. The basic idea is that it is a satchel which is visible on the hip of the character. The inventory HUD will show the actual inside of the bag.

Heads Up Display

The heads-up display is an important part of a game as it gives the player relevant information that will allow them to achieve a task. The most simple form of HUD usually contains the player’s health and a map.

Research

Before creating any designs I decided to look at how other games have approached the HUD and see if that could inspire me with my designs.

Halo 3

The Heads Up display in Halo 3 has been designed to match the sci-fi style of the game. This is done by making the HUD partially see through so that it gives the illusion that it is a hologram. It keeps basic and simple colours so that very little in happening on the screen. The reason this is done is so that it does not distract the player from the actual gameplay itself. Only vital information is shown that is needed for the player to enable them to figure out where they have to go/where enemies are, and how much health they have. In the third iteration of the Halo franchise, the health bar acts as a shield. When it is fully depleted the entire HUD flashes red, implying that the player is one shot from dying.

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World of Warcraft

The HUD is a very important part of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft since it is an MMORPG. Lots of information has to be shown on the screen that gives information to the user specifically and also information of the other players on the game. The HUD tries to be as compact as possible, containing small icons that are barely visible to ensure that not much of the gameplay screen is taken up. Since World of Warcraft is a fantasy game the HUD is also created in this style. It is made to be elegant and appear like it is made out of stone with engravings to show a high level of detail. The customise mechanic is heavily used within this HUD as the player has complete control of the position of the HUD. For example, the skill bar can be moved from the bottom to the side. As well as this the style of the HUD can be changed be the player. The game allows users to insert their own theme which can change the entire style of the HUD.

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Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The approach to the HUD is very different in this game as Bethesda have tried to minimise this as much as possible so that there is more visible gameplay for the user. The majority of the HUD including the health bar and stamina bar are hidden until the player enters combat as this is the only time when the player needs to see it. However, this is minimised further as the health bar and compass as combined due to the fact that the player will not need to see which was is North when fighting an enemy. The most common element of a HUD in an RPG (role-playing game) is a mini-map as this allows players to easily find available quests. Instead of having this Skyrim simply has a compass bar at the top of the same which essentially does the same thing but with the benefit of taking up less space on the screen.

Dead Space

This game uses the HUD in a very different way as it is an actual physical design in the game that is not just what the player can see. The character you play has is wearing an exo-suit which has two LED meters on the back of it, these act as the health bars. BY having this there is no need for extra bars that cover the screen, the health is shown in the same space as the character in a unique way that also adds to the sci-fi style of the game. Another element of this HUD is the ammo. Usually, in games, the ammo of the carried gun is shown at the bottom corner of the screen whereas in Dead Space it is simply shown on a LED screen on the gun itself, which can be seen when the player zooms in. BY having all of this the immersion is contained as whatever the player can see, the characters within the game can also see that.

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Sketches

Before settling on a design for the HUD I decided to quickly draw out lots of different possibilities. These included different items within the HUD as well as just different positions. Once completed I was still unsure on which one I wanted to use as the final HUD so I decided to ask the other members of my group and get their opinion. After some time I finally narrowed it down to one design which everyone seemed to like and I decided to use this as the final HUD.

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Photoshop

To finish off the HUD and refine it I took it into photoshop where I was able to add the colour to represent the health and stamina bars, and also add colour to the character coins in the party section which simply resemble the character. For example, I choose grey for the tinman coin since he is made out of metal, and orange for the lion coin as this is the colour of their fur. Using some of the sketches from my other team members I was also able to add a character to show where the other characters health appears as well as show that the top circle is the portrait for the main character.

HUD.png

 

Children’s Book Adaptation: Weapons

April 8, 2017

I wanted to take a break from working on environments and decided to have a go at some of the weapons for the characters that my fellow teammates had designed.

Tinman

Tinman is the sci-fi character of the group so instead of a traditional weapon I knew I wanted it to be some form of a laser rifle.

Initial Sketches

I started off by using the pareidolia technique to come up with unique shapes that could possibly be developed into a weapon. By doing this I was able to avoid recreating a weapon that already exists. There was control with this method as I knew that the gun was going to be a rifle therefore with most of the designs I tried to implicate that look, making sure it had a stock and a long barrel, however, I also created other forms of weapons to see how it would work.

Development

When done with the pareidolia I started to develop multiple different designs in a hope to make one my final design.  This helped me to refine my designs, adding detail as well as clearly outlining what the gun looked like.

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Final Gun, Photoshop and 3d Model

With the developed guns I was able to come up with a final design. I liked certain aspects of the different guns I designed and combines them together to create my final gun. With this, I went into photoshop. I wanted to add colour to imitate the materials that it would be made out of to help visualise what it would be like in the game. Finally, I wanted to go even further. I decided to 3d Model this gun as this would give the final outcome to what could be used within our game. I feel like this is a good design for tinman’s gun as it captures the sci-fi element and contrasts the fantasy side of the game.

The Wicked Witch

I also took it upon myself to create the weapon for the witch. This, however, did not follow the same process as the tinman gun as I already knew what weapon I wanted to create and by making it up as I went along I was able to come up with a design

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Photoshop and 3D Model

Similar to before I went into photoshop and added colour to finish off this weapon. I wanted the weapon to appear as if it had a connection to the witch rather than just a weapon that they use. The way I did this was by having the ‘hilt’ of the scythe the same colour as her skin. It also had a bright yellow gem in the middle which appeared to hold her power. This connection is then shown by the fact that the witch has the same coloured eyes.

Children’s Book Adaptation: Initial Environment Sketches

April 7, 2017

Coming out of the research stage of this project I began sketching different ideas for what the environments could possibly look like. I created just simple sketches of each of the major environment on the planets including Kansas, the forest, emerald city, and the munchkin islands. These were just basic ideas of what the environments could possibly look like.

From these initial sketches, I decided to begin creating the maps that would be shown in the minimap and on the menu for each of the planets. These maps were fairly simple and where basically a top down view version of the initial sketches that I did.

I also decided to do this for the galaxy map as the player would have to navigate from planet to planet and that meant that they would need a map in order to do this. I created multiple different designs of what the galaxy could look like before settling on the final version. I found that this also made a good logo which could possibly be on the front cover of the game.

My next step will be to develop these sketches further, creating multiple variants influenced by the research that I did previously. I will also use the logo and environment designs to create different ideas for possible game covers. I will also begin to create designs for what oz’s house could look like as this is a crucial part of the story. As for the maps I would like to start designing the menu as these are where the maps will be visible.

 

 

Children’s Book Adaptation: Ideas

March 17, 2017

IDEAS

  • Yellow brick road bit it has obstacles which will block the players from progressing and it can only be achieved by fulfilling a quest, defeating a boss or a puzzle.
  • Fantasy themed turn based game
  • One main objective and you must complete certain traits to progress
  • Steampunk where everything is mechanical and life e.g. forests are destroyed
  • Sci-fi theme where areas are planets e.g. Emerald city planet, gaining influence from star fox. Yellow brick road can be a yellow galaxy
  • Sci-fi with fantasy primitive tech

 

TEAM ROLES

  • Environments: Ryan’s
  • Character: Me
  • Objects and Vehicles: Connor

 

CHARACTERS

Party what can join after you do a special mission

  • Tin man
  • Lion
  • Scarecrow
  • Playable character (Dorthy)
  • Companion (Toto)

NPC’s: None villainous

  • Munchkins
  • OZ
  • Good witch (Guide)

NPC’s Villainous

  • Wicked witch (Main villain)
  • Flying monkey (Minions)

 

ENVIRONMENTS

  • Kansas
  • Forest
  • Emerald city
  • Witches castle
  • Crossroads
  • Poppyfield
  • Yellow brick road
  • Munchkin village

 

KEY ITEMS

  • Red shoes
  • Gifts from Oz
  • Bubbles (Quick travel)

 

VEHICLES

  • Hot air balloon
  • broom stick

 

 CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES 

  • Lion: Tank ideal, High strength
  • Scarecrow: Defence/Distraction, high intelligence
  • Tinman: Healer but focus on himself, high magic
  • Dorthy: Hopeful hero

 

PERUS: Player equips

  • Intelligence
  • Strength
  • Attack
  • Health
  • magic
  • Charisma

 

COMBAT

  • Hack and slash
  • Turn based

Children’s Book Adaptation: Research

March 17, 2017

Since my role in our group is environment concepts I wanted to start by looking at work on the internet by other artists that are possibly related to the style we have chosen and can influence me in my work.

Dorje Bellbrook

Dorje Bellbrook is a video game concept artist for Bungie in Seattle that has worked on huge games such as destiny. The pieces below are examples of work she has done for this game. I found these pieces in particular as it gives me a lot of inspiration on different ideas and structures that could possibly be in my forest world. The bottom piece showing ancient structures and a portal gives me an idea that this world could contain man-made structures such buildings, bridges, and ships. However, these structures will have been abandoned and nature has taken over and grown across the structures making them barely visible.

The space concept is a great piece that helps me as I know for each environment in our project I want them to be different planets. However, I was unsure on how I would easily show what the planets contain. This concept is quite simple but does help me as the artist as simply shown the planets using different colours. Then when the player is closer to it the planet contains more detail such as clouds and possibly the larger structures that are key places on the planet. The final part of this concept that I like is the fact that more than one planet is visible in the shot. This firstly confirms that it is a sci-fi setting as no planets are that close to earth.  The planets are extremely close to each other which I feel is a good thing as it gives the player an idea of where they are likely to be heading off to next.

Agnes Staudt

Agnes Staudt is a an art director that has worked on games such as Tomb Raider and Crysis. When looking through her portfolio I tried to find pieces which will help me with different planets to my previous research. I managed to find pieces that show structures on unique islands surrounded by water. This helps me on how I can design the ocean planet. Since this planet will be the location the player starts when they are first transported it needs to have some resemblance to the munchkin village. This gives me the idea that the village could be more of a tribal town spread across multiple islands, then connected by hanging bridges. Since the planet is covered in water the island is surrounded by fishing boats as this would be there the only source of food. Since this is one of the starting locations of the game I feel like it needs to be bright and tropical so that it looks interesting to the player and makes them want to play more of the game. However on the flipside, I could use all of these pieces as inspiration and have it so that it starts off with stormy weather that cause the structures to appear run down, but as the player progresses through the game it starts to become clear, and the town becomes restored.

Sebastian Gromann

Sebastian Gromann is a concept artist from Germany and I stumbled across his artstation when I was trying to look for good research on different styles of farms. As the beginning of Wizard of Oz is set on a farm in Kansas. I thought it would be a good idea to keep with that where the beginning is still set on a farm on earth. I found the right image extremely inspirational as the farm looks to be futuristic due to its vast size as well as the platforms that act as bridges over the top of the farms, allowing the use of more room to be cropland. This gives me lots of ideas on how I could mix the futuristic aspect with the traditional elements of a farm such as barns, metal shelters, and tractors. The other image relates back to the ocean planet as it gives me ideas about parts of the island which could have possibly been flooded and caused it to become boggy yet still usable as a resource gathering area.

Aurelie Moine

The final artist that I looked at is Aurelie Moine. She is a freelance artist that has created some environment pieces but mainly concentrates on character design. I found the first piece interesting in relation to the ocean planet as it mixes the styles of sci-fi and fantasy. This is because it has traditional simple structures made out of wood and stone with mythical creatures surrounding it, however also has spaceships flying by and another planet positioned extremely close to this one, giving the element of a sci-fi atmosphere. The second image is the most inspirational piece that I found from this artist as it gives me an idea on how I can design my sleeping poppies planet. Since I already have a forest planet I wanted to stay away from that and this gives me the idea that it could possibly be the baron or covered by desert and instead of having sleeping poppies, have areas containing radiation or odd looking plants that release gas into the air. This also offers a good contrast to the other planets which I have designed so far as it gives a better range of environments for the player to explore to ensure that they don’t become bored.

 

 

 

 

Children’s Book Adaptation: Initial Ideas

February 12, 2017

To start off this project we began by doing simple Idea generation. We spoke to our group and wrote down all the different ideas that we could think of.

We then wanted to do the basic breakdown of the children’s book which included the environments we would have to adapt as well as what characters we wanted to use. For the environments, we picked the key places where important parts of the story happened. For example, the reveal that Oz was a coward in Emerald city.

After breaking down the characters into different groups such as heroes, villains, minions, NPC we decided it would be a good idea to decided what the point of the characters where. This, in turn, led us to gain ideas on how we could possibly have the combat in our game. We wrote down different possibilities as to how we could have attributed to the characters and different roles. These were all just initial ideas and are something that will be decided after we have researched into this and came up with a solid idea.

For the concept stage of this project, we allocated roles to the different members so that everyone had one piece they needed to focus on before we bring it all together. My role in the group will be environment design. Therefore my next stage will be to look at concept art relating directly to the wizard of oz as well as concept art of different environments and different themes which I feel might work for our game.

 

Roles:
Ryan- Environment Concepts
Jemma- Character Design
Connor- Props, Objects, and vehicles

Mini Brief: Children’s Book Adaptation

January 30, 2017

The aim of this brief is to adapt an existing children’s book into a role playing game. we were given a book at random so that we were not biased and had our hearts set on a specific choice. The book which my group is adapting is ‘The Wizard Of Oz’.

I am glad that we got this book as there are lots of different elements to the story as well as a wide range of characters that we can explore and adapt upon. The story of a wizard of oz is very straight forward allowing us to have a good starting point which we can they add our own creative input upon.

The first step of this brief will be to go and read the book so that I can take all of the main plots points out of it as well as the character attributes and main elements of the environments. The reason I will read the book rather than watch the movie is because movies tend to skip out of parts from the book and miss out on important things. In my case, this could mean that I can lose out on something that would make for a good part of a game.

The Wizard Of Oz