Inspiring Narratives through Innovative Storytelling

Some Thoughts on Innovative Storytelling

What defines an innovative narrative?

Innovation in technology

Innovation in content

focus -> journey -> contrast -> connection -> pay-off

Compelling content

Games allow a level of control

Interactive entertainment is becoming the most dominant market and the largest number of "new gamers" are "non-gamers" and represent the growth sector

Interesting narrative examples:

• House of Leaves
• multi-layered
• plays with shapes on the page
• pace (few words versus many on a page)
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead by Tom Stoppard
• Man with a movie camera by Dziga Vertov
• Bad Day on the Midway by The Residents
• Deus Ex Machina
• Voyeur (HBO)
• choose who to follow and witness a developing and overlapping story
• Dark Souls
• XCom: Enemy within by Fire Axis

Reflective Summary

Project Goal

“For this module I will focus on exploring 3D methodologies to facilitate, speed up and improve the output of concept art. Through research, exploration and particularly practical tasks I hope to find the best work method (for me) to incorporate into my workflow.”

Main Themes

1.       Painting on Top of Line Work

2.       The Perspective Grid

3.       Generating 3D Thumbnails

4.       Basic 3D Model as a Starting Point for Concept Art

5.       Modelling with Reference Images

6.       UV Mapping and Texturing

7.       Camera and Lighting Experimentation

8.       Rendering

Integrating 3D Methods into my Workflow

Identified Advantages

- Particularly useful for architecture and "man-made" structures (buildings, cityscapes... )
- Flexibility for iterating on designs

- Scaling, mirroring and duplicating

- Great for repetitive objects in scenes
- Unlimited perspective possibilities

- 3D thumbnails

- Zoom lens

- Wide angle lens
- Adjustable lighting

Possible Difficulties

-Detailed models take time

-UV mapping and texturing is time consuming

- Often harsh boarders and static look

Conclusion

Throughout the semester my skills have improved in several areas. I have gained both a better understanding on digital painting and lighting as well as improved my 3D skills with experimentation in several areas that were very new to me at the beginning of the semester.

I plan to continue using 3D models to quickly solve difficult perspectives and find the best layout for the main elements of the scene. They are an easy way to speed up and facilitate the workflow.

Furthermore the creation of 3D thumbnails strengthened my concept art decisively.  The opportunity and flexibility to navigate through 3D space to find the best perspective and composition in the scene is a huge advantage over basic 2D concepts in which one must start from the beginning again.

Integrating lighting into the scenes is also a very useful aspect. Especially when attempting realistic lighting reflections on different materials. Once modelled these aspects definitely save a lot of time and are only logical to integrate into the development process.

For smaller projects I would however avoid UV mapping and texturing as it can be quite time consuming. For final detailed illustrations textures can be a very useful aspect though as it solves both the basic perspective and lighting issues one might encounter.

Lighting Experimentation & Reflection on the Day Version

Hey everyone! 

I decided to carry out some more lighting experimentations which led to a day version of the little Mediterranean town scene I presented in the previous post. To start off let's go through the lighting process for the initial concept quickly and continue with the development process of the new version afterwards so that I can explain some thoughts and challenges.

The Lighting Process

During the texturing process I was already playing around with basic lighting. As you can see in the top left image I therefore created a physical sun and sky in mental ray to have a closer look at the texture quality and atmosphere of the scene.

For the final concept I wanted to create my own lighting though and I therefore removed the physical sun and sky again. I now started to add different light sources to the scene. 

Ambient Light

For the overall atmosphere of the scene I added 3 ambient lights. I decided to go for a night version of the scene and gave these a blue tone. One of the ambient lights was hereby the main light source which received a higher intensity than the others. This allowed more realistic lighting with greater value difference in the scene.

Spot Light

Then I went on to the street lamps that need to produce a local light. The spot light with its adjustable cone angle was ideal to create a clear and defined light source. The main difficulty was the preservation of the scene's balance and unity by adjusting the colour and light intensity to not stand out too much.

I also applied "light fog" to the spotlights which creates some more depth in the renders. However I had difficulties to apply this setting to both spot lights in the scene and for some reason only one the two applied light fog's would render out.

Glow

The spot lights created light, but the actual light source was still missing. I therefore created a simple polygon shape and applied glow with a suiting opacity and colour to fit the lamps light source. The overall atmosphere was building up nicely and I decided I was almost ready to render out a final image to paint over for the final concept art.

Point Light

Lastly an extra point light was added to the lamps to create a bit more warmth and light to the lamp area. At this stage I chose the camera position and composition for the final render of the night scene.

With the advantage of being able to change the complete lighting and camera position in 3D scenes I decided to take a new approach and create further artwork to this scene. First of all I decided to go for a day version and therefore removed the lights forming the lamps.

Skybox and Light Source Adjustments

Then it was time to increase the intensity and lighten up the colour on the ambient lights. At this point I also lightened up the skybox colour and added a slight glow to it but the result was not very satisfying. As one can see in the 2nd picture on the right image sequence the skycolour worked well but the whole scene is still dominantly in the shade.

Emit Photons

I had also added a directional light at this point and found myself playing around with different settings like depth map, ray tracing shadows and emitting photons. With emit photons enabled a nice effect in the scene occurred as can be seen above in the 3rd picture of the right image sequence.

It almost took a rain-look like effect with slight illumination of the scene and an overall bluish tone.

However I found this too similar to the already produced artworks mood and colour scheme.

Lighting Decision

I decided to go for a very basic and bright Mediterranean feel with almost completely white lighting in contrast to previous darker versions and their dominating blues. (See image below) 

Here is the comparison between the render and the final artwork.

Reflection on the Day Version

Mood and Composition
To emphasize the positive and inviting atmosphere and mood I added colour through lively vines growing up the sunny side of the right building. These have very saturated greens and yellows, yet low colour and value contrast to their surroundings.
The vines also surround and frame the main building and create a nice colour contrast between the greens and the reds of the windows to guide the eye more effectively towards the main building.

High Value Contrast
However the main aspect that draws one's attention to this building is the high value contrast of the bright building on the shady background. This high value contrast and composition creates an interesting image and I think the lighting of the added elements turned out very well and strengthens the image as a whole.

The Painting Process with Time Limits
I have improved my painting speed by setting myself time limits on recent studies and artwork. For this project I gave myself an hour to update the rendered image. It still feels sort of rough but works as a whole which is important. Future steps would include further detailing and cleaning up but a client should be able to recognize in what direction the painting is going at this stage.

I started off by searching for images of wines and once finding some good reference started to painting in the main roots. I then applied a photo texture of vines and transformed the perspective to create the core wall of vines over which I painted to correct the perspective furthermore. This methods saves me lots of time and is a very useful procedure as long as I am in control of the added images and not the other way around. One of the main challenges hereby is to achieve believable lighting and avoiding too much detail early on.

Image by Jay Taylor (2011)

And most importantly, the design must come from the artist and not the added images. I've previously found it quite difficult to stay in full control of my artwork and often encountered problems to achieve the desired affect or integrate images without having them change the design or stand out too much.
It is key to develop one's drawing skills before relying too much on a method like this. The result was very satisfying for this project though as it turned out just how I imagined it to and has little to do with the original image as one can see above.

Italian Town - From Reference to Final Concept

Reference Material

To start off I had a look at medieval architecture in general. This mainly consisted of central European structures that can be found across Germany or France. Later on it shifted towards a Mediterranean feel such as can be found in Italian towns and villages. The research consisted of real life photography and detailed window and door references as well as concept art by Maxim Desmettre for the Assassin's Creed series, some fantasy concepts and simple model examples with a similar theme and mood. 

Modelling Process

Low Poly
The goal of the modelling process is to capture the basic shapes of the environment as low poly as possible, yet maintain a certain level of detail to complete a full scene for the final render with a strong mood and atmosphere. I therefore chose a town alley which restricted views to keep the modelling time low.

Planning out the Scene
With the completion of the basic house shapes it was very important to plan out the scene thoroughly before adding any further detail to avoid unnecessary work. The camera angles and composition are chosen accurately and duplicating of objects was key to accelerate the production process.

Some of the houses are duplicated and partly altered to fit the scene. The textures will later on create further differences and stop the scene from becoming too monotone. The same goes for the windows and lamps.

To sum up the modelling content remained minimal so that one could proceed quickly to the uv mapping and texturing phases.

UV Mapping

Saving Time with the Work Flow

The low poly models allowed quick UV mapping with a very clean outcome. After UV mapping separate objects they would be duplicated and moved to their correct positions in the scene.

Texturing and Lighting

Textures
In able to create the Mediterranean feeling I had a closer look at facades of the said regions and combined different photo textures to create the wall texture. I would save these out to TARGA files in Photoshop which also support alpha layers.
To further save time the textures would be copied and altered slightly until all the buildings textures were complete.
For the windows too separate textures were made to create some colour contrast in the scene and create an interesting atmosphere.
Furthermore a background plane with one of my previous paintings was added.

Lighting
The lighting is very important in this scene to create the final feel of the concept art. The blue and orange lights produce great colour contrast and create a suspenseful atmosphere.

Final Concept Art

Breaking Solid Lines
I spent 1-2 hours maximum to paint over the final render and bring all the elements together. I focused and breaking up some of the solid lines and recognizable patterns on the textures as well as added details to the scene.

Colour Adjustments
In able to create a solid painting some colour adjustments were made. The background was desaturated as well as the building to the left of the main building with red windows. The desaturation of the building pushes it further back and creates more depth in the image.

Adding Story Elements
Finally the street lights lead the eye towards the bottom window of the main building, so I decided to place the main story action of the scene into this window. Some domestic abuse with unknown back-story is now taking place and hopefully intriguing you as a viewer.

Reflection

Time management
3 days from research to final artefact. spent a while experimenting with the lighting and my modelling speed must be improved. However the 3D medium has shown me some clear advantages in terms of flexibility, composition and lighting.
Particularly in scenes that require a certain degree of consistency of objects the 3D methods and possibilities tend to be very useful.

Composition
The composition benefits from the rule of thirds and it's well thought through space distribution. The image presents a very organized feeling through the equal distribution of windows on the houses. The 3D modelling definitely influenced this part strongly.
Furthermore the image consists of mainly horizontal and vertical straight lines to create balance in the environment. Solely the lamps and the background have curvy dynamic shapes, and particularly the lamps draw the viewers attention quickly and lead the viewer to the main action window in the centre of the scene which also has dynamic shapes in it. This allows the window scene to really stand out of the picture together with its saturated colours.

Value and Colour Contrast
The reds and greens work well against each other and support the composition of the image. Also, the lamps light cone leads the viewers eye back to the centre of the image, but also breaks up the large plane of the right third of the image.

Concept Quality
The end result has far more depth than most of my other 2D paintings due to the 3D build-up and insure perfect perspective and scale in the image. The artwork's lighting also turned out very convincing and added value to my artwork.