Symbiosis

Symbiosis: interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both.

When i had decided upon specialising as a character and creature artist i started to think what kind of work i could produce for my project and why...

I thought that the most interesting way to explore this concept would be by depicting a two different creatures (at least one of which should be human, or at the very least of humanoid shape) that were in some way linked. In deigning two creatures, it would be easy to create two random designs that that simply look interesting as separate entities, it would be harder, but much more interesting to explore the relationship between two different beings, as creatures that both inhabit the same space, and create characters designed to inhabit the same space. This brings in the concept of coherent design.

 (James Cameron's Avatar is an excellent contemporary example of coherent visual design) 

Creating coherent designs is an important part of the design of any world or space for anything like games or film. It helps to immerse the audience in the world they are being presented with, this is why it is particularly important (though by no means limited to ) fantasy worlds.

Carefully considered designing, that is appropriate to the space it inhabits is key to making an audience believe in the world they are being shown. It helps them to suspend their disbelief in fantastical worlds, if everything in that world loos like it belongs. When something looks out of place, it is easily spotted, and can take the audience out of the experience. For my project design coherence will be important, to make sure that both of my designs work together to convey a consistent, mood, style, shape ect, to the viewer. This is where symbiosis comes in. 

I am giving my specialism project the sub title of  "Symbiosis", this will shape the direction that my design will go in. I want to work using a game industry pipeline, "symbiosis" will be the title of the design brief that i  given myself. 

By designing two groups based on a symbiotic relationship, i can explore the effects that that relationship has on the two involved parties,and how i can use that to work aesthetic  coherence into my design

I think this will be an interesting way to look at character design, and by choosing it as a title i hope to look at:

- visual connections between my designs

- how i can show with visuals, the relationship between two groups and their effects on each other

- look at the relationship between the environment/setting and its inhabitants

- how the same environmental conditions could have similar, or different effects on each group.

- look at how certain visual connections indicate

- audiences perception of repetition (used to point out the importance of certain design aspects)

Symbiosis can come in many forms, mutualistic, commensalistic, and parasitic, as well as variations thereof. I will go into further detail on the different types of symbiotic relationships and try to find some examples, both real world and fantasy.

Here are just a few examples that immediately sprang to mind, some what you would conventionally see as symbiotic relationships, others well...

(Maybe not the most obvious example, but when you think about it, within the context of the game it holds up)

Ba6: Specialism

Ba6 is entitled "Specialism", this is where i can choose the direction i want to go in the games industry, based on my experiences inside and outside of my course from the past two years.

When i applied at NUA, my only interest and learning goal was become a concept artist. I wanted to improve my skills at 2D art, particularly digital art. I came from a traditional, fine art background. I had painted allot in oil, acrylic and various mixes of different mediums.

(an oil painting of mine using an impasto technique)

 I started to become interested in figurative works, i loved the fluidity of organic forms, and the human body in particular, i started to produce character concept art using hard outlines with an ink wash. my use of this technique was inspired by the art of illustrator Quentin Blake, who was a childhood hero of mine, and later by the concept art of James (Hawkprey) Hawkins, as well as the general use of line art in anime. 
It was this interest in figure that pulled my interest towards exploring those forms 3D. i felt like exploring these forms in 3d would be just an interesting direction to take my art. For my portfolio (as part of my application to NUA's ( then NUCA) Games Art and Design course i experimented with a couple of both clay and wire figure studies, as well as more character and creature concept artwork.

During my time on the course I have so far avoided working in the areas i feel most comfortable in so that i can push myself artistically and expand my skill-set, though i did work on creature concept art as part of my work for Ba4. I now feel that i am at a point  (and this has quite happily coincided with my specialism project) that i can push and develop in an area that i am really passionate about.

This is ultimately how i have come to choose to keep my "specialism" broad, in the sense that i don't want to limit myself to specialising in either 2D or 3D, i have chosen to embrace both. my specialism, for this project at least then will look at figurative art within game design. By this  mean that the subject of my work and my specialism, will be the form of either a human or animal. As apposed to specialising to become a landscape/ environment artist by designing  inanimate object or vehicles. 

Since i have started this course i have often considered my specialty to be character and creature design, though i haven't had the opportunity that i would have liked to show that. When it comes to 3D design, up until now i have been leaning the basics of 3D modelling, where it has been easier to learn the fundamentals with less organic shapes. It will be good to to tackle character and creature design as my specialty, even if i am still experimenting with 2D and 3D tools.

ba5- revisited

Time is a harsh mistress... 
Time management was defiantly my downfall for my last project, a clear area for improvement. In hindsight i would defiantly not... um, run out of time... so yeah.
My last couple of posts on here had to be left un-expanded upon, simply because i didn't have the time to write up my process and thoughts. 

Despite my best efforts to avoid it (i worked like a dog pretty much from week 1) i still ended up cramming a large percentage of my work into the last week. That's the last time i allow myself to do that, it really isn't fun, but now its time for ba6, and and era of work on time where calmer minds will be the only ones to prevail... so chill man.