Since starting the new year and deciding my project, I have spent the past two weeks finalising what I would like to produce for BA8, what I want to write my essay on and deciding on what I am going to need to research over the next couple of months.
Within a group crit I was able to discuss my ideas and was given good feedback about things I could look at and research for the project. I have decided to set my story in the late16th/early 17th century because this is when the original story was first published. I also thought about setting it in the 19th century because this is when it was re-worked and illustrated by Randolph Caldecott in a book published in 1879. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babes_in_the_Wood)
Mark suggested the 16th century because I could tie in and take influence from the witch hunts popular at this time which I really like the idea of, I will also visit various museums around Norwich and Norfolk to gather research.
Last week I started gathering research by visiting the setting of my tale, Wayland Wood.
Wayland Wood is one of the largest woods in South Norfolk, and has a recorded history going back to the Domesday book. It is believed to be the site of the ‘Babes in the Wood’ legend. Oak, ash, birch, hazel and hornbeam are all present, as well as flowers such as yellow archangel, wood anemone, early purple orchid and the rare yellow star of Bethlehem. A wide variety of birds breed in the wood, including woodcock, lesser-spotted woodpecker and nuthatch
I took a few photos and plan to return again to take more with a better camera and at different times of the year. The main thing I notice about the Wood was how bright and green and full of life everything seemed, until you step off the path and head into the undergrowth and everything suddenly becomes a lot darker and spookier. This is something I want my concepts to convey, this world and story will seem fantasy like and resemble a children's fairy tale, yet have dark undertone to it, similar to Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Photos taken by myself at Wayland Wood on the 9th October 2012
I also visited the Norwich Castle Museum to see if I could gather any information about Norfolk in the 16th Century. Unfortunately they did not have a lot of useful information, instead the museum focus' on Boadicea, Romans, the castle itself and found objects, some of which did belong to the 16th century. However, another big part of the museum is animals and creatures from around the world with a section focused on Norfolk wildlife. This was useful in my research because it gave me a whole new range of birds and creatures I can later research and use to influence my characters.
(Insert sketches)
I also found a book called A fashionable history of Underwear by Helen Reynolds, which had a section on the 16th century. I found a few quotes that may later help in the design process of my characters.
"Slashing (clothes) was very common in the 16th century"
"The 16th century saw differences in underwear between different ranks of society. Women used underwear to change their body shape. The stiffened bodice or "body" incorporated wood, whalebone and occasionally iron bands to shape the fashionable, elongated bodice and small waste"
Although underwear of this kind probably will not matter to my characters, I want their clothing and assets to reflect the environment they live in (furs and vines etc) yet also the time they live in, and show a human side.
Research Report
I had a few ideas of what I would like to write about for the 5000 word research report, but found it hard to settle on an idea that tied in with my studio project. While in our first contextual studies lecture, I thought about the different styles of report and what I could study for each:
Industry Report: An Industry report on the Art Department within Lionhead studios
(or any other studio, this would tie in with my concept art and design within the studio work)
Technical report: A technical report on using After Effects
(This would tie in with my studio work because I will be using After Effects and could tie in with a reflective report on my progress in making the animatic)
Extended Essay: An exploration of Folklore in video games.
An exploration of how nature is incorporated in some video games.
(Both would tie in with my influences for the studio work, English folklore and Nature)
Reflective Report: Improving my digital painting using reference and study.
This idea would have been more of a practical study, my idea was to create an illustration from my own head, then, using studies and reference, re create the illustration and see if it improves on the final image and if so, how it has improved.
(This would tie in with my 2D studio work)
Thinking about the animatic I wanted to produce for the studio work, I then thought about other cut scenes and cinematics used in video games and came up with the working title:
A look at the importance and influence of opening scenes/cut scenes in video games, are they necessary to the games story or a "pretty" hook to bring players in?
Within this I could discuss:
- Personal Experience: I used to watch my brother play games like Final Fantasy 7-10 purely to see the cut scenes
- Tie in with my opening after effects animatic scene
- How important are cut scenes to the telling of a story or game play?
- The relationship between the cinematic and the
gameplay
- Cinematography in Gaming
- History of gaming cut scenes and cinematics,
when were they first introduced and why
- Are these cut scenes necessary now with the high
standards of technology
I was really happy with this idea, however, soon found the subject difficult when trying to gather research. I wanted to focus mainly on the cut scene cinematic, but many games have cut scenes which are created using the game engine still. Cut scenes in video games go by many definitions such as:
noun
(in computer games) a scene that develops the storyline and is often shown on completion of a certain level, or when the player’s character dies:
between every few missions there’s a lengthy cutscene which fills in the gaps in the story
http://oxforddictionaries.com
A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game over which theplayer has no or only limited control, breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot, strengthen the main character's development, introduces enemy characters, and provide background information, atmosphere, dialogue, and clues. Cutscenes often feature on the fly rendering, using the gameplay graphics to create scripted events. Cutscenes can also be animated, live action, orpre-rendered computer graphics streamed from a video file. Pre-made videos used in video games (either during cutscenes or during the gameplay itself) are referred to as "full motion videos" or "FMVs"
- (Cut-Scenes) Short intermissions typically presented between stages to convey a storyline. These can be live or computer-generated videos clips, and are usually non-interactive.
- A sequence of linear, non-interactive video that often occurs between sections of active gameplay.
- non-interactive scene (like a mini-movie) that moves the story along
- Good old fansioned FMV or CG movies played in-between gameplay sequences to further move the storyline along.
I also decided that this subject branched too far away from what I want to focus on, which is concept art, therefore I started to look at what subjects I could write about surrounding the subject of concept art. This is what I cam up with:
An exploration of the relationship between concept art and the final in-game/film product.
- Discuss what Concept art is
- Look at concept art and compare with the final in game or film product
- Discuss ideas for why there is a differences
- Technical hold backs (Crash Bash designed brown but programme only had orange)
- Compare with Modern Games
- Look at the pipeline of a concept artist
- Look at the pipeline from concept art to final piece
- Look at the history of concept art in games
- Look at the history of concept art in films
- Do concept artists need to think about the final product, possibility to be created, will it work in game, or would this block imagination and creativity?
- Within the game industry pipeline, how does concept art influence the 3D work flow?
