Yesterday we presented what we'd done so far for our Masters research. All the presentations were recorded which helped me go over what was said and take accurate notes/feedback.
Below is my presentation with both my notes, what I said during the presentation, and my feedback from my supervisor Michael Powell and my peers:
Key:
Presentation Notes
"Spoken words during presentation"
Slide 1
"This is the research that I've done so far for my game-ready characters masters."
Presentation on the research I’ve done so far
The end goal was to find out what a game-ready character is and then execute it
Slide 2
"I decided that I needed to look into the character artist job roles before I started to"
"I wanted to look at how responsibilities changed and what would be expected of me"
Character artist evolution displayed via potato
First and foremost, I looked at what a character artist does
What does their job role entail?
To properly analyse this, I looked at entry level to lead
Looking at how the responsibilities changed
Slide 3
"This is some quotes of what you're expected to do;
At entry level you're basically learning everything and getting to know the team/starting to fit in.
At a mid-level you're expected to know what you're doing enough to start looking into the pipelines.
At a senior level you're actually starting to improve the workflow of the company, you're working with art leads to help nail the feel for the game and you're starting to move towards what a lead does.
As a Lead they manage the whole character art team and they also work with other leads to again make sure the game's working well, and they've achieved their final vision."
Slide 4
"I also looked at the language that they had in the job role (advertisements):
For instance, with the entry level they have words like "high quality" or you could have "an understanding" of (the work) or some experience.
Mid-level: You have "good knowledge", you have to know what you're doing. You also have to start mentoring others and creating documentation; helping towards the overall workflow.
Senior: You have to be "inspiring" and "stunning"; you can see how the language has moved up and you have to be "highly experienced"
Finally, when you're a lead it's more so based on being responsible, being able to troubleshoot, have strong technical skills, and being proficient enough to help others."
How the language changes as you get more responsibilities:
At entry level/junior expect the least
At mid-level expect you to know your stuff
At a senior be great at what you do and start to oversee pipelines
As a lead you manage the team
Slide 5
"First and foremost what is a game ready character? I looked about and to be honest the questions a little bit vague (online), and you get loads of different responses; so the best thing I could do was actually ask people (character artist in industry).
I set up 10 questions (to fit on Survey Monkey) so I could quiz people on what they do in industry."
The best way to find out the answer was to ask character artists in industry
I fine-tuned my questions down to 10 so I could make an online survey
Everyone that got back into contact with me was willing to do a survey
Slide 6
"This is how the presentation looks on Survey Monkey; quite straight-forward and plain so they can just get on with it (the survey/no distractions). I left the answering boxes open so they could write what they wanted, and I've noted at the top that the survey is anonymous and my contact details."
I made it on Survey Monkey
I make sure to specify that the people that the survey is
Anonymous
Where their answers would be going
And my contact details
Slide 7
"These are all the character artists I wanted to contact, I've highlighted the really important people in green and noted if I had them on LinkedIn or Twitter; if I couldn't find them their then I looked for their portfolios.
Some of them I have contacted as you can see, and others are pending (their responses)."
Slide 8
"I contacted people on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Gmail (via their portfolios). I found that twitter was good because it's a bit more casual and has an informal feel to it; can you share your knowledge with me? You don't want to annoy anyone."
How I contacted people
Slide 9
"These were the survey answers that I got:
This person is a lead character artist
Their process is: base mesh, high poly sculpt, bake/retopologise, UVs, texturing, rigging, and finally facial blend-shapes
It is then passed on to the animator, but I did read in one of my GDC pipelines that that animator and character artist work together; they pass the model back and forth to troubleshoot.
He uses Maya, Mudbox, ZBrush, and UE4; this helps me fine-tune which software I need to be learning and what they're using in industry.
The character is 50-100k tris, it depends on if it's a main character and the stylisation of the game
They use a multi-material system and make their own shaders, but also use a diffuse, normal, roughness, specular
I also wanted to know what could go wrong and what constraints they had; there were budget constraints, or compromises had to happen as you're going through the project.
For deadlines they have a producer that helps schedule everything and makes sure everyone is on track/ has good time management.
Design, tech, concept, animation and character art all the teams that help create the final character; I asked this because I wanted to know who I'd be working with and who I would need to pass my work to/receive work from.
For the character to be passes on you have to make sure that the facial animation works, the topology is clean, it's rigged well (though it does get tweaked and edited throughout).
Finally, a game-ready character is a character that is ready for rigging and has all the blend-shapes and materials are correct. It also has to be signed off by the Art Director.
This answered my main question of what a game-ready character is."
Pipeline from lead character at company X
Slide 10
"I went on the GDC Vault and looked at their podcasts and presentations and wanted to look at how they broke down their character development.
At the top you have Uncharted 2 and how they make their characters; I noted what they were saying on each slide of the presentation to get the pipelines.
Next you have the Art Direction from Sunset Overdrive, I really loved how they broke down their process; define your goals, evaluate your solution against your goals, fine-tune your goals, if necessary. They went through that (process) at every step making sure they hit their goal before they moved on, which I think works well because it means less issues later.
Next we have the animator from Overwatch, I really loved how they found their character, her pose, etc. At every step he was thinking about what he wanted his end character to be, which I'd take forward in my projects.
Next is the stylisation from Team Fortress 2 when they were moving from the general shoot-'em-up to the stylised characters. I found that ironically their references came from J. C. Leyendecker (there's a project that Game Art does in the 3rd year on him which people tend to find quite difficult) where they looked at the warm and cool lights and his art style. They go through the whole pipeline, so that's another good one for me."
From GDC vault, some of their stuff is free:
Character pipeline
Art direction
Animation
How they decided their art style
Slide 11
"This was an iteration pipeline from Bioshock Infinite, they spoke about Elizabeth who is a key character used to be mute, and her design didn't fit in. Over the course of the video they spoke about how they had to iterate on Elizabeth and make sure the player actually cared about her.
At some point the design was a bit wishy-washy so they spoke about how they made her noticeable and improve her design overall; they also worked with paint-overs.
For the DLC they had to make her older and has a character arc with her new personality, they looked at how they could demonstrate that but still keep her true to herself.
From that because they had so many issues they defined a new and improved pipeline for future projects."
From GDC vault, some of their stuff is free:
Iteration
They had a lot of issues and decided to improve their workflow
Slide 12
"Next are some memorable character, I'm sure you guys recognise some of these characters here. I looked at what makes people actually care about the character as it's something I wanted to apply to my own work, as opposed to other characters that are forgettable."
Slide 13
"The main character type people liked was the silent type, brooding, the underdog that proves everyone wrong. People they don't like were characters that go against your morale standing, and they don't leave an impression on you; something could happen to them, but you don't really care."
Slide 14
"As a character artist I'm only doing a certain part of the overall pipeline, so how could I effect this (how people feel about the character) myself?
Their age: if they're younger, you might have some maternal feelings towards them
Are they human? If you can't relate to them at all, how does that effect the character?
Their outfit: is it in some kind of disarray or are they neat and prim?
Personality in dress style, accessories; everyone has their own personal quirks and fashion sense, is it like the players or not?
Wear and tear: are they weathered and dirty-looking (edgy)?
Colour schemes: if a character wears bright clothing you might feel different from character who wear dark clothing.
Slide 15
"Where do character artists go for inspiration: Pinterest, Google, Books, Comics, Film/TV, Art galleries, Existing characters, People, Fashion, Nature; there are others but this is a summary."
Pinterest, Google, Books, Comics, TV/Film, Art Galleries, Existing characters, People, Fashion, Nature
Slide 16
"
For Pinterest it's got masses of resources but at the same time because it's a select amount of pins you end of recycling each other's work, which isn't great.
Google has an unlimited amount of resources, but at the same time people often use the first search results (and is similar to the Pinterest situation).
Books are already world's on their own and have depth in their description that you can work from, but you need the author's permission (to use their work) and they might not allow it. Plus, there are some books that have been done-to-death and there's no point doing those again.
Comic books are similar but you have the work visualised in front of you, however some comic book artist have a recognisable style; you want to look at what's successful from that and then apply it to your own project as opposed to stealing.
Film/TV: It's got the cinematography, story lines, and character arcs which is becoming a part of the games industry as well. But again don't rely too heavily on the source material.
With art galleries you have traditional resources and you can go there to study a range of things, but you might not be able to take photos or draw there and some aspects are hard to translate over into 3D.
We're surrounded by diverse people who are going through different things in their lives and sometime you might see someone who's so unique and you want to capture them, but you can't take pictures of people because that's creepy.
Fashion: You have designs now with mixed medium and are so abstract, they also focus on the silhouettes and are quite beautiful, but I found out with some of my projects that although it might look good design-wise it won't work in 3D.
Nature is all around us, we often went up to Bradgate to look at the rocks, study colours, patterns and texture/weathering. But you have to have to be careful of your surroundings because you don't want to kill yourself for cool ref.
Finally, existing characters because they've already been visualised and made into 3D, so you can look at what maps they've used and look at the production value, but again don't steal work."
Slide 17
"Finally I've moved on to the technical specs for my project where I've looked into character tri-counts. There's quite a range of them; you have the crazy high budgets and the ones that are less so.
That's effected by character density: how many characters are you going to have on your screen? Games like Dynasty warriors have large mobs so they can't have high tri-counts or it'll crash your game, whereas if you have a 1 vs 1 game you can have more tri-counts in your scene because it's not going to mess up things (your frame rate).
A next gen console will be able to handle more than a mobile or hand-held device would."
Tri-count depends on:
Platform (Next gen, hand-held console, mobile)
Amount of characters on screen
Relevance to story line (main character gets the most time)
Realistic or stylised (detail vs silhouette)
Slide 18
"I've looked at all the different pieces of the puzzle, but I need to decide what I'm doing next.
We need to get the learning contract done
Go through and analyse existing characters more thoroughly
Look into more technical specs; at the moment I'm looking at stylisation and texture maps; how people have achieved their characters' look
Also when will I be ready to start my project?
Slide 19
"That's it, thanks for listening any questions?"
Feedback: Q&A
Supervisor: Michael Powell
Peers: Peers
This is some of the feedback that I got from my supervisor and peers.
"So where you're going next I suppose you're trying to work out how to design your character, aren't you?"
"Yeah, so now I'm actually breaking down (what I need to be looking at)"
"So I feel like we've got most of the technical specifications sorted out, we've got most of the processes mapped, but I feel like there's not much in the way of what character really means. For example, is the character in-game a particularly distinctive thing? Is it different from characters in a films?"
"You did mention in passing mention the silent character that allows you to put yourself into it. I guess Gordon Freeman is like the ultimate, isn't it? Which is like the character you never see because, you are Gordon Freeman. But you never say anything either and it becomes a joke in the game. The other character's say - you're quiet today Gordon - Always the strong silent type, which is kind of like a nice in-joke."
"I think you need to do some thinking about the difference between character and characteristics/characterisation. Then maybe some thoughts about first-person and third-person as well."
"An interesting one that were done a while ago is No One Lives Forever, it had a really get set of characters/character archetypes, and the lead character was a female secret agent. But weirdly despite doing all the design work it was a first-person shooter so you never actually saw yourself and the character. The other thing they got a huge kickback from is that people didn't want to play as a girl. I'm sure it wouldn't be the same now, but certainly the mid 90's when it came out it was one of the issues they had and it didn't sell as well. So the next game they brought out was virtually the same game but with a male protagonist; so I think there's those elements that are worth looking at to fracture into your character projects as well."
"I feel comfortable we've got all of the tech side of it sorted out now, but it's kind of the artistic narrative role of the character I think you need to do some thinking about.
You may discover that it has absolutely no bearing at all. I know we've talked in the past about how one of the handicaps you have in game is that your characters don't act/can't act."
"You can sometimes get people to record speech but it doesn't really work yet does it? We don't emote in the same way to game characters that we would characters in film for example, or even weirdly characters in books who we don't even see. Games are very poor for that still."
"The best example I've seen is in L.A. Noire (the mocap/facial animations). They said the reason why it's so precise is because the game play relied on you knowing if someone was lying from their facial expressions. They scanned in each expression and that's the best I've seen, even compared to recent games (considering it's an old game)."
"Some games avoid it entirely like (since you mentioned film noire) the first 2 Max Payne games which were very overtly styled on a sort of film noire aesthetic. They stewed any kind of facial animation and went straight to the voice over. Where the character would give you the it was a bad day..."
"Like Sin City style"
"... Yeah, which actually kind of worked because of the genre so it didn't jar. But if you apply that to a different kind of game it would be ridiculous. "
"Now we need to start analysing character, characters are a thing but they're also a vehicle and the relationship we have with people, objects, things in games; it's useful to be clear about the distinction."
"You've got a character but how did you give a person a character? Everyone has their own personality; you mentioned earlier researching people but not taking photographs; note down their mannerisms, idles, the way they sit, and clothes that they wear. That's what makes us individuals."
"Robotics research: how can we relate better to robots; the realistic ones were uncanny valley so they've settled for cute ones. Games can be realistic but no matter how realistic they are, the more photo-realistic they become the more ridiculous they can be because they don't do things you'd expect people to do."
"Looking at what character means and how it manifests itself. Different ways that you might approach this, so you could make a super-realistic character and make the same character as a stylised thing and ask people what they think."
"There was a study about how people react to different games, people had less of an emotional response to Uncharted and some of the characters in that, as opposed to previous gen games."
"You expect a realistic character to act like an actual person and when it doesn't it freaks you out/breaks the immersion, but you don't have that expectation of a cartoon-style character, we're already relaxed about what they are."
"Have you thought about basing your characters around a theme? SpongeBob characters are designed based on the Seven Deadly Sins."
What am I doing next/what have I learnt based on the feedback I've been given?
When games are realistic it's like watching a film and their fate's seem inevitable/set in stone, whereas with more stylistic games it feels like a game and you feel like you have more control of the outcome, anything could happen.
Define the differences between character, characteristics, and characterisation.
Use these to create an interesting character
Start designing character
Considering character's story and how (or if) it will affect the design outcomes
Bibliography
Slide 2
[1] PNGIMG. (Date unknown) Potato. [Online image] Available from: http://pngimg.com/download/7078 [Accessed 11/11/16].
[2] DIABETES DAILY. (2012) Baked potatoes. [Online image] Available from: https://www.diabetesdaily.com/blog/2009/02/how-to-perfect-baked-potato/ [Accessed 11/11/16].
[3] SERIOUS EATS. (2011) Roast potatoes. [Online image] Available from: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/11/ultra-crispy-roast-potatoes-recipe.html [Accessed 11/11/16].
[4] MCARDLE, M. (2011) Garlic fries. [Online image] Available from: http://mollymcardle.com/post/9548150393/all-i-had-for-dinner-last-night-was-garlic-fries/ [Accessed 11/11/16].
Slide 3
http://zjamesmarshall.wixsite.com/masteringarts/single-post/2016/10/24/Week-4-The-Character-Artist-Part-1-What-do-they-do
Slide 4
http://zjamesmarshall.wixsite.com/masteringarts/single-post/2016/10/24/Week-4-The-Character-Artist-Part-1-What-do-they-do
Slide 8
[1] GOOGLE PLAY. (2016) LinkedIn logo. [Online image] Available from: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.linkedin.android [Accessed 15/11/16].
[2] ICONFINDER. (2016) Twitter logo. [Online image] Available from: https://www.iconfinder.com/icons/278450/blue_twitter_twitter_logo_twitterbird_twitterbird_logo_icon [Accessed 15/11/16].
[3] GOOGLE PLAY. (2016) Gmail logo. [Online image] Available from: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gm [Accessed 15/11/16].
Slide 9
[1] HOW TO LEARN. (N.D.) Maya logo. [Online image] Available from: http://howtolearn.me/how-learn-maya-free/ [Accessed 11/11/16].
[2] AREA. (2013) Mudbox logo. [Online image] Available from: http://area.autodesk.com/mudbox2013 [Accessed 11/11/16].
[3] WALLACE, S. (2011) ZBrush logo. [Online image] Available from: http://sebasianwallacepp.blogspot.co.uk/2011_05_01_archive.html [Accessed 11/11/16].
[4] IGN. (2016) UE4 logo. [Online image] Available from: http://me.ign.com/ar/kingdom-hearts-iii-ps4-2/109505/news/rd-mmyz-lbrz-lnwyn-lmtwr-m-mhrk-unreal-engine-4 [Accessed 11/11/16].
Slide 10
[1] DIAMANT, R. and SIMANTOV, J. (2010) Uncharted 2 Character Pipeline: An In-depth Look at the Creation of U2's Characters. [Presentation Slides] GDC/Naughty Doc Inc. 13th March. Available from: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1012552/Uncharted-2-Character-Pipeline-An [Accessed 31/10/16].
[2] CHEW, J. (2015) Order from Chaos: The Art Direction of Sunset Overdrive. [Podcast] GDC/INSOMNIAC GAMES. 2nd-6th March. Available from: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022183/Order-from-Chaos-The-Art [Accessed 04/11/16].
[3] GIBSON, D. (2016) Animation Bootcamp: Overwatch: How A Hero Is Mei-d. [Podcast] GDC/Blizzard. 14th-18th March. Available from: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023473/Animation-Bootcamp-Overwatch-How-A [Accessed 31/10/16].
[5] MITCHELL, J. (2008) Stylization with a Purpose: The Illustrative World of TEAM FORTRESS 2. [Presentation Slides] GDC/VALVE SOFTWARE. 18th-22nd March. Available from: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/279/Stylization-with-a-Purpose-The [Accessed 04/11/16].
Slide 11
GOULDEN, G. (2014) Change Is Good: The Importance of Iteration Within a Character Art Pipeline. [Podcast] GDC/GAVIMAGE.COM. 17th-21st March. Available from: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020403/Change-Is-Good-The-Importance [Accessed 03/11/16].
Slide 12
FANDOM. (2014) Link. [Online image] Available from: http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_The_Wind_Waker_characters?file=Link_Wind_Waker_3.png [Accessed 26/10/16].
CASTING CALL CLUB. (2014) Professor Hershel Layton. [Online image] Available from: https://www.castingcall.club/characters/professor-hershel-layton [Accessed 26/10/16].
FANDOM. (2014) Mario. [Online image] Available from: http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Mario?file=Mario_-_Mario_Party_10.png [Accessed 26/10/16].
HITMAN FORUM. (2015) Agent 47 poster. [Online image] Available from: http://www.hitmanforum.com/t/the-look-of-agent-47/2054/293 [Accessed 26/10/16].
COMBINE OVERWIKI. (2011) The G-Man. [Online image] Available from: http://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/File:G-man_heart_to_heart_headshot.jpg [Accessed 26/10/16].
COSPLAY AMINO. (2015) Rhys. [Online image] Available from: http://www.aminoapps.com/page/cosplay/1279625/rhys-pect-the-rhys [Accessed 26/10/16].
GAMING LIVES. (2012) Tiny Tina. [Online image] Available from: http://www.gaminglives.com/2012/07/13/borderlands-2-interview-with-gearbox-vp-steve-gibson/ [Accessed 26/10/16].
FANDOM. (2014) Varric. [Online image] Available from: http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/File:Varric-new.png [Accessed 26/10/16].
FANDOM. (2013) Lee Everett. [Online image] Available from: http://walkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/File:NTL_Lee_Shed_Box.png [Accessed 26/10/16].
The Last of US. (Date Unknown) Joel. [Online image] Available from: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/288300813627162964/ [Accessed 26/10/16].
FANDOM. (2014) Ellie. [Online image] Available from: http://thelastofus.wikia.com/wiki/File:Ellie.png [Accessed 26/10/16].
FANDOM. (2016) Emily. [Online image] Available from: http://until-dawn.wikia.com/wiki/File:EmProfile.png [Accessed 26/10/16].
VIDEO GAMES ANIMO. (2015) Sephiroth. [Online image] Available from: http://aminoapps.com/page/video-games/1444386/villain-dream-team [Accessed 26/10/16].
WIKIPEDIA. (2013) Lara Croft. [Online image] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lara_Croft#/media/File:Lara_Croft_(2013).png [Accessed 26/10/16].
FANDOM. (2012) Vaas Montenegro. [Online image] Available from: http://farcry.wikia.com/wiki/File:Vaas_3.jpg [Accessed 26/10/16].
SILENT HILL. (N.D.) Pyramid Head. [Online image] Available from: https://plus.google.com/photos/104492387632637898415/albums/6250094376041044545/6250094377024661474 [Accessed 26/10/16].
Slide 15
Image source: https://uk.pinterest.com/
Image source: http://www.pakistankakhudahafiz.com/news/google-coming-pakistani-universities-month/
Image source: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-40-best-books-to-read-before-you-die-a6909206.html
Image source: http://talkingcomicbooks.com/2014/12/11/budget-comic-buyers-guide-pt-1-mission-statement-facing-pull-list/
Image source: http://www.northernman.co.uk/lifestyle/i-need-a-movie-education-i-need-a-moviecation/
Image source: http://artuk.org/visit/collection/brighton-and-hove-museums-and-art-galleries-166
Image source: http://streetpeeper.com/fashion-news/streetpeeper-hearts-mae-lapres
Image source: https://www.yahoo.com/style/spring-fashion-campaigns-were-most-131900925.html
Image source: http://viralscape.com/natural-phenomena-on-earth/
Slide 17
[1] GEODAV. (2014) Recommended polycount for player models and weapons. [Online forum] Available from: https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?18120-Recommended-poly-count-for-player-models-and-weapons [Accessed 15/11/16].
[2] EA DICE (2015) Star Wars Battlefront. [Origin] Microsoft Windows. North America: Electronic Arts.
[3] CAMPO SANTO (2016) Firewatch. [Steam] Microsoft Windows. North America: CAMP SANTO and PANIC INC.
[4] POLYCOUNT. (2014) Polycounts in next gen games thread! [Online forum] Available from: http://polycount.com/discussion/141061/polycounts-in-next-gen-games-thread [Accessed 16/11/16].
[5] POLYCOUNT. (2013) Triangle counts for assets from various videogames. [Online forum] Available from: http://polycount.com/discussion/126662/triangle-counts-for-assets-from-various-videogames [Accessed 16/11/16].
[6] NEOGAF. (2013) inFamous: Second Son Characters Polygon Count revealed. (120k Polygons) [Online forum] Available from: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=108172593 [Accessed 16/11/16].
[7] GOSUGAMERS. (2016) Interesting insight into Overwatch Tech Art. [Online forum] Available from: http://www.gosugamers.net/overwatch/news/35188-interesting-insight-into-overwatch-tech-art [Accessed 16/11/16].
Slide 18
[1] GOLD SALON. (N.D.) Direction. [Online image] Available from: http://geldsalon.nl/werken-als-verkoper-geld-verdienen-rijk-worden/ [Accessed 11/11/16].
