Next Art Test - The Live Art Test.

I am a week late with this blog post, I've had a really bad time with my art this week, think it's just a bit of a major slump, everyone gets them but I've been thinking a lot about things and instead of moping I'm just going to grow up and get on with it so here is the next art test we received.

I knew from the start of the week that I was going to rule out 2D concepty art as I feel that this is not the path I should take. There are several of the 2D Art Tests that drew my eye but I know that I can't do them as far as my skill level goes.

My eye is drawn to the Infinite Isles art test, we can't post too much as far as images given because these are from Games companies who are being very generous with letting us see and do these kinds of tests (I am so lucky to be with such an awesome University that we get these) details are ...

"Skysaga: Infinite Isles Unveiled Art Test

3D
Art Test

Your task is to create the ‘Loot Chest’ asset. Utilize the ‘Loot Chest’ concept art and example assets provided as a guide to produce your art piece The example assets folder contains two game resolution assets to assist you. They are representative of both model/texture construction and usage as well visual style and quality. The concept piece they were based upon is also provided for your reference. Good Luck."

I really like making things in Maya, I don't see that causing me too many problems, I just have to be careful about my polycount and keeping things low. My biggest challenge here is textures, I am a bit weak on these and with my last project I just used textures found from google and free sites, here I am going to have to hand paint everything to keep with the style.

My schedule seeing as I'm a week behind because of my slump is as follows.

Week 2

• Research the company and check out the work they create
• Start with 2D hand drawings
• Iterate colours and designs
• Start creating 3D model
• Do basic textures

Week 3

• Start doing textures
• finish everything off.

Final thoughts on Art Test 1

At the start I was filled with a lot of promise, as I'd never really gotten on with environment art before ..... and I end with ..... still not liking it very much at all! I only managed to complete two concepts because I spent more time mentally focusing on what I couldn't do rather than what I COULD do.

The second piece was my favourite, mainly because I had so much fun painting the people, the best part of this whole project was these four different style of people all coming together, maybe character design is one thing I look at for a possible specialisation because I really enjoyed that part of this art test

Environments however will confuse me forever!

Thoughts to take me on are be more confident ..... don't worry about what I can't do and focus on what I can do. Try not to panic if something goes wrong.

Bring on Art Test number 2

Final Concept pieces

Here are my final concepts, they are not as good as I would have liked them to be but my skill level is still not up to standards, instead of worrying about this I will put more efforts into my 3D work as this is where I will hope to be going next

If was going going to add to this I would have done more to the landscape, I was worried that stuff on the ground would detract attention away from the giant skeleton on the rocks. One thing I would say is that I definitely need to start doing more digital art, even if I don't plan to do stuff like this, it will always come back to bite me on the butt when I need to do anything with photoshop.

This one I'm rather impressed with, the only nice piece I think I have produced so far I really didn't like the look of the angle I wanted to do originally so went with this one instead as you can get more in the image this way ... the people are mingling together in the market place in the centre of the citadel, its nice to see all different costumes and styles together!

I didn't get round to starting the last final image, I wanted to explore the skeleton more because it was going to be the Religious symbol that drew people in and got the living together, I would have planned to feature the skull as the main centre for the Religious activity with the people each having their own interpretation of what the creature was inside of the skull, this is where the going into the sky' element of the art test would have come in.

In all I am a little disappointed that I didn't complete this one coming so close, I had such a rough start but I ended up enjoying doing the last painting .... who'd knew!

Starting The Concepts.

As I begin my concepts I make out the basic shapes, here are the three basic concepts that will make up my final pieces.

Project woes.

Normally at this point in the project I am quite confident with the work I am doing, but at this moment in time I feel this is possibly my weakest point out of the year and a bit I have been here. Maybe it's because I've already done a similar styled project I am just not getting the work down I would have at this point.

I have done basic colours for my first concept, but I just keep thinking about the other two I have to do ... I know they can be fairly rough because it's only pre-visualisation but my head just keeps telling me they have to be perfect.

I am still struggling with my weaknesses here, and the more I think about them it's really affecting my drawing ability, sometimes I am just left starting at photoshop with no idea where to start.

I think I am going to just put down some random colours and see where it gets me and try to keep positive. Maybe I am feeling rather lost because I shouldn't be doing 2D, maybe 3D is one of the ways forward, I really enjoyed the 3D aspect of the last project. I am going to chose to do 3D for the next art test anyway so hopefully I'll feel more at home then. 

Feelings at this current point of the second week.

So far I have managed to avoid my timetable which at first I seemed to stick to quite well, I got a few things done, but then I got bogged down in pointless parts of research, looking back did I really need to spend ages looking at weather conditions .... not really, I still struggle with time keeping, I have the ability to get stuck on certain things and not focus on the important parts of the project.

Current Strengths

• I am still enjoying the content I am researching, looking at all these different cultures has been really eye opening for me
• I am getting a tiny bit better with organising work, normally I lose where I have put things but being more organised with my locations of files has helped me greatly, I used to just save things wherever they got saved to and ended up losing research items and forgetting them completely, but now everything has its place.
•  I can paint a tiny bit better than normal.

Where can I improve?

• I am still really bad at comparing my work to others, and it is starting to affect how I work myself, I see other people getting on really well with their paintings and I look at mine and think I paint like a child. It's something that I keep trying to work on but I get stuck on the thought that I will never get as good as some people.
• Sticking to the timetable, again I wrote last time that I was struggling to keep to it, but here I am again, for the next art test I am going to try so hard to stick with my own set goals.
• Making my work fit the brief, I am still not sure my work looks like Fable style, I keep thinking of the Tudor style houses and none of the people I have chosen to look at have houses like that, I am a bit worried that my work won't have that whimsical style to it. I know there is more to Fable than Tudor houses but that is the first thing that sticks in my head when thinking of the game.
• Spending more time on my photoshop skills, I don't really make the time to do art which is probably a bad thing considering this is what I want to use to make a living (sigh) must make room in my day for a little bit of art here and there

I keep seeming to find more weaknesses than I do strengths ... Oh dear!

Designing houses and costumes for each Quarter.

I decided to try out some different styles of houses for my Citadel Quarters, each part has its own unique buildings pertaining to each races way of living, some of the cultures I have chosen have quite similar building shapes (Meso-Americans and Middle Eastern) so making them look different is a bit of a challenge.

I chose to do the Middle-Easter houses quite square, through looking on the internet a lot of the houses I found looked like these, square open roof areas, cylindrical type doors, some of them have stairs going up the side of the walls to get to the top of the house and some had domes on them.

For the Inuit style houses I found this quite tricky as the most obvious houses you think of when thinking of Inuit people is igloo's, I watched a few episodes of 'Life Below Zero' for insperation and most houses are made of wood, so using this I thought of log cabins and wood framed buildings so I thought I would make a wooden igloo to try and keep that old fashioned idea of an igloo but for a warmer climate, for some buildings natives use fur to block the wind out and keep in the warm, I like this idea so I thought I could link it into the giant skeleton on the mountainside seeing as it is what bought my people out there, so I made the wooden frames to look like the ribs and added the wooden head to the frame aswell, the fur would be used to block the sun and keep the houses warm at night.

Thumbnails

I have started working on a few basic thumbnails, I find it quite nice getting them down in pen and ink first, and its very nice to see how small you can work in the space, something about photoshop makes me draw bigger than the space I have set, think because I can see it properly when I have it on pen and paper whereas I still struggle with sizing on photoshop.

I have put dots on the ones I like the most and these are the ones I am going to do in photoshop in larger form, then from those I think I will decide which three are the best and what ones will become my finished concept pieces.

Even though these look to me a little basic, I really like the market place one where it begins to show how the people socialise and barter. I was inspired by the shape of the Undead City in World of Warcraft, how each part had its own quarter with a bank in the middle, I thought this would work for a Citadel where four groups trade and socialise, each quarter thrives on its own but everyone comes together to trade in the centre.

Feelings at this current point in the 1st week.

In the brief on Monday the 5th we were asked to use this blog to record everything to do with the project, and that included our thoughts and feelings on it. I never really know how to get my thoughts out in lectures even though I should, I know there is never really a wrong question or answer in Uni as we are all here to learn. I will write down what I am enjoying most in the first week and where I need to improve, and I will be honest with myself here .... there is not point in lying to myself after all!

*Insert motivitational image here*

Current Strengths.

• I am enjoying the research into Lionhead and the artstyle they have. Thankfully having a well known game to research means I haven't struggled to find images for my mood boards and I have plenty of colour palettes to choose from and replicate.
• I am really enjoying researching different cultures and biomes, with my other project I was working from an idea I already had, this time I am doing everything from scratch which means I am not already tied to an existing idea and this means I get to look into things I have never heard of before. Particularly the Inuit side of things.
• I am finding it easier to blog, I used to feel it was kind of a hindrance and I kept thinking who on Earth would want to read this stuff apart from the tutors, but this term it feels different, maybe its the doing it so often that I don't lose the rhythm of blogging.
• I LEARNED HOW TO WORK ALCHEMY, after a year of trying I discovered how to work the magic of this random bloody program, it's such an awesome way to get things down quickly and I've always been envious of those who can do such amazing stuff using it. With a bit more practise I will get there, I think I will be doing all of my landscapes with this before taking them into photoshop. its such a fluid way of working but you can barely control it, you don't get bogged down in thinking 'why doesn't this look like this yet'.

 Where can I improve?

• I thought I would be able to stick better to a routine, I wrote down what I should have done by now and I am still at the research point, it's not a massive problem as I kind of know where I want to be and what I want to do, but its just sticking to the schedule as I am still very easily lead away and prone to procrastination.
• My tutor noticed I was spending too much time researching people and biomes when I should probably be doing the environments more, I agree with this, I do want to explore people in the landscape but I should probably not spend as much time as I have on them. I will now only look at certain weather conditions as mentioned in the lecture (summer, winter autumn), especially the winter side, I've never painted snow and I'm guessing it will be a bit more complicted than just sticking white blobs on the painting.
• Believing in myself. I'm still worrying about silly things, I'm not even sure I should be blogging these kinds of feelings but they affect my work so I guess its better down here than in my head. I have mentioned before that I was struggling with this, it is getting better but it's just that niggling thought that I won't do anything good, my tutor also mentioned to me that even if our work wasn't great, it was the process that we took getting there that would be accounted. That helped a lot with me panicking about my skills.

I think that's about all I can think about this early into the project, I will write another one of these next week and see where I have improved and what new things I can work on in the future.

*Insert more motivitational images here*

Moodboards for Characters and Environments.

A collection of mood boards covering.

• Clothing
• Environments
• Colour Studies
• Fable Concept Art

Clothing.

Environments.

Colour Palette.

Fable Concept Art.

Initial Sketches and little bit of research.

At this point I am just doodling some ideas down.

With the idea for the skeleton I was thinking of the giant Mythosaur skeleton from Star Wars,to quote Wookieepedia

Mythosaurs were a species of animal native to the Outer Rim world of Mandalore. Enormous in size, the mythosaurs dominated their world until the arrival of the Mandalorian Taung, led by the warrior known as Mandalore the First. In a campaign to conquer the world for their own, Mandalore the First and his crusaders slaughtered the gigantic beasts and drove them to extinction. The skull of the mythosaur became the symbol of the Mand'alor—the traditional ruler of all the Mandalorian clans—the planet Mandalore, and of the Mandalorians themselves for generations after.

I really love the idea of the skull of a Mythosaur being a symbol for the people, there was also the famed 'City of Bone' which was a failed Mandalorian Theme Park. I also like the idea of people using a skeleton for some purpose, like I would love for my people to have gathered to this skeleton for some weird religious reasoning. They all end up and build a citadel underneath the skeleton because even though they all have different ideas of what the 'God' is they all understand it has the same purpose for all of them so less fighting ..... more praying!

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/City_of_Bone

Maybe use weird animals?

Picking my four factions.

Looking back to the Art Test brief it says ...

I want my factions to be very distinct, as if they have all come together because of a shared interest, but they are all very different. I think I will use Religion or some form of Religious belief that draws these four groups of people in even though they are all very different there is a common interest that keeps them all social enough to share a citadel together.

My first choice I found was through a random google search where I found this skull, this lead me on to find a race of people called Mixtec. I had never heard of them before so as with most things I went to Wikipedia

"The Mixtec /ˈmiːʃtɛk/, or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca, which covers parts of the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla. The Mixtec region and the Mixtec peoples are traditionally divided into highland Mixtecs or mixteca alta in northeast Guerrero and western Oaxaca, and Lowland Mixtecs or mixteca baja northwest Oaxaca and southwest Puebla and Coastal Mixtecs inhabiting the pacific slope of southern Oaxaca and Guerrero. The Mixtecan languages form a major branch of the Otomanguean language family. In precolumbian times, a number of Mixtecan city states competed with each other and with the Zapotec kingdoms. The major Mixtec polity was Tututepec which rose to prominence in the 11th century under the leadership of Eight Deer Jaguar Claw - the only Mixtec king to ever unite the Highland and Lowland polities into a single state. Like the rest of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, the Mixtec were conquered by the Spanish invaders and their indigenous allies in the 16th century. Pre-Columbia their numbered 1.5 million Mixtecs. Today there are approximately 800,000 Mixtec people in Mexico, and there are also large populations in the United States

The term Mixtec (Mixteco in Spanish) comes from the Nahuatl word mixtecah [miʃˈtekaʔ], "cloud people" . There are many names that the Mixtecs use for naming themselves: ñuù savi, nayívi savi, ñuù davi, nayivi davi etc. This all denominations can be translated as 'people of the rain'."  Wikipedia, (2015). Mixtec. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixtec [Accessed 7 Jan. 2015].

To me I would love to use the skulls as some form of helmet, the name of the people translating to 'Cloud People' makes me want to have them as some form of mountain living people, as if they decended from the clouds due to some Religious reason. The Mesoamerican art style is very unique to its continent and could present a challenge adapting it to the Fable art style.The jewellery and clothing that comes from these people could be something that could be traded to the other factions in the marketplace and created at a forge.

I want to pick cultures that are very different. I would love to have peoples from various hot and cold climates, with the Mesoamerican culture its in a hot climate so naturally my instinct is to now head up to where it is cold and I instantly think of Inuit culture. I think of them travelling down to find some giant God and meeting with the other people.

"Inuit describes the various groups of indigenous peoples who live throughout Inuit Nunangat, that is the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut of Northern Canada, Nunavik in Quebec and Nunatsiavut in Labrador, as well as in Greenland. The term culture of the Inuit, therefore, refers primarily to these areas; however, parallels to other Eskimo groups can also be drawn.
The traditional lifestyle of the Inuit is adapted to extreme climatic conditions; their essential skills for survival are hunting and trapping. Agriculture was never possible in the millions of square kilometres of tundra and icy coasts from Siberia to Northern America and Greenland. Therefore, hunting became the core of the culture and cultural history of the Inuit. Thus, the everyday life in modern Inuit settlements, established only some decades ago, still reflects the 5,000-year-long history of a typical hunting culture which allowed the Inuit peoples and their ancestors to achieve one of the most remarkable human accomplishments, the population of the Arctic." Wikipedia, (2015). Inuit culture. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_culture [Accessed 7 Jan. 2015].

Back to warmer climates again, I had an idea about doing an Arabian style culture, mainly because of this image, it's a little cliche but I've always enjoyed this style of costume due to over exposure to Aladdin at a young age (I blame the parents).

There are so many aspects to the culture of the Middle East that I will have to have a think about which one I pin down. There are cultures in Fable Three that live in the desert so I will have to be careful about using a style that is already prevalent. For now I will just do general research on the Middle East before I chose what culture I want to choose.

"Arab culture refers to the culture in the countries in which the official language is Arabic (although the Arabic language in some of them is the language of minority), and the west officials and scholars used to call them "Arab countries" of Western Asia and North Africa, from Morocco to the Arabian Sea. Language, literature, gastronomy, art, architecture, music, spirituality, philosophy, mysticism (etc.) are all part of the cultural heritage of the pan-Arab world.
The Arab world is sometimes divided into separate regions including Nile Valley (consisting of Egypt and Sudan), Al-Maghrib Al-Arabi (consisting of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania), Fertile Crescent (consisting of Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan) and the Arabian Peninsula (consisting of Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE) and the Arabian Peninsula's Al-Janoub Al-Arabi (consisting of Yemen and Oman).
The Arab Culture is divided into three main parts, the Urban Culture (Al-Mudun), the Rural Culture (Ar-Reef), and the Nomad Culture (Al-Badow). Typically, most of the Gulf countries along with parts of Jordan and Iraq are considered Badow (Bedouins). Other countries' countrysides such as Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Algeria and Tunisia are considered Rural Cultures. Their cities are considered to be Urban Cultures. In fact, most of the Arab Major Cities are recognized with Urban Cultures, like Jaffa (pre-Israel), Cairo, Jerusalem, Beirut, Rabat, Baghdad, Alexandria, Damascus, Marrakech, etc... The Levant, particularly Palestine, Lebanon, Syria as well as Egypt are known to have a long Urban Culture history."

This means I could choose from Egypt as an option, the use of several Gods in their ancient Religion could help me if I wanted to use Religion as a way of drawing these people in together.

My final culture I would like to feature some kind of swampy environment, people used to living in a swampy land. First people that come to my mind are the people of Louisiana, Cajuns. The temperature would be muggy and people would adapt to it. I found it very difficult to find information about old timey Cajun clothing and living so I will have to change this faction for something different. I will change it for something like China, it has a style that is very different than the others so it will blend in nicely.

"The history of China goes back to the ancient civilization – one of the world's earliest – that flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, known as dynasties, beginning with the semi-mythological Xia of the Yellow River basin (c. 2000 BCE). Since 221 BCE, when the Qin Dynasty first conquered several states to form a Chinese empire, the country has expanded, fractured and been reformed numerous times. The Republic of China (ROC) overthrew the last dynasty in 1911, and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949. After the defeat of the Empire of Japan in World War II, the Communist Party defeated the nationalist Kuomintang in mainland China and established the People's Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, while the Kuomintang relocated the ROC government to its present capital of Taipei.
China had the largest and most complex economy in the world for most of the past two thousand years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China has become one of the world's fastest-growing major economies. As of 2013, it is the world's second-largest economy by both nominal total GDP and purchasing power parity (PPP), and is also the world's largest exporter and importer of goods. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army, with the second-largest defence budget. The PRC has been a United Nations member since 1971, when it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council." Wikipedia, (2015). China. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China [Accessed 9 Jan. 2015]

I'm not sure how I will get all these cultures to work but with further research I will make it work. Next step is to gather images for mood boards, and do a bit more research into these cultures, will probably make a post about each of them after I have finished gathering images.

Researching Lionhead the Company

I have decided to stick with the Art Test I have been most thinking about, which was Concept Pre-Visualisation. Out of the ones I was maybe thinking about this was the one that most stuck in my mind and made me exciting thinking about what I could draw, it would also help me work on my weaknesses with environments and allows me to play to my strengths which is my imagination.

Here is my own timetable set by myself, I think it gives me a decent amount of time between each stage of the process.

WEEK ONE

• Research Lionhead Studios
• Collect Research
• Make Mood Boards
• Sketch Ideas
• Create Thumbnails
• Do Colour Studies

WEEK TWO

• Start Basic Iteration
• Think Up Costume Ideas
• General Concepting
• Come Up With Ideas For Final Pieces

WEEK THREE

• Start Final Images
• Finish Everything Off.

To start this I will do my research on the Game Studio, although I have done previous work based around the fable games, I didn't really look into the Studio or really try to emulate the style they use.

"Lionhead Studios is a British video game developer, formerly led by Peter Molyneux. It was acquired by Microsoft Studios in April 2006. Lionhead started as a breakaway from the developer Bullfrog, which was also founded by Molyneux. Lionhead's first game was Black & White, a god game with elements of artificial life and strategy games. Black & White was published by Electronic Arts in 2001. Lionhead Studios is named after Mark Webley's hamster, which died not long after the naming of the studio.
Black and White was followed up with the release of an expansion pack named Black & White: Creature Isle.

Lionhead then released the popular Fable, from satellite developer Big Blue Box. In 2005, Lionhead released The Movies and Black & White 2. On 6 April 2006, it was announced that Lionhead Studios was to be purchased by Microsoft. Their most recent game to be released is the HD remake of Fable, Fable Anniversary, which was released on the 4th of February 2014. Lionhead was a privately held company until October 2004 (shortly before the suspension of B.C.) when a consortium of investors, including Ingenious Ventures, IDG Ventures Europe, and technology firm Add Partners, made a significant investment into the developer.

This at a time when the company was in severe financial straits, as they had overrun development on two projects, Black & White 2 and Fable, and also canceled B.C. and a project with Jeff Minter named Unity. Between September 2005 and April 2006, Lionhead successfully released two titles, Black & White 2 and The Movies, as well as an updated version of Fable (entitled Fable: The Lost Chapters). These titles did not achieve a massive impact in sales, and this left the company vulnerable to a takeover bid.

In April 2006 Lionhead Studios was acquired by Microsoft, signalling the end of independent development, and a focus on Microsoft's proprietary gaming platforms. Lionhead is a fairly independent part of Microsoft Studios, which has also acquired Rare Ltd. and Bungie Studios (Bungie Studios became an independent studio in late 2007, shortly after the release of Halo 3)." Wikipedia, (2015). Lionhead Studios. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionhead_Studios [Accessed 7 Jan. 2015].

 Here is a list of the games they have made/plan to make.

The Studio creates very stylised games that you can easily recognise as their games, the Fable series in particular is styled in a very 'yee olde' style with a very English flare as far as the landscape and comedy goes, as the Studio is located in Guildford the team took design influences from the location and building around them they feature prominent British celebrities to voice their characters in game, such as Ben Kingsley, Stephen Fry, Simon Pegg, Naomie Harris, Zoë Wanamaker, Bernard Hill, Nicholas Hoult and John Cleese. The art style is quite whimsicle, with soft colours that remind me of the old Constable or Turner paintings. Their characters are fairly cartoon-like and not realistic.
          Lionhead.com, (2015). About Us - Lionhead. [online] Available at: http://www.lionhead.com/the-studio/about-us/ [Accessed 7 Jan. 2015].

Researching Art Tests

Just a post where I plop research into art tests, listing some faqs and such .... just a random lot of research.

I’ve been asked to do an art test, and I’m afraid that I’m giving this company a free model or texture they can use in their game. That’s always a possibility. But most likely the test they give you will require more work than what they are doing now. I suggest that you put the finished work on your website, as this would make for a great portfolio piece. It’s not worth fighting the company or accusing them of such things. Art tests are meant to be challenging, and in some cases, can be a lot of fun. Just make sure you show the proper amount of respect and they will show you the same. If you’re lucky and the company isn’t busy they will offer feedback on your test so that you can improve you skills. Better yet, they hire you! This brings up another question: why do an art test? Basically it shows the art team what you’re capable of in a specific amount of time. In most cases you will be asked to keep track of the time spent on the test and provide that information when you’re done. The art test also shows your range of abilities. If you are applying for a position that is greater than your current level of experience then an art test is usually warranted. It’s nothing personal against you, but if you only have 1 year of experience and one title shipped and the requirements for the job say 6 plus years with 3 titles shipped, they want to see if you have the amount of skill needed.

http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/threads/5970-Art-Test-Master-List/page3?s=f0b2109fb1ef929d828828567065e633 - website listing various art tests.

Useful tips from - http://www.jonjones.com/2013/06/24/art-test-tips-twitterblast/

ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #1: NEVER be afraid to ask questions. It’s expected! However, a) DON’T ask just to seem clever, and b) DO try to ask them all at once.
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #2: Follow directions precisely. You’d be astonished how often this DOESN’T happen, and it’s completely avoidable.
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #3: We give directions, but also read between the lines at what isn’t said to add extra polish.
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #4: Be tidy. It’s as technical as it is artistic. Tidy outliner, clean object and filenaming, organized layer groups in the PSD, etc.
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #5: Be on time. If you’re going to be late, acknowledge it the *INSTANT* you know you will be late, and politely propose a new date.
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #6: Log your time and be honest about it.
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #7: Overdeliver, within reason. “Is there a way to jazz this up a little within my creative, time, and tech constraints?”
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #8: Unless they say otherwise, assume the art assets are meant for a realtime game. Construct the assets accordingly.
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #9: When submitting, always send a separate confirmation email. FTP uploads don’t notify, and large email attachments sometimes bounce.
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #10: Think hard about how you distribute detail with polygons and texture. This says a lot about how you think.
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #11: Make sure the zipped art test contains ONLY the files needed, not dozens of extra directories or files (.mayaswatches, I’m looking at you).
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #12: If you’re asked to provide diffuse, normal, and spec maps… don’t randomly just not use them and not explain why.
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #13: Don’t include files with random names like “SomethingWhatever.tga” or “DammitPleaseWork.jpg” or “OwlsWithDiarrhea.ma”
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #14: DON’T PUT ART TESTS IN YOUR PORTFOLIO! a) It means you failed the test, and b) I’ve already seen 50 other people do that one, and probably better.
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #15: Ask your friends to look over your work. Be willing to accept criticism. Don’t make people wonder “did he even look at the reference?”
ARTISTS! Art Test Tip #16: Don’t let your own self-doubt keep you from finishing or submitting. It’s their job to evaluate you, not yours. Stay strong.

Lots of stuff to keep me going here :3


 

Choosing my first Art Test

Today we were given the choices for what style of Art Test we were going to do for the next three weeks, These were the options. I will write how I feel concerning the subject and what strengths/weaknesses I have with them underneath each one.

3D Environment Artist - I really like the idea of this one, I enjoyed making a 3D environment in the last project and I found that using Maya really helped me understand how I can use my knowledge to just about make everything I needed, however my main weakness here would be the texturing, for my third project I had such a bad time with the texturing because there is still so much I don't know about it, I think I am stopping myself from going back there because it put me in a bad place. However one possible career I was thinking for myself would be some kind of 3D environment artist, so at some point this will be something I will have to overcome, we do get to choose two so I think if this option comes up again this will be my second art test. Another weakness for this is that I have never played any Half-Life games (shock and horror, I know!) and I've only played a few Valve games, so I would have to do a LOT of research into the company and the games made in this style.

3D Character Artist - This option was another thing I was thinking about, like the 3D environment artist is all goes down to my weakness with texturing and as this was said to be the more difficult one I will give this a pass, I know I wouldn't have the skill level for this and I don't think of this as being in a career I would want to do. Looks interesting but cause me more harm than good, at some point I will have a go at this as we can do these in our spare time, but for marked work, its not for me, I've never played (or heard) of this game so that would be another thing to look at.

Character Concept Artist - This was another maybe, I really liked the look of the Speed ball art already and could think of so many ideas, I would say my main strength is my imagination, my weakness with 2D work is my lack of knowledge with colour usage in Photoshop which is why I would like to do a 2D art test as I want to push myself from what I learned during the Summer Project, I would really like to push my ability to do skin colour properly, however this test doesn't jump out at me as much.

Environment Concept Artist - Again this was a maybe but more-so than the character concept art, I like the idea of creating an image of something 30 years on, it gives a lot of ideas on what you could create, my weakness with this is again not knowing anything about Half Life, creating the two asset sheets would be fun though!

Concept Pre-Visualisation - This project is screaming the most out to me, I done a lot of research into Fable games for my last Project and I really love the artwork that comes out of Lionhead Studios (being one of the companies I would LOVE to work for in the future as well as Blizzard) I would love another chance to have a look at Fable, not just the game but the company as well. This plays to my strengths too, being able to create what is asked for here, creating 4 factions and a place for them to be would be amazing. My big weakness here is my ability to draw and understand composition with environments and keeping my mind clear, as I've looked at this art style before I had to keep my brain steered away from everything I've already done. I find it very difficult to steer away from things already in my head. It would also give me a chance to do a test similar to what we done for our very first project, looking back I done so many things wrong and I would love to see what I have learnt since then!

UI Designer - UI really holds no appeal to me, if I had to do something like this I do like the idea of making a game layout look nice and be useable, but I know nothing about UI creation, I know nothing about how to go around it ... this is a no from me. There are too many weaknesses here for me to make something good out of it.

Games Designer - And this one is a no as well, being wordy is not my strength at all, also this having no specific company or project related to the test would make this a big vague for my liking, plus I would have to think of 20 games .... and I have the worst memory!

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So overall my choices so far seem to be Concept Pre-Visualisation, 3D Environment Artist and Environment Concept Artist. I am more drawn to the concept pre-visualisation than the others as I feel I can do more with this.