Unit 10 – Evaluation

Final Evaluation for Unit 10 – ’Lost and Found’                                                                                         

For the secondary research that I have gathered in this unit I have created some mood boards on Pinterest to gather some basic ideas together and I did this for the characters and environments that were similar to the things I wanted to create. Other secondary research that I gathered was from reading books that we had in our cupboard. For primary research I took some pictures of old and new houses to see how to create the background and I documented all this information on my blog. By using the photos and books that I read I created more accurate buildings to show how an abandoned house would look. The min designer that I looked at was Philippe Morin who was one of the level designers for Outlast which has a similar background to one I wanted to create. So I looked at how he designed the haunted asylum and village in Outlast 2. In these backgrounds that he created the lighting that he used makes the scene scarier and most of the environment is dark and has little light which I also did in my final outcome.

One of the problems that I encountered whilst doing this project was when I was trying different colours to use for my background. I wanted to do the colours dark because there won’t be any light in the scene except from a flashlight. Also, because there were a lot of wooden planks in the scene I had to use colours that compliment brown, and to adjust the brightness problem I just used the brightness effect on each layer. Another problem that I had with the background was that I couldn’t get the perspective right so I had to try different angles out. Another problem that I had was getting the proportions right on the antagonist that I drew as I wanted him to be quite toned, to fix this I used a book that we had in the cupboard which shows how to draw each different body part.

For some of the planning I wrote down some tasks on post-it notes which I needed to complete, I did this so every time I opened up my folder I knew I had so goals I needed to complete. When I was working at home I had reminders set on my phone to tell me what tasks I had to do. I have put screenshots of the reminders on my phone on my blog and wrote some annotations to go with them. For timescale I could have planned my project out a little better as I finished most of my final outcomes with a few days left so I could have left some days near the end if anything ever went wrong. Whilst using my blog I wrote what I needed and planned to do on some of the posts like the character and environment design so I know what I needed to do.

In my project I didn’t really try different practical techniques as I just did drawings and tried some painting out but it didn’t go well. For drawing I did all the sketches and initial ideas on paper and then finalised the idea and put all the colour and shadows on in Photoshop. In my ideas I tried out different colours and blending for each character and the environment to test out what fit the project best. For my background I tried out different colours which would work well with brown as there were lots of wood elements in my background. When drawing the wooden planks in my project I used a thin line throughout the wood plank to give them texture and I gave them slight cracks to show that they had been there for a long time.

On my blog I posted my designs throughout the project and in the posts I critiqued my work saying what I could’ve done to improve the piece, also whilst I was working I had my peers help me by saying what I could’ve improved on especially on the anatomy and proportions of the body as I struggle with this. I changed a few ideas and poses based on what me and my peers thought about how it looked mainly for the antagonist of my story as the changed a lot throughout the project. If I as going to to do this project again

I would spend less time on the character and environment designs because I took too long on them always trying something new. I would also get more primary research as I didn’t have too much to go off like buildings and the body,

I have tried to achieve a high level of presentation in my work by sorting all of my work in my folder into a specific order so anyone can pick it up and know what is happening and on the pieces of work that I have done I have tried to make them as neat as possible so they look aesthetically pleasing. On my blog I have used good quality photos of my work and when annotating the work I have not just done one word sentences as I went into detail about what I wanted to do next.

Unit 10 – Shadow design

For the design of my shadow character I wanted to draw a character that somewhat looks humanoid but has extended limbs and because he is a shadow is black but with white glowing eyes.

I first tried the character with a straight outline around the character but I thought the sketchy aspect would suit the character better to make him look more like a monster. For the eyes I wanted them to be pure white but glowing and I did this effect i nphotoshop with the outer glow effect and when the character is placed in a dark background the eyes really stand out.

Unit 10 – Final animation assets

This is the design that I used for the flashlight. For the main body of the flashlight I looked at some designs online and then drew my own out in Photoshop. For the light effect I used the brush tool and set the hardness to low and same for the opacity so the background could come through simulating a light.

This is the final design for my environment. I created this in photoshop using the brush tool and shape tool to create the straight lines. For the colours all the wood sections are all brown so for the walls and curtain I wanted to use the opposite colour of brown which is purple. But because this is meant to be a horror game I needed to make the scene darker and I did this by going into image, adjustment and then brightness to make the scene dark.

Unit 10 – Final Outcome

For my final outcome I had to create a gif which was instructed in the brief. A gif only has to be a few seconds long that’s why I only decided to only do one scene which involved the character lifting and turning on a flashlight then a monster appearing as a shadow in front of him. To create the gif I used photoshop where I put all the assets into the background and just turned off if you could see certain layers to make the animation.

For the sound aspect I went online and downloaded free sound effects and went into an app called Sony Vegas to edit the video and put the sound effects that I downloaded into the video.

Unit 10 – Character Design

This is the final design for the main antagonist in my unit 10 project. The main character is a blind samurai who was killed in battle by his own commander and therefore remained a spirit because of his thirst for revenge. The blue fire on the left shoulder and left-hand side of the face is to show that he has the mark of being a spirit. For more annotation read the sheet above.

This is the final design of my main character for my Unit 10 project who is a teenage boy who finds his way to an abandoned house and has to find his way out. He wears a simple pair of black jeans and shoes and a dark blue hoodie. Fir more info read theres annotation on the sheet.

Unit 10 – Environment Design

This is first iteration for my environment design where I wanted to do a very linear design using dark colours to make the hall look more scary and threatening.

The second and final iteration of my environment deign is a wider hallway with one window on the left wall, a rug on the floor and a door leading to the exit at the end of the hallway. For more info read the sheet above.

This is the final design for my background with is a digital version of the drawing above.

Unit 10 – Similar Games

For some of my research i had to look at similar games to how I want my game to be played and created.

Outlast has similar game mechanics to mine as the player only has light from surroundings and the night vision in his camera. Some other similar mechanics is that your are making your way through a mental asylum trying to work out the secret of what happened. This game also has the same genre which is a horror game as there is always something chasing but you don’t know where it is.

The second game that is similar to mine project is Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, the main concept of the game is that your wife has been captured and sends you a video message telling you to come find her. The similar things about this and my game is that they’re both horror games and that most of the story revolves around one specific abandoned house.

The third game that has similar aspects to my game is Alien Isolation, the main concept to this game is that you are part of the Nestromo crew and an alien has infiltrated the ship and is going around killing the crew members. The similar aspects are the horror and tension that both games have as you know something is there and is a danger and you need to escape or get to safety.

Unit 10 – Research

This is one of the Pinterest boards for my unit 10 work which is inspiring my environment work . For the main environment of my project I want the design to be all dark colours but with the only light coming from a torch the player is holding.

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This is some first person research for my unit 10 project where I needed sone perspective for a hallway so I used my own house as reference.

For the environment design I looked at Philippe Morin who was the level designer for the game Outlast. I used him and the game as reference because he created a very scary abandoned mental asylum. He achieved this by the lighting with was very dark throughout the game and how the building was in pieces and broken. Outlast 2 uses the same techniques as the first but relates to my project more as the game is located in a village with broken houses and churches with the game being set at night.