Today I began brainstorming ideas for my Final Major Project. I started this process by creating mind maps. The first mind map I put together explored the types of media. I asked myself the four key types of media, I decided that those were; Film, Television, Digital and Games. Once I had chosen these four I looked into them further creating a mindmap on all the things which brand off of these key points.
Once this had been created. I started to consider which categories would be more appropriate for my Final Major Project. Taking into account, Genre, Platform, Narrative, Design. Its important to note that I use design as a very broad term. Ranging from the overall look of a product to its function. ( Does it function how I had planned it to do so?)
One the main things I took away from creating this specific mind map is all the different types of genre and style I can experiment with and explore, I can use the ideas written here when I start completing the Design Documents.
31.03.21:
Today I’m going to fill out and complete the Design Documents. It explores the opportunities for creating a Sci-Fi fantasy environment, allowing me to work with no creative restrictions.
I confirm that the attached assessment is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself and sources have been appropriately referenced.
Finlay Mander
Entry level position selected: Full-time Junior 3D Artist
I began to look for junior entry level positions in the 3D industry, entry level positions are great for progressing further in the industry as they provide good experience and give an idea of what working in the industry is like. I came across a junior 3D artistic role at Hidden Creative Ltd. This position at Hidden Creative was “seeking a talented junior 3D artist that is capable of creating stunning high-quality hard surface high poly/low poly modelling.”
This entry level position had set requirements and responsibilities.
Key Job Responsibilities:
Modelling from image reference and CAD data
Creating tileable and mapped textures
Rigging for animation
Animation
Gathering reference for asset creation
UV unwrapping for texture and baked UV set
Key Candidate Requirements:
Proficient in Maya
Proficient in Photoshop or other design software
Proficient in Substance Painter
Proficient with rendering tools and fundamentals, (V-Ray)
Ability to create realistic and detailed textures
Ability to model and texture complex low-resolution scenes
Ability to model high resolution geometry for surface transfer
Understanding of character creation processes and Animation fundamentals
Good sense of scale, lighting and materials
Ability to create full scale believable environments
Generate and modify models based on engineering and industrial design specs
Strong sense of optimization working with varied technical constraints
Demonstrate creativity, adaptability to different project requirements
It would be advantageous to have skills in concept drawing, story-boarding
Positive attitude towards learning new skills and techniques
Application:
I had to apply through LinkedIn which gave me a Candidate Applicant Form to fill in. I wrote the application from the point of view that I had finished the games and interactive course at University, so that I had another qualification to include. Since currently going to University is my plan of action next year.
After filling in this information I had to attach a resume (CV) which I created using online tools. I used (cvmaker.uk) although I couldn’t download the CV file as it was behind a paywall.
I confirm that the attached assessment is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself and sources have been appropriately referenced.
Finlay Mander
PART 1:
After deciding on what I wanted to create I began by making mind maps based on the environment from Mad Max films. I started to look at screenshots from Mad Max Fury Road films. Whilst l was doing this I was taking notes and screenshots of the colours to eventually build up a bank of the colour schemes from the film and how the different environment sets were built up. After going into further detail I got a good understanding on how the film sets were created and the extra details they add, such as crates, ruined buildings, rubbish etc. The core of the Mad Max franchise is its is a post-apocalyptic action. I wanted to capture the post-apocalyptic theme in my work as building and texturing assets this way allow me to be creative and make my own version of an abandoned environment scene that could’ve been from the one of the films. I believe that the post apocalyptic themed desert was captured well in my work. Since by just watching the production video I created for the participants from the survey. They were able to link my work with other video games, which share similar themes. They linked it to western video game levels and games featured in an abandoned cities. During the planning stage I created a sketch to experiment with buildings becoming abandoned and overgrown. This was a useful exercise since it helped me vision how something can breakdown and become decrepit and gave me inspiration on adding details to a scene.
During the planning stage I was going over screenshots from the film and other pieces of artwork I found online and on DVD covers, I did this to decide upon a colour scheme and intended to stick to it as planned. I knew that it was important to do this since it would keep my work consistent and allow me to keep to my original theme of a post-apocalyptic desert. I quickly learned that this was the right choice to make since I would be creating my assets over a multiple days but keeping a colour scheme helped my work stay in unity with each other and made transferring it all into one scene a easy process. I suppose that if I hadn’t planned ahead I would’ve ended up losing out on a lot of time.
I also saw the benefit of doing sticking to a colour scheme in my feedback. In my survey I asked if “The colors in the environment work well together” and the response I got to this was overwhelmingly positive, having an appeasing environment is very important as the participants who dont have experience in modelling will notice bad, unlatching textures first over bad craftsmanship in 3D models. In hindsight I think that giving yourself a rule such as “I’m going to stick to this colour pallet” or “I only want to use natural colours”. Will help me keep my work at the best of its ability, making it look professional and stay organised.
My environment needed to be visually stunning, which is why before being allowed to start my survey I asked the participants to watch the video I had created. After the participants had viewed the video I asked them to rate the overall quality of the models out of five stars. On average this score came in at four and a half stars, I couldn’t of asked for much better really as its really important that the work was visually impressive. However, there is always room for improvement, hence why at the end of the survey I asked the participants to write any other comments they have on the visuals of the product. There were two notable comments that were similar to each other and constructive towards the outcome of my renders. One of the participants suggested that my renders have more lighting angles and shadowing. Another participant asked that I try and create more realistic shadows.
This kind of constructive criticism is why I learned that getting feedback is really key. Since its hard to be critical on yourself after spending so long on something getting different point of views can still find room for improvement. Now that I’ve been made aware of where I can improve.I’m going to work on making strides in my abilities with the lighting tools inside blender, since they have endless opportunities.
Once I had created my scene I ultimately wanted my work to be fit for purpose and to be at a standard where it could be used as promotional renders for an upcoming game on a digital marketplace. The reason why I wanted to focus advertising on a digital market place as they are becoming increasingly popular recently. In my survey I asked the participants if my work could be used for promoting a game on steam ( the most popular and successful digital marketplace for PC games and software) to which 100% of the participants selected ‘Yes’. Next I asked the same participants if they believed that they product would be fit for advertising purpose, again 100% of them selected ‘Yes.’
PART 2:
Learning Blender and getting confidence with it:
When I first began this project I had little not no experience with using Blender, previously I used Cinema4D for all of my 3D modelling and texturing so I was aware that making the change to blender would come with its difficulties. I overcame these challenges by applying myself in my free time to watch tutorials on YouTube and challenged myself by making smaller low poly models. For one of these challenges I created my a model of my desk and everything on it. Although these were quite simple tasks in the early stages it gave me the confidence to start planning what my first 3D asset was going to be.
Research and Planning:
After I had decided on what I was going to create I first compiled a group of reference images of barrels, this was going to help me with how to texture them and to what scale I had to make everything. After going through this extended planning period I realized that this was going to be the most efficient way to model, and for quite a few reasons; Finding multiple reference images allowed me to see how the texture of the barrel worked in the background and what didn’t, this is evident in some of my earlier work when I did my first render of the barrels on a mossy overgrown background instead of the brick wall 3D texture I ended up settling for. Another reason why doing ‘extra’ planning was important is because it allowed me to have a bank of resources to reference from, aiding me to keep on track and stay organised. Because I was going to be doing a lot of modelling and texturing a short time frame, being able to take a break and plan out what I’m doing next was a nice mental reset and allowed me to not burn out.
The use of Feedback via Anonymous Surveys:
Before taking on this task, I had never really seen the important in getting feedback from anyone but my tutors. However, since I posted my survey in a digital art feedback discord server its shown me that honest criticism from others can allow you to improve at a higher rate than just noticing your mistakes yourself. The survey was also useful for allowing credit to be-given where due and was a nice confidence booster.
As I mentioned previously in Task one, its easy to become blinded from your own mistakes when you spent so long working on something or you chose to ignore them. This is one of the advantages of having your work looked at from someone else’s point of view. Although the survey was mostly positive it didn’t mean that there wasn’t anything to take away from it. At the end of the survey when I left a comment box and asked the participants to give me feedback on the visuals of my product. There were two comments that were on similar lines as each other, both mentioned improvements that could be made to my project during the rendering stage. This was for me to add more lighting angles and shadows. I’ve taken this into account and have realized the missed potential that I could’ve been getting out of the lighting tools on blender. As before, when I taught myself the basics of modelling, I now want to go back onto YouTube and experiment with lighting techniques inside of Blender.
I confirm that the attached assessment is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself and sources have been appropriately referenced.
Finlay Mander
25.02.2021: I created a feedback survey on freeonlinesurveys.com and have posted it into a digital art feedback discord server as this way the feedback is non bias but it also meets the appropriate target audience. I’m going to leave it a week and then check the feedback from it.
Product feedback survey.
The feedback I got was from a discord server I found advertised online, the server had text channels for getting feedback from different types of digital art. I asked if they would mind completing a survey for my school work, which they agreed to. A week later, a total of 6 people had taken part in the survey.
Before anyone was took part in the survey I asked them to watch a YouTube video I put together, which showed the renders of the finished product. The video can be found here: https://youtu.be/aerJdU4sOEs .
Once the participants had watched the video I put together highlighting my product, they were first asked to display their overall thoughts on the quality of my product through a five star rating. Out of the six participants the average rating was 4.5/5.
The second question I wanted to find out was if the colour schemes I created during my planning stage worked well in the product. I asked the participants the following statement “The colors in the environment work well together”. To find out what people thought, I used a bar chart to get a visual representation of this. As you can see on average the rating was 7.83/10. Showing that everyone somewhat agreed to the statement, some more than others.
Next I was interested in finding out what people thought of my skills and abilities when it comes to modelling and texturing assets. I did this by using two different pie charts. One for the models themselves and another for their textures.
This kind of response is what I was hoping for. Ideally I would’ve liked six out of six on both but it shows that modelling is my stronger skill and that there is room for improvement when it comes to me texturing the models to make them all work well together in a scene.
I was interested to find out if people could identify the theme of the product just from the short promotional render video I created. This was important as I hoped to display a 21st century post apocalyptic desert environment. In my feedback I had mixed responses, although most of the answers where on the right track. For instance, ‘abandoned city’,’maps of western video games’ and ‘video game sub-contexts’. It was interesting to see how different people interpreted my products theme whilst staying on the same line as each other.
After this question I was interested to see if my environment reminded anyone of any particular franchise. Whether its a movie, game or book. The replies were really interesting, to have my desert theme environment compared to Red Dead Redemption was really rewarding since I had looked at that games promotional art a lot on ArtStation and took inspiration from the assets used in that game to help build up a scene.
I wanted my work to meet the right criteria to be promoted and advertised. I asked the participants if the scene I had created could be used to promote an upcoming game. 100% of the participants agreed that the environment is at a standard to be advertised on steam (a digital market place).
Next I asked if my the promotional material I created for my product was fit for purpose. Again, 100% of participants agreed that it would be fit for purpose if advertised on a digital marketplace.
To end the survey, I wanted to make sure I could get as much feedback as possible.
The Participants
I wanted to out source the survey participants to avoid bias in the replies, this is why I looked online for a discord server for getting feedback on digital media. This way I could get honest, constructive responses from someone I dont personally know. From talking to them and looking around the other non English text channels on discord some of the survey participants are from all over the world, with some being from Russia, France and Spain. This is why I preferred to ask people from outside the classroom since it shows how a product could be perceived on a global level.
I confirm that the attached assessment is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself and sources have been appropriately referenced.
Finlay Mander
Types of marketing material:
Product brochures, a product brochure is a brochure used to promote or detail the features of a product.
Destination guides, a destination guide offers basic information or instruction on holidays and destinations. A tour package to Hawaii may be presented in the form of a destination guide.
Promotional fliers and leaflets, promotional fliers and leaflets are normally used to promote simple services. For instance, a transport service may promote itself by a one page leaflet that would outline schedules and costs.
Conference, programs and registration forms, conference, programs and registration forms are marking materials that promote a specific event. These type of marketing materials are usually made available only to interested parties. For instance, a conference for star wars fans.
Display materials, display materials are materials exhibited publicly, such as a Real Estate agency presenting a flyer of available houses or a board notifying the public of the sale of a property.
Product support manuals, product support manuals detail the use of a product. An international alarm clock may come with a reference guide that explains how it is used.
Advertising materials, advertising materials materials aiming to attract public attention to a product or business. Advertising materials come in many forms including print, television, via the internet, radio and billboards.
Electronically, electronic marketing material is produced by electronic means. A new hotel may be advertised by a virtual tour.
Websites, A web site is a set of interconnected Web pages, usually including a home page, prepared and maintained as a collection of information by a person, group, or organisation.
Radio, radio is the transmission of programs for the public by radio broadcast.
Before I can create any marketing for my product, I had to take a look at what work I produced on the target audience for the Mad Max franchise since visually my environment took inspiration from the Mad Max films.
Deciding marketing strategy
Since I am promoting an upcoming game through the screenshots of the environment I need to consider relevant promotion options. I’ve highlighted below a few of the potential marketing strategies.
Since I produced renders of my scene I feel as though it would be best if I promoted them as advertising materials to attract public attention for an upcoming game. Using this type of advertising, its important to chose websites which have good monthly traffic so that being on the trending tab has meaning and strengths, putting the work in front on everyone who visits the front page.
I did some research into finding out how I can measure how popular a website is or how many visitors a website gets each month or week. I used an online tool called https://app.neilpatel.com/ . This website allowed me to look at ArtStations organic monthly traffic and its monthly visitors. This information can be used as a way to understand how many people would see the art work uploaded for the up coming game whilst also being cost free.
The graph showcased 1 million visits in September 2020, then 1.1 million in October 2020, by November this number had increased by over a million, coming to a total of 2.3 million then flat lining at 2 million in December.
With these kind of numbers, advertising renders of environments for upcoming games is a great way to create a buzz about the game and start building a community/fanbase for it.
ArtStation also allows publishers to see how many views their work has accumulated, how many likes its received and also allows for people to comment on and share your work.
Likewise, promoting on other social outlets can be beneficial, however it attracts people from all different audiences, the problem with this is its rare on YouTube to see a reel of game environment renders being used as premature game promotion over using a teaser trailer. So if I were to upload a video compilation of my environment renders to YouTube, a place were this sort of video isn’t as likely to be promoted, talked about and positively perceived then I’m wasting my time. The reason for this is that people who are interested in the industry will use sites such as ArtStation to see the process behind the games, get inspiration and are genuinely interested in the industry or development company, where as YouTube is used differently.
This is evident in the views game trailers pull over videos highlighting environments and scenes of the same game on YouTube.
How Upcoming Games are Promoted on ArtStation.
A recently released game was Hitman 3 which came out on the 20th of January 2021 and a lot of promotional material for the scenes and environments of the game were uploaded to ArtStation. ArtStation – is the leading showcase platforms for games, films media & entertainment.
Hitman 3 showcase on ArtStation.
Since these are in essence just showcases of renders used to promote screenshots of in-game levels and points of interest. The type of marketing this falls under would be an advertising material displayed on a website. Since ArtStation has traffic from people who are primarily interested in the artistic side of games rather than just being a fan of a game. This unique traction held by ArtStation makes it one of the best places to promote upcoming games through this metric.
This type of promotional “art” doesn’t only serve the purpose of being used online, its entirely possible that this kind of simplistic game promotion could be used in public exhibits. For instance, at promotional event for Sony or Microsoft showcasing upcoming games. However, taking the state of the world right now into consideration digital advertising will be a lot predominate at the moment since conventions and events are postponed globally or held online in live streams digitally.
The advertisement on ArtStation can also gain traction my being on the trending tab or popular in certain categories at a given time.
Producing the right marketing for my environment:
With the examples I found for Hitman 3 there was the Hitman 3 logo in the corner, indicating what game the art is from.
From what I found on ArtStation it seems customary to have the logo of the game somewhere on the art work, so this is what I want to implement in my advertising.
First I needed to have a name for my ‘game’. To do this I went back over my mood boards that I created for inspiration in part 3 of this task. The dystopian future showed the desert as an empty life less place after a catastrophic event forcing everyone to leave. Creating an apocalypse. These kind of scenarios are known as “Doomsday” scenarios. So this is how I came up with the name for the game.
Although the logo appears basic, I feel as though in comparison to others it looks subtle and unimposing, not distracting the eye. I thought the nuclear explosion image was a nice touch as it ties into the theme of my game environment being post a ‘doomsday’ scenario.
I confirm that the attached assessment is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself and sources have been appropriately referenced.
Finlay Mander
ON THIS PAGE: I have shown the creative process, through mind mapping my ideas, creating mood boards and sketches. There is also a proposal. I also made sure to document key stages throughout the 3D modelling stages for my assets, including the finished product.
Chosen media activity: I plan to create a 3D environment by using clips/screenshots taken from the films so that i can create my own mad max experience through the render.
For my sketch I want to create something which shows a modern building or location before and after an event similar to the one which took place in the mad max movies.
I chose to use a photo realistic render of a gas station so that when i sketch over it it doesn’t look as weird as if i were to use a real life image. I wanted to show the effects that abandonment would have. Because the original scene is set in a desert environment i first googled the types of plants found in a desert.
For this sketch I used the images above as inspiration for my scene. I combined the flowers from bottom left and the vine/long stem plants from the top left and middle. I will refer to these images when i am building my scene as the different cacti could come in useful for creating a variety of vegetation.
Existing Examples:
Since I plan on creating a 3D environment I will be using already existing examples a lot, mainly for inspiration but also so that i can see what works and what doesn’t before I have already modeled my environment, this is important as I will save me a massive amount of time wasted on trial and error in the early stages.
So far I have been using ArtStation and Pinterest to find existing examples. I prefer art station however, since its more geared towards game design and 3D environment renders.
When I was browsing ArtStation I wanted to find work which incorporated ideas from my mood boards.
My proposal is to create a 3D post apocalyptic desert environment inspired by the Mad Max franchise. I will be using the resources such as ArtStation like i have previously, although the resources I created for myself during this task, the mood boards and sketch will come in handing when referencing so that I can stay on track with my work.
Plan: Take screenshots of the development progress, add notes to journal whilst doing so.
First model: Barrel
Reference images:
Modelling process:
Because I took so many screenshots whilst modelling I decided it would be better if i just compilied them into a video with the final render as the outcome.
After I finished modelling the barrel I decided that it would be good if i could create a scene using just the barrels, similar to how assets would be displayed in asset stores.
Second model: Brick wall
Reference images:
Once created and textured I want to use this model more for creating backgrounds for other models. For instance when I created my barrel models I used a free 2D texture for the background, so instead of that I want to create a 3D brick wall to use for backgrounds.
As I mentioned earlier this asset was doing to have multiple uses, I plan to turn the wall into a building by modelling both a window a door next.
Brick wall render
Initially I thought that getting this brick wall effect would’ve been achieved by me having to individually model each brick or having to use subdivision. However, because the textures I downloaded had the diffuse, displacement and normal texture. I was able to created the 3D effect using these and a displacement modifier.
Environment creation
The plan:
I want to turn the brick to create the side of building, then from this build the scene outwards.
Creating the building:
Reference images:
3rd model: window
Since I was going to be using at least two windows, this meant that I couldn’t just model 1 and then copy and paste them since in my reference images all of the windows are unique in their damage. If however, i was modelling a modern building, copy and pasting windows would’ve been a good way to speed up time.
After my first render I learned that when i copied the original window i missed out on half of the model, therefore i had to make a small change to them until they looked good, through trial and error in between renders.
The render seen at the end of this video isn’t the final product, Im planning to have a “background” behind the windows so that it appears like cracked glass, giving the windows some more depth and realism, since right now they look like the window panes have been removed which isn’t the final look im going for.
I’m happy with how the window frame sits inside of the brick, almost like the bricks were built around the window.
Next asset: Crate
Reference images:
For this, I wanted to build the crate out of separate textured models, using the rectangles like pieces of wood to build the crates from scratch.
First i modeled the 3 separate planks, shown here.
I then used the planks to build up the shape of a crate from my reference images. I wanted them to overlap to look as tho they had all be assembled individually.
Once I was happy with the outcome of the model, I put them in my environment scene and displayed them so that they looked ‘natural’.
When I was creating the scene to make the render of just the crates I was experimenting with lighting to make the background have good contrast against my models. This got me interested in improving the lighting in my scene as whole since it can be hard to make out some of the assets in my renders.
Crates inside of the scene.
next asset: fence
Reference images:
When looking over my scene, i noticed that the outside edges looked bare so i decided to fill the two buildings with a fence, created out of planks, similar to how i modeled the crates.
I found the textures for the fence panels online and made the blank rectangles appear as if they were naturally weathered down pieces of wood.
Here is what a segment of my environment looks like before any lighting through viewpoint shading using eevee render engine.
Now that I am happy with what i have modeled im going to implement lighting into my scene and
Since its an outside space, I am first going to try and see how using the sun tool would work.
As I predicted, because its an outside environment all I had to do was tweak some settings and angle the sun and it gave me the effect I was looking for.
I confirm that the attached assessment is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself and sources have been appropriately referenced.
Finlay Mander
1. Explore and evaluate methods for promoting yourself to employer and client.
Ways of Presenting yourself to an Employer.
Online Presence.
Having a strongly maintained online presence can be one of the best ways to stand out and make an impact in an interview. This online presence can be held on many different social media platforms, such as; Instagram or Pinterest. Building an online brand can provide better freelance work opportunities from private and industrial contractors. The ability to show that you can work efficiently whilst self employed, would come in very handy when applying to jobs that have competitive interview stages, proving to employers that you are responsible and self motivated.
Digital Portfolio.
Another way to promote yourself towards an employer requires a professional level digital portfolio. For instance, a candidate who has created a has created a digital portfolio demonstrating private freelance work done over the course of their career is doing so to display their relevant skills and abilities so that during the interview process they can put proof to their claims, its important to show, and tell. Creating a portfolio also avoids the chance of repeating yourself in an interview or missing out key information under pressure.
Why should you develop a digital portfolio? Having an impressive, unique portfolio behind you will make your pitch stay in the back of the minds of the employer(s) especially on days when they are interviewing large numbers of people, all of whom have the same academic achievements. A good portfolio can separate you from the rest.
A digital portfolio can present all forms of work and is used to show all the skills you currently possess. A digital portfolio can contain a website developed for a company, advertisement campaigns, private clientele work (freelance), TV and video production, games design, digital marketing. There aren’t any limits to what can be displayed on a portfolio in any industry. However its vital to keep your portfolio relevant to the who you’re being interviewed by. For instance, if you’re applying to create advertising campaigns for the NHS, a portfolio highlighting the work you did creating assets on a game last year wont be relevant. Making your pitch feel off, causing them to second guess their choices. Its expected by every industry that a digital portfolio will meet set standards. One of the key standards being visual. If the portfolio has high resolution images vs another which has low resolution small images its quite obvious which of the two would be more appealing to an employer.
CV.
A CV or curriculum vitae is a document created by a candidate that summaries their career history, this includes; academic qualifications, relevant skills, plans for the future and their potential at a company. A good CV should aim to impress potential employers, showing clearly your experiences and potential. It shall also include a personal summary, and an idea on what you expect/want to achieve from your career, goals and objectives. As mentioned previously – a career history and academic qualifications are important but its also important for a CV to highlight your areas of expertise, telling employers that you are above the rest.
What should a potential employer expect from your CV? A CV has to be of high quality, with relevant, useful information. Unlike a digital portfolio or a social media page, a CV is only going to be looked at by an employer. Therefore, its important to keep a CV up to date, similarly to how a portfolio or social media page is updated. Its important to modify it accordingly, adding new qualifications or skills achieved as you go through you career.
Progression Goals:
When I was deciding my progression goals I had to take into consideration the current circumstances going on at the moment with Covid and all the restrictions in place that come with the lock downs. Therefore my options limited, however I’ve been looking at progressing into higher education at South Devon University. It would make sense to go down this route anyway, since it will allow me to build on my skills and abilities.
Since I will most likely be going down this route, I need to research about writing a personal statement and then add it to my blog.
I used the information provided on the UCAS Personal Statement Tool to aid me when writing up the statement. It gave me information on, what a personal statement is, what to write about in one, how to write it and some dos and don’ts for when writing one up.
Key points:
Avoid showing off (arrogance).
Don’t be negative (focus of the positives).
Think about what makes you interesting, what makes you stand out.
Avoid verbal diarrhea ( Be relevant about the course you’re applying for.
To avoid showing off, when backing yourself up. Use relevant examples, like work experience, skills etc.
Focus on plain English. Avoid flowery language// Avoid Clichés – Normal Plain English.
Don’t copy (copy-catch software). Be authentic.
Show that you know what you applied for.
Writing process:
Start off with a punchy opening paragraph. Show an understanding on the course.
Use middle paragraph to show evidence of interest in the course. Talk about your skills and good qualities.
End paragraph (personal touch) talk about personal interests
Personal statement:
I would like to study Games and Interactive Design at university because I would like to peruse a career in the 3D industry. During my time at college I focused my 3D design work primarily on the creative side, having created 3D environments and assets for games. My program of choice currently is Blender, but I’m always able to experiment with alternative programs of choice, in my first year of the college course I used Cinema4D but by the end of the second I had transferred fully over to Blender.
However, the 3D industry isn’t just limited to games and over the past year I’ve started to notice this. Because 3D is becoming increasingly prevalent, more and more companies are starting to engage with it. Recently my Dad applied for planning permission and asked if I could create a 3D plan of part of our house,to help visualize what he wanted. So that it could be shown to the council. Although this was a relatively small task, the way I had to look at floor plans of our house to create accurate models was really interesting to me. Seeing how my house looked inside of the software and knowing I created it gave a sense of achievement. This task I was asked to do gave me a real world use for 3D outside the world of games and animation. This then got me interested in the other practical real world uses for 3D, for instance; 3D can also be used for the interior of buildings to be created before being filled with lighting, colour and furniture. This is used to give show how a finished room will look. A 3D model is used because it allows for things to be easily added and changed.
A strength of mine is being able to envision an idea and then see it through to the end of the final product. I think I earned this skill from when I was a massive Lego fan as a child, challenging myself to try and recreate sets I didn’t have from the boxes of random bricks I owned. Although I didn’t realize it then, the process I went through of looking at the adverts of the sets, videos or images has helped me when it comes to modelling assets in 3D now as I know what images are useful and how I can start from scratch and get to an end goal.
I confirm that the attached assessment is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself and sources have been appropriately referenced.
The Mad Max franchise is available in nearly every form of media. The Mad Max brand has made sure that it follows a specific color theme in its artwork. Whilst its main merchandise (the toys) is produced through high quality, already established brands, both Hot Wheels and Funk Pops are multi million dollar toy makers with both companies having collectible items ranging between $2500 – $10,000. Clearly the brand puts emphasis on putting its hundred million movie productions appear the other aspect of the franchise.
One of the reasons why Mad Max films were so successful was due to how it portrayed the scenes and environments in the movie, especially in Mad Max Fury Road, the most recent film.
Mad Max 1979 Environment VS Mad Max 2015 Environment
The original Mad Max poster in 1979 uses hand drawn design to incorporate the colours together. It comes across like a cel shaded game, for example the borderlands series. The Borderlands franchise is known for having its game appear hand drawn or “cartoonish”.
The original Mad Max film was released during 1979 on a smaller budget than the most recent installment but I find the evolution between the two environments interesting as it shows it could be seen as the circumstances of the universe worsening. For instance the mountains seen here.
Could be the same mountains in the photo from Mad Max Fury Road just after the severity of drought and an increased strain on resources.
The cars are also quite similar, just now the one in Fury Road has been weathered down and has evidence of botched repair efforts.
I would be interested in creating an environment highlighting the change between the Mad Max Universe in the beginning and by the earliest release (Fury Road).
In essence, the basic design approach for the Mad Max poster from the 1970s is portrayed in the Borderlands promotional art and game play, with the only difference being the difference in the technology itself. For example, now the development process for producing the image on the right is a lot easier than when the original image would’ve been hand drawn and printed.
The change in the environments got me intrigued into seeing abandoned buildings or how environments can change overtime. I’ve created some mood boards highlighting this kind of environmental change.
Proposal
My proposal is to create an environment for an upcoming game using the inspiration from scenes and promotional art from all of the Mad Max films. However, I dont want to limit myself to just taking ideas from the films since I have already mentioned that its a very established brand, there is a lot of inspiration opportunity.
Once I’ve created the environment I can use the images to promote an upcoming game, animation etc.
PART 2:
When analyzing the audience for my chosen production, I firstly needed to look into the target audience for Mad Max films as this will directly correlate to who will see my poster, appeal to it and look out for it.
Using the skills learned in the audience identification task (task 2). I broke down the target audience for Mad Max and turned it into a bubble graph.
The films in question grossed $375 million worldwide against its $150–185 million budget. So it only barely just doubled its cost in profit, having such big actors present.
Audience profile report:
The film Mad Max Fury Road is 4th installment in the franchise. Fury Road appeals to both men and women (above the age of 15.) However, because the films theme is based in an apocalyptic society placed in a desert landscape where humanity is broken down and everyone has broken out into fighting for the need to survive. Because of this it was naturally harder for the film to initially appeal to women in today society. Yet George Miller, the director made sure that film goes deeper than just your average Hollywood apocalyptic action film. The film explores aspects of modern feminism. In the film there are five women who have sought the aid of the main female protagonist to escape warlord Immortan Joe. Throughout the movie the female prisoners develop as characters since they are no longer held captive by their captor. As they get further away from Immortan Joe they begin to fend for themselves, appearing as if they could take the lead of main character at any point in the film. With the themes of the movie in mind someones political view could make them to decide whether or not they will watch the film due to what the director chose to explore with the female characters. Since the film chooses to explore these certain themes a viewers geographical location could effect if they can or would choose to watch it. For instance, both Saudi Arabia and Egypt are countries where women are forced to rely on male guardianship, without it they cannot travel, marry or access higher education. So with a movie where women escape a man and eventually earn their freedom, isn’t likely to be too popular in a country where this isn’t prohibited by the law. A persons interests could entice them to watch the film, for instance a study done in Australia looked if the films audience members would like a car similar to those seen in the film and if they are interested in cars. In conclusion, Mad Max Fury Road can be appealing to a lot of different audience members, so its surprising to find out that with its $150-185 million budget, it only managed to gross only $375 million total world wide.
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