Folly - Asset Sheet

Folly - Primitives

To try and work out how to design it as a single mesh, I created the shape of the final mesh out of primitives, this helped me greatly as I could then see out it could be created and how the final design looked in 3D. This also helped me try out some different variations that improved upon the design quickly whilst I was creating the final mesh.

Folly - Form and Design

Now that I have an idea of the style and design of the folly, I needed to work out the shape of the folly to get a better idea of it's form as it would rotate in the turntable. Using silhouettes to help create the outline of the folly that would look best. And from my chosen silhouette I came up with a design using my research.

Folly - Research

To get an idea of what my folly will look like I looked at existing follies around the world. Some follies were constructed with the idea of a smaller scale imitation of a much larger structure and so I looked at some different styles for my folly. In the end I chose to an Italian renaissance style as the red tiles with the yellowish bricks created a very distinct and beautiful design that would best represent the idea of a folly as a extravagant piece of architecture.

Contextual Studies - Butt the Hoopoe and Mudra the Shadow Warrior

For our characters, we chose to do Butt the Hoopoe and Mudra the Shadow Warrior for our designs. In the book Butt and Mudra both understand the ideas of free speech and of light and dark as represented in the book. We then looked at how this could represented as game mechanics, and one idea we both liked was that Butt the Hoopoe acts as a light source for Mudra, which is represented in the book as Butt is from the land of light and Mudra is from the land of dark, but Mudra then helps Butt and Haroun during their travel through the dark lands.

Contextual Studies - Propp's Structural Anaysis

Propp's structural analysis of Haroun and the Sea of Stories

In the book, "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" the progression of the story and the roles of the characters can be linked to Vladimir Propp's structural analysis of folklore. For example the beginning of the story starts with the mother of the hero (Haroun) leaving because of the father. This follows the 1^st function Absentation where the division of the cohesive family helps create initial tension in the story. While some of these functions do relate to the story, the progression of the story does not follow them strictly. The characters on the other hand can be likens to Proop's character functions, such as the father both dispatcher and the donor. And the Hoopie bird and even the magical wrench acting as helpers on the hero's quest.

Using Propp's structuralist 'spheres of action' theory we can use them to help refine and also redefine our own characters in relation to the game and story. With the emphasis of the characters purpose to the story, over their purpose to aesthetics, we can help create characters that are both meaningful and have the meaning help drive their appearance. These also help with how these characters interact with the game world. For these sphere's help broadly define how these characters will interact with the story, we can then clearly see and control how our characters will interact with the game, this helps create less confusion over their design and purpose in relation to both the game and the story if present.

Contextual Studies - Character Design

Character Design

For the development of characters in video games, the most significant element we can use can be taken from classical art and that is the use of dynamic composition, which is composed of 4 elements: character shape, character animation, environment shapes and pathways. There can be a lot learned from classical art, and how it uses composition to help shape the narratives of painting, these concepts can be applied visually to games to improve it's design and emotion involvement. Shapes are important for use as we psychologically interpret them from our first understanding of the world. These forms can be found in certain archetypes of characters that allow us to quickly emotionally identify them.

To create a realistic and emotionally richer narrative, the use dynamic composition can be applied to other areas of games, such as the camera movement but also in the levels design and how the player advances through it. It's with the contrast between the shape of the player and the shape of the environment do the player gain a basic understanding of the narrative of the game. The animation of the character also helps this; character expressing it's thoughts and motivations instantly appear more lifelike. It's stance and posture can tell the player a lot about it's emotional state. This is helped by players can have strong emotional empathy for their on-screen avatars, which allows game designers to bring more emotional subtlety to the video game experience through the use of dynamic character shapes.

Contextual Studies - Haroun Analysis

Haroun and the Sea of Stories: Analysis

In Salman Rushdie's book; “Haroun and the Sea of Stories”, a storyteller and his son are travelling to the Sea of Stories to help claim his fathers imagination but end up in a conflict between the nations of Chup and Gup. Which the former were poisoning the Ocean, trying to silence the stories. The protagonists help defeat Chup and wish to reunite their family. The important themes that are present in the novel is the importance of story to both books and in culture, as the land has become tainted with sadness that come from modernisation and the loss of tradition. The balance of stories and silence is also commented upon, drawing from real social and political issues faced. The author comments on this with roles of freedom of speech and censorship that are represented by both nations, as a balance is needed for one without the other can be dangerous.

“What's the use of stories that aren't even true?”, asks the main character that shows the core theme of this novel, the importance of story. The characters exist in a land that is full of sadness and what little stories that exist and warped and twisted to meet the wants of politicians. Haroun's journey through the book is about finding the answer to this question. In the end of his journey, he finds out the truth of the importance of stories and that they give meaning to both the book but also to culture and tradition.

The conflict between freedom of speech and censorship is at the heart of the war between the Lands of Gup and Chup. This is an allegory about the current issues that are faced in the real world, Especially to the rise of autocratic governments in the Middle East and Asia and the effects that this has on traditions of the people. “But but but what is the point of giving persons Freedom of Speech,' declaimed Butt the Hoopoe, 'if you then say they must not utilize same? And is not the Power of Speech the greatest Power of all? Then surely it must be exercised to the full?”. In this quote, the army of Gup borders on mutiny by questioning authority, that total free speech can still be dangerous and that a balance must be found. In the end, the freedom that Gup has proves to be the key to their victory over the Chupwala army.

The Chupwalas...turned out to be a disunited rabble. Just as Mudra the Shadow Warrior had predicted, many of them actually had to fight their own, treacherous shadows! And as for the rest, well, their vows of silence and their habits of secrecy had made them suspicious and distrustful of one another...The upshot was that the Chupwalas did not stand shoulder to shoulder, but betrayed one another, stabbed one another in the back, mutinied, hid deserted....”. The point that the author makes through this quote is that a political society of censorship and authoritarian control can never stand when truly challenged. Because the people of Chup had been silenced by Khattam-Shud and because they had to abandon the narrative of their past and present, they proved to be no match for the free and talkative Guppees. The Chupwalas are meant to symbolize the destruction authoritarian regimes that try to silence the traditions and free will of the people. The author criticizes this as being nothing more than a shadow that will turn against it's owner during difficult times.

Building Studies - Models

For most of my models, because I was only working with a small section of a building, I worked from a plane. To create the different parts of the Guildhall, I had to often work from other planes then delete the faces of the original and merge them together. I used this for the windows for example, this helped create the shapes needed.

Building Studies - Designs

Using my research I then worked on some designs for the guildhall, because it's has quite a complicated design I needed to break it down into it's individual parts and look at it's shape and design. This will help me to re-create these in Maya as I would then have an idea about how to design them.

Building Studies - Research

For my four building studies, I looked at the local architecture around Norwich for interesting designs of different time periods. These buildings stood out as having interesting designs for creating models from:

Guildhall – Medieval

Royal Arcade – Victorian

Lloyds Bank – Georgian

Westlegate Building – Modern

I then created 2 moodboards of the more complex designs to help get a better idea of the shapes and designs that go into the building.