introduction
Fig 1.9 - The Proper People, a YouTube exploration group infiltrate the abandoned Six Flags, providing invaluable reference.
The ideas
The final project of the MA in Game Art at Escape Studios was entirely negotiated, where each student was expected to explore a multitude of ideas of any type. We were then expected to distil these ideas down into three tangible prospective ideas, and finally chose the most challenging and interesting idea which we would create in the game engine of our choice.
Exploring the ideas was the easy bit. As artists we have accumulated numerous inspirations and influences throughout our lives, and this project was a great opportunity to elaborate on these inspirations and create a piece of art that really interested us, while also exploring new and innovative industry techniques, and solidifying all of the industry-level skills we have learned over the course of the MA. After researching many of the ideas, three major concepts developed, each very different and equally as challenging in their own respect. Miniature art bibles were created in an attempt to refine the ideas. The creation of a pros and cons list for each helped to pick a favourite that would be focused on in depth for the course of the project.
Three differing ideas came to the forefront. The first was an abandoned theme park, heavily inspired by the Six Flags in New Orleans that was deserted after Hurricane Katrina. This project would explore a really different feel and atmosphere to every project previously undertaken during the MA (differing greatly to the bright and cheery '50s diner¹ and the Japanese river environment² created previously), while also testing a very different workflow centring around grungy aged materials and dilapidated structures. Research exposed various videos from urban explorers infiltrating the abandoned amusement park, providing copious amounts of invaluable research and reference. The YouTube channel The Proper People have documented the area particularly well (Fig 1.9).
The second idea revolved around a Chinese fishing village on the Shengsi Islands. The once thriving fishing village has since been deserted and nature has reclaimed the land almost entirely. "What was once a thriving fishing hub has been long deserted and naturally transformed into a green jungle of tangled plants and neglected buildings." ³ This project would explore foliage and nature in depth. Once again, reference was plentiful online, with various videos and images of the ruins available.
Fig 2.7 - DJI record breathtaking aerial shots of the island by drone.
And the final concept revolved around the artwork of Simon Stalenhag ⁴, an incredibly talented Swedish artist who depicts a fascinating duality between science fiction and reality. "The artwork is impactful as a result of this juxtaposition between the harsh realities of life and the sci-fi technologies of our dreams. It's reminiscent of worlds like the one so effectively portrayed in games like Half-Life 2, and like such great video games, the universe created by the artist seems to continue well beyond the edge of the canvas." ⁵ Unlike the previous ideas, the artwork of Simon Stalenhag lends itself to a more stylised environment, and because each image is a painting, reference is pretty sparse, besides the beautiful drawings themselves.
The Decision
Formulating the ideas was simple, but decide which to develop further was a near impossible feat. All three ideas are incredibly challenging, and require a lot of interesting work. After some time I found myself deeply invested in the abandoned theme park, as it was the most challenging and contained a lot of potential for further growth.
To define the specific parameters of the project, I created a brief depicting the most important aspects of the project, and the areas of most interest and opportunity. My intentions were very ambitious, on purpose, as my hope was to explore the amusement park entrance during this project, and to continue to grow the area and eventually cover the entire park when the opportunity arose after the masters.
Before embarking on the creation of a project of this scale and magnitude it is essential to first specify and catalogue every asset worth creating, and prioritising the most important elements. Thus, creating the above art bible was incredibly useful in clarifying the aims and intentions of the project. Of course, some of these intentions changed drastically throughout the course of the assignment, but the art bible is a living document that grows and adapts to the current status of the project.
As described previously, the intentions of this environment were far more widespread than just this project, and so the art bible above covers a much larger scope at first, and gradually narrows down to the final submitted scene. Fig 4.30 depicts the intentions for the current project, with the aim of the final submission exploring the entrance buildings to the theme park. Eventually even this was too ambitious, and the scene became slightly smaller in scale again due to time restrictions.
The art bible contains just some of the references collected for this environment. In addition to this document were 680 images collected from various sources online, as well as numerous video references collected on a YouTube playlist ( Link ) . Luckily the theme park has become a haven for urban explorers throughout the world, who have documented their explorations in impeccable detail for the world to appreciate. The park has been abandoned since 2005 ⁶, and thus explorers have photographed and documented the aftermath of the devastating hurricane from various perspectives as well as at different time periods, providing a really accurate portrayal of the decal of the park over time. For example, Figures 4.42 and 4.43 below depict the same building at two very different time periods, precisely documenting it's deterioration over time. This dense art bible and reference folder made the creation of the theme park environment much easier and more accurate.
Fig 4.42 - Older reference image
Fig 4.43 - Newer reference image
Art Bible
The Objective
The personal objective of this project was to explore a much larger environment than ever before. The environment was the ideal testing ground for all of the new-found skills of the MA in Game Art, while also encouraging the learning of more current industry standard techniques, as well as some new innovative techniques due to be adopted by the industry soon.
This document is a retrospective, and will explore just some of the many techniques and approaches fulfilled throughout the course of this project, and the learning outcomes and issues experienced along the way.
References
¹ O’Keeffe, George. (2016) 50s Diner Diorama. Available at: http://georgeokeeffe.wixsite.com/dinerdiorama-compact (Accessed: 3 December 2016).
² O’Keeffe, George. (2016) VFX Japanese River. Available at: http://georgeokeeffe.wixsite.com/vfxjapaneseriver (Accessed: 3 December 2016).
³ Stanton, Jeremy. (2015) Images show how an abandoned Chinese village became a green wonderland. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3117557/The-eerie-beauty-China-s-seaside-ghost-town-Stunning-images-abandoned-fishing-village-green-wonderland-swallowed-mother-nature.html (Accessed: 3 December 2016).
⁴ Stalenhag, S. (2013) Simon Stålenhag Art Gallery. Available at: http://www.simonstalenhag.se/ (Accessed: 3 December 2016).
⁵ D’Orazio, D. (2013) Incredible paintings of sci-fi suburbia will make you wish you were Swedish. Available at: http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/27/4664842/sweden-reimagined-what-if-sci-fi-tech-were-real (Accessed: 3 December 2016).
⁶ Burrows, T. (2016) New Orleans theme park that was abandoned after hurricane Katrina. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3889636/When-fun-stops-Eerie-images-New-Orleans-theme-park-abandoned-Hurricane-Katrina-stood-untouched-11-years.html (Accessed: 3 December 2016).