Before this class started, I had troubles figuring out what would go into world building and how to build a scene. This course really helped my understanding of how a world can be made from the ground up. I did not understand how deep game developers go into researching about architectural styles to create a convincing world for the player to run around in. There is also a large connection between this and the level design aspect as there needs to be someone to control both aspects.
The lectures throughout the course were probably the most entertaining part about the course as I never found myself not learning something in them. The rate at what we were taught was really well paced and I never found myself confused, although there could be a break in the middle to stretch. I didn’t really understand how much of world building is architectural design and it really open my eyes to the world of architecture and the different types of architectural styles that exist. Knowing this really changed my approach to creating scenes and helped me think about keeping the art direction of the scene consistent by having good reference. The contrast to these lectures was filled up with level design orientated parts. I really enjoyed these but I felt as though they were too focused on a certain game that maybe some people did not quite enjoy or understand. Creating a scene is a big task that can be daunting to start, as there is many 3D assets that are involved. The greybox tutorials really helped me overcome this aspect, as I would meticulously create finish props that would not be to scale and sometimes would be in the right art style when I am finished. The tutorials also showed me that there many ways you can approach the creation of materials and how easy it was to apply them as well as setup material blending within those engines. This was a really important tutorial for me as there was a lot of speculation that material blending was actually quite difficult which did initially put me off attempting. However, with a working file that I had created from the tutorial, made it easier for me to set up in my personal scenes. All these aspects of scene building that I had no attempted were all sorted out in the tutorials that I am now very grateful for. I do not really see myself as a 3D environment artist but I really enjoyed creating small scenes all focused on all of the aspects of world building. One of the biggest things that I did take away was that the environmental design is made up of many different parts and is closely related to modern architectural studies and that most environmental artists are actually unqualified architects. |
World design theory (WDT)DevelopersThe goal of this blog is to relate current and past attempts at world design to further improve our understanding. Archives
October 2017
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