Art Direction

This image really grabs my eye because it tells a story. Just by looking at it it’s the future by advanced flying vehicle at the background and hard edged armour on the three characters present and the picture describes that the two characters on the front are looking for something and the character at the back is probably unpacking or using that vehicle to do some sort of research.

The character with the bright red cape which is the focus of the art work is showing he is majestic of some sort by having a white leopard and as he is not doing work and just observing while the other two characters are doing some sort of work. The white leopard shows that the character is of a high class because as of right now they are very rare and having one in the future are rarer. Moving on the only female character just be looking at her clothes you can tell she is working under the dude in the red cape, this is probably to clarify something, same goes for the guy at the back.

The colours on this picture is mainly full of greys and low saturated colours on the 2 less of characters however the cape being bright red and the main focal point gives it the complementary colour. The idea of that is to probably show that this picture is mainly about the guy in the middle.

The mood of the whole picture is mysterious and makes the viewer question on what are they looking for and what is this place. The other mood set is their clothing is all geared and wearing armour tells me that they are protecting themselves from something, so they can be looking for the enemy.

Task 5: Job research

http://www.crytek.com/career/offers/overview/austin/art-animation/art-senior-character

For my research on what job I would like to do as my ideal job; which is currently senior environment artist in cry-tek.

Senior Environment Artist

Description:

We are looking for an exceptionally skilled environment artist to help create high quality environments and assets with a strong understanding of player space, composition, functionality and performance optimization.

Responsibilities:

·         Collaborating with Art Leads to create visually impactful, functional (and fun!) game worlds and levels

·         Helping to block out and develop new areas and levels with a strong understanding of player experience, optimization and finalization

·         Creating realistic models and textures for both architectural, hard edged and organic environments

·         Create game play assets/props and props that fit the environments

·         Manage texture quality and fidelity to remain consistent with other assets

·         Mentor other artists and share techniques and tips

Skills/Qualifications:

·         5+ years game experience

·         At least two console or PC titles shipped from concept through final as an Artist

·         Experience with Mudbox or ZBrush and the process of converting high-poly sculpted environments into lower poly game assets is a must

·         Strong texture painting skills

·         Superior eye for color and detail when creating texture maps

·         Ability to read a 2D concept and 'accurately' translate to model and texture

·         Good understanding of composition and player experience/player pathing when creating an environment space

·         Fluent knowledge of at least one major 2D package (Photoshop, Painter, etc.)

·         Strong polygonal modeling skills- able to generate clean and efficient models with efficiency and timeliness

·         Must have passion for Environmental Art and ability to see it as a character

·         Excellent verbal communication skills

·         Ability and willingness to accept and follow direction, collaborate productively with others, and work to meet deadlines as necessary

·         Excellent organizational skills with the ability to multitask effectively, prioritize competing demands, and follow through on details

·         Strong interest in games, preferably with specific industry experience shipping titles for Playstation 3, PC, Xbox 360, etc. XBOX One and PS4 experience a plus

·         A strong portfolio (must be submitted online), candidates who do not provide work samples will not be considered

 Pluses:

·         Strong foundation in at least one of the traditional arts, sculpting, drawing or painting

·         Strong knowledge of human and animal anatomy

·         Experience with physically based materials

·         No crybabies

·         Sense of humor

This is the job specification for cryteks senior environment. Being a senior role means a lot of responsibilities which is mostly collaboration and teamwork, which is essential in any job role then it’s about the role itself, being an environment artist requires you to know and understand the ways and techniques to create them, and knowing the fundamentals and all the advances knowledge of creating environments. As described you should be able to create architectural, hard edges and organic environments. The new responsibility I need to develop is mentoring other artists and share my skills, this is something I would have to develop by time.

As far as the skills go it’s a must to have experience which itself is very hard to obtain however very important because to become a senior you need experience in the field, the knowledge and techniques developed through experience cannot be self-thought. Adding to having at least two shipped games as an artist. Having that shows you know how a game is developed from start to finish which is very ideal for being a senior artist.

Going down to skillset is being able to sculpt high poly surfaces and be able to convert them to low poly without losing much detail. I have some experience in that as I did that for my gladiator project however still not professional. I would need to master it. Then the usual skills that need to be mastered is the texturing and modelling skills. Also finally being able to concept.

I need to be able to organise and multitask flawlessly getting a lot done in a short space of time without rushing anything. This is something I’ve been learning since school it’s a life essential skill that’s thought throughout however I need to master it effectively by having a workflow and prioritizing effectively.

Lastly having to know strong traditional skills and understanding of human and animal anatomy is important which I think every AAA studio would demand and I think the visual design is teaching me that very well and it’s something I would keep develop on and no cry-babies.

Without forgetting a really strong portfolio of my best work containing both traditional and 3D work pieces.

Task 4: Personal Enquiry - part 3

Focusing primarily on unreal engine 4 and its competitors comparing their features and see how it is beneficial to the developers.

Starting off with unreal engines top features as shown on their home website is having the full source code access making the engine fully customizable and easily can be built upon any new or old feature. Having old tools that come from unreal engine 3 and also having new tools that are used to enhance the engine. However they also removed features and implemented it in a new different way which is named blueprint.

I will compare two engines specifically because they have been competing with each other for many years and developers always have to choose between them; I left unity out because I’m mainly focusing on AAA engines. Unity has many powerful capabilities that are used mainly for lower class platforms and indie game development.

Engine	Unreal Engine 4	Cry Engine
Price	$19 / month + 5%	$9.90 / month

	Platforms
Windows	YES	YES
Mac	YES	NO
Linux	YES (modify source code)	NO
Android	YES	NO
iOS	YES	NO
Web	YES	NO
PlayStation 3	YES	YES
Xbox 360	YES	YES
PlayStation 4	YES	YES
Xbox one	YES	YES
Wii U	YES (modify source code)	YES
Middleware (Oculus rift, etc.)	YES (modify source code)	NO

Unreal Engine fully accessible source codes makes it easy to ship to any platforms shown here and many other platforms that will come in the future. Making it better for developers that want to get their game across lots of platforms. Cry engine lacking lots of support for other platforms however it maybe be in future support them. In terms of pricing cry engine is a lot cheaper than unreal having no royalties and only one fixed pay per monthly price. Pricing is very important for young companies because of financial support is hardly there unless the game is sold.

Moving to the features between the two it’s hard to make a table for both of them as they both have separate types of features even though they fit in one category. I will be more open and talk about one broad feature and do a comparison on that.

Visuals:

unreal engine 4 - elemental demo

crysis

Cry engine is known for its high visual appeals and always won that part of the prize having real time global illumination and natural lighting and dynamic shadows. Also with normal and offset mapping which is very good for optimization and having a very powerful tessellation system. Many other feature compiles together to make a very realistic environments and characters. However it has similar features that unreal has such as ambient occlusion, HDR lighting, parallax mapping and many more. Unreal has its own special tools such as its variety of post process features and multi material support.

Editor:

Unreal and Cry engine has both advanced editors that allow the artists and developers to make the game they want easier and faster, starting off with unreal editor being fully customizable and with changeable hotkeys, its fast and reliable content browser, and its unique possess and eject feature allowing you to track and fix any problems while the game is still playing. The material editor if unreal engine 4 is the same as UE3, however improved performance and more nodes. Cry engine has the same feature but its more alike 3ds Max materiel editor.

cryengine editor

unreal engine 4 editor

Both engines have scene editors allowing to create cinematic and time controlling object movements, Matinee cinematic for unreal engine 4 and track view editor for cry engine. Both having equal familiarities and functions it’s not really liable to compare them as they both do the similar task effectively. The same goes to their particle and effects editors.

AI:

Artificial Intelligence is always never perfect system however both of them achieve this very well; both using C++ so you can add anything to it however cry engine has an edge by having an AI editing system which the user can create visual based AI controls with many functions and full control. They both also have live real-time dynamic navigation mesh change giving developers to create believable and imitate realism through AI.

Sound:

Unreal engine audio pipeline somewhat remained the same from its previous engine however has advanced editor giving control over audio playback on the other hand cry engine has built in audio mixing and key frame sound animation giving it more control and adding more flexibility for developers to create believable sound.  Cry engine won in this factor by having more user input which is always a plus.

Scripting:

Unreal new advanced ‘blueprint’ feature gives developers without programing knowledge to create gameplay and events without writing any code; this feature in my opinion is their biggest selling point. Also you can live debug to see and fix any problems giving more control over the game you make. This option can be used for any artist without programming knowledge to create the game they wish to create. Also with the source code you can create custom nodes and add into the blueprint editor.

cryengine - flowchart

blueprint - UE4

To conclude both of the engines are very capable of producing AAA titles and they already have. Cry engine on the edge over with graphics but user ability I would say unreal engine is better, by its engine in general and learning curve which I think is easier than ever before. Cry engine having a slightly higher learning curve however even then it’s still liable to use. Unreal Engine produced more and bigger titles than cry engine such as mass effect series and bio shock series to name a few. Cry engine was used to develop very popular games only in terms of visuals in my opinion. Crysis 3 have to date the best visuals any game can accomplish right now and that game was mainly used to advertise the engine more than actually focus on the game. Ryse: Son of Rome was made for Xbox one and had again really high visuals but not much of gameplay as described by IGN and telegraph reviews. This concludes my subject of interest and my opinion of unreal engine compared to cry engine.

http://www.cryengine.com/

https://www.unrealengine.com/

Task 4: Personal Enquiry - part 2

Task 4 – b

I’ll go more in depth to explore the unreal engine; talking about its game releases and engine capabilities that made it to a successful game engines that was the source of many successful games. Mostly about the games developed and its history of development; how the engine overall helps the game industry.

Unreal Engine 1 started off in 1998, having many features such as collision, rendering etc into the single engine. However the games developed were in low numbers estimated 28. There might be other 3^rd part games that are not available for public or have been made but not released. Unreal Engine 1 had top branded and recognized games such as Epic Games, Unreal. And the all-time favourite game Deus Ex and also Duke Nukem Forever along with other games. However all of these games made were made from 1998 to 2002.

In 2003 the early rise of unreal engine 2 was developed. It was named the ‘war face build’ essentially was a modified version of the unreal engine 1. Used for the Deus Ex: Invisible War. Then later developed fully into unreal 2 by making unreal tournament 2003. Unreal Tournament 2003 was made in a way to sell the engine having ‘demo’ developed for the engine; called the unreal editor. Which was used for people to make their own custom games. However the engine was only supplied with the license, the editor was used as a selling tool. Many successful games were made from the unreal engine 2. Starting with the Tom Clancy’s game series. Lineage 2 and bio-shock 1, 2 along with many other popular releases.

Later in 2006, games were developed using unreal engine 2.5 (UE2.5 build 3323). Which was used for many other titles; mainly for MMORPG, i.e Fox Online. Unreal Engine 2.5 was heavily updated and had several patches. This later on was used as a base for development for unreal engine 3.

The first version of unreal engine 3 was seen though gears of war which was made from Epic Games. Which also came along on PC and had the gears of war editor which was used as a ‘demo’ for the engine capabilities. Releasing in 11/2006. Following from there was countless games developed and developing from UE3 till today and probably will. Having 8 years in the engines field, it’s rated as one of the best engines out there from many websites and publishers. Unreal engine 3 was used to create some of the most rememberable games we know of today such as the mass effect 3 series and the batman series.

Also unreal engine 3 is being teached by many schools and colleges and has a vast amount of ‘tutorials’ available on demand or free. It also now has a free version names as Unreal Development Kit (UDK) which can be used to make a game and publish it through commercial rights; if you make more than $50,000 then you’ll have to buy a license, making it a very affordable engine for new developers.

Today and recently released Unreal Engine 4; being ready for ‘next gen’ and having loads of features as well as having similarities to Unreal Engine 3 to make it an easier learning curve for companies that will upgrade it to the next engine. Also having a new payment method of pay per month feature. Costing $19/month plus 5% revenue that will go to epic games. The rest of the profit is to the developers or/and publisher. 

referance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Engine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unreal_Engine_games

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem_Forever

http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:Unreal_Engine_Versions/2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnrealEd

Task 4: Personal Enquiry - part 1

Task 4: Personal Enquiry

I’m going to talk about game engines as they interest me the most because of how the new age of gaming is more open to public and the ideology of creating new developers, even though the first couple of engines were based on hard code from ground up. Mostly 2D. Before that the games were written in specific code for example a game for Atari 2600, designed only specifically for that hardware because of optimization for display. This idea was used by many companies in the golden age of arcade games because developing an in house engine was an only option. However there were 2D game ‘creation systems’ in the 1980s; war-game construction kit, shoot’ em up construction kit etc.

Then in 1990 the birth of 3D graphics opened new options of engine development. The start of the engines came from the idea of using the base code of the previous ‘game’ and developing your own graphics. From there when id software’s Quake 3 arena and unreal were made with an open source code. Which the engine and the content were developed separate. This is where unreal engine rose from that time. ID tech 4 was still popular but the flexibility of unreal made it very popular and took the lead.

Game engines are written with an API (application programming interface), such as Direct 3D or OpenGL, which creates the graphical aspect of the game engine, it’s what draws the image on the screen. The game engine can be written in any programming language such as C++, C or Java.

The first ever game engine doom engine also formally known as id tech 1. Made doom and doom 2; now the other games developed with the same engine was Hexen: Beyond Heretic; Heretic etc. They were made by licenses from id tech to develop the games using their engine.

However unreal still being the best engine at the time of id tech 1 because of its modular engine architecture and it had an understandable scripting language which was easy to modify and alter. Its popularity was at its peak with the release of Unreal Tournament. Being outstandingly playable with network performance with Direct 3D and open GL.

However today there are still a lot of 2D game engines that are very capable of doing a lot of awesome things; starting with the doom engine (id tech 1) it was 2.5D however its still mostly 2D rendering 2D sprites that are constantly facing the player. However now even 3D game engines are able to do 2D and 2.5D graphics, such as unreal engine 3 and 4 and unity which is a popular choice among indie developers. An engine im familiar with is construct 2D which I used in college, it has potential to create any type of 2D game you desire; havin advanced features such as physics capabilities and virtual coding; And the ultimate popular game maker: studio which is idealy the same as contruct but has a easy learning curve and it costs are very financially good.

Today 2D games and 3D games are being produced however 3D having an edge over 2D because some gamers say, ‘2D is so last year’. However in my opinion it’s the game design and mechanics which can make any game good, despite the fact its 2D or 3D. 

referance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wargame_Construction_Set

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id_Tech_4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoot%27Em-Up_Construction_Kit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_engine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Engine

Task 3 – 2000s to present

The game age where I seen and develop with my own eyes. I’ll start off with the launch of PlayStation 2 made by Sony computer entertainment in March 4, 2000. This console became the most selling console in history selling over 155 million units. Having 3870 games released for selling around 1.5 billion games worldwide. There was later slim versions of the games console made later in 2006. Competing with this the almighty original Xbox launching in 2002, selling not as much units as PlayStation 2 however it’s the one I really liked over PlayStation 2. Those two consoles and their successors fighting from 2000 and till this day with the PS4 and Xbox one. Defining and standing strong in the games industry. Being the most important gaming platforms.

Some of the top games I would like to talk about is deus ex made by Edios Interactive, why because why not!! This game was the, the best action / story game ever, with its really cool cyber feel. I really enjoyed and just by typing this it makes me want to replay it. Also made with unreal engine 1 (my favourite engine); released for PC, PlayStation 2 than 3 and other cloud services.  Released in 2000. At that time a game like that was a game everyone wanted, people with taste. Later on that game became the best game in history by PC gamer and many other side awards.

Going straight to halo: combat evolved. Having played countless hours with my friends on LAN on the original Xbox. I can say this game had originality being made by bungie which is now making destiny (2014). Halo released in 2001, on windows and Xbox, later released on Mac and Xbox 360. That game being praised as the most important video game of all time and ranked 4h best game by IGN. Having really great successors up to halo 3, the rest well in my opinion drifted away from the original game. Mainly because the developers changed. The multiplayer as well as the single player was by far the best multiplayer of all time and the most inspiring for future games.

Going to one of the best PC games ever made; Half – Life series. Being one of the most story based singe player games. Developed by Valve; owner and creator of many top PC games such as counter strike series, left 4 dead series etc. Also the creator of the software distribution software: Steam. Which is free. Also not forgetting the creator of the source engine with the help of the modding community. The half-life series is a must buy for any gamer, having inspiring narrations and seamless storyline. Getting man awards and the best game of all time (Half-Life 2).

To tip off the conclusion of history of gaming, the gamers and the developers have to calibrate to make a successful game, the more the link and sync with gamers, the more the expansion of ideas and opinions on the game. For example the community for source engine and the modding community for counterstrike series and left 4 dead. That’s a method that every game developer should follow, it’s how the future of gaming will be, where gamers have contribution in the games they play. 

referance:

http://www.gamefront.com/the-long-confusing-timeline-of-metal-gear-solid/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Gear_Solid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_(console)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276195/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex

http://www.pcgamer.com/uk/2011/02/16/the-100-best-pc-games-of-all-time/

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2009/11/the-20-best-video-games-of-the-decade.html?a=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_Combat_Evolved

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_(video_game)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gearbox_Software

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2

Task 2 – 1980 to 1990

1980 has to be remembered with the really popular game that every gamer and non-gamers knows; Pac-man (pukka-man, puck-man). Released by Namco 1980 in the US. Made by Toru Iwarani. The game selling all over in the US and even internationally became popular, the arcade system was cleaned every hour because the bucket of money use to get full. Relating back the event with the PONG game. From this there was also Pac man merchandise and cosmetic items such as t-shirt and toys.

Moving to consoles the Japanese release of the Nintendo entertainment system also known as the NES which was the most popular and bestselling console of its time it was the third generation console, using game 72 pin cartridges because Nintendo allowed third party developers to make games which can be sold with a license.

Then coming to the Sega genesis which was released in America in 1988, also the fourth generation selling around 40 million, which was also my first console, I remember playing streets of rage 1 and 2, it was fun and had me on it for several hours. I had the original Japanese mega drive.

Going back a little to 1985 there was the first personal computer released by commodore Amiga 1000. Having one of the most powerful CPU’s and advanced graphics for its time, surprisingly its operating system can fit in a 512KB storage, probably a floppy disk. It released a lot of games for it which in my opinion is where the original PC gaming genre began.

In games; I would talk about the metal gear, a game I really wanted at that time, it was essentially made for MSX2 computer in Japan then was ported to the NES. That game was in my opinion the top game for action. Also it was the first game directed by Hideo Kogima which is the creator the successor games.

Nintendo game boy, not the first handheld games console but the most iconic and remembered. Made by Nintendo, Released in 1989 Japan and America and eventually in Europe the following year. It was originally bundles with the puzzle game, Tertris. Having many small successors such as game boy colour all combines selling 118.9 million devices. That’s insane. I owned a game boy colour which was I really enjoyed. It had all the popular Nintendo games developed for it such as Mario and the legend of Zelda.

Ending it off talking about the video games industry crash that happened in 1983. Which was a massive 97 percent crash in total revenue. Which caused nearly every company that developed games and home computers to go bankrupt even the top company, Atari inc. Which was revived by the NES in 1985, the crash was due to many factors but mainly because of the flooded market of similar or cloned consoles or games which were mainly low quality and all of that resulted in the consumers because all of them was around the same price, That lost a lot of consumers interest because of repetition. Even home computers were affected because of the elevating of price and new brands. 

referance: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_of_Rage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sega_Genesis_games

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_in_video_gaming

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_1000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Genesis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_game_console