Week Six Focus: Encorporating Architecture and Aesthetic Style
Recapping Week Five:
Week five was all about weather and time. Essentially, ways to add more compelling conceptual depth to your work - and in some cases, this is required by the job you are working on. In week 5 we crossed a threshold from 'fundemental' skills, to conceptual elements that relate specifically to environment design. It was great to see those of you who put real effort into working with critiques and WIPs - it payed off.
Once again apologising for not being able to be present as much as id like in discussions, it was great to see you guys doing things like desaturating the rain shots, establishing warm and cool relationships - you are learning very quickly. COngratulations! As far as participation, Agustin had to bail and D. Labruyere was given an extension and didnt submit anything. So there are now 3 spots open. Truth be told im quite happy to leave it that way, as the core group is driving itself and learning very well and it means more time i can spend critiquing those who are putting in the effort to stick around. But if someone keeps sending me threat mail until i let them in i guess i will have no choice
Week SIX:
Just like in week 5, we are at a point where we need to push beyond the fundementals (while still keeping them the top priority) and start fleshing out the conceptual side of our designs as well as the pictorial. Architecture has a penetrating effect on environment design - it is at its core, and its future is created by the very designs it affects. Like fashion, architecture came from the beginnings of necessity for shelter and evolved (devolved?) with the human mind to a point of aesthetic expression. The elements that affect the architectural style of an area are multitudous, and as a result the architecture in turn can tell us much about the culture that it shelters.
In such a way, we can express a lot about our concept by modelling our environments from a real world or influenced architecture style. Just as the elements of design are used in different measures when we paint, so too are there different elements of design in architecture which affect its resulting aesthetic. What does it tell us when columns narrow at the top? What does it tell us when water spouts turn into gargoyles?
What we are doing during these few weeks is trying to add to our toolbelts with a range of conceptual knowledge that we can combine in different measures as the context requires. Architecture is a big one, and would be worth any of your continued investigation. Taken into the specific context of video game concept art, I can give you a real world example of the Project I am developing the IP for at the moment. Without breaking NDA, I can tell you that we have developed an architectural style based on art noveau mixed with colonial indian. This has affected the shape of cities, the silhouettes of boats, ornamentation of characters, the design of armour and weapons, even the gameplay systems have been affected. It has been an underpinning part of our game concept.
This week I thought the best way to hammer home these points is for you to combine something that is clearly historical with a production piece that is clearly conceptual.
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Study Task 1:
Choose a historical architectural style. This can be anything pre 2000.
Post up 3 images that show this style clearly.
Study Task 2:
I want you to write 500 words (or more) about this architectural style.
Firstly, I would like you to write about the aesthetic and structural
trademarks of the style, and then write (in equal weighting) about what
this style represents of the culture and people who spawned it. This is
important not just to recognise the what, but also the why.
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Production Piece:
Taking the style you have chosen, and keeping into consideration the 'character' that style conveys, I want you to design the grand central train station of a futuristic human civilisation. The piece should show the architectural influence clearly, but also convey that it has been appropriated several hundred years in the future. Most importantly, the design and atmosphere of the grand central train station should reflect the cultural identity of the architecture, and should match up with the way the culture you have created behaves. It could be a benevolent society, it could be imperialist, communist, religious, etc.
Best of luck... the marks are improving. Keep hitting these home runs guys.
A
Deadline:
Wednesday 19th (anywhere in world)
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