Category: Design for Animation, Narrative Structures and Film Language

Topic: The application of stylized art design in Video Games

Topic: The application of stylized art design in Video Games

I have always wanted to develop more knowledge in the field of 3D texturing painting. Compared to 3D animation, I think I like the style of 2D animation and stop motion much more. However, 3D animation is much faster in the production pipeline. I believe that is why lots of studios nowadays prefer to combine both when it comes to the production of 3D animation. There are so many examples I can name:

Alberto Miego’s animation The Witness,

and Jibaro,

Fortiche’s animations for Riot…
Using stylized texture really brings the aesthetics of a 3d rendered project to a new height. With the development of AI and the internet as the biggest libraries of all time, mass production of “art” seems to be possible. 3D is one of the art forms that is closely related to computer programming. I couldn’t help but wonder what could bring out more effort from the artistic mind of humanity in 3D art. The stylized texture seems to be the solution. It is more closely related to the form of traditional art, which indicates that it is closer to the hand of humans, which makes the animation more touching and expressive.
Gaming has always been a way for humans to study and communicate with the world. That is why the aesthetics of video games is a big focus during production. Yoshitaka Amano proves that video game art isn’t that far from traditional art. Visual art is the first thing our eyes perceive. It decides how the game will be perceived by players. Visual aesthetics is also crucial for the player’s experience. When it comes to the production of game art, imagination and creativity are very important to provide players with a fantasy-like experience and beautiful scenery. Stylizing texture may provide an easier way to achieve the ideal aesthetics and the artist’s understanding. Besides that, since stylized texture requires knowledge from traditional art, it can also be a way for younger players to be educated aesthetically.
In conclusion, there is still a lot of possibility in this field to be invested in in the future. I hope this report can provide a detailed explanation of why the application of stylized texture is important and provides more ideas for creativity in the application of stylized texture.

Finishing final writings and find material for editing:

Videos I’ve found:

Others included in the bibliography:

Antonelli, P. (2012) Video games: 14 in the collection, for starters, InsideOut. Available at: https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-collection-for-starters/ (Accessed: November 27, 2022).
Beyond the Garden | Lillia Champion Teaser – League of Legends (2020) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t495A_JfatA (Accessed: November 28, 2022).
The cabinet of dr. Caligari (1920) official trailer #1 – German horror movie (2013) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAtpxqajFak (Accessed: November 28, 2022).
Collingwood, R.G. (2014) The principles of art. Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Publishing.
Death stranding – official cinematic trailer (2019) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpn-MC2B6Zc (Accessed: November 28, 2022).
El-Nasr, M.S. and Yan, S. (2006) Visual attention in 3D video games, ACM Conferences. Available at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1178823.1178849 (Accessed: November 27, 2022).
Ernst Gombrich author on story of art (2014) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6_vQ0s-3so (Accessed: November 28, 2022).
Friedman, A. (2015) The role of visual design in Game Design. SAGE Publications. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1555412014559977 (Accessed: November 27, 2022).
Gombrich, E.H. (2007) The story of art. London: Phaidon.
Mohr, A. and Gleicher, M. (2001) Non-invasive, interactive, stylized rendering, ACM Conferences. Available at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/364338.364392 (Accessed: November 27, 2022).
Saito, T. and Takahashi, T. (1990) Comprehensible Rendering of 3-D Shapes, ACM Conferences. Available at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/97879.97901 (Accessed: November 26, 2022).
Shadowlands: Ardenweald from above (2020) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he0SUrHetJg (Accessed: November 28, 2022).
Smuts, A. (2005) Are video games art?, DigitalCommons@RISD. Available at: https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/liberalarts_contempaesthetics/vol3/iss1/6/ (Accessed: November 26, 2022).
Tavinor, G. (2009) The Art of Videogames. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
Wu, Y. (2012) The style of video games graphics: Analyzing the functions of visual styles in storytelling and gameplay in video games, Summit Research Repository. Available at: https://summit.sfu.ca/item/12529 (Accessed: November 26, 2022).
Zell, E. et al. (2015) To stylize or not to stylize?: The effect of shape and material stylization on the perception of computer-generated faces: ACM Transactions on Graphics: VOL 34, no 6, ACM Transactions on Graphics. Available at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2816795.2818126 (Accessed: November 26, 2022).
[beat saber] how you like that – blackpink (expert+) (2020) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN92wirmJn0 (Accessed: November 28, 2022).

Presentation draft:

previous notes for old topic:

———-1———-

Critical Report:

Nostalgia on screen and how to use it

Introduction:

Nostalgia is vital for art production for the screen. It is typically a sentimentality for a period or place

It’s used broadley in entertainment industry, advertising and even in politics as a method of ideology

a constantly presented mood on screens

Why is nostalgia so important

 -early stage it comes from a disease

-nostalgia is a copy mechanism against the present,shows in the research(the fear of uncertainty, safety and certainty)

Dr.clay routledge of north dakota state university, nostalgia serves a crucial existential function, it brings to mind cherished experiences that assure us we are values people have meaningful lives. Some of our research shows that people who regularly engage in nostalgia are better at coping with concerns about death

Why do we use nostalgia in Cinema

-French revolution use ancient rome to present freedom, is not that they want to go back to ancient rome,but that aspects of rome were used as the foundation would become a new brighter future

Nostalgia in cinema is used for honouring the past, the good old days,showing gratitude to what is already gone,for it is why we are here,but more importantly, paying respect for the old, only to make way for the new

Methods:could filming or vfx be the embodiment 

Keywords:

Nostalgia, 

Cinema, 

Method,

Introduction:

Literature review,body:

conclusion

———-2———-

These are the notes I did for my previous topic, though I changed my topic in the middle. Still very comes in handy for the new topic.

How cinema use nostalgia and family in cinema

Nostalgia is a common yet tricky topic. It is restorative, reflective and sometimes sensible to touch. Nostalgia is more than a feeling for certain characters in some films. In Wes Anderson’s movie The Royal Tenenbaums, nostalgia invokes the characters’ yearning to rebuild and reconstruct what they missed. In my research, I’ll mainly focus on this movie about how nostalgia is presented through the film and what it means to be nostalgic in the context.

Introduction

Why presenting nostalgia is important in cinema

Nostalgia used to be a disease

Cinema and Vfx are the embodiment of nostalgia itself(blade runner’s marilyn monroe, passive way of time travel

Nostalgia is a longing for something that is gone forever, but saudade is much more open-ended: the longing is for something that may—or may not—return

French revolution use ancient rome to present freedom, is not that they want to go back to ancient rome,but that aspects of rome were used as the foundation would become a new brighter future

Nostalgia in cinema is used for honouring the past, the good old days,showing gratitude to what is already gone,for it is why we are here,but more importantly, paying respect for the old, only to make way for the new

Summary

Critical analysis

Conclusion

Stylized rendering for animation

———-3———-

Research on critical writing:

What is a critical report

Analyses any work(film,books,music)

Evaluates social and political issue, an argument, an event

Expresses his personal opinion.

Main paragraphs should contain critical analysis(your own ideas)

Questions and evaluates the ideas and evidence you are discussing

How to quote your own ideas:

-Smith states that…and also that…This is significant because…

-Smith’s work on X is highly significant because

-However, this theory does not fully explain why..

-Selection bias is another potential concern because..

-However, all the previously mentioned methods suffer from some serious drabacks

Key ways of thinking

Demonstrate that you do not automatically accept the research and work of others without evaluating its usefulness and credibility

Clearly state whether you think that the conclusions of others are acceptable or why they might have flaws or aspects that should be looked at again. You should mention why you hold the opinions you do.

Give your own opinions of the topic you are discussing.To do this you cannot just repeat words or opinions of others.

Show that you recognise the limitations of your own arguments and conclusions. In doing this you could also write about further research that is needed to add weight to a particular argument

Drafts I’ve been working on:

Content Table

1.Introduction- Why exploring the application of stylized art design in Video Games

2.A brief history of game graphic evolution

3.The foundation of traditional art in video games

4.The application of stylized art graphics in video games

5.Effects of stylized art design on video game narratives

6.Most influential factors defining the overall artstyle

7.Conclusion 

Introduction

This research proposed that stylized art design should be more of a focus for an artist to grow individuality. The foundation of stylized game aesthetic design is closely related to traditional art, which transmits emotional complexity and explores more possibilities in visual storytelling.

One potential problem in this research might have been insufficient in-depth and systematic academic study around the visual aesthetic of a video game.

Firstly this research will look at the history of game graphic evolution. By analysing the evolution of traditional art and its influence on video game visual styles. This point could lead to the next part, which is what the term stylized game art usually refers to nowadays.This reaches the conclusion that the application of stylized art is crucial to game design, and it is widely used.

Conclusion

The application of stylized art in video games is considerably wide and common. Stylized artworks enhance the game’s aesthetic value, storytelling, emotional involvement, virtuosity, and interactivity. With the development of technology, there are infinite possibilities to be explored in this field. Maybe in the future, it is through the art design of video games a new and distinctive kind of art will be born.

Literature Review Materials

Change of topic:

This week I decided to change my research on nostalgia in film to an area that interests and helps me more: video game.

Reason(abstract):

It is controversial when it comes to the topic of whether video games can be art. One of the reasons may be that because the initial focus of a video game has always been its interactivity, the visual art in video games is overlooked.

Thus I want to make an academic research in this area. By looking into the history of video games and research related to video game visual art, I think stylized art contributes enormously to the aesthetic value and interactive experience of players.

Here’s the new key words with images I listed:

The authenticity of a documentary is ‘deeply linked to notions of realism and the idea that documentary images are linked to notions of realism and the idea that documentary images bear evidence of events that actually happened, by virtue of the indexical relationship between image and reality’

Honess Roe. A. (2013) Animated Documentary. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Paraphrasing:

Honess Roe (2013, Animated Documentary) states that because of the indexical relationship between image and reality, it is essential for the authenticity of a documentary to have its documentary images linked to realism.

A Trip To Infinity(2022)

A Trip To Infinity is a documentary that includes a considerable amount of motion graphics to analyse and explain its ideas. I think this film can be classed as a documentary. Though it is mostly animated, the concern that animation is a “layer” that prevents the audience from directly engaging with the participants or story of an animated documentary (Honess Roe, 2016: 23) exists. The animation in this film works to enhance our knowledge of an aspect of the world and to the extent that the separation of the animation from the documentary is either impossible, or would render the inherent meaning of the film incomprehensible. (Honess Roe, 2013: 10)

The Holy Mountain

I would put The Holy Mountain in the fantasy genre. Alejandro Jodorowsky created this movie in a totally surreal background with absurd settings. Almost every shot from this film has imagery related to different religions, beliefs and psychology. The way Jodorowsky presents it is comically absurd. I still remember the part of the Alchemist turns the thief’s feces into gold, and he said: You are excrement. You can change yourself into gold.

Jodorowsky divided the whole story into small sections on different planets with different characters. However, the main storyline is simple: all characters gather together to find the holy mountain. Though it is combined with so many small sections, the message is simple from this movie. At every core of each section, the film’s central themes reflect that mankind’s nature is corrupted and the happiness one can find hidden in life’s simple pleasures.

Rafael Corkidi, the cinematographer, helped The Holy Mountain have a great mise-en-scene. It is crucial for surrealist films to have clarity and quality in visual representation. Jodorowsky is an aficionado of tarot cards and Jungian theory. He has written several books about it. The music from this film is extremely peaceful and spiritual. All these components and symbols make the movie so unrealistic and illusional. The truth is hidden behind the film and hard to see. What’s so wonderful about the experimental film is that it makes us think. It doesn’t push story and meaning upon us; instead, it leads us to our own answer. I think my answer is pretty clear after The Holy Mountain: You are excrement. You can change yourself into gold. I believe things are not always what they are. The illusion exists, yet truth still exists.

” Goodbye holy mountain. Real life awaits us. “

The Royal Tenenbaums

Stasis

Royal explained to his kids that he would be separated from his wife, Etheline. His kids Chas, and Margot, who was adopted and the youngest kid Richie all achieved huge success at a very young age. They are so successful that Etheline wrote a book about how she educated them. Eli is the neighbour’s kid and Riche’s best friend.

After living in a hotel for twenty-two years, Royal went broke and got kicked out. His kids are all in a post-success slump. Riche was a tennis prodigy, and now he just travels the world on a cruise ship because of his breakdown. He writes to his friend Eli to reveal his love for his non-related sister Margot. Chas lost his wife in a plane crash and has become overprotective of his kids. Margot is married to neurologist Raleigh St. Clair, who is conducting research on a subject named Dudley. Margot follows extreme secrecy; she has never revealed her smoking and checkered past. Eli just recently won himself a reputation from his recent novel.

Trigger

Etheline’s longtime accountant, Henry Sherman, proposes to her. Learning of Henry’s proposal, Royal claims he has stomach cancer to win back his wife’s and children’s affections.

The quest

They all returned because they wanted to fix their issue and relationship with their family members.

Surprise

They found out Royal’s lie and Margot’s secret(smoking and sexual promiscuity).

Eli, high on mescaline crashes his car into the side of the house Before Henry and Etheline’s wedding.

Critical choice

Royal decides that he wants Etheline to be happy, and finally arranges for a divorce. Eli and Chas agrees to both take therapy. Margot tries to quit smoking.

Climax
Richie attempted suicide. Everyone gathered at hospital.
Etheline and Henry got marries
Chas paunches Eli.

Reversal
Royal finds a job. Everyone tries to solve their problems instead of avoiding and escaping.

Resolution
Some time later, Margot releases a new play inspired by her family and past events, Raleigh publishes a book about Dudley’s condition, Eli checks himself into a drug rehabilitation facility and Richie begins teaching a junior tennis program. Chas becomes less overprotective of his children. Royal seems to have improved his relationship with all his children, and seems to be on better terms with Etheline. He has a heart attack and dies at the age of 68. Chas accompanies him in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, and is the only witness to his death. The family attends his funeral.

Archtypes:

The Tenenbaums family are hero/shadow (my understanding that is this story doesn’t have the clear line between line between good and bad. Everyone in this story is a sinner and their own saviours)

Eli-Trickster (He is the embodiment of a clown. He wants to try to fit in and impress the Tenenbaums so much)

Henry-Herald (His propose to Etheline reminds Royal)

Pagoda-ally (A good servant)

Raleigh St. Clair-ally (A nice husband)

Royal before the film start:
Born in and raised neglected( One of his parents, or maybe both are very rude, uneducated and racist)—climb his way up hard and become a lawyer