Growth

Week Nine

(or The Week My Brain Didn't Wanna...But I Made It Work Anyway)

After I finished my blog post last week, I got to work wrapping up the narrative for AIM<. The lead artist and I had hashed out some details and written several drafts before we came to an accord on what the story should look like. I wrote an initial draft weeks ago but as a writer, I tend to go crazy creating strange places, characters, and stories. We had to find a good balance between different and relatable. The narrative will be revealed through the environment and collectibles scattered throughout the game.

After finishing the narrative, I finally started focusing on further world building and environment concept art. I panicked a bit when I realized not done a lot of world building had been done. We've done a little; like creating a cool cannon design and some drone concepts. The game design document reflects some scattered information and now we have a narrative. One of the earliest narrative drafts focused on Mars for a setting. As development progressed, though, we found Mars to be limiting for the sort of world we want to build. Beyond these steps we hadn't decided what this place we're creating looks like.

Lost.

My panic compounded when I realized a sketch wasn't going to convey all the information we'd need. Most of my experience as an artist has been heavily weighted towards characters, objects, and vehicles. I have only a little experience crafting visual environments. In the past, when I've hit an artistic roadblock, I've frozen up. This time I decided to try to find a way through right away instead of letting the roadblock get me all bound up.


 Hurdles always seem bigger if there isn't any hope. Sometimes, hope can be found by looking for inspiration. I dug around and found a couple of artists that provided some ideas for tackling the problems I was facing. There's a lot of misinformation disguised as advice or "tutorials" that only serve to make roadblocks more daunting. I've found that "tutorials" or skill demonstrations that look too good to be true, often are. None show an artist practicing. Practice is the key to skill. I realize that's obvious but when in a slump, it's hard to remember.

I learned two very important lessons this week. Finding a way through is key when dealing with roadblocks. Looking for a way around or trying to ignore them accomplishes nothing. Growth only happens by going through.

Secondly, and this is more focused on design, concept artist and teacher Feng Zhu said that there is no difference between a landscape, vehicles or a character. All are made out of the same four shapes; cylinders, squares, spheres, and cones.

I think he's absolutely right. I often find myself caught up in the "right" tool or technique and forget that good design is good design.

Thanks for reading all that! If you're reading this and want some helpful, healthy sources of inspiration and learning, check out the following links:

• Feng Zhu: Design Cinema (65! free videos - start with the first one)
• Matt Kohr: Ctrl+Paint (digital painting fundamentals - lots of free videos)
• Eddie Russel: 'Infiltrator' Production Pipeline Volume 1: Concept Design & Storyboarding (via Pluralsight)
• Lisa Liang: Conceptualizing Environments from the Imagination in Photoshop (via Pluralsight)

 Those are the best I've found so far. If I find more, I'll talk about them in a later post.

In the gallery below, I'll post some of what I did this week. Some of it's really rough and none is finished. All of it is a work in progress. I'll share the finished art as well in a later post so the most of the journey is visible.

Have an awesome Thanksgiving!

Elevated Train WIP by Aram Wahler

Crash Site WIP by Aram Wahler

Looming Wreck WIP by Aram Wahler

Train Wreck WIP by Aram Wahler